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We were told to expect some news at 07th Live, but I don’t think anybody was expecting this! Numerous sources on Twitter are reporting what was spoken in an interview with Ryukishi at the event, including details in Haworthia and WTC5’s development, and that a new Umineko release is on the way!

This first tweet is quoting Ryukishi saying how he plans to write more for Umineko, contrasting his earlier statement on how he’s "moved on from Hinamizawa". The second and third tweet are both reporting the same info: Ryukishi is planning on releasing a new Umineko game similar in structure to Higurashi Hou next summer. He mentions that it will include a brand new Episode taking place in Umineko Chiru (Answer Arcs). He also mentions how his recent Umineko writing in a “booklet” (First and Last Gift?) was a little bit gag-focused, so he’d like to do something more serious this time. They are still deciding on what to call the new game.

Being based on Higurashi Hou, we can only assume it’s a complete collection of Umineko games for PC, so the main 8 Episodes + Tsubasa + Hane + an all new episode. Specifying that it’s set in Chiru seems to deny the possibility of it being the discarded ‘Land of the Golden Witch’, but now I’m all the more curious what it could be. I wonder if he’ll stick to the old engine or assets or base it more on the Steam release. We’ll let you know as soon as we know more!

Secondly, we have this little bit of insight into Haworthia’s development and how it connects to the next When They Cry. According to the tweets, Ryukishi is currently 8000 characters into WTC5. He talks about his planning process as ‘plotting a tree’ of ideas, and that it’s been a process of gradually pruning the branches or leaves of the tree (different ideas), and that Haworthia was created based on many of the leaves he had to prune when finalising the concept of WTC5. Some of the folkish music used in Haworthia will be featured in WTC5; because it’s a big open world, even music such as this can fit the tone of the story, he says. Ryukishi invites listeners to form their own interpretations of how Haworthia might be connected to When They Cry 5.

Lastly, he leaves us with a tease about the themes and setting of the new When They Cry. With WTC5, he wants to present a world where a concrete jungle and traditional architecture mix together. Not sure whether we should interpret this as the imagery of a shrine in Tokyo surrounded by skyscrapers being thematically significant, or if it’s set in some kind of fantasy city, or if it’s a story set across multiple time periods; your guess is as good as mine.

It’s okay to be confused, we are too.

In recent news, a certain mysterious Sound Drama has been announced under the name ハオルシア or “Haworthia”, presented by doujin circles M. Graveyard (dai) and Pomexgranate (xaki and Motoki Zakuro), and it’s scheduled to be released very soon! Why should you care? Well, it so happens that the scenario of this drama is being written by Ryukishi himself, and it’s being promoted as a tie-in for the new “When They Cry” game. Yep, an image soundtrack / sound drama album for a game that isn’t out yet. That sounds like Ryukishi alright.

The album is scheduled to be released for sale at the M3 doujin music convention on the 29th of october, with a special live performance of the album at the second 07th Live event on the 3rd of November. The image album will be featuring the work of dai, xaki, Motoki Zakuro, Asaki Risa, Hokazono Yuu, Kyoko Namekawa, Suzu Maihara, Kino Nei, Sakura Kanae, Luck Ganriki, M. Zakky and Pre-Holder. That’s pretty much a full cast for a WTC soundtrack right there! The promotional material features character and background illustrations by Remotaro, a rising star in the doujin artist scene who’s most well known for her illustrations of Key characters. We asked her for comment about how Haworthia is connected to the new When They Cry, and she had this to say:

@remotaro こんばんはれもたろさん。ハオルシアにおめでとう！質問があります。ハオルシアと新しい「のなく頃に」ゲームは関係がありますか？私は少し混乱しています。

こんにちは！ すくなくとも収録曲については次の「なく頃に」に関係があるとお聞きしています ストーリーとキャラについては、どう関わりがあるのか、それとも全くないのか……私もよくわかっておりません

I’ve been told that the music [of Haworthia] is connected to the new When They Cry (no naku koro ni) game (smile). As for whether the characters and story are related or not, I have no idea (sweats).

Speaking of characters, we’ve also been treated to some character bios for the four main cast!

The Gentle Older Sister: Asaki Yumemi. VA: Asaki Risa “This star, it’s become quite lovely, hasn’t it?”

The Strong-Willed Younger Sister: Yuu Yumemi. VA: Yuu Hokazono “You mustn’t run away, we’ll make it out of this hell together!”

