#higurashi outbreak

[satoshi-mochida]

Visual Novel ‘Higurashi When They Cry Hou+’ Gets November Release on PC

Noisy Pixel Source

MangaGamer announced they will publish the 07th Expansion-developed visual novel Higurashi When They Cry Hou+ on PC via Steam and MangaGamer on November 9, 2023.

Pre-orders for the game are currently open. Higurashi When They Cry Hou+ is a sound novel. In this interactive novel, the harmonious blend of music, backgrounds, and characters constructs a vivid world where the player assumes the role of the protagonist. The user experiences the story from the protagonist’s perspective, enabling them to laugh, cry, get angry, and immerse themselves in the narrative.

The shadow of Hinamizawa’s tragic past has finally lifted, releasing those ensnared by its harrowing mysteries back in June 1983. However, the tale of Hinamizawa remains unfinished, with many uncharted worlds yet to be explored.

Higurashi When They Cry Hou+ marks the concluding chapter of the Higurashi When They Cry Hou series, offering four new chapters to the narrative.

Higurashi When They Cry Outbreak: Keiichi and his companions confront a fresh tragedy, this time involving a peculiar virus and the ensuing panic. The bizarre events continue. Higurashi When They Cry Kamikashimashi Chapter: The tragedy extends its grip to Okonomiya, with no apparent end in sight. The question lingers: who is orchestrating these events, and what’s their purpose? Can it be halted? The narrative of Higurashi Outbreak reaches its resolution here. Hinamizawa Bus Stop: Higurashi When They Cry Origin: A visit to Hinamizawa in a somewhat unconventional fragment. This fragment serves as the origin of what would later evolve into Higurashi When They Cry. Higurashi When They Cry Mehagashi Chapter (Hou+ Additional Scenario): A looming tragedy threatens not only humanity but the entire galaxy. Keiichi Maebara stands at the center of this impending catastrophe. He must transcend the confines of girls’ swimsuits to safeguard the universe. However, can Keiichi, in solitude, overcome the challenges posed by the club members?

We’ll keep you updated on future announcements from this publisher.

[orangedoorhingeinstorage]

My honest reaction to Irie Kyosuke

[lunartearsss]

Yesterday, I finished Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou+, and with that I'm officially done with the series unless I decide to do the console arcs someday but prob not. Started for my own mini Halloween celebration. Hinamizawa Bus Stop was a decent spooky story, Outbreak was kinda fun, Kamikashimashi was... something. Mehagashi was awful. The 2022 After Party was really sweet. Really something for everyone here(?) I've got mountains of issues with Higurashi, but I still love the series all the same. Probably gonna start my Umineko reread within the next year. There is something quite bittersweet about this being the final celebration of Higurashi (to an extent lol) and being optimistic about the future to come. It's been 5 years since Ciconia Phase 1 released, and with no news in sight (and various random Ryukishi07 projects being announced), it makes the future of the series look... bleak.

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch. 7 Minagoroshi pt. 33

I agonized about whether to make part of this post be a part of the last one. I don’t want it to look like I’m trying to drag out this chapter for longer than it is, I’m kind of just operating on how I feel like where it should end in terms of where the screenshots should stop.

I don’t know if you particularly care about my rationale for why I screenshot the way I do. The thought that goes into where and when to screenshot these. When this scene was happening it doesn’t really happen the way the screenshots imply, lot of text, then the poetic white screens. Sometimes the poetry seemed to happen at somewhat random times amid the dialogue, and I didn’t necessarily want to have another thirty to fifty screens of one sentence of dialogue.

Really curious why they opted to give Takano the Nazi skull there. In the remake art (in other scenes, this one particular shot is a console exclusive) it has something similar to an eagle design, and in the original art it’s just a beret with no ornamentation on it. I can only speculate as to why she has it, but it’s a very unfortunate choice since the rest of her military outfit doesn’t necessarily scream Nazi to me.

Zooming in on it blurs it to hell, but I assure you it doesn’t look like a Nazi eagle. Enough about the Nazis though.

We’ll get back to them in the next chapter.

I’m not so sure about this particular motive either. But I get ahead of myself.

My problem with her views that this action ascends her into godhood strikes me as a pretty misguided belief. After all, according to the manual, basically all information about the operation, the outbreak all of it is going to be buried. Maybe eventually in twenty years when they reopen the area someone might find out something, but not before then. It doesn’t explicitly say so, but I get the impression that all the soldiers and everyone involved in this cover-up is sworn to secrecy under pain of death. So she can’t exactly go around hinting at her involvement with the scheme.

