Can Keiichi and his classmates survive Rena’s psycho attack on their school? Someone get that girl a straightjacket!
Creative Staff
Story: Ryukishi07
Art: Karin Suzuragi
Translation/Adaptation: Alethea and Athena Nibley
What They Say
Driven out of her mind by the murderous plot exposed in Takano’s scrapbook, Rena is on the run from the police and her friends. When Officer Ooishi confronts Mion about the Sonozaki family’s involvement in the murder conspiracy, Mion reveal a number of other scrapbooks, detailing even more outlandish theories to explain the string of murders in the village. But will this new development be enough to calm down Rena? Or in her panic, will her next move put all of her classmates in danger?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Just when I was starting to buy into Rena’s theory about alien parasites controlling Hinamizawa and the idea that this was a sci-fi horror series, Mion throws a bucket of cold water on me. When Officer Ooishi confronts Mion and the Sonozaki’s about the alien conspiracy described in Nurse Takano’s scrapbook, Mion ups the pots ante by presenting multiple scrapbooks written by Nurse Takano. Each scrapbook has a theory about Hinamizawa that is crazier than the last. Nurse Takano really was a fanatic when it came to conspiracy theories and the occult. Maybe she watched all the ‘X-files’ seasons?
These revelations convince the police that Rena is experiencing a mental breakdown, and it is in everyone’s best interest that they find her and get her some medical care. In the meantime, Rena is back to scratching her throat until it bleeds. She is convinced she will lose control and scratch her throat out at 7 p.m. that night. In a last attempt to save Hinamizawa from the aliens, she takes her class hostage. She hopes that a hostage situation will force the police to find the secret lab in Hinamizawa that is controlled by the aliens. Although, the hour she gives the police isn’t a whole lot of time for them to come up with a plan to stop her. Or find a secret lab, even if it did exist.
Rena and her massive cleaver force Keiichi to tie up all their classmates before she douses everyone with gasoline. Even with the cop’s arrival, there is nothing they can do that won’t endanger the hostages. And Rena shows she means business when she nearly beats Mion to death for her presumed betrayal of Rena’s trust and the Sonozaki’s cooperation with the aliens.
Once Rena reveals there is a bomb that will detonate at 7p.m., Keiichi realizes that he has to stop her by force. He believes that if he can stop all this without anyone dying, and by convincing Rena to stop peacefully, he can stop the cycling of death and rebirth he believes is happening. Keiichi’s attempt to find the bomb and free his classmates culminates in a battle between him and Rena on the school roof. Rena’s cleaver versus Keiichi’s aluminum bat. It quickly becomes apparent to Keiichi, that one of them will have to die in this fight, but he is willing to lose if he can convince Rena she is wrong and the aliens don’t exist. Will Keiichi be able to pull it off, or will the police intercede?
In Summary
For the first time in this series, the reader catches a glimpse that the characters may realize they are living a horrible ‘Groundhog Day’ life, where many days worth of tragedy repeats in different ways, resetting after enough people have been killed. Somehow, Rika remembers every lifecycle the people of Hinamizawa are forced to live through, so maybe that makes her the equivalent of Bill Murray. But now Keiichi remembers at least one previous life. It is a horrible memory of the time he killed Rena and Mion. But that horrible memory may just allow him to talk Rena down from her murderous rampage. This is actually a very cool moment for this manga series, as it’s the first time the reader is exposed to the author’s inner designs for this series. All this really got me guessing where this series will end.
Because of these revelations, this is easily one of the best story arcs. This arc has also been the longest so far because each volume has been long, and this final volume of the arc is a huge 288 pages. I can’t wait to read the first volume of the next arc, to see if it will continue to reveal this Groundhog Day reality to more characters, or if it will continue to follow the detective investigating Higurashi’s world 22 years later in an attempt to finally reveal the truth behind Oyashiro’s Curse and the destruction of Hinamizawa.
Again, I highly recommend this ‘Atonement Arc’.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: B-
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: April 28th, 2012
MSRP: $11.99