Environmental Control Organisation Head Press Secretary: Motoki Punica Granatum VA: Motoki Zakuro “No no, don’t be so stiff~! Feel free to call me Punica, okay?”

Grand Admiral of the 1st Area Immigrant Fleet: A. H. Haworthia VA: Kino Nei “However, there is just one thing. Remember to sing of joy. And so, may it never be forgotten.”

UPDATE: Pomexgranate’s stream has revealed two more character bios!

Isolated Green of the Forest: Organics Automata S VA: Suzu Maihara “Everything is for the sake of this star. Organics Automata will restore this star’s beauty.”

Isolated Blue of the Sea: Organics Automata K VA: Kyoko Namekawa “Nice to meet you. I’m Tomomasa’s sister, her mother, myself.”

Lastly, we have these background illustrations to pour over.

If you happen to have a Niconico premium account, you can catch Pomexgranate’s livestream featuring some of the music from Haworthia on timeshift for a few more days. It’s only 540JPY to get premium for a month, might be worth it to get this exclusive sneak peak of the album!

This is the kind of announcement that leaves more questions than answers, but it’s bound to fuel heaps of speculation on how it connects to the new When They Cry! On the plus side we won’t have to wait long to get our hands on the album, but it’s uncertain whether we’ll get an English translation of it any time soon. Nonetheless, I’ll gonna try and get my hands on this album when it’s released, and try to work through the Japanese in hopes that it may get a translation by someone someday!

If you’d like to use this as fuel for your WTC5 speculations, hop on over to our When They Cry 5 pre-release speculation and discussion topic and share your thoughts! We’d love to hear how you think Haworthia might be connected to the new When They Cry.

As of October 6th, the second volume of When The Game Ends by Yukari Higa has been released! What deadly hijinks will occur in this volume?

You can buy this manga in its usual places - CDJapan and Amazon for 648 yen! Though I have found other retail sites you can purchase them for - however they require a proxy to be able to acquire them. Here are some of the sites with book bonuses!

Gamers are offering a bonus book cover with the heroines.

Melonbooks have a clearfile of Furuwada Serika and a new character.

Toranoana comes with two illustration cards of the heroines.

These store bonuses can make or break a purchase - check them all out to see which ones tickle your fancy or just purchase the volume alone! Quantities are limited be sure to order to guarantee your bonus!

If you would like to have a feel for this series check out Zepur’s translation of the first two chapters over at the When The Game Ends discussion!

For those keeping up with our stage play news, Shingidan released details on the next Rose Guns Days stage play!

The second season stage play will be held from December 6th to the 10th! As a refresher, this will be the third collaboration between 07th Expansion and Shingidan - their other stage plays consist of Hinamizawa Bus Stop and the first season of Rose Guns Days. It’s really amazing to see that they are continuing the Rose Guns Days series.

Tickets will be sold starting October 28th, 2017. All tickets are reserved seating, so better secure that spot when you can!

The venue is located at the Lazona Kawasaki Plazasol in the Kanagawa Prefecture.

(S) Tickets - the ones that guarantee front row seats - will be sold for 7,500 yen with 8,000 yen being the price the day of the play. (A) Tickets will be sold for 5,500 yen with 6,000 yen being the price the day of the play.

Stay tuned to their twitter for updates as the day of the play draws near.

Presenting the latest and greatest addition to the Higanbana Bookclub Podcast! In this episode we’ll be discussing the first half of The Second Night: Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4. I Aspirety am joined once again by MagusVerborum, VyseGolbez and for the very first time amenenee! Seems that we all agree that chapters 2 and 4 were fantastic, with Chapter 2 earning a perfect 5 in our poll! Suffice to say, these chapters spoke to us, and I think you’ll enjoy some of the analysis and introspection we dig up from them.

My humble thanks to all the forum members for their discussion of this chapter in the four forum topics: The Lunar Festival, Reaper of the Thirteenth Step, Welcome to the Mirror World and The Boys’ Portrait. In our next and final podcast, we’ll be discussing chapters 5-7: My Best Friend, A Thistle for Vengeance, and Before the Spider Lillies Bloomed.

Thank you also to all the people who submitted wonderful fanart for the Bookclub; we got quite a few submissions over the break! Remember, now’s your last chance to get art in for the chance to win a Miracles fanzine, so don’t delay! And finally, for those who’ve finished the entirety of Higanbana, I invite you to join me in sharing what the Higanbana series means to you in our Higanbana general discussion topic. I’m really looking forward to reading the answers you’ve reached, and I wonder how they’ll contrast my own.

