History Fridge / HigurashiWhenTheyCry

* The secret ending for Matsuribayashi [[spoiler:where Takano never loses her parents]] would logically turn the story into a downer ending, though granted one with few to no deaths. It goes like this: [[spoiler:She never meets her grandfather and thus never tries to research Hinamizawa syndrome, thus she never sets up the clinic. The anti dam project group does not have the clinic's backing anymore and thus the village is submerged before Keiichi or Rena ever move in. Hinamizawa residents tend to get deranged outside of the village, though granted this would only happen to some individuals. Even if the dam project is halted, the disease is still there and people like Satoshi would get arrested. One of the group of friends would also probably go crazy since apart from the last two arcs one of them usually snaps.]]

** [[spoiler:Teppei doesn't have sex with Satoko, though probably only because he's not a pedophile. It's mentioned in a tip that he thinks her mother was hot, and that it would be great if she was old enough to... enjoy.]]

* Eyes are a big deal in Higurashi, telling you when characters are feeling a certain way and at many points, how they are mentally. In Onikakushi, you can sometimes see Keiichi's own eyes shift similarly to how he [[spoiler: imagines he]] sees the eyes of Rena and Mion, declaring [[spoiler: his mental state.]] And in Tsumihoroboroshi, you can immediately tell that Rena has officially left the red-zone near the end of her fight with Keiichi. Rena closes her eyes when she says she wants the same reward as Keiichi. Then, the moment she says they'll always be together, [[spoiler:regardless of who wins their confrontation, her eyes are back to normal.]]

* Watanagashi-hen; visual novel. A bit of a funny example, but as Keiichi is [[spoiler: wondering about Shion's and Ooishi's comments on Mion and who Mion really is while they're on their way to where Rika and Satoko live,]] he looks at Mion's back as she's riding the bike in front of him. The narration states that Mion's back has no answers. [[spoiler: The irony is that "Scrapbook XI" soon brings up the fact that Mion, being the heir of Sonozaki clan, probably has a demon tatooed somewhere on her back. So, it did have answers after all!]]

* Why is it that sometimes Keiichi will say something with no quotation marks in the VN and then have everyone reply like he said it out loud? Because he did. [[DidIJustSayThatOutLoud He says almost everything he's thinking out loud.]] It's a running gag that this happens a lot and people will often answer that it's plainly seen on his face, even when it makes no sense because what they replied with is very specific and quite clearly a direct response to what he said "mentally". Keiichi doesn't realize it, so to him, he's not speaking, and thus? No quotations.

* Even to the most blatantly unobservant viewer, Onikakushi-hen in the visual novel is filled to the brim with absolutely brilliant details that can clue you in to him being hallucinating everything. Constant back and forths from Keiichi's constant questioning of his own insanity to him completely embracing he can trust no one, his comments on how he feels sick or ill, the lack of comments from his mother on the sewing needle despite her commenting on how he smeared food on the walls... He even off-handedly mentions that if his mother heard him talking about how Rena wanted to kill him, she would ''drag him to a psychiatrist in the blink of an eye.''

* Even to the most blatantly unobservant viewer, Onikakushi-hen in the visual novel is filled to the brim with absolutely brilliant details that can clue you in to him being hallucinating everything. Constant back and forths from Keiichi's constant questioning of his own insanity to him completely embracing he can trust no one, his comments on how he feels sick or ill, the lack of comments from his mother on the sewing needle despite her commenting on how he smeared food on the walls... He even off-handedly mentions that if his mother heard him talking about how Rena wanted to kill him, she would ''drag him to the nearest psychiatric ward.''

This is a personal moment for the viewer, so every example is signed by the contributor. If you start off with "ThisTroper", really, you have no excuse. We're going to hit you on the head.

*** In this regard [[spoiler:the Great Hinamizawa 'Gas Disaster', actually works to soften the blow, yes, most worlds end in tragedy, but all involved are swiftly euthanasied. The exceptions are Watanagashi, MEakashi, and Tatarigoroshi-hen.]]

*** There is no sexual absue, though probably only because he's not a pedophile. It's mentioned in a tip that he thinks her mother was hot, and that it would be great if she was old enough to... enjoy.

*** Sexual abuse could partly explains why Satoko reacted so violently to Keiichi's head patting - in fact, she reacted to a man touching her. It's more evident in the sound novels, since the anime put in an explicit explanation(that doesn't make a lot of sense).

* Emergency Manual 34 is implemented in every world where [[spoiler: Rika is captured and killed by Takano]]. That means that no matter what happens in the arc, [[spoiler: '''every single person in Hinamizawa during the night Rika dies is killed'''. Always and without fail.]] This is most shocking in [[spoiler: Tsumihoroboshi.hen, which ends happily, then roll credits... and the ''same night in which the arc ends'' Rika and then everyone else is killed.]]

* Emergency Manual 34 is implemented in every world where [[spoiler: Rika is captured and killed by Takano]]. That means that no matter what happens in the arc, [[spoiler: '''every single person in Hinamizawa during the night Rika dies is killed'''. Always and without fail.]] This is most shocking in [[spoiler: Atonement, which ends happily, then roll credits... and the ''same night in which the arc ends'' Rika and then everyone else is killed.]]

* In Chapter 5 of Tatorigoroshi-hen, Keiichi becomes worried about Satoko after Rika tells everyone that Satoko is "running a little late," because [[spoiler: Satoko's uncle Teppei returned to Hinamizawa and Satoko was forced into his custody. Subsequently, she was locked in the house for three days straight, being forced to care for Teppei, which probably includes sexual favors. Eugh]]. When Keiichi is lamenting to Rena that their fun days end so abruptly, Rena's response is that she tries to hold onto the precious things that make her happy, because even though it only takes a day to lose it all, if you hold onto it while it's there, you won't have any regrets. She then makes an analogy to prove her point: "If a volcano erupted tomorrow and we all died... And you were the only one left alive... How would you feel then?" Rena says that if that's what were destined to happen, she wouldn't have any regrets because she lived those happy days to the fullest. This all seems very sweet, until you finish the whole series and realize that at the end of Tsumihoroboshi-hen, [[spoiler: this is basically exactly what happens to her, as far as she knows. The epilogue in the anime shows Rena alive in 2007, traumatized from losing her friends and everyone she knows to the Great Hinamizawa Disaster]]. And, since we know that [[spoiler: sometimes the characters can remember their actions in past arcs]], Rena's analogy holds a lot more impact since [[spoiler: she has actually experienced what she is saying.]]

* In Meakashi-hen, when Mion calls Shion to let her know that Oryou has found out that Shion escaped from St. Lucia school and is hiding in Okinomiya, Shion is seen casually clipping her fingernails as she's talking. This is an example of some clever foreshadowing, since [[spoiler: Shion is later forced to rip her own fingernails off after Oryou becomes enraged with her later in the arc.]]