Higurashi: When They Cry ~Season 1~ Blu-ray

Keiichi Maebara has just moved to the quiet rural village of Hinamizawa in the summer of 1983. It is small, close-knit, and idyllic — a group of friends who meet after school, play games, laugh constantly. Then Keiichi begins asking questions about the village's annual festival and the string of deaths and disappearances that have followed it for four consecutive years. His friends' reactions to his questions are wrong in ways he cannot articulate at first. Then they become wrong in ways that are very hard to ignore. The series is structured as a series of arcs — each one covering the same period, the same cast, the same village, but from a different angle and with a different terrible outcome — slowly assembling the full picture of what Hinamizawa actually is, what the Watanagashi Festival commemorates, and what Oyashiro-sama's curse actually means.

Higurashi: When They Cry is a 26-episode horror mystery series produced by Studio Deen, directed by Chiaki Kon, and based on Ryukishi07's sound novel series — a landmark of the visual novel and doujin game tradition, originally self-published at Comiket beginning in 2002 and later published commercially. The series aired on various channels from April to September 2006. The score was composed by Kenji Kawai. Originally released in North America on DVD by Geneon Entertainment with an English dub; after Geneon's discontinuation FUNimation briefly held the license before dropping it, leaving the series in limbo. Sentai Filmworks rescued the franchise and released Season 1, Season 2 (Kai), and Season 3 (Rei) for the first time with complete English subtitles. The Season 1 Blu-ray is a 2-disc 1080p release running 620 minutes, with English dub and Japanese audio.

Notable Staff & Voice Talent

Director: Chiaki Kon (Junjou Romantica, No. 6)
Original Sound Novel: Ryukishi07 (07th Expansion — When They Cry, Umineko When They Cry)
Studio: Studio Deen (Fushigi Yugi)
Music: Kenji Kawai (Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor 1 & 2, Jin-Roh, Sorcerer Hunters, Ninja Scroll, Higurashi franchise)

Japanese Cast:
• Satsuki Yukino as Mion / Shion Sonozaki
• Mai Nakahara as Rena Ryūgū
• Yukari Tamura as Rika Furude
• Mika Kanai as Satoko Hōjō
• Soichiro Hoshi as Keiichi Maebara (Gundam SEED — Kira Yamato)

English Dub Cast (Geneon dub, included):
• Kyle Hebert as Keiichi Maebara
• Mela Lee as Rena Ryūgū
• Megan Hollingshead as Mion Sonozaki
• Zarah Little as Shion Sonozaki
• Rebecca Forstadt as Rika Furude

Blu-ray Features (Sentai Filmworks)

• All 26 Episodes on 2 Discs — Complete Season 1 (620 min)
• 1080p High Definition 16:9
• English Dub & Japanese Audio
• Clean Opening & Closing Animations
• Sentai Filmworks Previews

Spoken Languages: English & Japanese Audio, English Subtitles

Edition Details

Japanese Title: ひぐらしのなく頃に (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni / When the Cicadas Cry)
Runtime: 620 Minutes (Complete Season 1, 26 Episodes, 2 Discs)
Director: Chiaki Kon
Blu-ray Release Year: Sentai Filmworks (re-license after Geneon / FUNimation); Complete S1-3 Collection December 12, 2017
Original Broadcast Date (Japan): April 4 – September 26, 2006
Publisher: Sentai Filmworks
Rating: 17+
Region: Region A (North America)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Psychological
Themes: Groundhog Day Horror, Rural Village Mystery, Oyashiro Curse, Sound Novel Adaptation, Ryukishi07

Media assumed VG+ unless otherwise noted.