List of When They Cry episodes
Higurashi When They Cry is a Japanese anime television series based on Ryukishi07's visual novel series. The English titles for the first season are accorded to the names used by Funimation. English titles in other seasons are not official.
When They Cry volume one DVD cover by Geneon.
The first season titled Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (ひぐらしのなく頃に). It was animated by Studio Deen, and produced by Frontier Works, Geneon Entertainment and Sotsu. The series was directed by Chiaki Kon, with Toshifumi Kawase handling series composition, Kyūta Sakai designing the characters and Kenji Kawai composing the music. It was released in English by Geneon and Funimation, under the title When They Cry – Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. The first season contains 26 episodes and aired between April 4 and September 26, 2006 on a number of television networks, including Chiba TV, Kansai TV and Tokai TV. The story follows five friends solving the case about unexplained murders occurred for three years in the village. The series is divided into six chapters which are based on the first six chapters in the original visual novel series. The first chapter is Onikakushi-hen (episodes 1 to 4), followed by Watanagashi-hen (episodes 5 to 8), and Tatarigoroshi-hen (episodes 9 to 13). Next is Himatsubushi-hen (episodes 14 and 15), the shortest of the story arcs. The last two chapters are Meakashi-hen (episodes 16 to 21) and Tsumihoroboshi-hen (episodes 22 through 26). An extra episode based on a short story written by Ryukishi07, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gaiden Nekogoroshi-hen (ひぐらしのなく頃に外伝 猫殺し編, lit. When The Cicadas Cry Side Story: Cat Killing Chapter), was released in Japan for the first season on July 27, 2007 as a bonus for purchasing all 9 anime DVD volumes. The OVA includes opening and ending animations from the first season, but features Sakai's updated character designs from the second season.
The second season is titled When They Cry: Kai (ひぐらしのなく頃に解, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, lit. When The Cicadas Cry: Solution). It was produced by the same team and contains 24 episodes. The series aired in Japan between July 6 and December 17, 2007 on several television networks, such as Sun TV, TV Kanagawa and TV Saitama. The story continues what is left unexplained in the first season over the course of three separate story arcs. The first story is an anime-original arc called Yakusamashi-hen, which is followed by the last two arcs from the original visual novel series: Minagoroshi-hen and Matsuribayashi-hen. On September 18, 2007, a sixteen-year-old girl killed her father with an axe in Kyoto, Japan.[1] The similarities between Kai and the incident were too strong. In response, Tokai TV replaced episode twelve on September 21, 2007 with a cooking show.
A five-episode original video animation (OVA) series, titled When They Cry: Rei (ひぐらしのなく頃に礼, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei, lit. When The Cicadas Cry: Gratitude), was released from February 25 to August 21, 2009. Kawase takes over Kon's role as director, while Kazuya Kuroda takes over Sakai's role as character designer. It has two arcs taken from the fan disc of the same name and another arc adapted from a light novel released with the PlayStation version. Another four-episode OVA series to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Higurashi franchise, titled Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira (ひぐらしのなく頃に煌, lit. When The Cicadas Cry: Glitter), was released from July 21, 2011 to January 25, 2012. Tomoyuki Abe took over Kuroda's role as character designer. The OVA film Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku: Outbreak (ひぐらしのなく頃に拡〜アウトブレイク〜, lit. When The Cicadas Cry: Expansion ~Outbreak~) was adapted from the short story "Higurashi Outbreak", and was released on August 15, 2013.[2] Sakai, who served as character designer for the first two seasons, returns for this OVA.
A new anime series, titled Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou (ひぐらしのなく頃に業, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gō, lit. When The Cicadas Cry: Karma), is animated by Passione and directed by Keiichiro Kawaguchi, with Takashi Ikehata serving as assistant director, Naoki Hayashi handling series composition, Akio Watanabe designing the characters and Kawai returning as music composer.[3] The main cast will reprise their roles.[4] The series was set premiere in July 2020,[5] but was delayed to premiere on October 1, 2020 due to COVID-19.[6][7] Funimation has acquired the series and is streaming the series on its website in North America and the British Isles, and on AnimeLab in Australia and New Zealand.[8] In Southeast Asia, Medialink has acquired the series and is streaming the series on its YouTube channel Ani-One.[9] The new series will run for 24 episodes.[10]
Series overview
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | ||||
| When They Cry | 26 | April 4, 2006 | September 26, 2006 | ||
| Nekogoroshi-hen | 1 | July 27, 2007 | |||
| Kai | 24 | July 6, 2007 | December 17, 2007 | ||
| Rei | 5 | February 25, 2009 | August 21, 2009 | ||
| Kira | 4 | July 21, 2011 | January 25, 2012 | ||
| Outbreak | 1 | August 15, 2013 | |||
| Gou | 24 | October 1, 2020 | TBA | ||
When They Cry (2006)
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Beginning (Chapter: Spirited Away by the Demon, Part 1)" Transcription: "Onikakushi-hen Sono Ichi – Hajimari" (Japanese: 鬼隠し編 其ノ壱 ハジマリ) | Chiaki Kon | Toshifumi Kawase | April 4, 2006 | |
| In 1983, Maebara Keiichi lives with his friends in the rural village of Hinamizawa. While searching for clues at the landfill, Keiichi learns from Tomitake Jirō about the past murders. He also learns about the dam construction proposed by the government five years earlier. The project met with protests and was withdrawn. When Keiichi asks Rena and Sonozaki Mion about any incidents relating to the project, they refuse to reply, which makes him suspicious. He gets even more suspicious as he and Rena discover the statue of Kenta, the parody of Colonel Sanders and Rena leaves to find a machete, he finds a newspaper article about the death of the construction manager whose corpse was then divided into three parts literally by his co-workers who are all arrested except only one. He learns that his killer is still at large. | |||||
| 2 | "The Secret (Chapter: Spirited Away by the Demon, Part 2)" Transcription: "Onikakushi-hen Sono Ni – Kakushigoto" (Japanese: 鬼隠し編 其ノ弐 隠しごと) | Yūji Hiraki | Toshifumi Kawase | April 11, 2006 | |
| During the annual festival, after Keiichi watches Rika's ritual performance, he meets Tomitake and a long blond-hair young woman who informs him about "Oyashiro's curse". A series of murders and disappearances has occurred on the night of the festival for the past four years and are all supposedly caused by the curse of the village's tutelary deity, Oyashiro. The next day at school, as he's about to go to a bathroom, Keiichi is told he has a visitor name Ōishi Kuraudo, a detective based at Okinomiya station, and learns a grim story from him that Tomitake committed suicide by clawing his throat out and Takano suddenly disappeared after the festival. Ōishi declares him his informant after giving his card to him for contact. The next day, during the club meeting when Mion cancels the punishment uncle to work part-time for her uncle, Keiichi notices a murder game card written with a player's name, Satoshi on it. As he and Rena are walking home from school, he asks her if she and the others have been lying to him, Rena retorts that he has already lied to them about going to the teacher's office when in fact; she has already seen him speaking to Ōishi yesterday, he attempts to dismiss her question but Rena suddenly screams "You're Lying" to him sending him into shock. She gently reminds him that he has secrets and lies he will hide before skitting off home. At home, he's contacted by Ōishi about the village's dark history with demons abducting people and eating them, Ōishi also says that last year when a housewife was murdered by a drug addict during the festival, one of her children went missing which was interpreted as 'Demoned Away' according to villagers, the child's name is Satoshi whom Keiichi remembers seeing on the murder game card and the same desk that Satoshi used that he was assigned to at his classroom. His father then comes in with a tray of tea in his hands, he mentions Rena had came by to visit him but wasn't aware she already left. At that point, Keiichi realizes that Rena has been eavesdropping on him the whole time outside his room. | |||||
| 3 | "Suspicion (Chapter: Spirited Away by the Demon, Part 3)" Transcription: "Onikakushi-hen Sono San – Gishin" (Japanese: 鬼隠し編 其ノ参 疑心) | Takeshi Yoshimoto | Toshifumi Kawase | April 18, 2006 | |
| Suddenly having a cold after waking up, Keiichi calls in sick for school to attend the Irie Clinic, the only medical facility there to get a vaccine shot. while waiting patiently, he overheard some residents waiting in line talking about the woman who was with Tomitake at the festival named Miyo Takano who's also a nurse at the clinic who was 'demoned away'. On his way home, Ōishi appears in his car and invites him to lunch at Angel Mort, a family restaurant in Okinomiya. After eating, he tells Keiichi about all of the murder and missing victims of Oyashiro's curse occurring four years in a row; First; The construction manager of the dam and his murderer. second; The dam-proponent couple who are revealed to be Satoko's parents. third; Rika's parents and lastly; Satoko's aunt in-law and Satoshi, her older brother. Ōishi sternly reminds him this series of mysterious deaths are connected to his group of friends. He becomes skeptical about it as Ōishi also tells him about Rena's past; Rena used to live in Hinamizawa with her parents before moving to Ibaraki prefecture during grade school a few years ago before suddenly moving back to Hinamizawa last year, a few weeks before moving back, she was suspended from school for shattering all of the school's window, she claims to her neurologist that Oyashiro-sama was watching her in her bedroom, Ōishi tells him he's in danger. That night, Keiichi receives a visit from Rena and Mion at his front door, they give him a box of ohagi as his homework for skipping today's club by tasting which one's made by Rena. As they were about to go, he suddenly becomes paranoid when they start asking him what he had for lunch today and demands to know who was the man he was chatting with at Angel Mort. After they leave, in the kitchen, he starts tasting one of the ohagi when suddenly he gags, spits out the remaining dessert and discovers to his horror that he nearly swallowed a sewing needle planted inside the dessert and throws all of the ohagi against the kitchen wall in panic. In his bedroom, he starts to write a message on a paper about Oyashiro-sama's curse and hides it behind his room's wall clock. The next day, he nearly gets run over by a white van driven by a man in grey uniform while on his way to school Fearing that they will watch him, after he returns to the school. Keiichi rummages through the school lockers and discovers Satoshi's baseball bat as his weapon. As he dresses up for physical education, Satoko and Rika see him with the bat, Satoko runs off but Rika tells him to lose the bat before she joins Satoko. As he practices swinging it, Mion and Rena goes outside and notices him holding the bat and asks him about it, he tells them that he's practicing for the National Finals, believing his words, they just leave him be. After school, he chooses not to join the club meeting and starts walking home, he hears extra steps behind him, he turns around and sees Rena following him, he aggressively demands her to start walking ahead of him and as she does what he told her to do, she frantically asks him why he's holding Satoshi's bat. Keiichi isn't aware that the bat belongs to him until he sees his name written on the knob, she explains that he's behaving almost exactly like Satoshi by walking to school alone, practicing with his bat, and carrying it with him at all times. As he grills her about Satoshi's whereabouts, she calmly tells him that he "transferred", she suggests to him not to follow Satoshi. That night, his parents tell him they have to travel to Tokyo for his father's work and will return the following night. Overwhelmed with paranoia, he locks all of the windows and doors of his house, he receives a phone call from Ōishi, he tells Ōishi about the needle inside the ohagi which the latter asks him for it as evidence which he couldn't find it. He also raises the topic about the white van that nearly ran him over which Ōishi demands the van's license plate that he even doesn't know, he offers that Rena claims he will meet the same fate as Satoshi when someone comes to the front door and presses the doorbell. | |||||
