Line #46 NightmareFuel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry


1	!!Warning: Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies to these pages. Any of the folders may contain spoilers for the ''whole series''. You have been warned.
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8	[[caption-width-right:350:That's quite some itch there.]]
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10	Ahh ''VisualNovel/{{Higurashi\|WhenTheyCry}}''...how you rival ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion]]'' in terms of insanity, mind rapes, and wet-the-bed scariness...
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13	[[foldercontrol]]
14
15	[[folder:Series-wide]]
16	* The alternate character reading for 'Watanagashi' can be horrifying on its own, but when combined with the ACR for 'Matsuri', it becomes kind of uncomfortable. 'Watanagashi' can be read as either 'cotton-drifting' or 'intestine drifting'. Pretty bad on its own, right? Well, 'matsuri' can be read as either 'festival' or 'feast'. So, the Watanagashi-Matsuri can be referred to as either the 'Cotton Drifting Festival' or ''''Intestine Drifting Feast.''''
17	** The word 'nagasu', apart from meaning 'to set adrift' also means 'to spill' or 'to shed' (e.g. blood). This is not conveyed in most translations.
18	* "She kept talking about a ghost-like being, 'Oyashiro-sama.' Night after night, it came to her. It would stand by her bedside and look down at her."
19	** Even WHILE knowing that's Hanyuu, in the manga when Keiichi is going insane himself, there's a couple of scenes where he is thinking about how he feels someone is watching him, and behind him in the darkness are a pair of faint glowing eyes. And then the darkness ''breathes''.
20	** Hanyuu has a strange tendency to follow people who are going insane. Lunatics claiming to hear 'I'm sorry' over and over again when there's no one there- that was her apologizing for not being able to stop it. Imagine being in Hanyuu's position, completely helpless to do anything but watch people go insane, and pleading for forgiveness only makes it worse....
21	** Hanyuu when she becomes angry. Those blank eyes along with the blood red pupils and the voice are really creepy, even if she's still ultimately benevolent even when in that state.
22	* Satoko's uncle, [[EvilUncle Teppei Houjou]]. He, along with Rina, enjoy squeezing out money from people, including Rena's father. Not only that, but he abuses the living hell out of Satoko and makes her do the very dirty work for him.
23	** The Visual Novel version of ''Minagoroshi-hen'' has intervals where we're actually let into Teppei's head, which paints the image of a boundlessly cruel, embittered, boorish, greedy, utterly self-interested sociopath who weighs his every action in terms of costs and benefits, recognizes that he is a "man of violence" and fully ''enjoys'' hurting others or asserting dominance over them through intimidation to the point where he WANTS to beat up on Satoko whenever he can and only restrains himself from it when he fears it might get him into further trouble with child protection services (which he hates that he has to do), and implies that he'd have no compunction with ''raping'' his own niece if she were to grow older and more beautiful.
24	* The lyrics for the [=PS2=] port of the original novel contain what could be part of the creepiest nursery rhyme in human history:
25	** ''"Be good little children and go to sleep,'' ''OR ELSE THE HANDS'' '''WILL DRAG YOU DOWN.'''"
26	* The anime's opening song has a line that translates roughly as "I'll cut off your fingers and leave them in the forest."
27	* Shion's and Mion's grandmother. Most depictions of her throughout the series prior to Kai show her horribly grotesque and ''screaming'' in rage.
28	** How about seeing her beaten corpse, courtesy of Shion in the Meakashi arc? ''[[MadnessMantra "LIAR, LIAR, LIAR! LIAR, LIAR! LIAR, LIAR!!"]]''
29	* More generally, people on this show have an unnerving tendency to die by ''clawing their own throats out with their fingernails.'' shudder
30	* Any of the mad laughter in general. Although it can sometimes cross over into {{Narm}}.
31	* Think about what everyone must have thought when they learned their "nightmares" happened in other worlds. Especially Shion.
32	* The Hinamizawa village, location-wise, was based off a real village called "Shirakawa-go". The anime is already nightmarish, now imagine ''living there'' and then watching it. ParanoiaFuel at it's strongest.
33	* When you get down to it, the parasite that causes Hinamizawa Syndrome. Seeing the main characters commit horrible acts of violence against each other is scary enough, but you need to remember: at their core, the main characters are all good people and genuinely like each other. The fact that Hinamizawa Syndrome drives them to that point is pretty scary, especially if you know someone suffering from a similar mental illness.
34	* The PC visual novels have no voice acting, instead using colour-coded lines to indicate who is talking. Nightmare fuel comes in when they add a deep crimson red to indicate someone (in most cases, the narrator at the moment) has gone off the deep end.
35	* The anime opening theme. The music itself is quite lovely and very catchy. But... the lyrics are truly scarring. Prime example being "The raindrops turn into droplets of blood and travel down my cheeks, If there’s no place for me to return to anywhere anymore". Yes, this is the opening of an anime that is basically made of Pure Nightmare Fuel. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKV195eXg7I Go on, click it]].
36	** And let's not forget "Naraku No Hana," which is just as pretty to listen to, provided you don't look up the translation.
37	** Higurashi anime OST in general has ''really'' scary music in it. Tatari, Giwaku, Senkou... the list goes on.
38	** Notable gems from the visual novel OST: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V_Ri0hJgYk Demonic Institute]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s868ggza9-0 Cave]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQIhog2VJ0w Days of Children]], with the latter filling the OminousMusicboxTune position.
39	** The main theme from the anime OST makes you just tense and shiver all on its own. So naturally they play it in every already scary and disturbing scene. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuofG8a7EEk Don't click if it's dark.]]
40	* ''Anybody'' afflicted with Hinamizawa Syndrome should be considered potentially hostile and threatening in their own right. You should be wary of speaking with Shion, you shouldn't get too close to Satoko when she's on a high stage, and Keiichi could just randomly beat someone to death with a baseball bat without said someone realizing it, and Rena can rip people in half with her hatchet and blow up her school without anyone expecting it. Absolutely avoid approaching somebody who appears to be scratching at their throat.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Arc 1 -- ''Onikakushi-hen'']]
44	* Rena's curt "Shiranai." [[note]]"I don't know."[[/note]] when asked about a dismembered body in the rubbish heap in Onikakushi-hen.
45	* The sudden changes in the eyes of any of the characters (Rena and Mion in particular) in the first arc is absolutely horrifying to watch late at night. The [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/whentheycry/images/e/ef/RenaSpoiler4.png relevant Rena sprite]] in the Manga Gamer version of the visual novel is arguably one of the creepier versions, what with that unsettling little ''smile''.
46	* [[http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y104/kj1980/usoda_manga.jpg YOU LIAR!!]] Now with ten times more facial contortion.
47	* In the Visual Novel, Keiichi smashing the bat against the ground during his practice swings. The sound effects and the way the camera shakes made it scarier.
48	* There's a point where Keiichi is on the phone in his room, speaking to the police. He's been keeping this correspondence a secret from his friends, because he knows they're hiding something from him and have been getting increasingly creepy. After he hangs up the phone, his father comes in to ask what he and Rena were talking about. When Keiichi says that he wasn't on the phone with Rena, his father responds with something like, "Not on the phone, she showed up an hour ago and went right up to your room. I passed her on the stairs just a moment ago." This is when Keiichi figures out that Rena was standing outside his room, listening in on a phone conversation he explicitly told her he was not having.
49	** In the anime this point is even more horrific if you re-watch the scene where Keiichi is on the phone. The camera takes various points of view, first from the ceiling, then from behind the telephone. This is done to add a circling atmosphere of paranoia and disorientation. Then it shows from the ceiling, ''a crack in the door'', the floor, etc. When you find out that Rena was spying on the conversation, you realize the crack was '''her vantage point'''.
