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fandom.07th-expansion | # Rose Guns Days Wiki
| Rose Guns Days Wiki |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rose Haibara
is one of the main protagonists of the "Rose Guns Days" series. She is the Madam of Club Primavera and does everything in her power to preserve the Japanese culture that was almost lost after World War II.
Profile.
"She is the real first Madam of Primavera, Rose Haibara.<br>However, in '47, she was forced to put together a group of crooked ladies of the night.<br>She was fair and gentle to everyone. Earnest, unquestioning and good-natured.<br>She still doesn't have the dignity of a Madam, but that's why everyone loved her so much.<br>She was pretty and beautiful as a woman, but as a lady of the night, she was probably not the best choice.<br>She had the beauty and fragility of a fresh snowflake, because none of the men wanted to touch her."
Appearance.
Rose has green eyes and long, curly light-pink hair. Her casual wear consist of a dirndl with long light-yellow skirt, pink shoes and red pendant.
For business meetings and other formal occasions, her hair is tied into a ponytail, and she wears a dark purple blazer with a white shirt and rose brooch at the front. She also wears a midi skirt that resembles an unopened rose bud, nude stockings, and pink high heels.
Personality.
Rose is very conscientious and tries to extend kindness to her fellow Japanese whenever possible, however she constantly questions her decisions, especially if others suffer because of them.
Over time, Rose learns to become more assertive while still maintaining her sense of kindness and goodwill.
Background.
Rose was born to a Japanese mother and a Greek father, who had moved to Japan to study Japanese culture. Her father's observations of Japanese culture made Rose want to preserve it.
As an adult, Rose became a lady of the night and was soon chosen by Stella, Meryl and Amanda to become the Madam of the alliance and nightclub Primavera.
Story.
"Season 1".
Rose is first introduced in 1947 as the Madam of Primavera and hires Leo Shishigami as a bodyguard. Alfred Akagi arrives at the club and demands that Rose pay his family protection money, and she refuses. Alfred soon kidnaps her and Claudia Kurosaki, but they get rescued soon after. Rose later approaches Captain Butler to get the protection of the occupying forces and is told to find a missing American soldier. Rose and her friends investigate and discover that the soldier tried to save a woman from prostitution and is running from her bosses; Rose gives them $1,000,000 to set the woman free and pay her debts.
Rose then starts thinking about how she can save her fellow countrymen. She prepares a party for Butler at Primavera and encourages Richard Maiougi to make deals with Japanese businesses instead of American ones to help them expand and provide jobs for Japanese people. Rose later discovers that Alfred is planning to drive a bomb into the club as revenge. To distract Butler and the other customers during the party as the bodyguards hunt down Alfred and the women of the club search for the bomb, Rose starts singing English songs and uniting them in a chorus.
The Caleb Family starts taking over City 23 after Alfred's defeat, and they approach Primavera to get them to ally with them; Caleb thinks Rose will say yes since they both want to help the Japanese. Rose refuses him, believing that Caleb is far too brutal in his methods despite his good intentions. Caleb's men later attack Primavera-allied businesses in return, and when a shopowner dies because of their attack, Rose begins to regret her decision and starts questioning if she really is suitable to be Madam. Rose asks Wayne to drive her to GHQ to convince Butler to help and she winds up getting captured by Caleb's men, with Miguel Kurashiki torturing her for being so submissive. Caleb arrives to force Miguel to stop, and Leo takes Rose to her apartment to recover.
Amanda Amamiya takes advantage of Rose's absence to make herself the new Madam of Primavera, and Caleb's men start searching for Rose and her allies. After a shootout at her apartment, Rose and Leo escape and hide with Claudia at her restaurant. Miguel soon figures out they're hiding there and attacks the restaurant, and Rose escapes again and runs away with Leo and Wayne holding back Miguel's men.
"Season 2".
1947.
Rose is picked up by Lee Meijiu and brought to Chinatown where she reunites with the rest of the Primavera crew. After hearing that Wayne and Claudia were taken hostage by Miguel, Rose resolves to rescue them herself. She starts training in gun usage and makes a promise to Leo that if she ever fights by herself, then Leo gets to spend the night with her. As Rose trains, Meijiu starts instilling in her the desire to "become a dragon" and get her hands dirty.
Rose later calls Miguel after seeing leaflets spread around by the Caleb Family wanting to contact her about Claudia and Wayne. Miguel wants Rose to come alone to the pier to negotiate their release and she accepts the deal, wanting to talk to Caleb in person. Meijiu then convinces Rose to equip a poison-tipped ring so she can assassinate Caleb and destroy the Caleb Family. Rose psyches herself up to kill Caleb up until she meets Miguel, who wants to perform a full-body search before he takes her to Caleb; Rose considers killing Miguel instead if he notices the ring, but she ultimately takes it off and throws it into the ocean. They're then interrupted by Claudia and Wayne suddenly appearing, who've escaped capture and are trying to rescue Rose. In the ensuing gunfight, Wayne and Claudia are seemingly killed when an exploded car falls on them, and Rose starts despairing over their deaths. With military police drawing near, Rose gets arrested as Miguel's men escape.
Rose is taken to meet Butler and continues espousing her desire to become a dragon, asking him for an explosive vest so she can kill Caleb at any cost, even if it means she dies with him. A few days later, Rose starts preparing the vest and is stopped by Leo, who convinces her to forget about becoming a dragon and to rely on her comrades at Primavera. Leo then makes good on his promise to spend the night with Rose if she were to act by herself.
Renewed with confidence and determination, Rose calls Caleb and formally declares war on him. She later regroups with her Primavera allies and announces her resolve to stand up to Caleb for her countrymen, receiving support from everyone including Wayne, who suddenly reappears; Wayne and Claudia had survived the shootout earlier and were recovering.
Rose then meets with Butler and Meijiu to prepare a final attack on the Caleb Family. Caleb keeps rotating between safehouses due to the attempted assassination on him earlier, and if he hears that Club Primavera and Amanda were captured, he'll want to rush over there to save her; the Caleb Family was already falling apart at the seams due to some of his subordinates getting disillusioned with Caleb trying to gather $100,000,000, and him rushing to save his girlfriend will further strain them. Military police should be standing by at Primavera to arrest Caleb's men should they instigate a gunfight, and Rose's group will attack Caleb's main hideout while keeping all fighting and gunfire inside as much as possible to avoid public disturbances. As another part of the plan, Rose receives from money from Butler to use in bribing James Tomitake to join their side and provide information.
Primavera launches their attack, successfully taking Amanda hostage and trapping Caleb at the Belton Plaza Hotel. Rose, flanked by Leo and Wayne, enters the hotel to talk with Caleb, who's joined by Miguel and several henchman. After a brief conversation between Rose and Caleb's ideals, the two sides start exchanging gunfire. As the fight goes on, Caleb and Miguel retreat to the penthouse while Rose and Wayne pursue him; after reaching the top Wayne and Miguel duel and defeat each other, leaving Rose and Caleb alone to talk.
Rose and Caleb have one last duel, ending with Rose declaring herself the new ruler of City 23 and promising to end Caleb's war by inheriting his ideals. Rose soon announces the creation of the Primavera Family and absorbs the remnants of the Caleb Family into it, having great plans to rebuild Tokyo and foster mutual aid between Japanese countrymen.
The end of 1947 has Rose seeing Leo off as he returns to end his own war, and she herself heads into the reborn City 23.
1948.
1948 centers around Rose having expanded Primavera greatly, buying all the special offers windows and raising wages for Japanese laborers. While being driven home from a meeting with Butler, Rose's car winds up hitting a girl; Rose brings her to a hospital, and when it turns out she developed amnesia Rose gives her the temporary name Rapunzel, Zel for short. Rose later invites Zel to lunch and talks about food culture, explaining her desire to distribute Japanese soy sauce.
Rose later meets with Meijiu concerning a decision to help all Japanese countrymen or just the ones living in City 23. Tensions between Japanese and Chinese laborers have also started rising, and Meijiu proposes that Primavera and the GDS work together to preserve public order. Rose instead states her plans to make a Japanese employment agency, and she offers to sell Meijiu some of the special offers windows if he makes a Chinese agency as well; Meijiu asks Rose to trust him when he asks for time to make a decision.
Zel and the Wandering Dogs later discover a backdoor employment agency operating in Chinatown, and they inform Rose about this. Rose decides to open the Japanese agency right away after telling Meijiu of this, soon offering to negotiate with him again for the creation of a Chinese union only to be rejected, as the elders behind the GDS have started to get involved and don't want anything to do with the Japanese
Rose becomes impressed with the Wandering Dogs' success and appoints them as her personal bodyguards, taking them with her to Chiba to meet with the Satomi Alliance. It's revealed that Rose faked killing Caleb and took the credit for it, with Caleb soon going into hiding under protection by Satomi. Rose is then escorted by Miguel, who also survived and is working for Satomi, to meet Satomi Yoshikage himself and secure a deal for soy sauce distribution. While celebrating at Caleb's bar afterwards, some assassins attempt to kill Rose but are soon defeated.
"Season 3".
1948.
Rose begins selling soy sauce across City 23, causing some controversy over the price being three times what it was in the past. Rose and Richard are later brought to meet Wang Yuanhong, where they discuss the tensions arising between Japanese and Chinese citizens. Wang and Meijiu want Rose to lower Japanese wages to what they once were and to transfer 30% of the special offers windows to them. Richard is quick to reject this proposal but Rose calms him down and asks to have a few days to consider it.
Unbeknownst to Rose, Zel is actually the assassin Hotarubi, who is ordered by Wang to kill Rose. Zel is given a ring filled with poison meant to take effect after a week and is invited to the next Pasta Gathering, where Rose gives a speech about how Japanese people need to work together and moves Zel's feelings. She struggles to go through with poisoning Rose's drink, and Rose notices her ring and makes her stop the attempt, having seen through it beforehand.
Wang then releases cheap, fake soy sauce on the market, and many Japanese citizens start buying it. Rose tries convincing businessmen to continue buying Japanese soy sauce to preserve food culture in the long run, but they're unwilling to since they're struggling to get by as it is. Rose later hears from Meijiu about why Zel became an assassin and sympathizes, inviting the other Wandering Dogs to hear the story.
Wang still believes Rose has been poisoned and demands her to make reparations to the GDS, otherwise he will release even more cheap ingredients onto the market and continue dominating the City 23 economy. Rose begins to realize that enabling self-determination in Japanese people is much more important than just preserving their culture, and she considers a plan that would make Primavera hated in the future. After meeting with the other Primavera bosses to discuss this, they all agree.
Rose is invited to meet Wang again at his restaurant and give her final answer to the GDS' proposal. She had been helping Zel and the Wandering Dogs hone their skills in preparation for rescuing Zel's father from Wang's restaurant, and Rose helps in the plan by keeping Wang occupied.
After Zel's father is successfully rescued, Rose and Wang sit down and begin negotiating over Primavera's relationship with the GDS, with two phones being placed next to them. Wang asks Rose to sign a document confirming her allegiance with the GDS, and she pours wine all over them. Wang and Rose then begin exchanging moves, with Wang summoning his henchmen to surround the restaurant while Rose calls Richard to begin burning down Wang's storehouses, destroying his cheap ingredient stockpiles.
Rose also reveals that she had disbanded the Japanese labor union but transferred the special offers windows to other mafia groups that were originally supporting the GDS, buying their support for Primavera. Wang soon succumbs to the poison he had tried to kill Rose with and is carried off. Sun Zilong then assumes control of the GDS and negotiates with Rose more amicably, earning some of the special offers windows. 1948 ends with Rose seeing off Zel and her father with fake passports so they can live in secret.
1949.
Rose starts planning a distribution association in City 23 to make Primavera on par with the occupying forces and Chinatown. She winds up collapsing from exhaustion one day, and Stella and Meryl decide to help her out as advisors. Rose recovers and manages to get the distribution association approved, having a meeting with Butler, Meijiu and later with Major Gabriel Kaburaya.
Rose later gives a public speech as president of the association and is then attacked by mysterious assassins, who unbeknownst to her were sent by Gabriel to kill her. As Rose tries to escape, she gets shot in the stomach and makes it to the hospital under critical condition.
"Last Season".
1949.
Rose undergoes an operation to remove the bullet, which was successful, however she's still comatose. As Rose is taken to a hiding spot, Richard assumes control of Primavera after Stella's death and sends Wayne to act as a bodyguard for Rose.
1950.
Rose has been kept hidden in a hotel in Shizuoka, and is essentially under house arrest. After Rose regains consciousness, she asks to talk to Meijiu after hearing Richard say that the GDS was responsible for Stella and Yuuji's deaths. Richard still wants to keep Rose hidden and says there was evidence collected by Gabriel that they did it.
It's later revealed that Rose had been exchanging letters with Zel ever since she left Japan, and Zel returns after noticing that her letters suddenly stopped coming, and that when they started again, they looked like they were written by a different person. Zel and the Wandering Dogs determine that Rose is under house arrest, and they later meet with Leo, Jeanne Amakawa and Meryl to plan a rescue. The group and Wayne eventually break Rose out of her hideout but they temporarily get stopped by Keith Kisaragi taking up a sniping position.
Rose meets up with Jeanne and sends a call to Richard, where they discuss their ideals before Rose declares her will to stop Primavera. Rose then recruits Caleb and meets with Zilong in preparation for the final battle.
Rose's group attacks Richard's in a graveyard, and she and Leo have a brief standoff with Cyrus and Richard, which ends with Richard running away. Rose ends up shooting Cyrus, and as he dies he asks that they let Richard go.
After the fighting ends, Rose asks Jeanne to prove she has what it takes to reform Primavera as its new Madam, wanting to spread a story that Jeanne killed and usurped her.
In 2012, Jeanne reveals that Rose had faked her death and lived the rest of her life in secret with Leo, assisting her successor from the shadows, and that Julie is Rose and Leo's granddaughter.
| Rose Haibara |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rose Haibara/Image Gallery
Fight CGs.
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| Rose Haibara/Image Gallery |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rose Haibara/Sprites
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| Rose Haibara/Sprites |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rudolf
| Rudolf |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rudolf Ushiromiya
is Kinzo Ushiromiya's third child and second son. He is the father of Battler Ushiromiya and Ange Ushiromiya.
Appearance.
Rudolf is a good looking middle-aged man who has slightly darker complexion than other family members, dark brown hair, light brown eyes and wears a dark gray suit and pants, with a white tie, black shirt and white ankle boots. The One-Winged Eagle is adorned on his left lapel.
Personality.
Rudolf is shown to be sly and cunning. He has talent to do things that are borderline swindles or illegal and getting away with it. He is heartless to those he swindled and thinks it is not any of his business when he drove some of them to commit suicide. Rudolf is also a playboy who attracted and toyed with many women's feelings, thinking it fun to watch them fight over him.
However, he is also shown to be similar to Battler when he was younger, as out of all the Ushiromiya siblings, he was the most energetic one and joked around. When he was younger and was told that there are wolves in the forest, he said that he wanted to pat them, causing Kinzo to change the story that there were witches instead; Rudolf became scared and clung to Krauss for a while.
Despite always teasing Battler, he is also shown to care about him, and even gave Asumu's parents money to take care of him as well as take note of what is happening to Battler in school. He also loves guns and enjoys watching many Western films.
When his sister Rosa was still a child, Rudolf tormented her and bullied more than Krauss and Eva together, flirted with the servants occasionally to deprive her of the company of someone to play with and make friends and as shown in "Twilight of the Golden Witch" manga, he went so far as to destroy her rabbit rag doll, Uu-tan (something that Rosa herself in her adult years would unconsciously replicate it with her daughter). However, as he grew up he later expressed regret about how he treated her when they were younger.
In "Requiem of the Golden Witch",his true nature is shown in the Tea Party when he proves willing to kill his own siblings and their families in order to keep all his father's money for himself and his family.
Abilities.
Rudolf shows some proficiency in firing guns, especially Winchesters, as a result of his love for Western movies.
Background.
Rudolf ran a company and started dating his coworker Kyrie, even though he was already married to Asumu. He ended up getting both women pregnant, with Asumu giving birth to Battler while Kyrie had a miscarriage. "Twilight of the Golden Witch" reveals that Kyrie was actually the one to give birth to Battler while Asumu had the miscarriage. Rudolf didn't want it known that he had an illegitimate child and so he bribed the doctors to swap the results; Kyrie wound up believing she had a miscarriage while Battler believed Asumu was his biological mother.
Asumu suddenly died six years later, and Rudolf married Kyrie soon after at the cost of straining his relationship with Battler. Rudolf and Kyrie then had Ange. In 1986, Rudolf seeks to reconnect with Battler after so long.
Relationships.
Battler Ushiromiya.
Rudolf is Battler's father, however the two haven't gotten along very well ever since Rudolf married Kyrie. Battler believed Rudolf betrayed his dead mother Asumu with this act and was disgusted, abandoning the family name and going to live with his grandparents for a while. Even after they reunite in 1986, the two still aren't on good terms; Battler calls his father a bastard at times, and Rudolf jokes that he would gladly hand off his son to robbers. Despite their relationship, Battler still sheds tears anytime his parents are killed and Rudolf does truly love his son from the bottom of his heart.
Kyrie Ushiromiya.
Rudolf is Kyrie's husband. At family conferences, Kyrie sometimes speaks with other people, which Rudolf dislikes. Kyrie also does her best not to make Rudolf feel inferior in this way. In times where Kyrie is able to get involved, she can corner people in negotiation, something Rudolf appreciates.
Ange Ushiromiya.
Rudolf is Ange's father. While their relationship is never greatly expanded in the story, Rudolf does greatly love Ange from the bottom of his heart and so does she, fondly remembering him and Kyrue dearly and part of the reason she refused to accept Eva as her new mother was because she doesn't think anyone could ever replace her parents.
Rosa Ushiromiya.
Compared to Krauss and Eva, Rudolf seems to be the only sibling with whom Rosa has a peaceful relationship. However, as shown in the "Turn of the Golden Witch" Tea Party, as kids Rudolf would do the same things to Rosa that Krauss and Eva did. The "Requiem of the Golden Witch" manga shows a brief flashback to Rosa's childhood where Rudolf would also deprive her of friends to play with among the young servants and destroyed her precious stuffed rabbit in front of her.
Role In the Story.
Legend of the Golden Witch.
Collaborated with his siblings in an attempt to get money out of Krauss. Afterwards, he wanted to meet with Kyrie and Battler about something important, ominously stating "I will probably be killed tonight."
He never got the chance to talk about it, having been a victim of the first twilight.
"His corpse was found inside the rose garden storehouse. His face seems to have been smashed after death."
"He has a right to lament his ill fortune."
Turn of the Golden Witch.
Was a victim of the first twilight.
"His corpse was found in the chapel."
"The direct cause of death is unknown, but it seems his stomach was cut open and his intestines pulled out after his death."
"On top of that," "sweets and candies were packed into his stomach."
"This is why we want to be as sweet and innocent as candy."
Banquet of the Golden Witch.
Went to the mansion with Kyrie and Hideyoshi to retrieve food, only to be killed by EVA-Beatrice as the fourth twilight.
"Died in the hall of the mansion, with his forehead pierced by a weapon shaped like a stake. "
"Apparently, they've gotta be finished off with stakes from here on out. Gross."
Alliance of the Golden Witch.
Was a victim of the first twilight, killed by Chiester 00.
"His corpse was found in the dining hall."
"About half his head was destroyed. It's probably reasonable to assume that he was murdered with a powerful gun or something similar."
"However, the witnesses don't believe he was killed with a gun..."
End of the Golden Witch.
After Battler and Erika solve the epitaph, he makes another reference to talking to Battler about something, again ominously saying "I will probably be killed tonight."
When the rest of the family casts doubts over Kinzo's existence, he goes up to his study window using a ladder and breaks it open.
Alive at the time of the game's suspension.
Dawn of the Golden Witch.
Alive at the time of the game's suspension.
Requiem of the Golden Witch.
In the Tea Party it's revealed that Rudolf and Kyrie are the true culprits of the Rokkenjima Mass Murder Incident. After discovering the gold along with the other adults, he and Kyrie planed to take it all for themselves by murdering everyone on the island and escaping to Kuwadorian with the gold. Rudolf and Kyrie then call each of the children one by one, with Rudolf assigned to kill George. After killing him, Rudolf is swiftly killed by Eva, who he thought was dead; he gets shot in the chest and then the head.
Twilight of the Golden Witch.
During the quiz session, he pulls Kyrie in private and reveals his secret: she and Asumu were set to give birth on the same day, and Kyrie actually gave birth to Battler while Asumu had a miscarriage. He didn't want it known that he had a child with his mistress, so he bribed a doctor to switch the results. He decided to reveal this after seeing how Kyrie acted towards Battler for so long.
In Bernkastel's game he ends up being the culprit along with Battler and Kyrie.
| Rudolf Ushiromiya |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rudolf Ushiromiya/Gallery
| Rudolf Ushiromiya/Gallery |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rudolf Ushiromiya/Sprites
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| Rudolf Ushiromiya/Sprites |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rudolph
| Rudolph |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rukhshana
is from COU Saudi Arabia and a member of the Gauntlet Knight squad Suparna.
Profile.
"From COU Saudi Arabia"
"A member of the 301st Aerial Augmented Infantry squad "Suparna" of the COU Combined Military Central General Corps, First Branch"
"In her home country, only men attended Aerial Augmented Infantry schools, but her P3 levels were so high that the king commanded that she be given a special exception."
"Her personality isn't suited for being in the Aerial Augmented Infantry, but she earns top grades in all forms of training. Her simulator grades are the best in the COU-controlled section of the Middle East."
"Her non-confrontational personality and tendency to focus on defense are thought to be signs that she best embodies the soldier who protects peace, so she is very highly regarded."
Appearance.
Rukhshana wears a black scarf head-covering with a gold trim, resembling a , paired with a black gothic -style dress with an asymmetrical, ruffled, layered skirt and red inner lining. Her outfit is complete with a red and gold sash, black gloves, and dark boots with black stockings. Her Gauntlet has a metallic blue shield attached to it.
Personality.
Rukhshana gets worried easily, often facing possibilities of her alternate personality Rukhi coming out; Rukhshana thus talks to Rukhi a lot and tries to calm her down. When Rukhi's in control, she laughs a lot and is rather wild.
Special Abilities.
Goddess of Protection (S)
"Her ability to defend against enemy attacks is extremely high. She intercepts anything that can possibly be intercepted, and she'll protect her wingmen with her own shield if necessary."
"Possibly in exchange for that, her ability to attack enemies isn't particularly good."
Rejection Shield Aptitude (S)
"Her aptitude for using the Rejection Shield is very high, and she can rapidly and accurately deploy it with minimal strain."
"This is the exact opposite of Sujatha's ability and can be used optimally when in a defensive position. "
8MS Stealth: Concealment (S)
"Unless she makes sudden movements, she can slowly fade away before anyone realizes it, like a sand castle against the waves, making her disappear from the view of the Reaper's Eye."
Background.
Rukhshana was born and raised in COU Saudi Arabia, which had a culture finding it immoral for men and women to share the same workplace. When Rukhshana became a Gauntlet Knight, there was much outcry after it became known that she was to be placed in Suparna with a man, Andry. Rukhshana was allowed to stay in the squad after intervention from the COU government.
Story.
Rukhshana is first introduced in Chapter 2 alongside her squad mates at the International Battle Standard Festival. She later accepts the Public Bath Oath.
In Chapter 18, Rukhshana's squad is sent on a mission to destroy ABN agricultural plants and in the process are accused of causing civilian casualties. Rukhshana starts panicking, having made sure that there were absolutely no civilians around when they attacked
In Chapter 23, Rukhshana and her squad become active in suppressing the drone revolt. In the next chapter, Suparna is reprimanded for their neglect during the agricultural plant attack and for sabotaging missions as part of the Public Bath Oath. Rukhshana suddenly transforms into Rukhi and lets loose on the colonel in charge, and Andry steps in to defend her and ensure she stays in the squad.
