Rena is the main heroine of this story. She’s a classmate of Keiichi’s.She is quite interested in his everyday life, possibly because of an inherent urge to look after people.She comes with the standard-issue honesty, earnesty and blushes that you find in many heroines. However, her only reward for taking care of Keiichi is an incessant series of pranks.

It really is unfortunate for her.She likes anything and everything she considers adorable, and this is also a very typical trait in a heroine. But that is also her greatest weakness. Mion is one grade higher than Keiichi.

She is the class representative.She is the active class representative type, which is the second most common type. She is a leader, someone who makes friends with everyone, regardless of gender or age. Because of her high-strung, easy-going, hyperactive personality, those around her never have to be bored.

Higurashi When They Cry (ひぐらしのなく頃に, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, lit. When the Evening Cicadas Cry ), known simply as When They Cry for the North American release of the anime adaptation, is a Japanese murder mystery dōjin soft visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion. Higurashi When They Cry. The Series: Higurashi When They Cry is actually a series of dojin soft sound novels which was the basis for the subsequent anime series. The series follows five young friends in the small Japanese village of Hinamizawa who find out the sinister secrets of the village.

She is about the best kind of friend anyone could wish for. Her personality is somewhat marred by a tendency to sound like an old man, but that’s something to be forgiven.Mion likes games of all kinds, be they card games, board games or video games. Because of who she is, her games tend to be high-tension. It’s to be expected. She plays with her friends in the context of club activity.

A girl one grade lower than Keiichi.She is usually very polite, but because she is still young she sometimes has difficulty with grammar. However, behind her innocent exterior lies a personality that loves setting traps for other people. You could call her a trickster. She tries her utmost to snare Keiichi, but she has only limited success.

Although the result of failure is easily imaginable, Satoko doesn’t like to lose, and she doesn’t learn from experience. That is why she keeps confronting him, with all due consequences. Even when she realizes her skills are insufficient, her smile never wavers.

Rika is a grade lower than Keiichi, and thus is a classmate of Satoko’s.She is very quiet and reserved for her age, which makes her almost the polar opposite of Satoko. However, the two of them can often be found in each other’s company. Whenever Satoko is in tears after losing against Keiichi, it is Rika who cheers her up. When Satoko wins, Rika comforts Keiichi instead. When Keiichi teases Rena, Rika comforts her.In fact, Rika comforts whomever is in need of comfort. She seems happy with it.Required CPU:Pentium III 800MHzRecommended CPU:Pentium 4 1.4GHzRequired Memory:512MBRecommended Memory:1GBRequired HDD Free Space:500MBDirectX:DirectX 9.0.

Synopsis Keiichi Maebara and his family move from the noisy, bustling city to the quiet little town of Hinamizawa in the summer of 1983. As Keiichi settles in, he meets some local girls who quickly become his steadfast group of friends: Satoko Houjou, Rika Furude, Rena Ryuuguu, and Mion Sonozaki. While their life is mostly carefree and fun-filled, he begins to discover that things in Hinamizawa are not as they appear to be.During the annual Cotton Drifting Festival, Keiichi learns that there have been murders and disappearances for the past few years in the aftermath of the celebration. Referred to as 'Oyashiro's Curse,' the suspicious townsfolk say that those who anger Hinamizawa's patron god will be cursed to die or disappear. At first, he believes that such things are mere folk tales meant to scare misbehaving children.

But when a murder and a disappearance occur after the festival and his friends refuse to talk about the strange events in the village, Keiichi begins to wonder if his new friends may have something to do with the horrific events—and if he might be the next to die.Written by MAL Rewrite. Overall9Story9Art8Character9Enjoyment9Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, or When the Cicadas Cry, was originally a visual/sound novel series by 07th Expansion. It was adapted into a manga series and an anime series. The anime series is (based off my unprofessional observations) very popular amongst J-pop fanatics.

Bring out the guests' favorite blends, cucumber sandwiches, and set the table with your finest china. Garden party hats make. Hosting a more? Hosting a or? Round up the neighbors for a potluck in which everyone is encouraged to serve themselves generously, buffet-style.Warm days and comfortably cool evenings are made for entertaining outside. Display centerpieces, cupcakes, and handmade favors on tiered stands.

Until about a year or so ago, I knew absolutely nothing about Higurashi, or its followup Umineko no Naku Koro Ni, or When the Seagulls Cry. It wasn't until a friend of mine recommended these franchises to me that I was even interested.

I tried to play the VN version of Higurashi, but it wouldn't work. (What, do PC games hateWindows 7 that much?) So I opted for the manga version instead, which I heard was better than the anime. Suffice to say, it was worth the investment.Please note that as of this writing, I have only read the first three arcs of the manga version. I have not played the VN, and I am avoiding the anime, so I don't know anything beyond the first three arcs. With that said, the first arc is my favorite thus far.

Let's find out why.Story:Keiichi Maebara and his family have moved to a rural town called Hinamizawa. This place is literally out in the sticks; it's mostly open fields, the locals know everyone by name, and cicadas will not STFU. Also, this takes place in 1983, an age when Japan was economically flourishing, when cell phones weren't widespread, and when Michael Jackson was still universally beloved.Keiichi is a high school student who gets along with the girls in his class really well. They form a sort of club that does fun stuff whenever possible. One girl, Rena, loves cute things to an extreme, another girl, Mion, is tomboyish and has huge breasts. Another girl named Satoko does the practical pranks, and there's a shrine maiden girl, Rika, who is rather quiet. And they all do silly things with Keiichi.HOWEVER, despite that, this is NOT a high school comedy/harem series.

