Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (ひぐらしのなく頃に ?, lit. When the Cicadas Cry) is a Japanese murder mystery dōjin soft sound 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 form and in video games for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS in order to expand upon the story further.
The series became very popular and was made into a set of drama CDs; the first, based on the Onikakushi-hen part of the story, was released in May 2005.[1] A manga series adapted from the games began with eight different manga artists working separately on one to three of the multiple story arcs, and is published by Square Enix and Kadokawa Shoten. The manga was licensed for release in English in North America by Yen Press under the title Higurashi When They Cry and the first volume was released in November 2008. Following the manga's release in Japan, two anime series have been produced by the Japanese animation studio Studio Deen in 2006 and 2007; a third anime adaptation was released as an original video animation series on February 25, 2009[2] and is directed by Toshifumi Kawase.[3][4][5] The first anime series was licensed by Geneon in English under the title When They Cry - Higurashi no Naku Koroni,[6] but became unavailable due to Geneon's decision to stop sales and distribution in the American anime market. On July 3, 2008, Geneon Entertainment and Funimation Entertainment announced an agreement to distribute select titles in North America, which includes Higurashi.[7] A live action movie adaptation of the series, directed by Ataru Oikawa, premiered in Japanese theaters in May 2008,[8] with a sequel forthcoming.
The word higurashi is the name of a kind of cicada.[9] Naku can mean "to make sound" (鳴く ?), specifically referring to those sounds made by non-human organisms, or "to weep" (泣く ?). 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.
Higurashi is a murder mystery game described as a "sound novel" by 07th Expansion. A sound novel is similar to a visual novel in that the gameplay requires relatively little player interaction as most of the game is composed of text dialogues. The original release contained no voice acting for the characters. While a visual novel's basis would be the visual aspect, as the name suggests, a sound novel's basis takes more care in producing an atmosphere via the music, sound effects, and the story itself.
The game utilizes intermissions where the player can obtain several TIPS. These TIPS allow the player to read various supplementary information that may or may not be useful in solving the mystery. For example, one of the TIPS can be as simple as "this is a small village; children who go to this school are combined into one classroom regardless of what grade or year they are in." On the other hand, they can provide valuable hints, such as being able to read the excerpts of the newspaper articles regarding the murders that occurred in Hinamizawa. At the beginning of each of the story arcs, a cryptic poem by someone known as Frederica Bernkastel is read; these reveal some of what is going to happen in the following arc.
The PlayStation 2 port Matsuri differs from the original game series in that it includes full voice acting, redrawn CGs, and integration of the question arcs starring Keiichi into a single branching storyline. Matsuri includes the first seven PC arcs (Matsuribayashi-hen is excluded) and three original final arcs—Taraimawashi-hen, Tsukiotoshi-hen and Miotsukushi-hen. After the original seven arcs are cleared, the first two final arcs become available. Furthermore, when these two final arcs are cleared, the epilogue, Miotsukushi-hen, is unlocked.
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