Add Higurashi: When They Cry to the list of anime getting adapted into a gacha game.
On Friday, July 31st, it was announced that the horror franchise is getting a brand new mobile gacha game in Japan, with a pre-registration campaign launching the same day. The game is being produced with complete cooperation from the original creator, Ryukishi07, with a completely new story written by Kiichi Kanou, music by Motoi Sakuraba, and a theme song (titled “Frustration”) performed by Ayane.
They have revealed no release date for the game as yet nor are there any announced plans for the game to be translated and released in the west, but stay tuned for more information as it is revealed in the coming weeks and months.
Even if it never gets translated and released in the west, at least we have the brand new television anime adaptation which will be simulcast by Funimation this October.
Originally a doujin visual novel released at Comiket in 2002 by creator Ryukishi07, Higurashi: When They Cry was first adapted into a 26 episode anime series in 2006 and then received a 24 episode sequel series in 2007. Geneon originally released the first season in the west before the license was taken over by Funimation. From there, the series remained in limbo for a short time before Sentai Filmworks picked it back up and released the entire original anime series on home video in 2016.
Sentai Filmworks describes the Higurashi: When They Cry story as:
Moving to the picturesque town of Hinamizawa is going to be a big adjustment for Keiichi. For all its beauty, it’s also tiny… so small that there’s only one school, one where most of the students have known each other all their lives. Fortunately, he soon meets four girls… Rena, Mion, Satoko, and Rika, who’re willing to let the new guy in town join their afterschool club. And for a while, things seem wonderful. Until Keiichi starts discovering strange things, like the project manager for a controversial dam project being found dismembered five years ago. As he digs deeper, there are whispers and rumors of other murders and disappearances, stories of a town curse, and mysterious rituals. And then people he knows start to die. What secrets have the people of Hinamizawa kept hidden from the rest of the world? And could his new friends somehow be involved?
Source: ITMedia