In Chapter 25, Rukhshana gives Rukhi control and introduces her to the rest of the Gauntlet Knight aces.
| Rukhshana |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rukhshana/Gallery
| Rukhshana/Gallery |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rukhshana/Sprites
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| Rukhshana/Sprites |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rules
The in the series are constants that define how the pieces on a game board move and react.
General Concept.
Fragments can have any manner of variable affecting the worlds within, which in turn affect game boards. The Rules however generally remain consistent and will always manifest unless they are overcome or through other interference. In many cases, one Rule manifests because of the effects of another Rule.
The Rules of Higurashi.
's Rules are first established in "Minagoroshi". Click the collapsible below for more information.
The Rules in the visual novel are explained by an unknown narrator, which in the manga is shown to be Frederica Bernkastel who educates Rika Furude about them.
The three Rules are as follows:
Rule X
"A random person becomes violent under the influence of paranoid thoughts."
At least one person, usually Keiichi Maebara, Shion Sonozaki. or Rena Ryuugu, will succumb to paranoia and eventually kill some people. This can be caused by Rule Y, Rule Z, or will manifest interdependently.
Rule Y
"Jirou Tomitake and Miyo Takano will get killed on the night of Watanagashi."
Tomitake is always found dead in June of 1983, and Takano will follow suit either by disappearing or being found dead herself. As they are the fifth victims of the curse, suspicion falls onto the Sonozaki family, long suspected of masterminding it every year.
Rule Z
"The Sonozaki family always acts as if they are responsible, no matter if they are or not."
The Sonozaki family follows a precept that anything that happens in the village, the Sonozakis must act as though they were behind it all along, making it seem as though they have lots of influence. The result is that many people, including Kuraudo Ooishi, believe they are responsible for Oyashiro-sama's curse and will spread this idea to other people, sometimes resulting in Rule X taking effect.
The Rules of Umineko.
's Rules are explored in the side story Bernkastel's Letter and revealed explicitly in the "Twilight of the Golden Witch" manga. The manga also introduces the idea that Rules remain consistent so long as the Game Master keeps them consistent, as revealed by Battler's explanation of the fifth game, which had a different Game Master than the previous one.
See the Writing Process section of Message Bottles for specific information.
| Rules |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rules XYZ
| Rules XYZ |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rules X Y Z
| Rules X Y Z |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rules of the Labyrinth
UraHigu.
Mion introduces Keiichi to a new game "pop-up maid", while comparing it to another one called "pop-up pirate". When Satoko attempts to play it, an explosion occurs.
| Rules of the Labyrinth |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rules of the World
| Rules of the World |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rumiko Chie
is a teacher who works at the Hinamizawa Branch School. She first appears in "Tatarigoroshi""."
Profile.
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"She is a teacher at the Hinamizawa Branch School.<br>She is a student-focused teacher and is trusted not only by the children but also by the villagers.<br>She is also unimaginably obsessed with curry and has a curry garden behind the school."
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"The young teacher in charge of Keiichi's class at Hinamizawa's only school.<br>Though she's still young, she cares deeply about each and every student.<br>She also loves curry."
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Appearance.
Chie has blue hair and wears a white dress. She has blue eyes.
Personality.
Chie loves teaching and will do whatever it takes to ensure her students are safe. She also loves curry and will not tolerate disrespect for it.
Background.
When Hinamizawa's old school closed down, a new school was created by the villagers during the dam war when they rented a building from the forestry service. Chie moved to Hinamizawa to teach there despite protests from the board of education. After the dam conflict, the Three Families convinced the government to recognize the school.
Story.
Chie is present throughout "Onikakushi" and "Watanagashi", however she doesn't have a sprite in these arcs in the original visual novel.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Question Arcs.
Watanagashi.
Chie is introduced. Her love of curry is established when she hosts ad judges a curry cooking competition at school in appreciation for the Foresty Service. The students participate for a grade, with Chie ultimately giving Keiichi, Tomita and Okamura a perfect 100 for their perseverance despite the sabotage from the club members.
A few days after the Watanagashi Festival, Chie informs the class that Mayor Kiichirou has disappeared and tells everyone to go home in groups so nobody else goes missing.
Tatarigoroshi.
Chie makes her first proper appearance with a sprite. She goes ballistic on Keiichi when he badmouths curry in front of her as part of a punishment game.
One day, Rika shows up alone to school without Satoko. Chie speaks to her in private and worries about Satoko, and the girl returns a few days later. After Satoko has several more absences, Chie asks the club about it, and they explain that Satoko's abusive uncle has taken her back to live with him. Chie calls the child consultation center and promises to do something about Satoko. Chie later tells the club that a child welfare officer visited the Houjou residence, but they saw no evidence of abuse, and both Satoko and her uncle denied that it was happening at all. She also learned that Satoko previously faked abuse with one of her stepfathers a few years ago, which is why the child consultation center is being more careful with how they approach her.
Satoko returns to school and suffers a mental breakdown, crying and calling for her Nii-nii. When Chie enters the room to check on all the commotion, Satoko quickly clams down and claims that nothing is wrong.
In the credits, it is stated that Chie died in an accident while fleeing the Great Hinamizawa Disaster.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai.
Meakashi.
The credits show that as of 2004, Chie lives in Tokyo.
Tsumihoroboshi.
Chie talks to some gardeners at school. Rena believes that Chie is actually a pawn of Oryou Sonozaki and that the gardeners are actually death squad members sent after her. Rena's suspicions are seemingly confirmed when she calls the gardening company's phone number printed on an envelope only to find it doesn't exist. Chie calls the number herself and points it out to a gardener, and the man says that they had their phone number changed, but the one on the envelope is the old one.
Rena runs away from home and doesn't come to school for a few days, worrying Chie. The club tries to assuage her fears when Rena calls the school and tells Chie to meet her somewhere. Chie leaves Mion in charge of class and leaves the school in her car. However, the call was actually a ruse by Rena to get Chie away so she can take the school hostage. When Chie returns to school, she finds the police surrounding the place and trying to defuse the situation. All Chie can do is watch and cry.
Minagoroshi.
Chie supports Keiichi's recruitment in running the Watanagashi auction.
When Satoko doesn't come to school one day, a dejected Rika tries to leave school and Chie makes her come to the office and explain what's going on. Rika explains that Satoko's uncle has returned; Chie promises to check it out herself, but Rika insists that it won't do any good, even if she calls child protective services after. Shion and the rest of the club suddenly appear and voice their concerns, and Chie visits the Houjou residence after school.
Chie meets Teppei and asks if Satoko's okay since she didn't come to school, and Teppei claims she has a cold. Teppei cusses her out and sends her away. Chie returns to school and tells the club of what happened. The group decide to call the child consultation center and convince them to take action.
Over the next few days, the club starts rallying people to protest the center, with Chie giving her support by talking to the board of education. Later, Chie goes with her entire class to the center to protest. Satoko returns to school a few days later, but she is still not in good condition.
When Keiichi considers gathering even more people to protest the center, Chie says she can't support him anymore since it would risk the school; it's being allowed to operate thanks to the Three Families, and the Kimiyoshis and Sonozakis won't want to support Satoko that easily. Keiichi and his group talk to Kiichirou that night anyway, and Chie is revitalized and gives her support again. The protest is ultimately successful, and Teppei is arrested while Satoko is saved.
Chie is presumably killed during the Great Hinamizawa Disaster.
Matsuribayashi.
Chie introduces Hanyuu Furude as a new student to the class.
In the epilogue, it's shown that Chie and Mion want Keiichi to be the next class president.
Watadamashi.
Chie hosts a curry cooking competition.
Mayor Kiichirou goes missing after the festival, and Chie warns the class to be careful. When Rika doesn't return to class after break, Chie and the rest of the students look for her.
Tataridamashi.
When Satoko doesn't come to school one day, Chie learns from Rika that her abusive uncle returned. Chie goes to the Houjou residence and speaks with Teppei, who rudely greets her and says Satoko has a cold, so she might come to school tomorrow.
Satoko has a mental breakdown when she returns to school and calms down when Chie enters the room. Later, the club rallies the entire village to protest the child consultation center. Chie gives her support.
Other Appearances.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei.
Saikoroshi.
Rika travels to another world where everything is different. The Chie of this world proves to be near-identical, however she refers to Satoko as "Satoko-san" and not "Houjou-san" since Satoshi is present.
| Rumiko Chie |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rumiko Chie/Gallery
| Rumiko Chie/Gallery |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Rumiko Chie/Sprites
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| Rumiko Chie/Sprites |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Runaway
Runaway is the fifth episode of the "Okamikakushi" animation.
| Runaway |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Runon
| Runon |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryou Fujibayashi
is a character appearing in "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Mei" in the "" collaboration event Sunrise Over Hikarizaka.
| Ryou Fujibayashi |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryou Fujibayashi/Sprites
| Ryou Fujibayashi/Sprites |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryou Sonozaki
, nicknamed by her friends, is the main protagonist of "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Oni".
Appearance.
Oryou has green hair. She wears her hair in a ponytail tied with a bow and a kimono.
Personality.
The young Oryou is very cheerful.
Role in the Story.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Oni.
The story opens in 1923, where a young Oryou is introduced heading out to meet her club friends Seiji, Ritsuka, and Souhei. They go to Furude Shrine to play tag and briefly meet Kiichirou. The game of tag ends with Souhei winning and Oryou losing by being the first to be caught. As a punishment, Oryou is dared to enter the Furude Shrine's ritual storehouse alone, but that night the club members join her anyway. Inside the storehouse, they see the statue of Oyashiro-sama hiding a picture scroll they've never seen before, talking about "demon descending".
15 years later, in 1938, an adult Oryou has become Okai's assistant for the Sonozaki family. Souhei moves back into the village after spending time working with a foreign trade company and reunites with the club. When Oryou drops a charm, Souhei returns it to her but notices that Ryou's name is now written as 鬼両 with the character for "demon" added to it. The group attends the Watanagashi Festival that night and drink sake together. Souhei asks his friends to meet him at his house tomorrow to disucss important things with them.
| Ryou Sonozaki |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryuji Hayami
is a detective and captain of the prefectural HQ's first Mobile Investigation Team. He first appears in "Someutsushi-hen".
Role in the Story.
Someutsushi-hen.
Hayami's team is first on the scene of a nurse's death from burning in an oil drum. He informs Tomoe and Fujita of the situation and then tells them Kakiuchi Station has no jurisdiction here, as the murder occurred in the neighboring prefecture of Sawaguchi and is thus Sawaguchi Station's responsibility. Hayami arranges for Tomoe to get the autopsy photos anyway.
Kageboushi-hen.
Hayami is present at the scene of Kazuma Hatakeyama's murder by Kiyoshi Obata.
Tokihogushi-hen.
Hayami is present at the scene of Nagisa Ozaki's murder. He informs Tomoe of the situation and then warns her to get out, as Second Division is behind this case. Hayami plans to give Tomoe status reports anyway, and later tries to calm her down when she hits Okabe in a rage.
Miotsukushi-hen Ura.
After Tomoe and Tsukada's near-death experience at the hands of Hanada, Hayami's team retrieves Tsukada's car from the harbor.
Tomoe launches a raid on Kakiuchi Airport, and Hayami's team joins in. Hayami captures one of Chiba's men in the airport warehouse and later warns his allies that Hanada is trying to escape on an airplane.
As a result of the raid, Hayami is given a salary reduction and transferred to another jurisdiction. Before then he gives Tomoe a report about Tsukada's vehicle and its usage by Hanada in Nagisa's kidnapping and death in 1982.
| Ryuji Hayami |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryukishi07
(birth name unknown) is a Japanese author and artist who is well-known as the creator of the sound novel series, consisting of , , and . He is the representative member of the group 07th Expansion.
Biography.
Ryukishi was originally born in Chiba Prefecture. As an adult he worked as a civil servant until he was 30. During his time as a civil servant, Ryukishi developed a hobby in doujin circles and was part of a group to produce a work called "Flowers", but it never released since the circle disbanded. Ryukishi later formed his own doujin group called 07th Expansion with his two younger brothers and created cards for the card game "Leaf Fight".
Inspired by the visual novel "Tsukihime" created by TYPE-MOON, Ryukishi and his brothers decided to make their own novel game. Ryukishi had previously written various stage play scripts and took one called Hinamizawa Bus Stop and reworked it into . "Higurashi" has since become a pop culture phenomenon, and 07th Expansion's members grew as Ryukishi became involved in many more visual novel works.
"Ryukishi07" is a pen name, inspired by the character Reina of "Final Fantasy V": "07" in Japanese can be pronounced as "reinana", and "Ryukishi" means "dragon knight", referring to the dragoon job in "Final Fantasy". The character Rena Ryuugu, primarily associated with "Higurashi", was originally a heavily-modified fan-rendition of Reina as well. The uniform worn by Reina, a highly modified rendition of the dragoon outfit, would also become the Angel Mort costume worn in-universe by "Higurashi" characters before becoming emblematic of 07th Expansion as a circle.
Style.
Art.
Ryukishi's artwork is (in)famous for its poor quality, which initially contributed to early difficulties in "Higurashi"'s growth since it was one reason not many doujin stores wanted to sell it. Ryukishi considered his art style intentional however, wanting to lure readers in with a false sense of security in thinking it was just a romance story. Ryukishi is especially criticized for the way he draws hands, which he is conscious about.
Writing.
Ryukishi describes his writing process as like building a rollercoaster: he gets readers excited and hopeful with fun and happy scenes before putting in cruel scenes. He enjoys seeing people react to his work, especially if they're horrified.
Ryukishi also thinks of his writing process as like playing a game with the readers. Ryukishi looks up fan reactions to new installments of his work and will change or add parts according to reception; sometimes he'll reference popular fan theories, but other times he'll throw out future plans and rewrite things from scratch, as he did with "Umineko" Episode 3. When it comes to fan-made derivative work, Ryukishi has shown great support for it.
Themes.
Recurring themes in Ryukishi's work are social issues such as child abuse and familial relationships, which are seen as realistically written due to his experience as a civil servant.
Another recurring aspect is characters with similar appearances and names to those in his prior works. He sees his characters as actors and compared using similar character designs to playing both Han Solo and Indiana Jones: the person behind the role is the same, but the character they are playing in each movie, or in this case game, are very different.
More recent works produced by Ryukishi have seen the presence of the wanya, a blob-like creature that seems to be his author avatar.
Works.
Early Work.
Before he started using the penname of Ryukishi07, he was involved with making an 18+ doujinshi, however it saw limited success. The first use of the Ryukishi07 name was for another, "all-ages" doujin. After this, Ryukishi started creating custom cards for the game Leaf Fight, making some based on characters from "Tsukihime" and the Key visual novels AIR and Kanon.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (2002-2006).
The horror-mystery-thriller "Higurashi" was Ryukishi's first successful commercial work, and arguably his most famous. The original eight story arcs were released from August 10, 2002 to August 13, 2006, with an additional set of arcs released on December 31, 2006. During that original serialization period, Ryukishi became involved with manga, anime, light novel and drama CD adaptations, and manga spinoffs of "Higurashi" as its popularity grew. Almost 20 years later, "Higurashi" continues to get extensive console remakes, spinoffs, and sequels.
Kaidan to Odorou, Soshite Anata wa Kaidan de Odoru (2005).
"Kaidan to Odorou" was a light novel serialized in "Faust" magazine from November 11 to December 20, 2005. A mystery-horror work, it featured ostensible connections to "Higurashi" and would establish a trend of cross-series references between Ryukishi's future work.
Gakkou Youkai Kikou (2006).
"Gakkou Youkai Kikou" was a horror light novel that was serialized in Dragon Age Pure magazine starting on November 29, 2006. It would form the basis for , a sort of remake.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni (2007-2010).
"Umineko" was Ryukishi's second visual novel work, and a followup to "Higurashi" as the second part of the "When They Cry" series. Similar to "Higurashi", "Umineko" had eight story arcs that were released from August 17, 2007 to December 31, 2010. Ryukishi also had a hand in manga and anime adaptations of "Umineko" during that time, and he also wrote a multitude of short stories expanding on "Umineko"'s characters and world.
Verokia Dragoon Story (2007-2008).
"Verokia Dragoon Story" was a historical fantasy web novel serialized in "Shonen Alchemist" from May 11, 2007 to January 25, 2008.
Okamikakushi (2009).
"Okamikakushi" was a horror visual novel published by and released on August 20, 2009.
Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni (2010-2012).
"Higanbana" was originally a manga series that was serialized between May 2010 and November 2012. It took the setting and characters introduced in "Gakkou Youkai Kikou" and expanded upon them.
"Higanbana" was then adapted to visual novel format and became the third visual novel work produced by Ryukishi with 07th Expansion. It released two installments on August 13, 2011 and December 31st, 2011.
(2011).
"Rewrite" was a visual novel collaboration with Key and the writers and . Ryukishi wrote Lucia's route.
Rose Guns Days (2012-2013).
"Rose Guns Days" was the fourth visual novel release by 07th Expansion. "Rose Guns Days" was a historical action-drama, and unlike previous works, featured playability through fighting minigames and character artwork by many manga artists that Ryukishi had grown acquainted with during "Higurashi" and "Umineko"'s manga adaptations.
Hotarubi no Tomoru Koro ni (2016-2018).
"Hotarubi no Tomoru Koro ni" was a horror manga series serialized in Gekkan Action from March 25, 2016 to February 24, 2018.
Iwaihime (2016).
"Iwaihime" was a horror visual novel released for PC on January 29, 2016.
TRianThology (2016).
"TRianThology" was the fifth visual novel produced by 07th Expansion and released on August 31, 2016. Ryukishi once again collaborated with Romeo Tanaka and Yuto Tonokawa, with each one writing a different story.
Harem Royale (2016-2019).
"Harem Royale" was a harem-thriller manga serialized from 2016 to 2019.
Ciconia no Naku Koro ni (2019-ongoing).
"Ciconia" is the sixth visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion and the third installment of the "When They Cry" series. It began release on October 4, 2019.
Bakemonotachi ga Usobuku Koro ni (2019).
"Bakemonotachi" is a horror light novel that was released on December 16th, 2019.
Gensou Rougoku no Kaleidoscope (2020).
"Gerokasu" is a visual novel that was released for consoles on December 17, 2020.
LOOPERS (2021).
"LOOPERS" is a visual novel that was released on May 28, 2021. It was a collaboration with Key, with Takeshi Matsuyama and Romeo Tanaka to write two other visual novels Project:LUNAR and Project:PORTER as part of the project.
| Ryukishi07 |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryukishi07/Gallery
Artwork.
Pachi-Slot Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kizuna.
Ryukishi submitted several artwork of Higurashi characters posing with Dynamite-kun, the mascot of Daiichi, to celebrate the release of Pachi-Slot Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kizuna.
Other.
This is a gallery of Ryukishi's fanart of other works.
| Ryukishi07/Gallery |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryukishi07/Image Gallery
| Ryukishi07/Image Gallery |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryukishi07 Explains How Higurashi GOU and SOTSU Reinvent the Franchise
On Septeber 30, 2021, Ryukishi07 had an interview with AnimeNewsNetwork regarding the anime series ' and ' and the various aspects introduced in it. The interview was translated by Kim Morissy, which may be viewed here.
Transcript.
"The" Higurashi: When They Cry – GOU "anime caused a stir when it was revealed that it was not a remake but a completely new story set in the world of" Higurashi. "As the" Higurashi: When They Cry – SOTSU "sequel anime approaches its conclusion, Ryukishi07 spoke to ANN about how the new anime reinvents the franchise."
We're finally returning to Hinamizawa for a new story. How did the decision to return to June of Showa year 58 (1983) come about and what is it about the Higurashi series that makes it intriguing to create?
R07: The biggest reason why I decided to revisit the June of Showa year 58 (1983 in the Gregorian calendar) is because of something that was in many of the fan messages I've received: “I want to erase my memory so that I can experience that shock for the first time all over again.”
It's been around 20 years since "Higurashi" was first announced, and in that time I've been constantly hearing that opinion from a lot of fans. So for a long time, I've thought that if I were ever given the chance to give back to those fans one day, then I would like to grant their wish. When the opportunity to make an anime came upon me, I thought about taking all the previously established rules of "Higurashi" and making an entirely different “New Higurashi.”
To me, it's been an utter delight to create—because using my work to take all the readers by surprise and shatter their expectations is my greatest idea of fun.
Make people think it's a reboot and then surprise them by revealing that it's an entirely new anime. Make the story superficially resemble the old one while something completely different goes on behind the scenes. I think I was able to enjoy the experience that the fans have talked about of “erasing” their memory to experience "Higurashi" for the first time again.
The story of "Higurashi GOU" and "SOTSU" hinges on the point of view of Rika and Satoko. Rika has had a very prominent role in "Higurashi", but "GOU" and "SOTSU" are the first to put Satoko in the spotlight. What made you decide to focus on her this time?
I intended to put a spotlight on almost all the characters of Higurashi so far, but Satoko hardly appears in the Curse Killing Chapter despite being the focus character of it, and I've always wanted to delve a little deeper with her. I was finally able to grant my wish to create a new story with Satoko at the heart of it with the "GOU" and "SOTSU" anime.
GOU shows that even when the Hinamizawa kids reach an ideal ending, Satoko faces new struggles and becomes the “pull-wire behind tragic events”. Are there factors in Satoko's life prior to Showa year 58 (1983) that you attribute to her path in GOU/SOTSU?
Satoko and Rika are in similar circumstances in the sense that they have both lost their biological parents, and they had a close-knit, co-dependent relationship. For these two girls on the cusp of puberty, they might have had a wonderful and deeply affectionate relationship, but that excessive love was also tying each other down. However, "Higurashi" is a story about unity, so I decided not to cast the spotlight on the hidden side of that relationship.
In the story of GOU and SOTSU, I was able to birth a new world by setting up the love and hate between the two of them as the core. In that sense, you might be able to say that Satoko and Rika are faced with a promised “trial” that predates Showa year 58.
The discord between Rika and Satoko is central to GOU/SOTSU's plot. I think you can see a disconnect between “Rika's idea of her own high school life” versus “Satoko's idea of Rika's high school life” in the St. Lucia period of the Village-Destroying Chapter. What were you conscious of when you were depicting the disconnect between the two?
I was conscious of the “arrogance” of their belief that their feelings would completely get across to each other. Unlike the village she was trapped in for 100 years, Rika is experiencing a novel, European-style charm in St. Lucia.
And she is convinced that Satoko, who has also spent her entire life in Hinamizawa, is just as charmed by the newness of it all. That's because she also believed in her “arrogance” about understanding Satoko more than anyone else in the world.
For her part, Satoko thinks that for Rika, the life they spent together in Hinamizawa was the pinnacle of their existence, and she is convinced that Rika's fascination with St. Lucia is nothing more than a phase. That's because she also believed in her “arrogance” about understanding Rika more than anyone else in the world.
Spending her days at St. Lucia, Rika one-sidedly believed that Satoko would also enjoy its vibe. And Satoko one-sidedly believed that Rika, who should have “realized” that Satoko could not get used to the academy at all, has abandoned her and won't come to help her.
Because they have blindly accepted that they are special to one another, they have come to hate each other more than anyone. This decidedly unhealthy relationship causes a certain kind of tragedy, and I've been trying to portray it in the Higurashi style of tragicomedy.
In GOU/SOTSU, Satoko's feelings towards Rika appear to take on a twisted form, perhaps because of the influence of the power of “looping”. What do you think of the salvation and redemption of characters who have committed sins in the story? Do you think there's ever a point when a character is beyond redemption (not exclusive to the Higurashi series)?
