Higurashi When They Cry: Massacre Arc, Vol. 1 - manga (Higurashi, 19)

We start where the last arc ended. After that happy ending, after Keiichi caused the miracle to happen and stopped Rena from killing any of her friends, Rika thought she finally had hope. For once, all the lives she had lived, a hundred years repeating the events over and over, she might escape.She might live with her friends beyond the summer of 1983.Then, on her walk home, someone grabs her. She's murdered like she is time and time again. She meets her other personality, Frederica Bernkastel, the mysterious poet starting off many of these arcs with her apologies and desperation. She explains to Rika what's going on, reminding her how they've lived through all these worlds. We get to learn the rules of Hinimazwa as the pair try to figure out who killed them.Once again, thanks to Hanyu, the goddess of Hinimazawa, time is reset and Rika is reborn to try again. Only Hanyu's powers are waning. Rika has two weeks to figure things out before she's murdered again. How can she do it? After all these times, how can she save her life. They finally had a miracle, Keiichi remembered what happened in another life, and it wasn't enough to win.Crushed by despair, Rika has to live the same events again. She sees the same rolls of the dice that could lead to this or that tragedy. She has to pretend to do the same activities again and again while knowing the outcome.Where will she find hope now?The Massacre Arc, the second-to-last arc of the series, has the answers you've been craving. The mystery of Oyashiro, what the illness is, who the mysterious men in the van are, and more. The goddess of Hinimazawa just wants to save her friend's life. She's resetting time again and again so Rika can try to survive.And it's heart crushing to see her despair. She's on a roller coaster of emotion. It's time of Keiichi to shine. This is one of the most powerful stories in manga, and we're getting into the best part. It's time to smash fate.It's time to battle against the worst timeline ever.The art is great. It captures the emotional highs and lows of Rika as she fights so hard for hope while circumstances keep crushing her down. It's a powerful story about solving problems not with violence, but words. It's exciting. It has you eager to find out what will happen next.This is some of the best storytelling in graphic novels! You need to check it out!

I'll warn you, if you're looking for something light, this won't be the read you're hoping for. While this is the same size height-wise as the previous volumes in the Higurashi series, it's easily just as long as the first volume of Umineko and comes in at about 500 pages. This and the second volume of the Massacre Arc are far longer than the previous volumes, so make sure to take that into consideration when you read them.If you're familiar with the series, you'll know that this is the penultimate arc of the series and the one where everything really and truthfully starts to change and prepare us for the end of the main series. We're given hints in this volume as to who exactly is the person pulling the strings behind the scenes, with the identity of the killer given in volume two. This is the answer arc to the Curse Killing Chapter, and mercifully it's not as dark as CKC at times. We've still got one arc to go so we know that this probably won't end with roses and kittens, but this first volume gives us definite hope for a permanent happily ever after at some point.What really helped set this volume apart for me was how honest Rika was during the entire volume. She's been re-living countless deaths for about 100+ years, which has jaded her and her companion Hanyu (the real Oyashiro) almost beyond the point of no return. Rika gets a new breath of fresh hope and it's really nice to see her honestly react to new situations and opportunities coming up. The artist really did an awesome job of showing us exactly how depressing it would be to die over and over again and to see your hope slowly die as you receive less and less time each time you reincarnate. What really sort of rubs salt into Rika's wounds is that she's perpetually stuck in the body of a pre-pubescent girl, meaning that odds are that Rika started the hundred years off with the outlook of a girl her age. It's amazing really, that Rika's lasted this long when you think about it. The reason I bring this up is that the artist does an excellent job of bringing all of this weariness across for the most part without resorting to showing buckets and buckets of gore. It makes it that much more interesting to see Rika really react to her surroundings for the first time, which makes me realize that we really haven't seen the true Rika until this volume.This really is an excellent volume and I had to stop and pace myself before moving on to the next volume so I could really absorb everything. I would absolutely recommend this to fans of the series, although like previous volumes, if this is your first entry into the series then you won't want to start here. You'll be absolutely lost.EDIT:On a side note, I wanted to let you know that this volume is an omnibus of volumes 1 and 2 in the Massacre Arc. At 6 volumes long, this was the longest manga arc in the series thus far and I have to say that I liked Yen Press's decision to release the volumes together like this. It helps keep the tension going, something that I think the individual volumes would have potentially cut into. Maybe it was also to cut down on the expense of releasing each volume individually. Either way, it's less I have to wait for release-wise, which I like.It also helps set the tone for the final manga arc, which originally comprised of 8 volumes and will be released in 4 chunky volumes. There is a slight worry about the spines deteriorating over time, but these are pretty solidly built. It's as of yet unknown if Yen Press will release any of the other side arcs such as there are 4 other arcs aside from those in the main series and the one side arc ( Higurashi When They Cry: Demon Exposing Arc ). All I can say is that if Yen Press will release them, I'm guaranteed to buy them.

I picked up this book hoping to continue where the anime left off. I wish the anime continued in English for this part of the story, but the manga does a great job of covering the story. This book also goes into details that were left out of the anime, so that is another reason I got it. I wanted to see how the author made it as closely as I could. I am looking forward to continuing with the next volume as soon as I can.

Great manga series! Can't wait to get them all.

As a long time Higurashi series fan, I've been waiting for this arc for a long time. Massacre Arc, Vol. 1 starts to shine light on information left in the dark. Not everything is reviled though and this arc is that journey to find out the truth once and for all.This book is twice the size of all the other books (I checked myself). So, I feel that I got 2 times the reading material for about the same price. The artwork is amazing. They nailed the emotions perfectly and you can really feel it when you look at the artwork.If you've been reading from the beginning and liked it, then I highly recommend getting this book. If you're new to this series, I suggest going back and reading the other 18 books first. You wont be disappointed.

I loved the book, but it was a bit damaged upon arrival.