When you look at 07th Expansion games, I think it’s probably agreed that Umineko is their best work. Maybe some people will say Higurashi is better, but I think the majority would be in Umineko’s favor. It’s THE visual novel. The big vn to end all other vns.
And that makes perfect sense. I mean, of course an 100+ hour epic spanning across 8 incredible chapters with god tier music and the best voice acting ever is peak fiction. Of course it’s better than a random collection of short stories that’s basically impossible to find online.
Right?
…
So anyways I think Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni might be my favorite 07th Expansion work. Until Ciconia finishes releasing in 2036.
And it feels weird saying that, because how can it be better than everything else they put out? Can they even be compared when their formats are so different? I am still trying to figure this out as I do my Funney Visual Novel Writeup.
Nevertheless I think this game is really amazing. This is gonna be spoiler-free thoughts for the most part before I start talking about some of the story in earnest.
What Is Higanbana
Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni was originally a manga series written by Ryukishi07. It later got made into a two part visual novel that’s an anthology of short stories in the same world. Spider Lilly Translations did a fantranslation for said vn back in the day. That’s basically all there is to say on the production side of things.
I took a quick peek at the Higanbana manga just to see what it was like and discovered the following:
1) Its scanlation isn’t finished and hasn’t been updated in 3+ years
2) It’s weirdly overly sexual which makes me want to die when this is taking place in an elementary school
(Because the scanlation’s incomplete and I can’t find raws anywhere, I have no idea what extent the manga actually covers and what the visual novel has as original content. My comparisons are only for the first three stories of both.)
Aside from the incomplete translation of the manga, I prefer the visual novel for the following:
Aside from the incomplete translation of the manga, I prefer the visual novel for the following:
1) For comics, you have to cut down on words a lot when you’re doing your pages, because no one wants to read paragraphs. It’s a lot of show don’t tell, which works well for the medium. In the visual novel adaptations of Higanbana, the writing can be greatly expanded upon, and I like this a bit more. In many instances I think more depth is given to the stories, particularly with character perspectives.
2) Again the manga is weirdly overly sexual for a story about elementary schoolers, and the visual novel lacks this. There are no gratuitous ass shots of children in the visual novel for example.
Some quick expansions on point 2:
2a) I also feel weird about the manga’s adaptation of the opening story which is about child sexual abuse. The point of this story is to condemn CSA and the people who do it and yet the manga has no problem showing Marie post-assault in ogling ways or putting her in fanservicey positions throughout the story. She is also probably like 13-14 years old so hey what the fuck (she’s in class 8, which I’m assuming is 8th grade, they aren’t clear about grade structure). The vn fixes this by never showing what’s done to her or getting too graphic about what’s going on, offering not only a respectable retelling but making the story feel more serious because of the amount of respect it gives.
2b) The game isn't free of this exploitativeness (this isn't a word) unfortunately. The After School segment (basically the Tea Party of this series), an elementary schooler implies he’s going to draw porn of one of the other elementary schoolers because “ukes are popular” or whatever idk I blacked out reading that. I wish God never made me.
Back to the rest of the list of why I prefer the vn more:
3) Unlike the Umineko manga, I don’t really feel like the manga takes advantage of the medium in any way.
4) I like reading :)
Ok so with that out of the way, let’s get into the meat and potatoes of this. Why do I like this game the most out of all 07th Expansion works?
What I Like About This Game (no spoilers)
I think Ryukishi is very good at writing misery, helplessness, and despair. And he’s really good at either having that be bookended by a positive, feel-good moment, or spiral into absolute karmic retribution.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, I find a lot of his daily life writing to be really boring the more it prattles on. Higurashi is full of this writing, and it’s probably my only criticism of the game. I understand their purpose, which is to show how good of friends the Hinamizawa gang is, but they aren’t fun to read in my opinion. They feel like the roadblock that exists to prevent you from getting to the good stuff in the chapter. Some might kill me for saying this, but it’s true.
Higanbana circumvents the latter issues by having few daily life sections or, if they’re shown, they’re actually fun and have either worldbuilding or character-deepening information. The first chapter of the second game is basically this to a T, and it's one of my favorite chapters.
As for the former point, Higanbana shines by having all the stories all be straight to the point, no meandering around on irrelevant shit, and pretty fucking miserable.
A majority of the stories of Higanbana revolve around the idea of bullying, something that’s not just a problem in America but especially so in Japan. If you were into Koe no Katachi/A Silent Voice, you might remember that it took a while for it to get published because the way it depicted bullying was “too controversial” despite having truth to it.
Higanbana, if it was much more mainstream, would probably have this kind of backlash as well, I’d imagine. The way it depicts bullying is cruel, but also truthful— children ganging up on others who don’t fit in, who lie to their teachers and say it’s not bullying but that they’re just goofing around, the culture of being unable to speak up for yourself or problems will be worsened, even how teachers will stand idly by or contribute to the bullying themselves.