One of the themes of Higurashi is that “there is no sin that cannot be forgiven.” So I think that it is important to show in the story that every character, no matter who they are or what sins they've committed, have a path or a world in which they can be forgiven. Thus, in the world of Higurashi, I think that there is no such thing as a character who is absolutely irredeemable.
That said, in the real world there are of course sins that can be forgiven and sins that can't. So I think that it is possible for me to write about irredeemable sins in the context of a fictional world outside of Higurashi.
However, the question is the extent to which a sin is unforgivable, and where would it start? Is it an obligation or a right to forgive or be forgiven? Is it a matter of virtue or acting under peer pressure?...It's a very difficult theme. It has enough depth that one could create an entirely new story focusing on just that as the main theme.
Prior to GOU/SOTSU, the Curse Killing/Massacre Chapters of the original Higurashi visual novel focused on Keiichi and the Hinamizawa group's attempts at rescuing Satoko from her abusive uncle, Teppei. Much of the story deals with government bureaucracy to get child services to intervene for Satoko; it felt like a very realistic portrayal. In a previous interview, you mentioned that you have a background working in a government agency. Did your work at your past job give you any insight into issues facing children in these difficult scenarios?
I once worked as a civil servant at a government office in Tokyo for 10 years. I was shuffled around in many different departments, and because of that I was privy to a variety of the problems faced by citizens. Higurashi draws a lot from my invaluable experiences of that time.
If I didn't have that experience as a civil servant, I definitely wouldn't have been able to write Higurashi.
One of the appeals of the Higurashi series is how it incorporates diverse elements that transcends genre, such as the “Tokyo” conspiracy, supernatural entities such as Hanyu, and the use of Hinamizawa Syndrome as a biological weapon. Are there any new elements in GOU/SOTSU that haven't existed at all in the Higurashi series thus far?
There are new elements, of course. As I mentioned before, I wanted people to experience the feeling of a new Higurashi from scratch by introducing a “mystery” where one's previous knowledge of the series doesn't apply. Because of that, new elements are woven into the story. The story might resemble the older Higurashi on the surface, but the truth takes an entirely different form. I hope you can enjoy the strange and experimental appeal of GOU and SOTSU.
Satoko is called a “witch” in SOTSU. The word “witch” has many different connotations, but what do you think makes a character a “witch”? Also, what kind of influence do the “witch” characters in your work exert over the story and the other characters? Is that influence a positive or a negative?
“Witch” differs in its meaning from work to work, but in most cases, I think it indicates a person who doesn't occupy an individual's position but is instead a god-like figure that can see the world and the situation from above.
Writing stories is something like arranging the pieces on a large game board. They all move individually and birth stories by crashing into each other. I think of myself as someone who writes down what happens when the pieces collide. As a result, there are times when I find myself seeking the opinions and feelings of the “players” who can look down at the game board and at the game's situation with a birds-eye view. They do not have the opinions of a pawn, and they can move pawns around. I get the feeling that I've been assigning the name of “witch” to characters who occupy that kind of position.
In the same way a player's hand moves the pieces, the witch moves the other characters in a way that makes the story mysterious. In other words, the witches may be the tricksters of the Ryukishi07 world. Alternatively, they might be kaleidoscopes, which have a beautiful pattern that appears at random. There is no distinguishing good or evil in those individual shapes; they are neither a positive nor a negative. The witch simply turns the wheel out of a desire to see a beautiful moving pattern. Basically, the influence of a witch can perhaps be likened to “the whims of a god.”
Going forward, if I spot an interesting theme, I'd like a witch to observe it from above and turn it into the “seed” of a new story.
| Ryukishi07 Explains How Higurashi GOU and SOTSU Reinvent the Franchise |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryukishi07 Formation Factors
is a series of video game review and analysis articles written by Ryukishi07 and published in Comptiq magazine.
| Ryukishi07 Formation Factors |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryukishi07 Interview (Epitanime 2012)
| Ryukishi07 Interview (Epitanime 2012) |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryukishi07 Interviews (Epitanime 2012)
This is a series of interviews of Ryukishi07 and Witch Hunt conducted at the French anime convention Epitanime on May 26 and 27, 2012. The first interview concerns what Ryukishi did before making , his thoughts on the franchise becoming as popular as it is, and his new work . Translated by Ziassan. Original archived source is here, alternative source is here, and translation source is here.
The second interview mostly centers around Ryukishi's creation of and his inspirations for it. Original source is here.
The third interview centered around 's development and how Witch Hunt came to be. Original source is here.
Interview 1 Transcript.
This year, the oldest convention still active in France - Epitanime - had Ryukishi07 as guest, the brain behind the works, adapted in anime, "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" and "Umineko no Naku Koro ni". We were able to meet him on Friday evening, three hours before the start of the convention.
Q: Can you introduce yourself, for the French people who don't know you?
Ryukishi07: To all the French: delighted! My name is Ryukishi07! I produced the visual novels Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, Umineko No Naku Koro Ni, in short the "When They Cry" saga. I wish I could call it a "sound novel" but it is a registered trademark in Japan, just like "visual novel".
Q: It solves the problem of whether to call it a "sound novel" or a "visual novel" ...
Ryukishi07: In France the term is free to use so one can call it as they want. In Japan, on the other hand, the safest notion in terms of rights is "PC-Novel".
Q: What was your professional experience before writing the When They Cry saga?
Ryukishi07: When I was 20 years old, I spent three months in a regular company, and after that I was a civil servant for ten years in a district town hall.
Q: About that, in Higurashi and Umineko we often see complicated relationships between children and adults. For example in Higurashi between Satoko and her uncle or, in Umineko, between Rosa and her daughter Maria. Did this professional experience inspire you?
Ryukishi07: During the ten years I was a civil servant, I went through a lot of departments where I learned a lot. And, yes, this experience is reflected in Higurashi and Umineko.
Q: What is your feeling about being published and edited in France?
Ryukishi07: Actually at the beginning, my audience was otakus attending the Comiket, which are a very small fraction of Japanese otakus, themselves a small part of the Japanese population in general! I never thought for a single second that I could be read, published & edited on the other side of the planet, in France.
Q: By the way, you have also authorized a group of English fans named Witch Hunt to develop and publish a free English patch for Umineko No Naku Koro Ni ... How do you feel about this international distribution of the game?
Ryukishi07: As with Higurashi, I never thought that people outside of Japan could be interested. Especially since Umineko is a text even the Japanese can find complex to read. So to imagine that strangers made the effort to read it, understand it and translate it... it is for me an indescribable happiness.
Q: What is your relationship with your fans? Do you still meet them regularly, for example at Comiket?
Ryukishi07: At the beginning of Higurashi , for the first three episodes, the story was still rather unknown ... I produced the CDs myself with a few friends, and sold them directly to people at the Comic Market - and at the time, the price was about 100 yen, it was almost like begging the public to take them! At the same time we told them "if after reading, you could give us your impressions on the story by mail, we will send you the next chapter for free!"
I did not consider the series at the time as a source of profit. I just wanted it to be known as much as possible.
Q: In the Higurashi / Umineko sound novel, we often find this strange ambivalence between macabre scenes and schoolboy humor ...
Ryukishi07: For me, a story must be like a rollercoaster. That is to say, before writing a really cruel scene, it's necessary to get people up, with like, fun scenes.
Q: And also, to make us care more about the characters ...
Ryukishi07: Yes. But to write a cruel scene, it's a necessary process! Before writing a scene of pure despair, one must go through scenes of hope. And, actually, I have a lot of fun doing that when I write it.
Q: What information can you give us about your next title, Rose Guns Days ?
Ryukishi07: I'm surprised that people already know about Rose Guns Days in France! I have not announced anything in Japan about the work so I'll tell you what I can ...
The story will take place in 1947. But it will be an alternative 1947, with historical facts that have nothing to do with reality. An uchronie, in a few ways. For the rest I was inspired by the film "The Third Man", which takes place in Vienna after the Second World War, when the city is divided in four by the allies. It's the atmosphere I wanted to transcribe.
Q: So we can think of a Japanese city divided into four ...
Ryukishi07: Imagine a city divided like a chess game, between America and China ...
Q: Will it be included in the When They Cry saga?
Ryukishi07: No, it will not be part of the series.
Q: Umineko is a work ruthlessly dissecting the mystery/detective genre. What were your main inspirations?
Ryukishi07: I've been influenced by many works but more particularly by an Agatha Christie novel named "The Ten Little Negroes" (Also known as" And Then There Were None)."
Q: And if you were a character in the When They Cry saga, who would you be?
Ryukishi07: (laughs) In the case of Higurashi, I want to become Keiichi! In the case of Umineko, it would be rather Beatrice (laughs) !
Q: Beatrice... which one?
Ryukishi07: (laughs) The answer gets complicated ... Well, in the end, I'm going to stay on Keichi from Higurashi to make it simple!
Q: And finally the last question ... what would you do, if you could get Beatrice's gold?
Ryukishi07: I would buy the Palace of Versailles (laughs) ! No, more seriously, about the 200 million dollars that the treasure represent, I would give half to the prefecture of Fukushima and with the other half I would buy an island to build a mansion, take ten fans at random and send them invitations (laughs) !
Interview 2 Transcript.
The conference of the 26th was focused on Higurashi: Ryukishi07 first introduced himself, followed by the introduction of Pbsaffran, the translator and editor of Higurashi in French, and Klashikari, the founder of Witch Hunt. Ryukishi07 then started to talk about how he decided to make Higurashi. He said that he used to be active on the Doujin Scene even when underage. He also used to play the card game Magic: The Gathering quite a lot. When he became an adult he started working as a civil servant at an administrative building in a district of Tokyo. He thought that he would stop being an otaku at that time but realized that once you become an otaku you stay one forever, and as he was spending more and more time on his hobbies, he decided to retire from work when he was 28 to dedicate himself fully to the Doujin Scene. He wanted to do his first big work, and that was Higurashi.
The thing that inspired him the most to do Higurashi was a movie called The Blair Witch Project, he wanted to do a Japanese Blair Witch Project. He and his little brother decided to do a Sound Novel. That’s what became Higurashi.
After this introduction, Pbsaffran aka Pierre Bancov, started talking about how he discovered Higurashi and how he started working on it around 2008, gave everything he had to not only translate the game in French, but officially release it in our country. As no company was interested in releasing Higurashi, saying it was too long, that there wasn’t a market for this kind of game in France, he made his own game editing company to release it. And the day of the conference, the 26th of May 2012, the French version of the last volume of "Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni: Matsuribayashi-hen", was commercialized at the con. So he did it. A little funny fact: Visual Novels aren’t classified by the PEGI, the French equivalent of CERO. So they couldn’t evaluate the game properly. The only thing that got into their jurisdiction was the mini games in Higurashi. That made them give the game a rating of “for 7 years old or more”. So there’s an additional warning on the cover of the game explaining this mistake, and that it’s definitely not for kids.
After that, we started the Q&A session. (I don’t think the questions are in chronological order, it doesn’t matter much though thankfully).
1/ Why did you choose the real life village Shirakawa-go as the base for Hinamizawa village?
Ryukishi07 said that when they were doing Higurashi, they were thinking about the village they’ll use. His little brother had a book about the 100 most beautiful villages of Japan. They just opened it, found Shirakawa-go and decided on it.
2/ How do you plan your works?
He said that he starts thinking about the story, the characters and all of the next work a year before it’s release. As an example he said that while they were finishing Higurashi, as in, working on "Minagoroshi-hen" and "Matsuribayashi-hen", he already started to think about "Umineko". And while they were working on "Umineko"’s ending, he started to think about Rose Guns Days.
3/ Why does Higurashi is very Japanese, while Umineko is more occidental?
He wanted to make Umineko more occidental, adult and cool.
4/ Why birthday information about the characters of Higurashi and Umineko is so vague or unknown?
He said that they don’t reveal them, especially in Umineko’s case, as if they make a mistake in the dates it could put the already established story into jeopardy. They said that maybe one day they’ll take the time to think about it.
5/ Which is created first? The music or the story & art?
He does all the story and graphic first, and then he goes see composers and asks them to freely compose something. When they’re done, he chooses what he wants from what they composed and put it in the scenes he wants. As an example, he took the Siesta sisters’ theme song, “Dance of the Moon Rabbits” telling us the composer was imagining a rabbit dancing on the moon, while he decided to use the song in the gruesome Siesta massacre scenes.
6/ Is there ever a character in his works that simply dies of old age?
After many laughs, he thanked the person who asked the question, for giving him this idea. He said that maybe in a future work that will span on many generations, he’ll use this.
7/ How did you create the characters of Ryuguu Rena and Sonozaki Shion?
He said that he needed a character that would be double edged. A really cute and happy personality and sometimes really terrifying. That’s how they made Rena. He then added that when you take Rena’s concept, but push the” violence” characteristic at the maximum, you get Shion.
8/ Who’s your favorite character in your works?
He didn’t answer, but said that he’d like to become like Maebara Keiichi. In the 2nd conference though someone asked the same but for Umineko’s case only, and he answered his favorite character is Beatrice.
9/ Did you ever read [H. P. Lovecraft's] works, as it’s similar how things are all happy then starts to go crazy in your stories.
He said that he never did, but that’s how he likes to do stories. It’s like a Jet Coaster. It climbs and climbs and climbs then abruptly goes down. (He made the gesture with his hands of a Jet Coaster while saying this).
10/ How much important is the music in your works?
He said that when you pronounce Sound Novel in Japanese, Sound (SA-O-UN-DO) has 4 syllables while Novel (NO-BE-RU) has only 3 syllables, so the sound is a very important part. (He counted it with his hand while saying this.)
11/ Do you like the opening themes of the Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni anime?
He said they’re “subarashi” and he loves them, Shimamiya Eiko did a great job capturing the atmosphere with her songs, the first time he heard them he was really happy and satisfied about it.
12/ Why did they chose the Higurashi (a variety of cicada insects) and Umineko (Seagulls) as the animals in the titles, and not others??
Well in Higurashi’s case it’s obvious. When they were done with Higurashi, they knew they would keep the No Naku Koro Ni part in the title but change the animal. They knew this sequel would take place on an island, and the first animal they though of then was Umineko (Seagull).
He then added that he and his little brother thought about using another animal for the yet unpublished work "Rose Guns Days" but didn’t find any animal that could fit. So they decided on Rose Guns Days temporarily and then it became real. When they think of another animal to make cry they’ll make the next No Naku Koro Ni title. He said jokingly that it’s the the only thing that keeps him from working on a new No Naku Koro Ni for now.
13/ Why does the sentiment of love is prominent in Higurashi, and extremely omnipresent in Umineko?
He said he wanted to tell a very humane, real-like story.
14/ What does he thinks about France and Paris?
He really likes Paris, he said he wants to go to places tourists usually don’t go to. He told us that he came in France last year, and went to the Mont Saint Michel. He went on a trek there wearing only a t-shirt in the afternoon. He didn’t know that it gets much colder at night and caught a cold when they got back at nighttime. He said while laughing that he brought many multi-layered clothes this time.
15/ As he came to Paris in summer, does he misses the cicadas cry from Japan?
After many laughs, he said that he’s surprised that cicadas and their specific cry are known all over the world.
16/ If there’s any book he recommends reading, to become a better member of society.
He said while laughing that he doesn’t and he’d appreciate it if someone told him what book you need to read to become a better member of society.
And it’s over. The conference was around 2 hours long. Stay tuned for answers about things like Umineko’s ending, why he isn’t the main character designer for Rose Guns Days, how he got the idea for the emblem of the Ushiromiya family and *gasp* why every woman in the Ushiromiya family is very well endowed.
Interview 3 Transcript.
This conference was mainly focused on Umineko :
It started pretty much like the first one, with Ryuikishi07, Klashikari and Pbsaffran introducing themselves. Similarly to Pbsaffran at the 1st conference, Klashikari started to talk about how he discovered Umineko and made up Witch Hunt, and how they received Ryukishi07’s email. One of the most difficult thing with the translation was the red truth. They had to be extremely careful not to make mistakes as it could drastically change the meaning of a sentence.
Ryukishi07 then talked about Umineko’s ending. Episode 8. The epilogue. He said that the ending doesn’t say clearly what happened on Rokkenjima. The answer do exist but he doesn’t intend to give it. It’s in the cat’s box. Some people’s theories that are posted on the net are right, but he won’t tell which. He doesn’t want to be like authors who just writes something, then the readers reads and that’s it. He wants the readers to work on the book too, that way a link is created between the author and the readers. He added that there’s as much answers as the number of people present in the room, or more.
After that Pbsaffran talked about his impressions on Umineko. As he studied Japanese literature for 9 years and since Ryukishi07 is an authentic Japanese writer, he could read between the lines and managed to find some answers right from Episode 1. The more he played the more he thought he was wrong though and then it turned out that he was right. He said that for this reason he is less emotionally attached to Umineko but the musics are absolutely great.
After that came the Q&A session: (Note, I may have mixed in questions that are actually from the 1st conference. Also, like in the 1st summary, the questions probably aren’t in chronological order but it doesn’t matter)
1/ First off, Klashikari himself asked about the references in Umineko, why did he put Touhou references, and if Battler was inspired by Naruhodo Ryuichi/Phoenix Wright.
Ryukishi07 answered that he’s the kind of author who has the bad habit of putting references in his works just to have them. (I agree with him and thought about anime like Nyaruko when he said that but I’ll leave that for another post). He said that he just puts a reference to something he currently likes a lot. At the time he was designing Battler, he definitely was hyped on Gyakuten Saiban/Phoenix Wright. He also did the Objection Finger pose.
2/ Pbsaffran also asked him something: If the stories about him working non-stop and sleeping only 2 hours a day to meet deadlines are true.
Ryukishi07 said that it’s true, and that when he goes to sleep these two hours, when he wakes up, he has answers about the things he was thinking about before going to bed. So he’s actually working while sleeping too. Now he’s getting older so recently he stopped doing that, and works hard to plan things ahead and respect his schedule.
After that people in the room asked questions.
3/ Which one do you like the most, Higurashi or Umineko?
He said that now that he finished both, when he looks back on Higurashi, he doesn’t think he could do another story this amazing again. Then when he looks at Umineko, he thinks that it became like that thanks to the experience he gained while doing Higurashi, so comparing them is very difficult.
4/ As a successful person in this domain, if he has any advice to newcomers of the Doujin Scene who wish to make a visual novel.
He said that the most important is to finish your game. He said that you shouldn’t forget that besides the scenario, there’s also the music, the graphics etc. His advice is to start with a small game, with a small goal, and get to 100% completion of that game. If you can do it, then try to go beyond this 100% and make a slightly bigger game. Then repeat this process.
5/ If the Red Truth system was hard to work with.
Using the red truth is laborious because when you used it, that’s it, you can’t change it. He said that there’s many famous manga in which something is said at the beginning, then later in the story it’s changed to something else. With the Red Truth, you can’t do that, so working with it was burdensome.
6/ There’s some instances where a certain character seems to be criticizing not only the characters, but the readers themselves.
He answered that in the world of Umineko, there’s the Chessboard, then the Meta Room, then the Witches World and it goes up like that. Different worlds are hierarchically piled up. Sometime the critic may be aimed at the characters in the world below, sometimes at the readers, but he’ll leave it at our imagination to guess when.
7/ How do you manage to portray family secrets and discord with such realism in Umineko?
He said that it’s thanks to his days of working as a civil servant. He was often in contact with families and he learned how to deal with their problems and things like that. It’s thanks to the valuable experience he got at his job.
8/ Do you have the start and the end of the story in mind while working on it? And are you influenced by the players/readers’ reactions?
He said that he does have the ending in mind, but doesn’t know how he’ll get to it. He said that when you try to do it like this it’s difficult to think about everything that will be in between all at once. To make things easier, he uses checkpoints. He took an example saying that at the end of checkpoint 1 the story goes like this (tracing lines with his hand) then in order to get to checkpoint 2 he takes another road. That way the readers think it will go like this. But then he deceives the readers and take another road to go to the next checkpoint. (He drew various patterns in the air with his finger while saying all this.) So he is influenced by the reader’s reactions.
9/ If I understood correctly, the guy asked him something about the characters in Ougon Musou Kyoku, about game balance I think. The translator didn’t get it right and translated it as “Why the characters are so well done?” or something. The answer is still interesting though.
He answered that he thinks that the base for a good story is good characters. Characters with lots of depth, detail, and work put into them makes great stories.
10/ Who’s your favorite character in Umineko?
He said it’s Beatrice. (Note: The trolling/EP1-4 version of Beatrice)
11/ How do you manage to write such crazy amazing stories? Are you crazy?
He said that back when he was working as a civil servant, sometimes during meetings, he would suddenly imagine the Kanji on a sheet walking, going on the head of someone, like a female coworker, and playing or dancing on it. Then slide back down and get on someone else. Then someone would call him, bringing him abruptly back to reality and asking him about something. He’d then admit that he wasn’t listening. He said that maybe he is KURAZY after all.
12/ Who’s your favorite character in Touhou?
He laughed a lot after hearing this. He said that it’s very difficult to answer. He said that of course he has a favorite favorite character, but it’s constantly changing. He said that this month he likes Reimu the most.
13/ Is it right to think that Battler is the hero of the explicit part of the story, while Ange is the heroine of the implicit side, of the feelings you want to share with the readers?
He said that there’s many main characters. Battler can indeed be considered the hero of episode 1-4, and that the heroine of the rest could be Beatrice. It depends of your point of view, of your way of approaching the story.
14/ How did you meet up with the person who composed the opening song of Umineko?
The music in Umineko is very important.When he was preparing Umineko, he listened to a whole lot of different music, to choose the opening, as it would set the atmosphere of the game and was very important. From what he listened, he choose Shikata Akiko, then sent her mails and insisted for her to make something adequate. If it wasn’t for Shikata Akiko-san, maybe he wouldn’t have got such a wonderful opening song.
15/ Have you ever cosplayed one of the characters you created?
After laughing, he said that if he was more good looking he would allow himself to cosplay. He told us that there’s a female staff of 07th Expansion who cosplays the characters and sew and creates all her costumes herself. He said that she even manage to cosplay characters that seem totally impossible, like Gaap.
16/ Did you like everything that is Occidental before working on Umineko or did you started to like it after doing research for Umineko?
He said that it’s like a Nabe (hot pot soup). Higurashi was a certain type of story, and he wanted to do something different. So he put different ingredients in. Sometimes the soup would turn out bad so he would throw it away. That’s how elements from Agatha Christie books or Dante’s Divine Comedy got in.
17/ How did you create the One Winged Eagle, the symbol of the Ushiromiya family?
He answered that when creating the characters, he felt that something was missing. It was the link between the characters. So he randomly scribbled on the right part of his torso, trying to find something that would show the link between the characters. It turned out to be this emblem. He said that now that he thinks about it he must have been inspired by Zeon’s symbol from Gundam.
18/ The women of the Ushiromiya family are quite BOIN BOIN. Why?
He said it’s surely because he loves big boobs.
19/ You aren’t the only character designer for "Rose Guns Days." How did it turn out like this? Were you contacted by the artists? Or did you go meet them yourself?
He said that he wanted to do an experiment. As this time, he wanted to fully concentrate on the scenario for Rose Guns Days, he went to Square Enix and asked them if there’s any artist available that’s able to draw some good looking guys fast. The guys at Square Enix told him, why not use the artists who already worked on the manga versions of Higurashi and Umineko. So he did that. That’s what happened.
20/ If you weren’t the author of the Epitaph, would you be able to solve it?
He said that as he’s not very smart, he would have a lot of trouble with it. Especially that he made it with the goal in mind that no one would solve it for at least two years. He said that he wouldn’t be able to solve it.
21/ In Rose Guns Days, there is a character that has a striking resemblance to Battler, even the name is similar, is it the same person?
He likes to have old characters appear in newer works. He answered that you need to think of the characters in his works as actors of a movie. Now that Umineko is over, the actor playing Battler is now playing another role.
