Cute little Satoko becomes the focus of this arc in a series where anyone could be the murderer, no matter how cute and innocent they appear.
Creative Staff
Writer/Artist: Ryukishi07 and Jiro Suzuki
Translation: Alethea and Athena Nibley
Adaptation: Alethea and Athena Nibley
What They Say
The dark mysteries of Hinamizawa village unfold anew in the Curse Killing Arc! After a short trip to the city, Keiichi Maebara returns to the small mountain hamlet where he is welcomed with a fresh batch of pranks from Satoko and the rest of his school friends. Satoko may be the youngest of the group, but she always puts on the biggest smile. Who knew her upbeat attitude masked a terrible tragedy - a year ago her older brother, her only family, vanished without a trace. Keiichi's glad to step in and act as her big brother figure, but he can't shake the nagging questions about her real brother's disappearance. Transfer student? Teenage runaway? Or could it be...Oyashiro-sama's curse?
The Review!
Another new arc, another new artist, and another character becomes the focus of this murder mystery series.
I don’t particularly like the artist responsible for this arc as much as I liked the previous artists. She does a good job of capturing the frenetic exploits of the characters, but the large amount of SD and somewhat awkward facial expressions and proportions are not my preference. The story itself refocuses on Satoko this time, and her innocence makes me believe this arc is going to be exceptionally heart wrenching.
Not a whole lot of new stuff happens in this volume as the reader has gotten to know the character’s personalities pretty well by now. Keiichi spends his days joyfully attending school and thinking about how lucky he is to have moved to Hinamizawa. This in itself is refreshing, to see a teenage boy recognize how enjoyable his life is and hope it never ends. Along the way he stumbles upon the story of the failed dam that would have submerged Hinamizawa. He also has a brief encounter with the photographer Tomitake, the female nurse Takano, and a more detailed discussion about Satoko with doctor Irie.
Keiichi learns that Satoko’s older brother has runaway from home, or transferred to a different school depending on the person telling it. Through various circumstances, Keiichi spends more time with Satoko away from school and learns that she is a strongly independent girl. However, she is only that way because she has to be since her parents are dead and her brother is missing. Keiichi and Satoko quickly grow attached to each other. As the reader, it is easy to put yourself in Keiichi’s place and like him, want to protect Satoko against anything and everything.
Things wouldn’t be normal in Hinamizawa if the characters didn’t start acting weird. Shion almost rips Keiichi’s head off after he mentions Satoko’s brother. Later, Rena flips out at Keiichi’s questioning of Satoko’s family and Mion has to slap the crap out of her. Mion asks Keiichi to let his questions die and never mention Satoko’s brother to anyone ever again. From this it is easy to suspect Mion of past nefarious acts. Then again, Rena is a loose cannon, especially when she goes into ‘crazy eyes’ mode. It is too early to do more than speculate on the killers identity, but the next volume will be sure to reveal Hinamizawa’s blood-crusted underbelly.
In Summary:
At this point I have become accustomed to the somewhat slow start to the first volume of each arc. This isn’t necessarily such a bad thing, especially after the massive number of pages and sheer intensity of the story in volume 4. Volume 5 goes the standard ‘reset’ route and reestablishes the characters while shifting the focal character to Satoko. I have become attached to all the characters in this series, but the youth and innocence of Satoko and Rika makes me cringe at the thought of the story focusing on one of them. With that said, the cringe worthiness of this series is what makes it such an awesome series.
If you enjoy murder mysteries, then you should definitely be reading this manga. The anime was good, but at over twenty volumes, the manga probably covers more ground than the anime did.
Highly Recommended!!
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