Higurashi now available on Steam

Just wanted to let you all know that the first chapter of Higurashi When They Cry, Onikakushi-hen is now available on Steam! Featuring a brand new translation, new artwork, the original soundtrack and dual Japanese/English language support, this is the definitive version of the story.

In other news, 07th Expansion have announced their upcoming visual novel, Trianthology. Details are scarce at present, but it has been described as a collaboration between Ryukishi07, Tanaka Romeo and Tonokawa Yuuto.

Ryukishi07 himself visited the USA this month and attended the Anime Central convention. There, he gave three panels where he described how he started writing visual novels and how he goes about writing stories. He also revealed some details about Trianthology. The panels were covered by the website Sea of Fragments:

• Panel 1
• Panel 2
• Panel 3

Ryukishi07 also gave a press conference, where he was interviewed by APGNation. You can find a video of the interview on their website.

Weren't able to attend Anime Central? He'll also be attending Anime Expo in July where he'll be singing autographs and also making an appearance at MangaGamer's panel.

Also, if you haven't already, be sure to check out John Szczepaniak's book The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers, which features an interview with Ryukishi07 with lots of interesting details such as information on an unreleased visual novel he worked on.

Lastly, just a brief note on Higanbana. Some of you may have noticed that the Japanese version is no longer available from MangaGamer.com. This is due to contractual reasons and hopefully Higanbana will be returning soon.

We at Spider Lily Translations would like to thank the many thousands of people who have used our translations to read Higanbana. We appreciate the support hugely, and will continue to look into ways to make Higanbana more widely available for English speakers.