If you’d prefer to download and listen to the podcast offline, we’ve prepared an mp3 you can download here. For more information about the Higanbana Bookclub, including links to relevant forum topics and future episodes, keep an eye on our Higanbana Bookclub Page.

Yen Press has today released the newest entry in the localisation of the Rose Guns Days manga with Season 3, Volume 1 on the 19th of September 2017. The blurb is as follows:

Searching for ‘reasons to fight.’ 1949, Post-war Tokyo–As the Japanese become more and more of a minority in their own homeland, they continue to hold hope for their future in Primavera. Alan has returned to Japan to find Tokyo very different from the one he remembers. While maintaining high spirits and looking for loved ones, he struggles to find a reason to keep fighting without being bitter about his past. Will Primavera hold the answer for both Alan and the Japanese people?

Another week, another Higanbana Bookclub Podcast! In this episode we’ll be discussing the latter half of The First Night: Chapters 4. 5. 6 and 7. I Aspirety am joined once again by MagusVerborum, VyseGolbez and Pictoshark. There were some divisive opinions on how Utopia was handled, but as an overall experience, we’re enjoying our time with Higanbana very much. Please enjoy our debate over this, as well as our discussion on some of the potential applications of Ryukishi’s messages.

My humble thanks to all the forum members for their discussion of this chapter in the four forum topics: Shrine of the Guardian Deity, Hameln’s Castanets, One Girl’s Day and Utopia. Next up we’ll be taclking chapters 1-4 of The Second Night: The Lunar Festival, Reaper of the Thirteenth Step, Welcome to the Mirror World and The Boys’ Portrait.

At the moment we’re considering delaying the Bookclub to give some of our readers a chance to catch up; have your say in the discussion topic there. And don’t forget that there’s still time to contribute fanworks to our Higanbana Fanart Topic and other appropriate topics for the chance to win a Miracles fanzine!

If you’d prefer to download and listen to the podcast offline, we’ve prepared an mp3 you can download here. For more information about the Higanbana Bookclub, including links to relevant forum topics and future episodes, keep an eye on our Higanbana Bookclub Page.

The latest volume of Hotarubi no Tomoru Koro ni has released in Japan today, the 16th of September! Ryukishi’s survival horror manga continues.

At long last, the curtain is raised on the Higanbana Bookclub Podcast. For our first event, we’ll be gathering to discuss the three opening chapters of Higanbana, along with some general overview of Higanbana’s development history and our first impressions of the series. I Aspirety am joined by three fresh faces to the Rokkenjima Podcast: Mr. Dent, MagusVerborum and FlareNetworkC. The Bookclub is off to a great start, and we hope you’ll continue joining us on this journey! If you too would like to be on the Podcast, be sure to apply on our Applications Topic, we’d love to try you out!

My humble thanks to all the forum members for their discussion of this chapter in the three forum topics: Mesomeso-san, The Spirit Camera and The Princess’ Lie. Over the next week we’ll be focusing on chaoters 4-7: Shrine of the Guardian Deity, Hameln’s Castanets, One Girl’s Day and Utopia. Don’t forget that on top of forum discussion, we’re looking to reward members for producing fanworks, so if you’re feeling particularly creative please head on over to our Higanbana Fanart Topic and show us what you’ve got! With that said, see you next weekend.

If you’d prefer to download and listen to the podcast offline, we’ve prepared an mp3 you can download here. For more information about the Higanbana Bookclub, including links to relevant forum topics and future episodes, keep an eye on our Higanbana Bookclub Page.

There’s a bunch of events happening in Japan for 07th Expansion this coming fall, so we’ve decided to do some research and provide a rundown of all the events taking place! If you happen to be in Japan during any of these times, why not grab a ticket and join in the fun!

October 6: Umineko no Naku Koro ni Sou

String Quartet DEQUAR’s live performance of Umineko music!

You can find more details on our earlier article here.

October 22: 07th Masquerade

Fan-run 07th doujin event, not to be confused with the officially-run 07th Party, but quite similar in format! Check it out to meet many fellow 07th fans in cosplay and purchase and trade doujin works. Ryukishi will be participating as a special guest this year! No tickets required, though don’t expect to get through without buying anything!

For more information, check out their official website and Twitter account.