50	** The original game and manga version of the door scene has Rena explaining how she knows what Keiichi is eating for dinner: ''she was stalking him at the supermarket where he bought his dinner.'' Of course, though, she was just playing a joke on him and it was innocent. It's revealed in Tsumihoroboshi that Rena often goes grocery shopping with Keiichi's mother, which is why she knows what he has for dinner.
51	* There's a scene in Onikakushi-hen where Keiichi slams Rena's hands in his front door and screams at her to go away as she pleads with him to stop. The scene feels quite long, but in actuality only lasts about twenty seconds. Keiichi then returns to his room and looks out the window to see Rena standing just outside his house ''in the rain'', looking up at him and mouthing, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
52	** Even worse in the manga is where Rena is still at the door in pain, and keeps chanting "I'm sorry" in a muffled voice, all the while possibly ''scratching'' at the door doing so.
53	* In Onikakushi-hen, we are made to believe that the two girls in the arc are psychopathic killers, only for the answer arc to come along as show us how wrong we are. ''Keiichi'' himself was delusional, and hallucinated many of the things in that arc. The sewing needle in the ohagi was ''Tabasco sauce'', for example.
54	** Somewhat worse with this outlook once you replay the visual novel, because everything is from his perspective and you see every single thought he has. The part of Keiichi that we are led to believe is his denial and trauma trying to make him think his friends innocent, all those bits where he even asks himself if his friends really are trying to kill him or not...That is actually his sanity desperately trying to fight its way out of the [[HatePlague Hinamizawa Syndrome]]. His love and trust for his friends is aching to resurface as his mind drifts away with him being [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness completely out of it]] and unable to do anything about it.
55	* Onikakushi-hen itself has a chilling premise, once you watch the rest of the series to understand what exactly is going on: Two teenage girls see their normally energetic friend suddenly acting withdrawn and sullen, and even occasionally engaging in very erratic and strange behavior, but is also obviously trying to act like nothing is wrong and refuses to tell them what is bothering him. Concerned about his wellbeing, they repeatedly try to check up on him to see if there is something they can do to help him and try to cheer him up, only for his behavior to get increasingly unhinged, with him not only actively trying to avoid them, but screaming at them like a lunatic, and even physically injuring them much more than once (to make matters even worse, keep in mind that they have also both previously seen another friend undergo a very similar and equally inexplicable and sudden descent into madness, which did not end well). They still try to help him, and they try to cheer him up one more time before he goes away with Irie. They get beaten to death as a result.
56	* Even the original is bad enough, before you realize what's actually going on. This kid moves to a town. For absolutely no reason, the two best friends he's made start stalking him, and then go threatening him, then to sending goons after him, and finally try to drug him into killing himself. All the while, he's being convinced that he's been slated for death by a ''god''. Oh, and pretty much everyone he's identified as being willing to tell him anything get killed. All the while, you know ''exactly'' what's going to happen, since they showed it in the first scene.
57	** The fact that your friends can easily get into your house leaves nowhere safe. The reality of Keiichi's paranoia is suffocating, especially when you look at it through his eyes. There's no-one to turn to, no-one you can be sure is on your side. You're alone in a village full of these kinds of people, any one of them could be out to get you. You could die at any time. Put together his behaviour of the first three arcs and Keiichi matches the criteria of a Paranoid Schizophrenic. Remember they portrayed Higurashi as a nice anime on the surface? [[SchmuckBait Think about the people who bought that cover and watched the first arc alone at night.]]
58	** Even worse is the flashback in the Atonement arc. Even if it was only a past iteration of the GroundhogDayLoop, just imagine being in his shoes, having a flashback of murdering ''your best friends'' over a misunderstanding.
59	*** Coupled with the parts of that scene that were left out in Onikakushi-hen but brought back for Keiichi's flashback, specifically a beaten and bloody Rena reaching her hands out to Keiichi with a smile on her face and gently telling him to "Believe in me" before he bashes her face in.
60	* In the first manga arc, after Keiichi kills Rena and Mion, he runs from his house to a phone booth by the side of the road. Keiichi then calls up Ooishi and tells him that Oyashiro-sama is standing right behind him. Ooishi then begins hearing strange gurgling and coughing noises from the other end of the phone. Turn the page and you get a image of Keiichi ''tearing at his throat''. It looks really friggin' realistic too. What's worse is that Keiichi is crying in this scene, which makes him look like an old creepy ventriloquist dummy.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Arc 2 -- ''Watanagashi-hen'']]
64	* One scene where a young girl with a speech impediment is kidnapped by a psychopath and picks up a knife. Obviously she's going to go down swinging, right? '''Wrong'''. She picks up the knife, starts speaking in perfect adult Japanese, braces the knife's handle against the wall and headbutts it seven times before she dies. This being Higurashi, absolutely no explanation is given for this at all until Arc 5.
65	* The scene where Satoko left to get soy sauce from a neighbor and never returned. Why did she never return? Shion kidnaps her and... [[ColdBloodedTorture take a look at the crucifix scene at Arc 5]].
66	* Keiichi takes a phone call from a distressed Shion, who supposedly went missing a number of days previously. He has only recently found this out, and pleads with her to tell him that he's wrong. All she can do is sob. He then begins to poke holes in her confession that she spoke to another person who went missing around the same time; if she's telling the truth, the only way she could have spoken to them is to have done so ''after'' they went missing. There's a moment of silence after he points this out to her, and then she begins to [[LaughingMad laugh hysterically.]] Without another word, she hangs up.
67	** The [=PS2=] version of the scene is much creepier. The scene plays out the same right up until the moment of silence. Then Shion starts laughing in a more psychotic style than the anime, then out of nowhere, the volume suddenly become ten times louder as the screen goes, black, is then filled up with text that is Shion's laughter, and then we get a shot of Shion in a completely dark room where all that can be seen is her face, which can be only describe as a [[SlasherSmile clown-esque deranged smile]], all while the laughter goes on.
68	** The PC visual novels weren't a slouch in the nightmare department, either. Sure, there's no voice acting at all, but it doesn't even matter. Before that point, every silent moment was punctuated by cicadas, crickets, or something else. When you scroll through the text with ENTER, piece by piece and then the laugh suddenly fills ''lines'' of text with ''nightmarish'' speed, the program suddenly wrestles control ''away'' from you and shows those scary eyes with a ScareChord... and then ''silence.'' Utter and absolute. The loudest and most disturbing silence.
69	* Watanagashi-hen. When Keiichi finds Shion actually Mion, caged by her sister. She's elated to see him, even in her broken state...Then she realizes who is accompanying Keiichi, and starts completely breaking down. She probably thought she was being saved, only to have her hopes completely shattered before her eyes as she realized Keiichi had been swindled into coming there. In that moment she realized that she was going to watch Keiichi be tortured before her eyes after already having endured so much with the deaths of her other friends. Her screams are bloodcurling.
70	* The ending of Watanagashi-hen itself has one of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlfZAvbS-Cg most bed-wetting Nightmare Fuel scenes in history]]. After the main character evades two different attempts on his life by the same person and is told she was found dead, he's left alone in his hospital room. All of a sudden, someone grasps his wrist. '''Guess who?!''' Not just her after she's supposed to be dead, though. Her with blood running down her face and over her body. She says that she changed her mind about her promise not to kill him, and even the subtitles get into the game here, fading from white to bright red. Then she readies her nail, and the last thing you see before the screen goes red is her hammer coming down right at you as she laughs hysterically.
