Higurashi: When They Cry - Miscellaneous Characters / Characters

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Main Character Index | Protagonists | Supporting Characters | Minor Characters | Miscellaneous Characters

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Tokyo Organization

Nomura (Unmarked Spoilers)

Nomura

Voiced by: Rie Tanaka (JP), Amber Lee Connors (EN, Funimation)

A woman from the organization 'Tokyo' who serves as Miyo Takano's contact outside of Hinamizawa. She is a cold, ruthless, and mysterious person who manipulates Takano into carrying out her plans to infect Hinamizawa with a Hate Plague that she intends to use as a bioweapon. In the original sound novel and adaptations, she is a distant character who is not seen until the end, and does not have a direct role in the story. But in the Outbreak OVA, she becomes the direct antagonist- after the bioweapon is accidentally released and spreads throughout the village of Hinamizawa, she manipulates the Prime Minister of Japan into giving her control of Hinamizawa, then turns it into a prison where the infected are mere guinea pigs for her to toy with.

Big Bad: She takes center stage in the Outbreak OVA; after her Alphabet Council (accidentally) releases the titular Mind Virus bioweapon, she has her men put Hinamizawa into quarantine and stop anyone from escaping, intending to turn the townspeople into her guinea pigs.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While she does aid Takano in her designs, she ultimately doesn't give a rip about her - and considering half of her plan was to get rid of Tokyo's Koizumi faction whom Takano works for, she likely planned to backstab her anyway.
Dissonant Serenity: Every time she speaks, regardless of what kind of carnage of murder is going to happen or is happening on the other end of the phone line, it's done with the same eerily calm tone. Makes you wonder if this isn't the first time she's done this...
Eviler than Thou: Takano is very much her Unwitting Pawn, using her anger against Hinamizawa and leaving her to her downfall once she fails. The first episode of Alternate Universe Outbreak OVA unsubtly spells out that she's the chief antagonist. In a meeting with the Prime Minister, she all but admits that her "Alphabet Council" is responsible for the (accidental) titular outbreak of the Mind Virus that is steadily spreading across the globe. Oh, and that they were conducting secret tests of the virus and planning to turn it into a bioweapon long before the outbreak happened.
Greater-Scope Villain: In the main series, while the plan and reasons to ruin Hinamizawa are all Takano's, it's Nomura that drove her to do it and gave her the resources to do so.
Hidden Agenda Villain: All we know about her goals is that she wanted the Hinamizawa Syndrome for something and that Old Koizumi was in the way. Aside from the non-canon Outbreak story that details her wanting to use it as a bioweapon, her ultimate plans are forever a mystery.
I Have Many Names: She uses a different alias for each of her contacts, such as "Maizawa", "Watanabe" and "Takagi". Even Nomura might be a forgery.
Karma Houdini:
- She is responsible for every single atrocity and horrific act in the series, yet at the end manages to put all the blame on her subordinate Takano. Lampshaded in the author's notes at the end of the game, saying you have to draw the line somewhere on where the story ends. Thus, she is never held responsible for her actions - although it's stated there is an investigation going on that could yet turn something up, although she is trying to scapegoat Okonogi now - and in the vast majority of timelines succeeds entirely.
- Averted in Miotsukushi-hen as she's mentioned to be arrested (offscreen).
Know When to Fold 'Em: When Okonogi informs Nomura of the current state of things in Matsuribayashi - that is, that things are currently being FUBAR'd - she orders Okonogi to Leave Behind a Pistol for Takano before cutting all ties with them.
Last Episode, New Character: Appears only at the end of Matsuribayashi's Prolonged Prologue, and she doesn't even have a sprite in the original sound novels.
Manipulative Bitch: She convinces Takano to do her dirty work for her by taking advantage of her emotional state, and it is indicated that Takano was not her only victim. In the Outbreak OVA, she is shown manipulating the Prime Minister of Japan into handing her control of Hinamizawa.
Mysterious Backer: A villainous example; she fills in for Old Koizumi after he passes away, serving as Takano's (treacherous) advisor.
Nothing Is Scarier: Outside of her plans for Hinamizawa and being a Manipulative Bitch, nothing is known about Nomura. And that's probably for the better, because given her actions in the Outbreak OVA Alternate Universe, whatever she was planning to do in the actual Higurashi canon is perhaps best left to the imagination...
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives this out in Ayakashisenshi-hen after learning of Takano's failure to defeat Rika and Satoko and take over Hinamizawa.
"Takano Miyo, you talked a big game, but you were a foolish girl. The duty of the generals was too heavy for you."
Treacherous Advisor: Nomura is clearly only working with Takano until she can ruin the Alphabet Project and make off with the Hinamizawa Syndrome - which would ultimately ruin Takano in turn.
Walking Spoiler: As the one who leads Takano down the path to being the Big Bad, she is this by itself.
White Hair, Black Heart: She has silver hair and is a high-ranking member of a Government Conspiracy as well as the Greater-Scope Villain of the main story.

Tetsurou Okonogi

Voiced by: Jurota Kosugi (JP - drama CD, anime), Ken Narita (JP - games), Patrick Seitz (EN, Funimation)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/higu_okonogi_6950.png

Beware the Gardeners, for they are Anonymous, and they are Legion! ... They are actually called the Yamainu ("Jackals" or "Mountain Dogs", depending on the translation), but they look more like janitors than anything else. Headed by Okonogi, they serve as The Men in Black for the majority of the arcs.

Adaptational Nice Guy: A mild example of it in one scene in the anime when compared to the visual novel: in the visual novel, he actually attempts to shoot and kill Takano himself when she refuses to commit suicide, but gets stopped by the Banken and Takano seizes the opportunity to flee. In the anime, he just shoots near her to scare her into fleeing, remarking to himself that he's going soft before turning himself in to the Banken.
Animal Theme Naming: Despite being called the Jackals, titles within the organization are bird-themed.
Blood Knight: He's eager to put his combat skill into use, and laments that he ended up in a covert unit.
Combat Pragmatist: As befitting of a special operations unit that doesn't specialize in tactics, the Mountain Dogs tend to use trickery and dirty tactics to win.
The Dragon: To Takano.
Dragon with an Agenda: Holds a deep-seated contempt for Takano and considers her an incompetent commander. By the end of Matsuribayashi, he and his men don't even bother paying lip-service to obeying her and just flat-out ignore her orders (which, to be fair, were completely outrageous by that point given how badly the Mountain Dogs had lost the battle). He also receives periodic private messages from Nomura, which eventually leads to him betraying Takano and telling her she can either kill herself or he'll do it instead.
Eviler than Thou: Okonogi reveals to Takano that she was just being used by Tokyo, then tells her to commit suicide.
Government Conspiracy: He and the Mountain Dogs are the primary enforcers of Tokyo and their plans involving Hinamizawa Syndrome.
Graceful Loser: When he and the Mountain Dogs are defeated, he treks up the mountain with what is left of his company to pay his congratulations and respects to the enemy leader, Mion. He requests - and receives - a personal duel in hand-to-hand combat with her to fulfill his sense of honour, and when he ultimately is defeated, he heads back down the mountain over Takano's objections.
Informed Ability: Okonogi loses to a teen girl in hand to hand combat. Losing to Akasaka can be forgiven, but Mion is stretching it. He's also completely outmaneuvered tactically throughout the chapter. It's stated the Yamainu are actually a surveillance organization above everything else. So there's adequate reason to suspect their supposed "prowess" in other areas (combat, tactics, etc.) is mostly bluster. It's also implied that he intentionally let Mion toss him around to atone for failing his mission and men.
Karma Houdini: If we assume that he and Umineko's Okonogi are the same person, that would mean he received little to no punishment after the story. However, that would also mean that he may have turned over a new leaf, as he's (in the true path, at least) shown to be on Ange's side. The epilogue of Sotsu tells us he ended up working at a successful car dealership, though nothing is mentioned of his fate in between.
Know When to Fold 'Em: In Matsuribayashi, he recognizes the battle as lost long before Takano does, at which point he more or less stops following her orders and lets the battle play out to its inevitable conclusion.
The Men in Black: He and the Mountain Dogs fill this role, posing as gardeners to allay suspicion. Should anything happen to Rika, they are tasked with executing Emergency Manual 34, which involves gassing the entire village to contain a potential disaster.
The Strategist: Actually shows a somewhat realistic appraisal of the Mountain Dogs' situation in Matsuribayashi, claiming that they would need substantially more men and/or artillery and air support to ensure victory given the enemy's familiarity with the terrain and defensive position. He also recognizes the hopelessness of their fight long before anyone else when the battle starts going badly.
Walking Spoiler: It's basically impossible to talk about his role in the story without understanding 90% of the actual answers to the mystery of the entire series.
The Worf Effect: They consistently fail in Matsuribayashi. By the end, the entire unit has lost to a bunch of children and Okonogi himself has lost to Akasaka and later Mion in a curbstomp battle despite supposedly being an expert in hand to hand combat. To be fair though, he wasn't exactly in his best shape, since he and his men were already exhausted after walking in the mountains for hours, and it's heavily implied that he intentionally lost to the latter.
Worthy Opponent: He considers Mion to be this.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Okonogi gives Takano this treatment when he realizes things aren't going their way. Presumably she doesn't fare any better on other sequences. Strangely enough, this surprises her despite the fact that she knew it would happen even if she won.

Supernatural Beings

Oyashiro-sama

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/826b69fe_3fb2_4de2_87e6_53cba3b57591.png

The guardian god of Hinamizawa, a demonic god of torture and bloodshed. The old legends say that Onigafuchi used to be inhabited by demons, until a sacrifice by Oyashiro turned them human, and that the inhabitants of Hinamizawa are descendants of those demons. Oyashiro-sama is honored by a "Cotton-Drifting Festival", which has dark roots in cannibalism and human sacrifice.

Five years ago, when a dam endangered Hinamizawa, the residents prayed to Oyashiro-sama for protection. The dam was cancelled, but ever since, on the day of the Cotton-Drifting Festival, one person has died and another has disappeared, all people who supported the dam. This is the Curse of Oyashiro.

