Higurashi: When They Cry (ひぐらしのなく頃に, Higurashi no Naku Koroni) is a 2006 television anime series based on Ryukishi07 & 07th Expansion’s sound visual novel of the same name. The series was adapted by studio Deen, and the staff credits include director Chiaki Kon, series composition writer Toshifumi Kawase, character designer Kyuta Sakai, and music composed by Kenji Kawai. The series first aired in Japan on April 2006, distributed by NBC Universal Entertainment Japan.
Also included is Higurashi: When They Cry Kai (ひぐらしのなく頃に解, Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai), a 2007 television anime series also based on Ryukishi07 & 07th Expansion’s sound visual novel of the same name. The season was adapted by studio Deen, with the returning staff from the previous series, and first aired in Japan on July 2007, also distributed by NBC Universal Entertainment Japan.
As well as Higurashi: When They Cry Rei (ひぐらしのなく頃に礼, Higurashi no Naku Koroni Rei), a 2009 original video anime series also based on Ryukishi07 & 07th Expansion’s sound visual novel of the same name. The series was adapted by studio Deen, and the staff credits include director & series composition writer Toshifumi Kawase, character designer Kazuya Kuroda, and music composed by Kenji Kawai. The series first released in Japan on February 2009, also distributed by NBC Universal Entertainment Japan.
Note: This post has been updated in May 2024 to reflect the current blog layout and some minor tweaks to the original write-up.
Background:
“It’s hard enough moving to a town where everyone has known each other their entire lives. Ever since Keiichi arrived in the picturesque town of Hinamizawa, he keeps discovering ominous happenings that don’t make any sense. Unsolved murders. Disappearances. Mutilations. The worst part is that he can’t be sure whether or not his new friends like Rena, Mion, Satoko, and Rika are aware of the events or involved in what’s happening. All he knows is that it’s not paranoia if someone really is trying to kill him, and escaping Hinamizawa alive may no longer be an option.”
Plot Synopsis via Sentai, December 2017.
Higurashi is a franchise loved by many visual novel fans, and the anime itself is an oddity considering it ended up more as a cult classic compared to other anime released at the time like Gundam and Haruhi Suzumiya. The sound visual novel has many story arcs that provide you with questions without answers, and even after the anime wrapped up more arcs were introduced with later re-releases of the game.
The first season, simply titled Higurashi: When They Cry, was released in North America by distributor Geneon Entertainment on DVD with an English dub. Unfortunately the series did not sell, and when Geneon discontinued, Funimation (who helped distribute the Geneon titles) decided to drop the franchise, alongside a couple others like The Familiar of Zero, which led the first season to go out of print and the later anime content to remain in limbo for a very long time.
Then Sentai Filmworks stepped in and rescued not only the first season, but also the second season which aired in July 2007, Higurashi: When They Cry Kai, and the OVAs that came after in February 2009, Higurashi: When They Cry Rei. These marked the first time both Kai and Rei made it to the west with an English subtitled release, however, these were not dubbed in English compared to its predecessor.
Complete Collection & On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Sentai
Released: 17th December 2017
The complete collection release for When They Cry contains all 26 episodes of Higurashi: When They Cry across four Blu-ray discs, all 24 episodes of Higurashi: When They Cry Kai across four Blu-ray discs, and all 5 OVA episodes of Higurashi: When They Cry Rei on a single Blu-ray disc. All the discs were encoded & authored by Sentai Filmworks.
The discs are presented into different story arcs compared to other anime shows that Sentai have released prior. In each Higurashi series, they have a certain number of story arcs. There’s a lot of them so the table below will go over what they are across each disc!
| Disc | Higurashi: When They Cry Arcs & Episode Content |
|---|---|
| Disc 1 | Spirited Away By the Demon – Episodes 1-4 The Cotton Drifting – Episodes 5-8 |
| Disc 2 | Curse Killing – Episodes 9-13 Time Wasting – Episodes 14-15 |
| Disc 3 | Eye Opening – Episodes 16-21 |
| Disc 4 | Atonement – Episodes 22-26 |
| Disc | Higurashi: When They Cry Kai Arcs & Episode Content |
|---|---|
| Disc 5 | Prologue – Episode 1 Disaster Awakening – Episodes 2-5 |
| Disc 6 | Mass Slaughter – Episodes 6-13 |
| Disc 7 | Festival Orchestrating – Episodes 14-21 |
| Disc 8 | Festival Orchestrating – Episodes 22-24 |
| Disc | Higurashi: When They Cry Rei Arcs & Episode Content |
|---|---|
| Disc 9 | Public Embarrassment – Episode 1 Disc Killing – Episodes 2-4 Daybreak – Episode 5 |
The first season includes the Geneon English dub and all of the episodes are presented in Japanese with English subtitles. The layout of the story arcs are the same as the previous Sentai seasonal sets, as each disc covers one or few at a time. The discs for this complete collection set are regions A & B compatible while the subtitles are locked during playback.
These discs have been re-authored, as evidently seen with the HIDIVE trailer and different menu artwork for the backgrounds. It was reported that there were some frame-rate issues for episodes 10 and 16 for Higurashi: When They Cry Kai in its individual release. I checked both episodes again, and I was able to notice episode 10’s problem but not for episode 16. My assumption is that they fixed only one of the two episodes in this release. You can spot the defect when you notice a bit of stuttering as the episode progresses compared to the others.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | Higurashi: When They Cry: English, Japanese Higurashi: When They Cry Kai & Rei: Japanese |
| Audio | Higurashi: When They Cry: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Higurashi: When They Cry Kai & Rei: Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 |
| Video | Higurashi: When They Cry & Kai: 1080i High Definition Upscaled format 16:9 aspect ratio Higurashi: When They Cry Rei: 1080p High Definition Upscaled format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B United States Country Code (Geolocking) |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 9 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 4:
- Clean Opening Animation “Higurashi no Naku Koroni”
- Clean Closing Animation “Why, Or Why Not”
Disc 9:
- Clean Opening Animation “Super scription of data”
- Clean Closing Animation “Manazashi”
- Sentai Trailers
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Higurashi: When They Cry is available to own on Blu-ray from Sentai. The distributor once released the series on DVD also but that format has since no longer been supported. The complete collection is available to order on Amazon US. It is also available in the UK by MVM Entertainment via Amazon UK.
The Normanic Vault 
Leave a comment