I'm trying to make it a habit to review books as I finish them (and at a distressingly slow pace these days as free time seems to evaporate) and I suppose manga should be no exception.

First, for the benefit of any casual readers, let me say that _Beyond Midnight_ is not a reasonable entry point to start reading Higurashi/When They Cry if you aren't already a reader. This volume assumes that you know the basic story, and is mostly a sort of epilogue. Even describing what the manga is in a way that tells a fan anything is going to sound incomprehensible if you're not a fan. Think of it as a very late episode of _Lost_ or something. Given that, there's not much way to discuss it without spoilers for the _Tsumihoroboshi-hen_ (Atonement) arc. If you don't want that spoiled, read no further.

So, with that warning, what is this book?

When I picked it up, I wasn't sure where it fit in, because Higurashi, with its organization by named by plot arcs or "-hen" can be confusing to keep in order anyway. Well, it's a manga-only arc: It's completely canon, but it doesn't appear in either the VN's or the anime. It's a side story, not essential to understanding the overall series.

I wouldn't normally go for every possible little side story or backstory or epilogue for most series, whether they're books or movies or whatever, but something about Higurashi / When They Cry makes me a little nostalgic (or natsukashii, if you don't mind), It feels as if I'd spent the summer of 1983 in Hinamizawa. I've spent a lot of time in this place, and I'm a little sad it's over. Yeah, there's _Umineko_ but it's not really the same thing, is it? So, since this particular installment was obviously not retread of the VN or the anime, I was inclined to give it a try.

Turns out it's an add-on of sorts to _Tsumihoroboshi-hen_ (the one where Rena is the primary Hinamizawa syndrome victim). It takes place 20 years later in a world where Keiichi never managed to talk Rena down. She went through with the bomb, and Takano's plan went off right on schedule.

So, in this timeline, Hinamizawa has been a ghost town for 20 years. At first, occultists and conspiracy nuts wanted to swarm over it, but the government had kept it closed off. Now, 20 years later, it's a forgotten footnote, and they've just now stopped bothering to keep people away. One night soon after the village is "opened up" again, 5 people find themselves there, in a village once familiar to the reader, but now deserted and creepy. One, a tabloid writer, has a plausible reason for being there. Three are evasive about why they've come. The fifth claims to be Mion Sonozaki. But what we, and the tabloid reporter, know, of course, is that in this world, Mion should be dead. So who is this woman? Shion, maybe? And why are these people really there? This isn't an earth-shakingly great manga, but I'm curious enough to read the second volume and find out. ( )