Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei: Oniokoshi-hen

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The 'first' installment of Higurashi Rei is rather slow and uninteresting as a part of the wider Higurashi universe; however, it's very necessary as a setup for the next two arcs of Rei.

Now, I'm just going to talk briefly about how well it does as an add-on to the original. When it comes to this, it does well in some areas and terribly in others. It builds on the existing story strictly for Hinamizawa and Hinamizawa alone; this is obviously great, but the original cast barely appears, and the way we get most of our information about them is through dialogue by the new main ... cast - their children. It's not even established who certain characters from the original conceived these children with, and with the structure of most Higurashi arcs being 50% Slice Of Life, it was a missed opportunity to not give us at least a little bit of fanservice around the original cast. It was just a bit disappointing.

It felt like I was reading Onikakushi again but with a new coat of paint, which both works and doesn't considering its status as a story that takes place 40 years after the events of the original. It works because I could tell that, while it was a rather underwhelming in terms of characters, with there only being three that I liked, its purpose was to set up the next arc while introducing us to the characters and plot. It's not bad, just a bit underwhelming.

At least it's not Gou/Sotsu.

Oniokoshi-hen has justified its existence, unlike a few other adaptations of Higurashi that shall not be mentioned.

The art is alright, although I'm not really an art guy, if it were to look absolutely terrible I might not even notice until its pointed out to me. But I don't think a reader is going to be put off by this art so...

The characters:

WHATS UP WITH KEITAROU'S MOTHER??? WHY DOES SHE NOT EXIST?! We have seen her but we don't know anything about her, at least with the other missing parents they aren't present in the story but whats up with this one, at least give us ... a name.

Kihiro is probably the most like his parent but also the least like his parent out of all of them in this arc if you get what I mean, although he does not offer too much now, he is amazing in Hoshiwatashi and the parts of Irotoutoshi that exist whilst this review has been created. I don't really have much to say about him in Oniokoshi.

Tamaki is more of a 2D character than every other main character during this arc, honestly she can barely be called a main character, she has 2 running gags and a motive of wanting to get married so she can have kids to give the Sonosakis another boy, there is some hyperbole here but Tamaki really could've been more involved or at least been a bit less jarringly brushed aside after she is introduced.

Sakikio, unlike the other children of the OG cast, has two named parents (well done).

Keitarou is unfathomably based, he is very confident and well spoken, like his father but with a unique twist and better in every single way. He has a massive "K" necklace, probably a hand-me-down from his father, I think this detail alone should give you a good idea of how he's like. Whenever we see Keitarou and Keechi together in a flashback or something throughout the entirety of the Reiwa arcs, it has never been lacking in anything. "I have never seen a character be more consistently based than Keitarou," - Someone that wasn't me.

We don't get much of Inori in this arc, but it is funny to see Keitarou freak out about how a singular person won't talk to him (little does he know). Don't have much to say about her here, she kind of just exists until Hoshiwatashi.

Isshiki (Kururu) Keitarou needs this outspoken, well-versed challenger though otherwise theres no way he can be controlled, possibly the only other character as extreme and hyper as him.

Now when talking about the story.

IT DID THE THING. It started off with the characters dying and Rika using her power to loop. This was VERY foreboding, I was afraid that the manga was going to go down a very different path with next to zero slice of life elements, thank goodness I had the assumptions of a mere foolish child not being able to comprehend the grand master plans of Ryukishi07 and it waits until the end to kill off the characters (again), as all Higurashi stories should. Although, I did not like the thing, the thing was O.K. this time and acceptable, at least it had a reason unlike the first season of the Higurashi Anime.

An issue I have with this is that most of the characters are very similar to their parents, even the OG cast (Rena gets divorced and is a single parent, Keechi has work in Tokyo and leaves the family alone). The characters being mirrors of their parents makes the story seem bland except for Keitarou (as mentioned earlier). the OG cast features less than they should. Honestly, this manga would benefit from just having a few more chapters to flesh out the characters and focus on the OG cast some more.

This really does slam you in the face with "I'm not about the OG cast!!! Look at these cool new characters,". There is much room for improvement, even if its just more content.

MASSIVE STEP UP FROM GOU-SOTSU, THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE IN COMPARISON. BASICALLY THERAPY THAT WORKS UNLIKE MEGURI. (I just want to clarify, that this was made BEFORE the second half of the third of Irotoutoshi was released, and erm... just read my review there)

Would easily recommend this to a Higurashi fan though, and the next arc is fantastic. Not a big fan of Higurashi? (well why're you on this page and have found yourself to the end of this review if you're not... You're probably just lying to yourself) Read this so you can read the next arc.

7/10

Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni: Oniokoshi Hen or Demon Kindling Arc is an arc that wasn't adapted in the Passioné anime as it follows a hinamizawa story of the sons of the protagonist we all know. Of course it's not that long and can't compare to the development that were given to Gou or Sotsu, however it accomplished to be better in so many aspects.
Art: 8.5/10
Art is surprisingly very good, it keeps the Passioné designs but now applied to Keitarou and others. The facial expressions are very well done and some backgrounds are stunning to look at, my favorite thing being the horror part it ... trasnmits to the reader with the awesome art and faces.
Characters: 6/10
I would say definitely this is the weakest part of Oniokoshi Hen, the characters feel very if not exactly the same as the fathers when they were the protagonists in Higurashi. Keiichi's son is a little bit different but just a little since he has an objective which is befriend all the village and Keiichi has pretty much none. Rena's son (yes he's a boy) is te most different out of the squad since he has a calm personality and he does this thing when Keitarou says something ridiculous, he says almost immediately "IT'S A LIE!" and that's kinda funny ngl.
Story: 9/10
The story is what carries everything here, the story feels different in some aspects since at least now we don't repeat the same characters as always and that feels pretty fresh and new. Although the characters are not really good, Kururu i believe it was called (the blondy girl) does a good job in the story as far as i can tell and it feels like a classic Watanagashi Festival Incident Higurashi story, this time being pretty original with the Rising Star and Polaris group being the main secret of the story. I love how Keitarou tries to convince everyone that Polaris did nothing and there's and only that's trying to make them doubt the group while no one thinks of Rising Star as a possibility, it's a really good concept seeing how he thinks living in harmony with everyone everywhere is possible and tries to avoid the suspicions at any cost to not betray himself.
Conclusion: Oniokoshi Hen is a really good addition to the Higurashi Verse, it's a unique story with also Rika and her loops being there that obviously ends up being one of the "bad endings" of the story that i hope for ryukushi7 to finish with the story that ends up well just like Higurashi No Naku Koro ni Kai and no one really dead, i know about Hoshiwatashi Hen but that's just another route of this story which ends up bad as well, apart from that imma read it because of the different endings.