Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (ひぐらしのなく頃に, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni? lit. When Cicadas Cry), known as When They Cry - Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni in the English version of the anime, is a Japanese murder mystery dojin soft visual novel series based on the NScripter engine, 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, began airing in Japan on July 6, 2007; it was animated again by Studio Deen.[4] A live action movie adaptation of the series, to be directed by Ataru Oikawa, has been announced for 2008.

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.

wiki

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni/ひぐらしのなく頃に

Plot Summary: On one hot summer day in 1983, a transfer student named Maebara Keiichi comes to a peaceful rural village in Hinamizawa. There, he befriends his classmates Rena, Mion, Rika, and Satoko. Accepted as a full-fledged member of the "club," Keiichi and the gang plays all sorts of activities ranging from card and board games to hide-and-seek. But just as Keiichi was beginning to be assimilated in simple rural life, he stumbles upon the dark history of Hinamizawa. As Keiichi dives deeper into the mystery, he finds that his new found friends may not be all what they claim to be.
Frankly speaking, this series is kinda psiko. Yes, psychologically scary. The character design isn't something that may be appealing to me (looks generic, though their SD expression looks pretty cute sometimes), but the story, and most importantly, the killing scenes are what really horrified me. I do think it's even gruesome than that in Elfen Lied (especially the killing in Shion/Mion story arc). Each story arc end with the death of some, or all main characters in various ways. Some were stabbed with baseball bat, some got poisoned (the whole village actually), one stabbing her head with kitchen knife, one being burned to death, the excruciating nail-jabbing....Urgh...
Overall it's a good horror anime, a mix comedy and suddenly everything turned into horror. It is divided into 4 independent story arc, but the mystery of the whole series is only revealed in the 2nd season, where the truth is that all the previous story arc is related to one another (or should be said, story from different dimension, with Furude Rika being the connector). Then the 2nd season (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai) was released last April, and currently has reach episode 11. I've only watched till episode 5, and now we've got a more clear picture of what happened i season 1, as more secrets were revealed; plus the story is getting more interesting in the last story arc (episode 5 onward).

I started watching the first season of this series last year, after finishing my SSABSA exam and stop at abour episode 13 (the 2nd story arc) due to my holiday (and I need to spend it for my PS2 :3 ) Then about February I resume watching till the final episode 24, before commencing on the 2nd season. I stop watching it for awhile, since it's a continuous story and I feel it's better for me to wait till one story arc end before I start marathoning.


Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Psychological
Age rating: Mature (contain extreme violence, kinda. Murder, killing with kitchen knife, baseball bat, poison, slit throat, anything you ask)

OP of season 1 (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni) | reverse version |
OP of season 2 (Naraku no Hana) | reverse version |
*notice the similarity between the reverse and the ori of the opposite season?


Screenshots:




Oh and the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni live-action movie is in progress.