This work became famous through anime and manga, but it was originally a computer game by the doujin circle "07th Expansion." It is a sound novel, and was directed and written by Ryukishi07. The game, manga, and anime are all divided into a question section and an answer section, and are structured so that you cannot grasp the whole picture of the work unless you play and read both. The official title is "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" with the "na" in red, and the "C" in the English title "When They Cry" is also in red. The cruel and thrilling content is hard to imagine from the cute characters, and it is also an excellent horror work. In this article, I would like to discuss the "Onikakushi-hen", which is the beginning of the story. There will be spoilers, so if you are planning to watch it, please be careful. First season: "Higurashi When They Cry" from April to September 2006, second season: "Higurashi When They Cry Kai" from July to December 2007
The basic structure is that the first season is the question section and the second season is the answer section.
The secret of the village that only I don't know
Maebara Keiichi, who moved from Tokyo to Hinamizawa, becomes friends with Ryugu Rena and Sonozaki Mion through school and club activities.
Meanwhile, Keiichi notices that everyone is hiding something. The secret is the dam incident that occurred in Hinamizawa in the past, and the mysterious incident in which one person dies and one person disappears every June on the day of the cotton-floating festival.
Why didn't they tell me? Keiichi is irritated by his classmates who stubbornly refuse to talk no matter what, but at the same time, he comes to a certain conjecture.
"Maybe everyone is involved in this incident...?"
Thinking this, Keiichi becomes suspicious, and from this point on, the "Onikakushi-hen" arc follows a tragic fate.
Rena changes drastically, but...
The scene where Ryugu Rena tells the main character, Maebara Keiichi, "It's a lie!!"
Detective Oishi asks Keiichi for his cooperation and he begins working to solve the case, but one day Rena asks him if he's hiding something. When he replies that he's not,
Rena suddenly changes and declares, "That's a lie!!" In "The Demon-Hunting Arc," Rena's sudden change in behavior is depicted as scary, but this is the delusion of Keiichi, who has become suspicious and distrustful. In reality, Rena is just worried about Keiichi, who has become suspicious and behaves strangely.
The truth about Ohagi
Keiichi, who is frightened of Rena and Mion, stays at home. Rena and Mion give him Ohagi as a gift.
As soon as he puts the Ohagi in his mouth, he feels a tingling sensation in his mouth?! When he hastily spits it out, he finds a sewing needle inside.
This was actually a delusion that Keiichi had. In reality, they made Ohagi to cheer her up, but Mion thought it would be boring to just make it, so she mixed Tabasco into it.
Keiichi, who is suspicious, feels the sting of the Tabasco as a needle, and remembers a scene in a manga he read a long time ago where a needle was mixed into food, and he mistakenly thinks that a sewing needle was in there.
Who really went wrong?
Keiichi, who was attacked by mysterious men, wakes up at home. Rena is beside him and calls for a doctor.
Afterwards, Mion arrives in his room. For Keiichi, who is suspicious of the two, it is nothing but fear that he is being held captive by them.
Rena contacts a mysterious person called "Director", and Mion tries to complete the punishment game for failing to guess the contents of the rice ball. Rena holds Keiichi in a headlock from behind, and Mion tries to stab him with a syringe.
At this point, Mion says, "I want you to suffer the same fate as Tomitake-san."
Oishi's words, "I suspected something like drugs, but nothing of the sort was detected," come to mind.
Keiichi, sensing his impending death, kills the two with a metal bat.
Rena and Mion were worried about Keiichi
The person Rena was calling "Director" was Dr. Irie, a doctor. Dr. Irie is the manager of a baseball team called the Hinamizawa Fighters, but this has not yet been revealed in "Onikakushi-hen".
Keiichi is confused by the sudden appearance of the word "Director", and it makes him think of the "Director" at the dam site. Also, Mion's syringe was a magic marker and she was trying to scribble "Get well soon☆" on his shirt.
Although it was cut from the anime, on the night of the cotton-floating festival, she scribbles on Tomitake's shirt as a penalty for the shooting game.
This is what Mion's words "I want you to suffer the same fate as Tomitake" refer to.
When the truth is revealed, the horrible truth emerges that Keiichi, driven by suspicion, beats to death the two brave people who were worried about Keiichi.
Oyashiro-sama Follows Me All the Time
After running away from home, Keiichi calls the police from a public phone.
Keiichi, who had developed Hinamizawa Syndrome, became suspicious and panicked after killing two people, which led to the onset of L5 syndrome.
Unable to bear the itching in his throat, Keiichi clawed at it and was unable to speak properly.
Unable to even speak properly on the phone with Detective Oishi, he died saying, "Oyashiro-sama keeps sticking to me. I guess Oyashiro-sama is out there after all."
Oyashiro-sama is Hanyuu, and normally only Furude Rika can sense her presence, but people who have developed L5 syndrome can sense her somehow.
The being who sticks so closely to him is Hanyuu, who says "I'm sorry" for not being able to help her in any way.
Spoiler explanation for the anime version of "Onikakushi-hen"!! Summary
The "Onikakushi-hen" is the first part of the question-and-answer arc, and it is impossible to understand the content just by watching it.
At this point, it is a completely horror work, and many mysteries remain. This article contains a lot of spoilers, but I think the correct answer will become clear by watching the "Atonement-hen".
Also, Higurashi is a masterpiece in which everything will become clear by reading the entire series, so I recommend watching the entire series.
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