| 4 | "Disturbance (Chapter: Spirited Away by the Demon, Part 4)" Transcription: "Onikakushi-hen Sono Yon – Yugami" (Japanese: 鬼隠し編 其ノ四 歪) | Hisakazu Ishikawa | Toshifumi Kawase | April 25, 2006 | |
| Keiichi while on the phone with Ōishi hears a doorbell and goes down to the front door to answer it. He opens the door half-way through as it's secured by the security chain, Rena appears through the door's gap asking him if he had dinner which he replies he hasn't, in her hands, she brought her side dishes and offers to warm it up in the kitchen, he politely declines and lies that his dinner is about ready to eat but like last time; she angrily screams "That's a lie", scaring him quickly, she answers the type of dinner he's about to eat correctly worsening his paranoia, Rena attempts to force her way in but he slams the door quickly jamming her fingers in the process, he aggressively tells her to go home as she apologizes for 'fooling around', she finally frees her injured fingers and he closes it and runs back up to his room to answer Ōishi back. As he answers the call, it begins to rain outside, he tells Ōishi about Rena visiting, Ōishi upon hearing her name tells him more about Rena's Ibaraki school incident; apparently, at that time, she had injured three of the male students whom she was close to with a baseball bat but even all three of them never even bothered to testify against her for the worst things she had done, as Keiichi looks out the window, he sees Rena standing outside in the rain saying "I'm sorry". The following day, Keiichi keeps practicing the bat outside the school, Mion comes to greet him but seeing Keiichi doing it she asks him to stop it but he angrily reprimands her for hiding so many things he doesn't know about from him; The dam incident mutilation case and Satoshi's disappearance much to her astonishment. He even insults the ohagis that she and Rena made right to her face in horror. She breaks down in tears but becomes extremely enraged when she concludes that man told Keiichi about the whole thing and swears to kill him, Keiichi asks if she's referring to Ōishi but she doesn't answer back. After school as he walks home with the bat, he encounters Rena armed with a cleaver, she admits she couldn't listen to Satoshi back then before he was 'demoned away', Keiichi asks who made Satoshi disappears with their own hands and caused the murder incidents but she insists that it was Oyashiro-sama who done it. She promises that he won't 'transfer' and to save him before she suddenly laughs very insanely. Keiichi pushes and escapes from Rena, while he runs through the woods, he is spotted by two men in grey uniforms who chases after him, he tries to fend them off with the bat but another man appears from behind and incapacitates him with a tree branch. Keiichi wakes up suddenly inside his room at his house with Rena, Mion also comes in from outside. Mion had the manager come in to meet him, he demands to know who's the manager but they claim he already knows. Bringing up the ohagi homework, Mion declares a punishment game by producing a syringe in her right hand in his eyes, Rena restrains him so that Mion will inject it into his arm. he suddenly remembers Ōishi telling him about Tomitake's death saying that it's implied that drugs could have caused his suicide. Keiichi, in a sudden mental breakdown brutally batters them to death with the bat. In guilt of seeing his two friends dead, he looks outside the window to find the same white van that nearly ran him over with a doctor and two men in grey uniform coming out and approaching the front door, he takes the wall clock, adds more writing to the note about he had hidden, places the syringe and the note behind the wall clock and back where it was before escaping out the side door. He reaches a payphone in the middle of a desolate road and starts contacting Ōishi while panicking from what happened, Keiichi struggling to tell him what happens starts clawing his own throat which quickly leaks blood when he hears extra footsteps claiming that Oyashiro is behind him as he eventually collapses inside the payphone booth from loss of blood. The next day, the police report that Keiichi died 24 hours after he was found and admitted to hospital, they remove all evidence from his house, including the syringe and the note hidden in a wall clock. The note written by him says that Mion and Rena are the suspects and that if anyone read this, he's already dead and asks the ones reading it to uncover the truth as his only wish. | |||||
| 5 | "Jealousy (Chapter: Cotton Drifting, Part 1)" Transcription: "Watanagashi-hen Sono Ichi – Shitto" (Japanese: 綿流し編 其ノ壱 嫉妬) | Son Seung-hee | Rika Nakase | May 2, 2006 | |
| The timeline of the last four episodes has been reset. Keiichi's invited by Rena to go with The Club to a toy shop in town which is holding a game tournament with a grand prize of ¥50,000. They participate in the tournament which suddenly comes to an end without a winner as Mion has a part-time job to go to. The owner gives Keiichi a pretty marionette doll as a consolation prize, he decides to pass it on to Rena as he assumes Mion is masculine about it. Keiichi goes to Angel Mort after that and meets Mion working there as a waitress, Keiichi teases her for working there despite not believing her that she's actually Shion, Mion's younger twin sister when he assumes she's just pretending to be her. The next day after school, Keiichi returns home; very hungry and collapses. Shion suddenly arrives to give him a bentō lunchbox for him to eat and leaves for work. The next day after school, they are going to play a punishment game when Mion decides to cancel it so she can go to work. Rika does the same thing as she must practice for the Watanagashi festival as the miko. Keiichi approaches Angel Mort in Okinomiya to return Shion's lunchbox to her when he accidentally knocks over three motorcycles prompting three delinquents to gang up on him. Shion suddenly turns up with many Hinamizawa villagers to defend him as the deliquents runs away on bikes. Keiichi compares the villagers to a 'mafia' family in surprise as he stills call Shion, 'Mion' instead noticing that even Mion has a feminine side to her and he's surprised to see Mion working at the toy store confirming that both of them are twin sisters. The next day at school, Rena tells Keiichi in secret that Mion was 'broken' after Keiichi knows that the Shion who visited his house was Mion in disguise all along. Mion outside the classroom looks on in doubt. | |||||
| 6 | "Takano (Chapter: Cotton Drifting, Part 2)" Transcription: "Watanagashi-hen Sono Ni – Takano" (Japanese: 綿流し編 其ノ弐 タカノ) | Osamu Sekita | Rika Nakase | May 9, 2006 | |
| Keiichi takes a break volunteering to set up booths for the festival as Shion and Mion turns up and have a silly argument over him. They also meet Tomitake, Takano and Ōishi and learns about the curse and series of mysterious deaths which Shion ponders about it. During Rika Furude's ritual performance, Shion, Keiichi, and Takano examine the Saiguden which is a shed full of torture instruments while Tomitake remains outside as an 'lookout' and learns about the significance of the shrine from Takano when there's a horrific history of people eviserating sacrifices and had the victim's entrails flown down the river to appease Oyashiro-sama back then which was replaced with cotton to make the ritual less gruesome. Her theory is that the villagers are continuing the tradition of sacrificing people to Oyashiro. Shion confides to Keiichi that she heard a loud sound which even Keiichi denies hearing it, Shion and Keiichi promises each other not to tell anyone about what happened back there. Keiichi becomes disturbed when he is questioned by Mion after the festival and Ōishi at the library where he meets Shion the next day, about the whereabouts of Shion, Tomitake, Takano and Ōishi. Keiichi learns about the Sonozaki family being the Yakuzas who are controlling the Shishibone area. On the phone with Shion, she notifies him about Takano and Tomitake's death; Takano burned to death in the mountains and Tomitake clawing his throat out as an act of suicide. Since they died from the curse, they are needed to calm Oyashiro and as they are the remaining surviors who entered the Saiguden, they will disappear by fate, Keiichi reprimands Shion for dragging him away from Rika's performance since he was never interested with the shed in the first place and demands her to take responsibility when she suddenly hangs up. | |||||
| 7 | "Lies (Chapter: Cotton Drifting, Part 3)" Transcription: "Watanagashi-hen Sono San – Uso" (Japanese: 綿流し編 其ノ参 嘘) | Isao Takayama | Rika Nakase | May 16, 2006 | |
| At school, Keiichi mentions that yesterday; the village chief, Kiichirō Kimiyoshi had been seen at the meeting at the Furude Shrine meeting room from mid-noon and went missing after the meeting ended after sunset. As Keiichi waters the garden in the school's courtyard while worrying about Oyashiro's curse. He sees Rika on the ground crying and suddenly asks him 'if he done something wrong at the festival'. She shows knowledge of Keiichi's actions back then which he chooses to confess to her for confirmation in a metaphorical conversation, she promises to help the 'little kitty cat who did something bad' on the night of the festival by making the 'big dogs' aware the 'kitty cat' had no bad intentions, and alludes to the fact that Mion is upset at Shion. She warns Keiichi that if the same 'dog' who bit the village leader tries to bite him, he should tell her. While at home, Keiichi gets a phone call from Shion who mentioned Kimiyoshi's disappearance as she notifies him that she confessed to the village leader about what they did. Shion thinks it is her fault that the curse got him because he had promised to help them. Keiichi has a premonition that Rika is in danger. Keiichi, Rena and Mion meet up together to go to Rika's house where Satoko's also living there with her. They notice the front door locked and as Keiichi climbs up the ladder propped up by Mion so he could access the upper window. Mion suddenly throws a hissy fit while shaking the ladder violently as he's hanging on as she proclaims that Satoko is a cursed child who let her brother, Satoshi disappeared and insists that she's responsible for Rika's disappearance before immediately calms down when Rena arrives with the other residents. They found the house empty, Keiichi breaks down as he blames himself for their disappearance as Rena consoles him. The next day, Rena tells Keiichi that she deduced that Rika and Satoko never left town as their dinner they prepared yesterday were in the fridge which they were planning to eat when they get back. Keiichi bumps into Ōishi at school who tells him that Kimiyoshi had haemmoriods and attended the university hospital the day he disappeared and before they end the discussion, Ōishi tells Keiichi that Shion's currently missing. Keiichi, with the new information, suddenly notices the error with Shion's testimony when she phones him that night and he confronts her that she could have confessed to Kimiyoshi when he already disappeared when she suddenly laughs in an ominous tone before hanging up. | |||||
| 8 | "Wish (Chapter: Cotton Drifting, Part 4)" Transcription: "Watanagashi-hen Sono Yon – Negai" (Japanese: 綿流し編 其ノ四 願い) | Yūji Hiraki | Rika Nakase | May 23, 2006 | |
