Higurashi no Naku Koro ni/Characters: Difference between revisions
prefix>Import Bot Import from TV Tropes TVT:Characters.HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Characters.HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license |
m Mass update links |
||
Line 16:
* [[Adaptation Dye Job]]: Eye variation. The anime and the Mahjong game are the only continuities in the series that display him with purple eyes, though occasionally a manga color will show him with purple.
* [[All Men Are Perverts]]: Strong believer of this and proud of it.
* {{spoiler|[[Amnesiac Dissonance]]}}: "[[My God, What Have I Done?|What have I done?]] {{spoiler|I killed Rena and Mion!}}"
* [[Anti
* [[The Atoner]]: In ''Tsumihoroboshi-hen'' ("Atonement Chapter"), naturally.
* [[Bad Liar]]: Whenever he does anything that will get him in loads of trouble, he will act very guilty and his lies are horrendous, especialy in Watanagashi-Hen and Tatarigoroshi-hen.
Line 55:
* [[The Messiah]]: In the later arcs.
* [[Murder Is the Best Solution]]: [[Averted Trope|NO, IT ISN'T!]]
* {{spoiler|[[My God, What Have I Done?]]: The first is that he realized what horrible things he had been doing back in his old life when he was shooting at children with a BB gun. He later confesses this to his friends, which leads him to remember Onikakushi and having an even ''worse'' case. Both of these occur in Tsumihoroboshi, or Atonement Chapter.}}
* [[Oblivious to Love]]: Can't seem to catch on to Mion and (presumably) Rena's attraction to him. Taken [[Up to Eleven]] in ''Musubienishi-hen''.
* [[Odd Friendship|Odd]] [[Intergenerational Friendship]]: In ''Minagoroshi-hen'', {{spoiler|with Ooishi.}}
Line 65:
* {{spoiler|[[Villain Protagonist]]}}: In ''Onikakushi'' and ''Tatarigoroshi.'' More so in the former than the later.
* [[Weapon of Choice]]: Houjou Satoshi's baseball bat.
* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: When Rena finds out some things about his past, she calls him on this. Also the catalyst for the Atonement Chapter having the name it has.
=== "[[I'm Taking Her Home With Me|Cute Mode]]" Rena Ryugu ===
Line 90:
** When [[Hilarity Ensues]] she doesn't hesitate to hit her friends, and she's thrown tables a few times when things get rough. She's apparently quite strong.
* [[Cuteness Proximity]]: One of her [[Running Gag|Running Gags]].
* [[
* [[Dark and Troubled Past]]: She discovered that her mother cheated on her father. While her parents were finalizing their divorce, she {{spoiler|attacked her classmates while suffering from Hinamizawa Syndrome.}} {{spoiler|She then attempted suicide and was treated with medication and therapy}}. She and her father then moved back to Hinamizawa to start a new life.
* [[Genius Ditz]] (or possibly [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]): Compare her behavior at the end of episode 4 of ''Rei'' with her behavior in episode 5.
Line 119:
* [[Verbal Tic]]: She has a case of Palilalia which is the ocasional repeating the last words of her sentences, most notable "kana, kana?" ("I wonder, I wonder?"). Done to very sinister effect in ''Tsumihoroboshi-hen''.
* [[Weapon of Choice]]: A billhook. Though some confuse it for a machete or cleaver, hence the nickname "Cleaver Girl."
* {{spoiler|[[Well
* [[Wise Beyond Their Years]]
* [[Woman in White]]
Line 154:
* [[One of the Boys]]: Mion has trouble not just getting her feelings across to Keiichi but also getting him to really acknowledge her actual gender.
* {{spoiler|[[Only Sane Man]]: She's the only one in the cast without a [[Dark and Troubled Past]], and other than Rika, the only one who doesn't suffer from Hinamizawa Syndrome in the series (although it's hinted that she does in other Fragments).}}
* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Red Oni to Shion's Blue. {{spoiler|But her ''true'' personality is Blue; she acts Red because it is expected from the "older twin" role she is forced to play}}. The archetype is referenced by her blue oni tattoo.
* [[Sibling Yin
* [[Shorttank]]
* [[Single Woman Seeks Good Man]]: Revealed to be the reason she likes Keiichi so much during the Eye Opening chapter.
* [[Spirited Competitor]]: Moreso than the rest of the club unless Keiichi or Rena get fired up.
* [[Tall, Dark and Bishoujo|Tall, Green-Haired and Bishoujo]]
* [[The Lancer]] / [[Team Mom]]: Was the group leader prior to [[The Hero|Keiichi's]] joining of the club, but directs the groups' activities even now. As the oldest member, she usually coordinates the abilities of everyone to [[The Strategist|maximum and frightening effect]] in and out of battle. Thus showing [[Brilliant but Lazy|her brilliance despite being the most laid back of the group.]]
* [[The Tease]]: In the manga especially, she has quite a few moments of this in the beginnings of different arcs.
* [[Tsundere]]: A unique type. She neither acts terribly tsun nor dere, but has the classic signs of denying her attraction or her desire for things. Note that since her "nice side" is the dominant personality, she has slight type B leanings.
* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]]: She's a tomboy, while her twin sister Shion is more feminine. {{spoiler|At least it appears as such. As noted under [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]], the two act this way because it is expected from them. Deep down, Mion is quite girly, while Shion is, [[Break the Cutie|well]], [[Yandere|you]] [[Ax Crazy|probably]] [[Kill
* [[Tomboyish Ponytail]]
* [[Twin Switch]]: Frequently with Shion. {{spoiler|As children, they switched ''permanently''}}.
Line 188:
* [[Break the Cutie]]: {{spoiler|Warnings about tormenting cute things apply. She doesn't simply break or snap, she ''explodes''.}}
* [[Cain and Abel]]: The Cain versus Mion. {{spoiler|Though not as much as you are led to believe, since Mion and Shion genuinely love each other.}}
* [[Cold
* [[Cool Big Sis]]: To Satoko, as a promise she made to Satoshi. {{spoiler|And horribly screwed with in arcs where she goes insane.}}
* [[Curtains Match the Window]]
Line 198:
* [[Foreshadowing]]: From Frederica Bernkastel's poem in ''Meakashi-hen'': "How many years will pass before she wonders if she really dropped them?"
* [[Future Badass]]: In the manga- only arc Yoigoshi-hen. However, {{spoiler|She was being possessed by Mion, making ''her'' the true badass despite the staggering disadvantage of being ''dead''}}.
* [[Green
* {{spoiler|[[Ignored Epiphany]]}}: Her reaction to realizing she just {{spoiler|crucified Satoko}} was, number one: {{spoiler|wetting herself}}. Number two: Saying "Oh, what the hell". In the VN, it's expanded upon: {{spoiler|She realizes that she forgot her promise to Satoshi, it's just that she felt it was already too late to atone, and she had no choice but to continue what she was doing.}}
* [[Image Song]] - "Futari no Birthday" and "Ienai Kotoba", along with Mion.
Line 205:
* [[Laughing Mad]] :In Meakashi and Watanagashi.
* {{spoiler|[[Love Makes You Crazy]] [[Love Makes You Evil|And Evil]]}} : ''Meakashi-hen''. Enough said.
* {{spoiler|[[My God, What Have I Done?]]: After torturing Satoko to death she remembers that Satoshi asked her to take care of his little sister and that while she gave up on Satoshi coming back and went for revenge, Satoko never lost faith. Has a straight example in the Massacre chapter after recalling what she did.}}
* [[Off to Boarding School]]
* [[The Rashomon]]: ''Watanagashi-hen'' was told from Keiichi's point of view, and Shion retells it in ''Meakashi-hen''. {{spoiler|Sorta. They actually ''are'' different ways of playing out the same sequence, but a few details differ such as who knocked over the bike and had someone come to their rescue.}}
* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Blue Oni to Mion's Red. {{spoiler|But her ''true'' personality is Red; she acts Blue because it is expected from the "younger twin" role she is forced to play}}.
* {{spoiler|[[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]}}
* {{spoiler|[[Serial Killer]]: Unlike other arcs, her murders occur over the course of days. Visionary type combined with revenge sub-type due to Hinimizawa syndrome.}}
* [[Sibling Yin
* [[Sixth Ranger]] {{spoiler|/ [[Sixth Ranger Traitor]] in some early arcs.}}
* [[Spanner in The Works]]: See the trope's page for details.
* [[Star
* [[Start of Darkness]]: Subverted with the "distinguishment scene". It is so in arcs where she snaps but not in arcs where she doesn't.
* [[Tall, Dark and Bishoujo|Tall, Green-Haired and Bishoujo]]
* [[The Chick]]
* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]]: The girly girl. {{spoiler|At least it appears as such. See Mion's entry for details.}}
Line 250:
* [[Does Not Like Spam|Does Not Like Pumpkins]]
* [[Drop the Washtub]]: A preferred prank. She can summon them ''anywhere''.
* [[Entendre Failure]]: Presumably because she's one of the [[Token Mini
* [[Hair Decorations]]: She nearly always wears a black hairband.
* [[Genki Girl]]
* [[Image Song]]: "Sukisuki Nii Nii".
* [[Morality Pet]]: To different character in different arcs, most notably Irie.
* {{spoiler|[[My God, What Have I Done?]]}}: You might miss it and you won't understand it at the time, but it happens at the end of ''Minagoroshi'' chapter {{spoiler|when she realizes that her parents weren't trying to kill her and she didn't need to push them off the cliff.}}
* [[
* [[Parental Abandonment]]: Boy, does poor Satoko get it bad. Her mother, father, aunt, and brother all died or disappeared, and her uncle skipped town.
** That last one ''really'' isn't a bad thing.
Line 262:
* [[Technicolor Eyes]]: Pink and in some versions, Red.
* [[The Smart Guy]]: The "Trap Master" of the group. She can [[MacGyvering|make weapons and traps out of anything]]. Her expertise even allows her to understand and figure out the things others make, such as {{spoiler|[[Chekhov's Skill|quickly concluding that the bomb Rena created was hidden in the rain gutter on the roof.]]}}
* [[Token Mini
* [[Trap Master]]: It's her club title. {{spoiler|She can make traps that can catch trained soldiers off guard!}}
* [[Trauma Conga Line]]: {{spoiler|First, her parents die due to a tragic accident. Then, she and her brother are forced to move in with her abusive aunt and uncle. Then, her aunt is killed by her brother, her brother disappears a few days later, and her uncle abandons her.}}
Line 353:
* [[Expy]]: Featherine Augustus Aurora from [[Umineko no Naku Koro Ni]].
* {{spoiler|[[Gods Hands Are Tied]]}}: In fact, she even goes so far as to describe herself as "{{spoiler|a powerless god}}".
* {{spoiler|[[God Was My Co
* [[Horned Humanoid]]
* {{spoiler|[[Hot Mom]]: In the past}}
Line 363:
* {{spoiler|[[Misapplied Phlebotinum]]: For every arc until the last she is undetectable to anyone that is not named Rika or in the later stages of Hinamizawa syndrome. [[Fridge Logic|It apparently never occurred to Rika to utilize her invisible ghost spy to do anything like figure out who killed Tomitake]].}}
** {{spoiler|Then again, Rika is still quite the child, even though it sometimes seems otherwise. And quite pessimistic at that, with the whole "what's the point" attitude.}}
* {{spoiler|[[Not
* [[New Meat]]: After she joins the club, Mion calls her the "newbie".
