Guest Review – Higurashi When They Cry: Cotton Drifting Arc, Volume 1

Higurashi When They Cry: Cotton Drifting Arc, Vol. 1
Story by Ryukishi07, Art by Yutori Houjyou
Published by Yen Press

Buy This Book

Hinamizawa appears to be a peaceful village, far removed from the clamor and throng of the big city. If there is something evil lurking beneath the surface of this small town, recently-transferred student Keiichi Maebara is at first too busy having fun to notice. Other than attending school in a classroom that combines all of the grades, his time is spent in good-natured battle with his eclectic new group of friends as they compete in games and pull pranks on each other. This mixed-age group consists of thoughtful and quiet Rena Ryugu who goes crazy when confronted with anything cute, devious trickster Satoko Hojo who delights in catching Keiichi in her traps, and the kind and polite Rika Furude who is quick to offer comfort to her friends when they are distressed. Keiichi’s fiercest competitor and the leader of their group is tomboy Mion Sonozaki. Rambunctious and energetic, Mion does not do anything halfway and believes in doing whatever it takes to win, underhanded or not. She also excels at concocting embarrassing penalties for the losers, usually involving costumes of some kind, which Keiichi must endure with amazing frequency.

When Keiichi stumbles upon Mion working in a maid café wearing a very revealing costume, his mind quickly turns to exacting revenge for his most recent humiliation at Mion’s hands and he teases her mercilessly. But the startled and embarrassed girl claims she is not Mion, but her identical twin sister Shion. Keiichi’s never heard anything about a twin sister, but he decides to play along as this encounter forces him to view his friend in a new light. While Keiichi insists that if Mion were a man he “would have killed [her] long ago,” he has always found the time spent with his new best friend comparable to the fun of hanging out with a guy and he has treated Mion accordingly. It has never occurred to Keiichi that the invincible Mion might be hurt by his words and actions.

While spending time with Shion, and in the midst of developing very different and unexpected feelings for his friend, Keiichi also learns more about the history of the sleepy little village he now calls home. The people of Hinamizawa, having overcome a threat to the very existence of the village, are a very tight-knit group who treat “the enemy of one as the enemy of all.” Keiichi witnesses this first-hand when he is rescued from a group of angry biker punks by Shion and a group of villagers who do little more than stare threateningly. Keiichi himself is quite frightened by the truly horrifying menace he briefly sees in the villagers’ faces, but when he realizes that this means he is thought of as one of the villagers he is quite moved and vows to repay the gesture.

The sweetly comical mystery of Mion/Shion is resolved by the conclusion of this volume, but a darker, far more sinister mystery has begun to surface. The date of the annual Cotton Drifting Festival is fast approaching. And if the infamous curse spoken of by the villagers does exist, then one person will be murdered and another will disappear before the Festival is over. But Keiichi doesn’t believe in curses and he is determined to enjoy his first summer vacation in the country to the fullest.

Volume 1 of Higurashi When They Cry: Cotton Drifting Arc, is the first half of the second of at least three two-volume arcs of the Higurashi series. Sorry. Did your brain just melt a little? I think mine did writing that sentence. My experience of this manga may differ from the majority, as I had no prior knowledge of the Higurashi phenomenon or its origins as a murder mystery video game, but if this volume is representative, its popular appeal is easy to see, if not exactly what I seek for myself in a manga.

There were two words that sprang to mind and fluttered insistently about my head as I read Cotton Drifting Arc: “fan-service” and “moe”. Cat ears, collars, maid outfits, panty-shots, cleavage, and revealing costumes that defy the laws of physics – or are at least constructed with a liberal amount of underwire – appear on nearly every page. A good amount of these are actually worn by Keiichi, which appeals to my sense of fair play, but it is still the female characters who are exploited the most for fan-service. There is an incredibly nausea-inducing scene in which male customers at the maid café force the waitresses, including Shion, to spill food into their laps and then demand that the scantily clad girls wipe them clean. And while the actual wiping happens off-screen, the idea that these women could not refuse to do so because they “are all about customer service” is a bit too much for me. The uncomfortable and unpleasant revenge that Keiichi and his friends enact upon these men is small consolation for the implied acceptability of that kind of subjugation and humiliation.

Yutori Houjyou’s artwork displays an admirable range including marvelously detailed images of the countryside and village, delightfully expressive characters, the truly startling two-page spread of what Keiichi sees on the villagers’ faces as they stare down the biker gang, and lots and lots of moe.

In spite of hitting a rather sour note with me over the unpleasant female exploitation, and the seemingly endless fan service, I enjoyed most of Cotton Drifting Arc. Keiichi is such a likeable protagonist. He may moan and complain, but when he loses he takes his punishment and gets right back up again. Overall it is a rather sweet and silly story with some startlingly harsh hints at much darker things to come. I get the feeling that things are going to get very very grim indeed.

Volume one of Higurashi When They Cry: Cotton Drifting Arc is available now. Review copy provided by Yen Press.

Bookmark/Share