71	** In the English dub, she asks Keiichi [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uem4tLiXM6U if he really thought she'd give him that third wish (to not kill him)]], calling him a "silly, silly boy" before ramming a nail into his finger. Of course, we find out that by this time, Shion is/are dead, and the Shion we see (which points to the BackupTwin point) is actually a delusion, and Keiichi suffers a heart attack and dies.
72	-->'''Shion Hallucination:''' '''You didn't think I'd grant you that third wish, did you!? Silly, silly boy!''' ([[LaughingMad Laughs maniacally]] as she readies a nail and stakes it on Keiichi, thus ending with the screen showing nothing but blood-red crimson)
73	** Which makes Hinamizawa Syndrome much worse: you're not only losing your mind and your life, you're ''having messed up hallucinations''. Your last moments of life are full of madness and horror.
74	** It was handled fantastically in the manga. He's left alone, and there's a full-page spread of Keiichi just sitting there and ''OhCrap why is there a hand there?'' You flip the page, and you find the ''exact same shot'', only that a terrifying face has emerged to accompany the bloody hand, rising from under the bed. The final two pages are, to be blunt, ''extremely disturbing''.
75	** Sure, the manga makes it worse in showing Mion's corpse with her broken neck and torn-off fingernails from when she crawled out of the well, guess who was afraid of their bedside for a month after that revelation?, but the sound novel is just as bad. Keiichi actually tries to hold a conversation with Mion as she slowly crawls out from beneath the bed, even though he knew it was a hallucination.
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Arc 3 -- ''Tatarigoroshi-hen'']]
79	* In the Tatarigoroshi-hen story arc, the audience knows just what Watanagashi is all about. That doesn't make the opening to the first chapter any easier: A man is poking a bag in a canal with a stick, complaining that it stinks. When it bursts, the camera pans slowly across a decaying, maggot-infested corpse whose hands had freakishly long nails driven through [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-c81ZbIAjc every single joint]]. Later on, you learn that that person's death is often a trigger for Satoko's EvilUncle to return, and it's implied that that maggot infested corpse is Mamiya Rina because we later learn that he only comes back after Rina gets offed, when the police are tracking him.
80	* The two-page spread in the second volume of ''Tatarigoroshi-hen'' about Keiichi's maddening rants and thoughts about killing Satoko's uncle, and how to make it a perfect crime. It was hard to read the sentences not just because it was all vertical and close together, but because of how frightening it was to read through a mental breakdown.
81	* You know Rena's hatchet? Remember Tatarigoroshi-hen? Keiichi used Rena's hatchet instead of a random axe in the sound novels and manga... To wreck Teppei's house. Just when we thought it was innocent in that arc.
82	* As told in one of the TIPS of Tatarigoroshi-hen, there's a recording of an interview found between a reporter and the hospitalized Keiichi. The reporter asks him what happened after he got pushed off the bridge and how he escaped the gas cloud that killed everyone else in Hinamizawa. As the reporter begins poking holes into Keiichi's story, he descends further and further into insanity. Finally, Keiichi rants about how he can wish death upon people and how he caused the disaster by wishing for Hinamizawa to die as he fell of the bridge. After mentioning hearing Oyashiro-sama's footsteps behind him, he wished "death by water" on the reporter, and the tape cuts off as he starts laughing psychotically. The TIPS then notes that Keiichi died a few days later, and the reporter drowned while on a fishing trip several years afterwards.
83	** This is handled superbly in the manga where you really see how mad Keiichi has gotten. The "death by water" comment is more a FridgeHorror as it is noted a few pages earlier that the reporter died when his boat capsized. Then after 10-15 pages of creepiness, they top it of in the last 3 pages first with Keiichi suddenly screaming out to the reporter: "Don't let yourself be killed by a curse from the likes of me" with his completly crazed face in the background. Then the creepiest thing of the all is the final page where it is noted that Keiichi died a few days later and there are records of him saying "There's an extra footstep again...", complete with a pair of legs walking across a completely black floor.
84	* In the visual novel, one of the Tips is nothing but a recount of child abuse statistics, all while Satoko is shown on the black background, staring blankly with DullEyesOfUnhappiness. It moves on to list various types of child abuse, ending with "Sexual violence", at which point an ominous sound effect plays... leading to some disturbing implications about what is happening to Satoko.
85	* In light of later revelations, the ending brings up a frightening question: What happened to Satoko after Keiichi fell off the bridge? We can assume she returned to Hinamizawa if she was part of the body count caught up in the gas, but she had fallen victim to Hinamizawa Syndrome by then. [[FridgeHorror What did she do until her death? Where did she go?]]
86	** She is most probably caught up in Emergency Manual 34, and killed, she has also had Hinamizawa Syndrome for quite a while, she is the first patient to be brought back from L5, and she is the one resposible for her parents death, due to her L5 delusions.
87	* Keiichi discovering Rika's gutted corpse at the shrine. She lies there with the bare minimum of clothing, her bloodshot eyes staring up at the sky. Her intestines had been ripped out of her open stomach, all while the crows continued to feast on it, which is depicted graphically in the visual novel. To make things worse? Her ribcage and heart are both on display in the anime.
88	* Only Keiichi when he loses his mind. Throughout the series, we are given to believe that our protagonist will be the last person to crack under the strain. Then come Tatarigoroshi-hen, where he begins to go crazy after seeing a classmate's emotional breakdown. He begins to formulate a plan to kill her uncle by luring him into the woods and smashing his head in with her brother's baseball bat. The reader gets a real sense of Keiichi's wrath and bloodthirsty feelings as a result of the visual novel's emphasis on his thought process. In the sound novel, both Rena and Mion remark on his unusual eyes, which strongly implies that Keiichi has developed the so-called "hawk eyes" characteristic of those with the Hinamizawa Syndrome. Visualize Keiichi with those eyes. Things can only get worse from here on out. Keiichi's insanity just increases over time. When he finds out that Satoko was "boiled by her uncle," he screams so loudly and ruins so much of her uncle's room in the visual novel that he sounds practically not human (as he defines himself).
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Arc 4 -- ''Himatsubushi-hen'']]
92	* The kidnapping of Inugai Toshiki. Having been vanished for ''five days'', as it was purposefully orchestrated by the Yamainu to coerce the government to halt the dam project, nothing happens to the boy, but it doesn't make the psychological terror of his family worried sick any less unnerving.
93	** Then there's a certain page from the manga. A demonic hallucination, or...?
94	* The final TIPS of the arc are diary entries of Rika's mother as she reminisces over her daughter's actions, and they're concerning looking through her eyes. Imagine this: You are a mother watching your five-year-old daughter acting strangely indifferent about everything and wondering who in the village was indoctrinating her. Because the elders believe she's a reincarnation of your village god and worship her, she, too, believes herself to be above everyone. She somehow knows how to skillfully cook and do housework unfitting for small children, can predict the weather (as well as some disasters around the globe before they reach the news) but has declared herself "bored with clear weather" numerous times, and although she doesn't smile around you, she laughs at you over the slightest misfortune that happens upon you. You ''know for a fact'' something is very wrong with her, but everyone, including your husband, tells you not to worry, leaving you feeling alone and frightened for your child.
95	* While it becomes less creepy out of context, Rika telling Akasaka to go back to Tokyo in a frighteningly deep voice is extremely bloodcurdling at first glance. Imagine you are Akasaka. You meet a seemingly innocent 5-year-old girl who treats you like her father. Then she suddenly changes her voice from a child's to an adult's, and then tells you to go back home, knowing exactly where you came from when you never even told anyone about it.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Arc 5 -- ''Meakashi-hen'']]
99	* Shion and the fingernail punishment. And the ''music'' during the scene.
