Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Yoigoshi-hen
Higurashi WHEN THEY CRY: Beyond Midnight Arc

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Ok, so maybe I'm going a little bit overboard giving this manga straight 10s but it was, in my opinion, one of the best Higurashi mangas I've read.

Story - What can I say? Absolutely fantastic! It follows the plotline where everyone dies in the 'gas leak' and is set 20 years later with new characters and an older woman - Sonosaki Mion. The story itself was a mini mystery, trying to discover who was the murder and with Mion being suspicious through the whole story till the very end.

Art - As always, very beautiful. There were scenes where you see the ghosts of Rena, Keiichi, ... etc which was beautifully drawn and was very nostalgic.

Character - Mion has always been one of my favourite characters and this story explores a bit more into the politics of the Sonosaki estate. Otobe is the new protagonist and is mistaken for Satoshi a lot, he is a very likeable character and makes a nice change from the usual rabble.

Enjoyment - I really enjoyed this manga and felt that it showed the events past the gas leak and deaths of our favourite characters very well and has a lovely twist at the end of the manga. It also has some interesting more supernatural aspects to it.

Overall - A MUST READ :D

It starts ff good, but the ending feels totally out of place. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Higurashi to me is meant to be a horror story. That can take many different forms, but this series devolves into some outright shonen battles at the end. The initial setup of strangers meeting in an abandoned village and being cut off from the outside world is classic horror stuff, and the story it tells here is good, and even has some good mystery elements. But this all goes haywire when they start having samurai battles with armed gunmen. To me, if you're in a series thats ... down to earth, you can't have someone with a sword beat like 10 guys, some of whom have guns. It totally kills the tension, and didnt really feel appropriate to this kind of story. But everything up till the ending is the best Higurashi I've read.

I can’t help it but Beyond Midnight Arc is a bit too perplexing to me as to how it’s supposed to fit to the overal story. I expect that every part of Higurashi would give you another piece of puzzle towards the grand reveal. And so far it was true. But not with this one.

So, there are two options. Either the author just forgot to actually work in anything from the main plotline here and this is truly just a side story with almost no connection, or I’m too dumb to notice the hint there, even after reading the whole Higurashi series. Both conclusions are ... quite possible and I dare not to say which one is right with a hundred percent conviction, but I’m going to assume it’s the first one for now.

Beyond Midnight Arc is an alternative timeline, set two decades after the original story, focusing on different main cast with only some of the original cast making what almost just a guest appearance. It’s not a bad self-contained short story by itself, but it doesn’t add up anything of value to the ongoing overall plot – though I still wouldn’t recommend to skip it, just to be sure.

There is one aspect that I absolutely loved about Beyond Midnight arc, and it’s the art and arstyle. The manga looks visually great, and especially the colored pages are delightful to look at. So, it’s worth to read even if just for the art alone.

Overall, it’s the weakest part of the original Higurashi manga series, but still a fine read.