Pleasantly surprising VN from everyone's friend ryukishi. I was weary of starting this one because I'm generally tired of the cartoonishly evil nature of japanese bullying stories but the yokai aspect of Higanbana makes the stories much more interesting. It also helps that, unlike ryukishi's other VNs, Higanbana is a relatively compact anthology of short stories instead of an 80 hour mystery so the pacing is quick and no topic overstays its welcome like in RGD. Of course while this does have its pros, it also has it's cons like having few characters to get attached to over a long period of time and the stories themselves being of varying quality. While some of the stories are weaker than others, I wouldn't say any of them are really bad (though the needlessly grotesque one with the rabbits comes close) and the best ones are pretty good. It definitely doesn't reach the heights of ryukishi's other works, even Ciconia, but its unique structure and solid pacing make it an enjoyable read in its own right.