100	** What's more creepy is Mion's behavior during the punishment. She is cold and serious, as shown from her emotionless face and the low tone of her voice.
101	* The Rika [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]] scene. First of all, when Shion injects the vaccine into Rika, she starts convulsing for a few moments. Her suicide scene in the manga is even ''worse'' than the anime. Full of screaming, even scarier and gorier images, and a girl literally driving a knife into her neck. When she falls to the floor she stares at Shion before dying in a giant pool of her own blood. The look on Shion's face throughout sums it up.
102	** Speaking of which, that laugh and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8wLU6E8Zsg subsequent ear-piercing scream.]] '''Dear god''' is it hard to fall asleep after that.
103	** The scene where a deranged Shion laughs at the carnage has spawned a fount of PutTheLaughterInSlaughter memes on the Internet.
104	*** Try reading the VN version then! In which Rika not only headbutts the knife, but repeatedly slits her throat, she scratches it a bit and then ''rips it open''! All while Shion is watching and saying that is 'a beautiful animalistic act' and starts laughing!
105	* Something about the beginning of episode 20, where Shion is tormenting Keichii and manipulating the townsfolk with phonecalls, all while nonchalantly eating a popsicle is disturbingly psychotic.
106	* Satoko's death. In the anime she's killed with a stab to the head. In the manga she's stabbed less, but dies of blood-loss, as her killer is having adorable-depressing flashbacks, while thinking of her brother and how she will be stronger when he comes back. Pick which is more horrifying.
107	* Shion repeatedly stabbing a crucified Satoko, while the latter can only scream and cry until she decides to FaceDeathWithDignity.
108	* And in that same episode, the moment where Shion calmly orders Mion to jump in that well and die so that Shion can take her place and [[WoundedGazelleGambit act like the victim]] once more.
109	* In the Watanagashi/Meakashi arcs, Shion imprisons Mion and takes her place '''without anyone ever realizing the truth, not even Mion's two best friends'''. That's high-grade ParanoiaFuel right there.
110	** The effect is enhanced since Watanagashi-hen--which is part of the Question Arcs--tells the story from Keiichi's point of view. The reader isn't told what's going on until the Answer Arcs start.
111	* The way Mion and Shion suffered for being born as identical twins may be one of the creepiest things in the series from a psychological standpoint. Hinamizawan tradition holds that if twins are born, one of them will be a devil child, so it's a strongly held custom to promptly kill one of the newborns. Mion and Shion avoided this fate, but the superstitions about twins made Shion--the second-born--an outcast in the family. Meanwhile Mion, as the firstborn, had the important position as the next family head. Since neither Shion nor Mion felt this treatment was fair, they used to impersonate each other so both of them could share being "Mion" and take a break from being "Shion". One day however, Shion, while pretending to be "Mion," was taken by the family and given a tattoo to mark her as the future family head. For whatever reason, the twins chose not to tell anyone about what had happened. (Possibly they were too scared of how their family would react.) The sisters decided to keep the incident a secret and ''permanently swap their names and identities.'' Let's recap. Both twins forever lost the privilege of having their own names and had to see those names used by someone else. Both twins permanently lost the luxury of expressing their own mannerisms, were forever after forced to portray the habits of someone else, and had to watch someone else act like them. Both twins had to express foreign personality quirks, and could never again indulge their native preferences and behavioral patterns unless they ensured that it didn't blow the act. The former Mion--now Shion--had to deal with going from being the favored twin to being a pariah in the family. The former Shion--now Mion--had to deal with suddenly receiving the responsibility of being the next head and she had to deal with the guilt stemming from the fact that her sister's life was ruined as a result of sharing the privilege of being Mion. Is it any wonder that their relationship is strained for most of the series?
112	** As revealed in Eye-Opening, despite having to switch identities and personalities, Mion cried over Keiichi deciding to not give her the doll because it was ''too girly'' even though she still felt a little girly on the inside, like she ''used'' to be. This is the tipping point that made Shion go insane and bring out the "demon" in her.
113	* Shion's path into insanity in Watanagashi and Meakashi. The anime left out a good portion of it, but the manga drives it home. She honestly thinks she's doing something good. It gets a bit depressing when she's having revelations and flashbacks mid-insane moment. For example, Satoko's death scene.
114	* Shion's hallucinations of Mion after killing her.
115	* Shion's [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e0/65/4e/e0654e81a812c59eb3786c05453aa861.jpg close up head injury]] after her suicide in the manga. We get an adorable "What could have been" then..'''Wham'''.
116	* It's something of a toss-up as to which member of the main group commits the most horrific acts, but the extreme contrast between Shion's initial portrayal, and just how far off the deep end she goes, is its own special kind of horrifying. If not for the GroundhogDayLoop ResetButton, she wouldn't even be able to see the MoralEventHorizon anymore.
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:Arc 6 -- ''Tsumihoroboshi-hen'']]
120	* Rena killing Rina in ''The Atonement Chapter'', manga version. She dies quickly in the anime, no problem. A few smashes and she's dead, no real pain. In the manga, it's a slow and painful death, where we hear her begging for life as she realizes Rena isn't just beating her, but killing her. It makes even ''her'' sympathetic.
121	** Not only Rena's bipolar face-changes from dull to [[LaughingMad smiley]] to serious, but the EyeScream when she checks to see if Rina's really dead! And her cold calculation: "Rina...has become completely immobile."
122	** In the VN, it's also not a quick death, but Rena just stands and waits to see if Rina's going to move after falling over dead in the middle of trying to escape. Then she calmly stuffs the body into a refrigerator before heading home.
123	** Even in the anime, the death of Rina and her pimp are JUST A TAD on the graphic side, to the point where Rina's face is just a mashed up thing with teeth falling out. The shadow that falls over half her face in the censored version did ''nothing'' to shield us from the horror. And the uncensored version...
124	** In the manga where you see the toothless corpse with broken arms and fingers, complete with [[FishEyes eyes bulging out]].
125	** In a similar vein, the image of the corpse of Satoshi and Satoko's aunt, after he beats her to death with a baseball bat. Seriously not pretty.
126	* Rena chopping up Teppei and Rina was more graphic in the manga.
127	* And then there are those times when Rena thinks there are maggots under her skin...even though it is a sign that she is infected with the [[HatePlague Hinamizawa Syndrome]].
128	** "I thought that I wanted to harm myself. I even cut myself. Back then, when I slashed my wrists with a razor blade, mixed with my blood, a countless number of maggots came oozing out of me. Moreover, if they didn't overflow out of me, they would once again return inside of my wounds, wriggling their way back in. I scratched at the wounds on my wrist, trying to dig them out of me. It was just... so itchy."
129	* In episode 26, it shows Rena talking with the police after taking the entire school hostage. The camera then pans up to reveal a shot of Rena's maggot-infested neck.
130	* Also in episode 26, the scene where Rena repeatedly smacks Mion over the head with the handle of her machete.
131	* Rena is terrifying with the syndrome. First of all, she's extremely intelligent and perceptive, which makes one unsure whether she's planning on doing something to them or not. This also helps in her hiding things which are hard to find (the bomb for example). Second, she's an amazing actress who has the ability to fool someone very easily. She even has the highest kill count out of all the main characters (counting Yoigoshi-hen). She's also a skilled fighter, especially with ''that hatchet on her side''.
