Welcome back to Hinamizawa in the summer of 1983, where things look a little…different. Released to accompany (or at least commemorate) the anime sequel Higurashi: When They Cry – GOU, SOTSU, Higurashi When They Cry: GOU Anthology Comic collects nine stories tied to the lighter side more of the matter. That’s not bad, and not just because part of the original game’s bait-and-switch format was based on the misconception that Keiichi would just hang around with a harem of nerdy girls.
It’s the subject of several stories, the silliest of which is the opening story by Tomato Akase, manga artist for several Higurashi arcs. This story is about Rika waking up at school to discover that all of her friends are now younger than her, leading to much confusion and fun re-enactments of their mischief. Satoko is the standout here because, as a young girl, she was unable to carry out all of her plans, finding certain problems impossible to grasp. Akase has worked on this series before as they clearly capture the character motivations in these lighter moments and everyone really feels like elementary school versions of themselves.
Unlike other official manga anthologies, this one doesn’t necessarily shine the brightest when it comes to taking its characters seriously or staying close to Ryukishi07’s original story. The strongest work in the book comes from horror manga author Yoshiki Tonogai (Doubt, Judge), and it is not a work of horror, although some readers may find it horrifying. Tonogai dares to ask, “What if instead of one of her usual deaths, Rika gets hit by Truck-kun?” Well, as we all know, the laws of the animeverse state that If you get hit by a random truck, you are instantly reincarnated into a fantasy world as the summoned hero, and that is” Rika-chan’s adventures after being reborn elsewhere”. The world” is about. It’s as stereotypical as its title, with the bonus that a very confused Rika soon realizes that this might be the coolest episode she’s ever visited – everyone is alive and playing a role of the right kind, with Takano as the Demon King, Rena as a cleric, and even Ash appears as an alchemist. The plot is nothing new to the genre (though it still feels like a parody given the premise), but it’s entertaining, and the final pages even go so far as to suggest that Rika might accidentally invented the isekai genre..
It’s also a bit intriguing to see Tonogai do something like that off-brand, in complete contrast to the author’s story My First Clueless Friend,”Happy Story for Loli-Takano- san.”Once again, this is exactly what it says on the tin: little Takano, during her days at the orphanage, had a very different childhood from the one Ryukishi07 gave her. In Taku Kawamura’s offering, young Takano is pampered and pampered by the thoughtful and loving men who run the orphanage: they feed her, clothe her, worry about her. …like she went from an orphan to a child with twelve fathers. (And it’s not at all creepy, if you’re worried.) Kawamura’s art isn’t pretty – it looks noticeably less polished than My First Clueless Friend – but the same kind of good-natured goofiness That series overflow is also present here, and it’s just a joy. It makes you wish Kawamura would write doujinshi for other sad series; imagine what he could do with Happy Sugar Life.
Among the weaker stories, “Dinner with Satoko” by Aki Yamaguchi is perhaps the least compelling. It plays very straight, sticking to the tried-and-true story beats of the source material’s lighter plot without ever really doing anything particularly interesting unless you’re hungry to see sees Satoko in Angel Mort uniform. (That uniform gets a lot of use in this anthology; clearly, other people find the crotch ruffles more attractive than I do.) Nowhere is that more apparent than in “The Search for Worthiness” love” by Taka Himeno, which pits the club members against each other. another when they try to find something that Rena thinks is cute; Keiichi falls into a terrible pit with unexpected people in costume as he tries his best to understand Rena’s preferences. If you’ve been dying to see Ooishi in his Angel Mort outfit, now is your time.
Overall, this is a pretty solid collection. It doesn’t capture the material that Sasaki and Miyano’s Official Manga Anthology or The Devil Is a Part-Timer! The Official Manga Collection does, but it goes beyond Mieruko-chan’s Official Manga Collection. It’s almost worthy of the Takano and isekai stories, and overall, I’d call it a worthwhile read.
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