| Keiichi and Rena meet up at his house, Rena suspects Mion for her role in Rika and Satoko's disappearance since she was the last person to see them. Oishi turns up in his car outside Keiichi's house and drives them to the Sonozaki house. They confront Mion at her house because the police do not have enough probable cause for a search warrant. She sternly admits that Rika and Satoko visited her house and murdered them with her own hands but for Keiichi, she decided to spare him. She asks to have a private talk with Keiichi as Rena pleads for her to turn herself in to the police, while walking together, she tells him that Shion's alive and asks him to see her crimes she commited. she leads him to a door on the side of the mountain which leads into a torture chamber identical to the Saiguden. She told them not only he murdered the two girls but also Kimiyoshi too, she then leads him to a cavern prison beyond the chamber and he sees Shion already locked up, Shion's glad to see him but suddenly screams when she sees Mion approach him from behind knocks Keiichi out with a rock. Keiichi wakes up strapped to a wooden table with his hands and feet bound as Mion prepares to torture Keiichi, Mion claims the whole disappearance and murder wouldn't have happened if Keiichi gave the doll to Mion instead of Rena. Keiichi, believing Mion to be possessed by Oyashiro pleads with Mion to spare Shion for the body. Mion asks whether he wants to be spared as well, which Keiichi says is irrelevant compared to Shion's safety. Mion hears a noise and assumes Rena brought the police and warns him that if he sees her after this day, he mustn't come near her as she tasers him unconscious. Keiichi and Shion are then found and lead out of the torture chamber on stretchers by paramedics. A few days later, Keiichi and his parents plans to move away much to Rena's disappointment, that night, Keiichi notices Mion outside his house and approaches her, she suddenly laughs hysterically before she stabs Keiichi in the stomach with a knife she hid as he fell unconscious staring at her laughing throughout the night. At the hospital, Keiichi learns from Ōishi that Shion fell down to her death from her own apartment, Ōishi asks Keiichi if he was certain it was Mion who attacked him that night which he confirms it. Ōishi reveals that besides all of the missing people, the real Mion was also found dead at the bottom of the well before changing the topic to Takano's death. According to the autopsy report, Takano died 24 hours before Keiichi, Shion, Tomitake, and her entered the Saiguden. After Ōishi leaves, Mion suddenly appears in the room and grips Keiichi's left hand hanging a nail over his pinkie finger before she brings it down with a hammer. | |||||
| 9 | "Older Brother (Chapter: Curse Killing, Part 1)" Transcription: "Tatarigoroshi-hen Sono Ichi – Ani" (Japanese: 祟殺し編 其の壱 兄) | Takeshi Yoshimoto | Toshifumi Kawase | May 30, 2006 | |
| Once again, the timeline of the last four episodes have been reset. In a nearby town, a landlord and his tenant uncover a dismembered female corpse inside a waste bag. While his parents leave for Tokyo for a few days, Keiichi's encouraged by his friends to start cooking for himself which he promises to do. As he gets home, when he starts cooking, he nearly burn his house down but Rika and Satoko arrive in time to stop the flames from spreading. Satoko and Keiichi starts to bond together over her food she cooks for dinner and she calls him 'Nii-Nii'. The next day, Keiichi helps out The Club with the baseball match between their team, Hinamizawa Fighters, and Okinomiya Titans, Ther team wins the match and during a barbeque to celebrate their victory, Keiichi meets Kyōsuke Irie, a head doctor at the Irie clinic and also the baseball team manager, Irie tells him that Satoshi used to play for his baseball team before he 'transferred', Keiichi also learns that it's been three years since Satoko and Satoshi's parents died during a vacation after they fell down from the viewing platform to the river below as the corroded wooden railing they were leaning onto suddenly gives way while Satoko who's also there watched on in horror. Irie considers adopting Satoko but issues regarding his marital status make it difficult to do so, Shion also turns up to the barbeque as the 'phantom manager' for the baseball team. During the afternoon as Keiichi washes the plates, as he asked Shion about Satoshi transferring. She suddenly turns angry but apologizes for her outburst. He inquires Rena and Mion as they are walking home about why Satoshi 'transferred'. Rena suddenly turns hysterical as she rants on that Oyashiro-sama 'cursed' him because he left Hinamizawa, Mion slaps her to calm her down and as Rena leaves, Mion tells Keiichi to promise not to mention Satoshi in front of Satoko and Rena as for the latter, because she was claimed to be 'cursed' by Oyashiro-sama. | |||||
| 10 | "Bond (Chapter: Curse Killing, Part 2)" Transcription: "Tatarigoroshi-hen Sono Ni – Kizuna" (Japanese: 祟殺し編 其の弐 キズナ) | Hisakazu Ishikawa | Toshifumi Kawase | June 6, 2006 | |
| Satoko has been absent from school for a few days. Outside the school, Keiichi meets Ōishi who's there to meet Satoko, but he intimidates him by pressing his shoulder very hard for him to feel pain from it. Irie comes to his rescue and asks Ōishi to leave him alone, as Irie treats him in the nurse's office, he tells him about Satoko and Satoshi moving into their uncle and aunt's house after their parent's death and experiences a life of abuses from them, he also says the aunt died last year during the festival being beaten to death by a drug addict, the uncle fled Hinamizawa from Oyashiro-sama's curse and Ōishi stalking Satoko non-stop. Keiichi learns from his fellow junior classmates, Tomita and Okamura that Satoko's uncle, Teppei's now back in Hinamizawa. After school, arriving at Satoko's house, Keiichi also meets Irie in his car dropping off Satoko carrying alcohols, snacks, and cigarettes for Teppei. Teppei appears hurling verbal abuses at her while also greeting Irie, Keiichi's horrified to see bruises on Satoko's body and vows to help her. Inside Irie's car, Irie tells Keiichi that Satoko refuses to call the child consultation office because she resolves to endure Teppei's abuse so that one day, Satoshi will finally come back to her. The next day, Keiichi's on his way to school when Tomitake passes by and asks him for directions to the Furude Shrine, he decides to escort him there skipping school for a short time, they meet Takano there who tells Keiichi about the festival, Oyashiro-sama's curse and the mysterious incidents occurring over five years in a row. When Keiichi comes back to school immediately, he discusses with his friends about Satoko's situation. After school ends, Keiichi goes with Mion to her house, he pleads for her to choose Teppei as Oyashiro-sama's victim for this year's festival so that Satoko will be saved but even Mion couldn't do anything about it even if she also wants to save Satoko that way. The next day, everyone learns that Satoko's finally back at school. Rika briefs Keiichi that their homeroom teacher, Rumiko Chie phoned the child consultation hotline out of concern for Satoko's wellbeing but even Satoko sent the officer away. Rika said it's the third time the hotline was contacted about Satoko's situation; when the sibling's parents were alive, the father was actually their stepfather instead of their true father, Satoko didn't have a good relationship with the stepfather and came up with the trick to tell the abuse hotline about her stepfather abusing her but was finally discovered to be a lie by the officer at that time. Right now the hotline has to observe if Satoko's definitely abused by Teppei before making the move. During lunchtime, when Keiichi pats Satoko's head to comfort her, remembering her memories of her 'Nii-Nii', she suddenly screams in panic as she starts vomiting the food she already ate onto the floor, shoves Keiichi away from her when he tries to reach out to her and clings onto a nearby curtain screaming "I'm Sorry" so many times. | |||||
| 11 | "Borderline (Chapter: Curse Killing, Part 3)" Transcription: "Tatarigoroshi-hen Sono San – Sakaime" (Japanese: 祟殺し編 其の参 境界) | Chiaki Kon | Toshifumi Kawase | June 13, 2006 | |
| After Satoko's taken to the infirmary to calm down and sleep, Keiichi realizes that she will break down for sure if she's left alone like this and resolves to kill Teppei. At home, Keiichi asks his mother, Aiko about how a person can create a 'perfect crime scene'; she explains simply that as long a body hasn't be found, it will be an 'ultimately perfect crime scene'. He immediately rides to school to retrieve Satoshi's baseball bat from his locker and hid it in a tool shed's wall gap then he goes to the woods to pinpoint the location to ambush Teppei. That night, Keiichi phones Mion to take Satoko to the festival on that day. When she asks him why he tells her he has some things to do. Mion mentions that Satoshi said a similar thing last year over the phone. He realizes that the drug addict who murdered the sibling's aunt could have been Satoshi so he could protect Satoko. On the day of the Watanagashi festival, Keiichi prepares to dig a hole in the woods to bury Teppei's corpse, Keiichi remembers back then before he moved to Hinamizawa, he was the most intelligent student at his previous school but he becomes the subject of jealousy and bullying from his classmates before he finally moved to Hinamizawa and met all his new friends now. He says that everything will end when the cicadas cry. He then goes to his school to retrieve the baseball bat and phones the Hōjō residence to make Teppei pick it up and impersonates an officer at Okinomiya police station so that Teppei will drive over to the location where Keiichi will murder him. In the woods when Teppei's scooter approaches, Keiichi ambushes and bludgeons him to death to his satisfaction. It starts to rain during the night after the murder, he quickly throws the baseball bat and the scooter into the Onigafuchi Swamp nearby as he notices he couldn't find the hole to bury the corpse in. He gets a shovel from his house and digs another hole somewhere so that Teppei will be fully buried, he laughs as he finally achieves his goal. On the way home in the rain, Takano passes by in her car much to Keiichi's surprise, he tries to lie to Takano about going treasure-hunting when Takano said he has to go in the opposite direction to do so, she offers to give him the lift but he has to leave his bike behind as it can't fit in the boot of the car, As he drives off with him, he notices there's another bike in the back seat then Takano asks him if he was able to bury the corpse, Keiichi panics hearing the sentence. | |||||
| 12 | "Lost Item (Chapter: Curse Killing, Part 4)" Transcription: "Tatarigoroshi-hen Sono Yon – Nakushimono" (Japanese: 祟殺し編 其の四 失しモノ) | Matsuo Asami | Toshifumi Kawase | June 20, 2006 | |
| Keiichi tries to dodge Takano's question as she's driving him home in her car but she said she's joking, he recognizes the bike in the back seat belonging to Tomitake and asks her about it but she insists that it was her own bike. After she drops him off, Takano says that they didn't meet together tonight much to his irritation. After she drives off, Keiichi laments he should have killed her before and that she should die by Oyashiro's curse and suddenly hears a footstep splash in the puddle but he couldn't see someone there. The next day he notices that Satoko's now in school, the moment he steps into the classroom, his friends cheerfully tell him that he was at the festival with them which suddenly catches him off-guard. To his sudden horror, Rena said he won the doll to pass it on to her and even Tomita and Okamura backs up the alibi for him and The Club. After classes ended, Satoko's about to go home instead of joining the club meeting, Keiichi wants to invite her but she suddenly becomes depressed as she claims Teppei's still at home and abusing her, Keiichi retorts that he's already disappeared yesterday but even the story of him attending the festival yesterday doesn't add up as it was raining at that time. As they walk home, Rena wants to go with Keiichi to his home but he declines her question as he decides to go to the Irie clinic. He goes to the school to confirm Satoshi's bat isn't here, visits the clinic to talk to Irie if there was another person identical to him attending the festival which Irie claims is a possibility, he follows up by confessing Teppei's murder to Irie. Irie responds by thanking him for saving Satoko, although he asks Keiichi if that person he murdered was someone else he mistook for Teppei, Keiichi stills confirms it by his appearance. Irie decides to make black tea for Keiichi, right as he left the room, Keiichi also leaves the room looking for the bathroom, he overhears Irie talking to his assistant with preparations to put sedatives in the tea as he suspects that Keiichi has a mental disorder. Keiichi angered that he was deceiving him all along curses him to 'drop dead' then sneaks out of the clinic in haste. He then rides on his bike to the woods to exhume the body to confirm if that person was indeed Teppei or someone else. During the night, Ōishi suddenly appears with his fellow policemen, he forces Keiichi to dig the hole quickly, as Keiichi becomes tired after a long while, one of the policemen, Kumagai takes his place digging, Ōishi interrogates him as he splashes muddy water over him to get the truth out of him. Kumagai interrupts to say that a drainage pipe has been found instead of Teppei's corpse. Keiichi is relieved that the corpse hasn't been discovered. | |||||
