Awesome / Higurashi: When They Cry

Awesome moments in Higurashi: When They Cry.

• Combined with horror, Rika choosing to headbutt a butcher knife to death rather than be tortured by Shion. It leads to Shion's most iconic Evil Laugh.
  Rika: MINNA SHINEEEEEIIIII!!!
  • This comes back in her second Image Song, S.A.G.A.
• The Akasaka vs. Yamainu fight in Higurashi Kai will linger in the memories of the fans for years (Made of Iron anyone?).
  • The awesomeness of the scene isn't so much from Akasaka's ownage of the Yamainu as it is from the immensity of the Big Damn Heroes moment. For almost fifty episodes straight, there is no one to stop the horrible endings, no one to help at all. Especially after the destruction of the previous Hope Spot, it looked like this arc was also doomed. The club captured, Rika gagged and the Yamainu about to kill everyone. Then Akasaka finally entered because of the directions of a small child years ago, and singlehandedly turns the entire situation around.
  • Look how much more awesome it becomes when you add the original game music.
  • The sound novel version somehow manages to be even more awesome than the anime version, with over-the-top descriptions of Akasaka's incredible fighting abilities (complete with crashing sound effects), all set to a fast-paced, incredibly uplifting rendition of "Dear You". Even Rika gets in on the awesomeness - in the anime, she just does her best to keep her head down during the fighting; in the sound novel, she actually decides to draw pictures on the ground while waiting for Akasaka to finish annihilating the Mountain Dogs. The scene is awesome enough to inspire anyone reading it to run out into the street and bench press a truck.
• Keiichi gets a really great moment in the third episode of Higurashi Kai; he sabotages the rival baseball team by making their star player admit his one true weakness.
  Keiichi: Right! You're a pervert! But what's wrong with being a pervert? Men are supposed to be perverts! What's going to happen now is you're going to admit that you're a pervert! Men should have these ideas! You are honest to yourself! You can be proud of that!
• The "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight on the school roof at the climax of Tsumihoroboshi-hen.
• Near the beginning of the final arc of Higurashi Kai, the Big Bad goes to the Saiguden and tosses a coin into a wishing well. The coin comes shooting back out and bounces off the villain, then Hanyuu appears (displaying Glowing Eyes of Doom) and delivers a furious rant which concludes with "We will not lose to the strength of your will!" Awesome.
  • Link to above example
  • And at the end of the arc, Takano faces her down again, points a gun at her face, and fires. She misses, which is made all the more awesome by Hanyuu not even flinching.
  • It's an Ironic Echo of when Miyo wished to be killed by a lightning bolt (which also missed) when she was much younger.
    • Shortly before this incident Takano and Hanyuu have a brief exchange. Hanyuu is not the stuttering cute little girl she normally appears as here. She speaks with authority and confidence, much more the stern Oyashiro-sama figure she's been worshipped as for centuries. And yet despite this and the fact that their roles have essentially reversed (Takano's schemes have all come undone and she is probably at her lowest point we've seen her at in the series since her childhood) Hanyuu asks what she truly wants and listens to Takano's tearful reply. Despite all the reasons she has to hate Takano and what she's put Hanyuu and her friends through over and over again, here in this final moment Hanyuu is a spirit of mercy and forgiveness.
• Rena's "outburst" after Keiichi's complete meltdown in Tatarigoroshi-hen. Keiichi claims that Mion should do something to help Satoko in the harshest, most blaming voice and expressions imaginable - telling her she's inhuman and that she should just ask her family to help Satoko to the point Mion actually cries. Rena completely turns the spear on him by telling him she knows a wealthy family who could help; the Maebara family. She copies everything he did to Mion and frightens Keiichi in the most amazing way possible to make a point. An incredible moment that hits home just how amazing Rena is.
• Rena facing off fearlessly against Takano in the second arc of Higurashi Kai, who has a gun aimed at Rena, and mocking the villain relentlessly whenever Takano says that she will become Oyashiro-sama until Takano shoots her.
• Keiichi earns a second one in episode 8 of Kai by being able to take a CHAIR STRIGHT TO THE HEAD and have little in the way of injury to show of it.
  • Made even more awesome by the fact that it's Shion who tried to beat him up with said chair.
• An event: July First.
  • Also doubles as a Heartwarming Moment.
• Satoko finally calling her uncle out and yelling at him to GET OUT despite being beaten while doing so.
  • Her, refusing to cry as Shion tortures her to death, claiming that she's realized how much of a burden she was on Satoshi and not wanting to be The Load anymore.
• Towards the end of Kai when everyone works together to outsmart the Mooks with traps and disguises. Pretty funny really.
  • Also, Keiichi's Rousing Speech that inspired the True Companions to pull together for said outsmarting. I'd just finished watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann when I saw that speech, and between the sheer Hot-Blooded determination to Screw Destiny, and the ethos of overcoming all the negative feelings that might drive them apart, I half-expected Kei-kun to whip out a certain distinctive pair of sunglasses and scream, "GATTAI!"
• Kasai, Shion's bodyguard gets one by pointing a gun at one of the guards and demanding fiercely that they open up the door to Satoshi's room...and when he smacks the guard with the gun.

