Overview

Furude Hanyū (or simply Hanyū) is one of the main characters in the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni series, and the true identity of Oyashiro-sama. She is a goddess that appears in Minagoroshi-hen and beyond. Hanyū's past is shrouded in mystery, but she has referred to herself as a demon who became a goddess after she was sacrificed at a true Watanagashi ceremony centuries past to atone for the sins of others. She is also the mother of Furude Oka and the wife of Furude Riku.

Hanyū is invisible for the majority of the series to the majority of the characters, She is the source behind the mysterious footsteps in the story.

Hanyū is a sort of guardian angel to her descendant, Furude Rika, whom she has followed since birth. In fact, Rika is the first person to be able to see her even though Hanyū has been in the village of Hinamizawa for centuries since her death. As such, Hanyū regards Rika as her one and only friend despite the abuse she endures from Rika occasionally.

Past

As revealed in Kotohogushi-hen, Hanyū was once known as the demon goddess of Onigafuchi (Hinamizawa) under her true name, Hai-Ryūn Ieasomūru Jeda. She traveled with her clan to the Onigafuchi Swamp and tried to coexist with the human villagers there, but she was discriminated due to her horns. Furude Riku, the heir to the Furude shrine and inventor of the nickname "Hanyū" (which is the way he heard the name of her kind, Hai-Ryūn, when she introduced herself), fell in love with the goddess and married her. They had a daughter named Furude Ōka, the first in a long line of humans to carry demon blood.

To protect the villagers from demons, she had to sacrifice her husband and lost her ability to appear in front of humans. Nobody was able to see her except for her daughter. To combat a strange disease that was spreading throughout the country, she created medicine and gave it to her daughter. However, powerful men desired the medicine for their political purposes, and her daughter was captured. Driven by fear for the safety of her daughter and bitterness from the betrayal of the very people she saved with the medicine, she became corrupted as a demon and massacred the villagers. Her daughter, knowing she had become corrupted with evil thoughts, battled Hanyū and successfully stabbed her with a sword. This brought Hanyū back to her senses; however, knowing she would one day turn evil again, she begged Ōka to kill her using her own sword, the only weapon capable of killing a demon. Since Hanyū's death, the villagers revered Ōka for driving away the "demon" and the legend of Oyashiro's curse started.[1]

Personality

Quiet, timid, and polite, Hanyū is a sweet and innocent girl, despite her tendency to refer to herself with the pronoun "boku," which is generally reserved for boys. She is easily intimidated or frightened, and will whimper "Au au, auauau…" when upset or excited. When angry, however, her pupils turn increasingly red, and her voice becomes stern, serious, and mature like that of a goddess or mature woman. Hanyū's change in voice is similar to that of Rika, where the cute childlike voice is replaced by a mature women's voice. In the anime, the adult voice actresses play both roles for both characters.

In Matsuribayashi-hen Hanyū demonstrates this shift to her adult voice by frightening the Yamainu with her demonic voice. In the anime, Rena compliments her by saying she sounds like a "real goddess." Hanyū responds happily embarrassed in her childlike character and voice. In the manga, Rika reminds everyone that Hanyū is a goddess. Later, in the anime she speaks to Mion in her adult voice when she stands between her and Takano. She then shifts and addresses the rest in her more child-like voice.

When angry in her human form in the anime, a burning red spot appears in each of her pupils. This is particularly seen in the final episode of Matsuribayashi-hen when she confronts Takano alone a second time. As she questions the "child of man" Takano and then offers to forgive her, Hanyū's pupils contain bright red spots. When she later stands between Mion and Takano, the spots grow larger. These nearly completely fill her pupils when Takano fires her gun at her.