| 13 | "Apology (Chapter: Curse Killing, Part 5)" Transcription: "Tatarigoroshi-hen Sono Go – Shazai" (Japanese: 祟殺し編 其の伍 謝罪) | Shigeru Ueda | Toshifumi Kawase | June 27, 2006 | |
| The next day, realizing that Teppei could be alive with Satoko Keiichi grabs an axe from the tool shed to kill him and as he about to get on the bike, he hears extra footsteps behind him, he assumes it was Satoshi but he goes to the Hōjō residence to ascertain Teppei's status and Satoko's fate. Keiichi upon entering as the front door was already unlocked discovers the living room to be a huge mess. As he looks for Satoko in the hallway, to his horror, he finds her inside the bathroom, sweating and exhausted in the bath due to so many steam circulating there, he realizes that she was in the bath last night until now because Teppei forced her to count to 'ten thousand' and goes on the murderous rampage around the house after him with the axe. He wraps Satoko with a towel and carries her over his back to the Irie clinic, only to notice police cars outside the entrance, he overheads one of the policemen, Komiyama saying that Irie had committed suicide via overdosing on sleeping pills, he also learns that Ōishi's also missing. Keiichi tells Satoko about Irie's death and Ōishi disappearance, he also tells her about cursing Takano to die making an implication that he has an ability to call upon Oyashiro-sama's curse, lastly, he confesses to her about killing Teppei which she strongly denies his words. They walk to the Furude Shrine so she can fetch her own clothes at Rika's house, Keiichi while waiting for her notices a flock of crows behind the offering box, walks around and discovers Rika's disemboweled body there before his horrifying eyes. Keiichi tries to make the crows go away accidentally dropping the axe onto Rika's trail of blood as Satoko shows up already dressed and while horrified believes that Keiichi murdered Rika with the axe which is coated with her blood and fled to a large suspension bridge over a large river, Keiichi throws the axe into the river to convince Satoko he won't harm her but Satoko doesn't believe him. She said that she was cursed by Oyashiro-sama because back then when Rika and Satoko were in Kindergarten, they were playing with other kids outside the Saiguden, Satoko snuck inside the Saiguden and notices Oyashiro-sama's statue for the first time but as she was about to leave the shed, she accidentally destroyed one of the statue's hand and Rika was forced to take the blame and punished for it, because of it, Satoko assumes it was divine punishment for her starting with her parent's deaths, Satoshi's disappearance, and Rika's horrific death. Angered that Keiichi's possessed by Oyashiro-sama, she pushes him off the bridge so that he will be free from the deity. As he fell into the river, Keiichi curses that everyone in this world gone wrong will die. In a city, in a Ramen restaurant on a TV, a newsreader reports a severe environmental disaster where a toxic gas leaking from the swamp of Onigafuchi kills thousands of people in Hinamizawa. Only Keiichi Maebara, a resident was reported alive and taken to hospital. | |||||
| 14 | "Hinamizawa (Chapter: Time Wasting, Part 1)" Transcription: "Himatsubushi-hen Sono Ichi – Hinamizawa" (Japanese: 暇潰し編 其の壱 ヒナミザワ) | Yūji Hiraki | Toshifumi Kawase | July 4, 2006 | |
| Four years during the dam incident, Mamoru Akasaka investigates the kidnapping of Toshiki Inukai, the grandson of the dam's construction project manager. Ōishi tells Akasaka about the Dam Project Opposition Committee and three leading families. As the village tourist, he meets Rika. She warns him to return to Tokyo, but collapses and commences to act normally afterward. A colleague of Ōishi gives intel to Akasaka about the project, headed by Oryō. They learn about the missing child and know that a novice police investigator was dispatched to the village. She has given orders to take care of him, if he begins to meddle too much into their affairs. The next day, Ōishi informs Akasaka that they retrieved clues about the missing child in a deserted village called Takatsudo. | |||||
| 15 | "Sign (Chapter: Time Wasting, Part 2)" Transcription: "Himatsubushi-hen Sono Ni – Kizashi" (Japanese: 暇潰し編 其の弐 兆し) | Takeshi Yoshimoto | Toshifumi Kawase | July 11, 2006 | |
| Akasaka and Ōishi find the kidnappers' hideout and rescue Toshiki, but Akasaka is shot. They discover that their efforts were in vain because the perpetrators' demands had already been met. Akasaka tries to contact his pregnant wife, Yukie using the phones at the hospital and out on the streets but all the cords have been cut by someone. At a particular phone booth, he finds Rika and asks if she cut the cords. She replies that making a call would make him sad. She takes him to see the festival and an ominous Rika describes each death occurred in 1979 and that the last one will be her own murder. She suggests him to survive, but live a happy life. The evidence revealed Yukie died falling down a stairway but fortunately their child survived. A few years later, Akasaka visits Ōishi at his mother's birthplace in Hokkaido, and reveals what Rika told him on the night several years ago. Ōishi tells him that on the day of the great disaster, Rika was killed. Akasaka reveals that he returned to find the truth about the curse. | |||||
| 16 | "First Love (Chapter: Eye Opening, Part 1)" Transcription: "Meakashi-hen Sono Ichi – Hatsukoi" (Japanese: 目明し編 其の壱 初恋) | Hisakazu Ishikawa | Rika Nakase | July 18, 2006 | |
| The events from Watanagashi-hen are retold from Shion's point of view. For generations, the Sonozaki family has murdered the younger of newborn twins. They unsuccessfully send Shion away, but she abandoned the boarding school. Wanting to live on her own, Shion pretends to be Mion and gets a job at their uncle's restaurant chain, with Kasai and Mion supporting the illusion. Shion learns about the incident. She meets Satoshi who comes to her rescue when she unintentionally aggravated three delinquents then mistakes her for Mion. Shion takes a liking to Satoshi and learns from Mion that Satoshi and Satoko's parents were victims of the curse as they supported the dam's construction and drowned in the river after falling off the cliff. Shion attends Satoshi's baseball match and meets Irie who tells her that the siblings were taken in by their aunt and uncle who resent them because the rest of the village shunned them for their parents' support of the dam and that Satoshi was planning to quit baseball to protect Satoko from their aunt's abuse. Shion discusses with Rena about them which Shion immediately suspects Satoko of stripping his freedom and draining him mentally that she resents her. Shion goes to school in Mion's place and cheers up with Satoshi who coldly rejects her. During lunch, Shion insults and violently hits Satoko when she drops her lunchbox and yells for her brother, Satoshi stops her much to her horror. Shion learns that Satoshi despises the Sonozaki family for the role in their parent's death and wishes that Satoko and their aunt to go away during the festival. | |||||
| 17 | "Responsibility (Chapter: Eye Opening, Part 2)" Transcription: "Meakashi-hen Sono Ni – Kejime" (Japanese: 目明し編 其の弐 ケジメ) | Shunji Yoshida | Rika Nakase | July 25, 2006 | |
| After convincing Shion to care of Satoko, Satoshi kills his aunt with a baseball bat. Shion is suspicious that he is the culprit, but provides an alibi for him when Ōishi questions him. In the process, she reveals that she is not her sister. The family finds her when Ōishi examines her story, and she is taken back to their family estate to answer with her grandmother for the trouble she has caused. When Shion insults the family and proclaim her love, she gets by punished by the henchmen who de-nail three fingers on Shion's hand. Weeks later, Ōishi tells Shion that Satoshi left the village and the drug addict is identified as the murderer. | |||||
| 18 | "Oni's Blood Line (Chapter: Eye Opening, Part 3)" Transcription: "Meakashi-hen Sono San – Oni no Ketsumyaku" (Japanese: 目明し編 其の参 鬼の血脈) | Matsuo Asami | Rika Nakase | August 1, 2006 | |
| Shion investigates further into the curse and the murders over the past four years. She meets Takano at the library who tells her more about the dark past. She explains that the villagers used to call Onigafuchi and that, according to the god's sacrifice ritual, for each victims, there must be an equivalent number of missing people, drowned in the bottomless marsh. This leads Shion to believe Satoshi has been sacrificed by her family, and she feels her demon awaken. After Shion's encounter with Takano, she is visited by Mion at her apartment where she learns that Mion de-nailed herself in the same spots Shion had, after she had left, because she did not want her to take the burden and deter Oryō from taking further actions against Shion and Satoshi. The story skips one year to the present right before the festival. Keiichi regains memories of Satoshi to Shion. The story further skips forward to where Tomitake, Takano, Keiichi and Shion inspect the shrine. After the festival, Shion overhears Mion and Oryō discussing the events that had transpired over Takano and the investigation. | |||||
| 19 | "Revenge (Chapter: Eye Opening, Part 4)" Transcription: "Meakashi-hen Sono Yon – Shikaeshi" (Japanese: 目明し編 其の四 仕返し) | Daisuke Tsukushi | Rika Nakase | August 8, 2006 | |
| Shion believes that her family is connected to the acts of "spiriting away" people in the village, especially in the case of Satoshi. She tasers and imprisons Mion in the dungeon, and unintentionally kills her grandmother by sending her to the well and repeatedly accusing Mion of having been implicit about Satoshi. Shion pretends to be Mion the next day and confronts Keiichi about the previous encounter, which Keiichi denies it. Shion attends a village council meeting and lures the village head to the estate. She tasers him after he reveals that her "Distinction" (after removing fingernails) was so that Kasai, her uncle, and Shion herself would not be killed, confirming for the sisters and their grandmother did not have Satoshi 'forgiven'. | |||||
| 20 | "Cold Hands (Chapter: Eye Opening, Part 5)" Transcription: "Meakashi-hen Sono Go – Tsumetai Te" (Japanese: 目明し編 其の伍 冷たい手) | Yūji Hiraki | Rika Nakase | August 15, 2006 | |
| Shion tortures the village head for information about the previous murders and Satoshi. Shion confronts Rika about the murders, leading to a confrontation between the two. Shion invites Rika to the house, where Rika commits suicide by stabbing herself repeatedly in the head, after Shion injects the syringe on her. Shion then invites Satoko. | |||||
| 21 | "Condemnation (Chapter: Eye Opening, Part 6)" Transcription: "Meakashi-hen Sono Roku – Danzai" (Japanese: 目明し編 其の六 断罪) | Shakyo Mujin | Rika Nakase | August 22, 2006 | |
| Shion tricks the townspeople into identifying Keiichi as a suspect. She quickly realizes Ōishi suspects her instead. She kills Satoko for holding captive as punishment for Mion. Then she remembers the day one of Satoshi's last requests was to keep Satoko safe. This drives her deeper into madness. The following day, Keiichi and Rena suspect Mion as Rika and Satoko's killer. Shion prepares to torture Keiichi in the dungeon. He begs her, whom he believes is Mion possessed by Oyashiro, to spare the sisters, which makes Shion sad, and she tasers Keiichi. Shion frees Mion, switches clothes with her and takes her to the body disposal well, telling her that Satoshi is down there. Mion tells her that the family had nothing to do with the disappearance of Satoshi, and that their grandmother approved of her relationship with Satoshi, but Shion refuses to believe her. Shion tases Mion, making her fall to the well. She and Keiichi are rescued. After the incident, Shion starts to hallucinate and attacks Keiichi, before falling to her death from the apartment balcony. As Shion imagines about Satoshi, she apologizes to him. | |||||
| 22 | "Happiness (Chapter: Atonement, Part 1)" Transcription: "Tsumihoroboshi-hen Sono Ichi – Shiawase" (Japanese: 罪滅し編 其の壱 幸せ) | Daisuke Tsuji | Toshifumi Kawase | August 29, 2006 | |