  Kasai: Thanks. Here's your reward. *smacks the guard, knocking him out.*

  • That, and telling them "[He is] a mountain of corpses above you!"
  • It helps that he is an ex-Yakuza.
• Not sure if it goes here, since it's from a PS2 only arc... but in Miotsukushi-hen: Keiichi is cornered by Takano, and realizes he's going to die there... before Hanyuu comes along and gets a CMOA for giving him a helluva Rousing Speech, ending with "Don't lose! Stand! STAND UP! And show me that fate is absolutely nothing compared to human will!" After that, Keiichi gets his own when he thereafter dodges all the bullets that Takano and her men shoot at him, and then uses tear gas to escape with Rika and Satoko. Scene can be viewed here.
• Keiichi's speech at the end of episode six of Kai to Rika is definitely cool. He stops his best friend's twin going psychopathic and then declares that he is going to rip fate a new one.
• Shion's manipulation of the town council in Meakashi is villainous, but epic, one. She's impersonating her sister in front of a group of murderers, and she does it so well that she manages to bullshit her way through the entire meeting!

  Shion (inner monologue:) Calm down. You're Mion's sister. What's in her is in you.

• Episode 13 of Higurashi Kai. Satoko and Rika are running from the Yamainu, trying to escape through the forest, and eventually the Yamainu catch up with them. Rika, in spite of certain death, stands to protect Satoko and delivers a defiant speech about how one person taught her that "fate can be beaten to a pulp". With a taser-wielding Yamainu agent bearing down on her, that one person—Keiichi—leaps out of the bushes with a bat to save her.
  • Not just Keiichi, either. Mion, Shion, and Rena also come leaping out of the bushes and take out the remaining Yamainu using martial arts, a taser, and a cleaver. It becomes even more awesome once you realize that four well-trained mercenaries just got taken down by a bunch of kids.
    • Made quite possibly more awesome in the manga, where, after Rika calls back to the goldfish game with a "fate is even less sturdy then a goldfish net" speech, Keiichi, the very guy who gave said speech to Rika, delivers a jump-kick to the man about to attack Rika.
• Rena in Onikakushi-hen. Most of the stuff she did in that arc after Keiichi started cracking was amazing, she tried to help him no matter what. But, just before she died, she just sat there, arms out. Right in front of a guy who just beat her other friend to death with a bat, and already beat her half to death. And said, "Believe In Me." This scene is also Heartwarming.
  • Even better in the English dub, where she makes a slight joke, "What? Don't you believe in me?"
• Might be a little dark for some. But episode 23. Rena. One junior-highschool girl with no plan, premeditation, or prep time vs. two hardened criminals. Guess who survives the night unscathed and who winds up in several dozen bags?
  • Also a little dark, but an application of Fridge Logic makes you realize it: In the atonement arc, despite the fact that Rena has gone crazy from Hinamizawa syndrome and holds the school hostage under the delusion that aliens are responsible for everything, she still manages to remain relatively calm and clear headed when you realize that she is hallucinating and honestly believes that an unending number of maggots are pouring out of her skin. Watch at 5:43.
• In what turned out to be a Chekhov's Gun about his future abilities in a comedic scene in the second episode of Kai, Keiichi, (after getting soaked by a Bucket Booby-Trap involving a large water basin) is able to avoid and deflect all of the traps that Satoko, set firmly in Bratty Half-Pint mode, had spent hours setting up to attack him. He almost gets revenge on her for the prank, but since he is the show's Butt-Monkey he gets hit on the head from behind with the basin by Shion.
• Episode 3 of Higurashi Rei, when Rika strikes back against Satoko. Satoko is a bitch in this world and starts playing keep-away with an important document Rika was reading. Rika cuts her smirk off with a thrown chair to the face that knocks her to the ground. Rika walks over with another chair, starts slamming the curled up, terrified Sakoto (while the other two participants in the bullying watch in horror), and finishes with a deep-voiced lecture. Satisfying indeed.
  Rika: Satoko, shut your mouth for a second. Since you have the same face as my best friend, I endured it for a while. But I'm just about fed up with that arrogant voice of yours. The next time you decide to bully me, I won't listen to any of your excuses. So with that in mind... Nice to meet you.
• And, again in the last arc of Kai, there's the point where Ooishi completely owns The Mole in the police force who's been feeding information to the Yamainu. Do not attempt to arrest a Cool Old Guy who can flip you backwards over his head. In slo-mo.
  • This passage is this and a Funny Moment when Ōtaka tries to pretend that he is a friend of "Representative Sonozaki" to force his way through. Cue Akane Sonozaki appearing behind him accompanied by the Representative in question and starting to talk with Ooishi about a mundane car fine issue. Ōtaka is completely clueless and goes on about his futile threat, effectively pissing off the two Sonozakis. Bad idea.
  • Ooishi gets another in the TIPS of Eye-Opening Chapter. The three thugs who got on Shion's case for knocking over their motorcycles go to Ooishi and try to get him to arrest her. Oishi starts the police report by offering them a beer and agreeing with everything they say. By the time it's over, he's gotten them to admit that the motorcycles were stolen and arrested them for it. Masterful.
• Episode 5 of Rei, where we get this Heartwarming Moment:
  Rena: Hey, Keiichi-kun. Thanks for saving me earlier.
  Keiichi: There's no way I'd leave a friend behind like that.
  Rena: What you said back then... really made me happy. Those words... I really heard them.
  Keiichi: They didn't have any special meaning, you know.
  Rena: If Rena finds out, won't it be trouble?
  Keiichi: It's not like I dislike Rena... It's just that Rena should take those feelings and show them to the one she truly loves, not me.