* [[Only Known By Their Nickname]]: Most people call her {{spoiler|Oyashiro-sama}}, people who know her call her Hanyu, but her real name is {{spoiler|Hainryun Ieasomuru Jieda. She got the nickname of Hanyu because her husband couldn't memorize her full name.}}
Line 408:
* [[Fan Nickname]]: Mr. Delicious, since his name sounds like "oishii", the Japanese word for "delicious".
* [[Inspector Javert]]: He's usually right, though, like in {{spoiler|Tatarigoroshi-hen}} and {{spoiler|Onisarashi-hen}}. {{spoiler|But he's completely wrong in the most important way in that he thinks the Sonozaki's are behind everything. This keeps him from approaching the only person in the group that never goes insane.}}
* [[
* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: His drawling accent, casual manner and crude humor put people off their guard. Unfortunately, it makes him come off as arrogant and causes distrust in him.
* [[Odd Friendship|Odd]] [[Intergenerational Friendship]]: With {{spoiler|Keiichi}} in ''Minagoroshi-hen''.
Line 537:
----
* [[Abusive Parents|Abusive Grandparent]]: Treats Shion like garbage. [[Sarcasm Mode|Best grandmom ever!]]
* [[Cold
* {{spoiler|[[Crack Pairing]]: Ends up as [[May
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: Motive for the "distinguishment" scene.
* [[Evil Matriarch]]: Her granddaughters call her ''demon granny'', what more do you need to know?
** {{spoiler|In reality, she's not actually evil, just a [[Jerkass]].}}
* {{spoiler|[[Fingore]]: Again, standard punishment among the Sonozakis. First she had that done when young, then she forced Akane to do it when she didn't like her choice in men, and ultimately makes Shion go through it. (And as a bonus, Mion does it on her own.)}}
* {{spoiler|[[May
* [[Meaningful Name]]: "Oryou" contains the character "oni", as do all the names of the Sonozaki heirs. Oryou's daughter Akane (Mion and Shion's mother) used to have an "oni" in her name, but was forced to change the spelling when she was disinherited for marrying an outsider.
* [[Never Mess With Granny]]
Line 567:
* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Unfortunately, there's generally little she can do.
* [[Trademark Favorite Food]]: Curry.
* [[Two
** Higher grade students are also expected to teach to lower grade ones during free study periods, effectively raising the number of teachers.
* [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair]]
Line 595:
* [[Honey Trap]]: And how. {{spoiler|It ends ''badly'' for her}}
* [[Gold Digger]]
* [[Gorn]]: In a series full of [[Family
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Rena took the "i" out of her name to signify the removal of all "ickyness" from her life. Could it really be a coincidence that Rina is nothing ''but'' horribleness?
* [[Outlaw Couple]]: With Teppei.
* [[Red Eyes Take Warning]]: Major hint that there's something not right about her.
* [[Tall, Dark and Bishoujo]]: Despite her bitchy behavior she is ''rather'' good-looking.
* [[Tattooed Crook]]
* [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair|You Gotta Have Pink Hair]]
Line 691:
'''Natsumi Kimiyoshi''' is a girl whose family used to live in Hinamizawa. After the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, her grandmother starts acting strange, setting off a horrific chain of murders {{spoiler|which Natsumi is actually responsible for}}.
----
* [[Blood
* [[Continuity Cameo]]: In the original ([[PS 2]]) Miotsukushi-hen, she pops up briefly as a nod to people who had read Onisarashi-hen.
* [[Country Mouse]]: Okinomiya is a bigger town than Hinamizawa, but this sort of dynamic still plays pretty strongly when she moves to the city.
Line 702:
* [[I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me]]: Before Akira admits he likes her too, her apparently [[Unrequited Love]] was largely full of this dynamic.
* {{spoiler|[[I Am a Monster]]}}: At the end of Someutsushi-hen. Ends about as well as {{spoiler|Shion's}}.
* {{spoiler|[[My God, What Have I Done?]]}}: "Help me... Toudou... he... [[
* [[New Transfer Student]]
* [[Odango Hair]]
Line 735:
'''Chisato Saeki and Tamako Makimura''' are two of Natsumi's friends. Both of them first appeared in the Onisarashi-hen manga and were given expanded roles (especially Chisato) in the DS remakes of that arc, Someutsushi-hen and Kageboshi-hen. {{spoiler|In the latter arc, Chisato is attacked and hospitalized by Natsumi. Later, she meets Natsumi in the hospital. Although the two struggle for a bit, Chisato is able to calm Natsumi down.}}
----
* [[Brainy Brunette]]: Tamako. Really, her hair's purplish, but Natsumi (although her hair's greenish-blonde) actually fits [[Shy Blue
* [[Blush Sticker]]: One of Chisato's standard expressions in the DS.
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Tamako.
Line 742:
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Tamako's is commented on the manga omake. "Tama" means round. The manga artist wonders if her name is so because she's roly-poly.
* [[Plucky Comic Relief]]: Chisato in spades.
* [[Romantic Two
** [[Lesbian Jock]]: Chisato. Though she apparently used to have a crush on Akira, her childhood friend.
* [[Those Two Guys]]
Line 772:
* [[Curtains Match the Window]]
* [[Domestic Abuse]]
* {{spoiler|[[My God, What Have I Done?]]: Yae feels no remorse for killing Takumi until Mion proves to her that he intended to get a real job and turn over a new leaf by speaking to him from beyond the grave and finding an employee's notice on his body.}}
* {{spoiler|[[Sympathetic Murderer]]}}
* {{spoiler|[[Unreliable Narrator]]}}
|
Revision as of 16:31, 8 January 2014
The cast of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, and associated tropes. Beware of spoilers.
Protagonists
"Magician of Words" Keiichi Maebara
Voiced by: Soichiro Hoshi (JP), Grant George (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/3/36/78939.jpg)
Keiichi Maebara is the main protagonist in the "question" arcs. The son of a famous artist, his family recently moved to Hinamizawa after an unfortunate event involving him in their hometown, where he was the perpetrator of a series of crimes involving shooting young girls with his model gun. His charisma and remarkable talent for speechmaking allow him to easily make new friends and become popular in the village.
Early in the story, in Onikakushi-hen and Tatarigoroshi-hen, he is the one affected by the paranoia and driven to commit murder; however, the inner strength and unshaking belief in his friends he acquires in the other arcs are one of the keys to solving the mystery. Eventually, he is even able to recall some of the events of the past repetitions, which helps inspire Rika to defeat fate.
His arc is "Onikakushi-hen." ("Spirited away by the demon" in the dub)
- Adaptation Dye Job: Eye variation. The anime and the Mahjong game are the only continuities in the series that display him with purple eyes, though occasionally a manga color will show him with purple.
- All Men Are Perverts: Strong believer of this and proud of it.
- Amnesiac Dissonance: "What have I done? I killed Rena and Mion!"
- Anti-Hero: Type IV in the Curse Killing arc.
- The Atoner: In Tsumihoroboshi-hen ("Atonement Chapter"), naturally.
- Bad Liar: Whenever he does anything that will get him in loads of trouble, he will act very guilty and his lies are horrendous, especialy in Watanagashi-Hen and Tatarigoroshi-hen.
- However, in all other cases, he is an absolute god at getting people to believe crap that he makes up.
- Batter Up
- Big Brother Instinct: An incredibly dark twist on it.
- Big Fancy House: Called "the Maebara Mansion" by the villagers, though about 2/3 of it is taken up by his father's art studio.
- Bishie Sparkle: Used in liberal amounts.
- Bishonen: He's noticeably pretty and even sparkles on various occasions.
- Blue Eyes.
- Book Dumb: Played with. In the first episode, he's seen helping Rena and Mion to understand their work, and in Tatarigoroshi-hen, it's shown that part of the reason he was teased so much in his hometown was because he was doing too well in school. He just has a different learning style.
- Break the Cutie: Tends to "snap" rather than "break", though.
- Broken Ace
- Butt Monkey: The other members of the club seem to take glee in pulling pranks and embarrassing him even outside their usual punishment games. Especially Satoko who spends hours designing and setting up traps just to humiliate him and Mion whose tabasco sauce/needle filled ohagi convinced him they were trying to kill him. In fairness if your friends treated you like they do and you were suffering from a disease that causes extreme paranoia, you would have probably come to the same conclusion.
- Buxom Is Better: Averted! In the manga, when Mion boasts before him about her breasts, he tells her they are too big and that he prefers Rena's more average size. Then again, he may say that both to upset Mion and to make Rena blush.
- The Charmer: Called The Magician of Words for his supreme charisma and talent in bullshitting.
- Chick Magnet: Though it can also work against him. Shion was attracted to him in Watanagashi/Meakashi and it's one of the things that set her off since she didn't want him to replace Satoshi in her heart. Either way, he has Mion, probably Rena and maybe Satoko based on one of her last lines in Tatarigoroshi as well as general popularity.
- Chivalrous Pervert
- Cry Cute
- Dark and Troubled Past: His family moved to a little town in the middle of nowhere for a reason...
- Determinator: In sharp contrast to Rika's fatalism.
- Foil: To Rika.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Has an entire army of loyal fanboys that call him Comrade K because he helped them embrace that All Men Are Perverts.
- Fan Service: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei, first episode. That's all.
- The Heart: When he's not a Villain Protagonist. Also, his presence is what gives hope to Rika, since according to her he didn't move to Hinamizawa in two unseen timelines and these were "sad and doomed worlds".
- The Hero: Takes up the role in Tsumihoroboshi and Minagoroshi. In two of the prior three arcs he's actually a Villain Protagonist.
- Hot Blooded
- Image Song: "Cool ni Nare". Also has a rather humourous rap with Ooishi at least until the end.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Apart from hair color, he is the spitting image of Satoshi.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: In the Tatarigoroshi-hen arc, its revealed in a flashback that he was bullied for being too smart. As a result, he tended to be isolated from the class and even had a dead rat placed on his desk as a result. You know the rest, but this leads him to becoming Book Dumb.
- Loners Are Freaks: Once, he got bored of studying and decided to shoot down random kids with a BB gun. He stopped and turned himself in because he hit a little girl in the eye.
- Interrupted Suicide: The full ending of Tatarigoroshi-hen.
- I Wished You Were Dead: Tatarigoroshi-hen.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: In Tatarigoroshi.
- Lolicon: In Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei, he is revealed to harbor a rather squicky attraction toward Satoko.
- And he even got a nosebleed at fantasizing at Rika going to a brothel in one of the TIPS.
- The Messiah: In the later arcs.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: NO, IT ISN'T!
- My God, What Have I Done?: The first is that he realized what horrible things he had been doing back in his old life when he was shooting at children with a BB gun. He later confesses this to his friends, which leads him to remember Onikakushi and having an even worse case. Both of these occur in Tsumihoroboshi, or Atonement Chapter.
- Oblivious to Love: Can't seem to catch on to Mion and (presumably) Rena's attraction to him. Taken Up to Eleven in Musubienishi-hen.
- Odd Intergenerational Friendship: In Minagoroshi-hen, with Ooishi.