When in her goddess form, which is still translucent, her irises turn completely purple while her entire pupils burn brighter as she becomes angrier. This is seen in her first confrontation with Takano at her temple. In both the anime and manga Takano seems to forget this encounter. When Takano encounters the injured Hanyū in her human form in both the anime and manga, she does not recognize her. To the viewer and reader, the difference in form mainly seems to be her dress; however, it appears characters cannot see her in her goddess form except under certain circumstances. Level 3 or higher allows sufferers to hear her footsteps. In a flashback in Matsuribayashi-hen, Rena hallucinates maggots emerging from scratches in her arm and hears Hanyū's voice repeating "I'm sorry!" The anime depicts a translucent Hanyū, but whether or not Rena sees her is left unanswered. A similar event in a flashback occurs with Satoshi. Later, when Hanyū appears in human form as a transfer student, Rena tells Keiichi that it seems to her that Hanyū has been with them. This statement occurs slightly later in the manga. When Takano is disturbed in her second confrontation with Hanyū, she thinks she has woken from a dream and only recognizes the child she encountered previously. In the "dream" she recognizes Hanyū as the goddess she challenged. Thus, it seems that characters can only consistently see the human form of Hanyū. Shion and Mion's grandmother mentions her in a conversation as a friend of Rika. At LV3 or higher it appears they can perceive her goddess form. It also seems in certain circumstances Hanyū permits specific humans to see her in her goddess form which may explain why Takano can see her the first time. Takano thinks it was a dream, and she does not recall the encounter when she sees Hanyū in her human form. In the manga only, when Ōishi meets with Rika, Tomitake, Irie, and Akasaka and he hesitates over the risk to his pension, Hanyū appears to him, reassures him, and grants him the time to think. She does not appear in any frame that depicts the entire group, and no one but Rika and a surprised Ōishi sees her. Ōishi thanks the "little girl I've never met." Tomitake, Irie, and Akasaka seem not to notice Ōishi's conversation, nor does Ōishi seem to notice later in the scene that she is no longer there.

She is sorry of moments of the past, such as those involving Keiichi, Shion, and Rena when they all became victims to the Hinamizawa Syndrome. She will follow them and apologize which became part of the supernatural legend in that victim of the Hinamizawa Syndrome report hearing an extra step when they walk. What they interpreted as some malevolent force stalking them was actually Hanyū following them and apologizing. When speaking in her god-like voice, Hanyū addresses Takano as a "child of man" to emphasize their difference. In that particular case in the anime and the manga, Hanyū explains to Takano that humans cannot forgive Takano of her sins, but she can.

Hanyū is extremely loving and carries a lot of guilt for the suffering experienced by Rika's friends. She often feels helpless or despairing due to her inability to influence the world around her to save her friends from their terrible fate in her spiritual form. All she feels she can do is apologize for her uselessness in protecting the ones she loves, which led to her habit of following those who are about to fall into paranoia or die and repeatedly apologizing, which only exacerbated their paranoia and hallucinations. She is the source of the footsteps, voice, and sense of being watched that Ryūgū Rena, Hōjō Satoshi, and other characters under the influence of the Hinamizawa Syndrome notice throughout the series.

Hanyū is also very pessimistic, often telling Rika not to get her hopes up about the newest world, as every time she does, she only ends up getting hurt and disappointed. Instead, she encourages Rika to wait patiently for a fortunate world to come. She hopes that by dispiriting Rika, she can prolong Rika's mental life-span. Despite Rika's desperate desire to escape her fate of being killed, Hanyū seems content with repeating the worlds over and over, as long as she gets to stay by Rika's side; she is secretly happy that she gets to spend more time with Rika than anyone else. Just like Rika, Hanyū cares for all her friends and is willing to give her life to keep them safe. Also, she seems to be thankful for Keiichi, as it was him who inspired to have courage and strength to defeat fate and Takano, which she also got from Rika. Hanyū also seems to have a motherly role over Rika at times, such as slapping her in Matsuribayashi-hen when Rika begged her to use her godly powers to make a miracle come forth. Her motherly role is expanded in the manga when near the conclusion of Matsuribayashi-hen Rika calls her "mother" affectionately.

Hanyū likes cream puffs and sweets, which she tastes through Rika, with whom her senses are linked. In a hilarious scene in the anime, Rika "punishes" Hanyū by eating spicy kimchi then swallowing a glass of wine. In lighter parts of the manga and anime, Rika promises to eat sweets to reward Hanyū.