  Rena: That's true, but didn't Mii-chan say earlier how it was amazing that Rena could make herself fit with the others... That's not normal, right? Anybody that falls in love will work their hardest to make their partner like them. So Rena's not unique in that sense.
  Keiichi: That's how it's gotta be.
  Rena: You're right. Hauu~ It's no good Keiichi-kun, the magatama's power is starting to build up again!
  Keiichi: Be careful! Focus on the ritual!
  Rena: You're right. Keiichi-kun, although this might be due to the magatama... Rena Ryuuguu really loves you. If this is going to really be lifted soon, then I wanted to tell you just in time.
  Keiichi: You idiot! Don't let the magatama control you! Take this seriously.
  Rena: Yes... It would be nice if this was lifted soon.
  • Which is immediately followed by this Funny Moment:
    Hanyuu: Auu~ Rena just confessed her love to Keiichi!
    Rika(deadpan, in her adult voice): Yes, I heard. All that mushy crap is starting to tick me off.
• Hanyuu has one in episode 23 of Kai. There's a scene where the Yamainu are trying to catch the main cast on a mountain, when suddenly the radio starts broadcasting an extremely menacing and dramatic female voice that calmly states that they have committed sacrilege by walking on this mountain, and you hear another voice screaming about demons and human organs. Cue ominous dark clouds, and finally one of the Yamainu guys literally just runs away. Cut to Hanyuu, looking adorably happy with the little speaker next to her.
  • ...and that other voice is Keiichi putting on a terrific act.
• After the flashback in Episode 25, Keiichi suffers terrible heartache for remembering how he killed Rena and Mion in the first arc, crying with real emotion, before segueing into a Heartwarming Moment with a long, warm hug with a blushing Mion.
  • Another moment in this scene goes to Rika's voice actress Yukari Tamura, while talking with Keiichi, in the span of one scene she goes from using a Bratty Half-Pint voice, to one befitting an adult to her creepy Yandere voice. The work she put in on the character is nothing short of incredible.
• In Minagoroshi-hen, Keiichi standing up to Oryou Sonozaki and calmly telling her that he'll strangle and kill her to make Mion the new head and have her support them instead if she won't cooperate with them and lend her power to help them save Satoko. And almost going through with it. This impresses her so much that she changes her mind later and agrees!
  • An awesome moment for Rena as well, just for this line: "So, if Satoko makes this reparation, will you make your reparation for the ostracising that she's endured?"
  • She later remarks that she can now die in peace, knowing she can entrust the next generation to capable people like Keiichi.
• Matsuribayashi-hen shows us just how awesome Sonozaki Mion is, when she is willing to take a bullet, to protect her friends.
• Keiichi's entrance during the big fight in Minagoroshi, manga version. Rika and Satoko are ready to die, we get a panel of an obscured boy, the next page is Keiichi mid-kick through the air with the coolest expression, and then he goes for the kick. That's just the beginning of the awesome.
• Keiichi's words after the climax of Tsumihoroboshi celebrating the first good ending
  Keiichi: This is it for Tonight!!
  We defeated the tragedy!!
  We will never doubt each other again.
  We'll be united always!!
  No matter what kind of tragedy strikes,
  don't ever think we'll be daunted!!
  who cares about tragedy,
  who cares about disaster?
  Even if we face an evil script,
  we will destroy it!!!
• In the movie trailer for Kaku, Rena fights a man with a gun wielding only her cleaver, and defeats him in the space of about three seconds.
• In the second arc of the visual novel, Shion invites Keiichi to a special all you can eat dessert event at the restaurant she works at. While there, a customer causes trouble for Shion by tripping her, so that the food she is carrying is spilled into his lap. The costumer tried to take advantage by demanding she wipe the food off of his lap. Keiichi, remembering when Shion saved him earlier, nervously tries to defend her. This was fairly awesome in itself. Unfortunately, however, Keiichi gets curb stomped in the ensuing fight. (The other guy knew some martial arts) The narrative continues with Keiichi waking up at his table, with Shion standing over him. Now... This could have ended there and it would still be somewhat awesome... but instead, Keiichi, realizing his own limitations, calls up Rena, Rika, and Satoko to help him out. The next time some costumers tried to cause trouble for Shion; they got bruised by Rena, had their food tainted by Satoko, and after trying to use the women's bathroom (the men's was full) were shamed out of the restaurant (which they could not re-enter) by Rika. Both the wait staff and the normal costumers where very thankful for their efforts.
• The fight scenes in Outbreak are far and away Higurashi at its most utterly badass. Rena and Keiichi absolutely steamroll dozens of crazed villagers, and all to rescue Satoko, who is being held captive by the most insane villagers. By far the most badass moment of all? The tag team baseball bat kill, which occurs immediately after Keiichi has been hit with a shotgun-blast powered bat, and Rena has had part of her shoulder blown off.
• The final battle. After years of years of being plunged into despair, the club members all team up to defeat the Yamainu. How? By using the strategies that they used during club activities. And to think that the Yamainu was a group of professionals, beaten by a bunch of kids.
  • There is an implication here that the 'kids' are so badass in this final battle because on some level they remember the past arcs and have developed more and more effective survival skills through reliving the events of each arc. This is awesome in and of itself. Philosophically speaking, it resembles the ideas of some schools of Buddhism...that the world is a place of suffering, but with an endless series of rebirth you can obtain enough wisdom and enlightenment to rise beyond that suffering and find peace beyond the cycle.