22/ What’s the priority you have in mind while creating your works?
He said that in each work he has to please the readers with a good story, deceive them and please himself.
23/ You were contacted by Konami to write the scenario of Ookamikakushi and by Key to write the scenario of a Route in Rewrite. How did it affect your original schedule?
For the summer Comiket, he works from April to August, for the winter Comiket, he works from September to December. So at that time, he had 3 months in between when he didn’t have much to do. That’s when he was contacted by Konami. Working with them made him learn many things and it was also an opportunity to work in a much relaxed environment than usual.
After this last question, Ryukishi07 said some last words. He thanked us all for coming. He said that he was very surprised at the number of the different languages spoken at the convention, how thanks to the translators everyone could communicate and how he was in the middle of people who came from different places. He said he should try to improve himself in that domain. He added that he though that maybe no one will come, and that he would sometimes get nervous, thinking that people wouldn’t know about his works and talk about Touhou instead.
Klashikari then announced that Witch Hunt will translate Rose Guns Days in English. He also said that a surprise is waiting for us. He didn’t say anymore though.
Aaand that’s it. After one more last standing ovation to Ryukishi07, we left the amphitheater.
| Ryukishi07 Interviews (Epitanime 2012) |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryukishi07 Interviews Complete Edition
is a book compiling various Ryukishi07 interviews from "Faust" volumes.
| Ryukishi07 Interviews Complete Edition |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryukishi07 Interviews Complete Version
| Ryukishi07 Interviews Complete Version |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryukishi07 Project Livestream
On September 10, 2020, Entergram hosted a livestream featuring Ryukishi07, Sayaka Ohara (voice of Beatrice from ), and Kyoko Namekawa (voice and actor of Kasumi Hotoda from "Hinamizawa Bus Stop") to talk about the upcoming port, "Symphony of Catbox and Dreams"; and the new game "Gensou Rougoku no Kaleidoscope". A followup interview was conducted and posted to Famitsu. The livestream was privated and reuploaded on October 4, 2020.
The interview was translated by beanbug and posted here.
Transcript.
Please tell us your thoughts on both Umineko and Higurashi coming back in the Reiwa era.
Ryukishi07: When Higurashi was originally published in 2002, I said that I wanted people who had never lived through the Showa era in 1983 to be able to play it, but then the Heisei eraended and we entered the Reiwa era (laugh). I think the way people perceive a game changes based on the era, so I’m looking forward to seeing the reactions of people who play them in the new era. For those who haven’t played Umineko or Higurashi yet, please take this opportunity to give it a try.
Ohara: A long time has passed since I first played Beatrice. Strangely, I don’t feel it has been a long time. That is because I feel that Beatrice has always been in my heart due to my loving fans who have always loved and supported my work. I’ve been asked “can you do Beatrice’s voice for me?” a number of times in many different locations. Because of that, even when I wasn’t working on Umineko, there hasn’t been a time when I had forgotten about her, which makes me happy. I’m very happy to play her again.
Namekawa: As a personal fan of Umineko and Higurashi, I’m thrilled that these long-loved works are still in demand even after so much time has passed! “07th Project”’s works have a powerful message for today’s youth, so I’m excited to see more and more people experience and love them!
What can we expect from Piece and Flauros, the two Umineko characters revealed today?
R07: I can’t reveal the details yet (laugh). However, assassins in Umineko appear in every episode, and Piece is the first one to appear in quite a while. She may look cute on the outside, but in Umineko, the assassins are typically scummy on the inside, so it will be interesting seeing what sort of scum she will become, and how she will do as she pleases.
Ohara: Exactly! Piece was such a shock! I never feel like I’m simply reading one of Ryukishi-sensei’s scripts, it always feels like I’m watching a movie or reading a book. I always end up reading all of it (laugh).
Ryukishi: Thank you very much (laugh).
Namekawa: While I was reading it, I was always thinking “how will they get out of this”, and then it hit my blind spot and I was shocked when it was wrapped up. Piece’s episode was really suspenseful, and I enjoyed it as a reader, so please stay tuned!
Please tell us your favorite episode of Umineko.
Namekawa: Right now, my favorite is the one I just talked with you two about, with Piece in it. I was able to preview parts of “Saku”, and the parts where she is present are fantastic. I’m really looking forward to playing the game.
R07: I like around episodes three and six. The parts where it seems like she could be a good person or not, or if her and Battler can communicate or not…those scenarios are where Umineko is most like a love story, and where Beatrice and Battler’s relationship was really fun to write.
Ohara: When I was recording for 3 and 6, it felt as if you could see a glimpse of Beatrice’s true feelings-or more precisely I was asking “which one is it, Beatrice?” as her maiden’s heart wavered, which was really fun.
R07: I had so much fun writing that section that once episode 6 was finished, I asked myself if I would ever write anything more interesting, and fell into a slump. To tell the truth, it was several weeks before I was able to write again (laugh).
Ohara: I didn’t know that! This is the first time I’m hearing about it (laugh). Ah! Another part that was intense for me was stripping Battler naked, putting a collar on him, and going “Ya!!”. It was intense and fun!
Then, let’s turn our attention towards your new work, “Kaleidoscope of phantom prison”. Did Ryukishi come up with the abbreviation “Gerokasu” for it?
R07: Yes, I was the one that made it (laughs). My intention was that I wanted it to have a name that sounded beautiful, but once you thought about it…..something like that. I wanted people to realize that much later, but they figured it out as soon as I announced it!!
Was it your intention to title the story like that so that you could abbreviate it as “Gerokasu”?
R07: The girls Itaru-sensei draws are all soft and beautiful, but if they are really flesh and blood human beings, if a beautiful side to them exists, then naturally an opposing side to that must exist. Itaru-sensei’s cute girls are like a kaleidoscope, and depending on the situation or your point of view, they may show their worst sides...given that keyword, I created nuance such that a beautiful name like “kaleidoscope of phantom prison” and a title like “Gerokasu” could pair up.
Ohara: “Gerokasu” has a big impact (laugh).
R07: It’s dreadful (laugh).
Please tell us your impressions of Itaru Hinoue’s art.
R07: I worked with Itaru Hinoue before with "Rewrite", and thought that it would be nice to collaborate with her from the get-go. That’s how Gerokasu was started. I really wanted to take her cute, fluffy characters and thoroughly boil them over in my world. At first, I thought she would say something like “how dare you do this to these girls who are like my daughters!!!” and turn me down, but after talking to her I learned that she was also interested in horror stories, and decided to give it a try. As a result, I couldn’t believe I got the chance to make these cute characters scream in agony and enjoyed it.
I heard that the player assigns each character their role, but when you do a bit of math, doesn’t that mean the story’s scope will be massive?
R07: That’s correct. When you combine it, it’s a terrific amount. And I wrote it all!
Then, would there be any roles that would be interesting to give a certain character?
R07: In the video clip we just played, it looks like Fuka is going through a violent transformation, but in reality that will depend on the player’s actions. Depending on the cards the player deals, the scenes will be different, so the order in which you will see those scenes is as varied as the number of players. Depending on the order, it may change which characters you will like and which ones you won’t. To which characters, in which order, do you deal the cards? Why do these variables make such different stories in the same environment? I hope you enjoy this kaleidoscope of different viewpoints.
In addition to the narrative branching out based on the assignment of cards, does the scenario diverge further based on the player’s actions?
R07: I can’t talk about it in depth, but the player assigning the cards is the largest turning point in the story for determining the fate of the girls. After dealing the cards, you could say that you are “observing” the girls to see how they act, how their fates turn out, and who dies. ...To tell the truth, even though the game’s name is “Gerokasu”, its codename during development was “Tragedy Sandbox”. Sandbox in English could mean a sandbox, but it could also mean a place to perform tests. That is, we started with the theme of the player distributing cards like a researcher giving a specific load to 4 guinea pigs in a stressful environment in order to test which ones would kill each other.
Ohara: Harsh (laugh).
R07: Therefore, it would no longer be about the player making which choice to save which girl! It’s a dreadful story with terrible taste!
Ohara: I said it was in bad taste!
R07: I can’t reveal all the details right now, so please stay tuned for further information!
Do any of you have a final message for your fans?
Namekawa: We’ve talked a lot today, but I think that the worlds of Umineko and Higurashi will both return alongside the new work Gerokasu, which will give you an entirely new experience! Let’s all have fun together! Please stay tuned!
Ohara: The staff and actors for Umineko all deeply love the story. Their attention to detail for this world, including picking out the costumes and preparing this location for this interview, is amazing! Of course, just like the fans, we don’t want it to end! Using this chance, I’d love to do an anime adaptation, or a stage reenactment, or an overseas event. Now that I’ve told you, I hope everybody watches with the intent of restarting Umineko!
R07: Thanks to the support of the fans and help from the staff, we were able to get to this point. I truly am grateful. I am happy to once again deliver this work to you in the Reiwa era. I’d like to ask all of you for your continued support.
| Ryukishi07 Project Livestream |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryukishi07 x KEIYA Special Talk
is an interview between Ryukishi07 and KEIYA released as part of the fan book "".
A partial transcript of the interview is found below, as translated by chronotrig, the lead translator of Witch Hunt.
Transcript.
Keiya: One thing I noticed when taking another look over the series in preparation for my new book is the large number of foreshadowings which have been set up since EP1. For example, I looked up absinthe shortly after the release of EP1, and read on with the thought that 'wormwood' in the language of flowers means 'to be absent' and might be hinting at Kinzo's death. Then later on, his death was proclaimed with the red text in EP4. I get the feeling that many more foreshadowings like this are hidden throughout the game.
Ryuukishi: I'm glad that you've seemed to enjoy it.
Keiya: I've thought a lot about how Maria's frequently used line "keep your promises" might be the backbone of the story drawn out in EP4.
Ryuukishi: Who knows(laughs)? I'm right in the middle of writing EP5 now. I've started thinking that it's about time to expose the answers to a few riddles, but as I've said before, I don't want to go and say "X is the answer" like I did in Higurashi. After all, Umineko is a "thinking game", and I want everyone to enjoy "discussions". In a puzzle book, if the answer is written on the next page, your thinking stops the instant you see it, right? I'm aiming to release the answers in a way that will make those who have reached the right conclusion know that they got it right, and yet give only a hint to those who don't yet understand the answer.
For example, if we presume that the answer to a riddle was "apple", then when we turn the page and see "something round and red", people who thought the answer was apple will think "ah, just what I thought" and have their reasoning confirmed. And for people who didn't know, it becomes a hint: "What is red and round?" This is the approach I am aiming for. So I think players like you, Keiya, who enthusiastically theorize about this game, will be able to enjoy the series even more during EP5 and after. In EP5, essential information regarding several riddles will appear, but those who reach the answer might begin to view these as red herrings, so reading the hints could make things even more confusing.
Keiya: I imagine there might appear to be several possible answers depending on how you interpret the hints.
Ryuukishi: Of course, that aspect exists as well. And the same hint might guide you to the answer in multiple ways. The blue text is a good example. There are cases where it is possible to imagine several possible methods for the crime based on the circumstantial evidence. That's the kind of mind game I want you to enjoy. But at the same time, people who are still confused or who aren't confident in their own theories might become even more lost. This kind of work is most fun when you're confused. This time, there will be a harsh trap, and while I believe those who have in some way penetrated to the core of story won't get tricked, those who haven't will probably think "Huh?" I wish I could say more, but I can't(laughs). Anyways, from here on out, hints will start coming from a different angle than before. Up until now, even though the number of hints about Beatrice have been steadily growing, they have all come from the same angle. This time, the hints will appear from a decidedly different angle, so some people might be able to see the riddles three-dimensionally...perhaps. But I tried to write it so that doesn't happen(laughs).
"The readers were far more resilient than I imagined"
Keiya: Now that about 5 months have passed since the release of EP4, what do you think about the reaction from the official message board and fan sites?
Ryuukishi: I think everyone is speculating with all they've got. There were many more hints this time, so I've noticed some very interesting lines of reasoning. There were quite a few people who made me think "So close!" As far as anyone reaching into the innermost heart of the series...I don't think anyone has yet. But there are several who have found the foothold from which the heart can be reached. Even so, it doesn't look like anyone has actually put their foot on that foothold and clambered up to the next level.
Keiya: Earlier, you talked about how some have gotten close to the truth in individual sections of the story.
Ryuukishi: That's right. People have done pretty well when it comes to certain parts. But since there are multiple rules in this tale, you won't be able to reach the truth just by stepping on a single foothold.
Keiya: I've felt that the "wills of several people might intertwine" in this story.
Ryuukishi: Unless you understand multiple things, I don't think you can explain the "who, why, and how". One thing I can say is that, since the speculation and reasoning at the current time is almost banging on the doors to the truth, those who start reading now will be able to unconsciously pick up several useful theories by reading information found on the web, the "explanation books", and your own thoughts, Keiya. Of course, since there are also several mistaken lines of reasoning, I think picking out the truth from amidst all that will be very difficult.
Ryuukishi: It's said that the three parts of reasoning are "Who dun it", "How dun it", and "Why dun it". 'Who' and 'how' are very difficult to speculate about, but the hardest part is the 'why'. In most Japanese mystery novels, this last part is often neglected. When the culprit and the trick are discovered, the culprit resigns and confesses about how their misfortune in the past led them to murder. I've tried to design Umineko so that you can enjoy the 'why' at least a little, so I hope that you do. But that doesn't necessarily mean that there will be clear hints pointing to the 'why'. However, judging by EP3 and EP4, Beatrice clearly hopes that Battler will figure it out. She wants a human to figure it out. People posing a riddle do so because they want someone to solve it. In the bus on a school field trip, if one person poses a riddle and his friends say "That's too hard, I give up. By the way..." and change the subject, wouldn't the first person feel pretty lonely? They would want to hear "I know, it's __" or "I don't know, tell me the answer". So at the very least, there can be no doubt that Beatrice is posing this riddle because she wants someone to try and solve it, and I hope that you consider what she's feeling. After all the most perfect crime would be carried out in a forest and never exposed to anyone. What does Beatrice want out of this incident, and why is she doing it?
Keiya: I imagine that's very closely connected to the riddle at the end of EP4.
Ryuukishi: Yeah, I'll bet. Many hints will appear in EP5 as well. When the pivotal answers come out in EP6 and EP7, I suggest that you replay starting from EP1 and enjoy how early on the foreshadowing begins. Like when you get a new key in an RPG, and return to the very first dungeon to get a treasure chest behind a door that you couldn't open before(laughs). That's an especially fun part of Umineko. Even now, there are many things you'll understand if you go back to EP1. But there are still many treasure chests waiting in EP1 that can't be opened yet. After playing EP5, EP6, and EP7, you might go back to EP1 and think "This is a huge clue" or "It's almost obvious!"
This story will be fun to read over again. The anime will start very soon, won't it? People with certain suspicions might say "Ah!" and clap their hands at certain points in the anime.
"Will people be able to enjoy 'the fun of speculation' in the anime and manga versions too?"
Ryuukishi: Of course. I have been supervising those very carefully. In Higurashi, there were some problems with presentation, and they were allowed to do as they pleased in certain areas. But this time, I have been checking very carefully to make sure there are 'no misconceptions in the presentation' this time, so I think people will be able to significantly enjoy speculation in those as well.
Keiya: In that case, will people who only watch the anime be able to speculate about the series?
Ryuukishi: There is an overwhelming difference in the amount of information contained in an anime and the original work, so it will probably be best to play the original as far as 'the number of hints' is concerned. But as I just said, mysteries in pictures and mysteries in text focus on foreshadowing in very different ways, so things that you didn't notice in the original might feel very out of place in the anime. Then when you return to the original and read the same scene again, you might suddenly feel that something is very suspicious in certain places... The opposite holds true as well, since some places might not leave an impact when on screen, but the text would lead one to wonder "why is this part being described so thoroughly?" So it might be useful to see it through different mediums.
"If you were to assign a difficult to the other formats, would you say that they're easier or harder than the original?"
Ryuukishi: I believe that the primary factors that decide the difficulty of a puzzle are the amount of hints and the amount of information. In that sense, you might be able to say that the original will actually be the easiest. As you know, things need to be condensed to fit in manga or anime versions. You can't just copy every line word for word and use the same description, so the amount of information naturally shrinks. Because of this, the original will always be easy as far as the quantity of information is concerned. Although there are also more fake leads in the original(laughs). But I wonder if that makes the difficulty equal between the two. Just like Higurashi, I think you should enter into Umineko from the type of media that you are most comfortable with. Then, when you also look at the different formats and see the information in a new light, you might be able to get close to something.
| Ryukishi07 x KEIYA Special Talk |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryuugu Rena
| Ryuugu Rena |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryuugu Residence
| Ryuugu Residence |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryuuguu Rena
| Ryuuguu Rena |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryuuichi Arakawa
is Ryuunosuke Arakawa's father. He is a journalist and informant working with Kakiuchi Station. Ryuuichi was originally an unnamed reporter appearing in "Tatarigoroshi" who was given an expanded role in extra arcs.
Appearance.
Ryuuichi does not have a sprite in any version of the visual novel. He is described as looking like a vagrant.
Personality.
Ryuuichi is said to ignore press conventions with his brute-force method of interviewing. He tends to laugh nervously.
Background.
Ryuuichi worked as a journalist for a photo magazine starting in 1975. During that time he became an informant for Kakiuchi Station, reporting to Director Maeno of the Public Relations Office.
Story.
Tatarigoroshi.
A few months after the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, Ryuuichi snuck into the hospital Keiichi was staying at and recorded an audio interview with him. Ryuuichi asks Keiichi about how he survived the disaster after he fell from a rope bridge, explaining that the volcanic gas that emerged from the swamp should have passed through the riverbed Keiichi fell into. Ryuuichi accuses Keiichi of lying and claims he actually hid somewhere while waiting for the gas to thin before being picked up by the SDF.
Keiichi claims that he was responsible for the fifth year of Oyashiro-sama's curse, mentioning the footsteps and how he killed Ooishi, Irie, and Takano. Ryuuichi laughs at his warnings and Keiichi thinks he's being insulted. He thinks Ryuuichi is acting like Irie did in pretending to be his friend and predicts that the reporter will die a water-related death, the opposite of Takano's. Sure enough, Ryuuichi goes missing at sea after his fishing boat capsizes in 1995. In 2005, his parents discover his interview tape with Keiichi.
Yoigoshi (visual novel).
A few months after the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, Ryuuichi recorded separate audio interviews with Shion Sonozaki and Keiichi Maebara. In Shion's interview, she professes her belief that Oyashiro-sama's curse is real, thinking it the thing that killed everyone in Hinamizawa. First that girl blew up the school, and the next day everyone in the village is killed by volcanic gas, with Shion and Keiichi the survivors. Ryuuichi voices his skepticism, and Shion claims that he'll be cursed too if he doesn't believe. Shion warns Ryuuichi to watch out for extra footsteps and declares that he'll drown to death.
Shortly after these interviews, Ryuuichi faced mental instability and was fired from his job. Ryuuichi lazed about and finally died when he drowned at sea, true to Shion's word. In 2006, his son Ryuunosuke obtains these interview tapes from his grandparents and listens to them. Keiichi's tape malfunctions, but Shion's tape works fine.
Miotsukushi Ura.
In 1983, Tomoe prepares to head to the Kakiuchi City TV station and runs into Ryuuichi, who says this is a perfect time. Asked why he didn't call Tomoe or go into the station to talk, Ryuuichi says that it's special business. Ryuuichi asks to be dropped off at Kakiuchi Airport when Tomoe mentions she has to go to the TV station, and she complies. As they drive, Ryuuichi says that Public Security has called off their mark, meaning Tomoe is no longer being followed by investigators from Public Security and Personnel Affairs. Maeno has no idea why they became interested in Tomoe, but according to an acquaintance from Public Security, they're not trying to hide anything. Ryuuichi posits that the culprit Tomoe's trying to hunt down must have a lot of backing and asks her to be careful. Tomoe then asks about the person from "that case", and Ryuuichi says he took care of his responsibilities last week.
Ryuuichi says that next month, an air show's happening near Kakiuchi Airport, and he'd been thinking of attending with his wife and child and pretend to be spending time with them; thanks to Maeno he got tickets easily. Tomoe doesn't understand why guys seem to be interested in vehicles, and Ryuuichi suggests they can go cruising later if she wants. Tomoe blows off his advances and drops him off at the airport soon after.
Ryuuichi informs Tomoe that Maeno is pursuing the movements of the Ministry of Health and Welfare while Public Security is looking for a link between Lowell Inc. and the Gogura hospital. He also passes on a message from Maeno not to do anything crazy.
It's revealed that Kakiuchi Airport is being used to smuggle Placil into Japan under the guise of air show supplies. Due in part to Ryuuichi's request for tickets, Maeno was able to figure out the criminal group's plans.
| Ryuuichi Arakawa |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryuun
The are an interdimensional race of organisms that traveled from their homeworld to Earth in the distant past, of which Hai-Ryun Yeasomul Jedha is one. They are introduced in the console-exclusive arc "Kotohogushi-hen".
Background.
The Ryuun were an advanced race, said by Yeasomul to be similar to humans except they evolved differently, from an ancestor with horns. The Ryuun developed many advanced technologies and could create artificial intelligences such as Ryuun-Ohc. When the Ryuun homeworld cwas on the brink of destruction due to unknown reasons, the Ryuun decided to immigrate to other worlds. They developed , or , devices which could "phase transition" by transforming objects and people into information and reconstructing them on the other side. Many Ryuun were sent past the dimensional wall to other worlds and settled on Earth. These Ryuun would be called , or .
When the destruction of their world accelerated, many refugee Ryuun waiting to travel became distraught and rushed the Lynoses, causing chaos. The Ryuun who had traveled to Earth previously were able to retain their physical bodies, however the Lynos would reject objects that came through it that exceeded a certain mass. Because of this rush, many Ryuun ended up on the other side without physical bodies and trapped in an astral form, what humans would call a ghost.
Although the Ryuun were able to survive in their astral forms and retain their personalities, they risked changing their sense of self due to the accumulation of information that existed on Earth. Since humans were organisms with a high propensity for absorbing information, many Ryuun began assimilating them by merging with fetuses and developing new physical bodies. The Ryuun retained their personality and abilities but lost most of their memories. These Ryuun-human hybrids would be called , or , and caused human civilization to flourish with their advanced knowledge of topics such as writing and mathematics.
One year, a dangerous epidemic spread across humanity, which may have been introduced by the aftereffects of phase transitioning. Infant birth rates declined and infant mortality rates soared, and the immigrating Ryuun grew desperate. They began assimilating children and teenagers, which caused problems since the human and Ryuun personalities would fight for control over their body, as opposed to assimilating a fetus's undeveloped personality over a long period of time. The resulting Grifys developed accelerated growth processes as a result of their genetic makeup getting mixed up, and at terminal stages they would mutate into brutal, aggressive monsters. Rampaging Grifys were able to other Grifys through mental interference and trigger their transformations, giving rise to legends of vampires and ghouls. Putus could also be demonified by Grifys, but it was rare due to the very strong mental stability Putus possessed.
The Grifys ravaged humanity, and the Putus saw fit to take responsibility for bringing them to this world by exterminating them. The 16 Putus families began calling themselves the , or , and dedicated their lives to killing berserk Grifys and protecting humanity. Of these families, the Jedha were the strongest family and took on the role of , watching and looking out for the Grifys.
Characteristics.
Physiology.
Putus look identical to humans save for their horns. They are able to transform between astral forms and solid forms, an ability bestowed to them as a result of coming through the Lynoses intact. However, if they suffer external injuries then they become stuck in astral form until it heals due to the injury disrupting their body structure. On the other hand, Ryuun in solid form cannot shift to astral form if they are carrying physical objects or shortly after eating, due to their bodies working to produce waste.
