Here’s something I’d like those who’ve finished Higanbana to try tackling! How would you, in a single paragraph with as few spoilers as possible, pitch Higanbana to someone on the fence about reading it? What would you use to sell it to people?
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Share with me your passion, my friends. What is the most important part of the story to you personally? Tell others why they should join you on the other side. I look forward to reading your thoughts.
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Pitching Higanbana is probably really difficult unless the person in question likes WTC or really enjoy dark stories that still has a heart which is probably not that common. Because if you downplay the horror then people will be turned off by the first scene and if you play down the more heart then they will be turned off by later parts.
But if I were to pitch it to someone I would say that it is a story about both bullying and abuse of power from authority-figures as well as how to stand up against it.
Do note that I haven’t finished it the first night yet as I’ve gotten caught up in other things but that’s my thought of the series so far at least.
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I haven’t finished the whole thing, but I think I remember having read most of it.
It’s a psychological horror story that tackles the very real issues brought about by abuse and bullying. Sometimes, it will bring to light the true evils of such things in ways that might make a reader feel ill, as though they themselves were suffering from things they might never have had to face in real life. Other times, it will offer pleasant resolutions to problems, which may offer some catharsis. As per usual for 07th works, it has an entertaining cast of both lovable and detestable characters (and some characters which might be described as both), amazing music, and in-depth narration.
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I usually make sure to say that the story was likely inspired by Ryukishi’s time as a civil servant, and that it’s got a phenomenal atmosphere and pacing. I don’t think there are actually so few people out there who enjoy horror stories with a more sympathetic tone, and I believe that mentioning that the author was a civil servant gives would-be-readers good expectations regarding tone.
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This is what I came up with after finishing the first night:
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I’m not entirely sure how I would pitch Higanbana to someone. I guess it would have to be someone familiar with Ryukishi’s writing and art. (Especially art, because it can turn a lot of people away if they aren’t familiar with his style.) It’s a really depressing story, so I don’t know how I would pitch it to someone who wasn’t prepared for that, or someone who generally doesn’t enjoy darker themes.
I would try to get them into Umineko first.
I normally just get my laptop, start reading the first chapter in my university and see who picks an interest for it from my group of friends (got more or less 8 people to read it by doing that).
With Umineko is easier, as I have such a large group testimony of its quality around me, so we just go talking a lot of amazing stuff about it and picking the interest of more people. Helps a lot I’m in Letters and Philosophy, since people really take interest on clever tales like Ryukishi’s very fast, especially when so many other students talk high about them.
I personally transferred Umineko from my pendrives to at least 30 people in my university, though I’m not sure just how many actually got to the end of it, as it’s infamous in there as well for being so freaking long.
This is also the advantage I had introducing Higanbana for those interested in Umineko that wouldn’t read it for it being so gigantic. I say “it’s a collection of interconnected horror short stories with a profound dark theme in common within them with some supernatural elements, from the very same author”, and voilà!
As long as the people around are interested in a great read and open-minded enough to go through a virtual book of a sort, it’s actually rather easy for me to spread most of 07th Expansion works (and I say most because both Higurashi and TRT kinda have too many “otaku elements” on them for the tastes of a LOT of people).
That said, I also could successfully present Umineko for 2-3 teachers of mine while picking their interest (Higanbana is on its way). And yes, for that I skipped those silly/creepy/unnecessary lines from the beginning of EP1, as they were proven for me to be insta-interest killer in many circumstances (the “okay, this is garbage, we are done here” kind).
I couldn’t do the same for Higurashi as there are entire segments of that stuff in there (while Umineko only had that minor one envolving Battler wanting to touch Shannon’s boobs paired with some very specific lines of dialogue I could easily strategically skip).
By nature, Higanbana is just so absolutely dark I can’t remember seeing any scene of that nature in there, so I highly doubt it will be too difficult to present even to teachers, besides the very screwed up story as a whole.
But yeah, that’s just my own perspective around this stuff (I’m a living advertiser for 07th Expansion in any place I go lol).
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