I’m a fan of Ryuukishi07 and his work, I’m not a diehard fan or a rabid defender, in fact I only got into his works last year when I read Umineko no Naku Koro Ni, the second game in the famous When They Cry series and less popular younger sibling of Higurashi.
I like Higurashi a lot, I love Umineko, and I’m pretty down with Ciconia no Naku Koro ni and Higanbana no Saku Yoru Ni as well… but this, this just doesn’t work on any level. Characters act weird, things just move suddenly with no pacing, it's a mess.
Maybe it’s me, I don’t like this kind of horror story that much, I don’t like survival stories, but even among them I’m not sure this manga works. A truly great piece of media lets you forget what genre it is and enjoy it anyways, despite your taste. Higurashi and Higanbana are horror, and I enjoy those despite not being a big fan of horror in general.
The characters don’t get nearly enough time to make you care about them before it’s over, and right in the last few chapters it shoves in some backstory for them to try and fix it but it’s too late. The story itself is basically just a cheap ghost story complete with obvious twist ending that’s not really a twist. Instead of telling an interesting or meaningful story, Ryuukishi really seemed to want to explain how much he knows about Buddhist Hell.
The only interesting part is the tantalizing idea this story plants in your head early on, “how does this relate to When They Cry?” as it introduces a clone of Takano from Higurashi, making you wonder about connections to that. Worry not friend, that idea is answered…
in an Umineko short story prequel to this manga haha gotcha you could have just read that~ Lambdadelta, probably.
Unless you’re a serious Ryuukishi fan whose run out of media of his to consume, perhaps go read one of his many Visual Novels or manga adaptions… maybe Harem Royale is better?