- Rousing Speech: An expert on these. Mion goes so far as to call him a master of words. Becomes a plot point in Minagoroshi-hen.
- Smarter Than You Look: He's actually among the most intelligent people in the main cast. Shion in particular doesn't think much of his brains.
- Supporting Protagonist: The story is really about Rika. However, he is the character that inspires her the most.
- Sympathetic Murderer: In Tatarigoroshi.
- Unreliable Narrator: In many of the early arcs, especially Onikakushi-hen.
- Villain Protagonist: In Onikakushi and Tatarigoroshi. More so in the former than the later.
- Weapon of Choice: Houjou Satoshi's baseball bat.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Rena finds out some things about his past, she calls him on this. Also the catalyst for the Atonement Chapter having the name it has.
"Cute Mode" Rena Ryugu
Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (JP), Mela Lee (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/a/ab/33921.jpg)
Rena Ryugu is a girl who returned from Ibaraki to Hinamizawa one year ago, and she is in same grade level as Keiichi. She has an obsession with things she perceives as cute, whether they're actually adorable or butt-ugly. Every now and then, she goes treasure hunting in the town's trash heap, searching for "cute" things to collect, and upon finding something "cute", it's difficult to stop her from taking it home. Despite this disarming trait, Rena is shown to be amazingly observant and perspective about the things around her. According to Mion, while Rena might seem cute herself, people should be careful not to anger her as she becomes quite scary. She is especially sensitive about the topic of Oyashiro-sama, who she fears will curse her for leaving Hinamizawa.
Her arc is ""Tsumihoroboshi-hen." (Atonement in the dub)
- Agent Mulder
- Alliterative Name
- A Billhook To Grind
- Ax Crazy: Billhook Crazy!
- Attempted Rape: Subverted, as she was at level 5 at the time and possibly only thought this is what they were going to do and she nearly kills the boys as a result.
- Though they could have tried and that was the reason they refuse to talk.
- Berserk Button: Don't mock her belief in Oyashiro-sama.
- Break the Cutie: Like Keiichi, snaps more often than breaks
- Blue Eyes
- Catch Phrase: "HAU~! OMOCHIKAERII!"
- Covert Pervert: , she blushes when she hears Keiichi say that it's soo hot his crotch is getting sweaty to both her & Satoko in the VN.
- Also, in Rei.
- Cute and Psycho: She supplies the Page Image. Though in truth it is actually a subversion. It's not actually in her normal personality to snap like that.
- Cute Bruiser: Able to snap the rope that has her tied up with ease. Can wield the billhook without any difficultly also. And probably brought home the statue of Col. Sanders[1] that's bigger than she is without any assistance.
- When Hilarity Ensues she doesn't hesitate to hit her friends, and she's thrown tables a few times when things get rough. She's apparently quite strong.
- Cuteness Proximity: One of her Running Gags.
- Daddy's Girl: Remained very loyal to her father after her mother betrayed/cheated on him, and as shown in Tsumihoroboshi-hen she is willing to go to extreme lengths to protect him.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She discovered that her mother cheated on her father. While her parents were finalizing their divorce, she attacked her classmates while suffering from Hinamizawa Syndrome. She then attempted suicide and was treated with medication and therapy. She and her father then moved back to Hinamizawa to start a new life.
- Genius Ditz (or possibly Obfuscating Stupidity): Compare her behavior at the end of episode 4 of Rei with her behavior in episode 5.
- For that matter, see the end of Watanagashi-hen. She figures out the identity of the killer (mostly) just based on a flyer and the state of Rika and Satoko's dinner.
- Genki Girl
- Girl With Psycho Weapon
- Hot Blooded: She defiantly shows this, sometimes to the degree of Keiichi, whenever she snaps out of her calmness.
- Hyper Awareness: Seen best in Watanagashi-hen. It's implied she's Obfuscating Stupidity.
- I'm Taking Her Home With Me: Trope Namer.
- Image Song: "Egao Happy Peace"
- Interrupted Suicide: Motivated her to return to Hinamizawa.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: She seems to believe that it will prevent Hinamizawa from being destroyed.
- Miss Exposition: In Tsumihoroboshi-hen, as she explains Miyo's scrapbook to Keiichi.
- Mood Swinger - It's hinted in the games that she's actually bipolar.
- My Nayme Is - She changed her name from "Reina" to "Rena" to reinvent herself when she returned to Hinamizawa. She felt that, by removing the "i", she was removing her bad memories.
- Note possible Meaningful Name: "Reina" is the Spanish for "queen".
- She also changed the writing of the name from Kanji to Katakana, using katakana in a name was quite unusual at the time, too.
- Nightmare Fetishist: She finds some very odd things to be "cute". One of the TIPS say that this might be a psychological reaction to prevent other people from entering and ruining her household.
- Nosebleed: Has frequent ones in the Visual Novel, triggered by the presence of cute things.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Many of her Hyper Awareness moments are due to this.
- Parent With New Paramour: Rena's mother divorced her father and married another man, resulting in a permanent estrangement between them.
- Red Headed Heroine
- Smarter Than You Look: She's often underestimated due to her cute mannerisms and vaguely ditzy/detached manner. However, she possesses one of the most analytical minds among the cast.
- Stepford Smiler
- Survival Mantra: "Haooo~ I'm taking her home with me!"
- The Big Guy: Don't underestimate Rena because of her size. She looks cute, but get her mad and she'll have a cleaver to grind with you.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted. She did see a therapist after the little... incident at her old school.
- Verbal Tic: She has a case of Palilalia which is the ocasional repeating the last words of her sentences, most notable "kana, kana?" ("I wonder, I wonder?"). Done to very sinister effect in Tsumihoroboshi-hen.
- Weapon of Choice: A billhook. Though some confuse it for a machete or cleaver, hence the nickname "Cleaver Girl."
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Tsumihoroboshi-hen. She genuinely believes that her actions in that arc are going to save Hinamizawa from the disaster. Ironically, it might actually have, at the cost of the lives of all her hostages. She also just wants the happy days in Hinamizawa to last, it's just that she thinks that Murder Is the Best Solution.
- Wise Beyond Their Years
- Woman in White
- Zettai Ryouiki: In an odd way in the Visual Novel. Is she wearing anything at all under there?
"Club Leader" Mion Sonozaki
Voiced by: Satsuki Yukino (JP), Megan Hollingshead (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/d/d7/Mion_9952.jpg)
Mion Sonozaki is the oldest classmate in Keiichi's class. As the elder, she is the class president and everyone looks up to her as the leader. Her social skills are on par with Keiichi, whom she highly respects as a friend and rival (though it is later shown that she has a crush on him). She acts like a tomboy, but has a hidden girlish side. She is next in line to be the head of the Sonozaki household, one of the Three Families which holds tremendous influence in Hinamizawa. Her position as heir is marked by an oni tattoo on her back.
She's really the younger twin, who was born with the name "Shion", but was forced to trade identities with her sister when she received the oni tattoo by mistake.
Her arc is "Watanagashi-hen." (Cotton Drifting in the dub)
- Break the Cutie: However, compared to the others, she doesn't have as much of a Dark and Troubled Past, and is one of the more psychologically well-adjusted characters in the cast.
- Bokukko: To the point of using ojisan ("old man") as a first-person pronoun.
- Brilliant but Lazy / Book Dumb: Don't think she's stupid because she asks Keiichi for help on her schoolwork despite being in a higher grade.
- Cain and Abel: The Abel versus Shion. Though not as much as you are lead to believe, since Mion and Shion genuinely love each other. She even had three of her fingernails ripped out because she thought it wasn't fair that only Shion had to suffer.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Calls Onryu out over her unfair treatment of the Hojo siblings after the "distinguishment incident" offscreen (talked about in the Eye Opening chapter. The incident was the last straw as Mion was comtemplating KILLING HER in a Noble Top Enforcer style rebellion.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Prevalent in the manga where she does such wholesome things as grope Keiichi's rear in the Cotton Drifting chapters and raunchily stares at his crotch in the Curse Killing chapter.
- Comatose Canary: In the Playstation 2-only Taraimawashi-hen, the inspiration for Satoko's scene in Yakusamashi-hen.
- Curtains Match the Window
- Empty Shell: See Comatose Canary.
- Fingore - Similar to Shion below, she pulled off three of her own fingernails (though unlike Shion, she did so off screen) because she felt it was unfair that only Shion got punishments despite them being identical twins.
- A Friend in Need: The origins of the club.
- The Gadfly: Really loves cranking Keiichi's chain, in part because she's really bad at expressing how she really feels. Her punishment games do however go into borderline Troll territory (still good spirited).
- Genki Girl
- Image Song: "Futari no birthday" and "Ienai Kotoba".
- Lady of War: Becomes this in spades in the alteverse sequel manga, Yoigoshi-hen. This technically applies to her twin sister Shion as well, whose body she is possessing.
- Large Ham: She can get very hammy during club games.
- My Greatest Failure: The reason she refuses to talk about Satoshi is because she was unable to save him.
- Nice Girl: Once you get past her playful competitive side, she's one of the kindest members of the cast. And unlike Rena, who is just as nice, she has no dark backstory and apparently never succumbs to Hinamizawa Syndrome.
- The Ojou: Heir to a prestigous family, though she doesn't quite act the part.
- One of the Boys: Mion has trouble not just getting her feelings across to Keiichi but also getting him to really acknowledge her actual gender.
- Only Sane Man: She's the only one in the cast without a Dark and Troubled Past, and other than Rika, the only one who doesn't suffer from Hinamizawa Syndrome in the series (although it's hinted that she does in other Fragments).
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red Oni to Shion's Blue. But her true personality is Blue; she acts Red because it is expected from the "older twin" role she is forced to play. The archetype is referenced by her blue oni tattoo.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Mion is boyish, openly perverted but secretly shy, generous and calm when not playing games. Shion is much girlier, The Tease instead of perverted and tends towards being selfish and hotblooded. Mion herself states that she's the warm friendly one while Shion is cold.
- Shorttank
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Revealed to be the reason she likes Keiichi so much during the Eye Opening chapter.
- Spirited Competitor: Moreso than the rest of the club unless Keiichi or Rena get fired up.
- Tall, Green-Haired and Bishoujo
- The Lancer / Team Mom: Was the group leader prior to Keiichi's joining of the club, but directs the groups' activities even now. As the oldest member, she usually coordinates the abilities of everyone to maximum and frightening effect in and out of battle. Thus showing her brilliance despite being the most laid back of the group.
- The Tease: In the manga especially, she has quite a few moments of this in the beginnings of different arcs.
- Tsundere: A unique type. She neither acts terribly tsun nor dere, but has the classic signs of denying her attraction or her desire for things. Note that since her "nice side" is the dominant personality, she has slight type B leanings.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's a tomboy, while her twin sister Shion is more feminine. At least it appears as such. As noted under Red Oni, Blue Oni, the two act this way because it is expected from them. Deep down, Mion is quite girly, while Shion is, well, you probably know.
- Tomboyish Ponytail
- Twin Switch: Frequently with Shion. As children, they switched permanently.
- Unreliable Expositor: The Sonozaki family is often implicated in the goings on in the village, meaning that of all the cast she has some of the best reasons to lie. Subverted. More than just about anyone else, you can trust what Mion has to say. However, tricks can be played on the reader such as 'Mion' confessing to all the murderers and talking about the history of the village and really playing up the angst. However, not only is this not Mion, Shion was actually bullshitting throughout the entire thing, meaning that at least half of what she said was a lie.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: No one ever comments on the gun she carries around. It's an airsoft gun, but you'd still think it would draw some attention...
