Rena Ryūgū

Description \ Bio

Ryūgū Rena is one of the main characters in the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni series who acts as the protagonist of Tsumihorobo-hen and the antagonist of Tsukioto-hen, Onikaku-hen, and Onidama-hen. Rena is a signature character as she is featured more than once during the first anime season-opening, as well as appearing on most of the album and game covers. She appears in much of Higurashi's official art and even serves as something of a mascot for 07th Expansion. Rena has short brunt orange hair in an angled cut with long sides and her fringe parts on the left of her forehead. Her eyes are lavender blue and droop at the ends. In the third anime season Onidamashi-hen, her eyes turn a particularly brilliant blue to Keiichi when she appears upset. On her school days, Rena wears a fairly typical sailor fuku, complete with a yellow ribbon, and white socks with dark brown shoes. On her free days, she wears a white dress with a purple bow and sash and deep silt up the middle, complete with "her favorite" white cap. She also wears black thigh-high socks with brown knee-high boots. Rena's blood-stained cap is used as a message to Sonozaki Mion in Taraimawa-hen and to Hōjō Satoko in Yakusama-hen. In the first episode of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, Rena appears as a 37-year-old adult in a purple business dress suit. She wears a similar hairstyle with longer hair and has grown taller than she was in June, 1983. Rena's Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Matsuri sprite's sailor fuku tie has a blue knot that has a small white cross in the center similar to the pin Takano Miyo wears on her left side when she is wearing her black military uniform. Rena initially appears sweet and friendly but can become quite scary when threatened or angry. In Onikaku-hen, recapitulated in Onidamashi-hen, she reacts strongly to one of Keiichi's remarks with the infamously deafeningly loud "Uso da! (嘘だ!・That's a lie!)." Though part of her extreme reaction may be imagined by Keiichi, who is suffering from the Hinamizawa Syndrome in this arc, Rena's reaction strongly suggests that she does indeed hate lies, especially from friends. Rena can become quite cunning and viciously cruel when she is determined. In Minagoroshi-hen she intimidates the village council and the Child Welfare staff without losing emotional control like Keiichi and Sonozaki Shion frequently do, although she does slam the table in anger when dealing with the former at one point while showing a furious expression that Keiichi describes as "demonic". During the last Watanagashi meeting of the village council, Rena gets into a violent fistfight with one of the elders. Keiichi often calls her the "quiet, blue flame that burns silently," referring to her capability of becoming incredibly powerful when push comes to shove, despite her seemingly girly and airheaded personality; in such situations, Rena will always be the instigator of and the most bluntly offensive in the fight, as observed in many instances: by Shion in Meakashi-hen and Minagoroshi-hen ("I wonder how you were in Ibaraki. You don't even hesitate to attack people!"); Keiichi in Watanagashi-hen; and Furude Rika in Minagoroshi-hen. Rena retains these abilities when she suffers from the Hinamizawa Syndrome. She reveals her capability for extreme cruelty in Tsumihorobo-hen when she holds the entire school hostage. Rena orders Keiichi to tie up all the students, including Satoko, Rika, and Mion. She viciously bludgeons Mion with her hatchet claiming that Mion "betrayed" her. She fully intends to kill all of the children and herself if her demands are not met. However, she does show remorse when Keiichi succeeds in calming her down with their fight on the roof. Mion describes Rena, and Rena is often portrayed, as being hostile towards people who make light of or express disbelief in Oyashiro-sama's Curse. This attitude is due to her experience with it and her actually correct belief that Oyashiro-sama exists. On the other hand, she, like Rika, often empathizes with and can identify people who are afflicted with advanced symptoms of Hinamizawa Syndrome. It is implied that she feels guilty for not listening to Satoshi's problems before he disappeared, and asks Keiichi to tell her his problems, most notably in Onikaku-hen, but as he was already afflicted with the Syndrome, he hallucinates that she was threatening him. When determined, Rena can be very perceptive, as she can somewhat understand people just by looking at their faces. She does admit directly that she can quickly "tell if ___'s telling the truth or not… just by looking into ___'s eyes." She is also able to form detailed and eerily accurate hypotheses of crime scenes based on evidence she observes. Rena possesses a signature "Kaa~ii Mōdo" or "Cute Mode," a comic relief quirk which is instigated when she is embarrassed or when she finds something cute. Once she enters Kawaii Mode, Rena's senses are heightened to an extreme extent, making her inhumanly agile and vigorous. This causes frequent trouble for many of the club members, who have to expend all of their energy to barely control her; Keiichi and Mion have been knocked out cold a large number of times by Rena's flurries of punches, while Rika and Satoko have often been kidnapped when she progresses further to Take Home Mode, especially when they wear cute club punishment outfits. Satoko and Rika have learned to use Rena's Kawaii Mode switch to their advantages. By either crying to her or posing in an adorable fashion, they can manipulate whom Rena knocks out or make Rena can support them, thus giving them a huge advantage in eliminating competition easily in club games. During the first episode of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, an adult Rena appears to have been mentally affected for life due to being one of the few people who survived the events that occurred in Hinamizawa in the post-Tsumihorobo-hen world. The arc Satokowashi-hen contained in the new season reveal that she does attend university with Keiichi and Mion in 1988. As a late teenager, she retains her Cute and Take Home Modes as well as her flurry of punches.