Unless she plans to achieve some sort of godhood by “accidentally” leaking information about the outbreak on the nascent internet, but then she’s just one kook among many. Using the post-game TIP from Tsumihoroboshi for an example all the conspiracy nuts believe it to be aliens, not the work of Oyashiro. Same with the reality of Himatsubushi’s future where Akasaka and Ooishi don’t possess any of the knowledge about Oyashiro and so they’re operating under the faulty assumption it was the volcanic gas that killed these now two thousand villagers. Assuming of course the two are unrelated timelines, and all that.

I don’t know man, I just don’t think this particular plot is going to work out for her in the long run. It kind of seems to me that she’s more or less dooming herself to obscurity in the not too distant future.

I liked this little epilogue for the most part. I felt it conveyed the terror of a containment event really well, even if I didn’t think it stuck the landing very well. I wish I had more to say about it other than a generally enthusiastic thumbs up for it.

[felixcloud6288]

Higurashi Festival Accompanying Chapter 23

Okay, so Mion wasn't as smart as thought she was. No one realized that Rika's "manga" was her telling them about her situation.

Satoko realized the situation when she saw Rika talking with Akasaka and company, while Mion would have learned everything the night before when Rika and Satoko came to her house.

At this point, Keiichi and Rena are the only ones who hadn't been informed and you can see the cogs turning as they try to process such an unexpected occurrence.

Hanyu is the only one who remembers Massacre and how Keiichi was able to rally everyone to unite against something no one thought they could defeat. So she's getting him to start beating the drums again. And the whole club gets fired up to take on Tokyo.

The club members are not combatants. They foster a spirit of winning through trickery and deception. In military terms, they're guerilla fighters.

Rather than just bunkering down and waiting for Tomitake to fix things, they're going to take an offensive by sabotaging the enemy's offensive weapons. And the way to do that is by exploiting how it's not actually possible to determine if Emergency Manual 34 is necessary until it would be too late.

No one actually knows for sure if Rika's death would cause the villagers to go insane (it won't) and the entire premise is an educated guess (that's wrong) and the manual is only used to prevent an outbreak (that won't happen).

Honestly, invoking the manual has a better likelihood of causing an outbreak of Hinamizawa Syndrome considering that in the timelines where it is used, many people from the village who left went insane from the stress of finding out their home and families were killed.

Anyway, Rika's friends all realize that if Rika is found dead after 48 hours, then Emergency Manual 34 loses all its power. So they're going to keep her hidden until the morning of the Cotton Drifting, and then Ooishi will declare that Rika was found dead and had died more than 48 hours ago. So Operation 48 hours begins.

While Keiichi, Rena, and Satoko were shocked when Mion brought up Rika dying, Rika just stared at Mion blankly and Hanyu smiled.

The next day, Ooishi goes to visit the construction manager's grave and brings white bellflowers with him. As he talks about what he's learned and the plan Mion's group has come up with, he thinks about how someone always brings blue hydangeas to his grave each year. And as he questions who that might be, the answer arrives.

I figured I should look up flower symbolism for this scene. What I found is hydrangeas symbolize unity and togetherness in Japan. Meanwhile, bellflowers symbolize happiness.

Akane and Ooishi talk about the Dam War and how it's over so all the hatred and animosity from it needs to go away as well. The biggest regret that Oryou and all the Sonozakis have is they couldn't make amends with the manager.

I personally assume this is not something common across other timelines. I don't think Oryou and Akane were secretly bringing flowers and ohagi to the manager's grave every year in every arc. Instead, I think this is a knock-on effect from Massacre. Keiichi and his friends had to fight to make the village move on and start healing their wounds from the Dam War.

What I think happened is that sentiment was carried forward to this world. Somewhere in her mind, Oryou remembered how Keiichi fought to unite the village to save Satoko and he confronted the negative sentiment still existing. So this time, she's gained an opportunity to help heal the village like she should have, and part of it is doing what she can to make amends with the man who represented the opposition.

This is a story about repentance, forgiveness, and second chances.

This is the first time that Shion has actually appeared in this arc. I'm going to headcanon that she managed to convince Oryou to put an end to the Sonozaki-Hojo feud back in 1982. I just want her to have some claim in crafting this world since she's the only major character who isn't involved in anything yet.

Ooishi and Akane talk about how the war is over and they need to move on to a new era. As they talk about making amends and becoming friends, a butterfly flies by. To add to all the symbolism in this scene, butterflies are symbols of change. So we're given a not-subtle-at-all demonstration that Ooishi's heart is changing for the better as he can finally let his grief and hatred go.