- Then again, she is a Yakuza Princess and heir apparent of the Sonozaki household.
- Waif Fu: Matsuribayashi reveals that she's excellent in hand to hand combat.
- Weapon of Choice: None. However, in Higurashi Daybreak, she wields her airsoft gun, and in the manga-only chapter Yoigoroshi-hen, she is convinced that Katanas Are Just Better.
- Yakuza Princess
- You Gotta Have Green Hair
Shion Sonozaki
Voiced by: Satsuki Yukino (JP), Megan Hollingshead (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/6/60/76953.jpg)
Shion Sonozaki is Mion's identical twin sister, who currently resides in Okinomiya. In spite of their different personalities, she and Mion often switch places, and it can be difficult to distinguish between them. She was sent by the Sonozaki family to a private boarding school, but escaped and returned to live near her hometown, where she lives with Kasai. She was in love with Satoshi, and blames the Three Families of Hinamizawa for his disappearance. She works as a waitress at the Angel Mort restaurant and is the manager's assistant for the Hinamizawa Fighters little league team.
She's really the older twin, who was born with the name "Mion", but was forced to trade identities with her sister when she didn't receive the oni tattoo by mistake.
Her arc is "Meakashi-hen." (Eye Opening in the dub) Legendary for its infamy. You Have Been Warned.
- Attempted Rape: No, she's not the recipient. When she is getting ready to torture Keichii in Meakashi-hen/Watanagashi-hen but decides she might spare his life instead, it's implied this is going to happen. Rena and Oishi show up before she tries anything however.
- Note that in the VN version of Meakashi-hen, this was never implied, nor did it ever happen. She already knew she was cornered, and just tased Keiichi and went off switch with Mion one last time.
- The Atoner: After realizing what she did in the Eye Opening Arc, she becomes especially aggressive in protecting Satako in later arcs.
- Break the Cutie: Warnings about tormenting cute things apply. She doesn't simply break or snap, she explodes.
- Cain and Abel: The Cain versus Mion. Though not as much as you are led to believe, since Mion and Shion genuinely love each other.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Her MO. Ironically, she was the victim of it herself.
- Cool Big Sis: To Satoko, as a promise she made to Satoshi. And horribly screwed with in arcs where she goes insane.
- Curtains Match the Window
- Disney Villain Death: In the Cotton Drifting and Eye Opening chapters.
- Does Not Like Spam: She hates canned foods because her father traumatized her into thinking that human meat gets packed inside.
- Driven to Suicide: In Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen, excluding the anime.
- Fan Service With a Smile: Her job at Angel Mort.
- Fingore: Forced to pull out three nails in order to protect people she had endangered.
- Foreshadowing: From Frederica Bernkastel's poem in Meakashi-hen: "How many years will pass before she wonders if she really dropped them?"
- Future Badass: In the manga- only arc Yoigoshi-hen. However, She was being possessed by Mion, making her the true badass despite the staggering disadvantage of being dead.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Normally suppressed, but she has some resentment for Mion because the boy she can still see the boy she likes.
- Ignored Epiphany: Her reaction to realizing she just crucified Satoko was, number one: wetting herself. Number two: Saying "Oh, what the hell". In the VN, it's expanded upon: She realizes that she forgot her promise to Satoshi, it's just that she felt it was already too late to atone, and she had no choice but to continue what she was doing.
- Image Song - "Futari no Birthday" and "Ienai Kotoba", along with Mion.
- I Will Wait for You: Although most of the arcs involve what happens if she forgets.
- Knight Templar Big Sister: For Satoko after Meakashi arc concludes and she remembers in future arcs that she was asked to protect her.
- Laughing Mad :In Meakashi and Watanagashi.
- Love Makes You Crazy And Evil : Meakashi-hen. Enough said.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After torturing Satoko to death she remembers that Satoshi asked her to take care of his little sister and that while she gave up on Satoshi coming back and went for revenge, Satoko never lost faith. Has a straight example in the Massacre chapter after recalling what she did.
- Off to Boarding School
- The Rashomon: Watanagashi-hen was told from Keiichi's point of view, and Shion retells it in Meakashi-hen. Sorta. They actually are different ways of playing out the same sequence, but a few details differ such as who knocked over the bike and had someone come to their rescue.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue Oni to Mion's Red. But her true personality is Red; she acts Blue because it is expected from the "younger twin" role she is forced to play.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge
- Serial Killer: Unlike other arcs, her murders occur over the course of days. Visionary type combined with revenge sub-type due to Hinimizawa syndrome.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Between her and Mion. See Mion's entry for details.
- Sixth Ranger / Sixth Ranger Traitor in some early arcs.
- Spanner in The Works: See the trope's page for details.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Her family is not happy about her being in love with Satoshi. Subverted: Her grandmother long sinced stopped detesting the Houjou family but has to keep up appearances.
- Start of Darkness: Subverted with the "distinguishment scene". It is so in arcs where she snaps but not in arcs where she doesn't.
- Tall, Green-Haired and Bishoujo
- The Chick
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly girl. At least it appears as such. See Mion's entry for details.
- Twin Switch: Frequently with Mion. As children, they switched permanently.
- The Unfavorite: As the younger twin, she is denied any family privilege. Especially painful because she is really the older twin, and thus should be the Sonozaki heir. However, it seems that for the most part she doesn't entirely mind because it's not very fun having the responsibilities of the Sonozaki heir.
- Unreliable Expositor: Like a lot of the cast are at varying points. However, this is specifically referring to almost the entirety of what she says at the end of Watanagashi being bullshit.
- Villain Protagonist: In Meakashi-hen.
- Weapon of Choice: A taser, as well as the contents of the Sonozaki family's torture cellar. She also knows how to handle an assault rifle.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: GOOD GOD.
- Yakuza Princess
- Yandere: During the arcs where she snaps.
- You Gotta Have Green Hair
- Yubitsume: What she had to do to gain forgiveness from her grandmother for running away from her boarding school.
"Trapmaster" Satoko Houjou
Voiced by: Mika Kanai (JP), Minx Lee (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/8/81/33916.jpg)
Satoko Houjou is a younger classmate in Keiichi's school. In spite of her young age, she seems to have an impressive arm strength and is quite clever in setting up traps, which she likes to practice on Keiichi. Although her personality is quite energetic and mischievous during the events of the games, Satoko's past was full of trauma; her family were outcasts for supporting the dam project that would have destroyed the village though by the time of the series any real hostility towards the Houjous as long since petered out and their pariah status is entirely the product of social inertia, which Keiichi helps to overcome to save Satoko from her uncle, her parents died in an accident caused by Satoko while under the influence of Hinamizawa Syndrome, she was abused by her foster parents (her aunt and uncle), and her beloved brother Satoshi disappeared. She greatly misses Satoshi, and feels that by being strong, he will return. Satoko suffers from Hinamizawa Syndrome, and receives regular injections at the clinic to keep the symptoms under control. She is unaware of her condition, and believes them to be vitamin shots. She cannot tell the difference between cauliflower and broccoli because she is color blind.
Her arc is "Tatarigoroshi-hen." (Curse Killing in the dub)
- Badass Adorable
- Bratty Half Pint: Especially in the first Higurashi: Rei episode.
- Break the Cutie
- Break the Haughty: Rei Episode 3.
- Cheerful Child: Usually.
- The Chew Toy: Besides her tragic past, it seems that, no matter who dies over the course of the series, one thing that's almost guaranteed is that Satoko's going to get beaten up at some point (most likely with a chair).
- Comatose Canary: In Yakusamashi-hen.
- Covert Pervert: In Rei.
- Cute Bruiser: She's strong enough to shove Keiichi across the room. Or off a bridge.
- Cute Little Fangs
- Crazy Prepared: Sometimes you wonder how and when she sets up some of the traps that she does and how she times them so well.
- Does Not Like Pumpkins
- Drop the Washtub: A preferred prank. She can summon them anywhere.
- Entendre Failure: Presumably because she's one of the Token moes, she is particularly prone to this. The one to lampshade this is usually Rika, the other one. Notably, she always gets it. Occasionally, it seems like she chooses not to understand the entendre.
- Hair Decorations: She nearly always wears a black hairband.
- Genki Girl
- Image Song: "Sukisuki Nii Nii".
- Morality Pet: To different character in different arcs, most notably Irie.
- My God, What Have I Done?: You might miss it and you won't understand it at the time, but it happens at the end of Minagoroshi chapter when she realizes that her parents weren't trying to kill her and she didn't need to push them off the cliff.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: "Oh ho ho ho!"
- Parental Abandonment: Boy, does poor Satoko get it bad. Her mother, father, aunt, and brother all died or disappeared, and her uncle skipped town.
- That last one really isn't a bad thing.
- Self Made Orphan: An accidental, tragic example.
- Technicolor Eyes: Pink and in some versions, Red.
- The Smart Guy: The "Trap Master" of the group. She can make weapons and traps out of anything. Her expertise even allows her to understand and figure out the things others make, such as quickly concluding that the bomb Rena created was hidden in the rain gutter on the roof.
- Token Mini-Moe
- Trap Master: It's her club title. She can make traps that can catch trained soldiers off guard!
- Trauma Conga Line: First, her parents die due to a tragic accident. Then, she and her brother are forced to move in with her abusive aunt and uncle. Then, her aunt is killed by her brother, her brother disappears a few days later, and her uncle abandons her.
- Weapon of Choice: It's given more importance in the games, but she is quite good at making traps.
- Yaoi Fangirl: She seems a little bit TOO happy at the sight of her brother about to feed Keichii will a spoon held in his mouth in the first episode of Kira.
- Then again, [AllJustADream: Keiichi was dreaming that entire sequence] so it might not be true.
"Raccoon" Rika Furude
Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (JP), Rebecca Forstadt (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/6/6c/30311.jpg)
Rika Furude is the main character of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai. She is a younger classmate in Keiichi's school, and is in the same grade level as Satoko. Naturally, she is great friends with her, as they live together in the same house. She is the Miko of the Shrine of Oyashiro-sama, and some of the villagers revere her as a prophet. She has been the head of the Furude family since her parents died, but rarely attends town meetings due to her young age.
She is the only human to retain memories of the Groundhog Day Loop, and is mentally anywhere from a hundred to four thousand years old, but hides this and continues to act like a child so as not to alarm her friends. She is the only one who can see Hanyu, whom everyone else thinks is an Imaginary Friend.
Her arc is "Minagoroshi-hen." (Massacre)
- A Cup Angst: Rika at one point laments her small breast size (due to not being done with puberty yet), and a DVD extra has her do a Skinship Grope of Mion.
- Badass Adorable
- Badass Long Hair
- Barrier Maiden: Her role as Infection Queen. However, this is subverted when the Fridge Logic of the ending of Meakashi-hen settles in.
- Bokukko: Uses "boku" as a first-person pronoun, probably a habit acquired from Hanyu.
- Cassandra Truth: Rika has long since given up trying to convince people that she knows the future.
- Cheerful Child: Or so it seems...