One of the odder aspects of Hanyū is how and when others perceive her and interact with her. It may seem that only Rika can see and converse with her, but as the arcs develop to the conclusion of Matsuribayashi-hen, it proves more complicated. Suffers of LV3 or higher begin to sense the observing Hanyū such as hearing her footsteps as she follows them to some hearing her apologizing. This only adds to the paranoia of suffers, and some of them outright mistake her for the vanished Satoshi, such as Keiichi in Tatarigoroshi-hen, and Sonozaki Shion in Meakashi-hen. She actually converses with Rena to warn her to return to Hinamizawa in Tsumihoroboshi-hen. However, she has the ability to be seen and interact with people who do not suffer. When she decides to take an active part the world in Matsuribayashi-hen, everyone can see and talk to her human form.

She wants to join the club, and unbeknownst to the members, usually watches their club activities, and is once just barely seen in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai right before the club activity game set up by Satoko. In both the anime and manga versions of Matsuribayashi-hen, she wants to ask to join the the club but stands watching nervously. Mion asks her if she has forgotten something, and Hanyū whimpers "auauau" and asks "Rika?" who tells her with a smile, "If you want something, then ask for it yourself." Hanyū finally gathers her courage to ask to join.

Contrary to the village's image of Oyashiro-sama, Hanyū is very timid, hates violence and suffering, and is devastated by the horrific acts that are committed in her name. Because of this, she expresses a strong dislike for Takano, who is only attracted to the legend of Oyashiro-sama due to its bloody history. When the topic of Oyashiro-sama arises, Hanyū is especially irritated and discouraged when she hears her name used as a name of punishment and violence, declaring numerous times that she would never curse or punish anyone through torture nor "demoning away" (however, Rika does note that Hanyū loves to stay in the Saiguden, which is full of torture tools, because according to Hanyū it makes her feel "at home"). In scenes where Takano enters the Saiguden and revels in the violent history of Onigafuchi Swamp in front of the statue of Oyashiro-sama, Hanyū becomes very upset and repeatedly stomps on the floor in agitation.

Since anyone at LV3 or higher of the Hinamizawa Syndrome can sense Hanyū's presence, Tomitake Jirō (LV3) and Shion (LV4) were able to hear "a child jumping up and down on the ground" in Minagoroshi-hen, Watanagashi-hen, and Meakashi-hen. The jumping noises were Hanyū stomping the floor and exclaiming, "Stop it, stop it! I would never do such a thing; I never asked anyone to torture people!"

Hanyū confronts Takano directly twice in the anime and manga versions of Matsuribayashi-hen. In the anime, the first confrontation appears as a scene after the end of an episode. In the manga, Hanyū tells Rika that "she" has arrived and disappears. In both versions of the scene, Takano tries to offer derisively a 10 yen coin to the shrine as an angry repayment of the 10 yen coin she found in the pay phone as a child escaping from the orphanage. In both, Hanyū confronts Takano in her goddess form, which includes her dressed as a shrine maiden, and Takano challenges Hanyū. Takano subsequently interprets this meeting as a dream, because in both the anime and manga when she encounters the injured Hanyū, she does not recognize her. The manga is more expansive in that Takano examines the human Hanyū, pulls on her horns, then says they make Hanyū look like "a monster."

When Takano is later defeated, Hanyū again appears before Takano. In the anime, Mion, Rena, Satoko, Keiichi, and Rika suddenly notice she is gone. Careful watching reveals her standing behind Mion and to the right of Rena, then the Banken helicopter arrives, and from the vantage point of the helicopter looking down at the group, Hanyū is absent, and Takano has yet to flee them. After Takano flees from them, then from Okonogi when he demands she kill herself, Hanyū appears in her human form before a broken and isolated Takano to ask, "Child of man. What did you seek from this world?" Scratching her throat, Takano confesses she just wanted to be told it was "okay to live." Takano looks at the gun in her hand and rhetorically asks, "This is retribution for my sins, isn't it?" Hanyū responds that since she is not human--"a child of man"--she can forgive Takano. Takano feels it is "Impossible" and "Too late," and before Hanyū can answer Satoko, Rika, Rena, Mion, and Keiichi arrive and Takano seems to forget the conversation she was having with Hanyū.

The manga expands the story greatly in that Hanyū disappears from the group and appears before Takano in her goddess form. Takano admits she recognizes Hanyū as the goddess she confronted at the temple earlier. Hanyū first offers Takano a status of a deity if she kills herself, then when realizing Takano will not sacrifice herself, ultimately forgives her "in my own name." When Mion, Rena, Satoko, Keiichi, and Rika arrive, Takano feels she has woken from a dream and sees Hanyū in her human appearance. Takano only recognizes her as one of the children.