And now Ooishi has his answer to what he should do. He's going to help fight Tokyo by assisting with Mion's Operation 48 hours. And he's not going to regret the consequences.

back

[heavenlydemonyuricult]

So it seems that the Higurashi Hou+ arcs being released into english soon on the 9th of November are those two zombie outbreak plots Outbreak and Kamikashimashi, which I imagine are where the light blue haired girl on the cover is from.

There's the Origin arc or Hinamizawa Bus Stop which is basically the prototype version of Higurashi where proto Mion and proto Rika are being gay at a bus stop, you might have seen or heard of the manga adaptation first.

And then there's Mehagashi which according to MangaGamer has Maebara Keiichi "Strip the girls of their swimsuits to defend the universe! However, can Keiichi possibly win against the club members all by himself...?"...might skip out on this one for that alone but I can just rapid click or skip through that one at least and there's still the others.

[bernkastel-ao3]

I now have Higurashi Outbreak and Hinamizawa bus stop on my computer. I think I'll treat at least this as an early Christmas present to myself, and hold off on starting them so I still can definitely try out a present on Christmas, without any other options.

[ironpaladont]

tag 9 people you want to get to know better!

i was tagged by: @celeryw thank you for the tag!!

Currently reading: Mo Dao Zu Shi

Favorite color: Indigo

Last song: Shadowbringers from ffxiv. i was hanging out in my fc room blasting music wheee

Last movie: Does higurashi outbreak count? cause otherwise i cannot remember

Currently working on: two valentines day art pieces and leveling my ffxiv char.

Tagging: @thatlittledandere @acethmatic @scummyflowers @theexistentiallyqueer @birdsknight @aroaceofthesea @jinkisaragi @rettoujoutou @sunflowerkeiji

feel free to do this if you want!

[kagaminelen]

REJOICE!!!! for I have found that there is loads of Higurashi content that I have yet to lay my eyes on!

I think it will be harder to live blog it if it's not split up into episodes but alas that is my cross to bear

I think the next stop is Hou. I don't know if there's a particular order to this, I already watched Outbreak (the anime was not that good, the VN is probably better but I don't feel like watching that at this time).

I'll watch Hinamizawa Bus Stop then

We've seen this bust stop before, most notably where Rika first met Akasaka.

Mion's so cute.....

I wonder what the silhouettes are for? I wonder what that's all about. I'm sure reddit would tell me.

Maybe this one-off arc is just character exploration between Mion and Rika.

Mion has a confident, yet still slightly insecure vibe to her. She's loud, and says what's on her mind, but in reality she is insecure about what other people think of her, how people perceive her. That's why she is (probably) jealous of how feminine Shion is. She knows she isn't that person, but she thinks other people (Keiichi) would want that, and feels bad that she isn't that. Her comment about being so much of a tomboy that she should've been born a boy is indicative of this...

You don't see too many one on ones of Mion and Rika. I can't think of anything. Meakushi doesn't count cause that's Shion ;P

it's taken me 12 hours to get through 8 minutes of this. Dear lord is it boring. But in the name of lore I will watch this

Perhaps I'm more used to Rika acting like a mini-adult but she feels very much like a child in this story.

This shit between the two of them is giving "Harold they're lesbians"

there's a lot of terminology related to dams. Did the author do this much research about dams? Also is a very educated 10(?) year old when it comes to the pros and cons of dams.

Also it turns out Mion doesn't really have an emotional attachment to Hinamizawa? She borderline detests this place.

What is it with Japanese people spending two seconds in the rain and then getting a cold. Like I swear I have gotten caught in the rain dozens of times, been soaking wet, and have never gotten a cold.

anyways, I did some poking around the 07th expansion wiki and found that this is actually a type of........prototype Higurashi. Most of these characters either exclusively appear in this arc, or are "prototype" versions of characters we know, hence why they are silhouette versions of the actual sprites. This also explains why Rika is sounding so mature, because in the console version of Hou that Rika actually looks a lot older, possibly only a year or two younger that Mion.

So this is basically the very first bit of Higurashi....a piece of history, if you will. cool. let's move onto something else

[captasticcaps]

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku (Higurashi Outbreak)

[sinha-ri]

call this a higurashi list, gonna put their english names too bc some websites only give me the english names 

1. When They Cry

2. Cat killing arc/ nekogoroshi-hen

3. Kai + Specials

4. Rei

5. Naku Koro ni Kira

6. Naku Koro ni Kaku: Outbreak

7. Gou

8. Sotsu

Basically the same as above but in case i dont find some/remember some

Y'all gonna watch Higurashi 1 today let's fucking goooo gonna sleep with horrors tonight, will keep you updated

[satoshi-mochida]

Higurashi Hou+ releases today on Steam and MangaGamer's website.