- The Chessmaster
- The Chick
- Covert Pervert: In Rei.
- Creepy Child: She occasionally acts in a knowing, creepy manner completely unfitting her age.
- Curtains Match the Window
- Deadpan Snarker: In the silly episode previews.
- Also a majority of her dialogue consists of this when she isn't being innocent or serious.
- Deliberately Cute Child
- Determined Defeatist
- Drowning My Sorrows: She drinks wine, despite being underage.
- Expy: Cute Witch not Bernkastel in Umineko no Naku Koro Ni. Or is she?
- Along with new Canon Sue Erika, unleashed upon Umineko canon by Bernkastel for her own nefarious purposes. Sadly, these characters seem to be Expies in appearance only, not in nature.
- The Fatalist
- Groundhog Day Loop: For many, many, many years. The loops vary in length, but there could have been up to two thousand six hundred of them.
- Unlike the typical loop, however, these function more as alternate dimensions to be travelled between than any kind of Time Travel. And yes, this is a plot point in Umineko.
- Guile Hero
- Hime Cut
- Image Song: "Mugen Kairou", and "S A G A Rinne no Hate ni".
- Imaginary Friend: When she was growing up, her mother was bothered by her imaginary friend Hanyu. Not helped by the fact that Hanyu taught her to cook and do laundry.
- Immortal Immaturity: While she says she's mentally hundreds of years old, it becomes clear that it's not true. Instead, she's actually grown desperate rather than truly growing old. While she does not act her apparent age (somewhere around nine to eleven) it's clear that she's really still pretty childish.
- Lady Drunk: A bit of a disturbing example. Really Seven Hundred Years Old or not, she is physically a prepubescent girl. In large part it's a way for her to pick on Hanyu.
- Mental Time Travel: By unusual means (using Alternate Universes rather than actual Time Travel), but ultimately to the same effect.
- Miko
- Not Growing Up Sucks
- Obfuscating Stupidity
- Oracular Urchin
- Out of Time Out of Mind: Averted, though she puts on an act so as not to freak people out.
- Precocious Crush: Strongly implied towards Akasaka.
- Purple Eyes
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old: She's mentally much older than her physical form due to the time loops though not as much as she thinks: Note that her way of thinking has never really matured.
- This can also be explained by the fact that her body has not yet reached puberty, so her brain is not fully developed, and thus she simply cannot be completely adult in mind since she is not physically capable of it. But it is implied that she has done the loop for years on end, and even she is not sure how long is it, but it is possible that it's hundreds of years..
- Supporting Protagonist: Shares the status with Keiichi. Basically, the whole story is about her and the latter half is frequently from her perspective, but despite this, it is mostly Keiichi and the rest who act to save Rika from her fate.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Bernkastel Wine.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior
- Verbal Tic: "Mii", "Nipa~"
- The "nipa~" could actually be foreshadowing of somesort. Turns out, "nipa~", as well as being the Japanese onomatopoeia for "smiling", is also the name of a virus that causes neurological failure and death in humans.
- For some reason, she ends all her sentences with "desu" or "nano desu", even when it makes no gramatical sense.
- Waif Prophet
- Weapon of Choice: Satoko's Hinamizawa Syndrome medication, and strangely enough, a mop.
- Yaoi Fangirl: In the preview at the end of Kai episode 7.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Or so she believes. Inspired by Keiichi, she keeps trying, though, and eventually gets it right.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
Hanyu/Oyashiro-sama/Hainryun Ieasomuru Jieda
Voiced by: Yui Horie (JP)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/a/a9/82280.jpg)
Hanyu is the mysterious "transfer student" in Matsuribayashi-hen. She has a pair of dark-colored horns on her head, one which is chipped slightly. In fact, she has appeared to Rika all her life, but only in Matsuribayashi-hen did she gain the power to interact with others. She is very meek and often makes the noise "Au au au¦" when she is nervous or uncomfortable. She dislikes alcohol and kimchi, which Rika uses in large amounts when Hanyu is being particularly annoying (Hanyu's and Rika's senses are linked together).
Hanyu is the basis of the legend of Oyashiro-sama, but the legend has become distorted over hundreds of years, and she is horrified by the actions carried out in her name. She is the one responsible for the eternally repeating June 1983, which she created in order to save Rika's life.
Her arc is "Matsuribayashi-hen." (Festival Music)
- Angel Unaware: An inversion. First, Oyashiro is definitely stated to be a god. However, it becomes ambiguous when she defines what appears to be a god in the setting. All in all, she may have originally simply been a human who ascended to godhood by dying for the sins of others.
- Absurdly Youthful Mother: See Immortal Immaturity below.
- Apologises a Lot: "Gomen nasai..."
- Bokukko: Uses "boku" as a first-person pronoun.
- Break the Cutie: Quite a lot, though often missed in the anime adaptation or replaced with a more cute reaction.
- But Your Wings Are Beautiful: She has something of a complex about her horns. Rena thinks they're cute. The only one to react negatively is Takano, and even she probably didn't really care.
- It's implied that her complex comes not from her current-day friends' reactions (or lack thereof) but rather the fact that her horns existed when she was originally human, and are a large part of the reason why she was chosen as a sacrifice.
- Can't Hold Her Liquor: A fact that Rika likes to take advantage of.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The reason why her powers are failing lately.
- Curtains Match the Window
- Death By Adaptation: In Miotsukushi-hen, the new ending for the PS 2 port.
- Detached Sleeves
- Determined Defeatist: In a slightly different manner from Rika. While Rika has a tiny sliver of hope that the perfect circumstances may line up, Hanyu is only doing it because she wants to spend more time with Rika.
- Does Not Like Spam: Wine and spicy food.
- Expy: Featherine Augustus Aurora from Umineko no Naku Koro Ni.
- Gods Hands Are Tied: In fact, she even goes so far as to describe herself as "a powerless god".
- God Was My Co-Pilot
- Horned Humanoid
- Hot Mom: In the past
- Image Song: "Nano Desu".
- Immortal Immaturity: Especially jarring when you consider a TIPS that reveals that, back when she was human, Hanyu had a daughter.
- Heck, the sound novel has an based off adult Hanyu and we see her daughter in one arc.
- Intangible Man
- Messianic Archetype: Subverted. Hanyu was one in the past, allowing herself to be killed via Watanagashi to atone for the sins of the inhabitants of Hinamizawa, but now disagrees with the idea of people sacrificing others in the name of purifying their own sins.
- Misapplied Phlebotinum: For every arc until the last she is undetectable to anyone that is not named Rika or in the later stages of Hinamizawa syndrome. It apparently never occurred to Rika to utilize her invisible ghost spy to do anything like figure out who killed Tomitake.
- Then again, Rika is still quite the child, even though it sometimes seems otherwise. And quite pessimistic at that, with the whole "what's the point" attitude.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend
- New Meat: After she joins the club, Mion calls her the "newbie".
- Only Known By Their Nickname: Most people call her Oyashiro-sama, people who know her call her Hanyu, but her real name is Hainryun Ieasomuru Jieda. She got the nickname of Hanyu because her husband couldn't memorize her full name.
- Physical God: But only in Matsuribayashi-hen. It appears to be a significant step down on the power scale.
- Purple Eyes
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old: As the origin of the Oyashiro-sama legend she's around a thousand years old. Even older when you factor in the Groundhog Day Loops.
- Self Made Orphan: As part of the deal to allow her people to live in Hinamizawa, she allowed herself to be set up as a scapegoat and killed by her daughter via ritual butchering. As her daughter was also the daughter of one of the village priests, this brought unity to the two factions.
- Sweet Tooth
- Tagalong Kid: Even before the group aside from Rika could see her.
- Time Master: Can stop time, though it's only really good for speaking because when she stops time not only do bullets stop moving, but so do people. She's also the one responsible for sending Rika back in time each time.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Subverted, as the games reveal that everyone did notice her horns but avoided mentioning them because they either were too polite, they liked them or they thought they were some kind of accessory. It was the Big Bad crudely pointing them out that jogged her and Rika's memory. Interestingly, she had them even when she was a human, hinted to be due to a recessive genetic defect in the Furude family line. They are the reason she was declared a demon and willingly sacrificed. None of this is mentioned in the anime.
- Verbal Tic: "Hau au auu~" and "Nano desu"
- The Voice: Until Minagoroshi-hen. "Gomen nasai..."
- In Onikakushi, in at least the sound novel remakes, you can hear her in the scene where Keiichi looks out his window at Rena. It's scary.
- You Gotta Have Purple Hair
Supporting Characters
Satoshi Houjou
Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga (JP - drama CD), Yuu Kobayashi (JP - anime), Darrel Guilbeau (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/9/90/33920_9231.jpg)
Satoshi Houjou is Satoko's older brother, who disappeared a year before the story began. It's eventually revealed that he killed his aunt to protect Satoko, but then succumbed to Hinamizawa Syndrome and was taken to the Irie Clinic's basement, where he remains in a coma.
- Big Brother Instinct: He was very protective of Satoko.
- Bishonen: Quite handsome along with Keiichi.
- Break the Cutie
- Chekhov's Gunman: His disappearance is a major part of what sets off the killers in three of the four question arcs fueling Keiichi's paranoia (Onikakushi), Shion's grief (Watanagashi and Meakashi) and Keiichi's protectiveness (Tataragoroshi).
- Chekhov MIA: he's in a coma in Irie's clinic.
- Convenient Coma: Subverted to an extent. It means he's not dead, but he's still sick at the end of the story. He'll be kept in the coma at least until there's a real cure.
- Cross Dressing Voices
- Foreshadowing: From Frederica Bernkastel's poem in Meakashi-hen: "How many years will pass before she wonders if she really dropped them?"
- Ill Boy: According to Dr. Irie, he was frail due to a heart condition.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: He killed his aunt in order to protect Satoko. In large part it was due to Hinamizawa syndrome, though.
- Posthumous Character: All character development is done through flashback And the OVA despite it being alternate universe.
- Promotion to Parent: For Satoko.
- Technicolor Eyes: Pink.
Kuraudo Ooishi
Voiced by: Chafurin (JP)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/1/12/62518_5891.jpg)
Kuraudo Ooishi is a veteran police investigator at Okinomiya who has vowed to solve the mystery of the Hinamizawa murders before his retirement, due to personal reasons. Due to his uncouth tactics and the lengths that he goes to in order to solve the mystery, he is looked upon as a nuisance by the villagers. He approaches one of the main characters to become his informant in several arcs, and is sometimes unwittingly responsible for triggering their paranoia.
- Fan Nickname: Mr. Delicious, since his name sounds like "oishii", the Japanese word for "delicious".
- Inspector Javert: He's usually right, though, like in Tatarigoroshi-hen and Onisarashi-hen. But he's completely wrong in the most important way in that he thinks the Sonozaki's are behind everything. This keeps him from approaching the only person in the group that never goes insane.
- It's Personal: The dam construction manager who was the first murder victim was a Mentor to him. Once he finds out he was murdered and suspects the Sonozakis of it, he becomes determined to crack the case. However, as noted, this actually works against him because he starts looking for links between events that just aren't there, which impedes his effectiveness.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: His drawling accent, casual manner and crude humor put people off their guard. Unfortunately, it makes him come off as arrogant and causes distrust in him.