Ambiguous Gender: Oyashiro's gender is used very mysteriously, at least until until The Reveal that Oyashiro is actually a girl. No one in Hinamizawa barring Rika knew the god they worshipped was actually a goddess, most likely due to Oyashiro's legend becoming distorted over hundreds of years. And it was foreshadowed as early as the first novel, with Keiichi deducing that the breath on him was coming from a girl.
Big Bad: Pretty much everyone points to him as the cause of the mysterious murders in Hinamizawa. He turns out to be not responsible. And not a guy.
Corrupt Church: The practice is the problem, not the deity.
Deity of Human Origin: Was originally human, as revealed in Hanyu's backstory.
Disc-One Final Boss: Turns out Miyo Takano was just pretending to be Oyashiro-sama.
God Is Evil: Subverted with the true nature of Oyashiro-sama.
Hidden Villain: One of the big mysteries is who or what exactly he is. The Reveal is... complicated.
Humanoid Abomination: A black, shadowy deity with the power to make people dissapear and go crazy. Sounds like your typical Lovecraft villain. She’s not.
Meaningful Name: "Oyashiro" can be literally translated as "the deity is the shrine itself" or "the deity of every eight generations", depending on the characters used to spell it. Normally, it's just written in katakana, though.
Obviously Evil: The few times Oyashiro appears before his true identity is revealed, it’s as a sinister black shadow with glowing eyes (as seen above). When she does show up, well...
Our Gods Are Different: Since Higurashi is a Japanese work, Oyashiro-sama takes inspiration from the many gods that exist in Shintoism, namely by being a localized god that's only worshiped by those who live in Hinamizawa. However, the way Oyashiro-sama is worshiped goes into Religious Horror.
Religious Horror: The worship of Oyashiro-sama is a form of anti-Shinto. Worshiping Oyashiro-sama originally involved Human Sacrifices and ritualized disembowelment; not only is this cruel and violent, but also highly blasphemous against Shinto beliefs since shedding blood in a religious context is considered taboo. In the present day, this has been replaced by the Cotton-Drifting Festival, which involves ripping cotton out of a large futon to imitate gouging out a human's intestines. Oyashiro-sama herself is not very fond of it.

Frederica Bernkastel

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Frederica__9893.jpg

A mysterious figure in the Higurashi universe, author of a series of poems (fan translated version) (official translation) about the series. The most direct information about her comes from "A Message From Frederica Bernkastel", which basically consists of her laughing about the Wild Mass Guessing that she's Rika Furude or Oyashiro-sama. Frederica has exactly one scene in the anime, after the credits of the final episode, and a few appearances in the manga.

It is unclear whether she and the Witch of Miracles Bernkastel are the same entity or not.

Ambiguously Evil: In an alternate ending, Frederica prevents the death of Miyo's parents at the end of Matsuribayashi-hen, giving her a happy ending as well. Which means she won't end up screwing up everyone's life in the future, except for the fact that the village is doomed if Miyo never comes. And this may well have been her intent. That act is possibly responsible for the "Dice Killing" chapter of Rei. If she and Umineko's Bernkastel aren't the same, then she is indirectly responsible for the "birth" of "Trollkastel" and all the havoc that ensues.
- In at least one scanslation of the Umineko manga, Bernkastel once refers to herself by the full name of Frederica Bernkastel, suggesting that she is or at most used to be the Higurashi character.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the games, Frederica will directly address the player, a habit she/her Expy carries over to Umineko.
Demoted to Extra: The anime only includes one appearance by Frederica, and none of her poems. Rika also mentions her in Rei.
Hime Cut: Since she's identical to Rika due to being the amalgamation of the versions of her that died, Frederica has Rika's hairstyle with the straight full bangs, bra strap-length sidelocks, and waist-length straight hair.
Literal Split Personality: One of the prevailing theories about Frederica's creation is that she was a culmination of hopeless Rikas that were somehow separated from her consciousness after Tsumihoroboshi-hen, wherein Rika gave up on fighting fate after Keiichi's valiant efforts still didn't end the time loops. Like Umineko's Bernkastel was born of Rika's death and torment being purged from her soul, Higurashi's Frederica may have been born by Rika crossing the Despair Event Horizon. Which means the mistaken theories of her being an adult Rika might have been more true than previously thought.
Meaningful Rename: In Saikoroshi-hen, Rika muses that she's really a separate person from the Rika Furude of Saikoroshi-hen's world - and by extension, the Rika Furude who existed before the time loops. Rika decides that if she's not truly Rika she should call herself something else. She then looks at a bottle of Bernkastel wine...
Punny Name: "Frederica" is more or less "Furude Rika" in katakana with a minor change, and Rika drinks Bernkastel wine. They also strongly resemble each other. Nevertheless, Frederica insists, "Frederica and Rika Furude aren't the same. Shame on you if you thought so." It doesn't help that in the Minagoroshi sound novel, she talks about "us, Rika Furude".
Really 700 Years Old: The manga shows she looks like a child like Rika, she's at least over 100 years old.

Character Introduced in Manga-Exclusive Arcs

Onisarashi-hen Characters

Natsumi Kimiyoshi (Unmarked Spoilers)

Natsumi Kimiyoshi

Voiced by: Kaori Mizuhashi (JP)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/natsumi_matsuri2_3177.png

A girl whose family used to live in Hinamizawa. After the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, her grandmother starts acting strange, setting off a horrific chain of murders.