| The timeline is reset yet again. The chapter starts off with Rena and Keiichi winning the water-gun competition. Mion, Satoko and Rika plan to work the day at the Angel Mort Cafe, after losing the game. There, Rena meets Mamiya Rina. Rena recalls the past about the divorce of her parents, because her mother planned to marry another man. Back home, Rena learns Rina has helped her dad completely redo the entire living room, discarding properties, including Kenta-kun, the mascot statue of a fast food restaurant chain, KCF that she and Keiichi found from the landfill. The next day at a cafe, Rina and Hōjō Teppei steal money from the gang in order to save it for marriage. | |||||
| 23 | "Place to Return (Chapter: Atonement, Part 2)" Transcription: "Tsumihoroboshi-hen Sono Ni – Kaeru Tokoro" (Japanese: 罪滅し編 其の弐 還る処) | Tomoko Hiramuki | Toshifumi Kawase | September 5, 2006 | |
| Rena goes through her father's checkbook and discovers he is overspending the money. After school, Rena returns to the landfill and blames Rina for making a plan. When Rina attempts to choke Rena, she kills her by slicing her stomach open with a glass shard and beating her with a metal pipe. That night, Rena discovers Teppei beating her father outside the house. Rena leads Teppei to the landfill, where she ambushes and kills him. The next day, Rena cuts their bodies into pieces and wraps them up in small packages. Her friends convince her to accept who she is. They dump the packages into a small cave in the woods. When Rena leaves, Mion tells the rest of them to forget the incident. | |||||
| 24 | "Document 34 (Chapter: Atonement, Part 3)" Transcription: "Tsumihoroboshi-hen Sono San – Sanjūyon-gō Bunsho" (Japanese: 罪滅し編 其の参 34号文書) | Matsuo Asami | Toshifumi Kawase | September 12, 2006 | |
| While reading Takano's scrapbooks, Rena discovers the truth about Oyashiro and his curse. It was proposed that Oyashiro was actually a doctor and the curse was a virus in the village for which he quarantined the village and used the people who died by the virus to make a vaccine which was inadvertently interpreted by villagers. Since the altitude and temperature are very specific for the survival of the virus, the victims start to feel homesick when they leave there. The disease apparently caused all the murders. Rena gets hunted down by people who will stop at nothing to keep the information secret. | |||||
| 25 | "Earth Invasion (Chapter: Atonement, Part 4)" Transcription: "Tsumihoroboshi-hen Sono Yon – Chikyū Shinryaku" (Japanese: 罪滅し編 其の四 地球侵略) | Yūji Hiraki | Toshifumi Kawase | September 19, 2006 | |
| Rena learns that Mion took the packages from where they were hidden, making her lose faith in her friends and causing her sanity to slip. Keiichi tries to stop Rena, but she confronts him with a dark secret from his past. This ultimately makes him remember the events of the first arc, where his paranoia and insanity caused him to kill Rena and Mion when he mistakenly believed them to be a threat. Rika reacts thunderstruck and later tells Keiichi nobody remembers the murders except her, and she forgives him. This strengthens his understanding of Rena's situation and he resolves to prevent the tragedy from occurring. He apologizes to Mion, much to her confusion. | |||||
| 26 | "Retake (Chapter: Atonement, Part 5)" Transcription: "Tsumihoroboshi-hen Sono Go – Riteiku" (Japanese: 罪滅し編 其の伍 リテイク) | Chiaki Kon | Toshifumi Kawase | September 26, 2006 | |
| Rena captures all students and threatens to kill them with a homemade bomb planted on the school roof, but Keiichi arrives in time to defuse it. As he and Rena fight at the rooftop, she regains her sanity and is prevented from killing anyone. She reconciles with her friends. Though the crisis has been averted, Rika still ends up eventually being murdered and reborn into another timeline anyway. | |||||
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Nekogoroshi-hen (2007)
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | "Cat Killing Chapter" Transcription: "Nekogoroshi-hen" (Japanese: 猫殺し編) | Chiaki Kon | Toshifumi Kawase | July 27, 2007 | |
| After losing a bet, Keiichi and his friends wander around town. They head to the abandoned village of Yagouchi, where they learn the mystery of a strange haunted quarry. | |||||
When They Cry: Kai (2007)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 | 1 | "Reunion" Transcription: "Saikai" (Japanese: サイカイ) | Shunji Yoshida | Toshifumi Kawase | July 6, 2007 | |
| Mamoru Akasaka, Ōishi and the assistant visit the abandoned village in 2007. They learn about the Great Hinamizawa Disaster that decimated the town and the connection to Takano's File No. 34. The adult Rena survived the disaster, because she was detained at the police station during the incident. She shares with them the little knowledge she has about Rika's strange behavior shortly before the supposed "gas leak". Akasaka recalls the meeting with Rika. The episode is a direct epilogue of Tsumihoroboshi-hen. | ||||||
| 29 | 2 | "Disaster Awakening Chapter One – Playing Tag" Transcription: "Yakusamashi-hen Sono Ichi – Onigokko" (Japanese: 厄醒し編 其の壱 鬼ごっこ) | Chiaki Kon | Fumihiko Shimo | July 13, 2007 | |
| Back in 1983, the club participates in a game of "zombie tag". On their way home, they run into Irie, Tomitake and Takano, who tell Keiichi about the murders. He understands why his friends hid it from him and does not resent them for it. This fails to reassure Rika, and she grows progressively more depressed as the day of the festival approaches. Satoko utters a phrase spoken by Keiichi during the previous event. | ||||||
| 30 | 3 | "Disaster Awakening Chapter Two – Powerless" Transcription: "Yakusamashi-hen Sono Ni – Muryoku" (Japanese: 厄醒し編 其の弐 無力) | Makoto Sokuza | Masashi Suzuki | July 20, 2007 | |
| Satoko attempts to help Rika, but she denies that anything is wrong. That night, Satoko discovers Rika arguing with a mysterious voice and telling her she will die, and that there is nothing that either of them can do. | ||||||
| 31 | 4 | "Disaster Awakening Chapter Three – Pre-established Harmony" Transcription: "Yakusamashi-hen Sono San – Yotei Chōwa" (Japanese: 厄醒し編 其の参 予定調和) | Daisuke Tsukushi | Rika Nakase | July 27, 2007 | |
| During the festival, Rika fails to warn Tomitake of his imminent death. Satoko is convinced that a mysterious man is following her and Rika around. Worried of her safety, Satoko sets traps around the house to alert her of any intruders, and when one is triggered, her fears are confirmed. | ||||||
| 32 | 5 | "Disaster Awakening Chapter Four – The Great Hinamizawa Disaster" Transcription: "Yakusamashi-hen Sono Yon – Hinamizawa Daisaigai" (Japanese: 厄醒し編 其の四 雛見沢大災害) | Yūji Hiraki | Toshifumi Kawase | August 3, 2007 | |
| After discovering Rika's body near the shrine, a traumatized Satoko flees and falls off from the bridge. She stumbles back into town in the aftermath of the Great Hinamizawa Disaster. Satoko suffers mental shock, after witnessing many deaths. Ōishi tries to interrogate with the catatonic Satoko, relaying a cryptic message left by Rena with the motive behind the suspects. Satoko regains consciousness and finds a message, but the suspects kill her. | ||||||
| 33 | 6 | "Massacre Chapter One – Rules of the Labyrinth" Transcription: "Minagoroshi-hen Sono Ichi – Meiro no Hōsoku" (Japanese: 皆殺し編 其の壱 迷路の法則) | Makoto Sokuza | Fumihiko Shimo | August 10, 2007 | |
| Rika begins a new world with Hanyū. She is getting tired of seeing her friends commit the same acts that lead them to her mistake. Keiichi proves to her that people can change their fate if they want during the game tournament, by requesting to play a different game other than the card game played in Watanagashi-hen. He gives the doll to Mion instead of Rena, thereby avoiding hurting her feelings and potentially avoiding the tragedy that transpired in Meakashi-hen. Rika thinks that the world may be different and vows to fight one more time. | ||||||
| 34 | 7 | "Massacre Chapter Two – How to Change Destiny" Transcription: "Minagoroshi-hen Sono Ni – Unmei no Kaekata" (Japanese: 皆殺し編 其の弐 運命の変え方) | Yūsuke Onoda | Masashi Suzuki | August 17, 2007 | |
| Influenced by Keiichi's encouragement, and the fact her friends are starting to avoid doing the same mistakes by remembering glimpses of what they could have done, Rika decides to find a way to prevent her own ominous destiny. Notable changes in this world that Rika notices includes how Rena actually confided in Mion about the situation, between her dad and Rina rather than bear the burden of her situation by herself, how Ōishi actually gets along with the others, and that Akasaka's wife and son survived after Rika had cautioned the latter several years back. | ||||||
| 35 | 8 | "Massacre Chapter Three – Fluctuation" Transcription: "Minagoroshi-hen Sono San – Yuragi" (Japanese: 皆殺し編 其の参 揺らぎ) | Daisuke Tsukushi | Fumihiko Shimo | August 24, 2007 | |
| Rika's plan is hindered by the appearance of Teppei, who is abusing Satoko. Keiichi and his friends find a way to release Satoko, but the government is reluctant to cooperate. | ||||||
| 36 | 9 | "Massacre Chapter Four – Negotiation" Transcription: "Minagoroshi-hen Sono Yon – Kōshō" (Japanese: 皆殺し編 其の四 交渉) | Makoto Sokuza | Masashi Suzuki | August 31, 2007 | |
| The townspeople protest alongside the others to ignite government action in the case. Satoko cannot leave the house while Teppei is around. This continues to place the action at an impasse. Satoko returns to school and shows the evidence, before being sent to the clinic. After visiting there, Ōishi advises Keiichi not to overextend the issue, informing them that the household is having the situation by the Child Counseling Center. During the meeting, Rika realizes that she is having responsibility. | ||||||
| 37 | 10 | "Massacre Chapter Five – Confrontation" Transcription: "Minagoroshi-hen Sono Go – Taiketsu" (Japanese: 皆殺し編 其の伍 対決) | Shunji Yoshida | Rika Nakase | September 7, 2007 | |
| Keiichi and his friends visit Oryō. Keiichi struggles to take the council and make an appeal for the government. Citizens from Okinomiya and Hinamizawa protest in front of the center, calling for action from the director. The government succumbs to the pressure of everyone and the phone call is connected to the Hōjō residence. Teppei attempts to steal the bank account book from the room. | ||||||
| 38 | 11 | "Massacre Chapter Six – Strong Will" Transcription: "Minagoroshi-hen Sono Roku – Tsuyoi Ishi" (Japanese: 皆殺し編 其の六 強い意志) | Akira Iwanaga | Toshifumi Kawase | September 14, 2007 | |
| Satoko talks to Keiichi and Rika on the phone, revealing the past about the abuse. Teppei is caught and arrested by the police, while Satoko reunites with Rika. Knowing that Tomitake and Takano will die on the night in all of the other worlds she has been in, Rika enlists the help of Ōishi and her friends to protect the two. Once they arrive safely at the clinic, it is revealed that Takano is the head of the clinic and Yamainu's security forces, who faked her death and killed Tomitake for the purpose of reigniting the curse. As the police investigate the case, Takano reflects on how "everything will fall" soon. | ||||||
| 39 | 12 | "Massacre Chapter Seven – Hinamizawa Syndrome" Transcription: "Minagoroshi-hen Sono Nana – Hinamizawa Shōkōgun" (Japanese: 皆殺し編 其の七 雛見沢症候群) | Hodaka Kuramoto | Fumihiko Shimo | September 25, 2007 | |
| Rika tells her friends the details of the Hinamizawa Syndrome, regarding how the disease whose symptoms show up when one tries to leave the village. Rika reveals that the clinic, was actually an establishment built to research the disease, or more specifically gather information on how to harness it as a biological weapon, sponsored by various bureaucratic connections collectively referred to as "Tokyo". The Yamainu are revealed to be a security force tasked with maintaining the secrecy of such an operation. Irie is revealed to be innocent in the matter and works at the institute, but his actual intentions were to find a cure for the syndrome rather than developing a biological weapon. Rika revealed that her family lineage has been referred to "Queen Carrier" that have suppressed the onset of symptoms of the syndrome, and thus she is targeted by the military. Her friends believe her without hesitation. The police are stationed, at Rika's request, around the residence to give her added protection. The military forces kill Ōishi and his assistant at the radio tower. | ||||||
| 40 | 13 | "Massacre Chapter Eight – Finale" Transcription: "Minagoroshi-hen Sono Hachi – Shūmatsu" (Japanese: 皆殺し編 其の八 終末) | Daisuke Tsukushi | Masashi Suzuki | October 1, 2007 | |