- Odd Intergenerational Friendship: With Keiichi in Minagoroshi-hen.
- Odd Friendship: With Akane Sonozaki.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: In most of the arcs.
- Retirony - In the arcs where he is killed, due to the short time limit that he has to solve the case before he retires.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He doesn't realize it, but his actions frequently wind up just making a given arc worse and making it so that there's really no one sane left for Rika to get help from. Particularly egregious in Onikakushi-hen, where he's arguably the cause of Keiichi going off the deep end, but he also exacerbates Keiichi's and Rena's jumps off the cliff in Tatarigoroshi-hen and Tsumihoroboshi-hen, no matter how much help he might turn into near the end of the latter. And his consistent mistrust of the Sonozakis makes it impossible for anyone to trust the one reliably sane person in the group.
Jirou Tomitake
Voiced by: Tohru Ookawa (JP), Kyle Hebert (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/2/24/Tomitake_9731.jpg)
Jirou Tomitake is a freelance photographer who comes to Hinamizawa occasionally. He gets along well with Miyo Takano because of their similar interests in photography. Despite being only an occasional visitor, he seems to know a fair amount about Hinamizawa's past. Ooishi and the police are suspicious of his identity.
In the first six arcs, he is consistently found dead of suicide on the night of Watanagashi, triggering many of the events that follow. It turns out later, however, that he is actually murdered by Miyo, who gives him a dosage of Hinamizawa Syndrome that results in him clawing his own throat out.
- Curtains Match the Window
- Designated Victim
- Driven to Suicide: In most of the arcs due to being injected with level 5 Hinamizawa Syndrome.
- Friendly Sniper
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Called out on this by the Mountain Hounds when sniping on a moving vehicle while on rough terrain.
- Love Martyr: Especially evident in Matsuribayashi-hen.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: He's a veteran sniper.
- Weapon of Choice: Camera. "TOMITAKE FLASH!!!!" His weapon is actually a sniper rifle.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He usually dies too early to get any kind of development.
Miyo Takano/Miyoko Tanishi
Voiced by: Miki Ito (JP), Fuyuka Ooura (JP - young), Karen Strassman (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/e/e1/Miyo_5314.png)
Miyo Takano is a nurse at the village clinic who has a keen interest in Hinamizawa's past and culture, recording all her speculation in notebooks. At times, her storytelling can be very mysterious and chilling she seems to enjoy putting people on edge. In the first six arcs, she consistently disappears on the night of Watanagashi, and an incinerated body thought to be hers is found in the mountains.
It turns out that she is the mastermind of the events taking place in Hinamizawa, and wants to murder Rika and set off Hinamizawa Syndrome in the whole town so she can prove her grandfather's research. Since her will and manipulations are so strong as to affect the people in the village both directly and indirectly, she in fact fakes her death through the first six arcs of the story (the corpse in the barrel being a stolen corpse), and murders Rika in three of the arcs..
- A God Am I: The end of Minagoroshi-hen.
- Specifically, it was influenced by a comment her grandfather offhandedly made, saying that if his research proves fruitful his legacy will live forever, like that of a god. Fast-forward to modern day and Miyo raves about how if she proves her grandfather's research is true, and re-inspires fear of Ooyashiro-sama in the process, she will in effect become Ooyashiro-sama and live forever with her grandpa.
- Attack Attack Attack: Lampshaded in a serious manner. She keeps sending in the Yamainu to attack an entrenched enemy on their territory no matter how many casualties they take nor how demoralized they are. Any sensible commander would have done a tactical retreat to regroup at the very least.
- Big Bad
- Blondes Are Evil
- Break the Cutie
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: the consequence of being tortured into pretty much insanity in the Orphanage of Fear from her past.
- The Chessmaster
- Cute and Psycho
- Deadly Doctor: Although she's always one of the first two victims of Watanagashi, she isn't quite so helpless as you'd think. Especially since she isn't really a victim. Plus, her weapons of choice in Higurashi Daybreak are syringes.
- Designated Victim: Subverted.
- Deus Angst Machina
- The Determinator
- Dissonant Serenity: To contrast all other infected ones.
- Epileptic Trees: A perpetuator of these in-universe. They range from the clearly correct (the prevalence of the "oni" character in the Sonozaki and Kimiyoshi family names), to the plausible but unprovable (the possible alternate spelling of "Oyashiro"), to the clearly insane (Oyashiro was an alien doctor!)
- Evil Laugh: Gets a truly epic one when she's revealed to be the Big Bad.
- Expy: Cute Witch Lambdadelta in Umineko no Naku Koro Ni.
- An extra TIPS implies that Lambdadelta helped Miyo achieve her goals. Other than that, they have no other connection. Possibly.
- Eyes of Gold
- Faking the Dead
- Fan Nickname: Droopy-Tan, for her 'droopy' features that make her appear sleepy-eyed.
- Freudian Excuse: Grew up in a hellish Orphanage of Fear. Almost immediately after the flashback you are loudly reminded that yes, she's still a sociopathic bitch.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: From sweet kid to Break the Cutie to detached nurse to sociopathic, murderous researcher.
- Heel Face Turn: But only in the very end of the series.
- Ironic Echo: Not exactly a quote, but the scene near the end of Matsuribayashi-hen where her bullet misses Hanyu very closely echoes the scene near the beginning of the arc where "God"'s lightning bolt narrowly misses Takano, immediately after she asks God to either give her a better life or kill her. Since she was spared, she took this as a sign that she is meant to live, and as a result, she became something of a Determinator. It can be interpreted that her bullet missing Hanyu is a sign that Rika and Hanyu's determination to live has finally reached the same level as Miyo's will to live on that day.
- It didn't miss on purpose. Although the anime does not show this, Hanyu stops time and realizes that the bullet won't miss. Then Rika starts moving, despite time being stopped, and grabs the bullet, moving it so that it won't hit anyone.
- Hello Nurse
- Karma Houdini: Hello, she tries to kill an entire village over and over again, and what does she get? Treatment for a disease that it wasn't well-established she had and a good cry in her lover's arms. While in that chapter she didn't manage to kill anyone, she's still responsible for Rika's parents, the first murderer and generally being a sociopathtic researcher.
- Lack of Empathy
- Milkman Conspiracy- Big Bad or not she's still just a nurse when it comes down to it.
- Nay Theist: Highly disparaging of the local religion. She actually hates God despite appearing to be a Christian.
- Numerical Theme Naming: The kanji for her name uses the kanji for three (三) and four (四). Just like how her adoptive grandfather's name is written as one (一), two (二), three (三).
- Nice Hat: Her nurse's cap. Also, her epic special forces beret.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Over the legends of Oyashiro-sama.
- Orphanage of Fear: She was sent to one of these after her parents died, witnessing and suffering lots of horrors there. She got so throughly broken that she went INSANE and became the Big Bad with time.
- Plucky Girl: Enough will to alter fate itself.
- Smite Me Oh Mighty Smiter: She challenges God to give her a better life or kill her. A subsequent lightning bolt narrowly misses her.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Whether it's intentional or not, she's partially responsible for causing Rena to go off the deep end by giving her the scrapbook.
- Used to Be A Sweet Kid: The sweet girl who collected flags and loved to go out with Dad and Mom? Yeah, she grew into an horrible bitch after she was tortured in the orphanage.
- Villainous Breakdown: Started in Matsuribayashi-hen when Rika was falsely reported as dead for 48 hours and it just got worse after she was beaten.
- Womanin Black: In Minagoroshi-hen, right before she kills Keiichi and the others one by one until she sacrifices Rika.
- Would Hurt a Child: A woman who disembowels a little girl? After shooting her friends? Holy crap.
- Zettai Ryouiki: As part of her nurse uniform.
Kyousuke Irie
Voiced by: Toshihiko Seki (JP), Dave Mallow (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/9/9e/Irie_109.jpg)
Kyousuke Irie is the head doctor of the village clinic. Initially interesting in being a doctor just for the money, he became devoted to the field of psychosurgery after a head injury changed his father's personality. Despite his young age and the fact that he has a severe maid fetish, he is highly respected in the community. He cheerfully makes house calls and seems to truly care about everyone's health. He has (half-jokingly) admitted that he wishes to marry Satoko when she is older, but is not above chasing after Rika when she is wearing one of the uniforms from the restaurant Angel Mort. In addition, he is the manager of the village's baseball little league team, the Hinamizawa Fighters. It is later revealed that he works under Miyo, where he is trying to find a cure for Hinamizawa Syndrome while not knowing of his employer's true desires.
- Curtains Match the Window
- Deadly Doctor: He performed psychosurgery on unwilling patients in the past, although he had good intentions. Patient consent wasn't required at the time.
- Domestic Abuse: Figures a lot in Irie's backstory. After his father suffered a traumatic brain injury, he began to act abusive toward Irie's mother. The two ended up hating each other, a fact that Irie regrets. This serves as a major motivator for, among other things, joining work with Takano on Hinamizawa Syndrome.
- Fan Nickname: Pedodoctor.
- Lolicon: Played for laughs.
- Meido: His fetish.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He always listens to the main characters' worries about what's going on and helps them if possible. Unfortunately, when he figures out what's going on, it's not always to the benefit of the character telling the story...
Mamoru Akasaka
Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (JP - drama CD), Daisuke Ono (JP - anime), Patrick Seitz (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/7/78/Akasaka_8757.jpg)
Mamoru Akasaka is a young police investigator at the Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo. He befriended Rika while investigating a case in Hinamizawa four years ago, all due to a prophecy about his wife which came true; he, however, just brushed it off as coincidence.
In an untold world, Mamoru regrets being unable to save his wife and Rika, learns martial arts to clear his mind, and hopes to relive the time before the Time Wasting Chapter to save them. Through a miracle, Mamoru inherits his martial art skills in Matsuribayashi-hen, and decides to save Rika from her destined death as a payment for saving his wife through her prophecy.
- Badass: In Matsuribayashi it becomes clear why Rika had so much faith in him.
- Big Damn Heroes: Hoo boy.
- Chekhov's Gunman
- Eleventh Hour Ranger: In the Festival Music Arc
- Fair Cop
- Future Badass: In the worlds where his wife dies.
- Redemption Quest
- Took a Level In Badass: Took a lot of levels in Badass.
- And learned the Falcon Punch during the Level Grinding. He punches a bulletproof windshield, causing it to shatter.
Teppei Houjou
Voiced by: Katsuhisa Hoki (JP), Steve Kramer (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/f/f3/Teppei_6177.png)
Teppei Houjou is Satoko and Satoshi's uncle/foster father. He and his wife were forced to take care of Satoko and Satoshi after the death of their parents, but they abused them. He left Hinamizawa after Tamae's death, and currently lives in Okinomiya. According to Kasai, he is a pimp and uses his lover Rina to swindle men out of their money.
- Abusive Uncle: It doesn't end well for him.
- Asshole Victim: In Tatarigoroshi and Tsumihoroboshi. Also in the PS 2 Exorcism chapter.
- Blonde Guys Are Evil
- Evil Uncle: to Satoko and Satoshi. He's not even their real uncle. His older brother was their stepfather.
- Kick the Son of A Bitch: Frequent target of it.
- Outlaw Couple: With Rina
- They Killed Kenny: Dies....quite a lot, mostly to his own evil acts biting him in the ass.