132	[[/folder]]
133
134	[[folder:''Yakusamashi-hen'' (anime-exclusive)]]
135	* [[FillerArc Kai's first arc]]. Note this is all in Satoko's perspective. Imagine being a child of 9, living on her own with her 9-year old best friend, after both of your parents were killed. You're shunned by almost the entire village (save for everyone at school) because of a mistake your now dead parents made. Your best friend is acting strangely and differently, and you wake up at night because of her talking to "herself" about how she's going to be KILLED and nothing can be done. One day, you notice a strange man is stalking you and your best friend, but no matter who you tell, nobody believes you, not even your friends! You decide to tell the local doctor, a good friend and manager of your baseball team, but upon arriving, find out he apparently committed suicide. So, to catch the strange man in the act, you set up traps so you'll be alerted if someone comes in the vicinity. Your trap goes off that very night. You wake your friend and let her know, and she proceeds to hide you in the closet while allowing the strange MEN (yup, there's more of them) to kidnap her. After the noise dies down, you sneak out and go to the temple nearby that belongs to the family of your best friend. What do you find? Her DEAD, brutally murdered, her killers nearby and now chasing after you. You're barely saved from them as you fall off a bridge escaping them, and you wake up soon after on the shore. (pretty much a role recall of Tatarigoroshi with her being in Keiichi's perspective) So, you go to town, only to see it's swarmed with police officials making a huge deal about something around your school. Upon looking through the window, you see the open-eyed, drooling CORPSES of your teachers, schoolmates and friends, making you the ONLY survivor of the entire TOWN. The resulting shock makes you a vegetable, barely conscious. A police officer at your bedside tells you that your friend, Rena, is missing, but left behind her bloodied hat as a possible sign. You awaken a while later with memory of this, and you realize exactly what the sign meant, so you call a nurse. Too bad that nurse is involved in the conspiracy! Guess what? You'll be dead by morning, and nobody will even be able to prove you were murdered.
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	[[folder:Arc 7 -- ''Minagoroshi-hen'']]
139	* The constant "mask" faces of the Minagoroshi-hen manga adaptation.
140	* The nurse, Miyo Takano becomes horror incarnate the moment they're revealed to be the villain.
141	* The manga's version of the kids' deaths in Minagoroshi. In the anime, they either have a GoryDiscretionShot or are overshadowed by awesome. In the manga they're shot, in the head, on screen. Complete with an up close of their heads. Mion's death is even onscreen, and everyone is tied up. The build up for Satoko's death is excruciating, because you know it's going to happen and that you're going to get an upclose; in her case, you get a close up of the bullet hitting her. It's pitiful and horrifying. But you know what's the worst part about the chapter? Naked Rika being vivisected by Takano.
142	** To say nothing of the actual Hinamizawa Gas Disaster. You know what's going to happen, but seeing the villagers being rounded up, not knowing that they're about to be killed is terrifying, especially in the manga, which makes it clear that not all of the Yamainu are entirely on board with the plan. One old man in the classroom tries to open the door to let a little air in... and abruptly drops dead. His wife goes to see what the matter is... and drops dead. Everyone else in the room drops dead, until the only person left is Tomita (one of ThoseTwoGuys). His eyes are filled with terror and confusion... and he falls over. Finally, there's Takano's [[AGodAmI declaration that she is Oyashiro-sama]]. It's pretty clear she's even freaking out the two Yamainu with her.
143	* Rika telling Miyo to disembowel her while she is still conscious and aware so that she may remember the event in her next world. You don't actually see it, but the idea sends shivers through one. In the manga, you actually get to see the whole process. And yes, that means they actually show Takano drawing Rika's internal organs out of her body while she is still alive. To top it all off, Takano laughs histerically while doing so.
144	[[/folder]]
145
146	[[folder:Arc 8 -- ''Matsuribayashi-hen'']]
147	* The OrphanageOfFear from Takano's childhood in Matsuribayashi-hen naturally brings several such moments.
148	** The visual novel works more along the lines of NothingIsScarier with the punishments only given by names like the "Casket Punishment", "Drowned Ducky", "Splayed Piggy", and "Mashed Caterpillar". The text describing the punishments after Takano is caught is censored, more and more heavily towards the end, but it implies some nasty stuff.
149	** In the manga, you get to ''see'' what the orphanage staff considers "punishment." The ''lesser'' punishments involve being beaten within an inch of your life while wrapped in a mattress. The "special" ones...Takano's friend Eriko is ''fed to chickens while still alive.'' Miyo herself is ''lowered into a latrine face first'', and only Takano Sr.'s last-minute rescue saves her from dying there. The next page, when Eriko's eye pops out of the socket in a bloody mess. Doubles as NauseaFuel.
150	* Miyo performing a vivisection on Rika's ''unwilling'' mother in the manga. It isn't explicit, going for a GoryDiscretionShot, but it still hits. Miyo's deranged laughter, the horrific way her face and eyes are drawn, and her victims screams of pain all let it sit. It gets worse with hindsight.
151	** Even worse? It's performed with [[AndIMustScream no anesthesia whatsoever.]] Miyo states that it's because anesthesia messes with the body's (and especially the brain's) natural chemistry and so interferes with test results, but as shown above, she takes ''way'' too much pleasure in doing it.
152	* The notion that Miyo killed her own boyfriend.
153	[[/folder]]
154
155	[[folder:''Gou'' arc 1 -- ''Onidamashi-hen'']]
156	* The first episode of the 2020 anime ends with a stinger of Rika looking down on Rena and Keiichi in the junkyard with [[ThousandYardStare piercing]] [[RedEyesTakeWarning red]] [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/ad5b8e176cc427b8b95829c39a34952b/0f783339a1de49bf-7f/s1280x1920/e3fecd53fdd55bc8697de491f54998971aace0df.png eyes]].
157	* Just when [[HopeSpot Keiichi's fears and doubts had been assuaged by Rika]] and he apologizes to Rena while she's preparing dinner, we see the dinner items she's really preparing are actually [[WhamShot various, highly disturbing instruments such as a saw, rope, a knife, and other items that were hidden away in her bento boxes.]] Keiichi walks in, only to see his best friend scratching her neck bloody and mumbling about how he needs to die and she needs to be demoned away in order for her dad to live happily in Hinamizawa. The image of Rena stabbing Keiichi and Keiichi beating Rena in the head with the alarm clock, almost in rhythm with each other, alongside copious amounts of blood splatter, definitely lets you know this is '''NOT''' a remake.
158	** We currently have no idea if Keiichi was ''also'' hallucinating and ''which'' parts he was hallucinating. Maybe Rena died when he shoved her against the table edge, maybe she died when he smashed the clock on her head, maybe he was only imagining being stabbed multiple times...
159	** Not to mention that this point was the halfway point through ''Onikakushi-hen''. Rika's interference might've sped up this arc's tragic ending... if Keiichi refused to let Rena in his house like he originally did, then the horrific conclusion to this arc could've been delayed.
160	* When Keiichi wakes up in the hospital, everyone refuses to tell him what happened to Rena until Mion comes to visit and tells him she passed away, but not only did Rena die—Rika and Satoko were found in their home afterwards, stabbed to death in the neck, both with the same knife.
161	* As Mion leaves, a nurse comes in and asks Keiichi if he’s been feeling any symptoms, such as an itchy neck. The anime darkens her face and there’s a lingering shot on a syringe she brings in, while Keiichi pauses for a beat and scratches his neck once before it cuts to an outside view of the hospital, while his screams sound off the end of the episode and the end of the arc--implying either he had the disease all along and he came to that realization or he was murdered by the nurse, the same way Satoko was taken out in ''Yakusamashi-hen''.
