When They Cry

From OtakuWiki

When They Cry (Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni) ひぐらしのなく頃に

Format	DVD/Paperback
Release	26 episodes
Genre	Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Horror, Psychological Thriller, Suspense
Rating	16+

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, known as When They Cry - Higurashi in the planned English localization of the anime version, is a Japanese murder mystery doujinshi soft visual novel, series based on the NScripter engine and produced by 07th Expansion.

The series is focused on a group of young friends and the strange events that occur in the village that they live in. The first game in the series, Onikakushi-hen, was released on August 10, 2002 and the eighth and final game in the original PC series, Matsuribayashi-hen, was released on August 13, 2006. In addition to the original series, new arcs have been created in manga and video game form in order to expand upon the story further.

The series became very popular and was later made into a set of drama CDs; the first, based on the Onikakushi-hen part of the story, was released on May 27, 2005. Later, a manga series adapted from the games began serialization in March 2006 in the Japanese manga magazine Gangan Powered, illustrated by Japanese artist Karin Suzuragi. Following the manga's release, an anime series by the Japanese animation studio Studio Deen aired in Japan weekly, starting on April 4, 2006, and adapted six of the original eight chapters. The second anime series, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, will begin airing in Japan in July 2007; it will be animated again by Studio Deen.

The naku (なく, naku?) of the title has a double meaning. Firstly, naku can mean "to make sound" (鳴く, "to make sound"?), specifically referring to those sounds made by non-human organisms. Secondly, naku can mean "to weep" (泣く, "to weep"?). It so happens that the English verb "to cry" carries the same double meaning as naku. According to the original creator, Ryukishi07, the red Na (な) in the logo is an official part of the title.

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Plot

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni takes place during June 1983, at a fictional rural village called Hinamizawa (雛見沢, Hinamizawa?) (based on the village of Shirakawa, Gifu, a World Heritage Site), which has a population of approximately 2000. The main character, Keichi Maebara, moves to Hinamizawa and befriends his new classmates Rena Ryugu, Mion Sonozaki, Rika Furude, and Satoko Hojo. Keichi joins their after-school club activities, which consist mostly of card and board games. Hinamizawa appears to be a normal, peaceful village to Keichi. However, the tranquility abruptly ends after the annual Watanagashi Festival, a local festivity to commemorate and give thanks to the local god, Oyashiro-sama.

Keichi learns that for the past four years, one person has been murdered and another has gone missing, never to be seen again, on the day of the Watanagashi Festival. Keichi himself soon becomes implicated into the strange events surrounding the Watanagashi Festival and Oyashiro-sama. In each story arc, he or one of his friends become paranoid, and a crime is committed. Usually, the crime involves a murder of one of their own friends. While it seems impossible to tell their delusions apart from the mystery of Hinamizawa, slowly the truth is revealed.

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