Physical Appearance

Hanyū's first form appears to be a floating, translucent young girl with purple hair, violet eyes, and a pair of black or dark purple horns on her head (the left one is chipped slightly). When angry or channeling her god powers, her eyes turn a glowing red. In this spirit form, she wears an outfit reminiscent of one worn by a Shinto shrine maiden, with red hakama (long, split trousers), a white haori (kimono jacket), and a pair of long, pink furisode-like sleeves.

The second form that Hanyū takes is her visible form, which is physically identical to her ethereal form except that she can no longer float, and she is solid rather than transparent. Here, on her school days, she wears a school outfit with a red plaid skirt, a short sleeved white blouse, a blue vest with a blue bow, white socks, and brown shoes. During her free days, she wears a pink jumper similar to Rika's dress, differing in that the jumper has pockets, its straps are thicker and have buttons, and has no ribbon. In all of her forms, her horns remain. In a sequence in the manga which describes Hanyū and her people's first appearance, it is explained that she chose to take a human form, but her horns remain. Her "true form" appears an intentional mystery. Rika tells Hanyū in both the anime and manga that no matter how many times Hanyū has explained who she is and where she came from Rika cannot understand it. In this scene in the anime of Matsuribayashi-hen Rika surmises she may be seeing Hanyū's true form.

In the Sound Novel, as the one clear thing she could not remove when taking human form, Hanyū is sensitive about her horns. Hanyū expresses a dislike for her horns in one of the TIPS, acknowledging them as ugly. People are aware of her horns, and Maebara Keiichi asks her about them, thinking they are toys. Once Keiichi sees that Hanyū is sensitive about her horns, he apologizes, and the club members tease Keiichi by saying he has "a horn between his legs" and reassuring Hanyū that there's nothing wrong with her. Takano Miyo, however, upon seeing them refers to Hanyū as a monster, which only further ignited Hanyū's hatred for Takano. Even though Hanyū professed this hatred for Takano, she sacrificed her life to save Takano's in Miotsukushi-hen, perhaps an indication that it is not within her personality to truly hate anyone.

The manga is similar in that Keiichi privately asks Rika about Hanyū's horns and Rika scolds him and asks him not to mention them. Keiichi apologizes to Rika and never mentions them again. Only two other characters in the manga mention them: Takano notices them and asks if they are "a toy" to which Rena replies that they are simply her "charm points." This appears another ambiguity in that people see her horns but do not find them odd. In the anime characters do not mention her horns at all as explained in the Trivial section below.

During an early episode of the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai anime, Hanyū appears in a thin-strapped pale pink sun dress. There are bows on two of the straps and the front of the dress, and the bottom is tinged with lace. She is only seen once in this outfit.

Abilities

Hanyū is a goddess, specifically a manifestation of what the villagers refer to as "Oyashiro-sama." As a goddess, she possesses several super-natural powers. The most heavily featured among these is her ability to manipulate space-time to create alternate dimensions, parallel to the original Hinamizawa, but with reversed time lines. This is the power responsible for the eternally repeating June of Showa 58 (1983). Hanyū and Rika's existences are linked in every way. Every time Rika dies, Hanyū uses her ability to escape whatever world they are presently in. The two then arrive in an in-between dimension. There, Rika and Hanyū watch as the tragic events following Rika's death unfold in whatever world they just left. Eventually, a new Hinamizawa will be born from Hanyū's power and join the others in the in-between dimension. Each world created is represented by a spinning fragment of light with various scenes playing out on its surfaces; these fragments are referred to as kakera (カケラ, fragment, shard). After a little time, Hanyū and Rika will enter the new world and a new story, with a new chance to prevent Rika from dying. Initially only Hanyū, then Rika, remember the past world. Later the other club members will experience dreams or impressions. For example, Keichi will remember and be devastated by his killing of Mion and Rena even though those events did not happen in his current time-line.

Hanyū also has various other abilities, such as flying, intangibility, teleportation, and telekinesis. She has also displayed a power to stop the flow of time momentarily to alter an event, and to see and act through the Hanyūs that have existed in the past worlds that she remembers, just as Rika can.