As Ryuun age, their bodies stay the same due to their molecules interlocking and reconstituting, however their minds regress in a process called infantilization; their thoughts become much more simplified due to the "optimization" of their bodies. When Ryuun die, it is possible for them to remain in a "free body" form, or ghost, but they are unable to interact with other organisms unless they "sympathize" with them, sharing their abilities and memories. It also possible to merge with other organisms. One such example is Yeasomul's mother, the original Yeasomul Jedha, who was able to merge her consciousness with Ryuun-Ohc.
Demonified Grifys receive enhanced regneration abilities. However, Putus blood is like poison to them.
Combat Abilities.
Putus have strength equal to thousands of times that of a human. While Putus are normally masters of the blade, they can extend their claws to sharp lengths in a form of self-demonification but at the risk of losing their sense of self. Those with Ryuun blood can demonify, even if they are not completely Ryuun themselves. A sign of demonification is the person's eyes turning scarlet red.
Putus make use of several combat techniques when dealing with Grifys, with Yeasomul frequently seen using the , or technique. The technique involves Yeasomul coating her sword with her own blood and stabbing a Grifys in the heart, destroying their bodies from within.
| Ryuun |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryuun-Ohc
, also known as , is an artificial intelligence and weapon that serves as Hai-Ryun Yeasomul Jedha's partner. She appears exclusively in "Kotohogushi-hen".
Profile.
"It is an "autonomous data aggregation" with a will of its own. It is not a living being, but a kind of super-integrated circuit consisting of several operators."
"Developed by the Ryuun, it is an interdimensional transfer device called a Control Gate, or Lynos, and does not have a unique form."
Appearance.
Ryuun-Ohc has no appearance to speak of, being a voice residing within a transport system located inside Onigafuchi Swamp. During combat she inhabits Hanyuu's sword and is capable of growing two extra prongs when Hanyuu invokes it.
Personality.
Ryuun-Ohc speaks in a cold, dry tone, showing little emotions. In the past she rarely defied Hanyuu and only ever affirmed reports, but after some slight teaching and reprogramming, Ryuun-Ohc began asking questions and reprimanding her for things.
Background.
Ryuun-Ohc is one of many artificial intelligences created by the Ryuun to assist in their immigration to Earth. Ryuun-Ohc inhabits a Lynos, or phase transition device, within Onigafuchi Swamp and assists Hanyuu during missions by informing her of threats, providing advice and creating medicine and other materials.
It is later revealed that Ryuun-Ohc contains part of the personality of Hanyuu’s mother, the previous Yeasomul Jedha, who merged with Ryuun-Ohc upon her death.
Ryuun-Ohc's name is Ryuunish for "brethren linker." Riku later gives her the nickname Ryuuou.
Relationships.
Hai-Ryun Yeasomul Jedha.
Ryuun-Ohc has existed on Onigafuchi long before Hanyuu's birth. The two are telepathically linked, with Ryuun-Ohc used as a weapon during combat. Ryuun-Ohc ultimately is devoted to Hanyuu's happiness, at one point preventing her from committing an abortion because she believed she would be worse off otherwise.
Role in the Story.
Kotohogushi-hen.
After Hanyuu fends off a Grifys attack in Onigafuchi, Ryunn-Ohc begins repairing her sword and ponders that the attack may have been caused by a demonified Putus.
Hanyuu starts falling in love with Riku and discusses her conflicting feelings with Ryuun-Ohc. The system says she must be happy to act like a child after spending her early years doing nothing but training.
Hanyuu marries Riku and gets pregnant, but tries to abort her child fearing it will grow horns just like her. She attempts to synchronize with Ryuun-Ohc to do the deed, but the system won't allow her to. Ryuun-Ohc says Hanyuu is just making assumptions because she's afraid and believes she will be much happier this way. Hanyuu is confused at the system operating outside its programming.
Hanyuu gives birth to her daughter Ouka and brings her before Ryuun-Ohc to show her off. Ryuun-Ohc is pleased, but she reveals that she's reaching the end of her operational limit and will only be regulaed to being used as a eapon and creating medicine. Ryuun-Ohc also reveals she merged with the personality of Hanyuu's mother and kept it secret since she believed Hanyuu would rely on her constantly. Hanyuu informs her that Riku's nicknamed her Ryuuou, and Ryuuou gratefully accepts it before bidding Hanyuu farewell.
Hanyuu uses Ryuuou's functions to make medicine for Onigafuchi's residents when an epidemic spreads and later bestows her to Ouka so Hanyuu can be killed.
| Ryuun-Ohc |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryuunosuke Arakawa
is a journalist who heads to Hinamizawa long after the Great Hinamizawa Disaster to do some research about it. He appears in the manga-exclusive arc "Yoigoshi-hen"" "and its visual novel adaptation.
Profile.
"A freelance writer who goes in and out of the editorial department of "Weekly Seven". He's investigating the great disaster in Hinamizawa and visits the village to see for himself. It looks great, but it's actually scary."
Appearance.
Arakawa has black hair and glasses. He wears a black collared shirt with green pants.
Personality.
Arakawa is fascinated with Hinamizawa's legends, however he gets scared easily.
Background.
The "Yoigoshi" visual novel version shows that Arakawa's father was a reporter who snuck into hospitals to interview survivors of the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, including Keiichi Maebara and Shion Sonozaki. Shion predicted that Arakawa's father would die a water death, and a few months later he drowned at sea.
After being informed by his grandparents, Arakawa obtained his father's interview tapes and was inspired to become an occult writer, later publishing an article about Hinamizawa being an occult spot. Arakawa also met Mamoru Akasaka at a few points while doing research.
Story.
Yoigoshi (manga).
Arakawa first appears in the prologue, where he talks to his editor about Hinamizawa's mysteries and plans to investigate them.
He reappears barging into the Furude Shrine meeting hall where Otobe's group is, informing them that he's found a car full of people who've committed suicide and wants to call the police. Arakawa couldn't do it with his own phone since he dropped it in a puddle, thus it won't work.
When nobody is able to call the police, Arakawa makes his acquaintances with everyone and later follows Mion and Otobe into the ritual warehouse in the shrine. Arakawa starts taking pictures of all the torture implements and talks about the legends of Hinamizawa. He also mentions that the day before the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, a girl had taken a school hostage and spread gasoline everywhere while talking about how alien parasites were infecting the village; the police tried to negotiate, however the school exploded in the end. Mion claims that she's being possessed while putting on a scary disposition and a frightened Arakawa drags Otobe outside. He then pulls out a victim list and reveals to Otobe that Mion Sonozaki is supposed to be dead, having been a victim of that school explosion.
After Mion finishes her business and regroups with them, they hear Yae screaming outside, saying that her boyfriend Takumi was kidnapped and their car disappeared. Mion searches the perimeter and comes up short, with Arakawa revealing he had come into the village on a motorcycle that has also gone missing. Otobe tries to call the police however his phone is mysteriously destroyed, presumably by the unknown kidnappers.
The group returns to the meeting hall and discover Takumi's corpse, with Arakawa pulling out his wet phone and revealing it's still intact; the person who destroyed Otobe's phone didn't touch Arakawa's because they knew it was no good, therefore one of the group is Takumi's killer. Arakawa levels suspicion on Mion, taking into consideration her katana and the victim list, however Mion blows him off and deduces that Otobe destroyed his own phone and Yae killed Takumi. They both confess to their respective crimes however Arakawa refuses to believe Yae's motive, prompting Mion to call Takumi's ghost and explain things.
Mion brings Arakawa and Otobe to the Sonozaki estate with her, and they follow behind as she deals with Mifune's men. After Otobe retrieves the bell and faces off against Mifune himself, Arakawa charges into Mifune but is knocked away, buying enough time for Mion to deal the finishing blow.
After everything's said and done, Arakawa despairs that he doesn't have a coherent article to write and falls asleep heading back to civilization.
Yoigoshi (visual novel).
Arakawa is made the central viewpoint character in the visual novel adaptation. He heads to Hinamizawa to investigate it and tags along with the writer Miyuki Sorimachi, who joined him at the last second. Arakawa starts to develop interest in Miyuki, and when they reach the village they soon find a car full of people trying to commit a rentan suicide. Arakawa and Miyuki break the windows to save them but are too late, as they died from smoke inhalation long ago. Arakawa and Miyuki then notice a light in the distance, which Miyuki says is coming from the Furude Shrine; Arakawa becomes suspicious of Miyuki's knowledge of the village's layout since she supposedly knew nothing about it.
They reach the Furude Shrine, and Arakawa seems to hallucinate stepping into a pool of blood and seeing a girl's brutalized corpse in front of him before being called back to his senses by Miyuki.
| Ryuunosuke Arakawa |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryuunosuke Arakawa/Sprites
| Ryuunosuke Arakawa/Sprites |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Ryūgū Rena
| Ryūgū Rena |
fandom.07th-expansion | # SB YUNE
SB YUNE is a composer who began working with Ryukishi07 starting with the .
| SB YUNE |
fandom.07th-expansion | # SHELTERING SKY
| SHELTERING SKY |
fandom.07th-expansion | # SINoALICE
is a Japanese mobile game developed by Pokelabo that began service in June 2017. It is a turn-based RPG.
The game had a collaboration with from August 25 to September 8, 2020.
Higurashi Content.
There was an event story titled that was fully voiced. Players could unlock Keiichi Maebara as a login bonus. The other characters Rena Ryuugu, Mion Sonozaki, Satoko Houjou, Rika Furude, and Hanyuu and their weapons were also available.
| SINoALICE |
fandom.07th-expansion | # SOTSU
| SOTSU |
fandom.07th-expansion | # SOUND of WHEN THEY CRY
SOUND of WHEN THEY CRY is a soundtrack album featuring tracks from various 07th Expansion series. The album was composed by HiguUmiSound, which collectively refers to dai, xaki and Luck Ganriki. It was released on 12th August, 2019.
Tracklisting.
<tabber>
Disc1.
</tabber>
| SOUND of WHEN THEY CRY |
fandom.07th-expansion | # SSVD
The SSVD is one of the repentance enforcement agencies supervised by the Great Court of Heaven. Its area of jurisdiction is the 8th District. Like the Eiserne Jungfrau, this agency is well-known and is tasked with performing heresy interrogations, and most probably carries out executions and sometimes bestowing redemption. It is rumored that this group's leader, 'Wizard-Hunting Wright', also known as the Twenty Wedges is even more powerful than Dlanor the Archbishop of the Eiserne Jungfrau.
The only known member was the former head of the SSVD, Willard H. Wright and was succeeded by an unnamed female member of the SSVD. Most of the members are shown to be female in "Requiem of the Golden Witch", with Willard being the only known male. The total number of members are also uncertain. They also have the same uniform as the Eiserne Jungfrau, but with a different crest symbol.
Just like how the Eiserne Jungfrau use Knox's Decalogue in heresy trials, the SSVD uses the Van Dine's Commandments.
| SSVD |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sabakichi Kumasawa
is Chiyo Kumasawa's son and a recipient of a mysterious letter from Beatrice. He only appears in "Alliance of the Golden Witch".
Appearance.
Sabakichi is a heavy-set man with gray hair and wears a blue shirt. The kanji for is printed on his shirt.
Background.
Sabakichi's mother was a victim of the Rokkenjima Mass Murders. Similar to Masayuki Nanjo, Sabakichi received a letter in the mail from Beatrice containing a PIN number, a bank card, and a set of keys leading to a vault containing a massive amount of money. Sabakichi never investigated the letter since he thought it was creepy but held on to the materials.
Role in the Story.
Alliance of the Golden Witch.
In 1998, Ange goes to interview relatives of people who died in the Rokkenjima Mass Murders, with Sabakichi being her second stop. Sabakichi shows her the letter and things inside. He also says that his mother tried to solve the epitaph and points her to some pictures.
| Sabakichi Kumasawa |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sabakichi Kumasawa/Sprites
<tabber>
</tabber>
| Sabakichi Kumasawa/Sprites |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the twenty-sixth and final episode of the and the eighth and final episode of Alliance of the Golden Witch.
Synopsis.
Ange heads to the Golden Land to reunite Maria with Sakutaro and convince Beatrice to return to the game. Soon after, Battler regains his will to fight and engages Beatrice in a final logic battle. Even though this is the end, Beatrice still has a few more tricks up her sleeve.
Plot Summary.
First Half.
Beatrice drinks tea in the Golden Land, golden butterflies floating around as Maria sees that Ange has arrived. Beatrice is surprised to see her there; Ange wants her to continue the game, but Beato has grown tired of it and doesn't plan to return. Ange pleads with her to finish what she's started, but Maria says that Beato's going to stay with her forever, where all her wishes can be granted. Ange tells her that the Golden Land can't grant Maria's greatest wish, but she won't hear it; Maria tries to disprove her by creating a clone of Rosa, one who won't hit and abuse her. Ange then asks about Sakutaro, and Maria becomes intrigued while Beatrice tells her to be quiet. Ange reminds Maria that Sakutaro was her greatest friend, but Rosa tore him apart; Maria screams in anguish as Beatrice tells her to stop reopening Maria's old wounds. Ange asks Beato why she wouldn't revive Sakutaro, and she says that it's impossible; she tries to give a reason but Ange cuts her off, saying the real reason is because Beato isn't a real witch. Ange then proclaims that she can revive Sakutaro, but under one condition: Maria must leave the Golden Land. Maria accepts, and Beatrice expresses disbelief in Ange's powers, thinking she can't do it. Ange beckons Sakutaro to remember his form, and recreates him as a stuffed animal. Maria runs and hugs Sakutaro, ecstatic that he's come back; Sakutaro tells her that he's alright. As Beatrice falls to the ground defeated, Maria praises Ange and acknowledges her as a Great Witch who can use real magic. Maria and Sakutaro transform into butterflies and disappear, and the Golden Land falls apart to reveal the metaworld again.
Beatrice laments having to sit in her chair again, thinking it'll be this way for all eternity; Ange reminds her that that's her role as the game master. Lambdadelta appears, saying that she can't escape again. Beato says that even if she wanted to fight, she has no opponent; Bernkastel appears too, having brought Battler back from oblivion. Bern notes that Battler also cannot escape the game, not until he defeats Beato. She asks if he agrees, but Battler doesn't respond; he's still comatose from his identity crisis.
Ange brings up the red truth saying that Battler Ushiromiya is not Asumu Ushiromiya's child, which Beatrice interpreted as Battler being unfit to be her opponent. Ange asks her to repeat "Battler Ushiromiya is not Kinzo Ushiromiya's grandchild" in red, but Beato doesn't repeat it. Ange then offers her own blue truth: the one qualified to be Beato's opponent must be Kinzo's grandchild, Battler Ushiromiya. But it doesn't matter whether he's Asumu's son or not. Bern asks her to counter it with red; if she can't, then Battler is still qualified. Battler shows a small twinge of emotion, and Ange goes up to him, telling him that even if Asumu didn't give birth to him, she was still a mother to him; bonds are more important than blood when it comes to family. She begs for him to remember, and Battler starts to show signs of life. Ange then reminds him of his little sister who'swaiting for him to come home and will always be alone if he doesn't.
As soon as he hears this, Battler stands up, remembering Ange. Bern and Lambda see that his soul is slowly coming back, but isn't quite there yet. Ange hugs Battler from behind, finally revealing her true identity. She tearfully asks Battler to come back home, saying how she's all alone in the future. Battler is surprised to see that his sister was with him the entire time, and Ange explains that in her world, no one came home from Rokkenjima; Battler is the only one who can defeat Beatrice and save his family. Bern and Lambda note that Battler's soul has come back completely, but Bern reveals the one rule Ange couldn't break: she had to hide her true identity from him. Ange starts bleeding everywhere, lamenting that she can't be with him anymore; she begs for Battler to defeat the witch and come home before disappearing, her bloody hair ornaments left behind. While Battler couldn't see what happened, Beatrice says that Ange's flesh was torn off her body as she was still alive. Battler cuts her off, announcing his final resolve to defeat her and win the game; he isn't going to run away anymore. Beatrice notes how she can't run away either, and accepts his challenge. Both of them express their desire to win.
Second Half.
The time is 23:59. Battler and Beatrice stand opposite each other in a rose garden. Battler aims to solve every game from the beginning, using his theory that Kinzo Ushiromiya is already dead when the game starts. Therefore, the true number of people on the island is 17, adding the unknown person X to become 18. Because Person X exists, it's possible for them to commit crimes even if all 17 people have alibis.
Beatrice explains that there's one riddle his theory doesn't cover, bringing up George, Gohda, and Shannon's death in the second game. The key to Natsuhi's room was inside the room, and every other key was in Rosa's possession; it's impossible for Culprit X to construct this closed room. Battler thinks Rosa was an accomplice, giving a key to Culprit X through some method and got it back.
Battler moves on to the third game, theorizing that the closed room chain can be explained if Eva is an accomplice, and that Nanjo's murder can be explained with the 18th person X. Battler then states his theory for the fourth game, that the 18th person X went wild with a gun and murdered George, Jessica, and those who escaped from the dungeon.
Beatrice challenges his use of the 18th person X and how it only works if Kinzo is already dead; she showed Kinzo in front of everyone in the fourth game to discourage him from using it, noting how every member of the family acknowledged Kinzo's existence. A ghostly Kinzo then appears in front of Beato, mocking Battler for thinking that he could beat him before transforming into a giant dragon. The Kinzo dragon prepares to eat Battler, but he adds on to his "Kinzo is dead" theory for the fourth game: "Kinzo Ushiromiya is already dead, but someone inherited his name and everyone acknowledged it. In this way, everyone at the family acknowledged the existence of Kinzo." The dragon rears back, surprised at Battler's theory; he then asks to repeat "none of the characters possess a variety of different names" in red. It doesn't happen, and Kinzo is torn apart by dozens of blue stakes, disappearing. Beatrice looks to be at a disadvantage, but continues nonetheless; Battler goes on to state that every other death in the fourth game can be explained with the 18th person X. He claims checkmate, and Beato is impaled by a massive blue stake. She asks him to finish her off quickly, wanting him to say "therefore, witches don't exist". Battler rejects her, wanting to take victory by force; he knows Beato has more moves hidden up her sleeve. The witch cackles, saying that he'll regret not killing her here.
Beatrice destroys the blue stake impaling her, confirming that Kinzo is indeed dead by the time the games begin and that no more than 17 humans exist on this island. No 18th person exists. This applies to all games. Now that Kinzo and 18th person X have been denied, Beatrice itches to see what Battler can come up with, restarting with the first game. She says that with the murders in the tool shed, anyone without an alibi could do it. She also confirms that with the murders of Genji, Kumasawa, and Nanjo in the parlor, each death was a homicide and Maria, who was in the same room, didn't kill them; Battler theorizes that someone with a fake corpse did it. He also suggests simultaneous murders: Genji, Kumasawa, and Nanjo killed each other with guns and Maria hid them. Beatrice is taken aback by how ridiculous that theory is, but accepts it nonetheless. She hands victory of the first game to Battler, and a blue stake wedges itself in her shoulder.They move on to the second game. Battler suggests that for the six murdered in the chapel, someone put small bombs in their food, which exploded in their stomachs; in other words, the culprit used "trap X" to kill them. Beatrice laughs even harder at this theory, and another stake lodges itself in Beatrice's chest; she hands over the second game. Battler asks if it hurts, and Beato remarks that she's just getting started.
With the third game, Battler theorizes that the culprit killed all six people and constructed the closed rooms, then pretended to discover the bodies and find the keys. Another stake impales Beatrice, making her cough up so much blood that she can barely stand. Battler finally moves on to Nanjo's murder, stating how it's Beato's last line of defense as a witch. He claims that someone in the early part of the game played dead, waiting for them to leave. During the time their death was unconfirmed by red, they murdered Nanjo; afterwards, they died for some reason, and then EVA-Beatrice confirmed their deaths in red. Battler presents it as his final theory, and a massive blue stake erupts from the ground, impaling Beatrice and lifting her up high.
Beatrice moans in agony, with Battler telling her to know the pain of those she's killed. She looks down at him, wearily saying that she still can't die yet. She wants Battler to free her from her anguish, and decides to "expose her heart". Battler asks what she means by this; she wants him to crush her heart and let her die. Battler accepts and Beato thanks him, slumping over. Her body glows with golden light, and her soul emerges, alighting in front of Battler. She tells Battler that right now, no one exists on this island except for him. He is the only one alive on this island, but Beatrice is there, now, and is about to kill him. Her final riddle: "who am I?" Battler swears that he will solve it and kill her, and the ending theme plays.
Bernkastel and Lambdadelta are seen lying in a bed, commenting on how thrilling this game was, with Lambda complimenting Ange for being a good piece. Bern says that Ange was just a tool needed to keep Battler on track, finding her a waste for how much preparation it required. Bern then questions Battler's theories, and Lambda says all of his blue truths were wrong; Lambda could've easily cut them to pieces. They still look forward to seeing Beatrice's game, thinking she still has some moves left over and none of the riddles were truly solved. As they wonder how the game will end, Bern remarks that it won't end with Beato's victory. The two of them then declare, Bernkastel as the Witch of Miracles, and Lambda as the Witch of Certainty, that Beatrice cannot win and a miracle will not occur. The anime ends with a panning shot of seagulls flying as Rokkenjima comes into view.
Comparisons to Source Material.
This episode adapts the chapter "Ushiromiya Ange" and the Tea Party and Hidden Tea Party/???.
| Sacrifice |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Saeki General Hospital
| Saeki General Hospital |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sai
| Sai |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sai/Sprites
| Sai/Sprites |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Saiguden
| Saiguden |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Saikoroshi
, also called the Dice Killing Arc in the manga, is an epilogue to the main story first included in "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei" and considered its main content.
Introduction.
"~Worst of the selected~"
"This is the story of Furude Rika, who celebrates the summer of Showa 58."
"The power to choose from one of many worlds."
"Is this world truly the best world of them all?"
"Difficulty is malicious. It may not be to everyone's liking."
Plot Summary.
Rika Furude is looking forward to a lifetime of fun after completing her journey through the Fragments. However, an accident sends Rika to a brand-new-world where nothing is quite the same. As she explores this new world and seeks a way to return home, Rika reflects on her life and must make a decision.
Concept and Development.
"Saikoroshi-hen" was first teased in a post on November 13, 2006 on Ryukishi07's production diary. He stated that the arc was meant to be a shorter scenario that happened to take place after "Matsuribayashi" and dissuaded readers from viewing it as a "chapter 9". Later comments however suggest that he changed his mind and now views "Saikoroshi-hen" as such.
Multiple adaptations of the series over the years generally treat "Saikoroshi-hen" as a continuation of "Matsuribayashi". The "Rei" anime, which includes this arc, is presented as a direct continuation of the "Kai" anime. The manga series explicitly refers to this arc as a conitnuation of Matsuribayashi and the conlcusion of "Higurashi" story at the time. The light novel series includes this arc as the ninth and final chapter.
A scene featured in "" episode 12 suggests that "Saikoroshi-hen" may have taken place prior to it.
Release History.
Original Release.
"Saikoroshi" was first released with "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei" at Comiket 71 on December 31, 2006.
Hou.
"Higurashi Rei" was rereleased with "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou" on August 17, 2014.
Ports.
"Saikoroshi" has been featured in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kizuna Volume IV, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Sui, and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou.
Adaptations.
Anime.
The 2009 anime OVA series by Studio DEEN adapted "Saikoroshi" in Episodes 2 to 4.
It omits mentions of Shion and Mion switching places as children, presumably because this reveal was also omitted from the "Meakashi" adaptation in the 2006 anime. The specifics regarding Rika's transformation into Frederica Bernkastel are also omitted.
Light Novel.
Kodansha released one volume adapting "Saikoroshi". It first released on March 7, 2009 and was republished on June 8, 2012.
Manga.