Contains the following arcs:

Higurashi Outbreak

Kamikashimashi-hen

Hinamizawa Bus Stop

Mehagashi-hen

[hinakonotediary]

[07th-info]

The cover to “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou,” illustrated in the style of Ryukishi07.

“’Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hō’ is a sound novel in the ‘Higurashi no Naku Koro ni’ series. The game features a new, ‘Umineko’ style opening movie accompanied by the song ‘Ano Hi e’ created by ‘Higurashi’ veterans dai and Yuduki, as well as at least two new additions to the cast.”

“The game reuses sprites from previous installments, with the addition of new sprites for the expanded cast drawn by Ryukishi07 in the style of the old sprites.”

“The game was released in Japan on August 17th, 2014, as a "thank you gift" to fans of the series, and it includes ‘Hinamizawa Teiryūjo (Hinamizawa Bus Stop),’ the original ‘Higurashi Outbreak’ story, and a brand new arc called ‘Kamikashimashi-hen.’ ‘Hō’ also includes the original eight arcs and ‘Rei.’” 

 - from the “When They Cry” wiki page.

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch. 7 Minagoroshi pt. 17

This one little section makes up for the entirety of the domestic violence child abuse segment in my opinion.

Tomitake is about to learn the hard way the importance of paying attention to the post coital conversation.

Not only is Tomitake about to die a grisly death, he’s also getting dumped, the poor boy. One of the things I always liked about Takano was how nice and relaxing her voice is while she’s talking about vile gory subjects. Like the history of Watanagashi, or the cons of a swift execution. It’s such a wonderful juxtaposition between how sweet her voice is while talking about gruesome topics. So her voice here when she’s talking to Tomitake about how the moment of her ascension is at hand, and is just about to kill him is impeccable. It was a treat when it was used during a few moments throughout the series, the section when she’s talking to Keiichi after he killed Teppen stands out as a highlight. But here, now in this moment when it becomes clear she’ll be sticking around a lot longer filled me with so much joy.

We haven’t gotten there yet, but this plot twist about Tokyo wanting the outbreak to occur is going to become a lot stupider.

Now what would Ange say if she saw you like this Okonogi? Also it’s interesting to see you went from a military man to a yakuza crime boy in the thirteen years or so between now and Ange looking into the Rokkenjima incident. Did Eva know about your former life as a secret special forces soldier? I’m going to guess she did.

Well that’s considerate of her. I suddenly recalled, while reading this way back in Tatarigoroshi when Takano came upon Keiichi after he buried Teppei that Keiichi saw the bike in her backseat. I also seem to recall that when Keiichi saw the bike he more or less just wrote it off as he just was doing something extremely illegal, so who’s he to criticize? I suppose the implication is that even back during the events of the other chapters Takano and Okonogi injected Tomitake with H173. So, even when Shion was enacting her bloody revenge Takano was still just running around doing her schemes?

One timeline ago when Rena was taking the school hostage were Takano and the mountain dogs were enacting Operation Doomsday? Which, again makes me wonder, what was even the point of driving Rena into the depths of parasite madness? Was it just for the kicks? Or was she hoping to use Rena and her Hinamizawa Syndrome to divert attention away from her and the Mountain Dogs plans?

I'm kind of fascinated by this notion that Takano's plot and whatever the general plot of the rest of the chapter is, is happening in parallel to one another. Like Takano's just sitting there reading the newspaper, turns to Okonogi and goes "hey, turns out the Maebara boy went whackadoo and beat his classmates to death with a bat." And then she just shrugs and carries on with her own scheme. Although, now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder how much it affects her plot the times when Rika got killed by Shion? This is another slight skipping ahead, but I wonder if when Ooishi and the police found her hung up dead in the murder basement at the Sonozaki house if she was like FUCK, and scrambled to get the rest of her plan moving.

In that vein, were the Mountain Dogs not keeping an eye on Rika because she didn't befriend Takano in Watanagashi/Meakashi? So they were blindsided by the sudden death of Rika? I guess it would be pretty suspicious if the entirety of the Mountain Dogs just broke into her house mid fight to protect Rika. But still, I like to imagine Okonogi or whoever found out about Rika dying and had to go have that awkward conversation with the boss.

Hey now, you’re just as big of a nerd as he is lady.

I’m sure being a part of history will make him feel great when he claws his own throat out in a bit. I just have to say, Takano being the culprit behind Tomitake’s death took me by surprise even though I started suspecting her in some of the earlier chapters.