November 3: 07th Live

A fan-run live featuring numerous performers singing 07th Expansion-related music! Spans multiple events. The first event, taking place on the 28th of October, has already been sold out at Comiket. Two more events will be taking place during the day and night of the 3rd of November 2017 at Shinjuku Live House Marble (Tokyo, Seibu Shinjuku). They’ll also be selling a new CD at the venue! Tickets cost ¥3,000 and you can add a drink for ¥600, these can be purchased here. Performers appearing at the live include: Zakuro Motoki, Kanae Sakura, Asaki Risa, M.Zakky, xaki, Yuu Hokazono, Suzu Maihara, Kyouko Namekawa, and more! Here’s hoping for a DVD release of the concert.

Ryukishi has Tweeted that there will be When They Cry 5 news announced at 07th Live! Yet another reason to attend.

For more information, follow them on Twitter!

In commemoration of Higurashi’s 15th Anniversary this month, an interview with Ryukishi07 has been published on Dengeki Online. The interview goes into heaps of detail, with Ryukishi giving his thoughts on all the milestones Higurashi has achieved in it’s 15 year lifespan, starting from his initial draft of the Hinamizawa Bus Stop stageplay, going all the way through to the international Steam Release and recent TV drama. It’s quite an interesting read, but it’s way too lengthy for us to translate all of it, so if you can’t read Japanese we recommend chucking it through Google Translate and skimming through at your own leisure.

Toward the end of the interview, he begins to talk about his current work on the series and future plans. We’ve provided a rough translation of the last three questions below. Be sure to give us your thoughts in the discussion below!

Higurashi Hou in 2014 was your most recent addition to the series. Is there any chance you’ll will write more Higurashi in the future?

I have no plans to continue Higurashi at the moment. It may be a cliche, but I can only say “I’ve moved on from Hinamizawa”. However, that doesn’t mean I won’t ever write for it again. At the Hinamizawa pilgrimage tour last year, I prepared a script featuring Keiichi and Satoko. I can’t say for sure, but maybe someday I will write for Higurashi again. If that day comes, I hope you’ll support me once more.

What about the latest entry in the When They Cry series that spawned from Higurashi?

Up until now I’ve mostly been working on it in my free time, as a way of taking a break from my outside work. Now that all my outside work has been completed, I can finally buckle down and work on it properly. I am now beginning to name the characters, and will be drawing illustrations of them soon.

Like with Umineko, it’s much easier to write the characters once I’ve given them a name and face. When I wrote Higurashi, the scenario was already complete before I drew any illustrations of the characters.

In Rose Guns Days and TRianThology, I had various other illustrators help draw the characters, but this time I’d like to once again try drawing all the characters myself. I’m sure it will be difficult, but I plan to stick to it. I will do my best to make sure the game is ready to be released next year.

Please give a final message for all the fans of Higurashi.

Community Spotlight: Jokrono & MagusVerborum's Umineko Playthrough

Today I’d like to draw the spotlight on our very own MagusVerborum’s playthrough of Umineko When They Cry with his good friend Jokrono. Magus, an Umineko veteran is guiding his blind friend and sherlock-in-training Jokrono through Umineko while they comment on the story as they read, and narrate each and every line with silly voices. This kind of content won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but this playthrough has gained a small loyal following on the forum.

I’ve personally found it noteworthy for being one of the few Umineko playthroughs on Youtube to make a serious attempt to analyse and speculate on the story as they read, with some fun commentary along the way. If you enjoy watching the reactions of someone completely new to Umineko (who doesn’t have much interest in Japanese media), with the guidance of a veteran to keep them from focusing on the wrong aspects, then this playthrough should be sweet to the taste. You can check it out above! They have currently just finished Episode 1, but have more recorded so stay tuned!

Introducing the Higanbana Bookclub, with prizes up for grabs!

As promised, the Higanbana Bookclub is finally upon us! Yes we’re changing the branding from Tea Parties to Bookclubs for this series, but don’t worry, it’s still the same thing you’re used to! If you’re new to us and don’t know what we’re talking about, we recommend checking out this video below:

The Higanbana Bookclub is a huge event in which we’ll rally 07th Expansion fans from all across the internet to join us on the forum to read through, analyse and celebrate Higanbana together. It’s the perfect chance for new readers to get involved and share their interpretations with others, but also for old readers to take a look back and consider what’s great about the work, perhaps analysing it from a new perspective.