The manga adaptation of "Saikoroshi" was illustrated by Karin Suzuragi and serialized in Square Enix's Gangan Joker magazine from July to December 2011. It was later collected into a single volume. Yen Press published it in English under the title "Dice Killing Arc".
| Saikoroshi |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Saikoroshi-hen
| Saikoroshi-hen |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Saikoroshi-hen/CG
| Saikoroshi-hen/CG |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Saikoroshi-hen (manga)
| Saikoroshi-hen (manga) |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Saikoroshi/CG
| Saikoroshi/CG |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Saikoroshi (manga)
The single-volume Dice Killing Arc manga by Karin Suzuragi is an adaptation of the namesake VN arc. It is the last volume of the manga adaptation of to be released in English by Yen Press, which numbers this volume as the 26th.
Publisher's Summary.
Japanese.
"昭和58年夏。不慮の死によって、別のカケラで目覚めた古手梨花を、かつてない最悪の世界が待ち受ける……。竜騎士07が贈る、痛切なる「ひぐらし」アフターストーリー!!"
English.
"Over the course of a hundred years, Rika relived her brutal murder over and over again through countless fragments before finding the world where she could live in peace. But even without the threat of certain death hanging over her head, this world is fraught with dangers. After she's in a terrible accident, Rika wakes up to find herself in the nurse's office--however she's not in her peaceful new world, but rather in an alternate June 1983! Will Rika manage to find a way back to her ideal fragment?! The thrilling continuation of !"
Afterword.
Ryukishi07.
The Power of Meaningful Daily Communication
"Hello, I'm Ryukishi07."
"Looking back, I'm suddenly struck by the realization that it's been five years since we began—this has been a very long story. For the time being, Higurashi WHEN THEY CRY reaches its conclusion in the "Dice Killing Arc." First, to all of you who read the manga, to everyone involved in this project, and Suzuragi-sensei—thank you very, very much."
"Back when I was writing the script for the original, I didn't have any experience writing novels. I came up against many challenges, and at one point, I even had to stop writing altogether. Nevertheless, though imperfect, the series made it far enough to be turned into a manga. I owe it all to everyone who supported me and the help of my friends. As for the "Dice Killing Arc," its theme is daily communication."
"I pray with all my heart that we all recognize the overwhelming support we get from the people around us and that we will treasure and cultivate the power that comes from that."
Karin Suzuragi.
"Thank you for staying with us all this time. I believe the future that Rika chose for herself will surely be a happy one I think that we only live once, and we face lots of big choices and difficult decisions on the way. If we don't allow ourselves to be carried away by our surroundings and choose our own path—one that suits our needs—then that is the right answer. We've each been given our own life, and I want to live mine to the fullest."
"I am truly grateful for the blessing of being allowed to work on Higurashi from the "Abducted by Demons arc" to the "Dice Killing Arc." it was a lot of fun drawing all the Higurashi characters and their myriad emotions. Thank you to everyone who supported me, to my editor who helped me with the writing, and to my staff. With all of your help, we made it to the end. I hope that this arc, where Rika-chan fights her own battle, will reach BT-san too."
"BT-san once said to me that it's important to keep running at 70 percent power. I don't think I'll ever forget that. Although sometimes you have to go at 120 percent to take hold of an opportunity, and you can choose to keep up that pace. There are many different paths and many different choices."
"I'm rooting for all of you, that you will create great futures. And I'm looking forward to 07th Expansions's future works. I expect brilliant stories filled with emotion, suspense, and terror—all kinds of things to shake up people's hearts. It's a blessing that I can look forward to something twice a year, every year. But please take care of your health."
"Thank you for everything. If we get a chance to meet again, I look forward to it!"
"—SPECIAL THANKS—"
"—Original Story, Supervisor—Ryukishi07-sama, BT-sama, Yatazakura-sama, Tokibi-sama, Tsubaki Naruse-sama, Nekozakura-sama, Kakumu-sama"
"—My Editors—Koizumi-sama, Kubota-sama"
"—My Staff—Shigetomo Tanakura-sama, Nayu Y-sama, Niwako-sama, Noda-sama, Tomoka Furuta-sama"
"AND YOU!"
| Saikoroshi (manga) |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sakaki Yukari
| Sakaki Yukari |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Saki Ootori
| Saki Ootori |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sakiko Kimiyoshi
is one of the main protagonists of "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei". She is Satoko Houjou's daughter.
Profile.
"Satoko's daughter. Her family name changed from Houjou to Kimiyoshi when Satoko married. Sakiko is one year older than Keitarou."
(Translated from the Hoshiwatashi website).
Appearance.
Sakiko has short blond hair tied into a ponytail. For her school uniform she wears a sailor shirt, skirt, and shoes.
Background.
Sakiko is the daughter of Satoko Houjou and Kisaku Kimiyoshi. Her mother owns a souvenir shop, which Sakiko works at sometimes. Sakiko attends middle school in Okinomiya with her friends and is in a games club with them.
Personality.
Sakiko is mischievous and vulgar. She likes to take advantage of Tamaki's gullibility to make her do ridiculous, innappropriate things. At work she will put on a facade and pretend to be a proper lady. Sakiko has a reputation of spreading rumors.
Sakiko sometimes says dark and serious things, but is quick to pass them off as jokes when others get concerned.
Role in the Story.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei.
Oniokoshi.
Sakiko is introduced waiting with Tamaki at their usual spot. When Keitarou and Kihiro show up, Tamaki suddenly gropes Keitarou's crotch, having been convinced by Sakiko that it would be practice for when she gets married. Kihiro punches Sakiko in retaliation. The group goes to school afterwards.
After school, Keitarou says he met a strange girl who wouldn't speak to anyone, and Sakiko and the others tell him about the Polaris cult. The group tries to convince Keitarou not to get involved with Polaris people, with Sakiko especially disliking them and saying that many Hinamizawans don't like them. The group then goes to Smile Shop. At the shop, Keitarou and Kihiro meet Marutake, who Sakiko recognizes as a regular customer.
Keitarou and the club have dessert at Angel Mort a few days later, with Keitarou wanting to pursue friendship with Polaris and asking his friends for ideas. As they eat, Sakiko says Keitarou is working too hard towards it. After eating, they run into some delinquents harassing a girl. Keitarou gets hurt trying to save her, and the rest of the club members help him; Sakiko records a video of the delinquent leader acting up and threatens to post it online. The club sees to the girl's safety and learn she's Inori, the same Polaris girl who Keitarou met earlier. Inori thanks them for their help and then runs off. Another girl that Keitarou met, Kururu, appears and is introduced to the club.
Kururu is inducted into the club, with Sakiko and the others having a picnic with her. Kururu asks about Oyashiro-sama and his curse, and Sakiko ominously mentions that he curses outsiders. She then claims it was a joke, but Kururu seems convinced.
Hoshiwatashi.
Sakiko and Tamaki wait at their usual meeting spot for Keitarou and Kihiro to arrive. Sakiko tricks Tamaki into groping Keitarou's crotch, and Kihiro punches Sakiko in the face as punishment. They then head to school.
After school, the group reunites. They tell Keitarou about how Hinamizawa has changed because of Polaris, with Sakiko saying Keitarou will be cursed by Oyashiro-sama if he gets involved with them. Tamaki and Kihiro are disturbed by this comment, and Sakiko says it's just a joke.
The group goes to Smile Shop the next day, where they help Aunt Satoko record a promo video. Keitarou and Kihiro talk outside about how Polaris is disliked by Hinamizawa, with Keitarou saying the Hinamizawan villagers should've known that beforehand. Sakiko suddenly appears and says that the Sonozakis let Polaris in, and that Tamaki is feeling stressed since the Sonozakis are losing influence. Sakiko apologizes for her behavior regarding Polaris earlier and encourages Keitarou to make friends with them.
The next day, Keitarou shows the club his plan to befriend Polaris by giving members surveys about Hinamizawa. They then meet Kururu, one of Keitarou's new friends, when they see her defending a Polaris girl.
| Sakiko Kimiyoshi |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Saku
is one of Jessica Ushiromiya's friends and classmates. She appears in the extra arc "Jessica and the Love Charm".
Profile.
"Jessica's classmate and best friend. She has a fast-paced personality but is good at winning others over. Just before the school festival, she seems to have found the boyfriend of her dreams."
Appearance.
Saku has long black hair and wears a green school uniform.
Role in the Story.
Jessica and the Love Charm.
Saku and Jessica have an argument, and so Jessica gets help from the demons Zepar and Furfur to make up with her. The demons tell Jessica to turn her socks inside-out and give candy to Saku in private. Jessica tries this out the next day, and when Saku sees how ridiculous Jessica is acting she laughs and apologizes for their argument.
Jessica and the Killer Electric Fan.
Saku doesn't appear, but she is mentioned as having asked Jessica to write a play for a culture festival. It's also shown that she was to act as the prince in the play, much to Jessica's ire.
| Saku |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Saku/Sprites
| Saku/Sprites |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Saku (disambiguation)
Saku could refer to:
| Saku (disambiguation) |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sakunoshin
is an animal youkai that inhabits a shrine at school. He first appears in Shrine of the Guardian Deity.
Appearance.
Sakunoshin has yellow hair, orange furry ears, and red eyes. He wears a yellow oversized shirt with a white stomach red scarf, white socks, and brown shoes.
Personality.
Despite his fearsome reputation as guardian spirit of the school, Sakunoshin is actually quite immature and gets frightened easily. He tends to say "uryuu".
Background.
Sakunoshin is a great animal youkai who inhabited his shrine long before the school was ever built. He leads many other animal spirits.
Role in the Story.
Shrine of the Guardian Deity.
Sakunoshin's shrine is destroyed when some kids accidentally throw a ball at it. and Michiru struggles to repair it for fear of invoking the guardian spirit's wrath. The nurse fixes the shrine for him.
The Lunar Festival.
Sakunoshin attends the moon viewing party.
Reaper of the Thirteenth Step.
Sakunoshin provides information to Michiru when Aya asks how to escape Izanami's curse.
Welcome to the Mirror World.
Marie visits the mirror world and encounters a different version of Sakunoshin who's a rude drunkard.
My Best Friend.
Sakunoshin comforts Michiru when she cries over Tomoko's death. Sakunoshin suggests he can summon Tomoko's soul to talk with Michiru. When Michiru shows interest in bringing her back to life, Sakunoshin tries to dissuade her since it would have consequences.
Before the Spider Lilies Bloomed.
Sakunoshin and other school youkai reminisce on the past.
After School.
In this dream world, Michiru summons Sakunoshin to act as her guardian spirit and battles Hikaru and Hameln.
| Sakunoshin |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sakunoshin/Sprites
| Sakunoshin/Sprites |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sakura Kanae
| Sakura Kanae |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sakurada Michiru
| Sakurada Michiru |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sakutaro
| Sakutaro |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sakutarou
, also spelled Sakutaro, is the beloved Furniture of the witch of Mariage Sorciere, Lady MARIA. He first appears in "Alliance of the Golden Witch".
Appearance.
As a stuffed animal, Sakutaro was a simple lion plush. In human form, Sakutaro has red eyes and short blonde hair and orange cat ears. He seems to wear a long yellow coat with long sleeves. He wears long white socks with brown shoes and wears a red scarf adorned with a medal.
Personality.
Sakutarou is said to be a cowardly lion who is afraid of people. He deeply cares for Maria and comforts her whenever Rosa is not around, usually by telling Maria that Rosa loves and care about her. Despite his cowardly nature, Sakutaro shows courage in defending Maria from anybody who might hurt her, including Kanon and Erika.
Sakutaro is also very determined when he sets his mind to it, as shown in To Mount Purgatory, Sakutaro.
Abilities.
Sakutaro has diplomatic immunity, making him immune to any kind of offensive attack. He uses this to protect MARIA on several occasions.
Background.
Sakutaro was originally a stuffed animal that Rosa gave to Maria on her birthday. Maria gave life to Sakutaro and enabled him to walk and talk. Beatrice and Virgilia would later invite Sakutaro into Mariage Sorciere and recognize him as a living individual, granting him a physical body.
Role in the Story.
Alliance of the Golden Witch.
Sakutaro makes his first appearance. He is given to Maria as a gift and later develops a physical form. Maria takes Sakutaro with her everywhere, including on store trips when Rosa leaves her home alone.
One day, Maria accidentally locks herself out of the house and is forced to go to the police. The police call Rosa's company and discover she was on a vacation and was not really at work.
An angry Rosa comes home and is greeted by a child welfare officer. Rosa tries to send her away and comes to the understanding that Maria's developed a reputation in town from bringing Sakutaro everywhere with her; the child welfare officer came because of concern that Rosa was abusing Maria by leaving her home alone all the time.
Rosa vents her rage on Maria, snatching Sakutaro from her hands and tearing him apart, thereby killing him. In the meta-world, MARIA is spurred on by Sakutaro's death and gets Beatrice's help in torturing Rosa as payback.
In 1998, Ange discovers something in Captain Kawabata's place, shedding tears and calling it true magic. "To Mount Purgatory, Sakutaro "and later adaptations show that it was a bag full of Sakutaro dolls.
Ange soon manifests her abilities as ANGE-Beatrice and becomes the Witch of Resurrection. She resurrects Sakutaro from the remainders of his vessel, something Beatrice was unable to do. Ange takes the revived Sakutaro to the Golden Land and convinces MARIA to abandon it, forcing Beatrice to return to the game board.
Dawn of the Golden Witch.
When Erika tries to destroy Maria's illusion of the Witch, Sakutaro shows up to stop the fight using his diplomatic immunity. With help from Eiserne Jungfrau, the fight is concluded.
Later, Maria witnesses Kanon killing Rosa, which in turn causes Maria to attack him. Sakutaro shows up once again to protect Maria. However, he and Maria lose once Shannon enters the fight. Shannon expands her defensive shield to bypass Sakutaro's diplomatic immunity and crushes MARIA against the wall.
| Sakutarou |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sakutarou/Gallery
| Sakutarou/Gallery |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sakutarou/Sprites
<tabber>
</tabber>
| Sakutarou/Sprites |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sanbika
| Sanbika |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sanon
is a former servant of the Ushiromiya family. She only appears in "Requiem of the Golden Witch""."
Appearance.
She has short, curly beige hair; fair skin and big gray eyes. Her clothes are the same as the other female Ushiromiya servants.
Personality.
She is shown to be harsh and often picks on Yasu for being clumsy, forgetful and younger than her. She, along with the other servants (excluding Manon), are jealous of Yasu's special treatment.
Background.
Sanon was an orphan who lived in the Fukuin House and later worked in the Ushiromiya household. She was one of Yasu's first coworkers alongside Lunon, Lenon and Leion.
Role in the Story.
"Requiem of the Golden Witch".
Sanon and various other characters are questioned by Zepar and Furfur as witnesses to describe what Yasu was like before becoming a witch. Though Shannon is said to be working alongside them and is also a witness, the servants (except Yasu, Kumasawa and Genji) don't seem to notice her at all.
| Sanon |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sanon/Sprites
<tabber>
</tabber>
| Sanon/Sprites |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sanrio
is a Japanese company known for creating the franchise.
Collaborations with Higurashi.
As an April Fool's joke in 2021, Sanrio collaborated with "". The Gou website (archived) was redesigned to feature various Sanrio characters alongside "Higurashi" characters. Character bios and announcements told a story of how a was being built in Hinamizawa, with Sanrio characters described as interacting with the main "Higurashi" cast.
The site went back to normal after April 1st. Due to the positive response to the collab, the Gou Twitter account announced on April 2nd that the collaboration would continue. These collaboration plans included merchandise at certain shops in Japan, a collaboration with "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Mei", and more.
On April 16, 2021, the collab website was put back up, adding Teppei among the collab cast. Additionally, the "Higurashi Mei" account announced Sanrio-themed units to be released on April 20, 2021, with a corresponding event story. These units include:
| Sanrio |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Sarumawashi-hen
| Sarumawashi-hen |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satan
is the third sister of the Stakes of Purgatory, representing the demon and the corresponding sin of . She first appears in "Turn of the Golden Witch".
Appearance.
Satan has short, curly, beige hair, fair skin and big red eyes. Her clothes are the same as those of the other Stakes. She wears the One-Winged Eagle on her "skirt".
Personality.
Satan gets angry very easily and loudly berates her sisters for stepping out of line. However, Satan is also prone to getting frustrated when things don't go as planned.
Abilities.
Like the other Stakes of Purgatory, Satan has the ability to transform into a stake and fly at incredibly high speeds to gouge anybody. She can also manifest a purple sword.
Background.
Satan was summoned by Beatrice long ago to act as her furniture. Her vessel is that of an occultic stake set that Kinzo once bought.
From an anti-fantasy perspective, Satan was created as an imaginary friend by Yasuda and was based off of the servant Sanon.
Role in the Story.
Turn of the Golden Witch.
Satan is first summoned by Beatrice shortly after Jessica is killed by Asmodeus. She makes quick work of Kanon and gouges him in the chest.
Other Appearances.
In "Golden Fantasia", Satan appears in Ange, Lucifer and Beatrice's attacks. She can be unlocked as a system voice.
| Satan |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satan/Gallery
| Satan/Gallery |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satan/Sprites
<tabber>
</tabber>
| Satan/Sprites |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satoko
| Satoko |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satoko Day
| Satoko Day |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satoko Hojo
| Satoko Hojo |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satoko Houjou
is one of the main characters of . She is a member of the Hinamizawa after-school games club and a master at setting traps.
Profile.
<tabber>
"A girl who is Keiichi's junior."
"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."
"A junior student to Keiichi and Rena and Hinamizawa's best trapmaster. Her talents are unleashed to her heart's content during club activities and are feared even by the likes of Mion."
<br>
"She's a sore loser and speaks in an odd ladylike tone. "
<br>
"She has a tendency to be impudent, yet she is still rather young and sometimes bursts out crying after being teased by Keiichi and Mion."
"A young student at Keiichi and Rena's school. She tries to talk like a well-educated rich girl, but her grammar isn't as good as it could be. She hates to lose and can be a bit of a brat, but since she's still young, sometimes Keiichi and Mion will make her cry when they tease her. The town's master of traps, a talent she puts to good use in her after-school "club" activities. Even Mion fears her. "
</tabber>
Appearance.
"Also see Satoko Houjou/Image Gallery and Satoko Houjou/Sprites"
Satoko Houjou appears as an athletic pre-pubescent girl, with spiky blonde hair worn in a short bob held back with her signature black headband. Her eye-color ranges from a shade of dark magenta to purple across multiple adaptations. She often sports a merry or mischievous expression and her pointy canine teeth can be seen accentuating her smug grins and hearty laughs.
When Satoko feels rather disturbed or upset, the light in her eyes disappears and her face turns uncharacteristically glum; which was a common sight in her younger years back when she underwent frequent abuse from her legal guardians. In ' and ', Satoko's irises occasionally assume a red-blazing tone after being bestowed with the power to travel between Fragments by Eua, and she begins to sport masks of indifference or malicious mirth when she is seen scheming.
Personality.
Satoko Houjou is a mischievous, haughty brat true to her age and loves to play pranks on others using her traps; with Keiichi Maebara being her favorite victim. She is often obstinate and hates being talked down to. She tries to speak like a refined lady, yet this comes off as brash and haphazard, due to her poor usage of . At times, Satoko will cry whenever someone makes fun of her; although this can be a tactical way to earn others' sympathy—Rena Ryuugu's in particular.
Satoko is rather smart despite her dislike towards academics and her capabilities are apparent in her trap-making prowess, which is held in high regard by Mion Sonozaki, and in "Matsuribayashi" is even praised by the Bloodhounds after they manage to take out the entire gamut of offending Mountain Dogs. Satoko once tells Keiichi that success in trap-making heavily depends one's ability to observe and predict the opponent's behavior by gauging their psychology. She is rather crafty and prefers to rely on trickery to excel in club games and hence, makes a great strategist.
Satoko is implied to be color-blind like her brother since she has trouble telling the difference between broccoli and cauliflower and doesn't know which colors they are. She is often made fun of for this.
Deep down, Satoko longs to be a strong girl because of her old family situation. She used to cry all the time back when her brother was still with her, and ever since his disappearance she has struggled to improve herself. She has learned to cook, clean and take care of herself ever since she was orphaned and began to live alone with Rika. However she takes this need for independence too far and refuses to ask for help from others or show signs of weakness even in dire situations such as when she was taken away by Teppei in "Tatarigoroshi" and "Minagoroshi", or stabbed to death by Shion Sonozaki in "Meakashi." Satoko also cares a great deal for her friends—especially Rika Furude, Keiichi and Shion Sonozaki, the latter two whom she considers as big-brother and big-sister figures.
Background.
Satoko and Satoshi Houjou's mother was always getting divorced and remarried; Houjou is the fourth surname Satoko's had after , , and . Satoko never liked any of her stepfathers and conflated the different things they did, thinking they were always abusing her. This reached a point where in 1977 she called child protective services and faked a child abuse call after an argument with her stepfather Mr. Houjou, even self-inflicting wounds. Mr. Houjou cleared things up with the social worker that came by and accepted that he may have went too far and resolved to improve their relationship.
During the Hinamizawa Dam Project, her parents supported the plan and led a group of dam supporters, which earned the ire of the other Hinamizawa villagers. The Three Families declared the Houjous enemies of the village, and they were harassed greatly. Even Satoko and Satoshi faced harassment despite not being involved with the dam project in any way. At another point in time, Satoko climbed onto the ritual warehouse at the Furude Shrine and fell inside, damaging the statue of Oyashiro-sama inside. Rika took the blame for it, and Satoko's felt like she was cursed ever since.
In 1980, around the time of the Watanagashi Festival, Satoko went on vacation with her parents to a park in Shirakawa and watched them die when they fell off of a cliff.
Because Satoko's parents died on the day of the Watanagashi Festival and the mother's body was never found, the villagers believed that Oyashiro-sama's curse struck. Despite this, the mistreatment of the Houjou family by the village continued. Satoko and Satoshi were taken to live with their uncle Teppei and his wife and were abused both physically and verbally, having their meals taken away at times. Satoshi did his best to protect Satoko from abuse and acted as a shield for her. Mion formed the after-school games club in 1982 in an attempt to reduce the time Satoko and Satoshi had to spend at home. They also called child protective services to save the Houjou siblings, but they were very wary because of the prior fake abuse call. The center believed nothing was wrong after some investigation; there was no evidence the kids were being abused since Teppei never left any bruises on them, nor was there any recordings or eyewitness reports. By Japanese law, the situation also couldn't be called abuse unless someone admitted to it. After this call, the abuse intensified. Later that year, their aunt was found murdered while Satoshi disappeared, believed to have been the victims for the fourth year of the curse.
Teppei abandoned Hinamizawa, fearing for his life. Satoko moved in with Rika at the Furude Shrine to live with her in a former disaster shelter on the Furude Shrine grounds, allowed to stay there on Rika's request. Satoko blamed herself for Satoshi's disappearance and believed he ran away because of her always clinging to him. Ever since, Satoko improved herself and wanted to be stronger and ready for when Satoshi came home.
In , Satoko attends St. Lucia Academy with Rika several years after Takano's defeat. She starts to fail in her grades and struggles to maintain her friendship with Rika, soon meeting Eua when she returns to Hinamizawa on a trip in 1988. Satoko is given the power of time-looping and tries to make Rika forget her dream of going to St. Lucia. After experiencing Rika's journey through the Fragments herself, Satoko decides to torment Rika throughout many loops in an attempt to make her stay in Hinamizawa. Eua's conversations with Satoko imply that Satoko used to be a completely different person in a previous world, where she had the names "Mitsuyo", "Vier", and "Anomalous Spinal Cord Specimen LD3105".
Relationships.
Overview.
The Club
Family
Other
Satoshi Houjou.
Satoko depended on Satoshi for a long time. Satoshi was said to be unreliable, and Satoko nagged him a lot. Satoshi cares about Satoko a lot and even sacrifices his free time to help her.