- Vigilante Execution: Vigilante action (for NASTY child abuse and badger games) is the common motive in his many deaths throughout the arcs.
Oryou Sonozaki
Voiced by: Shizuka Okohira (JP), Barbara Goodson (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/8/83/Oryou_6961.jpg)
Oryou Sonozaki is Mion and Shion's grandmother and head of the Sonozaki household. She appears to be a very harsh old woman and is considered the most powerful person in Hinamizawa. Both Mion and Shion call her "Oni-baba" ("demon granny").
Shion incorrectly suspects that she was the mastermind in Satoshi's disappearance and accidentally kills her while attempting to interrogate her in Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen.
- Abusive Grandparent: Treats Shion like garbage. Best grandmom ever!
- Cold-Blooded Torture: The "distinguishment" scene.
- Crack Pairing: Ends up as Keiichi's girlfriend in the end of Musubienishi-hen due to a technicality.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Motive for the "distinguishment" scene.
- Evil Matriarch: Her granddaughters call her demon granny, what more do you need to know?
- In reality, she's not actually evil, just a Jerkass.
- Fingore: Again, standard punishment among the Sonozakis. First she had that done when young, then she forced Akane to do it when she didn't like her choice in men, and ultimately makes Shion go through it. (And as a bonus, Mion does it on her own.)
- May-December Romance: See Crack Pairing above.
- Meaningful Name: "Oryou" contains the character "oni", as do all the names of the Sonozaki heirs. Oryou's daughter Akane (Mion and Shion's mother) used to have an "oni" in her name, but was forced to change the spelling when she was disinherited for marrying an outsider.
- Never Mess With Granny
- Pet the Dog: When she gives her support to Keiichi in Minagoroshi-hen, and later in Matsuribayashi-hen when it is revealed that she was pulling the strings on Keiichi, of all people -- she put real estate up for sale for the explicit purpose of having an energetic outsider kid like him move and clear up the village resentment against the Hojou family.
- Red Herring: She is an Unwitting Instigator of Doom with a Sure Let's Go With That policy, and the Yakuza background is not helping her case.
- Slave to PR: She actually does love her daughter and Shion, plus she forgave the Houjou family long ago, but she has to keep up appearances.
- Sure Let's Go With That: A policy she has in place. If anything mysterious happens and it's credited to the Sonozaki's, she acts like she is responsible without confirming it. Nastily deconstructed as this causes a lot of problems.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Major offender of this trope; the Sonozaki family's policy of making them look tougher than they really are bites everyone in the ass by causing them to become incredibly suspicious and cause distrust in the Only Sane Man of the club. Onryu's actions are the primary cause of the Cotton Drifting/Eye Opening chapters. Her Sure Let's Go With That attitude is a cause for Ooishi being one himself, which causes her to be indirectly responsible for the Spirited By the Demon and Atonement chapter. Her stubborness towards not cleaning up resentment towards the Hojou siblings is a contributing factor in their problems with the Hate Plague.
- Tsundere
- You Got Spunk: Has this opinion of Keiichi after he threatens to split her head open if she doesn't give her support to rescuing Satoko from Teppei.
Minor Characters
Rumiko Chie
Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa (JP), Sam Carr (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/c/c9/Chie_rumiko_314.png)
'Rumiko Chie is the female teacher of Keiichi's class, who is a parody character of Tsukihimes Ciel-senpai (permission for her usage was given by Type-Moon). The seiyu for her character in the anime series is the same as the seiyu of Ciel from the Tsukihime anime. Going along with the parody, her favorite food is curry rice, just like Ciel.
- Berserk Button: Don't you dare insult curry in front of her. It won't be pretty. Sometimes she can hear an insult even when she's not in the room!
- Blue Eyes
- Expy: If the above wasn't enough, in Higurashi Daybreak, many of Rumiko's moves are direct references to some of Ciel's moves from Melty Blood. In the Expansion Pack, one of Rumiko's alternate outfits is Ciel's nun outfit and, if the player uses this costume, she will talk very much like her Tsukihime counterpart.
- More specifically, she's an Expy of Ciel-Sensei - she even wears the same pendant. Unlike Neko Arc, her status as just Ciel in a teacher's uniform or as a separate character is not quite confirmed. At least one story in Kagetsu Tohya seems to suggest Ciel Sensei is a separate character, which would make Chie an Expy of an Expy.
- Hot Teacher
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Unfortunately, there's generally little she can do.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Curry.
- Two-Teacher School: Justified. It's a pretty small school, though Keiichi is still impressed that she manages to teach a class full of students from different grades.
- Higher grade students are also expected to teach to lower grade ones during free study periods, effectively raising the number of teachers.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
Tatsuyoshi Kasai
Voiced by: Fumihiko Tachiki (JP), Steve Kramer (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/b/bc/Kasai_7810.jpg)
Tatsuyoshi Kasai is an employee of the Sonozakis, who looks like a secret agent. He was more active in the past, but has settled down to become Shion's caretaker.
- Badass
- Cool Shades
- Sunglasses At Night: He is always seen wearing sunglasses.
- Yakuza
Rina/Ritsuko Mamiya
Voiced by: Kyoko Hikami (JP - drama CD), Misa Watanabe (JP - anime), Jean Smart (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/f/f1/Rina_7086.jpg)
Rina Mamiya is a woman who appears in Rena's life in Tsumihoroboshi-hen. She is the lover of Teppei Houjou, and together they swindle men out of their money through intimidation and blackmail schemes. Her real name is Ritsuko, but she uses Rina as a fake name.
In Tsumihoroboshi-hen, Rena kills her bloodily to protect her father. Also, in Tatarigoroshi-hen and Minagoroshi-hen, she is murdered by members of the Yakuza when she tries to flee Okinomiya, prompting Teppei to move back to Hinamizawa.
- Asshole Victim: In Tsumihoroboshi.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
- Distinguishing Mark: A red star-shaped tattoo on her left thigh. Useful for identifying her mangled, rotted corpse.
- Honey Trap: And how. It ends badly for her
- Gold Digger
- Gorn: In a series full of Family-Unfriendly Death and Gorn, her death at the hands of Rena may just be the crowning one.
- Meaningful Name: Rena took the "i" out of her name to signify the removal of all "ickyness" from her life. Could it really be a coincidence that Rina is nothing but horribleness?
- Outlaw Couple: With Teppei.
- Red Eyes Take Warning: Major hint that there's something not right about her.
- Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Despite her bitchy behavior she is rather good-looking.
- Tattooed Crook
- You Gotta Have Pink Hair
- Would Hurt a Child: A rare female example.
Akane Sonozaki
Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (JP)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/7/78/Akane_sonozaki_6498.jpg)
Akane Sonozaki is Mion and Shion's mother. Although one of her daughters is still the family heir, Akane herself was disowned after marrying someone of whom her family disapproved.
- Action Mom
- Curtains Match the Window
- Fingore: Akane was in the receiving end of it due to her feud with Oryu over marrying a guy the clan didn't approve.
- Katanas Are Just Better
- Missing Mom - She's rarely on screen due to her estrangement.
- Odd Friendship: With Ooishi.
- Odd Name Out: She's the only female of her family not to have the character for oni in her name. She used to, but had to change the spelling of her name when she was disowned.
- Weapon of Choice - A katana. Mion must have got it from somewhere.
- Yakuza: Her husband is a crime boss.
- You Gotta Have Green Hair
Kiichirou Kimiyoshi
Voiced by: Masaaki Tsukada (JP), Kyle Hebert (EN)
![](http://static.miraheze.org/allthetropeswiki/6/66/Kimiyoshi_3277.jpg)
Kiichirou Kimiyoshi is the head of one of the Three Families and the official village chief of Hinamizawa. He seems to be a kindly old man, but is vehement in his hatred for Hinamizawa's enemies. As this includes Satoshi and the rest of the Houjou family, he is killed by Shion in Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen. In Minagoroshi it's revealed that he actually has nothing against Satoshi at all but couldn't publicly state it, eventually supporting Keiichi's efforts to protect Satoko.
- Meaningful Name: The characters for "Kimiyoshi" can be rearranged to form the character "oni".
Other Characters
Nomura
Rie Tanaka (JP )
Nomura is a woman from the organization 'Tokyo'. She first appears after Koizumi dies in 1981 and confronts Takano Miyo about the future of her research on the Hinamizawa Syndrome.Her true motive is to have the Old Koizumi faction in Tokyo fall down due to the Great Hinamizawa Disaster and the research project becoming a mess afterwards along with wanting to see how far they can decieve people with the syndrome, real or not. She is shown to be a skilled manipulator of emotions, using Takano's grief and acting as though she understands in order to gain her trust and become the new backing up of the research institution.
- Karma Houdini: Lampshaded in the author's notes at the end of the game, saying you have to draw the line somewhere on where the story ends. Thus, she is never held responsible for her actions and in the vast majority of timelines succeeds entirely.
- Woman Behind The Woman:To Miyo Takano
Okonogi
Jurota Kosugi (JP - drama CD, anime), Ken Narita (JP - games)
Beware the Gardeners, for they are Anonymous, and they are Legion! ...They are actually called the Yamainu ("Jackals"), but they look more like janitors than anything else. Headed by Okonogi, they serve as The Men in Black for the majority of the arcs. They are eventually revealed to be a tactical military unit, supposedly for Rika's protection but long ago bought out by Takano.
- Eviler Than Thou: Okonogi reveals to Takano that she was just being used by Tokyo, then tells her to commit suicide.
- Government Conspiracy
- Informed Ability: Okonogi loses to a teen girl in hand to hand combat. Losing to Akasaka can be forgiven, but Mion is stretching it. He's also completely outmaneuvered tactically throughout the chapter.
- It's stated the Yamainu are actually a surveillance organization above everything else. So there's adequate reason to suspect their supposed "prowess" in other areas (combat, tactics, etc.) is mostly bluster.
- The Men in Black
- Theme Naming - Despite being called the Jackals, titles within the organization are bird-themed.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness - Okonogi gives Takano this treatment when he realizes things aren't going their way. Presumably she doesn't fair any better on other sequences. Strangely enough, this surprises her despite the fact that she knew it would happen even if she won.
- The Worf Effect - They consistently fail in Matsuribayashi. By the end, the entire unit has lost to a bunch of children and Okonogi himself has lost to Mion in a curbstomp battle despite supposedly being an expert in hand to hand combat.
- Worthy Opponent - To Mion
Oyashiro-sama
Oyashiro-sama is the guardian god of Hinamizawa, a demonic god of torture and bloodshed. The old legends say that Onigafuchi used to be inhabited by demons, until a sacrifice by Oyashiro turned them human, and that the inhabitants of Hinamizawa are descendants of those demons. Oyashiro-sama is honored by a "Cotton-Drifting Festival", which has dark roots in cannibalism and human sacrifice. Five years ago, when a dam endangered Hinamizawa, the residents prayed to Oyashiro-sama for protection. The dam was cancelled, but ever since, on the day of the Cotton-Drifting Festival, one person has died and another has disappeared, all people who supported the dam. This is the Curse of Oyashiro.
- Corrupt Church: The practice is the problem, not the deity.
- Disc One Final Boss
- God Is Evil: Subverted with the true nature of Oyashiro-sama. See below.