Accidental Murder: The initial killing of her grandmother in Onisarashi-hen was actually an accident on Natsumi's part when she shoved her grandmother away and she hit her head on the table. The subsequent chopping the corpse into pieces was... less of an accident. This is not true for the console arcs, since Kageboushi-hen shows her actively plotting to shove her grandmother and contains a flashback to Someutsushi-hen, where after stabbing Haruko with a knife and killing her, she does the same to Aki in a very non-accidental fashion.
Adaptational Villainy: In Onisarashi-hen, killing her grandmother was an accident, and she isn't hostile to her parents in the immediate aftermath (and only starts blaming them when she needs to assuage her own guilt). In Kageboushi-hen, killing her grandmother was premeditated, even if the actions were technically the same, and in order to get her parents to help her chop up the corpse, she starts passive-aggressively guilt trip them for her prior hospitalization and the cram school she was sent to.
Amnesiac Dissonance: Until the end of Onisarashi-hen, Natsumi's memories have her convinced that her mother was the insane killer and she was just a victim in her family's tragedy. Then Akira forces her to remember what really happened and Natsumi realizes she was the insane killer who murdered her own family. This happens to her again in Kageboushi-hen, when, in the course of talking with Aoi, she remembers the murders that she committed in Someutsushi-hen. This time, egged on by an also-unstable Aoi, it prompts her to go on one more murder spree.
Blood-Splattered Innocents: Happens to Natsumi three times. First, when her mother forces her to help dismember her grandmother's dead body, then when her mother stabs her father through the neck in front of her, and the last is when her mother's throat is sliced by a knife while Natsumi defenses herself from her. Subverted, because her bloodiness is eventually used to prove that she's not so innocent after all and she was the real murderer all along.
Break the Cutie: Natsumi was just a cute ordinary girl with a crush on a guy, but then the Great Hinamizawa Disaster happens and her grandmother and mother start to go crazy because of what's being said about "Oyashiro-sama's curse", causing Natsumi's happy life to turn into a bloody nightmare. It's made even worse when she discovers she, not her mother, was the one who became an insane murderer. After she stabs the guy she liked so much, Natsumi is broken for good and spends five years locked at a room by her own will. She seems to recover a bit after Akira marries her, but she's clearly never going to be the same again.
Broken Bird: By the middle of Kageboushi-hen, Natsumi indicates to Tomoe that she has become this, saying that people are just going to betray and abandon you in the end, so it isn't worth it to trust them to begin with. This is just before she implies that even Tomoe has an ulterior motive for talking with her. She's right, but Tomoe's motive is not as malevolent as Natsumi thinks.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: She and Akira become a gender-reversed version in the epilogue of Onisarashi-hen. After murdering her family and stabbing Akira, Natsumi spends five years isolated and depressed at the house of some relatives until Akira finds her and legally makes her his wife. Akira's kindness and devotion motivates Natsumi to try and live with him at her side, even though she'll never fully recover from the guilt of what she did and she's very afraid that her "demon" could one day kill Akira too.
Cathartic Crying: At the end of Kageboushi-hen, after Chisato has finally managed to calm her out of her murderous frenzy and reassured her that Chisato will be there for her as a friend, Natsumi finally lets loose all of the tears that she's been holding back since the beginning of the arc
Clawing at Own Throat: In Someutsushi-hen, she reaches L5 and dies by scratching out her own throat after she failed to strangle Akira.
Continuity Cameo: In the original (PS2) Miotsukushi-hen, she pops up briefly as a nod to people who had read Onisarashi-hen. Her role is expanded in the subsequent (DS and PS3) releases of that arc.
Country Mouse: Okinomiya is a bigger town than Hinamizawa, but this sort of dynamic still plays pretty strongly when she moves to the city.
Cultural Cringe: While Natsumi isn't extremely hostile to Hinamizawan traditions like Oyashiro-worship, she is extremely interested in trying to blend in with the girls in the city and is somewhat alienated from her grandmother's insistence on worshipping Oyashiro. This becomes a much stronger motivator after the Great Hinamizawa Gas Disaster.
Cute and Psycho: She starts as a normal schoolgirl until she accidentally kills her grandmother. Her insanity beginfs with her calmly chopping her grandmother's corpse to pieces and asking her parents to help with a cute smile.
Dissonant Serenity: She asked her parents to help her chop her grandmother's corpse into pieces and later stabbed her boyfriend, all while smiling sweetly to make the scenes more disturbing.
Expository Hairstyle Change: At the end of the Onisarashi-hen manga, she stops tying her hair up in Girlish Pigtails and wears it down to represent the loss of her innocence as well as her madness.
Fake Memories: Most of what the reader sees in Onisarashi-hen are Natsumi's subconsciously modified memories that were changed to make herself and the reader believe her mother was the one going crazy and killing everyone in the house. The end of the manga reveals Natsumi was the culprit all along.
Girl with Psycho Weapon: In her fits of madness, she tends to grab a knife to stab people.
Girlish Pigtails: She ties her hair up in cute pigtails, combined with odango hair. They symbolize her sweetness and innocence so she stops wearing her hair like this after she kills her own parents and stabs Akira.
Hallucinations: When Akira confronts Natsumi to get her to accept her role in the murders in Onisarashi-hen, his tone suddenly turns much harsher and accusatory as he mocks her for having tried to hide the murders from everyone. Natsumi gets (even more) upset, and then the real Akira gets her attention enough to tell her that for the past few minutes, she'd been arguing with an empty fence.
Happily Married: Played With in Onisarashi-hen's epilogue. Akira registers her in his family register as his wife and they seem like a very happy couple together, but there's no sure sign that Natsumi's Hinamizawa Syndrome is fully cured and she's still plagued with guilt over her crimes while letting Akira believe he tricked her into thinking he was her family's murderer. However, both seem to be truly willing to try and live as happily as they can no matter how messed up Natsumi's life became.
I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Before Akira admits he likes her too, her apparently Unrequited Love was largely full of this dynamic.
I Am a Monster: At the end of Someutsushi-hen, she calls herself a demon. Ends about as well as Shion's.
I Just Want to Be Normal: All she wanted was to live a happy, normal life at the city after moving out of Okinomiya. It leads to a lot of her angst, as she isn't terribly settled in the city, and after the Hinamizawa Gas Disaster occurs, one of her big driving motivations is to prevent others from thinking of her and her family as one of those weird Hinamizawans.
I Wished You Were Dead: Her grandmother turns into a Oyashiro-sama fanatic out of fear of the curse, causing Natsumi to start wishing she wasn't around so everything would be normal again. She regrets thinking that when she arrives home to see her mother stabbing her grandmother to death, but the truth is Natsumi killed her grandmother herself and changed her memories to not face her crime.
Killing in Self-Defense: Subverted. Natsumi's POV shows her mother trying to stab her with a knife and Natsumi defenses herself by holding back her mother's hands. In the struggle, the knife slices her mother's throat and kills her. Afterwards, however, it's revealed Natsumi's mother never tried to kill her and Natsumi killed her in a fit of madness.
Love Makes You Crazy: Her entire episode of Hinamizawa Syndrome is triggered when Akira sees paper cut-outs in front of her house intended to ward off evil and she freaks out at the thought that he'll stop liking her if he thinks she and her family are weirdos.
Madness Mantra: In Onisarashi-hen's epilogue when Akira finds her locked up in a room at the house of her relatives, Natsumi is doing nothing but say "I'm sorry" over and over.
Madwoman in the Attic: As explained in Onisarashi-hen's epilogue, after she stabbed Akira, she moved to the house of some relatives who believe she's cursed and want nothing to do with her. At her own volition, Natsumi is locked at an isolated room filled with Paper Talismans and she does nothing but beg for forgiveness to her dead victims. She stays this way for five years before Akira moves her to a proper mental institution where she's able to recover more fully.
Meaningful Rename: Near the end of Someutsushi-hen, Natsumi decides that she wants everyone to only call her Natsumi (i.e. removing her last name, to get rid of the association with Hinamizawa). Given that shortly after this she finds the corpses of the rest of her family, though, which for obvious reasons distracts her, it doesn't ever show up in interactions with anyone as a practical matter. At the end of Kageboushi-hen and in the epilogue of Onisarashi-hen, she eventually takes on the last name Toudou upon marrying Akira. This was by Akira's design in Onisarashi-hen, as him wanting to separate her from the baggage of the Kimiyoshi last name was a big part of the reason he entered her in his family registry. Even in Kageboushi-hen, where it isn't as intentional, it is still symbolic of Natsumi beginning a new life after recovering psychologically from the traumas she experienced (and carried out) in the arc.
Murder-Suicide: She tries to force Akira into a joint suicide in Someutsushi-hen. It doesn't go exactly to plan.
My God, What Have I Done?: As Akira causes to remember that she murdered her family, Natsumi starts freaking out at believing Akira hates her now and stabs him as he's trying to calm her down. Once she realizes what she has done, she's even more shocked than him.
"Help me... Toudou... he... It was my fault...!"
Never My Fault: She actually spends her last words in Someutsushi-hen blaming Akira, presumably for her own death, although possibly referring to her entire episode of Hinamizawa Syndrome.
New Transfer Student: She joins the school as a transfer student after her family moves to the city.
No Medication for Me: Downplayed, but Natsumi does this involuntarily after the Gas Disaster in Kageboushi-hen. She was taking the medication after being admitted to the hospital for psychosomatic ataxia in middle school. After the Gas Disaster, the medication became difficult to come by, so Natsumi tried to ration it. The results likely contributed to her violent episodes when she developed Hinamizawa Syndrome.
Once More, with Clarity: After talking with Aoi in Kageboushi-hen, Natsumi gets a flashback to the events of Someutsushi-hen (which the audience already had to go through to unlock Kageboushi) that shows the scene where her mother lashes out at Natsumi for having a part-time job but also shows that before running to her room, Natsumi first ran off, grabbed a knife, and killed her mother and grandmother (and her father after he came back from work). This is implicitly an explanation of the situation Natsumi found when she woke up the day after in Someutsushi-hen.
The Ophelia: In Onisarashi-hen's epilogue, she never gets over the guilt from having killed her parents and attempting to kill Akira. After a failed attempt at living with some other relatives who consider her cursed and a failed attempt at living with Akira, she winds up institutionalized, although Akira comes to visit her regularly.
Piggyback Cute: In Someutsushi-hen, Akira carries Natsumi on his back to her house after she becomes sick on their first date. It's played for a combination of romance and tragedy given the amount of stress that Natsumi's under and her inability to come clean about any of it.
Psycho Knife Nut: In her fits of madness, she uses knives to chop her grandmother's dead body into pieces, stab her own parents to death and stab her boyfriend too when he finds out about her crimes (although he survives).
The Quiet One: Although she isn't really like this during the main story, Kageboushi-hen indicates that she had this personality in middle school, verging on Elective Mute, and only really became more talkative in high school.
Racial Remnant: She effectively becomes this after the Great Hinamizawa Gas Disaster, given the unique traditions of Hinamizawa compared to the rest of Japan. Before the disaster, coming from Hinamizawa wasn't a big deal.
Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: At the end of Kageboushi-hen, when Akira, Akasaka, and Ooishi finally manage to catch up to Natsumi at the Saeki Hospital, they find both her and Chisato on the roof, with Chisato draped over Natsumi and both of them crumpled and assume that Natsumi did a Murder-Suicide. Their first hint that this was not the case was that Natsumi's knife had no blood on it.
Repressed Memories: She altered her own memories to forget she killed her grandmother and parents because her mind couldn't handle the guilt.
Room Full of Crazy: The room with all of the seals that she's locked into by her relatives during the epilogue, in order to protect the relatives from "Oyashiro-sama's curse".
Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Appears to become the Energetic Girl to Akira's Savvy Guy in Onisarashi-hen's epilogue. Although once you scratch beneath the surface, the relationship's a bit more complicated than that. Natsumi's cheerfulness is all an act to make Akira think he managed to trick her into believing the one who killed her family was him, not her. She's still depressed and remorseful over what she did, but will hide it all behind fake smiles for the sake of Akira's feelings for her.
Secret Secret-Keeper: In Onisarashi-hen's epilogue, Akira lies to her about him being the one who killed her family in hopes that will free her from her guilt at last. However, Natsumi tells Akasaka that she knows Akira is lying to her and she'll never be able to forgive herself for killing her own parents and grandmother.
Self-Made Orphan: Her Hinamizawa Syndrome drives her to murder her own parents.
Shout-Out: In the PSP game Higurashi Day Break, her charge move looks a lot like what Sekai does to Makoto in the finale of the School Days anime.
Shrinking Violet: She acts a little shy around her classmates and lacks self-confidence due to being from the countryside. Kageboushi-hen indicates that she was even more strongly like this in middle school, so it's not entirely just being the new girl.
Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She has a crush on Akira who appears cool on the surface, but is so kind-hearted, compassionate, and devoted to her that he marries her even after she becomes a murderer and stabs him.
Snow Means Love: Natsumi's and Akira's wedding takes place on a snowy winter day at the end of Kageboushi-hen. Akasaka's narration treats it similarly to Redemption in the Rain for Natsumi.
Split Personality: Akasaka and Ooishi discuss the idea that taking her medication and subsequently getting cut off from it may have given her a split personality in Kageboushi-hen. Her internal dialogue near the murders in that arc does seem to indicate that she externalized a lot of her emotions to a second self who was much more calculating and bloodthirsty than Natsumi's original personality. This is something that's unique to the console arcs - while she dissociated plenty in order to lie to herself about what happened in Onisarashi-hen, it always was Natsumi who committed the murders, and they were much less calculated than particularly the murders in Kageboushi-hen.
Stepford Smiler: In Onisarashi-hen's epilogue, she acts all happy and cheerful in front of Akira. When she's alone with Akasaka, however, it's revealed she's still terribly depressed and regretful about murdering her own family in her madness. She says she's going to try to not lose to the "demon" again and live happily with her new husband, but if she ever hurts anyone again, she's prepared to die alone.
Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: In Kageboushi-hen, Akasaka and Ooishi find out that Natsumi had a very similar appearance to one. The kids in her class used to mockingly call her "Zashiki-warashi," although those are described as having a quite different appearance. In the Onisarashi-hen manga, there are also multiple images of Natsumi after she killed her parents in her white dress and with her hair down and in her face that also seem designed to evoke this sort of image, even though it isn't said by name.
Sympathetic Murderer: At the end of Onisarashi-hen, it's revealed that Natsumi killed her grandmother and parents when under the influence of the Hinamizawa Syndrome. Once she remembers the truth, she's going to spend the rest of her life being tormented by guilt, with Akira's devotion being her only comfort.
Tears of Blood: In Someutsushi-hen, once she begins Clawing At Her Own Throat.
Temporal Theme Naming: The first names of all members of Natsumi's family incorporate a kanji for a particular season. Natsumi's uses the character for "summer."
Tempting Fate: When Akira tells her he wants to learn more about her, she says among other things that her favorite movies are those with happy endings. Yeah, Natsumi, that's gonna work out real great for you in the When They Cry series. She actually manages to pull off a happy ending in some of her arcs, but most of them are Bittersweet or Downers. In fact, only in Miotsukushi-hen that she managed to do so.
Through the Eyes of Madness: Nearly all the events at her house in Onisarashi-hen, starting with her mother murdering her grandmother, are all Natsumi's modified memories of the death of her family. After many inconsistencies are found in her testimony, it's revealed Natsumi was the real murderer of her parents and grandmother after she was driven insane by the Hinamizawa Syndrome. Her mind subconsciously made her delude herself into believing that her mother was the culprit to escape her guilt.
Tomato in the Mirror: Natsumi believes that her mother killed her grandmother, forced her and her father into dismembering the body, killed her father when he said they should turn themselves in, and finally tried to kill Natsumi causing the latter to kill her mother in self-defense. The end of Onisarashi-hen reveals Natsumi was the real culprit throughout the entire story and her madness caused her to unconsciously pin all the blame on her mother.
Trauma Conga Line: In the manga too, but it's definitely stepped up in the DS version. The gas disaster and her entire family's murders happen in all versions, but Someutsushi-hen tosses in all sorts of college related trauma - she finds out that even though all of her friends are shooting to go to one university, she's being cut off due to weaker grades - and the murder of her boss at a retirement center where she works part-time that was done by a Hinamizawan guy she had just befriended a few days earlier. In the end, she was the one who murdered her family. Also, her attempted murder of Akira, though at that point, she was already pretty well off the deep end.
Twice Shy: In Someutsushi-hen, Chisato complains that her and Akira's relationship is a case of this and takes it upon herself to get things moving... in the most embarrassing way possible.
Unreliable Narrator: Half of Onisarashi-hen - and by extension Someutsushi-hen - is simply Fake Memories she created to repress her own guilt for having been the one to murder her family.
Villain Protagonist: She's the POV character of Onisarashi-hen and the story is about her going crazy after the Great Hinamizawa Disaster causes her grandmother to become an occultist freak. She murders her grandmother and then her parents when they fail to help her cover up the crime, then changes her memories to believe her mother did it. After her crimes are discovered, she stabs (or strangles, in the console adaptation Someutsushi-hen) her boyfriend Akira as well.
Wedding Finale: Kageboushi-hen ends with her marrying Akira.
Weddings in Japan: When she marries Akira, the ceremony is a Christian one done at a church. It's particularly noticeable for Natsumi because of the importance of worshipping Oyashiro in motivating the disasters that she goes through. Granted that tensions were exacerbated because she and her mother, unlike her grandmother, were not particularly devout.
You're Not My Father: In both Someutsushi-hen and Kageboushi-hen, Natsumi declares midway through her desire to break off any association with her family due to the baggage of the association of the Kimiyoshi name with Hinamizawa and her mom and grandmother apparently going crazy after the gas disaster. She then follows through on this desire by killing them all.