| Keiichi, Rena, Mion and Shion leave the house to the officers for the night. As Satoko sleeps, Rika talks with Hanyū about Rika's fate. Meanwhile, the military disables the guards at Rika's house and infiltrate the residence, but Rika and Satoko escape. They are cornered by the group in the forest at one point, but Mion, Shion, Rena and Keiichi come to rescue them after knowing they are in danger. The six of them failed to reach the household, after Takano killed the others. She brings and finally kills Rika at the shrine. The spirits of the group members along with Hanyū, meet and agree that Hanyuu too must have the will to break the cycle of death. Meanwhile, the villagers die succumbing to the gas, while an ecstatic Takano proclaims her ascension to godhood. | ||||||
| 41 | 14 | "Festival Accompanying Chapter One – Miyo" Transcription: "Matsuribayashi-hen Sono Ichi – Miyo" (Japanese: 祭囃し編 其の壱 三四) | Hideki Takayama | Toshifumi Kawase | October 8, 2007 | |
| In a series of flashbacks, Takano's parents were killed in a bus accident and all of her relatives died in the war. Dr. Hifumi (Takano's foster grandfather) and his research piqued her interest in biological parasites when she was young. Takano and the others suffered verbal and physical abuse at the orphanage. After separating them, Takano escapes from the orphanage headmaster into the forest. Years later, Takano continues the research, working at the institute as second in command behind Irie. Takano meets Tomitake. Back in the past, Takano questions the god why she is suffering for her abnormal life. The flashback ends and Takano wakes up, apparently dreaming the entire time. Takano looks over the village and proclaims that her actions continues on with her grandfather's legacy. | ||||||
| 42 | 15 | "Festival Accompanying Chapter Two – Wriggling" Transcription: "Matsuribayashi-hen Sono Ni – Ugomeki" (Japanese: 祭囃し編 其の弐 蠢き) | Akira Iwanaga | Rika Nakase | October 15, 2007 | |
| Takano manages to contact Hifumi at a phone booth, while escaping from the orphanage and pleading for help before the call ends. Takano was recaptured and returned to the orphanage, but she was soon taken in by Hifumi. Takano becomes an assistant for organizing the research on the syndrome in preparation for a presentation among peers of their colleague, Koizumi. Hifumi's research is rejected and even mocked by the intellectuals during the presentation, fueling young Takano's determination to continue his research and make her grandfather a "god". Takano later graduated with high honors and joined an intellectual society which could financially support her research. A few years later, Takano visits the shrine and confronts Hanyū, who is determined to challenge the fate of the village against the research. | ||||||
| 43 | 16 | "Festival Accompanying Chapter Three – The Beginning of the End" Transcription: "Matsuribayashi-hen Sono San – Owari no Hajimari" (Japanese: 祭囃し編 其の参 終わりの始まり) | Yūsuke Onoda | Rika Nakase | October 22, 2007 | |
| The events of the dam incident are shown, including when the Hōjō family antagonized against the Sonozaki family and village residents. It is revealed that the dam construction manager was killed by employees when he sees them drinking after work and went on a rampage. Meanwhile, Takano and Irie had been researching the syndrome at the institute, but they needed a live specimen to prove the linkage between a parasite and the onset of the syndrome. They eventually utilized one of the construction workers (who were succumbed to psychosis) responsible for killing the construction manager as a live specimen. In another flashback, Satoshi discusses with Irie regarding how he wants Satoko to stay at the clinic longer than spending time their aunt, simultaneously lifting a burden off of himself. During these events, Hanyū feels helpless and apologetic, but years later she and Rika eagerly await the arrival of the one person as the key to bring an end to the intention. | ||||||
| 44 | 17 | "Festival Accompanying Chapter Four – Strategy" Transcription: "Matsuribayashi-hen Sono Yon – Bōryaku" (Japanese: 祭囃し編 其の四 謀略) | Daisuke Tsukushi | Masashi Suzuki | October 29, 2007 | |
| In order to save Satoko from being infected, Rika offers herself as a test subject for Irie and Takano's research, since Rika's status as a "Queen Carrier" and its suppression of the syndrome allows the drugs to be derived from her blood. Takano prepares a plan to cover up the gassing of Hinamizawa residents as a natural disaster. Ōishi tells Irie that Satoko inadvertently killed her parents by pushing them off the cliff near the dam. While Rika was at the Institution, her parents objected to the continued use of the latter, and thus Takano utilized the curse to cover up the death of Rika's parents that year. The clinic faces closure since treatments had been developed by Irie to combat the syndrome, despite Takano's wishes to continue research for the sake of her late grandfather. Takano meets Nomura who claims that she can help her attain the goal. | ||||||
| 45 | 18 | "Festival Accompanying Chapter Five – The Final Piece" Transcription: "Matsuribayashi-hen Sono Go – Saigo no Koma" (Japanese: 祭囃し編 其の伍 最後の駒) | Yūji Hiraki | Toshifumi Kawase | November 5, 2007 | |
| Ichiro visits an open plot of land in preparation of moving his family into the village, and meets Rika and Hanyū. Rena's mother abandoned the family. After purchasing a teddy bear, Satoshi succumbs to the syndrome and is sent to the clinic after realizing he killed his aunt. Keiichi soon enters the school, as Rika and Hanyū look on, proclaiming that all the pieces have come together for the impending struggle against destiny. | ||||||
| 46 | 19 | "Festival Accompanying Chapter Six – Opening" Transcription: "Matsuribayashi-hen Sono Roku – Makuake" (Japanese: 祭囃し編 其の六 幕開け) | Chiaki Kon | Fumihiko Shimo | November 12, 2007 | |
| Hanyū is introduced into the world as a transfer school student. She recalls Takano when she met her, and learns that her military forces are the culprits behind the attack. Hanyu tells this to Rika, who has seemingly lost her memories from Minagoroshi-hen. Hanyū also discloses her own backstory as a former god of the local land. Akasaka returns to the village to investigate Rika's clairvoyance and her connection to the curse, and recruits Ōishi. Irie discloses "Emergency Manual #34" to Rika, which states that the sudden death of the "Queen Carrier" will lead to the gassing of the citizens before they can succumb to the symptoms. Rika tries to decode the reason why Takano would try to kill her and recruits her friends, by analogizing her situation to the plot of a manga she is writing. Mion suggests that opposing factions of a secret society may be contending for power. Meanwhile, Takano becomes the head member of a new research facility and reveals her plan to defeat Koizumi's faction. | ||||||
| 47 | 20 | "Festival Accompanying Chapter Seven – Trap" Transcription: "Matsuribayashi-hen Sono Nana – Torappu" (Japanese: 祭囃し編 其の七 トラップ) | Yūsuke Onoda | Fumihiko Shimo | November 19, 2007 | |
| Rika, Ōishi and Akasaka present Takano as the culprit to Irie and Tomitake, and eventually enlists the help of Tomitake to gather incriminating evidence in the shadows. Rika also asserts to Ōishi that the Sonozaki family is not behind the annual murder mysteries. She later reveals to her friends the truth of her intended murder, and they manage to boost each other's morale to confront Takano's willpower together. Rika ponders that her experiences in past worlds were used after all, as it seems her friends have inherently learned from their past mistakes. Keiichi and Satoko devise a plan to save Rika as an effort to debunk the validity of "Emergency Manual #34". Meanwhile, Irie is still skeptical of Takano's intentions, but his suspicions are confirmed when he visits Akasaka, who is stationed at Rika's house to appear as if Rika and Satoko are in the residence. Rika and her friends attempt to enlist the help of Ōishi to make a police announcement, but Ōishi is hesitant at first. Tomitake learns of Takano's connection with Koizumi, and her monetary connections with the military. Irie and Ōishi are surprised to learn that many of the village elders have laid down past conflicts and now preach peace with the Hōjō family. Ōishi enlists the help of his friends to carry out about Rika's fate. | ||||||
| 48 | 21 | "Festival Accompanying Chapter Eight – 48 Hours" Transcription: "Matsuribayashi-hen Sono Hachi – Yonjū-hachi Jikan" (Japanese: 祭囃し編 其の八 48時間) | Yūji Hiraki | Masashi Suzuki | November 26, 2007 | |
| Oblivious of Tomitake and Irie's betrayal, Takano continues on with her plan. Ōishi confirms with Rika and her friends that the local precinct is on board with the announcement of Rika's death, set to be announced at dawn. The grand plan is named "Operation 48 Hours". The next day, Takano's military forces are sent into a scramble over the validity of the report. Meanwhile, Ōishi and his associates deal with an organization spy, Otaka, who plans to come and investigate Rika's future. Okonogi realizes that they are being attacked by an organized plan. The group attempts to track down Tomitake, who they trace as a source of calls with the Investigation Bureau, to prevent a leakage of the operation. Otaka arrives at the precinct, claiming to have the backing of the councilor, but he is on-site and dispels such a claim. Meanwhile, Takano tries to make sense about Rika, becoming suspicious of Irie, and the group close in on Tomitake. | ||||||
| 49 | 22 | "Festival Accompanying Chapter Nine – Offense and Defense" Transcription: "Matsuribayashi-hen Sono Kyū – Kōbō" (Japanese: 祭囃し編 其の九 攻防) | Yoshihisa Matsumoto | Rika Nakase | December 3, 2007 | |
| When Tomitake is sent to the clinic, Irie escapes from there. As Irie reunites with Shion and Kasai, they inadvertently lead the group to Rika's hideout, using a transmitter. As the group arrive at the estate and hide in the tunnel, Shion and Kasai pretend to be unconscious. When the military threatens to drop Shion down there, Rika decides to surrender herself in exchange for their safety. Before Okonogi breaks the deal, Akasaka, disguised as one of the soldiers, saves Rika, attacking the rest and forcing them to leave. Keiichi and friends plan to strike back. In the midst of the formation of their counterattack, Irie tells Shion that Satoshi is alive at the clinic. | ||||||
| 50 | 23 | "Festival Accompanying Chapter Ten – Bloody Battle" Transcription: "Matsuribayashi-hen Sono Jū – Kessen" (Japanese: 祭囃し編 其の拾 血戦) | Keitarō Motonaga | Masashi Suzuki | December 10, 2007 | |
| Takano interrogates with Tomitake, but is informed about Rika and takes command of the group to capture the others. When the soldiers arrive at the mountains, Satoko set various traps for them. While Kasai and Akasaka infiltrate the underground clinic, Shion and Irie find Satoshi at the experimental cell. Despite his health, Irie vows to continue his research in order to save Satoshi. Irie convinces Shion to keep their evidence as a secret. The soldiers are sent into a state of disarray, when they hear a god-like voice over the radio apparently torturing them, revealed to be the impersonating voices of Hanyū and Keiichi. Takano attempts to rally the soldiers, but Akasaka drives a van near a blockade on the road. | ||||||
| 51 | 24 | "Festival Accompanying Chapter Eleven – End" Transcription: "Matsuribayashi-hen Sono Jūichi – Oshimai" (Japanese: 祭囃し編 其の拾壱 オシマイ) | Chiaki Kon | Toshifumi Kawase | December 17, 2007 | |
| Akasaka and Tomitake break through the blockade and make it to the city, where they dispatched the Banken combat unit and convince the soldiers of Yamainu to surrender. After learning that Nomura used her as a scapegoat, Takano decides to surrender and is sent to the clinic for treatment. Keiichi and his friends attend the festival. After the credits, Frederica Bernkastel (the aggregate consciousness of all incarnations of Rika across the "restarts") changes the future by saving Takano's parents. | ||||||
When They Cry: Rei (2009)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52 | 1 | "Embarrassment Chapter" Transcription: "Hajisarashi-hen" (Japanese: 羞晒し編) | Shunji Yoshida | February 25, 2009 | |
| After forgetting to pack his bathing suit and before entering the water park, Keiichi wears a pair of swim trunks containing the magical ability to make women attracted to whoever writes their name. Mion hears from her uncle that Keiichi wrote his name on the suit and he will fall in love by himself. After most failed attempts, the girls convince Tomitake, Ōishi and Irie to remove the suit from Keiichi. While the three fight for the suit, the naked Keiichi refuses to wear the spare one. | |||||