Satoshi's disappearance encourages Satoko to become a stronger person, however she goes about this the wrong way and thinks that withstanding abuse is what will improve things.
Keiichi Maebara.
In many arcs, Satoko sees Keiichi as a surrogate older brother and develops a strong bond with him.
Rika Furude.
Satoko and Rika weren't good friends at first, with Rika always trying to treat Satoko nicely despite the latter finding her annoying. Satoko is ignored by the villagers while Rika is beloved by everyone, and she'll often get people to help Satoko indirectly by helping her out herself. After Satoshi's disappearance and Teppei's abandonment, Satoko begins living with Rika, and she starts to see her as her best friend. Satoko is sometimes hurt that Rika will do things without telling her, as seen in "Matsuribayashi" when Rika invites Akasaka over as part of her plan.
In "Higurashi Gou", Satoko's devotion towards Rika is at a point where she promises to join her in attending St. Lucia despite knowing she couldn't keep up academically. Seeing Rika hanging out with other friends and seemingly abandoning Satoko leads her to brand Rika a traitor and liar. Satoko sees fit to preserve her friendship with Rika by trying to make her stay in Hinamizawa using time-looping, even if it means breaking Rika's spirit.
Teppei Houjou.
Teppei was Satoko's uncle and became her legal guardian after the deaths of her parents. In arcs where he returns to the village, Teppei treats Satoko very poorly and keeps her home all day to do chores for him, not even letting her go to school. He yells at and hits her, and intensifies the punishment after the club's failed attempts to get child protective services involved. A TIP in "Tatarigoroshi" implies that he even raped her, but this is denied in a later "Minagoroshi" TIP that shows his inner thoughts, where he considers Satoko too young to satisfy him.
In "Higurashi Gou", Teppei starts remembering previous Fragments when Satoko becomes a looper and attempts to make amends with her, promising to be a better guardian. Satoko is reluctant to take him up on his offer however.
Mion Sonozaki.
At first, Satoko seemed to be uncomfortable with Mion at school because of the Sonozaki family being responsible for the Houjou's ostracizing. After the formation of the games club, Satoko and Mion form a good friendship.
Shion Sonozaki.
Shion dislikes Satoko at first, believing she's been keeping Satoshi to herself during their time with their aunt and uncle. When Satoshi made a parting request to Shion to take care of Satoko before his disappearance, Shion starts acting like a surrogate older sister as Satoko's "Nee-nee". Shion has proven to be dangerously protective of Satoko, as seen in "Minagoroshi" where she considers killing Teppei when he returns and takes Satoko back.
Rena Ryuugu.
Satoko is sometimes a target for Rena's kyute mode. Satoko will use this to her advantage during club games and leap into Rena's arms when cornered, prompting her to punish the other club members. Similar to Shion, Rena can be very protective of Satoko.
Miyo Takano.
Takano works at the Irie Clinic and regularly meets Satoko. She's one of the few adults who regularly speaks to Satoko and shares a love of stuffed animals.
"Higurashi Gou" suggests that Satoko and Takano's relationship is close enough to where Takano can remember previous Fragments once Satoko becomes a looper.
Role in the Story.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Question Arcs.
Onikakushi.
Satoko Houjou is introduced when she sets a trap for Keiichi on the school's classroom door and is established as a crafty and arrogant yet whiny young girl. Two days later, Satoko plays with Keiichi in his induction into the games club through a game of Old Bachelor. During zombie tag the next day, Keiichi tries to trick Satoko by having Tomita and Okamura tell her that her parents are at the school gate. The day after that, the club plays Tycoon. Satoko's punishment during a loss is to act like a younger sister.
When Keiichi speaks with Ooishi about the victims that Oyashiro-sama's curse has claimed every year, he learns that the dam-supporting couple who fell off a cliff in the second year were Satoko's parents, who was with them at the time. The victims of the fourth year curse were also related to Satoko: her step-aunt and her older brother Satoshi.
In the manga, when Keiichi, Rena, and Mion die, Satoko bawls her eyes out the next day. Rika comforts her and says they'll see them again.
Watanagashi.
Satoko plays in a games tournament at a toy store in Okinomiya.
After the Watanagashi Festival, Keiichi and the club think Rika and Satoko have gone missing when nobody picks up the phone at their shack. They get the entire village to search for them at night while Keiichi, Rena and Mion do some detective work. They find the girls' bikes missing from their shack, with no apparent signs of anyone inside. Keiichi climbs up a ladder to try and get the second story windows open when Mion suddenly rants that Satoko was cursed by Oyashiro-sama. She bemoans that Satoko's family have all died or gone missing because of the curse and believes that Rika also went missing because of her. Rena gets the key to the shack and opens it up, but they don't find anything of note.
The next day, Rika and Satoko are officially declared to have gone missing. Rena speaks to Keiichi in private and reveals she found something out during her investigation of the shack: there were signs that Satoko and Rika were making dinner and planning to eat that night, but there were fresh leftovers in the fridge. The soy sauce bottle they had was empty, so Rena deduced that Rika went off to get more soy sauce from a neighbor, then Satoko was called and told that Rika already ate, so she wrapped up their dinner and followed suit. During a phone call with Shion, Keiichi starts to believe Rika and Satoko were killed because he trespassed in the ritual warehouse on the Watanagashi.
Keiichi and Rena determine that Mion was responsible for the girls' disappearance. They confront her at the Sonozaki residence, and she confirms she did indeed torture and kill them in the underground torture chamber and threw them down the well. The police raid the place later and recover their corpses.
Tatarigoroshi.
The club holds a bento-making competition. Home-alone, Keiichi attempts to cook dinner by himself that night and almost burns his house down, with Satoko and Rika arriving in time to save him. Satoko sends Keiichi and Rika out of the kitchen so she can cook dinner instead. Seeing that Satoko is actually enjoying herself, Rika explains to Keiichi that Satoko used to call her brother Satoshi Nii-nii and might be seeing some of him in Keiichi. The three eat dinner soon where Satoshi is brought up, but Satoko seems to have moved on from his absence and is cheerful. Keiichi realizes that Satoko really is a good girl and gives her headpats.
Various TIPs show the club falling victim to Satoko's traps, which she's spread all throughout a mountain.
The next day, Keiichi and Satoko go shopping for ingredients. Keiichi starts to see himself as a replacement for Satoshi and resolves to do his best. They begin to cook dinner but Keiichi gets a call from his parents that they'll be home sooner than expected; Satoko is happy that she won't have to make dinner for Keiichi anymore. She prepares to go home by herself and Keiichi wants to escort her. He accidentally calls himself Nii-nii and realizes how insensitive that is, but Satoko doesn't seem to mind. Keiichi is convinced that deep down, Satoko still needed her brother. Satoko wonders if Rika asked Keiichi to do this, saying that she's strangely considerate of her. Satoko starts actively calling Keiichi Nii-nii more often, however.
The next day, Satoko calls Keiichi for help in a baseball game. Satoko shows off her cunning and sports skills by tricking the rival batter Kameda into underestimating her and winning the game with a home run. Keiichi talks with the coach Irie and learns that Satoshi was "transferred." Irie also tells him about Satoko's parents dying in an accident three years ago when they fell off a cliff, and Satoko saw it with her own eyes. Irie wants to seriously adopt Satoko as his daughter and feels sorry for her but can't since he's single. Both of them wish the best for Satoko and promise never to make her cry. Later, Keiichi asks Rena and Mion about Satoshi and learns that his parents were the leaders of a group that supported the dam project, and because they died on the day of the Watanagashi, the villagers believed it was Oyashiro-sama's curse. Rena and Mion always say that Satoshi got transferred whenever anyone brings him up to protect Satoko's feelings.
The day after, Satoko suddenly doesn't come to school. Ooishi visits later and asks for Satoko, but is turned away when she doesn't show. Irie tells Keiichi in private that after the deaths of Satoko and Satoshi's parents, they started living with their abusive aunt and uncle. Teppei and his wife fought a lot, and they scolded the siblings for the most minor things and took away their meals at times. After the aunt's death and Satoshi's disappearance, Ooishi started hounding Satoko.
Three days later, Satoko still hasn't returned to school. Keiichi hears a rumor that Teppei returned to the village and took Satoko back to live with him. When Satoko finally shows up to school, Keiichi runs over and sees that she's clearly trying to hide her true feelings under her regular robust self. Satoko says she was using her time away from school to clean her house. Keiichi tells the other club members in private about the rumors, and Mion reveals she already knew about it; Teppei took Satoko back the day of the barbecue. After school they try to get Satoko to play club games but she declines and heads home.
They think about calling child protective services, but Mion says they tried that two years ago. The center took statements from both Satoko and Satoshi and their guardians, deciding to wait and see at the end. Teppei was smart enough not to let any signs of abuse show on the kids, and they were fed and taken care of enough. In the end the center found no proof of abuse, and it only got worse after they stopped watching. Keiichi desperately thinks of ways to save Satoko and considers having Irie or someone else take care of her, or hide her in one of their houses. Keiichi goes to Satoko's house later that day and sees Irie giving Satoko a ride home from the store, who was ordered by Teppei to go and buy stuff like beer and cigarettes. Keiichi helps Satoko with the groceries and notices that she has bruises all over her, which she claims she got from falling down the stairs. Keiichi is enraged but Irie stops him. Satoko accepts Keiichi as her new Nii-nii and promises to endure until tomorrow, bidding him farewell.
Satoko doesn't come to school again the next day. The group realizes that Satoko is withstanding the abuse because she believes it will bring Satoshi back. They finally tell Chie about Satoko's situation, and she promises to do something. The next day, Satoko comes back to school and says that a probation officer came by, but she and Teppei said there were some misunderstandings and sent them away, still denying that abuse is happenig. Rika tells Keiichi in private that Satoko's father was actually her step-father and that this was actually the third time abuse has been reported for Satoko. She disliked her stepfather and tried to fake abuse, later calling the center about it. The stepfather admitted to going too far in some places and agreed to have counseling. The center later found that Satoko played other sorts of pranks on her other stepfathers and was very rebellious; when abuse was called in for real last year, their wait-and-see approach was to check if Satoko was lying again.
The club gathers for lunch, with Satoko seeming like her usual happy self. Keiichi gives her another headpat when she suddenly smacks him away and starts freaking out. She throws up and starts profusely apologizing while running to hide in the corner. Keiichi walks up to try and calm her down but Rena pulls him back and consoles her instead. Chie enters the room after hearing the commotion and Satoko suddenly stops and acts like nothing is wrong. Keiichi becomes determined to kill Teppei. That night, he calls Mion and asks her to take Satoko to the festival and hears that the previous year, Satoshi said a similar thing to her. Satoshi might've killed his aunt and was planning to buy Satoko a big teddy bear for her birthday only to disappear the day of, a few days after the festival.
Keiichi kills Teppei and buries his corpse. He goes to school the next day and expects Satoko's mood to have improved, but she seems sad like before. Satoko tries to go home after school and Keiichi tries convincing to play club games with them again, saying she should've had fun at the festival. Satoko says she never went to the festival, and Rena tells Keiichi that she left on the way there since her uncle was waiting at home. Satoko cries, feeling happy that Keiichi was able to have so much fun at the festival and regrets that she just can't play games with her friends anymore. Keiichi says that Teppei shouldn't have come home last night, and Satoko claims that he was still at home and tormented her, and even yelled at her that morning. Satoko cries even more and runs out into the hallway.
Keiichi believes that Teppei somehow came back to life, so the next day he procures an axe and heads to Satoko's house with the intent of killing Teppei again. He finds signs that there were definitely two people eating and living there recently, and then finds Satoko roasting alive inside her bathtub. Keiichi pulls her out and treats her heatstroke, hearing her counting all the while. Satoko regains her strength and says that Teppei told her to take a hot bath and not get out until she counts to 10,000. Keiichi wraps up Satoko in a towel and takes her to the Irie Clinic to get her treated. When they get there, they find many police cars surrounding the place. Keiichi overhears an officer saying that Irie's apparently committed suicide through sleeping pills. Satoko cries when she hears this and Keiichi apologizes, having wished Irie to die after getting into a fight with him yesterday. Satoko says it's not his fault and that Irie was an adult, so surely he gave up his life for a good reason.
Satoko gets tired of standing outside with just a towel and asks Keiichi to bring her to Rika's shack so she can get some clothes. As they walk to the shrine, Satoko apologizes for getting angry at Keiichi earlier when they talked about the festival, and Keiichi says he didn't actually go. He says that footsteps have been following him for a few days, and that he definitely didn't go to the festival but can't comprehend why everyone says he did. Satoko believes him, but then Keiichi says he also met Takano and Ooishi earlier and wished for them to die, and now both them have also died or gone missing just like Irie. Satoko is surprised to hear this but laughs, thinking it a joke. Keiichi also brings up Teppei but Satoko asks to not talk about him right now. He confesses that he killed him the night of the festival and ignores Satoko's pleas, and she tells him to stay home and rest; the shock from learning of Irie's suicide must have made him upset.
Keiichi and Satoko finally reach the Furude Shrine, where they find Rika's mutilated corpse being feasted upon by crows. Both of them retch at the horrible sight, and that's when Satoko notices the axe Keiichi's been carrying with him. She backs away and calls him a murderer as Keiichi swears that that's not what it looks like. Satoko accuses Keiichi of killing Takano, Ooishi, Irie, Teppei and Rika and runs off. Keiichi chases her, trying to clear up the misunderstanding, and they end up at a bridge. Satoko tells Keiichi to stop moving and says she really did like him. Keiichi swears again he didn't kill Rika, but Satoko sees no reason to trust him since he can't even trust his own memories. Keiichi throws the axe over the side and disarms himself, but Satoko still doesn't trust him and tells him to turn around.
Keiichi faces the other way, and Satoko walks up to his back while explaining that maybe something evil possessed Keiichi. Several years ago, during a hide and seek game, Satoko climbed onto the ritual warehouse of the Furude Shrine and fell inside, breaking off one of the arms of the Oyashiro-sama statue located inside. Rika took the blame for the incident, and ever since Satoko felt like she was cursed by Oyashiro-sama. She repeats something she heard about how Oyashiro-sama's curse takes away the people someone loves before killing the target last. Satoko's entire family fell victim to the curse, but she regained her happy days when Keiichi appeared and believes that Rena and Mion will be targeted next after him.
Keiichi tries to calm her down and claims there is no curse, but Satoko suddenly pushes him off of the bridge. Keiichi narrowly grabs the edge of the bridge and Satoko tries to shake him off, calling him a murderer and asking him to return her family, not wanting to lose to the curse. Keiichi says that in the end all he wanted was make Satoko happy, but she thinks the thing possessing him is still pretending to be Keiichi and finally pushes him off into the river below.
In the credits, Satoko is stated to have gone missing during the Great Hinamizawa Disaster.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai.
Meakashi.
In 1982, Shion dresses up as Mion and goes to school pretending to be her. She sees Satoko dropping her bento box and crying for Satoshi. Angered, Shion suddenly starts assaulting Satoko, throwing her around the room and hitting her while blaming her for Satoshi's suffering. Rika jumps in to defend her and begs "Mion" to stop, but she keeps trying to attack Satoko. Satoshi and Rena finally arrive. Satoshi grabs Shion and asks what they did to deserve this suffering, getting angry when Shion assumes that Satoko's just a burden to him. Rena defuses the situation and gets Shion to apologize to Satoko. Later, on the night of the Watanagashi, Satoshi calls Shion thinking she's Mion and says he'll leave Satoko to her. At school, Rika tries to cheer up Satoko and says that her suffering should end that day; Satoko's aunt is killed that night.
In 1983, Shion disguises as Mion and kills Rika when the latter goes to her house and attacks. Satoko calls the Sonozaki main house and asks "Mion" if Rika is there. Shion says that Rika's eating dinner with her and asks Satoko to come too.
Satoko comes to the house and is captured by Shion, who restrains her in the underground torture chamber. Satoko is distraught over seeing Shion dispose of Rika's corpse and can't believe that Rika attacked her first. Shion accuses Satoko of not doing anything to save Satoshi and stabs her in the arm, ignoring the imprisoned Mion's pleas from the other room. Shion stabs Satoko's arm some more as she cries for her Nii-nii, with Shion saying that this exact thing is what she only ever did when Satoshi was still here. She calls Satoko a leech and moves to her other arm, with Satoko no longer screaming as loudly. Satoko admits that she cornered Satoshi and depended on him a lot, regretting that she wasn't strong enough to help him. Satoko professes that when Satoshi comes back, she'll show him what a strong girl she's become and won't cry anymore. Shion doesn't take her seriously and continues stabbing Satoko, but instead of screaming she keeps saying that she won't cry and asks if Satoshi is watching her, finally silently dying.
Shion imagines Satoko and Satoshi's ghosts reuniting and remembers Satoshi's promise of leaving Satoko to her; Shion didn't believe in Satoshi, but Satoko did and was rewarded for it in her final moments. Shion disposes of Satoko's corpse by throwing it in the well.
After Shion's death, she envisions a world where she attends school with Satoko and the club happily.
Tsumihoroboshi.
Satoko plays with the club in a water gun fight and loses. Two days later, she joins fellow losers Mion and Rika in wearing punishment game outfits at Angel Mort, with Satoko wearing a maid costume.
A few days later, the club plays games without Rena when she goes home early. They want to play mahjong but are missing some tiles, so they instead go to the junkyard to have a treasure hunt. When they get there, they discover the chopped-up corpses of Rina and Teppei, who Rena killed prior and was attempting to dispose of. Rena confesses her murders to the club and that she did it because she believed it was right, seeing as how last year Satoshi supposedly did the same thing. She blames the club for not doing anything to help Satoshi last year. Satoko knows she's partly responsible, having realized on the day Satoshi disappeared and accepts that Satoshi may not be coming back. Keiichi gets the club to unite and confess their sins to each other, treating each other like family. Satoko soon assists in hiding Rina and Teppei's corpses where nobody can find them.
A few days later, after Rena scolds Keiichi for his sin of shooting at little kids in his old town, Keiichi is overcome with guilt and confesses to Satoko and the others what he did. Satoko thinks Keiichi doesn't need to do anything since he already atoned for his sin. She admits to having her fair share of embarrassing moments and crimes but doesn't tell anyone about them because there's no point. Satoko assures that Keiichi that so long as he's a good person now, his past shouldn't matter. Keiichi suddenly remembers the events of "Onikakushi", and Rika comforts him. Satoko is confused as to their conversation but is flattered to hear that Keiichi fought for her.
A few days later, Rena takes the school hostage and spreads gasoline everywhere, threatening to blow it up if the police doesn't meet her demands. Keiichi speaks to a tied up Satoko and Rika and asks them not to hate Rena if they die since she's not in her right mind. Rika reminds Satoko that once a demon acts out, it cannot be stopped; after a moment of reflection, Satoko places her faith in Rena. Keiichi asks Satoko where she would hide a timer for a bomb since she's the trap expert, and Satoko thinks that it could be in the hallway.
Keiichi goes to the hallway but finds a decoy timer wire and is attacked by Rena. As Rika distracts her, Keiichi returns to the classroom and asks Satoko where the real bomb timer is. Satoko says the real timer is on the roof. After Keiichi sets her free, she throws Satoshi's baseball bat to him. As he heads to the roof, Satoko helps stall Rena by setting several traps against her but is hit by one of her own buckets and dazed, allowing Rena to move past her. Satoko frees the rest of the students and gets them outside the school, where they watch Keiichi and Rena duel on the roof.
The final TIP "The Demon's Script" reveals that the Great Hinamizawa Disaster occurred afterwards, however Satoko's fate after Rika's death is unclear.
Minagoroshi.
Satoko gets a shot at the clinic and does her regular test with Takano, getting stuck on finding the difference between broccoli and cauliflower. During this, Irie secretly talks with Rika and tells her that Satoko's condition will never regress below the L3 stage. Later, Satoko plays with the club at a games store in Okinomiya. At school, Shion brings a special lunch for Satoko made of squash and tries to act as a responsible Nee-nee.
When Satoko doesn't come back home, Rika frantically runs around the village and asks people if they've seen her, fearing for the worst. Rika goes to the Houjou residence and confirms that Teppei has returned and taken Satoko back to live with him, with Satoko's cheek red and swollen from being slapped. Rika begs Satoko to come back with her and leave Teppei, but she's afraid of causing trouble for her and says this is the way things will be. Teppei shows up and yells for Satoko to get back inside. Rika comments to herself that in a previous world she let out her rage on Teppei, but it only caused him to pay it back to Satoko. Rika runs away crying.
Satoko doesn't come to school. Rika tells Chie and the club about Satoko's situation. She doesn't want to call child protective services since they won't do anything once they learn of Satoko's prior fake abuse call, and Teppei and Satoko will just deny the abuse even if they got involved. Chie goes to Teppei's house later and hears that Satoko is "sick". The club racks their brains to find a solution to save her, and Shion considers just going out and killing Teppei. She attempts to leave but Keiichi stops her.
A social worker checks out the situation at the Houjou residence and concludes that no abuse is happening. Keiichi is still determined to save Satoko, having remembered the events of "Tatarigoroshi" and how she broke after just a few days with Teppei. The club decides to protest the child consultation center to get them to take action but are denied. Over the course of several days, the club continues protesting and gets more people involved, but the center's answer is still the same.
Satoko returns to school after three days and insists that nothing is wrong. Keiichi remembers Satoko's breakdown in his "imaginary" world and asks to pat her head, slowly reaching his hand out. Satoko starts crying as the class assures her that they're doing their best to save her. Satoko says they don't need to do anything for her and doesn't want any more social workers coming over, giving a silent response when the others ask if Teppei hit her. Rena tells her that she needs to reach her hand out since everyone else is doing the same, but Satoko keeps saying their help is unnecessary.
Various TIPS show that in the meantime, Teppei gets increasingly frustrated with Chie's constant calls checking up on him and tries to find the bankbooks left behind by his deceased brother so he can get some money. He thinks Satoko may be hiding them in Satoshi's room but when he tries to step inside, Satoko stops him and won't let him pass. Teppei is forced not to hit her otherwise he'll have a problem.
Suddenly, Satoko freaks out when the principal enters the room. She yells that her uncle has arrived and the club surrounds her, but they soon realize she's afraid of the principal. When Satoko keeps panicking and saying that Teppei has come to take her home, Rika asks if she took her shot. Satoko starts crying for her Nii-nii and the club brings her to the nurse's office. After calming her down, the rest of the club wonders why Satoko thought the principal was her uncle. Rika says that people tend to sense something they don't like when they can't see it and assume it's the worst-case scenario, and Satoko has a disease that makes her unable to correct those assumptions. Rika tells Keiichi in private about Satoko's illness that she's had for a few years and requires two shots daily for it. Satoko forgot to take her shot that morning, resulting in her emotional instability.
The club continues protesting the child consultation center. Keiichi learns that the Houjou family had been ostracized for a long time because of the dam conflict and goes to convince the Three Families to forgive Satoko. Oryou and Kiichirou ultimately lend their assistance. The mass protest of the child consultation center reaches a fever pitch, and the social workers are finally convinced to give Satoko's home a call. Meanwhile, Teppei was once again trying to search Satoshi's room and starts beating up Satoko when she doesn't tell him where the bankbook is. The phone rings, and Teppei picks up to hear that a social worker is coming to the house. He claims that nothing is wrong and reluctantly hands it over to Satoko when the social workers ask to talk to her. Teppei persuades Satoko to say that nothing is wrong and promises not to go into Satoshi's room again, otherwise he'll destroy it.