On the forum we’ve prepared topics for each of the chapters of the two nights. Since the chapters are mostly self-contained, we won’t have to worry much about spoilers; just read each topic once you’ve finished that chapter. We also encourage our more creative members to contribute to the Bookclubs with fanworks of the chapters in question in our Higanbana Fanart Topic and other relevant topics.

For those new to Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni, this story is not for the light of heart. Unlike Higurashi and Umineko, Higanbana focuses less on mystery and is more interested in thoroughly examining heavy and disturbing questions about human psychology. We’re not expecting this will appeal to everyone, but if you feel you’re able to stomach it, we’d love you to join us in exploring these stories together.

The Bookclub will take place over 4 weeks spanning from the 21st of August to the 17th of September. At the conclusion of each week, we’ll record a podcast incorporating all of the discussion and showcasing fanworks produced throughout the week with our own analysis and reflection. If you’re reading Higanbana and want to be a part of our podcast, we’d love to try you out! Just hop on over to our Podcast Applications Topic and express your interest! Since we’ll be basing our Podcasts off the forum discussion, we encourage everyone participating to read ahead to make sure their participating in the discussion in time for the podcasts. For all the relevant forum topics, you can find an index here. The podcast schedule is as follows:

Week 1 Podcast: 1st Night Chapters 1, 2, 3. Week 2 Podcast: 1st Night Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7. Week 3 Podcast: 2nd Night Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4. Week 4 Podcast: 2nd Night Chapters 5, 6, 7.

To motivate contributions, we’ll be giving away copies of the Miracles 07th Expansion Fanzine to the person who posts the best discussion, and the person who posts the best fanworks of Higanbana over the course of the Bookclub.

And if that’s not enough, we’re also raffling away a free physical copy of Higanbana The First Night & The Second Night to one lucky winner on the 13th of August, in commemoration of its sixth anniversary! To enter, all you have to do is retweet this tweet to go in the running (quotes won’t be tallied because Twitter sucks like that). Witch-rank forumers will earn double entries, so make sure to let us know if your Twitter username is different to your forum username.

With the conclusion of our very first console-arc Tea Party, we’re proud to present the Someutsushi podcast! I Aspirety am joined by veterans kyuketsukimiyu and Seraphitic, together with acolyte and main character VyseGolbez! Being a non-Ryukishi chapter, this one turned out a bit more divisive than previous chapters, and we hope you enjoy hearing our differing thoughts on it!

My humble thanks to all the forum members for their discussion of this Chapter in the Spoiler-Free and the Full Spoilers topics, and congratulations to U4ea for earning the prestige of the Meakashi Tea Party Top Poster! You will be rewarded with a forum badge and a special prize! Unfortunately we didn’t receive any fanworks for this chapter, so we’ll be keeping that prize for a future Tea Party instead. Come on guys, I wanna see some Chisato and Natsumi fanart in the Kageboushi Tea Party when that gets translated!

With this complete, it looks like we’ve run out of Higurashi chapters to do Tea Parties on for a while! We’re now eagerly awaiting the release of Tsumihoroboshi on Steam, as well as the Kageboushi patch and Umineko Chiru on Steam. So where do we go from here? Well, I think we’ve all earned a bit of a break! But it’s my hope that once everyone is well rested, we’ll be ready to dive into an all new Bookclub with Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni! More details on that in the coming weeks; please look forward to it!

If you’d prefer to download and listen to the Tea Party offline, we’ve prepared an mp3 you can download here. For more information about the Higurashi Tea Party, including links to relevant forum topics and future episodes, keep an eye on our Higurashi Tea Party Page.

Are you interested in the Higurashi series, but have no idea how to navigate all the arcs? Are you curious about all the additional arcs that have yet to be translated into English? Then hopefully this guide to all of the Higurashi arcs ever (not including doujinshi) should prove insightful! Yes, we even included the creepy ecchi arcs for completion’s sake! Special thanks to the Higurashi Wiki and forumer Isae for helping provide all the information I’ve used as the basis of this article. If you’d like to join us in discussing these arcs, we have a selection of topics on our forum that you can jump into at any time! With that said, here is our definitive guide to every Higurashi arc ever! If you have suggestions for how we can improve it or notice we’re missing an arc, be sure to let us know!