| 53 | 2 | "Dice Killing Chapter One" Transcription: "Saikoroshi-hen Sono Ichi" (Japanese: 賽殺し編 其の壱) | Shun Yashiro | March 25, 2009 | |
| With the village reverted to normal, Rika spends a new life. While biking with her friends, Rika is apparently killed by an oncoming truck. She finds herself in the alternate timeline, without Keiichi, Takano, Irie and Hanyū. Her friends do not remember the events that occurred in the previous world. The dam project threatening to flood the town is still underway and none of the tragedies she witnessed countless times happened at all, meaning Satoshi and his parents are alive. For the first time in her story, Rika cannot return to her own timeline. | |||||
| 54 | 3 | "Dice Killing Chapter Two" Transcription: "Saikoroshi-hen Sono Ni" (Japanese: 賽殺し編 其の弐) | Shunji Yoshida | May 22, 2009 | |
| Rika makes contact with Hanyū, who tells her that for her to return to her old world, she must dispose a piece from the world that prevents Hanyū from entering the new one. This is what prevents Rika from reincarnating. If the piece turns out to be a person, for instance, she must kill that person. She discovers the item which would send her back to her own world. The next day, Rika reprimands Satoko for insulting her. Later, Rika experiences what life with a mother is like, and begins building a new friendship with Mion, Rena, Satoshi and Satoko. Rika now feels it is all a matter of deciding which world she would rather like to stay in, until her mother reveals to be the previous reincarnation of Oyashiro. | |||||
| 55 | 4 | "Dice Killing Chapter Three" Transcription: "Saikoroshi-hen Sono San" (Japanese: 賽殺し編 其の参) | Shun Yashiro | June 16, 2009 | |
| Rika becomes torn between remaining in a world without sin and where everyone is living contently, or killing her mother and returning to her old world. She learns that she does not have time to act. Rika decides to fight for what she wants to live for. The next thing she knows, she awakens from a coma in her own world and reunites with her friends, the other world having apparently been a dream. Rika concludes that she killed her mother to regain consciousness. Unbeknownst to her, the dream was developed by Hanyū to teach Rika that people need to work past personal hardships in order to make life worth living. | |||||
| 56 | 5 | "Daybreak Chapter" Transcription: "Hirukowashi-hen" (Japanese: 昼壊し編) | Shunji Yoshida | August 21, 2009 | |
| Rena swallows the "Fuwarazu Magatama" at the picnic, when it fell from the sky and begins acting lovesick. Rika explains that the seal on the magatama was broken, and whoever possesses the red one will fall blindly in love with anyone holding the white counterpart. Everyone reasons that Rena must have swallowed the red magatama and sets out to stop her and find the white one. It winds up in the possession of Tomitake, Takano and Ōishi, each of whom gradually come to accept her love under the curse. As Keiichi and Akasaka defeat Rena and Ōishi in mahjong, Ōishi fumbles the magatama and Keiichi swallows it. Rika lifts the curse, before Keiichi can fall under the power and Rena returns to normal. Rena becomes grateful and expresses her feelings toward Keiichi, though she is not sure if it is part of the magatama. Tomitake and Takano are infatuated with Rena. | |||||
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira (2011–2012)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 57 | 1 | "Penalty Loving Chapter" Transcription: "Batsukoishi-hen" (Japanese: 罰恋し編) | Toshiyuki Katō | Toshifumi Kawase | July 21, 2011 | |
| In a parody of the first season, Tomitake, Irie and Ōishi play the punishment game with the girls, after Keiichi loses. He falls asleep while the girls speculate the game. Keiichi and Takano are nearly infected by the syndrome. When the girls threaten Keiichi, he wakes up and sees the men. | ||||||
| 58 | 2 | "Demon Battling Chapter" Transcription: "Ayakashisenshi-hen" (Japanese: 妖戦し編) | Masahiro Sonoda | Fumihiko Shimo | September 22, 2011 | |
| In a parallel world, Rika and Satoko become magical girls. They oppose four generals of Tokyo Magika (Teppei, Takano, Okonogi and Nomura), in order to save everyone from the curse. | ||||||
| 59 | 3 | "Affinity Chapter" Transcription: "Musubienishi-hen" (Japanese: 結縁し編) | Toshiyuki Katō | Toshifumi Kawase | November 23, 2011 | |
| A love rectangle between Keiichi and the girls ensues, with them competing for his affection through many methods. They decide to pick whom Keiichi will go on a date with, but he inadvertently picks Oryō. | ||||||
| 60 | 4 | "Dream Appearing Chapter" Transcription: "Yumeutsushi-hen" (Japanese: 夢現し編) | Hideki Tachibana | Fumihiko Shimo | January 25, 2012 | |
| A young Rika and Hanyū play a game of hide and seek, causing Rika to fall into a time paradox and being trapped in the future. Hanyū finds Rika and offers to help her. She remembers the time she left while playing a game with her. Keiichi and his friends find a way to send Rika back to where she belongs. Hanyu is reluctant at first, thinking back at how much suffering Rika went through. Rika tells Hanyū she wants to return and does so. After sending her younger self back to the past, Rika and Hanyū return to the present day. | ||||||
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku: Outbreak (2013)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 61 | 1 | "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku: Outbreak" Transcription: "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku: Autobureiku" (Japanese: ひぐらしのなく頃に拡 〜アウトブレイク〜) | Toshifumi Kawase | Toshifumi Kawase | August 15, 2013 | |
| An unknown virus has spread everywhere and officials force quarantine in the village. When security forces remove everything from the village, the situation becomes abnormal and the locals blame themselves. Irie kills himself after a failed attempt to find a cure against the virus. Keiichi and his friends escape from the village, leaving Rika behind. | ||||||
Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou (2020–2021)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title [11][12] | Directed by [11] | Written by [11] | Original air date [13] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 62 | 1 | "Demon-Deceiving Chapter, Part 1" Transcription: "Onidamashi-hen Sono Ichi" (Japanese: 鬼騙し編 其の壱) | Hijiri Sanpei | Naoki Hayashi | October 1, 2020 | |
| Keiichi Maebara spends his day accompanying his friends, and is offered a tour around Hinamizawa alongside Mion Sonozaki and Rena Ryugu. Afterwards, he goes with Rena to the dam site to help her retrieve the statue of a fast food restaurant mascot, The Colonel because she finds it 'cute'. While there he has sudden flashbacks of an event that has not occurred yet and meets Jiro Tomitake, a photographer who tells him something that his friends have been hiding regarding the dam project. Keiichi later discovers a magazine covering a dismemberment murder case. Rika appears at the dam site from a far away location as she spies on Keiichi and Rena while her eyes emit a red glow. | ||||||
| 63 | 2 | "Demon-Deceiving Chapter, Part 2" Transcription: "Onidamashi-hen Sono Ni" (Japanese: 鬼騙し編 其の弐) | Chikayo Nakamura | Naoki Hayashi | October 8, 2020 | |
| A older Rika wakes up in an alternate plane with multiple time fragments as Hanyū suddenly appears before her. Hanyū could not tell her why she was summoned to the plane and declares that Rika must repeat the events of June 1983 to which she quickly accepts and vows to win back her happy future as she is shifted back to her original location near the dam site. The following day after school, Keiichi goes with Rena to retrieve the Colonel so she can take him home with her. Later, Keiichi and his friends have fun at the festival and watch Rika performing the ritual, with Tomitake and Miyo Takano behind her. | ||||||
| 64 | 3 | "Demon-Deceiving Chapter, Part 3" Transcription: "Onidamashi-hen Sono San" (Japanese: 鬼騙し編 其の参) | Naoyuki Tatsuwa | Naoki Hayashi | October 15, 2020 | |
| A day after the festival, Keiichi learns from a police detective named Ōishi Kuraudo about the disappearance of Takano and Tomitake and the four similar previous incidents each year where one person dies and another is 'spirited away'. Rena finds out about Keiichi meeting with Ōishi and confronts him after school as they are walking home; when he tries to dodge the topic, she aggressively calls out his lies, much to his fear. During the evening, Keiichi is contacted by Ōishi over the phone and he learns about Rena's dark past, which was the reason she moved to Hinamizawa the previous year. After finishing the call with Ōishi, Keiichi's dad arrives with a tray of biscuits and tea which Keiichi finds odd. His dad clarifies that Rena came over to meet with him and that she had went up to his room, which happened a few minutes after the start of Keiichi's call. He suddenly realizes to his own horror that Rena had been spying on his phone conversation with Ōishi through his door gap. | ||||||
| 65 | 4 | "Demon-Deceiving Chapter, Part 4" Transcription: "Onidamashi-hen Sono Yon" (Japanese: 鬼騙し編 其の四) | Fujiaki Asari | Naoki Hayashi | October 22, 2020 | |
| Keiichi grows more and more suspicious of Rena. The next day at school, Rika convinces him that there is no reason to be afraid of Rena and that he should instead question himself for doubting Rena. Keiichi feels guilty and tries to return to normal life. That same evening, his parents leave town for the night, leaving Keichii by himself at the house. Rena comes over to cook dinner for him and knocks on the house's front door. Keiichi sees visions of him killing Rena and Mion and convinces himself that he is imagining things. He lets Rena inside to cook dinner and apologizes for how he had acted towards her. In the kitchen, Keiichi discovers that the bento Rena had brought with her contains weapons as she begins digging at her neck and reveals to Keiichi that she is cursed by Oyashiro. She declares she will kill Keiichi and then disappear, making the two of them this year's sacrifice. She grabs a kitchen knife and stabs Keiichi repeatedly while he beats her to death with an alarm clock in an attempt to save himself. Keiichi falls into a coma and wakes up two days later in a hospital. He learns from Mion that Rika and Satoko were dead, although they are unsure if it was from suicide or murder. A strange nurse arrives and asks Keiichi if his neck itches. Keiichi screams while scratching his neck. | ||||||
| 66 | 5 | "Cotton-Deceiving Chapter, Part 1" Transcription: "Watadamashi-hen Sono Ichi" (Japanese: 綿騙し編 其の壱) | Fujiaki Asari | Keiichirō Kawaguchi | October 29, 2020 | |
| Two weeks prior in a timeline reset, Keiichi and the other members of the after school club attend a game competition at a Sonozaki family owned shop called Da Vinci. As a consolation prize for the event money, the store owner gives everyone a doll except for Mion. Keiichi gives his to Mion as he sees no value in keeping it. Later, Keiichi and his father meet at the Angel Mort cosplay restaurant. There, Keiichi meets Shion Sonozaki and confuses her for Mion due to their similar appearances. She proclaims that she is actually Mion's sister. Keiichi believes she is Mion pretending to be effeminate. A day passes and Shion visits Keiichi with a dinner box as thanks for giving his doll to Mion. The next day at school, Keiichi hands the empty box back to Mion, who appears visably flustered. After school, Keiichi arrives at the Angel Mort and accidentally knocks over motorcycles belonging to delinquents. They interrogate him before being surrounded by Shion and nearby bystanders. | ||||||
| 67 | 6 | "Cotton-Deceiving Chapter, Part 2" Transcription: "Watadamashi-hen Sono Ni" (Japanese: 綿騙し編 其の弐) | Yonpei | Keiichirō Kawaguchi | November 5, 2020 | |
| Shion explains to Keiichi that the Hinimizawa villagers band together to fight against anything that would threaten the village, such as the dam project. After an event at Angel Mort, she asks him to buy her a doll in a shop window and once inside, they both run into Mion and Keiichi learns that they are indeed twins and not just Mion pretending to be two people. Later, Keiichi learns about the yearly murders from Shion, Takano, and Tomitake. At the festival, Shion drags Keiichi away from Rika’s dance and the two run into Takano and Tomitake, who are breaking into the ritual tool shed. They decide to go inside to look at it with Takano. | ||||||
| 68 | 7 | "Cotton-Deceiving Chapter, Part 3" Transcription: "Watadamashi-hen Sono San" (Japanese: 綿騙し編 其の参) | Chikayo Nakamura | Keiichirō Kawaguchi | November 12, 2020 | |