Haruko Kimiyoshi (Unmarked Spoilers)

Haruko Kimiyoshi

Voiced by: Akiko Hiramatsu

Natsumi's stern but attentive mother. She made the decision to move the family from Okinomiya to the city (in the console arcs, Kakiuchi). She is uninterested in legends about Oyashiro-sama and apparently undergoes a sharp personality shift after the Great Hinamizawa Gas Disaster that makes Natsumi's home a much more unfriendly place for her.

Abusive Parents: Putting aside the murders she apparently commits, she gets increasingly controlling of Natsumi and Touji, up to and including Gaslighting Natsumi into thinking she was the one who killed Aki in Someutsushi-hen. Subverted as her abusive behavior was part of Natsumi's Fake Memories to paint her mother as a monster in her mind and escape the guilt of her own crimes.
Apron Matron: Although Haruko always has her family's interests first and foremost in her mind, she can be stern and intimidating. In Kageboushi-hen, one of the detectives notes that she was well known for her political activism in college. She is also the one who makes most of the decisions within the household and can be a bit of an intimidating Education Mama to Natsumi. She later crosses over into dramatic Evil Matriarch terrain once the Sanity Slippage starts kicking in, though this part is subverted once the Unreliable Narrator is made clear.
Ax-Crazy: The audience sees her murder her mother and her husband (as well as attempt to murder her daughter) in a series of bids to try to make their life go back to how it was before the Gas Disaster. This is later established to be a series of lies Natsumi told herself in order to suppress her own guilt at what she'd done.
Education Mama: Made more clear in Kageboushi-hen, where Ooishi and Akasaka learn through looking at Natsumi's school and medical records that Haruko had been pushing very strongly for Natsumi to get into a very good college (because Haruko and Touji themselves went to small local ones that limited their job opportunities). Part of the reason she decided to move the family to Kakiuchi was in hopes of getting Natsumi into a Cram School, or at least one of better quality than the one in Okinomiya, to help her be more competitive in college exams.
Evil Matriarch: After the Great Hinzamizawa Gas Disaster, after Aki becomes terrified and begins obsessively worshipping Oyashiro, Aki becomes more and more controlling in order to try and keep her family's daily life running as it did before. She eventually resorts to murder to do this and becomes more and more abusive and controlling to Natsumi and Touji in order to keep them quiet about what she was doing. Subverted at the end when it's revealed Natsumi was the real villain who killed her whole family.
Expository Hairstyle Change: She stops wearing a Motherly Side Plait and leaves her hair unkempt as she goes Ax-Crazy on her own family. Subverted when Natsumi's real memories are revealed and they show Haruko with her Motherly Side Plait as well as still sane.
Fantasy-Forbidding Mother: She does not have much tolerance for her mother's obsession with Oyashiro or for attempts on Natsumi's part to try to make her grandmother feel better. This is justified in part by the extremity to which Aki takes it, as well as by the external social opprobrium heaped on Hinamizawans and their religious practices after the Gas Disaster.
Happily Married: This is her default state with her husband. It takes outside interference from Hinamizawa Syndrome to ruin it. And even that outside interference affected Natsumi and Aki, but in the end, not Haruko.
I Just Want to Be Normal: All of the terrible things that Haruko does are in an attempt to make their family life go back to normal after the Gas Disaster.
Motherly Side Plait: As it's common for mothers in manga, Haruko wears her hair in a loose ponytail over her left shoulder.
Racial Remnant: She effectively becomes this after the Great Hinamizawa Gas Disaster, given the unique traditions of Hinamizawa compared to the rest of Japan. Before the disaster, coming from Hinamizawa wasn't a big deal.
The Scapegoat: Natsumi couldn't take the guilt of murdering her own grandmother and parents in her fits of madness, so she created Fake Memories to convince herself that her mother was the one at fault for their family's tragedy. However, after Haruko dies, Akira forces Natsumi to stop pushing the blame on her mother and remember how she killed her own family.
Temporal Theme Naming: The first names of all members of Natsumi's family incorporate a kanji for a particular season. Haruko's uses the character for "spring."

Touji Kimiyoshi

Voiced by: Keiji Fujiwara

Natsumi's mild-mannered father. Although he is the breadwinner of the family, due in part to him marrying into the Kimiyoshi family, and in part due to his wife's strong personality, he tends to defer most decisions to Haruko.

Happily Married: He's generally content with his position in the family, and they remain so until Hinamizawa Syndrome gets involved. Its effects on their marriage (other than leaving them dead) are subverted, though. Ultimately, despite an undeniably stressful situation, there's no evidence to indicate that Haruko ever treated Touji the way she was shown doing on camera.
Henpecked Husband: He is very easily dominated by his wife. While this usually doesn't cause problems, after Haruko's Sanity Slippage, he has a hard time disagreeing with her, even when the consequence is the death of another family member, though this part is subverted.
The So-Called Coward: In the original manga, he finally manages to stand up to his wife actually his daughter and suggest everyone turn themselves into the police. In Someutsushi-hen, he outdoes this and actually decides to go to the police himself and take all the blame for what happened. It ends up the same, with his wife actually daughter murdering him in response.
Temporal Theme Naming: The first names of all members of Natsumi's family incorporate a kanji for a particular season. Touji's uses the character for "winter."

Aki Kimiyoshi

Voiced by: Ikuko Tani

Natsumi's caring grandmother. By far the most traditional person in the Kimiyoshi household, she is from Hinamizawa directly and encourages Natsumi to worship Oyashiro. Her personality shifts after a disaster causes her to believe Oyashiro is punishing Hinamizawans and she becomes much more obsessive about worshipping Oyashiro properly to keep the family from being cursed.

Adaptational Heroism: She never goes as far in Kageboushi-hen or Someutsushi-hen as she does in Onisarashi-hen. She only puts up the creepy decorations and prays in a creepy fashion. There are no offerings made. In the manga, the author notes during the bonus chapter that even if Akira had acted in a fashion that hadn't set off Natsumi's paranoia, it still wouldn't have stopped her grandmother from going crazy and likely killing someone eventually. While the actions of other older people in the console adaptations leave that possibility still out there, it's far less clear based on her own behavior than it was in the manga.
Bad People Abuse Animals: In the manga, Natsumi realizes her grandmother has gone insane when she finds her drowning puppies in the bathtub.
Death by Falling Over: She actually died when she came up behind Natsumi, which caused Natsumi to push her and accidentally kill her in a paranoid episode.
Dissonant Serenity: In the manga, Natsumi sees her drowning puppies in the bathtub as part of a ritual to make offerings to Oyashiro. Aki just smiles like she always does and tells Natsumi to eat manju with her.
Eyes Always Shut: She has her eyes closed every time she appears in the manga, except when she has gone completely insane.
Granny Classic: Initially, she largely fits this stereotype. She cares a lot for Natsumi and tries to keep her in touch with her Hinamizawan roots. After the Gas Disaster, though, she becomes much more intimidating and creepy.
Gruesome Grandparent: She doesn't start out this way, but after the Gas Disaster, she becomes more and more extreme in her Oyashiro worship in a misguided effort to protect her family, to the point where she likely would have killed someone eventually if Natsumi hadn't killed her first.
Offerings to the Gods: In the Onisarashi-hen manga, at one point she decides to drown puppies in the bathtub in order to assuage Oyashiro's wrath.
Racial Remnant: She effectively becomes this after the Great Hinamizawa Gas Disaster, given the unique traditions of Hinamizawa compared to the rest of Japan. Before the disaster, coming from Hinamizawa wasn't a big deal.
Temporal Theme Naming: The first names of all members of Natsumi's family incorporate a kanji for a particular season. Aki's uses the character for "autumn."

Akira Toudou

Voiced by: Satoshi Hino (JP)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/todo_akira.png

A classmate of Natsumi's who she has a crush on. He admits to liking her back fairly early on and is quickly drawn into the madness surrounding the Kimiyoshi household.

Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: He and Natsumi become a gender-reversed version in the epilogue of Onisarashi-hen. After murdering her family and stabbing Akira, Natsumi spends five years isolated and depressed at the house of some relatives until Akira finds her and legally makes her his wife. Akira's kindness and devotion motivates Natsumi to try and live with him at her side, even though she'll never fully recover from the guilt of what she did and she's very afraid that her "demon" could one day kill Akira too.
The Caretaker: To Natsumi in Onisarashi-hen's epilogue. He tries for five years to track her down, forcibly separates her from the abusive circumstances she ended up in, and then marries her to separate her from the baggage and legacy of the Kimiyoshi surname. He attempts briefly to live with her, but finds that she's too emotionally broken for that, so he provides for her to go to a mental institution where she can further recover.
Cooldown Hug: Once Natsumi's real memories of the deaths of her family start to come back, she freaks out at realizing she's a murderer and hallucinates that Akira now hates her. Akira tries to calm her down with a hug. It doesn't work and Natsumi stabs him in her panic.
Despair Event Horizon: At the end of Someutsushi-hen, he looks like he's probably crossed it. His final words in the arc are him telling Natsumi's corpse that it's OK because everything that had just happened was just a dream. The narration then goes on to say that he would prefer to just fall asleep like that with Natsumi and escape the dream.
Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Probably connected a bit with his role as The Quiet One, but in the scene where he admits he likes her, he spends a long chunk of it just standing there and struggling to say anything. It gets to the point that Natsumi after waiting for a while just barrels into speaking herself under the assumption that he's scolding her for having a part-time job when her school doesn't allow those.
Failure-to-Save Murder: Akira seems to consider himself to have done this to Natsumi at the end of Someutsushi-hen because when she went crazy, he couldn't bring himself to accept her and before things got out of hand, he tried not to talk with her about what might be bothering her. How fair this assessment is isn't directly addressed.
Happily Married: Played With in Onisarashi-hen's epilogue. Akira registers her in his family register as his wife and they seem like a very happy couple together, but there's no sure sign that Natsumi's Hinamizawa Syndrome is fully cured and she's still plagued with guilt over her crimes while letting Akira believe he tricked her into thinking he was her family's murderer. However, both seem to be truly willing to try and live as happily as they can no matter how messed up Natsumi's life became.
He Knows Too Much: In both Onisarashi-hen and Kageboushi-hen, Akira goes to Natsumi's house during (Onisarashi) or just after (Kageboushi) the bloody rampage at Natsumi's house. As a result, he gets hit in the head with a vase. Onisarashi-hen plays this as him being Collateral Damage while the murderer was chasing the intended victim. Kageboushi-hen plays it as this trope, where Natsumi hits him in the head with the vase because she doesn't know how else to explain all the blood and bodies to him and doesn't want to kill him.
Innocently Insensitive: When he sees Natsumi's house covered in charms and Paper Talismans, Akira doesn't even comment on it and only tells her he'll see her at school the next day. Akira was just trying to act like everything was normal to spare Natsumi's feelings, but it had the opposite effect and Natsumi became terrified that Akira was already disliking her for having a weird family.
I Will Find You: Natsumi runs off after stabbing him at the end of Onisarashi-hen, motivating him to look for her for five years until he finds her at the house of her relatives.
Love Martyr: Even after Natsumi tries to kill him, he's still either pledging his love to her or crying over her dead body right until the end. It's Played With in Onisarashi-hen's epilogue; though Natsumi and Akira did start a relationship before Natsumi's murder spree, Akira confirms in the epilogue that he can't really say he loves her anymore. At the same time, though, he's certainly devoted to the extent that very few other people would be and marries her so he can watch over her for the rest of her life.
Love Redeems: His last-minute usage of The Power of Love saved both him and Natsumi in one version only.
Meaningful Rename: In Onisarashi-hen's epilogue, Akira actively tries to invoke this trope for Natsumi by marrying her, after which she takes his last name, Toudou. He did this specifically to try to separate her from the Kimiyoshi name and its association with the Three Great Families of Hinamizawa and everything that connects to. In so doing, he hoped to make it easier for her to move on from the fact that she killed her family and forgive herself.
One-Steve Limit: Averted - he shares a name with the main character in Yoigoshi-hen. Of course, it's assured that the two of them will never interact, since the arcs have a 20-year long distance between them.
Parental Marriage Veto: This is implied in Kageboushi-hen. At the end of the arc, when he and Natsumi get married, there is no one in attendance other than Chisato, Tamako, Akasaka, and Miyuki. Natsumi's relatives are all dead, so there's no one from her side who can attend, and Natsumi says she overheard Akira fighting on the phone with his parents on the morning of the wedding. The strong implication is that they objected due to Natsumi having killed her relatives earlier in the arc and only being declared not guilty by reason of insanity, and that's why none of his relatives are in attendance.
Piggyback Cute: In Someutsushi-hen, Akira carries Natsumi on his back to her house after she becomes sick on their first date. It's played for a combination of romance and tragedy given the amount of stress that Natsumi's under and her inability to come clean about any of it.
The Quiet One: He's for the most part a pretty darn quiet character who mostly expresses himself through his artwork.
Satellite Love Interest: He's largely defined by his relationship with Natsumi and Love Martyr tendencies towards her.
Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Appears to become the Savvy Guy to Natsumi's Energetic Girl in Onisarashi-hen's epilogue. Although once you scratch beneath the surface, the relationship's a bit more complicated than that. Natsumi's cheerfulness is all an act to make Akira think he managed to trick her into believing the one who killed her family was him, not her. She's still depressed and remorseful over what she did, but will hide it all behind fake smiles for the sake of Akira's feelings for her.
Silent Scapegoat: He takes the blame for Natsumi's murder spree to try and keep that guilt away from her. Not that she buys it.
Snow Means Love: Natsumi's and Akira's wedding takes place on a snowy winter day at the end of Kageboushi-hen.
The Stoic: His expressions are a heck of a lot blander than most of the other characters. Of course, once the horror kicks in, he's Not So Stoic anymore.
Sugar-and-Ice Personality: While he's the stoic and reserved type, he has unlimited love and compassion towards his girlfriend Natsumi.
Twice Shy: In Someutsushi-hen, Chisato complains that his and Natsumi's relationship is a case of this and takes it upon herself to get things moving... in the most embarrassing way possible.
Wedding Finale: Kageboushi-hen ends with him marrying Natsumi.

Chisato Saeki

Voiced by: Eri Kitamura (JP - Kizuna), Rina Sato (JP - Sui)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/saeki_chisato_kizuna_school.png

Natsumi's cheerful friend and classmate. In the console arcs, her father owns the local hospital that Natsumi volunteers at.

Ambiguously Gay: Her Pseudo-Romantic Friendship with Natsumi really skirts the line toward being a lesbian. It's not helped by the fact that she evokes the Lesbian Jock stereotype. However, she is completely supportive of Natsumi's relationship with Akira, so she might just like teasing her.
Ascended Extra: Sge had a very minor role and little characterization in the Onisarashi-hen manga, but was given an expanded role in the DS remakes of that arc, Someutsushi-hen and Kageboshi-hen.
Blush Sticker: One of Chisato's standard expressions in the DS.
Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Chisato makes silly jokes like saying she wants to see Natsumi in a School Sport Uniform and Tamako punches her in the head for acting stupid.
Childhood Friend Romance: In the visual novel versions, Chisato apparently used to have a crush on Akira, her childhood friend.
Childhood Friends: The console games reveal Chisato has been good friends with Akira and Tamako since childhood.
Dark and Troubled Past: Kageboshi-hen gives a past tragedy to Chisato. Chisato had a terminally ill little sister who needed bone marrow transplant, and Chisato was the only potential donor available. However, Chisato was scared of surgery and asked her father for more time to think about it. Unfortunately, soon after that, Kaori died in front of Chisato's eyes. After her little sister's death, Chisato started to blame her parents and the doctors at the hospital for not noticing the illness before it got that serious. Due to this, she became infamous as the spoiled brat of the Saeki Hospital's director.
Fiery Redhead: Chisato is an energetic and assertive girl with light orange hair.
Girlish Pigtails: Chisato keeps in two thin braids and is very energetic.
Green-Eyed Monster: After Akira confesses to Natsumi that he likes her and leaves, Chisato comes in and interrogates Natsumi in a rather hostile faction, lending the appearance that she is jealous of Natsumi (or Akira?). This is apparently subverted a few minutes later when she says that Natsumi should have told her sooner and promises to make the two of them a couple.
"I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Gets into one with Natsumi near the end of Kageboushi, though she doesn't realize she's in one until about halfway through
Innocently Insensitive: Chisato sometimes has a tendency to make comments about the benefits of being in a city to the detriment of smaller towns outside the city, although she doesn't mean anything by them. This doesn't help Natsumi's insecurity about being a Country Mouse. Tamako takes Chisato to task for this in Kageboushi-hen.
Interclass Friendship: Moreso than Tamako, in the console arcs, Chisato is very clearly in a different social class from Natsumi. Her father owns the local hospital, and she has a chauffeur who takes her to and from school.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In Someutsushi-hen, it is revealed that Chisato has a crush on Akira, but she tries to give up on him after he confesses to Natsumi and decides to support their relationship.
My Greatest Failure: Her biggest regret is failing to immediately decide to allow the doctors to transplant some of her bone marrow into her sister, Kaori, when asked. Shortly after, Kaori's health took a turn for the worst, and it was too late to do the transplant.
Oblivious Mockery: Chisato and Tamako mock and badmouth the people of Hinamizawa as freaks for their occultist practices in front of Natsumi, not knowing that Natsumi is descended from one of the Three Great Families of Hinamizawa.
Plucky Comic Relief: The goofy Chisato is the only source of the very short light-hearted humor scenes in the entire Onisarashi-hen manga that is very dark and tragic overall.
Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: At the end of Kageboushi-hen, when Akira, Akasaka, and Ooishi finally manage to catch up to Natsumi at the Saeki Hospital, they find both her and Chisato on the roof, with Chisato draped over Natsumi and both of them crumpled, which leads the three to assume that Natsumi did a Murder-Suicide. Their first hint that this was not the case was that Natsumi's knife had no blood on it.
Those Two Girls: With Tamako. Especially in Onisarashi-hen, the two only hang out with Natsumi at school and unintentionally feed into her insecurities with their Innocently Insensitive comments about Hinamizawa.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Natsumi about her paranoia and self-destructive fear of telling her friends she's from Hinamizawa. She does it in a Tough Love frame of mind, and soon as she realizes that Natsumi isn't completely lost in her insanity, she sets about trying to help her stop.
You Are Too Late: In the console arcs, not being able to be there for her little sister when she needed her is one of her greatest regrets. She projects some of this into her failure to help Natsumi at the end of Someutsushi-hen.

Tamako Makimura

Voiced by: Yukari Fukui (JP)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tamako1_def.png

Natsumi's other friend and classmate.

Ascended Extra: Like Chisato, the console arcs give her more screentime than the Onisarashi-hen manga did.
Deadpan Snarker: In the console arcs, she repeatedly makes jabs to undercut Chisato's energetic rants. If those fail to bring Chisato back to earth, there's always the textbook.
Fat and Skinny: Tamako is kinda chubby, in contrast to the thin Chisato.
Nice Girl: Whereas in the manga, she was primarily characterized simply as the Tsukkomi to Chisato's Boke, in the console-exclusive arcs, she is characterized primarily by her levelheadedness and empathy toward Natsumi's feelings. In Kageboushi-hen, when Natsumi starts to develop possessiveness toward Akira, this actually results in her asking Chisato if they should try to warn Akira away from Natsumi.
Oblivious Mockery: Tamako and Chisato mock and badmouth the people of Hinamizawa as freaks for their occultist practices in front of Natsumi, not knowing that Natsumi is descended from one of the Three Great Families of Hinamizawa.
Punny Name: Tamako's is commented on the manga omake. "Tama" means round. The manga artist wonders if her name is so because she's roly-poly.
Those Two Girls: With Chisato. Especially in Onisarashi-hen, the two only hang out with Natsumi at school and unintentionally feed into her insecurities with their Innocently Insensitive comments about Hinamizawa.
Throw the Book at Them: Tamako wields one against Chisato a few times when trying to get her to quit overwhelming Natsumi in the console arcs.