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (Question Arcs): Onikakushi (Demoning Away Arc) - Rena’s Question Arc Watanagashi (Cotton Drifting Arc) - Mion’s Question Arc Tatarigoroshi (Curse Killing Arc) - Satoko’s Question Arc Himatsubushi (Time Killing Arc) - Rika’s Question Arc

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai (Answer Arcs): Meakashi (Eye Opening Arc) - Watanagashi Answer Arc Tsumihoroboshi (Atonement Arc) - Onikakushi Answer Arc Minagoroshi (Massacre Arc) - Tatarigoroshi Answer Arc Matsuribayashi (Festival Accompanying Arc) - Himatsubushi Answer Arc & Finale

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei (PC Fandisc): Saikoroshi (Dice Killing Arc) - Epilogue considered by most to be the true ending of the series Batsukoishi (Penalty Loving Arc) - Ecchi crap Hirukowashi (Daybreak Arc) - Love-love crap based on Higurashi Daybreak action game

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Matsuri (PS2 Port with three new arcs): Taraimawashi (Rotation Arc) - Alternative Onikakushi Tsukiotoshi (Exorcism Arc) - Alternative Tatarigoroshi Miotsukushi Omote (Waterway Exhausting Arc: Front) - Alternate finale, replacing Matsuribayashi

Higuarshi no Naku Koro ni Kizuna (DS Port with 6 new arcs): Someutsushi (Stain Following Arc) - Question Arc Adaptation of Onisarashi manga arc Kageboushi (Silhouette Arc) - Answer Arc Adaptation of Onisarashi manga arc Yoigoshi (Beyond Midnight Arc) - Adaptation of manga arc of the same name; Mion’s Post-Tsumihoroboshi Future Tokihogushi (Untangling Arc) - Tomoe investigates Rena’s past Kotohogushi (Congratulating Arc) - Exploration of Hinamizawa’s Ancient History Miotsukushi Ura (Waterway Exhausting) - Kizuna’s version of Miotsukushi, focuses more on giving an ending to the Kizuna-exclusive characters: Natsumi, Tomoe and co. Himatsubushi is also included in Kizuna.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Sui (PS3/Vita Port with all Console Arcs as well as the following): Hajisarashi (Embarrassment Arc) - Adaptation of Rei OVA Episode 1; Pool Shenanigans

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou (PC Release which includes all of the original Higurashi + Kai + Rei + 3 new arcs): Hinamizawa Teiryuujo (Hinamizawa Bus Stop) - Higurashi Prototype Higurashi Outbreak - Adaptation of OVA of the same name, independent arc featuring the main cast intended to be read after the main series Kamikanshi (God Violating Arc) - Continuation of Outbreak

Manga Exclusive Arcs: Onisarashi (Demon Exposing Arc) - Natsumi Arc Utsutsukowashi (Reality Breaking Arc) - Meakashi Prequel Kokoroiyashi (Heart Healing Arc) - Another Matsuribayashi Epilogue Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Jan - Based on the Mahjong game of the same name Tsubamegaeshi (Swallow Counter Arc) - Continuation of the Jan sub-series Kataribanashi (Anthology Arc) - Anthology of fan-submitted stories

Making it’s debut for the Higurashi Meakashi Tea Party comes our very first Rokkenjima Chorus, where we sing Higurashi’s ‘You’ together as a community! Our singers for this chorus are Aspirety, Epika, Karifean, Seraphitic, artifedex and VyseGolbez. We even went through the trouble of retranslating the lyrics for the video, which you can find here.

Our dive into the answer arcs of Higurashi begins with Meakashi, the Eye-Opening Arc! I’m especially happy with how this Tea Party and podcast went down; I believe it may be our best podcast yet! If you have to listen to any Rokkenjima podcast, make it this one. This week I’m joined by veterans Karifean and Naomikon (who’s making her Rokkenjima podcast debut), together with newcomers Pepe, pictoshark and VyseGolbez.

My humble thanks to all the forum members for their discussion of this Chapter in the Spoiler-Free and the Full Spoilers topics, and congratulations to artifedex and Pepe for earning the prestige of the MeakashiTea Party Top Creator and Top Poster respectively! You will be rewarded with a forum badge and a special prize each!

The Someutsushi Tea Party is already well underway, where we’re digging deep analysing this newly translated arc! It’s scheduled to end this weekend or next depending on demand. In particular we’re still looking for fresh faces to join the podcast, so if you’ve read Someutsushi and want to chat about it with us live on podcast, please apply! We’d love to have you join us.

If you’d prefer to download and listen to the Tea Party offline, we’ve prepared an mp3 you can download here. For more information about the Higurashi Tea Party, including links to relevant forum topics and future episodes, keep an eye on our Higurashi Tea Party Page.