| Inside the tool shed, Keiichi learns of the village’s and the festival’s gruesome origins and old torture rituals. Shion accidentally knocks the head off of the Oyashiro statue, which they put back before leaving. After Shion leaves, Keiichi runs into his friends and lies about seeing Rika’s dance. Shion calls Keiichi that night and reveals that Tomitake and Takano hastily stole a car and left the village. The two worry that the four of them are this year's targets for Oyashiro’s curse. At school the next day, they learn that Kimiyoshi, the mayor, has gone missing, and Keiichi shares what happened with Rika. She ominously informs him that it doesn't matter and it's all doomed anyway, just because Keiichi did something he shouldn’t have, and that Tomitake and Takano are both dead but Shion should still be alive. | ||||||
| 69 | 8 | "Cotton-Deceiving Chapter, Part 4" Transcription: "Watadamashi-hen Sono Yon" (Japanese: 綿騙し編 其の四) | Takashi Ikehata | Keiichirō Kawaguchi | November 19, 2020 | |
| Rika has suddenly gone missing and Satoko coldly suspects Keiichi, who was the last one to talk with Rika, but Mion says that she saw Rika speaking with some men in construction uniforms. While looking for Rika, Mion pulls Keiichi away from a locked silo and indirectly informs Keiichi that Rika is trying to kill people and that she needs to put an end to string of murders occurring, which is being led by the Three Great Families. Later at Mion’s house, Keiichi confesses to what happened during the festival, to which she explains that most people already know and think he should be punished. Mion promises to help Keiichi and takes him to her family's underground bunker to show him that torture rituals still secretly occur in Hinimizawa, and proceeds locks him in the bunker, explaining that she's trying to protect him. Mion confesses her love to Keiichi and tells him to explain that he was her victim if things go wrong. Mion takes a gun to fight against intruders that have entered into the property. Keiichi tries to break out of the bunker but passes out after bashing his head repeatedly against the door. After being rescued and released from the hospital some time later, Oiishi informs Keiichi that Oryo Sonozaki, Kimiyoshi, and Shion’s bodies were all found in a well in the underground bunker, Rika’s body was found in the locked silo, and Mion and Satoko were found dead beside each other in the Sonozaki house. Keiichi questions if Mion was really trying to protect him or if she was the one behind all of the murders. | ||||||
| 70 | 9 | "Curse-Deceiving Chapter, Part 1" Transcription: "Tataridamashi-hen Sono Ichi" (Japanese: 祟騙し編 其の壱) | Yasunori Gotō | Naoki Hayashi | November 26, 2020 | |
| The timeline is once again reset to one and half weeks prior to the festival. Keiichi makes a bet to the club that he can cook better than Satoko. The same night, he attempts to fry some vegetables but nearly burns down his own house. Satoko and Rika arrive to put out the fire and Satoko prepares her own dish. Rika explains to Keiichi that Satoko is taking a liking to cooking for him since it reminds her of when her older brother, Satoshi, used to wait for her meals. To Keiichi's surprise, he discovers Satoko is a manageable chef and proceeds to praise her. The next day, Keiichi and Satoko go out for ingredients for cooking at his house. The day after that, Rena tricks Keiichi into believing a fight is occurring at school when in reality it is a baseball competition bet between the club and the Hinamizawa Fighters little league baseball team. Satoko wins the game for the club and the baseball team's coach, Irie Kyōsuke, prepares a barbeque after losing the bet. Kyōsuke informs Keiichi that Satoko lost her dam project-supporting parents in an accident and that Satoshi left the village in an attempt to escape from Oyashiro's curse. Keiichi asks Mion and Rena about the topic in question and Mion explains that they don't like talking about it because they're afraid that it will upset Satoko. Meanwhile, Satoko is with her uncle Teppei as they enter a house together. | ||||||
| 71 | 10 | "Curse-Deceiving Chapter, Part 2" Transcription: "Tataridamashi-hen Sono Ni" (Japanese: 祟騙し編 其の弐) | Chikayo Nakamura Takahiro Majima | Naoki Hayashi | December 3, 2020 | |
| The episode starts with Keiichi having a nightmare. Rena asks Keiichi why is he late and Keiichi answers her that he had a nightmare last night. Rena asks Keiichi what kind of nightmare he had, but Keiichi says he doesn't really remember how the nightmare was like, but he has a feeling that the nightmare was about Satoko. After the conversation, they remember they are almost late, and proceed to run to school. After arriving at school, they notice that Satoko and Rika are not there. Keiichi assumes that Satoko has a fever. Soon after, Rika enters the class right when they all are getting ready to greet the teacher. Keiichi asks where Satoko is, and Rika says that Satoko will be late. During PE class, someone comes after Keiichi. That someone is Ooishi Kuraudo, the old detective from Okinomiya Police Station. Ooishi wants Keiichi to call Satoko but Keiichi keeps refusing. He then asks another student to call Satoko, which is not possible because Satoko is absent. Ooishi tells Keiichi that in place like Hinamizawa, it's better for him to not make enemies. Irie the doctor then stops Ooishi, and Ooishi leaves. Irie treats Keiichi in school clinic and tells Keiichi more about Ooishi, Satoko's brother Satoshi, how their uncle and aunt abused them and what happened to their aunt. During lunch time, Rika remains gloomy and Keiichi asks Mion if she knows anything. Mion says that Satoko's uncle, Teppei has come back to Hinamizawa. Satoko then appears in front of the class and claims that she is late only because she did tasks her uncle gave her. After school, Satoko goes home early. Rika tells his friends about Satoko coming back to her house last night in order to live together with his uncle. A day passed, and Satoko is again absent. Mion and friends then proceed to tell Ms. Chie about Satoko. Ms. Chie goes to Satoko's house because Child Welfare Service will not move if there's no proof of the abuse. Teppei says that Satoko is just sick and not allowing Ms. Chie to enter his house. Chie comes back to school with the bad news and promises to call Child Welfare Service. In the morning, Mion tells Keiichi the Child Welfare Service will only "wait and see". Right when Keiichi is getting angry, Satoko appears in front of the class. She says that she comes back only because she has getting better and says that nothing happened when the Child Welfare Service called her. Rika tells Keiichi everything about Satoko's relationship with the Child Welfare Service and Satoko's family. During lunch, Keiichi jokingly says he will eat all of Rena's lunch and then tell Satoko how good it was. Satoko then runs towards Keiichi and pushes him, while having lunch. Satoko becomes traumatized when Keiichi touches her. | ||||||
| 72 | 11 | "Curse-Deceiving Chapter, Part 3" Transcription: "Tataridamashi-hen Sono San" (Japanese: 祟騙し編 其の参) | Oyunamu | Naoki Hayashi | December 10, 2020 | |
| 73 | 12 | "Curse-Deceiving Chapter, Part 4" Transcription: "Tataridamashi-hen Sono Yon" (Japanese: 祟騙し編 其の四) | Yasunori Gotō | Naoki Hayashi | December 17, 2020 | |
| 74 | 13 | "Curse-Deceiving Chapter, Part 5" Transcription: "Tataridamashi-hen Sono Go" (Japanese: 祟騙し編 其の伍) | Fujiaki Asari | Naoki Hayashi | December 24, 2020 | |
| 75 | 14 | "Cat-Deceiving Chapter, Part 1" Transcription: "Nekodamashi-hen Sono Ichi" (Japanese: 猫騙し編 其の壱) | Hironori Aoyagi | Naoki Hayashi | January 8, 2021[lower-alpha 1] | |
| 76 | 15 | "Cat-Deceiving Chapter, Part 2" Transcription: "Nekodamashi-hen Sono Ni" (Japanese: 猫騙し編 其の弐) | Toshikatsu Tokoro | Naoki Hayashi | January 15, 2021 | |
| 77 | 16 | "Cat-Deceiving Chapter, Part 3" Transcription: "Nekodamashi-hen Sono San" (Japanese: 猫騙し編 其の参) | Takahiko Usui | Naoki Hayashi | January 22, 2021 | |
| 78 | 17 | "Cat-Deceiving Chapter, Part 4" Transcription: "Nekodamashi-hen Sono Yon" (Japanese: 猫騙し編 其の四) | Yasunori Gotō | Naoki Hayashi | January 29, 2021 | |
| Rika encounters Takano. Then in a shocking twist, Takano cries and apologize to Rika. She then tells Rika she is withdrawing the research out of guilt. The next days all seems well. Satoko is shocked that its her birthday. Rika then goes to retrieve a gift for her. Satoko reacts and crouch. Rika is confused. Turns out Satoko remembers the bobby trap from the last world they encounter. But it is revealed to be a teddy bear. Rika asked Satoko how she knows about the trap. Satoko's eyes then glows red and she pulls out a gun on her friends. | ||||||
| 79 | 18 | "Village-Destroying Chapter, Part 1" Transcription: "Satokowashi-hen Sono Ichi" (Japanese: 郷壊し編 其の壱) | Naoyuki Tatsuwa | Naoki Hayashi | February 5, 2021 | |
| 80 | 19 | "Village-Destroying Chapter, Part 2" Transcription: "Satokowashi-hen Sono Ni" (Japanese: 郷壊し編 其の弐) | Takahiro Majima | Naoki Hayashi | February 12, 2021 | |
Notes
References
- General
- "Official website listing of TV episodes from When They Cry" (in Japanese). Studio Deen. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
- "Official website listing of TV episodes from When They Cry: Kai" (in Japanese). Studio Deen. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
- "Official website listing of OVA episodes from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei" (in Japanese). Studio Deen. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
- "Official website listing of OVA episodes from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira" (in Japanese). Studio Deen. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
- "Official website from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku" (in Japanese). Studio Deen. Archived from the original on 2013-04-24. Retrieved 2013-04-29.
- "Official website from Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou" (in Japanese). Passione. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
- Specific
- "Japanese girl 'kills father with axe'". The Sydney Morning Herald. September 18, 2007. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
- "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku ~Outbreak~ Trailer Posted". Anime News Network. March 5, 2013. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
- "New Higurashi: When They Cry Anime's Video Unveils Returning Cast, Staff, July TV Premiere". March 21, 2020. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
- "New Higurashi: When They Cry Anime Project Brings Back Cast". Anime News Network. January 27, 2019. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
- "New Higurashi: When They Cry Anime Delayed Due to COVID-19". Anime News Network. May 21, 2020. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
- "New Higurashi: When They Cry Anime Debuts in October After COVID-19 Delay". Anime News Network. July 6, 2020. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
- "New Higurashi: When They Cry Anime's 2nd Video Reveals Episode 1's October 1 Debut, Episode 14's January 7 Debut". Anime News Network. August 20, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
- Friedman, Nicholas (July 3, 2020). "A Dark Secret? Higurashi: When They Cry – New Arrives on Funimation this Fall". Funimation. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
- Pineda, Rafael Antonio (September 21, 2020). "Ani-One Simulcasts Higurashi: When They Cry - NEW Anime". Anime News Network. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
- "4 More Fall Season Anime Reveal Episode Counts". Anime News Network. October 10, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
- "Arasuji | Terebi Anime "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gō" Kōshiki Saito" あらすじ | TVアニメ「ひぐらしのなく頃に 業」公式サイト [Synopsis | TV Anime "Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou" Official Website]. higurashianime.com (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 28, 2020. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
- "Watch Higurashi: When They Cry - New Sub & Dub | Horror, Psychological Anime | Funimation". Funimation. Archived from the original on September 30, 2020. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
- "On'ea Jōhō | Terebi Anime "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gō" Kōshiki Saito" オンエア情報 | TVアニメ「ひぐらしのなく頃に 業」公式サイト [On Air Information | TV Anime "Higurashi: When They Cry – Gou" Official Website]. higurashianime.com (in Japanese). Archived from the original on August 23, 2020. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.