This review is for the following arcs: Abducted by Demons, Cotton Drifting, Curse Killing, and Time Killing. I decided to include all of these arcs into one review as, for the first four, retellings of the same story but focusing on different aspects. The Time Killing Arc contains both a prequel and a conclusion of sorts. First off let me give you some information about this series. As it turns out Higurashi: When they Cry was actually adapted from a video game series. While I know it is common to make books into video games, this is the first I heard that started there. Second, as I mentioned above the first four arcs in this series all are piecemeal accounts of the larger plot. In each arc a different girl is portrayed as the victim and villain. Finally if you read this series it is useful to know that Higurashi means cicada.
When discussing this series with another blogger she gave me a quite extensive list of manga types. Together we decided that this certainly falls under the "harem" genre with elements of horror mixed in. A harem manga is defined by it being one girl or guy somehow together with a larger number of the opposite sex. In this case one guy is in a group of four to five girls. Higurashi, like most harem manga sees the main character developing relations with everyone in the group.
Nearly all of the story takes place in and around the quite village of Hinamizawa, where the main character Keiichi has just moved. He quickly becomes friends with four of his classmates, Rena, Mion, Rika and Satoko. But as he is settling into the quite life of school and after school club meetings he learns of the secret past of Hinamizawa. Years ago dam project threatened to flood the village. Luckily the village was able to band together and stop the project. Since then, every year during the Cotton Drifting festival someone is murdered and someone disappears. With the Cotton Drifting festival right around the corner, Keiichi is afraid he might be next.I am not sure I like the format this manga is in. I know the arcs all intercept and supposedly form one coherent storyline, but I couldn't really see it till the third arc. In the manga's defense, I did not even know that the arcs were all retellings till I started the third book, and had the same story. Other then my confusion I found the story itself entertaining and certainly suspenseful. I also think that the Time Killing Arc did a great job of not only setting the scene, but also helping the reader understand everything that happened.
There is still quite a lot of volumes in this series, but I am not sure what they are going to be about. Especially with how everything ends here.
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