Madoka Minai

Voiced by: Asami Shimoda

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mado_def_0.png

A police officer in the transportation division who is very close with the police chief of her department. In the consoles, she is the younger sister of Tomoe Minai and is engaged to marry the police chief, although Tomoe objects to their relationship.

Ascended Extra: Though she only showed up for one scene in the original Onisarashi-hen manga, the later console releases of the storyline expand her role.
Babies Ever After: Near the end of Kageboushi-hen she tells Akasaka that she is pregnant and decides that if the child is a girl, she is going to name her after Tomoe.
The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: The Beautiful Sister to Tomoe's Smart Sister. Madoka fusses a lot more about guys than Tomoe does, has a more lackadaisical attitude toward work, and repeatedly gets into arguments with her sister, sometimes over petty things, but often about her engagement to Yamaoki.
Good Girl Gone Bad: After their parents died, Tomoe says that she became estranged from Madoka as she increasingly was hanging with a bad crowd at the same time Tomoe was achieving a lot in her career path.
May–December Romance: She's engaged to Police Chief Yamaoki who is about 30 years her senior. The awkwardness of the age gap is commented on by Akasaka.
The Pollyanna: In the original manga, Ooishi claims that she is close to the police chief because he is drawn to her happy and bubbly personality. Given that the main topic of conversation during that scene is a set of murders occurring after The Great Hinamizawa Gas Disaster to and by survivors of it, her attitude is remarkably chipper.
The Runaway: When she was a teenager, Madoka ran away from home, as she felt guilty for always relying on her sister who had been Promoted to Parent after their parents died.
Tabloid Melodrama: After her parents were killed in a suspected arson, the media feeding frenzy afterward at one point started positing her as the cause of the arson, since she had come home late the night of the fire. Given the trauma that she was already dealing with from surviving the arson and seeing her parents' burned corpses, this was not helpful to her mental state.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Tomoe says that after the arson that killed their parents and Madoka seeing her parents' corpses, she was always afraid of fire.

Yoigoshi-hen Characters

Akira Otobe (Unmarked Spoilers)

Akira Otobe

Voiced by: Kōki Miyata (JP)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/otobekizuna.png

A boy who wanders into Hinamizawa 23 years the events of Tsumihoroboshi-hen occur (with a small twist) He gets separated from the group he was traveling into the village with and runs into someone claiming to be Mion Sonozaki, who confuses him with Satoshi.

Bad Liar: Played With. The lies he says to try and run away with the stolen cash card would be very ridiculous and unconvincing under normal circumstances. But when he and the people he's lying to are stranded in a ghost town, his lies serve to mislead everyone into thinking his companions were demoned away until Mion brings up a logical explanation for his lies and pushes him to admit the truth.
Grew a Spine: After being inspired by Mion's strength and will to live to the fullest until the end, Otobe chooses to stop running away from his problems. From now on, he will try to struggle in order to pay off his debts and face his family about his mistakes.
Identical Stranger: Mion and Shion notice he has an uncanny resemblance to Satoshi, mainly because of his hair and eye color.
Lovable Coward: He starts off as a spineless wimp who chose to almost commit suicide and steal money from a dead woman before admitting to his parents that he was in debt. Thanks to Mion's influence, he grows into a better, braver person who chooses to face and solve his problems with his own strength.
Mid-Suicide Regret: He went to Hinamizawa to join a small group of people in a charcoal suicide. As they were on their way to Hinamizawa, Otobe realized he didn't really want to die even though he was so scared of living with his huge debt. When he heard one of his companions had a cash card with a lot of money, he pretended to take the sleeping pills, stole the card, and left the car while everyone else in the group killed themselves.
One-Steve Limit: Averted - he shares a name with Natsumi's love interest in Onisarashi-hen. Of course, it's assured that the two of them will never interact, since the arcs have a 20-year long distance between them.
Robbing the Dead: He was going to participate in a group suicide until he heard one of his companions had a cash card left to her by her husband and Otobe realized he could use it to pay off his debts. When his companions took the sleeping pills, Otobe didn't swallow them and stole the cash card from Chiaki. However, after being influenced by Mion, he gives back the cash card to Chiaki's corpse and decides he will try to pay back his debts himself.
Starving Student: He's a college student with very serious financial troubles that are all his own fault. After he moved to the city and got into college, he did nothing but party around and soon wasted all the money of his part-time job as well as the living and tuition expenses his parents gave him. He got himself deep into debt and he got so scared of how his parents might react that he joined a suicide group. But then he heard one of his suicidal companions had a cash card he could use and stole it.
Supporting Protagonist: He's the main POV character of the Yoigoshi-hen manga, but the true protagonist and hero of the story is the older Mion.
Technicolor Eyes: Pink eyes, just like Satoshi and Satoko.
Unreliable Expositor: When he meets Mion, he claims that he was in a sightseeing trip with his friends, got out of the car to pee, and then the car mysteriously disappeared with his friends inside. Otobe is actually lying through the entire early part of Yoigoshi-hen. The car and companions never disappeared; they had driven all the way to the abandoned Hinamizawa to commit group suicide, but Otobe realized he didn't want to die as he was only afraid to tell his family about his debts. When he heard one of his companions had a cash card, he pretended to take the sleeping pills only to then steal from the dead woman.
What You Are in the Dark: Once he chooses to give back the cash card he stole to Chiaki's dead body, he hears Chiaki's spirit telling him she won't be angry at him if he uses her husband's money to pay off his debt. While tempting, Otobe chooses to leave the cash card with Chiaki anyway because he has resolved to try and pay off the debt with his own effort.

Ryunosuke Arakawa

Voiced by: Tomoaki Maeno (JP)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ryuunosukeps3_1_1_7.png

A reporter who goes to Hinamizawa in order to investigate some of the rumors of what happened there over 20 years ago.

Ascended Extra: He was more of a Plucky Comic Relief character in the original manga with a simple backstory compared to the other characters. When the VN made him the main point-of-view character, his personality became more complex, and he got a more detailed backstory.
Boom, Headshot!: Though he only get his testimony on it after he's been shot, one of visual novel's Yoigoshi-hen bad endings appears to have him die this way.
Going for the Big Scoop: "I'll go just because they say not to go in June. I'll write an article for the readers who are not afraid of danger. This is journalism, right!"
Heroic Bastard: In the visual novel of Yoigoshi-hen, he never knew his father and was only informed who he was after his father had passed away in an accident. As it turned out, his father was also a reporter who had investigated the Great Hinamizawa Gas Disaster. From then on, Ryunosuke was Pursuing Parental Perils. It is strongly implied that his father was the reporter who interviewed Keiichi at the end of the Curse-Killing Arc.
Intrepid Reporter: He reports on the paranormal. Hinamizawa is his most recent assignment, which he was actually initially discouraged from, as you can see by the above quote.
Perma-Stubble: One of the few characters in this series drawn with clearly visible stubble.
Pursuing Parental Perils: In the visual novel version of Yoigoshi-hen, more is added to Arakawa's backstory, including a strong implication that he is the son of the reporter who interviewed Keiichi after the Great Hinamizawa Gas Disaster in Tatarigoroshi-hen. His father's death looks like it was caused by Shion cursing him in the same manner as Keiichi does in Tatarigoroshi-hen, and discovering his father's interview tapes seems to be a major part of his motivation to write an article about Hinamizawa.
Plucky Comic Relief: Pretty much his only role in the Yoigoshi-hen manga is providing some comedic moments to relieve from the otherwise dramatic story.
Supporting Protagonist: Arakawa is made the narrator for the bulk of the visual novel's version of Yoigoshi-hen, probably to make it easier for the story to leave Otobe's secrets in the dark for a bit longer than would otherwise have been plausible. The true main character of the story is still Shmion.

Yae Towada (Unmarked Spoilers)

Yae Towada

Voiced by: Ryōko Shintani (JP)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yaeps3_19.png

A woman who decided to visit Hinamizawa with her boyfriend, Takumi, where she meets Otobe.

Comforting Comforter: After her boyfriend Takumi gets drunk and falls asleep, Tae covers his body with a blanket and wishes him good night. Subverted once you find out that the reason she covered him like that was to make it look like he was sleeping, when he was actually dead.
Driven to Suicide: One of Yoigoshi-hen's bad endings in the visual novel has her left alone after the rest of the party finds Takumi (due to a shootout with the Yakuza), and when everyone returns, they find that she had poisoned herself by drinking some drugged tea. The party then discusses whether it was a failsafe for if the truth about her and Takumi was discovered or possibly had been her main plan from the beginning.
The Dog Bites Back: Her boyfriend Takumi was an abusive alcoholic who beat her to the point she needed to go to the hospital. When she couldn't take it any longer, she took him to the isolated ghost town of Hinamizawa and waited for him to go to sleep so she could strangle him to death.
My God, What Have I Done?: Yae feels no remorse for killing Takumi until Mion proves to her that he intended to get a real job and turn over a new leaf by speaking to him from beyond the grave and finding an employee's notice on his body.
Rose-Haired Sweetie: Played With. She has rosy pink hair and is presented as a sweet, caring girlfriend to Takumi. That's until it's revealed Yae killed Takumi when she couldn't take his abuse any longer, only to regret it once she discovers he was going to try and be better for her.
Shading/Colour Dissonance: In the manga's monochromatic panels, Yae's hair is shaded very dark, but a color cover and her sprites in the visual novel version reveal she has pink hair which is typically shaded much lighter in manga.
Sympathetic Murderer: She murdered Takumi by strangling him in his sleep once she couldn't take staying in an abusive relationship with him anymore. However, even Takumi's ghost doesn't hate her for this, saying it was all his fault for getting violent with her and not trying to mend his ways until he had driven her over the edge. After she realizes Takumi did love her and wanted to change for her, Yae regrets her crime and decides to turn herself in to the police.
Unreliable Expositor: When she's separated from Mion and the others, Yae claims that her car disappeared and an unknown attacker took Takumi away. Later, Takumi's corpse is found at a closet. But Mion points out the body should be dirty if he was attacked outside the shed, asking Yae to take the blanket off Takumi... And the body is clean. Yae then confesses that she killed Takumi before Mion and Otobe arrived at the old meeting hall. Since she never expected other people to see the crime scene, she tried to create a false testimony for Takumi's death.

