A village full of secrets – review of the manga “When the cicadas cry”, vol. 1-2

When the Cicadas Cry is an adaptation of the classic kinetic novel series titled Higurashi no Naku Koro ni . How does it compare with it?

Book of Abduction by Demons

A teenager named Keiichi moves from a large city to a countryside in a remote province. The village called Hinamizawa is full of pretty girls who cling to the protagonist as if there was no other male representative within miles. The boy falls in love with one of them. This girl is Rena, who has an unhealthy obsession with things that are kawaii . The effects of this infatuation will turn out to be very… bloody. 

The beginning of the Book of the Abduction by Demons does not foreshadow the tragic and bloody events that we will witness while reading. At first it seems like a typical harem manga . We quickly find out that something is seriously wrong. The clues suggested by the author, leading to the solution of the puzzle, do not necessarily turn out to be true. We solve the puzzle in our own head, and then suddenly there is a twist telling us to rethink what we already know. The atmosphere of the protagonist’s entrapment is built up, and his mental health becomes more and more disturbed. 

The book of drifting cotton 

The beginning of the second part of the story is unfortunately a bit disappointing. We meet Keiichi again at the time of his recent move to the countryside, and we see again how he arouses the interest of the opposite sex. However, this time the girl who pays special attention to him is Mion Sonozaki, a tomboy type with a dominant personality and quite substantial… proportions. It quickly turns out that Mion has a twin sister, Shion, with a completely different character. But are the two girls really blood related? This is one of the puzzles that Keiichi has to face in the second volume. 

The next volume of stories differs from the first in terms of climate. Much more time is devoted to the romantic plot here, and the macabre appears a little later. The entire volume seems less dark than the previous one. We learn about events from more than one perspective, which makes them much easier to understand. We can learn, among other things, about the history of the Hinamizawa village. 

Którą wersja lepsza?

Compared to manga games, it definitely stands out with its graphic design. By using black and white, it reflects the atmosphere of the story much better, especially the more serious and dark moments. The character and background designs also trump those of the games, as some of them are already very old. The comic book is also devoid of unnecessary debts. There are humorous accents, introducing a bit of contrast to dark and bloody events. I have not found any glaring translation errors in any of the volumes, and I have not found any graphic babes on the manga pages.

Summary

The first two volumes of the series about the village of Hinamizawa are masterfully written and realized stories. Solving puzzles slowly gives satisfaction, the characters you meet are interesting and multidimensional. The endings of both volumes are strong, but this is not the end of the story, which has many more volumes to come. The trick of restarting the story and telling it in a different way may be discouraging, but it’s worth the break.