So… Why do I like this? I can’t explain this well, but I really enjoy reading miserable stories in modern environments, misery made between normal people. It's probably why Umineko Episode 4 is my favorite one. Higanbana really scratches that itch of suffering that I want to read. It’s a bunch of great stories of awful things that are, again, either punctuated by more misery or offer a happy end. The addition of youkai flesh out the world a good amount and elevate it from just being a standard school setting, and you get to see how they affect the students that are suffering.
On top of this, there aren’t any slow moments that go on for just too long like in other 07th Expansion works. Every story is super fun to read and actively engaging, each moment made me feel something. I was on the edge of my seat throughout for a lot of these.
It's hard to compare this to Umineko or Higurashi or Ciconia because the formats are so radically different, with the only idea I can come up with in how to compare them being playtime to enjoyment ratio. I probably enjoyed every second of Higanbana, or close to that. Meanwhile, there are some slow parts to Higurashi that I mentioned before, and Umineko has a lot of redundant writing (that I still like, but it would be cool to get to the point too). As for Ciconia, that game isn't fucking done, so I can't say I fully enjoy suffering waiting for phase two.
This next part is gonna go into specifics about what I liked, so skip over it if you don’t want to be a little bit spoiled on the actual game.
What I Like About This Game (light spoilers)
BEFORE I BEGIN. I’ve been absolutely ITCHIN to do a tierlist ranking of the chapters on both nights.
This is mostly based on which stories I thought were the most fun to read, which I related to the most, and, if I wanted to read a random chapter, which I’d read again first.
GOD Tier: Reaper of the Thirteenth Step
S Tier: A Thistle of Vengeance, Before The Spider Lilies Bloomed
A Tier: Mesomeso-san, Shrine of the Guardian Deity, The Lunar Festival, One Girl’s Day
B Tier: The Princess’s Lie, Welcome to the Mirror World, The Spirit Camera, Utopia
C Tier: Hameln’s Castanets, The Boys’ Portrait, My Best Friend, After School
Keep in mind I think all the stories are pretty good overall, so something being on C Tier doesn’t mean it’s shit that I never wanna see ever again. It’s just that the scale goes from “pretty good” up to “raw goat kino swag”, which is at the top of the list in God Tier.
Favorite characters of this game would have to be Marie, Yukari, Aya, and Michiru. It helped when characters would return in other stories to flesh themselves out, Yukari being the best example with Utopia and A Thistle of Vengeance. Yukari is probably the best overall character, Marie being close second. I love them both.
And Aya…. Man I wanna talk about Reaper of the Thirteenth Step so bad. So I am. I really liked this one.
4) I like reading :)
Ok so with that out of the way, let’s get into the meat and potatoes of this. Why do I like this game the most out of all 07th Expansion works?
What I Like About This Game (no spoilers)
I think Ryukishi is very good at writing misery, helplessness, and despair. And he’s really good at either having that be bookended by a positive, feel-good moment, or spiral into absolute karmic retribution.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, I find a lot of his daily life writing to be really boring the more it prattles on. Higurashi is full of this writing, and it’s probably my only criticism of the game. I understand their purpose, which is to show how good of friends the Hinamizawa gang is, but they aren’t fun to read in my opinion. They feel like the roadblock that exists to prevent you from getting to the good stuff in the chapter. Some might kill me for saying this, but it’s true.
Higanbana circumvents the latter issues by having few daily life sections or, if they’re shown, they’re actually fun and have either worldbuilding or character-deepening information. The first chapter of the second game is basically this to a T, and it's one of my favorite chapters.
As for the former point, Higanbana shines by having all the stories all be straight to the point, no meandering around on irrelevant shit, and pretty fucking miserable.
A majority of the stories of Higanbana revolve around the idea of bullying, something that’s not just a problem in America but especially so in Japan. If you were into Koe no Katachi/A Silent Voice, you might remember that it took a while for it to get published because the way it depicted bullying was “too controversial” despite having truth to it.
Higanbana, if it was much more mainstream, would probably have this kind of backlash as well, I’d imagine. The way it depicts bullying is cruel, but also truthful— children ganging up on others who don’t fit in, who lie to their teachers and say it’s not bullying but that they’re just goofing around, the culture of being unable to speak up for yourself or problems will be worsened, even how teachers will stand idly by or contribute to the bullying themselves.
So… Why do I like this? I can’t explain this well, but I really enjoy reading miserable stories in modern environments, misery made between normal people. It's probably why Umineko Episode 4 is my favorite one. Higanbana really scratches that itch of suffering that I want to read. It’s a bunch of great stories of awful things that are, again, either punctuated by more misery or offer a happy end. The addition of youkai flesh out the world a good amount and elevate it from just being a standard school setting, and you get to see how they affect the students that are suffering.
