Tsukuyami

	This article is about characters in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Mei.

MAJOR HIGURASHI SPOILER WARNING

This article or section contains untagged major spoilers for all of the original Higurashi When They Cry story and possibly the console-exclusive arcs. Readers who have not completed the story are advised not to proceed further.

Tsukuyami (ツクヤミ) are monsters created from Fragments that serve as the main antagonists in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Mei. They are fought regularly by Kazuho Kimiyoshi and the club members throughout the story.

Appearance[]

Regular tsukuyami resemble animals and electrical appliances. Their appearances vary wildly, but all feature black spikes with red tips. Humans possessed by tsukuyami gain weapons with these same spikes.

Personality[]

Most tsukuyami seem to be mindless beasts and can only growl. There are tsukuyami like Yaemon in the event Trap Kitty that are capable of speech, however. Humans possessed by tsukuyami still maintain parts of their personality but become incredibly aggressive.

Background[]

The tsukuyami are first named such by Tamurahime no Mikoto, who says they were "possessed by darkness" (闇が憑いた, yami ga tsuita).^[1] Tsukuyami drop Fragments when destroyed. For reasons unknown, the tsukuyami are considered commonplace in Hinamizawa, with the club even making it a club game to defeat as many as possible when they appear.

They are capable of possessing people, as is the case with Ooishi and Rena, and they can also take human form themselves. People possessed by tsukuyami drop black cards when defeated and purified.

A theory proposed by Takano in Part 2 of the story suggests that the tsukuyami are the result of Hinamizawa Syndrome infecting animals and controlling electronic appliances through electric waves. It is likely that since animals and machines lack the same intelligence as humans, the tsukuyami succumb to the will of the disease, becoming aggressive while seeking out a new host for the Queen Carrier should she be absent.

Tsukuyami Types[]

Enemies[]

Bosses[]

Other[]

These are special festival-themed bosses that appear in the "Hinamizawa Extreme Demon Fire Fight" mode.

Role in the Story[]

Main Story Part 1[]

The tsukuyami make frequent appearances throughout the story. They are first introduced when Kazuho Kimiyoshi visits the abandoned Hinamizawa in 1993 and a boar tsukuyami chases her throughout the derelict village. When she meets Tamurahime no Mikoto, she's given the power to defeat it. Kazuho encounters many more tsukuyami as she makes her way to the Furude Shrine's ritual storehouse and time-travels back to 1983. Kazuho soon meets Miyuki Akasaka, who is also capable of fighting tsukuyami.

The girls get acquainted with Hinamizawa life and join the Hinamizawa school games club. Kazuho is shocked to discover that the club anticipates tsukuyami appearances every day and have turned fighting them into a club game.

Kazuho and Miyuki get another time-traveling companion in Nao Houtani, who falls unconscious when she arrives in 1983. Nao is taken to Kazuho and Miyuki's home to rest. She gets up late at night while the others are gone and goes to explore Hinamizawa, only to be captured by a giant tanuki tsukuyami and tied up with prayer beads. The club discover Nao's disappearance and soon fight the tanuki, freeing Nao and sending the monster running.

The club goes to Okinomiya and encounter Keiichi Maebara, who in this world is not friends with the club and is a bully. Keiichi makes the club beat him in an arcade game in order to get a turn, and when Nao challenges him, Keiichi uses a mysterious power to send Kazuho, Miyuki, and Nao to another space where they must defeat tsukuyami as they play the game. Nao succeeds and the space returns to normal, with the club unaware of what really happened.

Shion meets up with Kazuho, Miyuki, and Nao, and proves to be one of the few people aware that the tsukuyami aren't supposed to exist. It's explained that the more the tsukuyami are acknowledged, the more they solidify into reality, so the group starts referring to them indirectly.

After the Watanagashi Festival, chaos ensues as villagers go crazy. The club gets attacked by a tsukuyami-possessed Ooishi but soon defeat him and turn him back to normal. Ooishi drops a black card once he's beaten. The club then goes to the junkyard to defeat a giant tsukuyami and recover a Fragment from it, and run into a tsukuyami-possessed Mion. They also defeat her, and gain another black card. At the junkyard, they encounter a tsukuyami-possessed Rena, who summons an army of other tsukuyami. She is also soon defeated and turned back to normal.

The club discovers that Rika is actually an impostor and was responsible for many of the tragedies in this world, including rewriting Mion and Keiichi's memories and causing the villagers to go crazy. The fake Rika explains she has the Fragment they need, and fuses with the impostor Hanyuu to become a superpowered horned Rika. Once Tsukuyami Rika is defeated, the real Hanyuu appears for a moment and explains that the real Rika has been taken to another world while the tsukuyami are about to devour this world. Kazuho, Miyuki, and Nao escape into a portal in the ritual storehouse as the rest of the club prepares to fight an incoming tsukuyami horde, and time travel once more.

Main Story Part 2[]

Miyuki and Nao wind up in an alternate post-dam project 1993 world. They fight many tsukuyami as they get acquainted with Miyuki's friend Chisame Kurosawa, and determine that tsukuyami never existed in this world until Miyuki and Nao appeared. The girls investigate their world and go to New Hinamizawa, where some tsukuyami they defeat transform into townspeople, evidently having been possessed. They discover that every tsukuyami they've been fighting thus far has been dropping black cards instead of Fragments.

Nao time travels again to the same world Kazuho ended up in, an alternate 1983 world where the dam project is about to go underway. They meet up with Takano and ask her about Hinamizawa Syndrome, learning of her theory that the disease can affect electrical devices and therefore possibly be a factor in the tsukuyami's creation.

Meanwhile, in Miyuki and Chisame's world, they also investigate the Sleeping Sickness and try to stop a group of tsukuyami from destroying a facility producing medicine for it, but fail. In the 1983 world, the group recovers the real Rika, who explains that after escaping 100 years of death, she and her friends were killed again by tsukuyami.

External Links[]

Enemy guide on Japanese Higurashi Mei wiki

References[]

↑ Higurashi Mei TIP: What Are Tsukuyami? (『ツクヤミ』って何?)

[1] Higurashi Mei TIP: What Are Tsukuyami? (『ツクヤミ』って何?)

[1]