A mystery-horror series set in the rural village of Hinamizawa, where a group of friends live the same summer over and over as paranoia, murder, and something older than either close in around them.
Plus 5 optional extras.
4 titles · 89 episodes · ~35.5 hours
Watch the 2006 series and its 2007 sequel Kai back to back, then GOU and SOTSU. Those four are the whole story: 89 episodes, roughly 35.5 hours. The OVAs and specials below the line are genuinely optional, and most of them have never had an English release.
The starting point. The story is told in six arcs that each reset to the same June of 1983 and play out differently, so the early sense that nothing carries over is deliberate rather than a continuity error.
⚠ Contains graphic violence and psychological horror from the first episode onward.
Watch this immediately after the first series. It answers what the 2006 run withholds, and the first series does not stand on its own without it. The opening five episodes are anime-original before the story returns to the source material.
GOU opens on what looks like a retelling of the 2006 series and is not one. It is a sequel to Kai, and the gap between what you remember and what you are watching is the point. Go in with the original still fresh.
⚠ Marketed on release as a remake of the 2006 series. It is a sequel, and the production has confirmed as much.
Picks up straight from GOU and replays much of it from other characters' perspectives before finishing the story. Watch it directly after GOU; the two were built as a single arc.
A self-contained 23-minute episode, originally a bonus for buying all nine volumes of the 2006 DVD release and later included in the 2014 Blu-ray box. It sits somewhere in the same summer and changes nothing. No English release.
The one piece of side material with real story in it. Episodes 2 to 4 are an epilogue following Rika after Kai; the first and last episodes are comedy. If you want it, watch it between Kai and GOU rather than at the very end.
Twenty-four parody skits of roughly 33 seconds each, bundled with the Kai home video release. About thirteen minutes in total. No English release.
Four comedy episodes made for the franchise's tenth anniversary, including one in which Rika and Satoko are magical girls. Non-canon throughout, with no English release.
A single 52-minute what-if in which Hinamizawa is sealed off under quarantine. It shares the tone of the main series rather than the comedy of the other OVAs, but connects to nothing. No English release.
⚠ Returns to the graphic content of the main series.
The original series and Kai are one story split across two cours. The 2006 run asks the questions and Kai answers them, so there is no good stopping point between them. GOU and SOTSU come next. GOU was marketed as a remake and is not one: it is a sequel in which Rika, having finally escaped the loops at the end of Kai, is dragged back into them. That reveal only works if the original is fresh in your memory, which is the main reason release order is also the best order here. SOTSU replays GOU from other characters' points of view and finishes the story, so treat the two as one 39-episode block. Everything below the line is side material. Rei is the most substantial of it, with three of its five episodes forming a real epilogue to Kai, and it is worth slotting in between Kai and GOU if you want it. Nekogoroshi-hen, Ura☆Higu, Kira, and Outbreak have no bearing on the plot, and outside of Rei none of them received an English release.
Higurashi: When They Cry has 4 seasons in the main run — 89 episodes altogether.
| Title | Type | Episodes | Aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Higurashi: When They Cry | TV Series | 26 episodes | April 2006 |
| Higurashi: When They Cry – Kai | TV Series | 24 episodes | July 2007 |
| Higurashi: When They Cry – GOU | TV Series | 24 episodes | October 2020 |
| Higurashi: When They Cry – SOTSU | TV Series | 15 episodes | July 2021 |
| Title | Type | Episodes | Aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Higurashi: When They Cry – Cat Killing Chapter | Special | 1 episode | August 2007 |
| Higurashi: When They Cry – Rei | OVA | 5 episodes | February 2009 |
| Higurashi: When They Cry – Kai Specials | Special | 24 episodes | September 2007 |
| Higurashi: When They Cry – Kira | OVA | 4 episodes | July 2011 |
| Higurashi: When They Cry – Outbreak | OVA | 1 episode | August 2013 |
4 titles · 89 episodes · ~35.5 hours
Where each part of the anime lines up with the source, so you know where to pick up reading.
The source is a visual novel by Ryukishi07 and 07th Expansion, not a manga, so there is no volume to continue from once the anime ends. The 2006 series and Kai between them cover the whole eight-chapter main story. Three parts of the anime have no chapter to line up against: Kai's first five episodes are an anime-original arc, Rei adapts the Rei fan disc plus a light novel side story, and GOU and SOTSU have no game version at all. What the visual novel offers instead is the same story at far greater length and with the internal monologue the anime has to cut. MangaGamer has released chapters 1 through 8 in English on Steam and GOG, sold individually, with the first chapter free.
Start with the 2006 series, then Kai, then GOU, then SOTSU. Those four are the entire story at 89 episodes, around 35 and a half hours. Everything else is optional side material.
No, and this trips up almost everyone. GOU was promoted as a remake and opens like one, but it is a sequel to Kai: Rika escapes the loops at the end of Kai and GOU sends her back into them. Watching the original first is not just recommended, it is what makes GOU work.
Yes. Nekogoroshi-hen, Ura☆Higu, Kira, and Outbreak have no bearing on the plot. Rei is the only one with real story content: episodes 2 to 4 are an epilogue to Kai and are worth watching between Kai and GOU if you want more. The other two Rei episodes are comedy.
Partly, and the casts do not match. The 2006 series was dubbed for its Geneon release in 2007. Kai and Rei were later rescued by Sentai Filmworks and released subtitled only, so there is no dub for either. GOU and SOTSU were dubbed by Funimation with an entirely new English cast, including Apphia Yu as Rika, Emi Lo as Rena, Michelle Rojas as Mion, and Brittany Lauda as Satoko.
GOU and SOTSU stream on Crunchyroll, which absorbed Funimation's catalogue. The older entries sit with Sentai Filmworks, and availability for them shifts by region between streaming and digital purchase, so it is worth checking what is listed in your own country. Nekogoroshi-hen, Ura☆Higu, Kira, and Outbreak have never had an English release in any form.
No filler, but Kai's first five episodes are anime-original: a framing episode set in 2007 followed by the Yakusamashi-hen arc, neither of which exists in the visual novel. They are part of the story rather than padding, so do not skip them.
It is the premise, not a flaw. Each arc replays the same June of 1983 with different outcomes, and the first series deliberately withholds the reason. Kai explains what is causing the loops and who benefits from them.
SOTSU concluded that storyline in September 2021. A new Higurashi television anime was announced on 21 June 2026 at the franchise's twentieth-anniversary broadcast, with Studio Deen returning and the main cast reprising their roles. No title or release window has been announced yet.
No. Umineko: When They Cry shares an author and the When They Cry umbrella title, but it is a separate story with a different cast and setting. It is not part of this watch order.
Very. Graphic violence, torture, child abuse, and sustained psychological horror run through the main series, and the cute character designs make the contrast sharper rather than softer. If that is not something you want, this is not a series to push through.