162	** Doesn't help that a Tumblr [[https://isae-amane.tumblr.com/post/632703342311768064/i-knew-i-recognized-that-bitch-from-somewhere-the post]] points out that [[https://sailor-arashi.tumblr.com/post/632701820024848384/tell-me-maebara-san-does-your-neck-itch the nurse at the end]] was also the same one that left Satoko to die in ''Yakusamashi-hen.''
163	[[/folder]]
164
165	[[folder:''Gou'' arc 2 -- ''Watadamashi-hen'']]
166	* In episode 7, Keiichi tells a metaphorical story to Rika out of paranoia that he and Shion would be targeted by Oyashiro-sama's curse. Instead of being comforted by her, Keiichi is instead intimidated by a red-eyed Rika who informs him that whatever he tried to do no longer mattered as everything would end for them.
167	[[/folder]]
168
169	[[folder:''Gou'' arc 3 -- ''Tataridamashi-hen'']]
170	* The beginning of the first episode of Tataridamashi-hen starts with a landlord, knocking on her tenant’s door and yelling about how his unkempt home has a stench that the neighbors are complaining about, only for the door to open and a familiar blonde haired man lunging forward to scream and threaten the woman out of his sight. This is scary solely because fans of the previous series know this familiar face, this familiar voice, and his familiar threats before they cut to a prescription on the floor with his name on it: '''Hojo Teppei'''.
171	* The episode ends with Mion explaining Satoko’s family history to Keiichi, with the scene fading out to an old man walking in front of a house and looking at Teppei, who promptly screams at him and scares the old man off... ''before ushering Satoko inside said house''. Cue a collective OhCrap from the fandom.
172	* In episode 5, Satoko takes Keiichi to her house to give something special that belonged to Satoshi. The room it was supposedly in was dark, so Keiichi turns on the light only to be greeted by Teppei, who suddenly comes out of nowhere to attack him with murderous intent. Then Keiichi snaps and bludgeons him to death, all while [[BloodSplatteredInnocents Satoko]] is watching.
173	** At the end of the episode, Keiichi wakes up in the hospital with no memory of what happened last night. Rena visits him, and when he asks what happened, she then breaks it to him that all of his friends were murdered at the festival. And the person who was responsible was '''Ooishi'''.
174	[[/folder]]
175
176	[[folder:''Gou'' arc 4 -- ''Nekodamashi-hen'']]
177	* In the beginning of the first episode, we finally get to see what exactly happened at the festival: Ooishi suddenly appears with a bloodied baseball bat with a maddened look on his face, and it is very clear that he has gone batshit insane from the effects of the Hinamizawa Syndrome. He then proceeds to hold Rika hostage and starts clawing his neck out, only then to shoot everyone who tries to stop him, Shion and Mion included. And all because he believes that Rika somehow is responsible for the deaths that happened under Oyashiro-sama's curse, which of course makes no logical sense. Then, he proceeds to murders Rika by bashing her skull in with the same bat.
178	** What make this more nightmarish is that this is completely out-of-character for Ooishi, since throughout the course of the series, he has been one of the more consistently sane and level-headed characters. Now this implies that '''anyone''' can get infected.
179	** And it doesn't get much better from there. Rika becomes suicidal after being fed up with having to relive the events of 1983, all while she finds out that Hanyuu will disappear forever. Made worse by the fact that she was finally able to break free from the continuous cycle, only to have her happy ending robbed from her. At leasts she gets better at the end, somewhat.
180	* Episode two is honestly one big TraumaCongaLine for Rika. Rika had promised herself that she would hang on and try to find an answer for five more loops before ending her life with the shard found in the Oyashiro-sama statue. In the first loop, a continuation of the loop from the previous episode, Rika comes across Akasaka and manages to convince him to stay behind in the village instead of going on vacation with his wife. Bad idea, as that leads to Akasaka, coming down with the illness and stabbing Rika in the stomach and neck before setting the whole flat on fire. Next world. Sonozaki Akane is in the middle of scratching her neck and slaying everyone at the Sonozaki main house, including her own daughter, Mion, claiming that she needs to rid the earth of their "demon blood". Akane, at the very least, apologizes to Rika before chopping her head off. The Village Chief the kids love so much, Kimiyoshi, ties Rika up and drags her to the lake where he drowns her by tossing her over with a heavy stone while scratching her neck. Finally, the episode ends with Keiichi killing Rena, among many others, at Angel Mort. But unlike previous timelines where he loses it and starts killing, whether through [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness perceived self-defense]] or a [[KnightTemplarBigBrother want to]] [[HeWhoFightsMonsters protect his friends]], Keiichi is ''[[AxCrazy out for blood]],'' LaughingMad as he bashes everyone's heads in; behavior normally reserved for Rena or Shion when they go mad. And all in front of Rika, who just tells him that the cure he's looking for will be found by ''bashing her head in and eating her brains''.
181	** As each death goes, you see each of Rika's fingers go down one by one. By the time Keiichi has smashed her head in, '''she's got one finger left.'''
182	* Episode 16 begins with Rika getting disemboweled by Satoko, of all people. Worse, she explains that she also sacrificed their friends when she was accusing Rika of sinning when she desired to leave the village.
183	** The explanation we get for why the second loop is happening in the first place is pretty horrifying in how insanely cruel it is. Rika, having witnessed thousands of violent traumatizing events over the course of a century, naturally wants to leave Hinamizawa once she's finally free from the time loop. The guardian deity, who was previously her friend, is apparently angry at her for wanting to leave the village while she was their priestess. Rika is told that the simple act of desiring to leave the village is a sin, and her punishment for wanting to get away from the place she suffered for a hundred years is to begin the cycle of suffering anew. She is mentally broken into believing that she's somehow being unfair to the source of her trauma, and made to give up her dreams in order to not suffer anymore. This is only made worse by the fact that the one actually forcing her through this is her best friend, and when we see in the next arc how it all came to this, it only magnifies the cruelty.
184	* After everything seemingly being normal for once, episode 17 takes a nosedive when Satoko uncharacteristically has a slight breakdown when she assumed that Rika was giving her the punching glove from the first episode as a birthday present. However, Rika actually switched the presents out thus catching Satoko slipping up, and she realizes the grim truth: ''[[FightingYourFriend Satoko is the other looper Rika needs to stop.]]'' The episode ends with Satoko's eyes becoming red and her '''pulling out a handgun at Rika'''.
185	** Hanyu hints that Rika must use the Onigari-no-ryuuou to kill the second looper and save herself. Does this mean that Rika has to kill her own best friend in order to free herself from the second loop?
186	[[/folder]]
187
188	[[folder:''Gou'' arc 5 -- ''Satokowashi-hen'']]
189	* Satoko's slow descent into madness. Despite successfully attending St. Lucia with Rika, Satoko finds her grades suffering tremendously after the first day and Rika slowly floating towards other girls unwittingly making Satoko envious. When she quietly eavesdrops on Rika's conversation with a group of girls, the sound of the cicadas returns. Despite everything, Rika could never truly leave the village; rather, she brought it with her. Worse, it's unknown if this is because her Hinamizawa Syndrome is returning or just pure malice and jealousy. If it's the latter, it makes any way of talking Satoko out of whatever she's planning much, much harder.
190	* St. Lucia's puts misbehaving students in freaking solitary ''prison cells'', complete with an orange two piece jumpsuit. And there are ''several'' of these cells. Makes you wish they'd just expel you.
191	** In addition to that, you need permission to leave campus at all and it would seem they attempt to keep you from dropping out or leaving ''no matter what''. It seems much more like a reform school for the most intolerable delinquents rather than "a school for budding proper young ladies". No wonder Shion wanted the hell out of there.
