With this final release in the Higurashi Hou series, fans can now enjoy three new chapters that have never been available to English fans before: Outbreak, Kamikashimashi-hen, Mehagashi-hen, and Hinamizawa Bus Stop. So today we’d like to take a moment to introduce the first two of these four new chapters a little more.
To long fans of the series, Outbreak may be somewhat familiar, as it previously received an OVA anime adaptation. This chapter immediately opens with the break from their daily lives as news breaks on TV about a new, deadly disease being discovered in the region near Hinamizawa, resulting in the entire prefecture being placed under quarantine. For a while things under quarantine aren’t so bad, with everyone adjusting to a new daily routine involving regular health inspections and the delivery of food, water, and necessities being handled by the JGSDF troops on the ground. Of course, such peace never truly lasts in a chapter of Higurashi, and the eventual descent into hell is everything one might expect from this series.
The second chapter, Kamikashimashi-hen, is a direct continuation of Outbreak. While Outbreak was previous included as bonus material in a doujin game never released in English (Higurashi Daybreak), the content of Kamikashimashi-hen is entirely new, and provides a final conclusion to the Outbreak Arc. In this chapter, two brand new characters are introduced: Une and Tamura-no-Mikoto. While Une helps rescue the characters we know and love as they try to find somewhere safe, she harbors several secrets of her own that will prove vital to uncover. Tamura-no-Mikoto, on the other hand, is another being akin to Hanyuu, and with her introduction in this chapter we finally learn more about who and what Hanyuu and Oyashiro-sama are. The secrets revealed in this arc will expand the world of Higurashi even more, adding all new depth for fans to enjoy.
The two-part story of these chapters was written well before COVID-19—Outbreak was penned nearly a decade beforehand—so it’s worth keeping in mind that you might find them hitting home a bit differently than originally intended after living through the pandemic’s global shutdown. That being said though, there’s a lot of action and suspense alongside the paranoia that makes every Higurashi tale such a gripping experience, so we hope you’ll all enjoy them when they’re finally released on MangaGamer and Steam this November 9th.