Higruashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku follows virus outbreak in village

The official Twitter account for the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry - Higurashi) anime franchise confirmed on Saturday that a relaunch of the anime has been green-lit. The announcement of the new anime was made at the 10th anniversary event of the franchise on Saturday, and its planned unveiling will be next spring.

The new Higruashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku anime will adapt the short story "Higurashi Outbreak" by Higurashi no Naku Koro ni creator Ryukishi07 (07th Expansion). Toshifumi Kawase, the series script supervisor of the previous Higurashi anime projects and the director of Higurashi no Naku Koroni Rei, is helming the new anime.

"Higurashi Outbreak" is set in the same Hinamizawa village of the previous stories. The village has been completely sealed off due to a mysterious virus in 1983, and Keiichi Maebara and Rena Ryūgū deal with the outbreak. Souichiro Hoshi and Mai Nakahara, the original voices of these two protagonists, appeared at Saturday's event before an estimated 700 fans.

07th Expansion's original Higurashi no Naku Koro ni visual novel software revolved around murders that coincide with an annual festival in a quiet rural village. The software inspired two television anime series, several video anime projects, two live-action films, and manga adaptations by several artists.

The game publisher MangaGamer licensed the rights to translate the original visual novel software for personal computers, and it has released them in English. Funimation took over North American distribution of the first Higurashi television anime series from Geneon Entertainment and released the first DVDs in 2008. North America's Yen Press acquired the Higurashi manga for its Yen Plus anthology magazine and later for compiled book volumes.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web

Images © 2006 Ryukishi07/Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Production Committee, Sotsu