Gou

Episode 1

• Towards the end of the first episode, the original anime opening plays as Keiichi discovers the newspaper detailing how a construction worker was lynched and murdered. While it may be a standalone, it's great that it acknowledges its predecessor. Rena arriving with her signature billhook only sweetens the deal.

Episode 4

• Despite being repeatedly stabbed by Rena, Keiichi is nevertheless defiant, repeatedly striking her with the alarm clock. And he won.

Episode 5

• Much like the original anime, Shion stands up for Keiichi when the three gang members threaten to beat him when he accidentally pushed their motorcycles over.

Episode 17

• Rika pulls out an amazing Batman Gambit at the end, handing Satoko a familiar box. Satoko who remembers that it's a trap, drops to her knees. Rika then reveals that it isn't a trap, but a teddy bear, proving to her that it's Satoko who is the other looper.

Sotsu

Episode 14

• We finally see what happened after Satoko pulled a gun on Rika. After Satoko shot Rika and then herself, what followed was the two of them beating the ever-loving shit out of each other, one continuous battle that takes them through multiple fragments without ever stopping to notice the shifts. After Rika finds out Satoko did all this just because she hated studying and didn't want to go to St. Lucia's, Rika reaches her Rage Breaking Point at all the pointless suffering she endured for something so trivial and repeatedly calls Satoko on her bullshit.
  • At one point when Satoko is fighting Rika inside a classroom, Rika gets the upper hand and brains Satoko. WITH A CHAIR. After all the memes about bringing back "Chair-kun" from Saikoroshi-hen, it seems the creative team knew they had to include this.
  • There's a glorious Call-Back to the original series, where one of the fights between Rika and Satoko is a direct homage to Keiichi and Rena's battle in Tsumihoroboshi-hen. Rika's armed with Rena's hatchet while Satoko has Keiichi's bat.
  • Satoko & Rika's fight at the junkyard is described in few words: PURE. BAD. ASS. Before then, their transformations and power up also count.

Episode 15

• Hanyuu's able to get enough resolve to make a small cut in Eua's "horns" (or memory device) causing her to revert to a smaller form and successfully banishes her.

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