Shortly after Keiichi settles in, he meets a freelance photographer named Jirou Tomitake. Jirou tells Keiichi that four years ago, someone tried to build a dam that would've destroyed Hinamizawa. There was strong opposition. Someone supporting the dam was murdered. The plan was canceled, and Hinamizawa stands to this day. Every year, on the day of cotton drifting, someone is murdered, and someone else goes missing. And in the present, it's about to be the cotton drifting day.

Not only that, Keiichi's friend Rena starts acting as though she were possessed by a demon at times. One moment, she is moeblob Rena, the next, she's an unstable psychopath. Keiichi also learns about something called, 'Oyashiro-sama's curse,' a curse that is said to afflict the locals of Hinamizawa. Not long after, Keiichi's life is in danger.This is a horror series, a horror series done right. The setting of Hinamizawa feels like one you could be in. Not only that, it's a mystery too. Why is Rena behaving like how she is?

Does Oyashiro-sama's curse exist? Who is responsible for the deaths on the cotton drifting? Is Keiichi right to be paranoid of the people around him, or has he himself gone mad? The series doesn't say. This ambiguous nature is good, for it leads to interesting analysis, but it is also bad, for I don't know all of the answers. Nonetheless, once everything unravels, you'll be gripped.

9/10.Art: The art for the Higurashi VN is terrible. 07Ryukishi, the original author, did improve by the time he made Umineko, but the PC games. The anime artwork isn't much better. The manga series, though? It looks great. Each story arc is done by a different artist.

I don't know why that is, (it could be Oyashiro-sama's curse for all I know!) but the artist for this arc is talented. The characters and backgrounds are well drawn, the panels flow fluidly, and when it gets violent, it gets violent. The colored pages are astounding. I personally like the art for the second arc more, but this looks great too.

8/10.Characterization: A big problem with a lot of horror stories is the lack of characterization. Higurashi does not have this flaw. All the characters, both minor and major, are important. Keiichi isn't just another 'everyman in an extraordinary situation', he's a flawed but well-meaning person. His friends have depth, but this arc mostly focuses on Keiichi and Rena. Other characters are shown, such as Jirou, Keiichi's parents, and Ooishi, the police captain, but we don't see too much character development in this arc.But what truly impresses me more than anything else is how Keiichi reacts. He reacts how anyone would in his situation: he has reason to believe that his friends are trying to kill him, he can't stay out too late because he's a minor, he can't outrun his foes because they own a white station wagon, he doesn't have the internet, and on top of that, he may have to resort to killing his own friends just to stay alive.

If that doesn't make you scared for your life, then you're not human. 9/10.Enjoyment: Once the series stopped pretending to be a comedy, this drew me in. The revelations of Hinamizawa, Keiichi's confrontations with Rena, the very real fear that permeates every chapter, it gripped me heavily.

My only complaint is a lot still doesn't make sense to me. If I read more of Higurashi, I should be able to fill in the blanks, but regardless, this was a great introduction to Higurashi, and one I recommend if you don't mind seeing a scary franchise that actually is legitimately scary. 9/10.I do have another complaint, but it's not about Higurashi itself, it's something else.

Fans, Higurashi is not a cutesy moe moe kyun exercise in kawaii-ness; this is essentially a Stephen King novel set in Japan instead of Maine. If I see any more of you saying, 'OMG!

Rena-chan is so adowable when she holds her cweaver wike that! I'm gonna facepalm for hours. Overall9Story9Art8Character9Enjoyment9Story: The story is something different, there aren't too many stories out there that are genuinely this creepy.

It's an amazing story along with psychological twists. There's so much thrown into two books but the author handles it well. They build up the friendships between the characters, get you attached, then rips it apart in a slow but strangely fast manner.

It's one event after another but doesn't seem speedy or sloppy. You're always kept in suspense once things get going.

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This series will seriously mess with your mind and emotions.Art: The author used art to fully express change in the characters and succeededwell by keeping the characters original look, but somehow changing that look to almost make them seem like someone completely different. Not only did they show a good mix of 'split personalities' they also managed to maximize the creepiness along with it. Another thing to give and take of this series is the gore factor. There really aren't that many scenes with death, but the ones that are there are very unpleasant to think about.My only real problem with the art is, in the first volume, there were a couple of scenes where I couldn't follow completely where people were or what was going on.Character: The characters are very interesting. You see characters go from being completely rational to insane. Once you start to listen and try to understand the characters, you can fully understand motifs, thoughts, and reasoning behind their actions. Even the killers have reasons if you pay attention to them.

In other words, well developed.Enjoyment: It was very enjoyable, it kept me on edge the whole read and anxious to see what happened next. I can't wait to read the next arc's and see what other paths await the characters.Overall: A freaky little tale that will keep my mind in thought for a while. This is not the kind of story for the weak minded and super paranoid. I couldn't help but sit silently looking out the window after finishing this series and only imagining how the characters felt and what truths I really know or want to know.

Overall10Story8Art10Character9Enjoyment10I was attached to Higurashi a few pages in. Seeming like atypical Harem manga, it takes a total U-turn when a series of murders are told to Keiichi.I really like the art in the Abducted By Demons arc. The characters look so cute and innocent, but when they get into murder mode, they get seriously freaking creepy.

I have a feeling that it was done on purpose to catch the reader off guard. It certainly worked on me!The character Keiichi is the main character in this arc. He is very relate able. Everything he does seems like something a real human being would do, Iwas totally rooting for him during the manga. The other four girls all have a mystery to them.

In this arc, it focuses mainly on Rena and Mion, though.I enjoyed every second of the first Higurashi arc, it will keep you guessing and keep you entertained.If you want to experience a one of a kind manga, pick up higurashi: Abducted By Demons arc!11/10.