192	* In Episode 20, it's revealed that '''[[VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry Featherine Augustus Aurora]]''', the Witch of Theatregoing is responsible for making Satoko a time looper. While less evil and more callous by nature, Featherine is one of the strongest beings in the ''When They Cry'' universe with the special ability to literally ''[[RewritingReality rewrite the fabric of reality on a whim]]'', something not even Hanyu is capable of doing. Cue sudden ParanoiaFuel: how can Satoko be stopped with such a powerful witch at her side? What's to say Featherine can't turn a victory into a defeat, or worse, somehow make it so there's literally no way to stop her or Satoko from doing as they please, even with the Onigari-no-ryuuou? What are her true objectives? In the original series, the BigBad was just a human who aspired for godhood. Now it's a [[RealityWarping reality-warping]], [[ItAmusedMe unscrupulous]] witch the likes of which Rika has never seen before.
193	** Not to mention, her outfit in ''Gou'' is quite different from her [[https://vsbattles.fandom.com/wiki/Featherine_Augustus_Aurora?file=Featherine_Augustus_Aurora.png sprite's]], resembling Hanyuu's except with her signature green sash. This raises more questions: is it just an ArtEvolution like Keiichi's vest gaining sleeves? Is she a future version of Hanyu (as some sources imply)? Or is she merely impersonating her and purporting herself as [[GodGuise Oyashiro-sama]] to Satoko?
194	** Add to that the possibility that in Episode 14, Featherine may have been the cause behind Hanyu's disappearance with neither of them knowing the true cause of it. This means that one: the closest thing the main characters have for a chance against Featherine, ''[[PalsWithJesus a literal demonic goddess]]'' (albeit a weak, benevolent one) can no longer help and two: is likely to be powerless in comparison to Featherine.
195	** [[https://07th-expansion.fandom.com/wiki/Higurashi_Gou_SP_Live_Talk A recent interview]] tells us that this new character may not be Featherine, but simply a goddess resembling her. Which begs the question: who is she? Why does she resemble Featherine and Hanyuu? What does she want? How powerful is she in comparison to the real Featherine?
196	* Episode 21:
197	** Satoko sending Rika back to the loop wasn't her intention as was commonly thought: instead, when she arrives in the world of fragments, the unnamed goddess forces her to accept her powers bluntly stating that she did so for entertainment.
198	** Satoko initially believes the last five years were just a bad dream, up until she reaches the part where Takano breaks down in Tomitake's arms. What the rest of the cast don't see is Satoko's utterly horrified expression as she realizes she ''is'' reliving the past, the last five years ''did'' happen, and she'll possibly be enduring all of that again unless she does something about it. It's entirely possible ''this'' is the [[https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Higurashi-Gou-21-07.jpg exact moment]] where Satoko's mind fully snapped.
199	** Despite Rika's promise that she would help Satoko when they went to St. Lucia Academy, the events from before play out further sending Satoko down her spiral of madness. Satoko lures Rika to a trap and vows that she would not be deceived by her again. Hugging Rika, Satoko snaps her fingers causing the chandelier to fall on top of them, crushing the both of them ''in front of their classmates''.
200	* Episode 22:
201	** After learning the truth of why Rika is so bent on leaving Hinamizawa, Satoko definitely jumps off the deep end and decides to use what she had learned to utterly crush Rika so that [[{{Yandere}} she would never think about leaving]].
202	** The many deaths of Satoko: in one, she allows herself to fall in the direction of a truck (and her blood splatters on Rika's face); in another, she stabs herself in the throat with a pencil; she slices her neck with a knife after failing to convince Rika to drop her dream of attending St. Lucia; and she got into a scuffle with her which led to both of them drowning.
203	** As if she wasn't broken enough, the second half of the episode is Satoko asking "Featherine" to show her ''all'' of Rika's loops from 1983 -- an entire century's worth of suffering and bloodshed. She was fully prepared to experience ''all of it'', even if Featherine cut it off early for "getting bored". And how does she change after gaining this better understanding of Rika? ...She doesn't. At all. She's '''still''' planning to stop Rika from leaving Hinamizawa, using the century of loops to better understand how to crush her "enemy", and in fact seems ''more'' determined than before.
204	* Episode 23:
205	** Satoko runs into her abusive uncle Teppei again. Her reaction is understandably one of barely concealed terror. The twisted look on Teppei's face as he approaches Satoko is also unsettling, though it turns out that while he might be thinking opportunistically, he actually wants to treat Satoko better now and give her the snacks he'd bought earlier, but Satoko (and the audience) can hardly be blamed for thinking and fearing the worst from him.
206	* Episode 24:
207	** We learn that at the end of Takano and the gang's confrontation, there's at least one parallel world where she followed Okonogi's order and shot herself through the mouth and out the back of her head. The camera cuts away, but it doesn't stop you from hearing her scream before she does it.
208	[[/folder]]
209
210	[[folder:''Sotsu'' arc 1 -- ''Oniakashi-hen'']]
211	* Episode 1:
212	** The version of the scene where the glove knocks out Satoko. This time when Satoko looks at the reflection to see the word KO on her face, the reflection on the window shows her [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] this time.
213	** Satoko injecting the H173 syringe into Rena. If the previous season wasn't any indication that Satoko is too far gone, her willing to have her friends kill each other and showing no remorse for it just to have Rika stay in Hinamizawa should do it. Her expression when she does it is unnerving.
214	* Episode 2:
215	** Rina's death. In the original, she was an AssholeVictim who Rena killed in self defense when Rina try to kill her. Here she, like Teppei and Takano seems have a change of heart and actually tries to connect with Rena. Unfortunately, Rena is already at L5 and snaps when Rina enters what Rena considers her safespace. First she attempts to strangle Rina who managed to break free from by hitting her with a lamp, then Rena brandishes her cleaver with a [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E5TTLAdWQAIrc0U?format=jpg terrifying smile.]]. And as Rina tries to escape, Rena just slowly walks towards her ala [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]]. Rina tries to climb out of the junkyard but slips and falls due to the rain and begs for mercy from Rena. Unlike the original version of the scene we don't see the [[GoryDiscretionShot actual killing]].
216	* Episode 3:
217	** Due to this arc being shown in Rena's perspective, we get the slow disintegration of her sanity. It climaxes with her preparing "dinner" for Keiichi of which we get brief shots of her fight with Keiichi. Worse. Rika is outside blissfully unaware of what was truly happening inside.
218	** The episode reveals the truth behind Rika and Satoko's deaths: distraught at her attempt of giving Keiichi advice failing horribly, she takes a kitchen knife and, after hesitating for a second, plunges her jugular on the blade until blood gushes from the open wound. And then she keeps stabbing herself despite the excruciating pain until the floor is stained with her blood. The cherry on top is Satoko returning home and [[DissonantSerenity reacting casually]] towards the corpse of her best friend. She then picks up the knife and slices her neck to follow Rika to the next loop.
219	[[/folder]]
220
221	[[folder:''Sotsu'' arc 2 -- ''Wataakashi-hen'']]
222	* Episode 4: Satoko injects Mion with the Hinamizawa Syndrome because she was curious what she would do under the influence of it because she never became insane in any of the previous arcs.
223	* Episode 5: Mion, fully under the influence of the disease, steals Shion's taser and shocks her several times before strangling her to death. Worse, she has a moment of clarity when she noticed that Shion wasn't moving.
224	* Episode 6:
225	** The Nail Ripper is reintroduced in this episode, and it is used on Kimiyoshi as part of Mion's L5 deluded mind to extract information from him. While the nail ripping was censored this time, we still get to hear Kimiyoshi's scream. But then it turned out that Mion did more than just rip out the village chief's fingernails — she mutilated Kimiyoshi to the point where his fingers, toes, and at least one of his eyes and ears were all chopped off, as well has having some nails rammed into his head!
