Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Himatsubushi-hen

Story - This was one of my favourite arcs in the anime 'Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni' and it was even better in the manga! It gives much more depth to the characters of Ooishi, Rika and Mion and introduces Akasaka.

Art - As always, the Higurashi art is beautiful and in parts creepy (especially some of the scenes with Rika earlier in the volume) and I felt that in parts the art bettered what was shown in the anime.

Character - Rika is the most important character in this volume as this is when the story really deepens and she shows a different side to her character completely. It also shows how determined and stubborn she is.

Enjoyment - As I said, it has always been one of my favourite arcs but only has two or three episodes in the anime so it was nice that it was lengthened and the mahjong chapter was very interesting too. There were quite a few scenes that were not included in the anime.

Overall - A fantastic Higurashi volume and, obviously, if you liked the previous volumes you MUST read this one as it begins to give more of an insight of what is really happening in their quiet little psychotic village!

This was a great arc, but sadly it was a little shorter than others. I was able to like Akasaka a lot and i started to like Ooshi a little more too.
As far as art goes, this is the cutest Rika that has been drawn so far, maybe it's the fact that she is younger than in the other arcs.
This arc was very different than the others, taking place before the Oyashiro's curse has started, and the Dam project war is still happening. I really liked that this arc is so different than others, sadly only two episodes of this arc were put into the anime and I liked seeing other stuff that happened. This arc seems to be overlooked a bit, but i say that it should be read.