Higurashi WHEN THEY CRY: Eye Opening Arc

Why do I put myself through the torture of reading a Higurashi manga only to find that my heart has been ripped out of my chest due to the extreme emotional baggage it will carry? Such is the manga called Meakashi-hen, of the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni series. Story: 10/10 The story is very engaging, and I actually enjoy how the author took the time to tell what was going on in actual chronological order, and cleared up a lot of questions I had about the anime. It's a really hooking read, and has very good pacing that kept me wanting more. Art: 9/10 The art is beautiful, witha more fluid and soft look than the previous volumes I've read. I feel like the artist really outdid herself with this, it's really amazing and I feel like it captures both the normal and insane expressions quite well. The only problem is that sometimes she draws hands slightly awkwardly. Characters: 10/10 I feel like they were portrayed much better than in the anime, as we got to see Shion's motives and internal conflict in a much more sympathetic and complicated light, distancing her from the typical bland yandere. The other characters as well were portrayed amazingly, specifically Satoko and her older brother Satoshi. Enjoyment: 10/10 To enjoy something means it makes you happy. I'm happy with the engaging storyline, perspectives, and gorgeous art, but it was NOT a light and cheery read. On the contrary, I actually found myself starting to cry during a lot of points. Although I enjoy it a lot, because a good manga is one that will actually keep me emotionally invested. Overall: 10/10 An extremely emotional manga with characters I can get emotionally invested in, alongside beautiful art and capability of making me, the stone-cold reader, actually cry? Yep, I have to say that this is something I really found a great read, which is why I consider Meakashi to be one of the greatest manga of all time.

Well after adventuring to find the entire eries, what I found wasn't the best find. Story-7/10: The story felt more or less expected, the story was part of Shion's perspective of the Watangashi-hen arc (As from Watanagashi-hen it was from Keiichi's) Although retaining the same story, it added things i didn't expect to see, some weren't even in the anime version. Overall the story was very expectable, but still kept me on my toes. Art-6/10: The artwork for this arc was much different from the last arcs. It was almost shoujo like. I was highly dissapointed it didn't capture some of the scenes that well, unlike the animeversion that had. The blood is there, but far from being as such with it's predecessors. The "Scary slit cat eyes" are not used, and even the new the question of sanity look is very poorly done. The artwork was a high dissapointment for me compared to my liking of the Onikakushi, and other "-hen" artwork. Character-8/10: Although as I said above everything was quite predictable the exploration of Shion's side of the story, and view on everything was well done. As with seeing the others personalities return as well made it much better to enjoy (As much as I hate to drag it) the artwork. The characters are still good, and Shion was much easier for me to understand after i read the entire thing. Enjoyment-7/10: My enjoyment on this series relied on my love for the anime, and yearning to finish even when i resorted to untranslated chapters. If it weren't for me not liking the near shoujo artwork i'd enjoy this much much more, and it would've been a favorite. Overall-6/10: If your a fan of the manga, and don't mind artwork you'd probably enjoy it, but if your not a fan of shoujo, and you still want to go through with reading this be my guest, and go right ahead. It didn't meet my expectations, but it still was able to like all other Higurashi arcs keep me enthraled with it to the end.

Meakashi is one of my least favorite arc in Higurashi. Maybe its cause I already despised shion before Meakashi hen, so this chapter only made me hate her more. The story is great though. How we see Satoshi leave such an impact and seeing Shion struggling was depressing. How we see such a great misunderstanding was sad as well. I still despise Shion for doing so many awful things though, and i feel like they did a terrible job at making us feel sympathy for her. The art is great, i actually loved it! Shame its one of the least liked art styles for higuthough. Characters were written well, well except Shion. Shion was the definition of a edgy character during that arc. At times, the writing was trying to be very deep and sad but it just failed miserably at some points it was laughable. Overall, if you love/like Shion, you will love this Chapter. If you already didnt like her beforehand, you most likely will not like this chapter. 8/10

I hope this helps someone out! So, if you're looking at this thinking "I kinda wanna get into Higurashi" I'll tell you right now, this is not the first arc. But, in my opinion, it's the best arc. Not that any of the other arcs are bad, neither is it that I'm a Shion fan, but something about the way that we got into her back story, and her perspective answered so many questions I never thought I would get the answer to. Also, I cried. My heart has died after reading Higurashi. I loved exploring the psycology of the characters, and this was the firstarc where I truly felt sorry for them. It kinda sucks, because it's really hard to blame someone in this arc for all the bad things that happen- idk what I'm saying anymore but I loved this arc.