On top of this, there aren’t any slow moments that go on for just too long like in other 07th Expansion works. Every story is super fun to read and actively engaging, each moment made me feel something. I was on the edge of my seat throughout for a lot of these.
It's hard to compare this to Umineko or Higurashi or Ciconia because the formats are so radically different, with the only idea I can come up with in how to compare them being playtime to enjoyment ratio. I probably enjoyed every second of Higanbana, or close to that. Meanwhile, there are some slow parts to Higurashi that I mentioned before, and Umineko has a lot of redundant writing (that I still like, but it would be cool to get to the point too). As for Ciconia, that game isn't fucking done, so I can't say I fully enjoy suffering waiting for phase two.
This next part is gonna go into specifics about what I liked, so skip over it if you don’t want to be a little bit spoiled on the actual game.
What I Like About This Game (light spoilers)
BEFORE I BEGIN. I’ve been absolutely ITCHIN to do a tierlist ranking of the chapters on both nights.
This is mostly based on which stories I thought were the most fun to read, which I related to the most, and, if I wanted to read a random chapter, which I’d read again first.
GOD Tier: Reaper of the Thirteenth Step
S Tier: A Thistle of Vengeance, Before The Spider Lilies Bloomed
A Tier: Mesomeso-san, Shrine of the Guardian Deity, The Lunar Festival, One Girl’s Day
B Tier: The Princess’s Lie, Welcome to the Mirror World, The Spirit Camera, Utopia
C Tier: Hameln’s Castanets, The Boys’ Portrait, My Best Friend, After School
Keep in mind I think all the stories are pretty good overall, so something being on C Tier doesn’t mean it’s shit that I never wanna see ever again. It’s just that the scale goes from “pretty good” up to “raw goat kino swag”, which is at the top of the list in God Tier.
Favorite characters of this game would have to be Marie, Yukari, Aya, and Michiru. It helped when characters would return in other stories to flesh themselves out, Yukari being the best example with Utopia and A Thistle of Vengeance. Yukari is probably the best overall character, Marie being close second. I love them both.
Higanbana is also very funny and bad. I love her.
Funnily enough, this is like the one story where the main character, Aya, isn’t bullied, but she’s just really depressed and lives in a daze. She doesn’t want to die or feel pain, she just wants to disappear. She has no idea why she’s alive and wants to know why, and because she can’t figure out why, she wants it to end.
You know the rest if you read the story, so I'm gonna quickly recap. Aya meets with the Reaper and has to engage in a game with him every day, where she has to run away for her life. Around halfway through his days of chasing her, he says he’d offer her a peaceful death and not a painful one, and he seems legit about it.
And despite that she keeps running. Why is that? She doesn’t even know why. Some of her is convinced that it’s because he’s just lying, but another part of her is just… totally unsure.
Eventually, Aya wins the Reaper’s game by running away successfully for 49 days. By that point, she’s changed, with running turning into something she’s confident in, her outlook on life turning around into something positive. She’s realized that there doesn’t need to be a meaning to her life, that living just to live is enough of a great thing in itself, and thoughts of how or why she’s here prevent her from actually living.
Outside of the narration, they say this not so subtly through the running Aya does. As Aya thinks about herself during their final run, the Reaper says that these thoughts are only slowing her down, and she needs to empty her head to keep going. And she does, and picks up her pace, and she has a blast. I don’t even think she wins the fuckin race, but she still makes it to the finish.
Now, not to get heavy on you during your reading of my writeup about a randomass obscure visual novel, but I am basically this. I am this depressed listless “just living my life every day and wanting to disappear peacefully” girl. It was honestly freaky to read some of Aya’s thoughts that sounded like they were coming straight out of my journal.
And it’s like… why does she keep running? If she’s offered the painless death she wants, why does she keep running? And you, or maybe I, could ask the same thing of ourselves. Why do we keep running? Why do we keep living? Even if we want to die, we keep running, keep living. Why?
But there doesn’t need to be a real reason. Living to live is a good enough reason. By thinking so much about why why why, we slow ourselves down. So we need to empty our heads and just… live.
I dunno. This just really stuck out to me as such a great short story that had somehow had the same impact of a metaphorical tractor trailer slamming into my face. I felt like I was getting pointed at the entire time like “listen up you bitch”. It was great. I cried a little even.
And I think that’s what’s good about Higanbana. This game can really hit in personal ways, and it hurts so bad. But it’s so great. It really is my favorite 07th Expansion game. Somehow. It just IS.
This game was fucking good and it might be one of the best games I got to experience in 2022.
It’s a damn shame it’s one of the harder 07th Expansion games to get into because it’s impossible to get Higanbana online through official means anymore. I hope Mangagamer actually translates it to English instead of just cucking us forever but whatever. At the very least, relicense it.
If you haven’t played Higanbana yet, god PLEASE give it a try. You seriously won’t regret it.
Final score:
Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni: 10/10 ACTUALLY PEAK FICTION
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