Satoko says that nothing is wrong, and Keiichi takes the other end to tell her that Oryou's sorry about the way the Sonozakis treated her. Rika then gets on and says that nobody in Hinamizawa will ignore Satoko ever again or treat her coldly. Satoko can't believe such a thing will happen, and Rika says she couldn't believe it either. Rika always believed that Satoko being taken away by Teppei was an unbreakable fate, but Keiichi proceeded to break that. Satoko says she needs to be stronger and Rika tells her that she is not as strong as Satoshi. Satoko is just crying and waiting for Satoshi to come home instead of fighting back like he did when their aunt was alive. Rika asks Satoko to imagine what kind of face Satoshi was putting on when he stood up against their aunt and tells her to look at Teppei's own face behind her; this is what Satoshi encountered. Rika finally says that unless Satoko understands how Satoshi felt when protecting her, he will never come back.
Rika hands the phone back to the social worker, and Satoko yells for help. Teppei smacks Satoko aside but she jumps onto him, disorienting him. Immediately after, the police knock on the door and call for Teppei's arrest having surrounded the house prior due to suspecting him of Rina's murder. Teppei is arrested and Satoko talks with some officers, with the club checking on her condition. Satoko asks if Rika saw her courage, and the girl replies she did. They tearfully hug, and afterwards Irie takes her to the clinic to tend her wounds. Satoko attends the Watanagashi Festival with everyone the next night and is met with genuine concern from other villagers, who are happy to see she's okay.
A few days later, the club notices that Rika appears to be troubled by something, and she says she's going to be killed later. They think it's a joke, but Rika stays home from school one day claiming to have a cold. Satoko tells Rika to take care of herself and says that a world without Rika would be a sad one. After school, the club heads to Rika's house to cheer her up and notice all the police officers walking around everywhere. Rika says that she's definitely going to be killed and Satoko says that it's her turn to do something for her friends; she points out that Rika doesn't have the courage to fight despite telling Satoko to have courage earlier.
Rika tells everyone the truth, that she's being targeted by the same person who killed Tomitake and Takano. most likely someone from the organization Tokyo. She explains the history of Hinamizawa Syndrome and that this disease was the basis for the Oyashiro-sama faith. Satoko's weekly visits to the Irie Clinic have actually been helping them collect research data for Hinamizawa Syndrome, which Satoko has had terminal symptoms of for most of her life; her shots keep her symptoms under control. Satoko starts to freak out and cries, wondering why only she's a terminal patient if the entire village is infected, with Rika trying to assure her that it was just an accident. Satoko says she's lying but the rest of the club members comfort her and place their faith in Rika's story. Satoko calms down, and they begin formulating a plan against the Mountain Dogs. They realize that Takano may be the real mastermind and faked her death before framing Irie.
The club stays in Rika's shack the entire day, wit Satoko setting up some traps. Late that night, the Mountain Dogs attempt to break into Rika's shack and set off some firecrackers, thinking they're under fire. The club escapes and runs through the woods with the goal of meeting up at the Sonozaki main house. When Rika trips, Satoko runs back for her and knocks out a Dog by kicking him and distracts other Dogs by throwing pocket sand at them..Seeing the Dogs pointing guns at Satoko, Rika gets in front of her and defends her, knowing that her own survival is integral to Takano's plan. The rest of the club comes back to knock out the armed Dogs and save Satoko and Rika, and they continue running.
The club battles some more Dogs who emerge from a van and plan to steal it, however they fail to notice Takano staying behind in it, who shoots and kills Keiichi. The rest of the club is soon restrained by the Mountain Dogs and executed one-by-one by Takano. After watching Shion get shot, Satoko cries and Takano tells her that she could turn Satoko in to Tokyo for a bounty, but they'd dissect her brain as she lived. She gives Satoko the choice of dying now or later, and when she doesn't answer Takano gives her a familiar question: is cauliflower or broccoli green? Satoko is about to answer cauliflower but then changes to broccoli and is shot dead immediately after.
The Mountain Dogs dispose of the club members' corpses as Takano dissects Rika alive. The spirits of the deceased club members watch, with Satoko especially saddened that she couldn't save Rika in the end. They then notice Hanyuu and treat her as their new friend despite her horned appearance and resolve to make a miracle happen next time.
Matsuribayashi.
The Connecting Fragments section details Satoko's relationship with her parents, her succumbing to Hinamizawa Syndrome and killing them, and her treatment by the Irie Clinic. The clinic considered dissecting Satoko since she was still L5, but Irie doesn't want to do that and instead proposes an experimental cure. He isn't sure if it'll work due to the risks involved, but Rika assures him that it will work. The treatment turns out to be successful, with Satoko having to take three shots daily.
Hanyuu takes a physical form and introduces herself at school as Rika's distant relative. Satoko is confused that Rika even had relatives, but readily accepts Hanyuu as her new friend and plays club gamse with her. Rika later tells the club of her idea for a comic book, which is really her explaining the secrets of Hinamizawa, and gets their advice for helping the protagonist survive. Satoko says that if it were real, her trap mountain would be effective against the Mountain Dogs.
Rika gets Akasaka's help and has him hide out at the shack while she plans to hide at Mion's house. Rika wonders how she'll explain this to Satoko and goes upstairs to find her already packing things up and ready to go. Satoko knew that Rika's comic wasn't just fiction and is a bit shocked that Rika didn't immediately tell her best friend what was going on. Satoko introduces herself to Akasaka and shows him her trap map, marking a wiretapping shack used by the Mountain Dogs with a trap set up that will alert Rika's home if anyone goes near it.
Satoko and Rika stay home from school claiming to be sick and meet the club at Mion's house to form a strategy. They realize that Rika's death is the basis for the Emergency Manual, so they decide to fake her death with Ooishi's help. The group hides out in the Sonozaki torture chamber and watch on the security cameras as Mountain Dogs begin surrounding the area, having figured out what they're up to. The club escapes through the secret passage and ends up the trap mountain. The Mountain Dogs follow them to the mountain, with many of them falling victim to Satoko's traps. One member, Skylark 13 chases after Satoko and ends up in a wide field. Satoko promises that if Skylark 13 can go 5 steps without setting off a trap, she will surrender. Skylark 13 considers his options and decides to walk backwards, but winds up defeated like the rest.
Takano ultimately surrenders to the Bloodhounds, and Satoko attends the Watanagashi Festival with the rest of the club.
Trivia.
<li>In "Higurashi Gou" and "Sotsu", Eua frequently refers to Satoko as "Vier" and claims the latter lost her memory. Vier Dreissig is a character appearing in who shares similaries with Takano and Lambdadelta.
| Satoko Houjou |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satoko Houjou/Gallery
| Satoko Houjou/Gallery |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satoko Houjou/Image Gallery
| Satoko Houjou/Image Gallery |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satoko Houjou/Other Appearances
This page details Satoko Houjou's other appearances and involvement in "Higurashi"-related media outside the original story.
Higurashi When They Cry Kai (anime).
In Reunion, many years after the events of "Tsumihoroboshi", Rena remembers a time when Keiichi fell into Satoko's trap while entering the class room. The other four members of the club, including Satoko, are said to have died during the Great Hinamizawa Disaster.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei.
Saikoroshi.
After Takano's defeat, the club has fun at a pool in Okinomiya and head home. Satoko warns Rika not to act so reckless when biking on the road and Rika winds up getting hit by a truck.
Rika wakes up in the school infirmary and is bewildered to see Satoshi standing by her side. Chie calls out to Satoko in the hallway and asks her to apologize to Rika, with Satoko sulkily saying that Rika is making a big deal out of getting hurt by her. Satoko half-heartedly apologizes, which confounds Rika since she's never treated her like this in previous worlds.
Rika continues to ponder the strange new world she's ended up in. Many people keep apologizing to Rika on behalf of Satoko, including Satoshi and Rena, whose name is now Reina. Rika realizes that she and Satoko were never friends in this world. Rika later learns that the dam project went through in this world, and Satoko and Satoshi have a good relationship with their mother and stepfather.
Rika seeks a way to return to her original world and finds some ancient Furude family documents, reading them at school. Satoko suddenly snatches them away and mocks the grimy state of it before throwing it to other kids. Rika tries to get her documents back and gets fed up with the way Satoko's been acting, deciding that she is not really Satoko. Rika punches Satoko and then hits her with a chair a few times. Rika then threatens her and says that if Satoko ever goes near her again, she will hurt her even more. Satoko starts crying, and Satoshi takes her to the infirmary as Rika gets reprimanded by the principal. Rika heads to the infirmary after, and the two girls reluctantly apologize to each other after Chie's encouragement.
Reina wants to start a games club and convinces Mion, Satoshi and Rika to join. Satoshi says that Satoko also wants to join and wants to try making friends with Rika. Rika considers staying in this new world despite the village sinking in half a year. She realizes that this world is meant to be a sinless one, where Satoko never killed her parents and never went through abuse, however Rika doesn't want to invalidate the happiness that everyone achieved in her original world.
Rika finally wakes up in her original world and is met with a crying Satoko, who's happy she survived the truck incident.
Hirukowashi.
Rena falls under the influence of the Magatama of Fuwarazu, and Satoko and the club try to get the the magatamas back before she can cause chaos. Rena goes to meet Tomitake at the Furude Shrine, and Satoko uses several modified rockets as traps to knock him out.
Batsukoishi.
Keiichi gets help from the Soul Brothers in regaining his drive to win club games. Tomitake creates a perverted fantasy where Rika and Satoko wear Angel Mort outfits and clean a window with their butts. Keiichi is rejuvenated and defeats the club the next day, with Satoko facing a punishment game by wearing a collar.
In the All-Cast Review session, Satoko and the club get revenge on Keiichi by putting him in fantasies of their own. Satoko gets shocked from seeing the fantasy of Keiichi and Satoshi and is knocked out by Rika with chloroform.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou.
Outbreak.
Hinamizawa is placed under quarantine due to a supposed virus outbreak. The club hears that villagers are calling the quarantine Oyashiro-sama's curse and are blaming Satoko for it and want to sacrifice her. Not only that, Rika has seemingly disappeared, leaving Satoko alone in the shack.
Villagers begin killing each other and the club plans to escape the village, but they learn that Satoko has been kidnapped by other villagers who plan to sink her in the swamp to appease Oyashiro-sama. The club successfully saves Satoko after killing some villagers and escape to Okinomiya with her.
Kamikashimashi.
The club encounters more crazed villagers in Okinomiya and are saved by a girl named Une. Several villagers surround their hideout, and Satoko uses a remote-controlled car to divert their attention while everyone else escapes.
Une is discovered to be important to quelling the virus outbreak, with the club escorting her to the Sonozaki family's stronghold. Takano, empowered by Tamura, tries to get her hands on Une and captures her only to find Satoko wearing her clothes; the real Une swapped outfits with her. The group manages to defeat Takano.
When Rika resets the timeline after the end of the world, the club stops Une from carrying out her plan and induct her and Tamura into the club, making them do punishment games alongside Hanyuu.
07th Theater.
During the competition in 07th Theater 2, the "Higanbana" team challenges "Higurashi"'s world by sending Nafumi Shintani to play with the club.
| Satoko Houjou/Other Appearances |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satoko Houjou/Sprites
PC and Console.
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Higurashi Mei.
Child.
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Teen.
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| Satoko Houjou/Sprites |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satoko Hōjō
| Satoko Hōjō |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satokowashi
is the fifth and final arc in the anime and the first arc in the "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Meguri" manga.
Characters.
New characters
Returning characters
Manga.
The manga version of Satokowashi contains five chapters and with the first four included in the first volume and the last one included in the second volume.
| Satokowashi |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satokowashi-hen
| Satokowashi-hen |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satokowashi-hen Manga Chapter 1
is the first chapter in "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Meguri".
Summary.
The chapter begins with a retelling of the end of "Matsuribayashi", where Takano surrenders and is taken away by the Bloodhounds. Rika shows Hanyuu the bullet she grabbed, proof that she created a true miracle. The club goes off to enjoy the Watanagashi Festival.
August, 1983. The Three Family heads discuss holding a ceremony to celebrate the end of the dam war. Kiichirou and Oryou want anyone to be able to visit Hinamizawa and for villagers to get out and explore, for the sake of the young people who will build the village's future. They need Rika's help as the reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama. Rika says that Oyashiro-sama was always watching over the village and seeing everyone get along, so surely he will allow it. They agree to announce it at next year's Watanagashi so a new wind can blow.
That night at home, Hanyuu is happy that Rika will now be able to leave Hinamizawa and go anywhere. Rika doesn't want to leave the village however, as this is the world she fought so hard for a hundred years for. Spending happy days with everyone should be good for her and Hanyuu. However, it changed that Rika became the only person who could see her anymore, and people began to forget about Hanyuu Furude. Hanyuu says it's lonely, but that's how it is; repeating many worlds has caused Hanyuu's power to weaken. Hanyuu is still satisfied, for in this Hinamizawa, she no longer has to bear the sins of people and could create a future for Rika.
Hanyuu asks for Rika to strive towards whatever it is she wants and to see more of the world. As a child, Rika was like a cat and was very proactive, but being trapped in Hinamizawa may have changed her thought process and her sense of values; the endless tragedies robbed her of her wishes. Rika ponders this. For a hundred years, all she ever wanted was to stop dying, but now she wonders what she really wants to do. Rika falls asleep, and Hanyuu hopes she'll be able to figure out what she wants soon. Hanyuu wishes her well and disappears.
September 1983. Mion, Satoko and Rika go shopping for middle school uniforms. Rika notices a fancy school uniform, and Mion says that's the uniform Shion wore at St. Lucia Academy. Mion says you have to study pretty hard to get in, but Rika is intrigued. Until now, Rika was swept along by fate and never decided anything for herself, and even now is just going to middle school at the Hinamizawa school. However, she is now a girl who doesn't need to be saved by others. Rika wants to grow up, inspired by her friends' strengths: she wants Keiichi's strong conviction, Rena's kindness and composure, Mion's sense of responsibility and leadership, Shion's strong will and proaction, and Satoko's courage to smile in the darkest times. Rika never put much thought into studying, but this will be the first step to creating a new her.
After shopping, Rika asks Satoko to come with her to the bookstore. There, Rika pulls out a St. Lucia study guide and tells Satoko she has a dream of studying to become a new person, and she wants Satoko to join her. Satoko sympathizes however she thinks it's too early to worry about exams as they haven't even started middle school yet. Satoko declines, not wanting to worry about studying. Rika accepts and says she'll do fine on her own.
Time passes. Winter comes to Hinamizawa, Rika begins her studies, and Mion graduates from the school. In June of 1984, Satoko complains about Keiichi using a new deck of cards during a club game, as there are no scratches on them. Keiichi says they've introduced a new club rule preventing cheating, as they have younger kids playing now. Rika bows out of the activities and says she needs to go home early. Rena and Keiichi comment on Rika spending so much time studying and offer to help if she needs it. They look forward for the next chance to play club games with her. Rika bids farewell and Satoko watches her go. She thinks playing club with the rest of the class is fine, but playing without Rika and Mion is lonely.
Later, Satoko gets a poor grade on some math problems and sighs, not realizing that middle school studying would be so hard. Rika points out some of Satoko's mistakes and fixes them. Keiichi compliments her knowledge and Rika asks for some help on more problems. Keiichi sees they're concepts she wouldn't learn until later, and Rika says she's doing advanced prep work. The bell rings and Satoko is excited to begin a club game with Rika, however Rika goes up to Chie to ask some questions.
Satoko can't believe Rika is taking her studies so seriously, as she's been reading textbooks all the time ever since fall. Rena says that Rika has truly found out what her dream is and offers to help Satoko with her dreams as well. Satoko still has no idea how to make her dreams come true and looks at some Cluedo cards, with one labeled "Satoshi".
Satoko wakes up one night to use the bathroom when she sees Rika sleeping at her desk. Satoko is happy that Rika was studying downstairs out of consideration for her. She remembers many happy memories with Rika and recalls how Rika wanted Satoko to be with her when she made her dream come true. Satoko says she has no choice. The next day, Satoko sits next to Rika with some textbooks and says she'll stay by her side if it means Rika won't give up. Satoko says she can handle some studying if she gets more serious, and Rika hugs her.
Shion angrily calls Rika and Satoko's house, refusing to let them attend St. Lucia. Mion apologizes for letting Shion know about it. Rika says she needs to go to St. Lucia, and Shion says she doesn't want Satoko feeling cramped there and asks if there's any other way for Rika to fulfill her dream. Rika's heart is set on her dream, much like Shion would do. Satoko takes the phone and says they would never give in to a school like that and calls Shion Nee-nee. Shion begrudgingly accepts and says if anything happens, they should contact her; Shion knows all sorts of escape tricks.
Time passes, and Rena and Keiichi graduate from school. Rika thanks Hanyuu, seeing that this world really is full of all sorts of unknown things, and that she will do her best to weave this world.
April, 1987. Rika and Satoko attend the 50th annual St. Lucia entrance ceremony, dressed up in their school uniforms. Rika thanks Satoko, the latter relieved they can stop working to death. The girls wish they could've stayed in the same dorm or had the same classes and bid farewell. Some girls greet good tidings to Rika, and Rika greets them back. Satoko is pleased that Rika has already grown accustomed to the school. The other girls look back at Satoko.
| Satokowashi-hen Manga Chapter 1 |
fandom.07th-expansion | # Satokowashi-hen Manga Chapter 2
is the second chapter in "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Meguri ".
Summary.
Satoko gets dressed in her dorm, excited to begin her high school life with Rika. Satoko and Rika greet each other in class, with Satoko giving a casual "good morning". Rika says they do greetings differently in St. Lucia, and the girls next to her ask who Satoko is. Rika introduces her and says they came from Hinamizawa, a small mountain village. The girls have never heard of it. The teacher arrives and calls everyone to their desks. She asks Rika to lead the class in the morning routine. Satoko notes how Rika has gotten completely absorbed in the glamorous school atmosphere and pledges to do her best not to let her down.
After class, Satoko lays her head down on her doodle-filled notebook, still unable to enjoy studying. She complains to Rika about how private conversations are forbidden and all the writing on the board was incomprehensible, preferring the unique Hinamizawa school structure. Satoko takes Rika's hand and is excited to explore the school together, but Rika says her classmates invited her to the salon. Satoko is confused, and the other girls explain it's a high society place where they can converse. Rika asks Satoko to join them and she agrees, but just for a little.
At the salon, Rika is asked what she would do against an issue she couldn't solve no matter what. Rika answers she would consult with a friend she trusts, and even though it might be an obvious answer, Rika took so long to realize it until her heart was at its breaking point. One girl asks what it was that could trouble Rika so much, and Rika asks a hypothetical: if you knew you were going to die, how would you escape it? The girls are speechless, and Rika says she's open for them to talk at any time.
Satoko is asked for her perspective. Satoko proudly says she would set a trap, using human relations as an example. Depending on how they react to the trap, Satoko can understand their behavior and tailor her conversation and communication with them accordingly. Rika giggles at the silly answer. Satoko thinks about how amazing Rika is for pursuing her dream to the fullest, and Satoko wants to do her best to stand by her side.
One day, Rika asks Satoko for something but the other girls interrupt to invite her to the salon again. Rika says Satoko and her were going to do something else, but Satoko says she can go by herself as she knows Rika really wants to go. Rika asks her to come along but Satoko doesn't feel like it today. The other girls quickly take Rika with them to the salon.
July, 1987. Satoko looks at some of her bad test grades. Rika asks if she would like to go for a walk around the school, but the teacher interrupts to speak with Satoko in private. Rika nipahs and tells Satoko she'll be waiting, and they touch hands before separating. The other girls watch them.
The teacher tells Satoko that she'll be taking remedial lessons after class every day because of her poor test grades. Satoko thinks she's joking, and the teacher says she can fill out a voluntary withdrawal form then. Memories with Rika flash as Satoko accepts the remedial classes. The teacher hands her a problem set and asks to have it done by the end of the day.
Satoko enters the remedial class room to see many other girls slaving away at problems. One girl notices Satoko is a first-year and says the academy values reputation above everything else, refusing to let failures graduate. Many kids form distinguished families are enrolled in the school, and the school can't expel them so they instead pressure them to voluntarily withdraw. The girl is certain that Satoko paid a lot of tuition to get in; a flashback of Rika and Satoko bowing before Irie is shown.
Satoko doesn't believe what she's hearing and says these are just supplementary lessons, and the other girl says she'll be gone in a year if she keeps thinking like that. If Satoko doesn't improve her grades, she'll be enrolled in special remedial lessons next year, and she'll lose her free time. The girl says it's not too late for Satoko to recover. Satoko remembers Rika waiting for her and resolves to do her best.
After remedial lessons, Satoko rushes back to the classroom only to find nobody there. One of Rika's classmates appears to pass on a message, saying that Rika has gone home. The girl has heard that Satoko will be in supplementary lessons again tomorrow and tells her to do her best. Satoko is heartbroken that Rika left her despite saying she would wait and watches Rika talk with her friends through a salon window. Satoko shakes away her negative thoughts and goes home to get some rest from all her constant studying.
Rika and her friends walk back down the hallway, with the girls praising Rika for finding a library book for them. Rika bids farewell so she can wait for Satoko. She goes inside the empty room and reads for a bit when the teacher shows up and tells Rika to go back to her dorm, as it's closing time.
Rika sits with Satoko the next day and asks if something happened between her and the teacher yesterday. Satoko was told she'll be in supplementary lessons every day after school, so she couldn't return to the classroom. Rika says if she has any problems, she can always talk to her, and Rika will do her best. Rika's friends also appear and offer their help, but Satoko gives them an angry glare. With a hearty laugh, she says she doesn't need help at all. Class begins, and Satoko clenches her fist.
Rika continues to have fun hanging out with her friends as Satoko does work problems, getting increasingly frustrated with time. One day, Satoko's anger reaches its peak when she goes up to Rika's friends in the parlor and says they're deceiving her, and that the Rika she knows is not as boring as them. Rika tells her to stop, but Satoko rants about how Rika is sipping tea and looking all pompous, and that they used to have fun back in the day. She yells that this isn't like Rika, and Rika yells back, saying she won't let Satoko badmouth them and that this is no longer the Hinamizawa school.
Satoko determines that Rika's dream all along was to live like a princess. Rika is saddened and asks why she's saying this, but Satoko says nothing and leaves. Rika's friends dislike Satoko talking to Rika like that even though they're from the same hometown and say that there are many problems with her character, but Rika tells them to stop. Rika says that in reality, Satoko is much better than her at everything and has helped her out many times. She refuses to let her friends think of Satoko badly.
Satoko continues to slave away in remedial classes, the words of that student she met earlier echoing in her head. Rika forlornly watches Satoko leave class every day. In March 1988, a teacher tells Satoko that she'll be enrolled in the special remedial class for her second year. She believes Satoko can move back into the regular class the next year if she keeps her grades up. Satoko exits the office and Rika begins to speak to her, but Satoko says she was just moved to a different class and leaves.
Satoko's studies continue. She thinks of many happy memories with Rika and starts crying, staining her work papers. She wonders how things ended up like this, just wanting to spend time with her beloved Rika. She reminisces on how fun it was to spend time with the club and remembers her traps. Satoko decides that if she can set a trap for Rika, it will remind her of the good old days.
Meanwhile, Rika talks to her friends about Satoko's traps. Her friends think it's dangerous, but Rika says Satoko's traps are meant to make people smile and soften the mood; they're Satoko's unique method of communication. Even though Satoko is moving to a different class, Rika wants them to understand Satoko's strong points and that she's her precious friend.
In the main hall of the school, Rika walks with her friends when Rika sees a 7 of spades card lying on the floor. Rika picks up the card, thinking Satoko has to do with this, as Satoko watches from behind a corner and hopes Rika will remember their fun times in Hinamizawa. Suddenly, heaps of cards and pans fall from the ceiling, and a scream lets out. Satoko is horrified to see Rika struck in the head with a pan and bleeding. As nearby students call for a nurse, Satoko runs off crying. One of Rika's friends watches her go while crying herself.
| Satokowashi-hen Manga Chapter 2 |
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