In her human form, she displays slightly different powers in the manga versus the anime. In the manga version of Matsuribayashi-hen in her human form, she feels she has the power to stop Takano's bullet, which she does until Takano calls her a "monster" a second time. The bullet appears to break her barrier, but the flow of time is stopped. Unlike in the manga version of Minagoroshi-hen where the bullet stops before Keiichi but no one can move to prevent it eventually striking him, Rika steps in to remove the bullet. In the anime, Hanyū's pupils turn completely red as the bullet seems to deviate from her and strike a tree. It appears an open question as to whether or not Hanyū deflected the bullet, Takano missed, or even the wishes of the rest of the children caused it to miss.

In the sound novel, manga, and anime versions of Matsuribayashi-hen, Hanyū is shown to be capable of manipulating people's minds. During the Club vs. Yamainu mountain fight when Hanyū took the radio intercom, many Yamainu soldiers suddenly started hearing gruesome sounds and/or seeing strange apparitions, such as "dense fog," "a river… my dead sister is on the other side of the river", "wild bears", "the sound of a human being crushed by a train", et cetera. In the anime, Hanyū similarly speaks in her adult voice accompanied by Keiichi voice-acting as a tortured soldier. She is complimented on her performance.

In Saikoroshi-hen, it is revealed that Hanyū's powers actually are influenced by the prayers of others, just like any other deity. When Rika died in the bicycle crash, her friends prayed that "Even if by sacrificing my own life, I wish she (Rika) would go back in time and make it so that the accident never happened," Hanyū was able to find Rika in the other world. Also in that arc, when Hanyū placed a hand on Rika's forehead, Rika's lungs felt as if all the air was being squeezed out of her.

In Higurashi Daybreak, one of Hanyū's strongest powers is Global Time Freeze, which freezes the entire field except for herself. This power is a reference to Dio Brando, a character from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, whose strongest ability "The World" freezes time as well. Not only that but Hanyū also shouts "Muda muda muda muda!" just as Dio does as well (though, without the road roller).

Live Action

The 2008 Higurashi film is based off Onikakushi-hen.

Hanyū does not make an official appearance in the movie, but after Keiichi claws out his throat, the camera sets on the silhouette of Oyashiro-sama. The figure has horns sticking out of its head.

Trivia

•A Hanyū by Any Other Name: Her true name according to Kotohogushi-hen: ハィ=リューン・イェアソムール・ジェダ[2] (literally in the romaji: "Hai-Ryūn Ieasomūru Jeda") could be misunderstood as "Hainiryūn Ieasomūru Jeda" due to misreading "=" as 二 (ni). The equality sign separates two different names for her alien group or perhaps clan. Kotohogushi-hen explains that these are not her personal names. リューン (Ryūn) is the name of her kind. ハィ (Hai) refers to a certain group of Ryūn that took responsibility of controlling "demons", which were originally of her kind and in the process of moving between worlds lost their bodies but not their gradually degrading minds and ability to possess people. イェアソムール (Ieasomūru) is an inherited name coming from the land she and her family lived in, and it is the closest thing to a personal name her kind probably has. Finally, ジェダ (Jeda) is her family name, meaning "Observer." As such, she did not have a personal name before Furude Riku named her "Hanyū." It proved an oddly appropriate name, since she herself explained that some unspecified part of her name meant "wing" (翼, tsubasa) or "feather" (羽, hane) in Japanese, and characters for Hanyū, 羽 and 入, mean exactly this: "feather" is "in" the name. She thus took a liking to it and gradually started calling herself Hanyū.

