Higurashi Could Answer the Series’ Greatest Mystery in New Prequel

The intensely dark, gory and confusing Higurashi no Naku Koro ni manga franchise of murder mysteries is delving into the past with a new series, Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Oni, which will possibly answer the many questions that still plague the franchise by focusing on the “Old Hag” and “witch” Oryou Sonozaki when she was a child.

The format of Higurashi – which began as a game – has been befuddling readers ever since its debut in 2005 by revealing different realities of the same events and usually by presenting new alternatives before the older tales conclude. This format explains why fans are still wondering what’s actually true almost 20 years later. Higurashi‘s many realities and alternatives revolve around what readers eventually learn to be known as the mysterious Hinamizawa Syndrome where a person – usually affiliated in some way to Hinamizawa Village – somehow gets infected by a parasite that causes the host to develop extreme anxiety and paranoia. These disturbing symptoms eventually culminate in the afflicted character performing unprovoked acts of extreme violence, usually perpetrated against others and sometimes themselves. Some of Higurashi‘s realities are more rooted in science (with a primary focus on the aforementioned syndrome) while others are more supernatural in nature with demons possessing various characters.

Fans aren’t just excited about Oni because they’ll learn the origins of the powerful Oryou who controls every aspect of Hinamizawa Village in the present day. It’s because Oni will likely delve more deeply into the origins of the syndrome, which has already been traced back to the pivotal Marco Polo Bridge incident between Japanese and Chinese soldiers, a real historical event that is often viewed as a cause for Japan’s entrance into World War II. Higurashi blames the real-life mystery of who actually fired the first shot on the Hinamizawa Syndrome, which affected a soldier from Hinamizawa.

The supernatural alternatives will likely be explored as well, which the first chapter seems to focus on primarily. As earlier Higurashi series have revealed, many residents of Hinamizawa blame the guardian deity of their village known as Oyashiro-sama for the violent acts, referring to the effects of the syndrome as Oyashiro’s Curse. And in chapter one of Oni, the Higurashi character Oryou and her companions enter Oyashiro’s shrine without permission, in what began as a dare for losing a game of tag. Based on how eerily the shrine is depicted, the foolishness of the children promises to elicit the retribution of a god who, in this reality, is vengeful. (To further confuse readers, Oyashiro has also been portrayed in past series as a sweet goddess who’s horrified at the prospect of her villages blaming her for such horrendous acts of violence.)

As only one chapter has been unofficially translated by fans, it’s unclear whether Oni will follow the same format as past Higurashi no Naku Koro ni series. As previously alluded, Higurashi follows an unprecedented format where the first half of a story – known as “question arcs”- is not always directly proceeded by its conclusion – known as “answer arcs.” So, before one story finishes, Higurashi normally introduces another version of the same tale from a different perspective. And if the first story is more science-based, then it’s likely that the following arc will take a more supernatural approach in an alternate reality. Oni‘s debut chapter definitely creates the impression that, if it shares the same layout as previous series, this first reality takes place in a more supernatural world where characters are possessed by actual demons and not a parasite. But, of course, one thing that fans can expect for sure is that there will be a gratuitous amount of gore and a pile of mutilated corpses in Higurashi by the time Oni concludes.

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