- Meaningful Name: "Oyashiro" can be literally translated as "the deity is the shrine itself" or "the deity of every eight generations", depending on the characters used to spell it. Normally, it's just written in katakana, though.
- Religious Horror: The worship of Oyashiro-sama is a form of anti-Shinto. She is not very fond of it
- Ultimate Evil: Subverted heavily by Hanyu's true nature.
Frederica Bernkastel
Frederica Bernkastel is a mysterious figure in the Higurashi universe, author of a series of poems (fan translated version) (official translation) about the series. The most direct information about her comes from "A Message From Frederica Bernkastel", which basically consists of her laughing about the Wild Mass Guessing that she's Rika Furude or Oyashiro-sama. Frederica has exactly one scene in the anime, after the credits of the final episode, and a few appearances in the manga.
She also appears (or does she?) in Umineko no Naku Koro Ni, in which she gets a much more visible role.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the games, Frederica will directly address the player, a habit she/her Expy carries over to Umineko no Naku Koro Ni.
- Demoted to Extra: The anime only includes one appearance by Frederica, and none of her poems.
- Even worse, most people thought that was an adult Rika.
- The animation studio wasn't completely unfaithful. The next episode previews from the original series may have been a homage to Frederica's poems from the game, given their cryptic nature.
- Rika also mentions her in Rei.
- Meaningful Name: "Frederica" is more or less "Furude Rika" in katakana with a minor change, and Rika drinks Bernkastel wine. They also strongly resemble each other. Nevertheless, Frederica insists, "Frederica and Rika Furude aren't the same. Shame on you if you thought so."
- Pet the Dog: In an alternate ending, Frederica prevents the death of Miyo's parents at the end of Matsuribayashi-hen, giving her a happy ending as well. Which means she won't end up screwing up everyone's life in the future...
- Kick the Dog:...except for the fact that the village is doomed if Miyo never comes. And this may well have been her intent.
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Actually, like Rika, she's quit counting her age.
DS & Manga-Exclusive Characters
Tomoe Minai
Voiced by: Nana Inoue (JP)
Tomoe Minai is a detective who investigates the curse of Oyashiro and the gas disaster. Initially, she got involved through the case of Rena Ryugu back in 1982. She later on gets deeply involved with Natsumi's problems through her investigations. She is included in only the DS renditions of what was known in the manga as Onisarashi-hen. These became Someutsushi-hen and Kageboushi-hen. She also appears in the DS rendition of Miotsukushi-hen and a DS-only arc called Tokihogoshi-hen.
- Fair Cop
- Inspector Javert: Similar to Ooishi, and just as similarly proven to in fact be right in those situations.
- Promotion to Parent: Became this to her younger sister Madoka after their father`s death.
- Seeker Archetype
Natsumi Kimiyoshi
Voiced by: Kaori Mizuhashi (JP)
Natsumi Kimiyoshi is a girl whose family used to live in Hinamizawa. After the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, her grandmother starts acting strange, setting off a horrific chain of murders which Natsumi is actually responsible for.
- Blood-Splattered Innocents: Happens to Natsumi three times. Subverted, because her bloodiness is eventually used to prove that she's not so innocent after all.
- Continuity Cameo: In the original (PS 2) Miotsukushi-hen, she pops up briefly as a nod to people who had read Onisarashi-hen.
- Country Mouse: Okinomiya is a bigger town than Hinamizawa, but this sort of dynamic still plays pretty strongly when she moves to the city.
- Driven to Suicide: Someutsushi-hen only.
- Suicide Pact: She tries to force Akira into one of these in Someutsushi-hen. It doesn't go exactly to plan.
- Never My Fault: She actually spends her last words in Someutsushi-hen blaming Akira, presumably for her own death, although possibly referring to her entire episode of Hinamizawa Syndrome.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Miotsukushi-hen in the DS rendition. Also somewhat used in the Onisarashi-hen manga.
- I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Before Akira admits he likes her too, her apparently Unrequited Love was largely full of this dynamic.
- I Am a Monster: At the end of Someutsushi-hen. Ends about as well as Shion's.
- My God, What Have I Done?: "Help me... Toudou... he... It was my fault...!"
- New Transfer Student
- Odango Hair
- The Ophelia: In Onisarashi-hen's epilogue. She never gets over the guilt from having killed her parents and attempting to kill Akira. After a failed attempt at living with some other relatives who consider her cursed and a failed attempt at living with Akira, she winds up institutionalized, although Akira comes to visit her regularly.
- Room Full of Crazy: The room with all of the seals that she's locked into by her relatives during the epilogue, in order to protect to relatives from "Oyashiro-sama's curse"
- Self Made Orphan
- Shout Out: In the PSP game Higurashi Day Break, her charge move looks alot like what Sekai does to Makoto in the finale of the School Days anime.
- Shrinking Violet
- Trauma Conga Line: In the manga too, but it's definitely stepped up in the DS version. The gas disaster and her entire family's murders happen in all versions, but Someutsushi-hen tosses in all sorts of college related trauma - she finds out that even though all of her friends are shooting to go to one university, she's being cut off due to weaker grades - and the murder of her boss at a retirement center where she works part-time that was done by a Hinamizawan guy she had just befriended a few days earlier. Of course, She was the one who murdered her family. Also, her attempted murder of Akira, though at that point, she was already pretty well off the deep end.
- Trauma Induced Amnesia: complete with Fake Memories
- Unreliable Narrator
- Yandere: Her entire episode of Hinamizawa Syndrome is triggered when she freaks out about Akira seeing paper cut-outs in front of her house intended to ward off evil.
Akira Toudou
Voiced by: Satoshi Hino (JP)
Akira Toudou is a classmate of Natsumi's who she has has a crush on. He admits to liking her back fairly early on and is quickly drawn into the madness surrounding the Kimiyoshi household. Depending on which version, his intervention leads to either a bittersweet ending or a tragic one.
- The Caretaker: To Natsumi in Onisarashi-hen's epilogue.
- Cooldown Hug: To Natsumi. Subverted, leading to...
- Despair Event Horizon: The outcome of Someutsushi-hen.
- The Farmer and The Viper
- Love Martyr: Even after she tries to kill him, he's still either pledging his love to her or crying over her dead body right until the end.
- Love Redeems: His last-minute usage of The Power of Love saved both him and Natsumi in one version only.
- One Steve Limit: Averted - he shares a name with the main character in Yoigoshi-hen. Of course, it's assured that the two of them will never interact, since the arcs have a 20-year long distance between them.
- The Quiet One: He's for the most part a pretty darn quiet character who mostly expresses himself through his artwork. His expressions are also a heck of a lot blander than most of the other characters. Of course, once the horror kicks in, he's Not So Stoic anymore.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man
- Sugar and Ice Personality
Chisato Saeki and Tamako Makimura
Voiced by: Eri Kitamura (JP - Chisato), Yukari Fukui (JP - Tamako)
Chisato Saeki and Tamako Makimura are two of Natsumi's friends. Both of them first appeared in the Onisarashi-hen manga and were given expanded roles (especially Chisato) in the DS remakes of that arc, Someutsushi-hen and Kageboshi-hen. In the latter arc, Chisato is attacked and hospitalized by Natsumi. Later, she meets Natsumi in the hospital. Although the two struggle for a bit, Chisato is able to calm Natsumi down.
- Brainy Brunette: Tamako. Really, her hair's purplish, but Natsumi (although her hair's greenish-blonde) actually fits that trope better, and Tamako overall fits this one better, especially since the purple's pretty darn close to black.
- Blush Sticker: One of Chisato's standard expressions in the DS.
- Deadpan Snarker: Tamako.
- Fiery Redhead: Chisato
- Girlish Pigtails: Chisato
- Meaningful Name: Tamako's is commented on the manga omake. "Tama" means round. The manga artist wonders if her name is so because she's roly-poly.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Chisato in spades.
- Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Chisato has a bunch of jokes toward this with Natsumi
- Lesbian Jock: Chisato. Though she apparently used to have a crush on Akira, her childhood friend.
- Those Two Guys
Akira Otobe
Voiced by: Kouki Miyata (JP)
Akira Otobe is a boy who wanders into Hinamizawa 23 years the events of Tsumihoroboshi-hen occur (with a small twist) He gets separated from the group he was traveling into the village with and runs into someone claiming to be Mion Sonozaki, who confuses him with Satoshi. In his hometown, he ran away from his home and got so deep in debt that he came to Hinamizawa with the group in order to comit suicide, only to ditch them at the last minute.
- Don't Go in The Woods
- Identical Stranger
- Technicolor Eyes: Pink eyes, just like Satoshi and Satoko.
- Lovable Coward
- One Steve Limit: Averted - he shares a name with Natsumi's love interest in Onisarashi-hen. Of course, it's assured that the two of them will never interact, since the arcs have a 20-year long distance between them.
- Suicide Pact
Ryunosuke Arakawa
Voiced by: Tomoaki Maeno
Ryunosuke Arakawa is a reporter who goes to Hinamizawa in order to investigate some of the rumors of what happened there over 20 years ago.
- Going for The Big Scoop: "I'll go just because they say not to go in June. I'll write an article for the readers who are not afraid of danger. This is journalism, right!"
- Intrepid Reporter
- Perma Stubble
Yae Towada
Voiced by: Ryoko Shintani (JP)
Yae Towada decided to visit Hinamizawa with her boyfriend, Takumi, where she meets Otobe. She suggested the trip to him in order to murder him there, having been driven to that point by his abusive nature.
- Comforting Comforter: Subverted once you find out that the reason she covered him like that was to make it look like he was sleeping, when he was actually dead.
- Curtains Match the Window
- Domestic Abuse
- My God, What Have I Done?: Yae feels no remorse for killing Takumi until Mion proves to her that he intended to get a real job and turn over a new leaf by speaking to him from beyond the grave and finding an employee's notice on his body.
- Sympathetic Murderer
- Unreliable Narrator
- You Gotta Have Pink Hair
Takumi Kurosawa
Voiced by: Akira Ishida
Takumi Kurosawa accompanied his girlfriend, Yae, on an outing to Hinamizawa. Early on, it is established that he is rather abusive to his girlfriend. He tried to use the trip as a way to mark having started over by getting a real job and being able to provide a good life for Yae; unfortunately, Yae had not realized this and murdered him in his sleep.
- Beautiful Dreamer: With Towada
- Dead Mans Chest: His body is found shoved in a closet under some sheets.
- Desperately Looking for A Purpose In Life
- Domestic Abuser
- Jerk With a Heart of Gold
- Posthumous Character
Miyuki Sorimachi
Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (JP)
Miyuki Sorimachi is a freelance writer who appears in the DS rendition of Yoigoshi-hen, accompanying Otobe and everyone else. It turns out that she's actually Miyuki Akasaka, Mamoru's daughter as an adult, and is actually an undercover police officer.
Nagisa Ozaki
Voiced by: Mayako Nigo (JP)
Nagisa Ozaki is a childhood friend of Rena's from Ibaraki and a relative of one of the boys Rena assaulted. She appears in Tokihogushi-hen. She helps with Tomoe's investigation into Rena's case. She finds out about Tokyo's plan and tries to warn Tomoe and Rena, only to be knocked out and kidnapped. She escapes, only to be run over by a truck in the process.
- She Knows Too Much: The reason she is kidnapped.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
- ↑ the KFC mascot