•Take a Hanyū by the ********: Due to many fans watching the anime first before reading the Sound Novels, and how the anime did not include the part of the Sound Novel where Hanyū explains her horns to her classmates, there was much confusion as to why nobody could see (or why nobody cared about) Hanyū's horns, to the point where it became a running gag and was even part of the episode ending's preview for the next, with statements such as "They're *************, right?" with the answer "bleeped." Some fans even thought they were leaves in her hair. In the English fanbase, an Anonymous on 4chan's /a/ board asked why nobody could see her horns, but there was an accidental omission of the verb "see" in it, which resulted in the message "Why can't anyone her horns?" being posted. As a result, the meme "I'd her horns" was born, and fans were left to their imagination of what verbs could fill the blank. In the manga version of Matsuribayashi-hen, none of the school children ask about her horns. Only later, when walking, Keiichi asks Rika about whether or not they will fall off as if they are something she wears. Rika sternly asks Keiichi not to mention them to Hanyū since she has been bullied in the past over them. Keiichi quickly apologizes and never mentions them again. When Takano examines her after she fell, she does touch and tug on her horns asking if they are a "toy." Rena replies that they are simply her "charm points." Takano remarks that they, "make her look like a monster, don't you think?" to Hanyū's horror. Rika sternly rebukes Takano, who apologizes. After that, no one in the manga mentions or seems to notice her horns. In the anime, no one seems to notice she has horns. However, in the anime only arc Yumeutsushi-hen, Hanyū covers her horns when she finds a very young Rika from the past.

•In the anime, Hanyū refers to herself as "boku" (僕) which is a more informal than "watashi" (私) and was used almost exclusively by males at the time.

•In Yakusamashi-hen Chapter 2 (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Episode 3), when Satoko is awoken by Rika arguing with Hanyū she very briefly sees a part of Hanyū's sleeve. This is the first time Hanyū's voice is heard and she is briefly seen.

•Hanyū really likes cream puffs and fried tofu in soy. She has a remarkable hatred of spicy foods and alcohol, which Rika uses to keep her quiet at times. Rika also rewards her with promises to indulge in sweets.

•Hanyū's catchphrase is also the same as the one used by Tōhō character Suwako Moriya, and it is not uncommon to see these two paired up in many crossover fanworks which sometimes even depict them harmonizing Hanyū's character song. This can be considered a representation of the friendship between Touhou creator ZUN and Ryukishi07 himself. ZUN was also the one who inspired Ryukishi07 in creating the Higurashi series rather than letting the two collaborate on future Touhou games.

•Hanyū's Weapon: the Onigari-no-Ryūō, which is said to be a gold sword resembling a drooping willow's branch, is a type of sword originally made and popularized in Korea, not Japan. It closely resembles the Seven-Branched Sword that was given to the Japanese Emperor as a gift. In Kotohogushi-hen, Hanyū regularly travels overseas to "the continent," China and Korea, to deal with other demonized Ryūn, which explains how she could obtain this sword.

•Umineko Parallels and References:

・Hanyū makes an ASCII appearance during Ushiromiya Jessica's "Tsurupettan" band scene in the Umineko no Naku Koro ni sound novels. She is shown wearing a smirk and, for unknown reasons, has a mole on her cheek.

・Hanyū resembles Featherine Augustus Aurora from Umineko no Naku Koro ni; however, the character in the anime version has a different seiyū or voice actress. Yui Horie, Hanyū's seiyū, voices the Umineko character Maria Ushiromiya. Certain aspects of Featherine's appearance, particularly her miko-inspired dress and crescent-shaped memory aid, are reminiscent of the clothes and horns possessed by Hanyū, though she also somewhat resembles Ōka, particularly her hairstyle and eye color. Parts of Featherine's name also allude to Hanyū—when roughly translated, the kanji that make up Hanyū's name (羽入) translate to "feather" (羽, hane) and "in" (入, iri) which, when put together, more or less make up her first name "Featherine"; in addition, the first two katakana shared by her middle and last names, "Au" (アウ), are also used by Hanyū as a catchphrase, "auau" (あぅあぅ). Because of this, Bernkastel often refers to her as Auaurora. It is also mentioned that Featherine once damaged her memory aid, causing her to undergo a personality and image change, which could be reflected by the chip in Hanyū's left horn.

In Umineko, Hanyū is shown in the EP6 manga. It is implied that she is connected with Featherine Augustus Aurora. Lambdadelta referred to her as the "cruel game master" who put Bernkastel into a logic error that she had to solve all alone. This logic error likely could have been when Hanyū gave up all hope which would've made it impossible for the game in Higurashi to continue.

•One of Hanyū's sprites consist of her in a costume of Sakutarou, a character from the Umineko no Naku Koro ni series.

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羽入