Do you know what is the sin?
—It isn't because you ate the forbidden fruit.
Do you know what is the sin?
—It isn't because you listened to the serpent.
You still don't know what is the sin?
—Then, that itself is your sin.
Poems by Frederica Bernkastel
Information
| Orignal VN Release Date | August 10, 2002 |
|---|---|
| Translated VN Release Date(s) | December 15, 2009 (Europe) |
| October 31, 2009 (France) | |
| Anime Air Date(s) | April 4-25, 2006 |
| Manga Release Date(s) | Japanese |
| December 22, 2005 | |
| June 22, 2006 | |
| English | |
| November 18, 2008 | |
| February 17, 2009 | |
| Light Novel Release Date(s) | August 2007 |
| September 2007 | |
| Live Action Release Date | May 10, 2008 |
| Platform | PC |
| PlayStation 2 | |
| Nintendo DS | |
| PS Vita | |
| PlayStation 3 | |
| Previous Arc | None |
| Following Arc | Watanagashi-hen |
Onikakushi-hen (鬼隠し編, Spirited Away by the Demon Chapter) is the first arc in the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni series, released on August 10, 2002 and preceding Watanagashi-hen. It is told from the perspective of Maebara Keiichi, who grows increasingly paranoid and eventually violent as he progressively feels that his friends are trying to kill him.
This first arc does not reveal the cause of Keiichi's paranoia and eventual violence. It implies a possible supernatural influence on him as well influence from paranoia-induced hallucinations.
Plot
At first the reader is shown the happy life of Maebara Keiichi who recently moved to the rural village Hinamizawa. This chapter mainly focuses on Keiichi's and his friends' happy days. Keiichi becomes a member of a club where his new friends Sonozaki Mion, Ryūgū Rena, Hōjō Satoko, and Furude Rika play games after school. However, Keiichi's happy days come to an end as he learns from the visiting nature photographer Tomitake Jirō that there was a bloody murder in Hinamizawa. Keiichi questions his friends about the incident but they unwaveringly deny it, elevating Keiichi's doubt in them.
Keiichi tries to ignore Hinamizawa's past and return to his peaceful life, but as the day of the Watanagashi Festival approaches he learns about Oyashiro-sama's curse from Tomitake's friend, Takano Miyo. On the day after the Festival, Keiichi learns from the local detective Ōishi Kuraudo that Tomitake was killed on the previous night. Keiichi agrees to cooperate with the detective in order to find out the truth.
Fearing his friends, Keiichi feigns sickness to skip school, and he learns from Ōishi that all of his friends are connected with the previous Festivals' victims. That evening, Mion and Rena visit Keiichi and give him some ohagi as both a get-well gift and Club assignment. To Keiichi's surprise, Rena and Mion know about his talk with Ōishi. To his shock, he later discovers that one of the ohagi they gave him contains a needle. On the next day, Keiichi takes the disappeared student Hōjō Satoshi's old baseball bat for self-defense. However, when Keiichi finds out that Satoshi did the same things a year ago and disappeared, his suspicion and fear start to turn into insanity.
As Keiichi's insanity grows, he becomes more and more violent toward his friends and believes the whole village is out to kill him. In the climax of Onikakushi-hen's final chapter, Keiichi's struggle to stay alive forces him to make a horrible decision.
Disappearances and Deaths
All deaths and disappearances are listed only as they are told in Onikakushi-hen. Spoilers are only for the individual arc, not the overall series.
Disappearances
•Hōjō Satoshi: disappeared June 1982, one year before the story.
•Takano Miyo: disappeared on the night of the Watanagashi Festival on June 19, 1983.
Deaths
Tomitake Jirō: died of blood loss after clawing out his own throat June 19, 1983 on the night of the Watanagashi.
Ryūgū Rena: beaten to death by Keiichi on June 25, 1983 in the Maebara House with Satoshi's old baseball bat.
Sonozaki Mion: also killed by Keiichi on June 25, 1983 in his room with Satoshi's old baseball bat.
Maebara Keiichi: died from blood loss on June 26, 1983 at the Irie Clinic after he clawed out his own throat in a telephone booth the night before.
Live Action
The 2008 movie Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (Shrill Cries of Summer) is based on Onikakushi-hen. In the movie Keiichi goes into the Saiguden with Takano and Tomitake as in Watanagashi-hen. This seems to be why Mion and Rena are trying to kill him. Trailer here. A sequel came out in 2009.
Answer Arc
“Please do not deplore yourself.
Even if the world does not forgive you, I will forgive you.
Please do not deplore yourself.
Even if you do not forgive the world, I will forgive you.
So please tell me.
What will it take for you, to forgive me”?
Frederica Bernkastel
