Keiichi and his family have moved to Hinamizawa from Tokyo due to his parents work. He is a transfer student in the town school, which is so small that the classes contain multiple grade levels. There he befriends four odd girls who are members of a game-playing club. The members of the club are Sonozaki Mion, Ryuuga Rena, Houjou Satoko and Furude Rika. Mion and Rena are around Keiichi's age and Satoko and Rika are grade school aged. After the first day of club activities, Keiichi accompanies Rena on her way home, instead of gong home she takes him to the town dump. The dump is actually the abandoned construction sight for a defunct dam project. A few years previously the government was planning on damming the river that would result in the town being flooded, the citizens protested and after a grisly murder/dismemberment of one of the pro dam citizens the project was canceled. Keiichi discovers this information while in the dump after coming across an old newspaper. Just as he discovers the article on the mutilation Rena comes back wielding a large machete. When Keiichi questions her about the murder from a few years ago her expression changes instantly and she says she doesn't really know anything about the event.
The following day Keiichi is approached by an out of town police officer named Oishi Kuraudo. Oishi comes to the school and pulls Keiichi aside to talk with him in his car. He informs him that he is investigating the dam lynching incident and other events that may be related. Keiichi learns that since the lynching each year, during the summer town festival Watanagashi, one person is murdered and another disappears. Everyone in town says the murder/disappearances are the cause of a curse placed on the town by its patron demon/protector Oyashiro-sama. The people affected by the curse during the Watanagashi festival each year are people who were pro-dam or related to them. As Keiichi delves further into the mystery for Oishi he learns that his friends are not who they seem and they are all hiding secrets from him. Soon his own life is in danger with Watanagashi right around the corner. He needs to find the truth behind the murders/disappearances and how his friends, the three great houses of Hinamizawa and even the staff at his school are related to the yearly rampage of vengeance and secrecy.
The series is split into a series of chapters, representing different play-thru's of the visual novel game. The first four chapters represent different questions to establish the secrets of the village and the murders. Each chapter is separated into multiple episode arcs which contain different narration paths for Keiichi and the other characters. The chapters typically end with some or all of the main characters meeting a grizzly death and the truth of whats going on remaining just out of reach. The last two chapters in the original series are known as answer chapters, that retell different narratives in the story, revealing some of the possible truths behind the murderous celebrations and the history of the town and its inhabitants. By the end of the series there is no actual resolution behind everything. The series continues with the second series, When They Cry: Kai and further installments, all building to a greater truth that contains different conclusions and clues as to what is going on.
This series is not for the faint of heart, it can be quite brutal and gory/disturbing. One of the most notable scenes involves one of the characters committing suicide by pounding her head into a butcher knife while the butt of it is against a wall. There is some disturbing subject mater as well. This is not for people who are suggestible to realistic fiction, such as small children. Along with the subject matter, the ambient soundtrack greatly enhances the mood of the series…cicada's chirping will never be the same again after this show. I highly implore anyone who likes mysteries or horror to check out this series, it's a great roller coaster ride but can be confusing, so just sit back, enjoy and wait till you are done watching the entire thing to figure everything out. Don't let the initial goofy, fan service air fool you either; the typical mundane anime attitude is just a cover for the dark things that lurk beneath the surface in this show.
Higurashi has been available in dub and sub across a number of formats for many years now.
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