Takumi Kurosawa (Unmarked Spoilers)

Takumi Kurosawa

Voiced by: Akira Ishida (JP)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/takumi_yoigoshi.png

A man who accompanied his girlfriend, Yae, on an outing to Hinamizawa. Early on, it is established that he is rather abusive to his girlfriend.

Beautiful Dreamer: As Yae covers his body with a blanket, she thinks that his sleeping face looks like a child's. The scene becomes disturbing after it's revealed Takumi wasn't sleeping but dead and Yae had just murdered him.
Dead All Along: The only scenes in Yoigoshi-hen where Takumi is alive are at the beginning before Mion and Otobe find him and Yae at the old meeting hall near the Furude Shrine. Yae claims Takumi is just sleeping when she meets Mion and Otobe, but the truth is he's dead and Yae is his murderer.
Dead Man's Chest: His body is found shoved in a closet under some sheets.
Domestic Abuse: He was a nice boyfriend to Yae at the beginning of their relationship, but after she got a steady job while he struggled financially as he failed to achieve his dreams, he started to beat Yae whenever he got drunk.
Heel–Face Door-Slam: Takumi regretted being abusive towards Yae and was planning to mend his ways to be a better man for her, starting with getting a real job so he wouldn't completely depend on her financially anymore. Unfortunately, Yae murders him before he can change himself and she didn't realize he was about to change until it was too late.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He turned into an abusive jackass towards his girlfriend when he was drunk, but he always regretted it afterwards. The last words his ghost leaves to Yae make clear he really did love her and wanted to change for her. He also doesn't hate her for killing him, even feeling guilty for pushing her over the edge with his abuse.
Karmic Death: Yae got fed up of his abuse and kills him to free herself from him. However, Yae regrets what she did when she learns Takumi was about to mend his ways for her sake.
Love Redeems: Takumi did regret getting rough with Yae and her continuing to stay with him despite of it motivated him to find a real job so their relationship could improve. Too bad Yae kills him before he has the chance to redeem himself to her.
My God, What Have I Done?: According to Yae, Takumi would get violent when he was drunk only to regret what he did to her and apologize as soon as he was sober.
Slain in Their Sleep: Yae strangles him to death while he's asleep.
Starving Artist: Takumi was a guitarist at a band and had dreams of making it big in the music industry. Even when most of the other band members had given up and chose stable jobs, Takumi still held on to his hopes and continued to write music. This was the start of the problems in his relationship with Yae because Takumi didn't have a stable job like her and needed to depend on her financially.

Characters from Console Releases

Tomoe Minai

Voiced by: Nana Inoue (JP)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/minai_tomoe.png

A detective who investigates the curse of Oyashiro and the gas disaster. She later on gets deeply involved with Natsumi's problems through her investigations. She is included in only the DS renditions of what was known in the manga as Onisarashi-hen. These became Someutsushi-hen and Kageboushi-hen. She also appears in the DS rendition of Miotsukushi-hen and a DS-only arc called Tokihogoshi-hen.

Almost Dead Guy: Right after apparently getting a major break in the Hinamizawa Gas Disaster case in Kageboushi-hen, Tomoe is stabbed at a gas station but still manages to use her last words and a major case of Properly Paranoid to pass along a bit of the information to the police department.
Tomoe: Shiro... cabinet office.
Big Eater: She can eat many hamburgers and cakes at once all by herself.
Boyish Short Hair: She's a serious detective woman with short hair.
Despair Event Horizon: Tomoe briefly hit this in her backstory after Madoka ran away. She gets as far as contemplating suicide, but Oishi, of all people, manages to get her back out of it.
Fair Cop: She's a very attractive young female detective.
Foil: To Ooishi, in a very similar vein to Akasaka. She's a very young, attractive, extraordinarily competent, straight-arrow, female detective. Ooishi is a detective who is obese, on the verge of retiring, often comes off as a slacker to others, cuts corners on the rules anywhere he can, and womanizes like crazy.
The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: The Smart Sister to Madoka's Beautiful Sister. Both sisters work in the Kakiuchi police force, and both repeatedly get into arguments with each other, sometimes over relatively petty stuff (e.g. "borrowing" shampoo from the other without asking), but a lot of it stems from the awkwardness from Madoka being in a relationship with Tomoe's boss.
In the Back: She gets stabbed from behind by a woman at a gas station and dies from her injuries.
Inspector Javert: Similar to Ooishi, and just as similarly proven to in fact be right in those situations.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Tomoe may be a typical neurotic mood-swinging lady who can easily lose her temper over some trivial things but she's also a compassionate person who works as a police detective to find culprits to seek justice for those who are the victims.
Parental Marriage Veto: Tomoe dislikes Madoka being engaged to Police Chief Yamaoki because he is Tomoe's boss. Since both their parents are dead and Tomoe was made Madoka's guardian, Tomoe's objection plays a similar role to a parent's objection.
Promotion to Parent: She became a guardian to her younger sister Madoka after their father's death, but Madoka ended up running away from home.
Properly Paranoid: Correctly sensing that something was amiss before refueling at the gas station in Kageboushi-hen, she went ahead and mailed a package of some of the documents she'd discovered relevant to the Hinamizawa Gas Disaster case just before she is murdered at the gas station.
Pursuing Parental Perils: Both she and her sister Madoka work with the police department. Their father was killed in the course of duty as a police officer.
Really Dead Montage: Gets one after dying from her wounds in Kageboushi-hen. Granted, this is When They Cry, so it's doubtful the audience was expecting her to come back even before the montage, at least until the next time loop.
Shipping Torpedo: She doesn't support her younger sister Madoka's engagement with her boss Yamaoki, as she hates having her boss as a brother-in-law.
Sweet Tooth: She has an appetite for desserts and becomes a regular at Angel Mort.
Tabloid Melodrama: After her parents died in the arson on her house, the media speculation about whodunnit ran rampant. At one point, the newspapers started positing that Tomoe had been the original target of the arson and it was done by some students she competed with in sports, since she had managed to achieve a lot athletically. This did not endear her to the other students. Even at the time of the main story, she still has very hard feelings toward the press about that, as well as the rumors they spread about Madoka, who was already struggling psychologically.
Trademark Favorite Food: She loves hamburgers and often eats dozens of them at a time.

Kazuma Hatakeyama

An old man from Hinamizawa who Natsumi meets during her part-time job at the Care and Welfare Center. Though unsociable at first, he and Natsumi build a friendly relationship around their shared heritage. He is a devout believer in Oyashiro, a tendency that becomes more emphasized after the gas disaster.

Ax-Crazy: In the Stain-Spreading Arc, he goes off the deep end after the gas disaster and kills Natsumi's boss before committing suicide.
Commonality Connection: He and Natsumi bond over their shared Hinamizawan heritage.
Defrosting Ice King: He puts up a front of being unsociable to everyone at the Care and Welfare Center. Really, he's just lonely and misses his hometown. He warms up toward Natsumi as soon as he learns that she is also Hinamizawan.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the Silhouette Arc, he is killed off camera by an acquaintance who succumbed to the curse. This happens before Natsumi can even meet him during her part-time job in that arc, allowing the arc to focus more on some of her core insecurities about Akira and the fallout from the Great Hinamizawa Gas Disaster than the Stain-Spreading Arc could.
Room Full of Crazy: He scrawls prayers to Oyashiro in blood all over the walls of his room at the Care and Welfare Center in the Stain-Spreading Arc.

Nagisa Ozaki

Voiced by: Mayako Nigo (JP)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ozaki_nagisa.png

A childhood friend of Rena's from Ibaraki. She appears in Tokihogushi-hen. She helps with Tomoe's investigation into Rena's case.

Childhood Friends: She was friends with Rena during part of their childhood in Ibaraki.
He Knows Too Much: Near the end of the Tokihogushi-hen, Nagisa finds out about Tokyo's plan and she tries to warn Tomoe and Rena, but is knocked unconscious and kidnapped.

Riku Furude (Unmarked Spoilers)

Riku Furude

Voiced by: Tomokazu Seki (JP)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/furude_riku.png

Hanyu's husband in her past life.

Accidental Pervert: His first meeting with Hanyu, as shown in Kotohogushi-hen, had him interrupting Hanyu's bath at a waterfall and getting a look at her naked body when he was being chased by a bear.
Family Theme Naming: His given name, Riku, sounds very similar to Rika, the name of his direct descendant.
Florence Nightingale Effect: After Hanyu saved him from a bear, a tree branch pierced her foot and Riku took her to his home to treat her wound. She ended up liking living there and after a couple of years, they got married.
Forgotten First Meeting: Hanyu rescued Riku while he was still a baby from a house burned by "half-blood" (implied to be those infected by the syndrome) but they do not meet again until he had grown into a young man. Hanyu doesn't realize that Riku is the baby she saved years ago until she meets his father.
Happily Married: He deeply loved Hanyu and their marriage shown in segments of Kotohogushi-hen was quite happy.
I Want My Beloved to Be Fashionable: He had an obsession with Miko uniforms and was constantly trying to get Hanyu to put on his modified shrine maiden outfits.
Interspecies Romance: He was a human who married and had a child with Hanyu, a demon in human form.
Mayfly–December Romance: With Hanyu. She was from a Long Lived Race of demons and she met him when he was still a baby. They met again when he was an adult and they fell in love, eventually getting married.
Nice Guy: Even though his obsession with Miko was a bit annoying for Hanyu, Riku is a very gentle and polite man.
Rescue Romance: Hanyu first saved his life when he was just a baby and she took him to safety after his mother was killed by "half-blood" demons. Years later, Hanyuu saved him from a bear and he let her live at his home in gratitude, eventually asking her to become his wife.
Understanding Boyfriend: He was the first human who ever accepted the demon Hanyuu and wasn't afraid of her. He also thought her horns were cute.

Ouka Furude (Unmarked Spoilers)

Ouka Furude

Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (JP)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/furude_oka.png

Hanyu and Riku's only daughter.