[felixcloud6288]

Higurashi: Festival Accompanying Chapter 20

This chapter revealed a lot of things about Mion that I never knew.

Irie had been doing so well in the last several chapters. Could he please just not be a creep for one arc?

Rika decided to just go straight to Irie and tell him that Takano plans to kill her. Understandably, he finds it hard to believe because that would be the worst thing that could happen to her research.

I'm kinda surprised about how much he's willing to reveal to Rika when she asks though. Telling her their research is to be concluded in three years is one thing, but actually admitting that there is an emergency procedure to kill all the villagers if anything happens is not something you just admit.

And Irie says Emergency Manual 34 would be used "in case the villagers ever show signs of a mass outbreak." I should remond everyone that the Queen Carrier hypothesis is absolutely 100% incorrect as proven in Cotton Drifting and Eye Opening. In fact, the VNs make it even more definitely true because the Eye Opening epilogue reveals all the secondary characters were still alive and well 20 years after Rika's death.

Kinda wild that those arcs on a cosmic level are the "good" endings since they're the only arcs where Operation Apocalypse failed, the village was spared, and Nomura did not get what she wants.

Irie also survived those arcs as well. So I wonder if part of the reason he was targeted by Operation Apocalypse wasn't just to pin the blame on him but also to keep any medical experts on Hinamizawa Syndrome from being able to prove that a mass outbreak wasn't going to happen.

Now that Rika has more information and less understanding why Takano would kill her, Hanyu suggests doing what the story has kind of said you should always do at times like this: Go ask your friends for help. But Rika, understandably, feels like no one would ever believe her. Maybe she wouldn't feel that way if she had her memories from Massacre. Hanyu is so confident that they'll believe Rika because she saw them believe her before.

But Hanyu does manage to come up with a framing device to get Rika to talk about the situation:

This made me do a quick dive into what manga might be around at this time. In June 1983, Doraemon, Akira, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind were all very early into their serializations. Meanwhile two works of Osamu Tezuka's, Buddha and Black Jack, would finish serialization a few months later. Speaking of which, Tezuka was still alive at this time so maybe Rika was into Phoenix. Unfortunately, Tezuka passed away before he finished it.

Another manga I found that piqued my interest is Touch. It's a manga about two identical twins and the neighbor girl wanting to become professional baseball players. It ran from 1981 to 1986.

I have just learned some very interesting things about Mion right now. I can imagine her having the managerial skills to handle things like story-boarding, promoting, and publishing; but I'd never guess she has drawing skills or any ability with typesetting.

Rika tells them the plot points she's come with for her "manga" and I bet Keiichi realized she's just copying the plot of the Higurashi VN beta that the regulars at Angel Mort have been sharing with each other (No seriously, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni's beta exists as an actual visual novel within the Higurashi universe).

When Rika asks for help about the "evil researcher's" motives, Mion suggests there is someone else manipulating her, and even though the "evil researcher" is doing something that doesn't benefit her, it would benefit the mastermind.

And Mion was exactly on point about what is going on.

It's a minor detail, but this moment really exemplifies Rika's "frog in a well" status that Massacre kept calling her. Rika has only known the village and the people living in it. When trying to understand Takano's motives, she isolated her thoughts entirely to the village and the villagers. She never considered someone completely unconnected to the village might be the reason for all this.

So did everyone realize that Rika was asking for help from the start or did they realize after Rika asked for help to figure out how the protagonist of her "manga" can win?

The very first thing Mion brings up is Satoko has built a whole trap mountain. Way back in Curse Killing chapter 1, Keiichi said Satoko could take on an army within the mountains and we're soon going to find out how true that is.

But just as Hanyu predicted, Rika's friends believe her and are ready to help. Now comes the time to plan their counterattack.

back

Spoiler Discussion

Near the end of this arc, we discover that Takano is beginning to suffer the symptoms of Hinamizawa Syndrome. At this time, she's very likely already low-level symptomatic and is experiencing the symptoms similar to Satoko's: Calm exterior with a burning internal hatred.

Hanyu said one of the ways to keep symptoms at bay is to go to others for help. We saw that at the end of Atonement when Rena calmed down because Keiichi was able to convince her that he cared about her.

In a far darker sense, Nomura is doing the same thing to Takano. She's convinced Takano that she cares about her and her research and Takano is becoming dependent on Nomura to keep from falling victim to Hinamizawa Syndrome.

And maybe finding out Takano is being manipulated is what affects Rika's motivations at the end of the story. Takano and Hanyu both have a wish that oppose one another. But at the end of this story, Rika will make a greater wish stronger than both of them, and her will shall be the one that wins.