226	** Mion wrings Rika's neck and then hides the corpse in the outhouse's squat toilet. Worse, she brutally kicks Rika's body down the septic tank in savage fashion.
227	** When Satoko confronts Mion, she shoots her down execution style topping that by shooting her fingers off when she tried to make a grab for her gun.
228	[[/folder]]
229
230	[[folder: ''Sotsu'' arc 3 - ''Tatariakashi-hen Sono Ichi'']]
231	* Episode 8: While Satoko does her thing and has everyone wrapped around her finger. Eua is seen laughing maniacally at Satoko's (FAKE) suffering. Worse, she claims that Satoko was no longer human, but a witch.
232	* Episode 10: Satoko fights with her witch self but loses which climaxes in Witch!Satoko not only shooting Teppei, but she then goes to town on his corpse beating it until she was completely drenched in his blood.
233	[[/folder]]
234
235	[[folder:Other arcs]]
236	* The part in ''Rei'' where Rika dies by getting hit by a truck after she finally got her sane reality will screw everyone up for a few hours.
237	** And it doesn't stop there. Rika is ''shunted into yet ANOTHER alternate reality'', just when she finally [[EarnYourHappyEnding earned her happy future]]. First of all, the idea of being put in another reality is depressing and terrifying enough. But in this reality, Keiichi is nowhere to be seen, the girl who in other realities is her best friend is instead a bully, and the entire town of Hinamizawa is slated for demolition because the dam project went unopposed.
238	** Hanyuu graphically describing to Rika the gory aftermath of the aforementioned car accident. Including the horrified reaction of her friends.
239	-->"Your face... You had no face!"
240	* Just ''Outbreak'' all together. The government stops helping Hinamizawa, there's no food because the stores are closed, no water, and those who don't get shot down when they try to leave the village, kill each other. It's like all of the other worlds where they killed the villagers in the school by gassing them and shooting whoever escaped, only ''so'' much more cruel.
241	** Think about it this way, if the main protagonists (mainly Keiichi and Rena) [[HeWhoFightsMonsters have to get infected with the parasite]] '''just to survive''' you know this isn't going to end well.
242	** When Keiichi, his parents, and the other kids sans Rika get to Okinomiya, everything is destroyed as if there was a huge outbreak like back in Hinamizawa. It was stated earlier that pretty much every country has something close to the virus behind Hinamizawa Syndrome, but even though the UN swept it under the rug, each country continued its research. Thanks to research that had been done, Japan had successfully made it into a biological weapon, only to have it accidentally leak out and infect some of the population in the country, mainly in Hinamizawa and neighboring towns. Their reaction? Something along the lines of "Oops. Well, let's cut them off and observe what happens."
243	** The idea of a Global Hinamizawa Syndrome epidemic as mentioned in the ending of Part One.
244	** It's also implied that this is what happened after Bernkastel stopped Miyo from going out to play with her friends, which would've caused her to lose her parents in a bus accident. Everything's still the same on the outside with Keiichi, Rena, and the Irie Institution being there and Satoshi disappearing, but without Miyo around, Takano Hifumi's research on brain parasites was recognized by the United Nations and the development of the virus being turned into a biological weapon got a early start, leading to a extremely CrapsackWorld. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice job]], Bern.
245	** Even worse, in the context of ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' the realization that this noble act screwed everything up may very well be [[CynicismCatalyst what finally caused Bern to]] [[FaceHeelTurn snap]] and [[FallenHero become the cruel, sadistic villainess]] she’s known for being.
246	*** Or she's ''always'' been cruel and this was just her doing it either ForTheEvulz or just to see what would happen.
247	** The saddest thing of all? This is what will happen if Hifumi Takano's work was ''legitimised and recognised by the scientific community''. The majority of the damage caused in here ''isn't'' by the Hinamizawa Syndrome but the resultant panic and fallout caused by the general public being aware of the disease's existence. Remember the people who didn't laugh him out but told him to stop his work? They were likely having this scenario in mind when looking through his work. [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow There are some truths that are meant to be buried forever, no matter how much you want them to be exposed]]. This means that in the grand scheme of things, what ultimately decides the kind of ending all the characters we grow attached to isn't actions by the heroes or villains but the decision by other nobodies to help with a minor character's work. The only silver lining to this is that Miyo being orphaned likely isn't a requirement for Hinamizawa's denizens' happy ending, unlike the statement above.
248	* In Onisarashi-hen Natsumi's grandmother attempting to calm the wrath of Oyashiro by drowning puppies in the bath.
249	** Also in Onisarashi-hen Haruko Kimiyoshi after killing Natsumi's grandmother forcing her teenage daughter to help her chop up her corpse.
250	** And not to mention the ending of Onisarashi-hen reveals that Natsumi was the one who killed her grandmother, not her mother, and that her mother's insanity was all a delusion caused Hinamizawa syndrome. She in fact was the one who chopped her grandmother up into pieces and the fact that she was doing this with a mixture of vomiting and a really creepy smile was just horrific.
251	* The "Limit" chapter. It's a fanfiction that won a contest and was drawn up by one of the Higurashi mangaka. The entirety of it is horrific, it's a Shion-Mion-Keiichi arc where Shion starts to act strange all of a sudden, and a TearJerker being that it's post-Kai. It reaches its limits when Keiichi and Shion delusion (?) a [[OffWithHisHead headless]] Mion. Mion continues to ask for her head, horrifying her already psychotic murderer sister. The worst part is that Satoko has decided to finish the now dead Shion's business.
252	* Yes, even Higurashi Kira has these. Episode 2, which features Rika and Satoko becoming {{Magical Girl}}s, features a really dense fog that makes the residents of Hinamizawa act hostile towards those unaffected. And what's proof that someone was effected by said fog? Take a look at the insane look on their face, as well as the red eyes (with the same-colored pupils but now narrowed), and sometimes even blood running down their cheeks from their insane eyes, as if they were TearsOfBlood. And what makes it scarier? Those effected by the fog are just as crazy as characters were when infected with the [[HatePlague Hinamizawa Syndrome]] in earlier portions of the anime, [[ZombieApocalypse with insane zombification added to the terror]]. Brrr...
253	[[/folder]]
254
255	[[folder:Live-action adaptation]]
256	* Though complete with Narm, there's one part in the live action adaption where Rena is not really harassing Keiichi, clawing at the windows, saying things like "A?" "B?" "C?" "[[LaughingMad HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHahahahahaha!]]" And then you think it's all over and WHAM! She's behind him!? That wasn't in the anime!! Or manga. Or sound novels.
257	* From the live action movies. Moreso a TearJerker then pure horror, however Rena being ''shot'' at the end of the second movie, and Satoko meeting Teppei.
258	[[/folder]]
259
260	[[folder:Others]]
261	* The trailer for the VR game: It starts of rather sinister, [[NothingIsScarier in an empty and damaged corridor of what seems to be a school building at sunset]]. Sinister, but it's near the end that the Nightmare Fuel kicks in: The same corridor, except it's nighttime. The POV looks at the side then [[JumpScare we hear the voice of a girl from the corridor, but she sounds like she's ''right next to us'']] and as the camera turns back to the corridor, [[JumpScare the screen suddenly turns to statics, likely because the girl attacked us]], before we could see who was the girl, who we only caught a glimpse of, not that it helps since all we see is a black silhouette in the darkness. However, the voice seems to belong to Rena.

Context NightmareFuel / HigurashiWhenTheyCry