Higurashi When They Cry is a sound novel later adapted into various anime series, manga, light novels and films. Each characters mostly appear in every arc, including Keiichi Maebara, along with his female friends, Rena Ryugu, Mion and Shion Sonozaki, Satoko Hojo and Rika Furude. The supporting characters also appear in some arcs, including the soon-to-be-retired detective Kuraudo Ooishi, freelance photographer Jiro Tomitake, female nurse and counter-intelligence force leader Miyo Takano, and the clinic's head doctor Kyosuke Irie. The manga characters also appear in the first adaptation. In Onisarashi-hen, Natsumi Kimiyoshi is the visitor of Okinomiya. In Yoigoshi-hen, Akira Otobe appears around in the forest near the deserted village. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Main Played by: Gōki Maeda (film), Yu Inaba (TV series) The main male protagonist of the first three "question" arcs. The son of a famous artist, his family recently moved to Hinamizawa after a violent incident event involving him in their hometown. His charisma and remarkable talent for rhetoric, which earns him the nickname "Magician of Words," allow him to easily make new friends and become popular in the village, not to mention winning some club activities. Early in the story, in the Onikakushi-hen arc, he is affected by paranoia after hearing about a dam mutilation murder case and Oyashiro's curse which driven him to murder Rena and Mion who are trying to help him and dies from clawing his own neck inside a phone booth, but the inner strength and unshaken belief in his friends he acquires in the other arcs are one of the keys to solve the case. Eventually, he is even able to recall some of the events of the past repetitions. Before fighting, he wields Satoshi's old baseball bat. It is later revealed in the story that before arriving there, he grew weary of school, due to his ostracism from having a genius level intelligence, and was the perpetrator of a series of crimes involving shooting children with a BB gun to cope with his immense stress which ended after he accidentally shot a young girl in an eye. Played by: Aika (film), Hinata Honma (TV series) One of Keiichi's friends and the main protagonist of both the fourth and final "question" arc and all the "answer" arcs, as well as the ultimately true main protagonist of the entire series. She is in the same grade level as Satoko and they