Ascended Extra: Originally, she was only mentioned in the TIPs of Matsuribayashi-hen. Her backstory with Hanyu was later expanded with a flashback in the first release of Miotsukushi-hen. Later, the Kizuna installment included an entire chapter dedicated to explaining Hanyu's past with Ouka.
Cherry Blossom Girl: Her name contains the kanji of cherry blossom. Her mother gave her this name because the cherry blossoms were dancing in the wind when Ouka was born.
Childhood Friend Romance: She married Shino Kimiyoshi's son Shouji who she knew her entire life and grew up with her almost like a brother.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: She asked Hanyu to make her a miracle medicine to save the villagers from an epidemic. Despite Hanyu's warnings about consequences, Ouka continued to save the villagers and eventually a conflict broke out because the feudal lord wanted to threaten Ouka into giving the recipe of the medicine. Ouka's husband and daughter were apparently killed and Hanyu went into a rampage against the villagers, forcing Ouka to kill her own mother.
Early Installment Character-Design Difference: The Matsuri version of Miotsukushi-hen includes a flashback that shows Ouka looking exactly like Rika with light purple hair. The Kizuna release that includes Kotohogushi-hen gives a more differentiated design to her adult self's sprites and also changes her hair color to blue like Rika's.
Family Theme Naming: Both her name and Rika's use a type of flower for the first character and share the final character "ka."
Happily Adopted: After her father died and her mother left the village out of remorse for being forced to kill him, Ouka was raised by Hanyu's close friend Shino Kimiyoshi who loves Ouka as her own daughter until she turned ten years old and moved to the Furude Shrine.
Hime Cut: She has blunt bangs, cheek-length sidelocks, and hip-length straight hair. Like her descendant Rika, Ouka was the daughter of a Shinto Priest of the Furude Shrine where she served as a Miko.
Human-Demon Hybrid: She's the child of a human man and a demon woman.
Ideal Hero: She's portrayed as a heroic woman who did everything in her power to protect Hinamizawa and its villagers. Even after many villagers turned against her, Ouka killed her own mother to protect them.
Inconsistent Coloring: Her first sprite has light purple hair in the Matsuri version of Miotsukushi-hen. Her sprite in Kotohogushi-hen has blue hair like Rika.
Mark of the Supernatural: She inherited the purple eyes of her mother, a symbol of her demon heritage.
Master Swordswoman: She was skilled in swordsmanship thanks to the training she got from Hanyu.
Matricide: She sacrifices her mother, Hanyu, in a ritual to atone for the village's sins.
Miko: Much like Rika, Ouka served as one as her father was the priest of the Furude Shrine.
Nice Girl: She was a very sweet and gentle person who only wanted to help others in trouble.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ouka asked Hanyu to make a miraculous medicine to save the villagers from an epidemic, even though Hanyu warned her there could be bad consequences. Eventually, her medicine attracted the greed of others and the feudal lord as well as villagers wanted to steal the recipe from her, resulting in them attacking Ouka's husband and daughter and then violently interrogating Ouka. Hanyu went mad at seeing this and started murdering the villagers, forcing Ouka to kill her mother to stop her.
Older Than She Looks: Interesting to say that near the end of Kotohogushi-hen, she physically looks like a beautiful teenage girl if the same thing counts for Rika if she survives to the bitter end but it's confirmed she's 20 as Hanyu met her at the age of 10. The same length of years after Riku's tragic death.
Secret Secret-Keeper: Hanyu never told Ouka that she was her mother out of guilt over killing her father and abandoning her. Ouka reveals she did know her mother's identity... shortly before she had to kill her mother.
Shared Family Quirks: When she's ten years old, she has the same Verbal Tics as her descendant Rika, saying "Nippa" and "nano desu", the latter which is also said by her mother Hanyu after becoming a ghost.

Shino Kimiyoshi

Voiced by: Ai Maeda (JP)

The ancestor of the Kimiyoshi family, and Hanyu's close friend.

Best Friends-in-Law: She was Hanyu's best friend and they became in-laws when Hanyu's daughter Ouka married Shino's son Shouji.
Interspecies Friendship: She knew that Hanyu was a demon and that didn't stop her from caring for her as a dear friend.
Parental Substitute: Due to Riku's tragic death and Hanyu leaving the village for many years, Shino raised Ouka as her own daughter until the latter was 10 years old. Even as an adult, Ouka thinks of Shino as her other mother.
Secret-Keeper: After she saw Hanyu's horns, she became the only one outside the Furude family who knew about Hanyu not being human and kept their secret.
Slave to PR: She acted hostile towards Mao Sonozaki even though she didn't really dislike her; she just felt the need of rejecting outsiders to keep appearances due to Hinamizawan customs.

Mao Sonozaki

Voiced by: Marina Inoue (JP)

The ancestor of the Sonozaki family. While she didn't get along with Shino Kimiyoshi, Ouka Furude accepted her as a close friend and sister figure.

Irony: Despite the Sonozaki family's well-known hatred for outsiders, their ancestor Mao was in fact an outsider who moved to Hinamizawa from another town and this put her at odds with Shino Kimiyoshi.

Higurashi Hou Characters (Warning: Spoilers ahead)

Tamura

Princess Tamura of Life (Tamura-Hime no Mikoto)

Voiced by: Yoshino Nanjo (JP)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tamurahime_no_mikoto_kizuna.png

An entity similar to Hanyu introduced in Higurashi Hou. She holds contempt against Hanyu, leaving them in bad terms for a very long time.

Adaptational Modesty: In the original release of Hou, Tamura gets dragged into the club's punishment games and is made wear a skimpy bondage outfit that comes with Underboobs and bat-wings attached to her back. In the console version, her embarrassing outfit for the game gets significantly toned down to a School Swimsuit.
Antiquated Linguistics: She speaks in a very archaic Japanese.
Fantastic Racism: She thinks very poorly of demons outside of her clan, such as Hanyū.
Greater-Scope Villain: The whole mess in Hou with Une trying to destroy humankind happens because Tamura refused to let Une live in a little piece of land and then didn't warn Hanyu about the Une virus because she's still mad about Hanyu eating one of her offerings.
Lost Food Grievance: She knew the whole time that Une was the biggest threat, but refused to tell Hanyu about it because Hanyu once ate an offering given to Tamura.
Mercury's Wings: She has feathered wings coming out of her head in a similar position to Hanyu's horns.
Never My Fault: She is very quick to blame Hanyū for allowing the threat of Une to grow as much as it did, even though the onus was on Tamura to warn Hanyū about it and she didn't because of a petty grudge.
Really 700 Years Old: She looks like a young girl, but has known Hanyu for centuries.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: She has red eyes that sometimes glow when she is angry.
Showgirl Skirt: Over her short red skirt, she wears a long black hakama skirt that splits down at the front to display her legs.
Super-Empowering: She can give superhuman abilities to humans as she does for Takano in Kamikashimashi-hen and Kazuho in Mei.
Trademark Favorite Food: She likes rice offerings.

Une

Voiced by: Aya Suzaki (JP)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/une_kizuna_casual.png

^{Click here to see her true self}

A girl introduced in Higurashi Hou.

Adaptational Modesty: Like Tamura above, the console version of Hou majorly tones down the embarrassing outfit of her punishment game from the original version, changing it from a revealing bikini to a School Sport Uniform.
Aliens Are Bastards: Turns out to be a human-looking alien goddess, which coincides with the reveal that she wants to annihilate everyone on Earth with a virus.
And Then What?: Rena asks Une what she planned to do after devouring everyone on Earth, pointing out that the only thing she could do was head for the next planet with life on it, and think how long that would take.
Antiquated Linguistics: As a goddess, she speaks in normal Japanese, yet uses the archaic pronouns that both Tamura and Hanyu also use.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's introduced as a cute and shy little girl who helps out the club members when they're running from a deranged mob in Okinomiya in the midst of an outbreak of the Hinamizawa Syndrome. Her true self is an evil alien goddess with goals of omnicide.
Cool Crown: She wears a circlet on her head in her goddess form.
Cute Oversized Sleeves: She looks like a cute little girl and her dress as a goddess has very long sleeves that go past her hands, resembling wings.
Disproportionate Retribution: She claims that she just wanted to live in a little piece of land, but Tamura refused to let her do so. So Une decided to release her virus and kill everyone on Earth. Wow.
Expy: She seems very similar to Sumire/Reiko from The Unforgiving Flowers Blossom in the Dead of Night.
Giant Poofy Sleeves: Her dress as a goddess has large shoulder puffs.
Girlish Pigtails: Her hair is tied up in pigtails because they make her look cute and harmless even though she is anything but.
Greater-Scope Villain: She's one of the main sources of conflict in Hou as Takano was looking for her under Tamura's orders to stop Une's plans of omnicide.
Human Aliens: Although she looks completely human, she came to Earth from outer space.
Omnicidal Maniac: Her goal is infecting humankind with a lethal alien virus.
Shy Blue-Haired Girl: She's presented as a shy and meek young girl with turquoise hair. Subverted as her real personality isn't shy at all.
Slasher Smile: She wouldn't be a When They Cry villain without one.
Verbal Tic: She likes to use "super" a lot.
Walking Spoiler: She's a lot more than she seems, as you can see by how many spoilers there are here.

Higurashi Mei Characters (Warning: Spoilers Ahead)

Kazuho Kimiyoshi

Voiced by: Mayu Sagara

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kazuho_school_1.png

The main character of the gacha game, Higurashi Mei and the granddaughter of Kiichirou Kimiyoshi. After her family died in the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, Kazuho gained help from distant relatives and went to live in a school dormitory. In 1993, after receiving a pager message apparently from her dead grandfather Kiichirou telling her to come to Hinamizawa, Kazuho goes to investigate the long-abandoned village. Once she's at Hinamizawa, however, she's suddenly chased by mysterious monsters named Tsukuyami. She is saved by Tamura-Hime no Mikoto, who instructs her to enter the Saiguden. There, Kazuho travels back in time to the Hinamizawa of 1983.

Apologizes a Lot: She has a habit of saying, "I'm sorry."
Broken Bird: She's suffering from depression over losing her family in the Great Hinamizawa Disaster 10 years ago.
Shrinking Violet: She's a timid and withdrawn girl.
Touched by Vorlons: When she's chased by Tsukuyami, she's saved by the goddess Tamura-Hime no Mikoto, who gives her supernatural powers to defend herself.

Nao Hotani

Voiced by: Rie Takahashi

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nao_mei_school_1.png

A mysterious girl who just like Kazuho and Miyuki time-traveled from the future to Hinamizawa of 1983 and can fight Tsukuyami.

It's All My Fault: Since Rena and her father moved back to Hinamizawa due to her mother abandoning them, Nao thinks her birth was to blame for her half-sister dying at the Great Hinamizawa Disaster.
Long-Lost Relative: Nao is Rena's half-sister from the future, born from the affair of Rena's mother and Akihito.
Strong Family Resemblance: She looks like a small Rena with longer hair. This is because they're half-sisters.

Characters / Higurashi: When They Cry - Miscellaneous Characters

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