Rena Ryuugu (竜宮レナ, Ryūgū Rena) is a fictional character from the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni anime and game series. She is about the same age as Maebara Keiichi, as it is mentioned that they are in the same grade-level. Little known, but her real name is Reina, not Rena, and that is the way her parents, and other people who wish to adress her formally, call her.
In the anime, she is voiced by Nakahara Mai.
Personality edit
Rena is quite a cutesy, though she herself seems to have different idea of cute, as said by Mion.
Rena's hobby is to go around the garbage and look for her treasure, such as a 1/1 scale advertising figure which was thrown by someone, or an old crashed van she cleaned up and turned into a "secret base".
Whenever she finds something she thinks is cute, she will first react by saying "omochikaerii", meaning "I want to take it home!" or even "I'd like a take-out!".
While saying that, she makes a noise which could be dubbed as "Hau~", adding to her cute side.
She tends to end sentences with ~kana, kana, adding to her cute side. The kana is also considered reference, by some, to the noise that the cicadas make around the area.
She is quite a competetive person, probably developed after she met Mion and "the club", as she hates losing in the club games; not only encourged by the penalty game, but she also seems to like making other do it. Although Rena is competetive, she has sportsmanship, and will gladly agree to finish a game which was concluded by a draw on a later date.
Rena is quite a young detective, as seems from the events of Watanagashi-hen / Meakashi-hen, in which she discovered the criminal before the police.
According to Mion, while Rena might look cutesy, people should be careful not to anger her, as she becomes quite scary when angered.
It would seems Rena values her friends alot more than most people do, yet is still faithful to the village and will not forgive those who think of running away from it or betray it.
Part of the plot edit
Rena has served in many parts of the story, changing her role in each arc. She is a main character in the Onikakushi-hen, as the villain, and the Tsumihoroboshi-hen arc, as the victim.
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In the Onikakushi-hen, we discover that Rena has transferred out of Hinamizawa when she entered grade school. It seems that she used to live in the Ibaraki Prefecture until a year before the story of 'Higurashi no Naku Koro ni', but was suspended from school a few weeks before she moved back to Hinamizawa; She had shattered all the windows in that school, and was taken to a neurologist who gave her some drugs and counseling. A specific word appeared servral times in her medical record - "Oyashiro-sama". She said that Oyashiro-sama stands by her bed every night and looks down at her. She moved to Hinamizawa shortly afterwords.
Revealed in the Tsumihoroboshi-hen, before moving to Hinamizawa, Rena was confronted by her mother that she is planning to a divorce, and that she is pregnant with the baby of the man she met earlier when her mother took her to a movie.
Rena objected, after recovering from the shock, said that her father's house is her house, and she never wants her mother to go near it. She doesn't want to see her mother again, and that she shouldn't call her "Reina" so familiarly.
Onikakushi-hen edit
In Onikakushi-hen, Rena is the villain who is after Keiichi's life. She is first introduced as a cute girl, with some strange hobbies, such as looking for treasure in garbage. When she asked Keiichi to help her get a 1/1 figure from under a pile, Keiichi said they might need an axe or a hatchet to get it out. Rena quickly gets her hatchet she hid somewhere close, and returning as the no-longer familiar Rena, but a rather darker version of herself. Also, it seems that the dark Rena won't say anything about Satoshi, making excuses like saying she moved in after Satoshi left.
Through out the arc, the diffrence between the "Renas" becomes clear, changing from yelling at Keiichi about keeping secrets and then suddenly, calmly saying "let's go home", and talking like a normal girl.
It would seem there a few attempts at killing Keiichi, though none used force;
- When Keiichi talked to Oishi on the phone about Oyashiro-sama, Rena heard the conversation from outside his room.
- When Keiichi said he was sick, and didn't go to school, Rena and Mion came to his house, giving him ohagi and telling him Rena made one of them. They all had sewing needles in them.These needles were later asked for by Ooishi-san as evidence for the murders. They were nowhere to be found.
- While saying she came to make dinner for Keiichi, she tried to convince him to open the door as her darker self. That made Keiichi panic, slamming the slightly open door at her hand repeatedly, yelling "Go back home!". Rena may have reverted back to her usual self, as she yelled in pain "I'm sorry", in her usual voice. Afterwards, Keiichi locked the entire house, but Rena stayed outside, looking at his room window - still saying "I'm sorry".
Near the end of Onikakushi-hen, When Keiichi walked back home from school, he saw Rena walking the same way behind him - holding a cleaver. The next moment, she wasn't far behind him, she was hiding behind his back. They started talking, and Rena admitted that she regretted having Satoshi "transfer out", saying she kept asking herself what would have happened if she gave him some advice - but kept saying she doesn't understand what he means when he says the Satoshi was "spirited away" by someone. Rena answered, saying Keiichi doesn't understand, that there is no human culprit behind the serial killing; she said that Oyashiro-sama decides everything. Declaring his disbelief, Rena said he exists and asked Keiichi "have you ever had someone apolgizing to you the whole time? always..". She said Oyashiro-sama came to her, and that's the real reason she transferred back to Hinamizawa. She said the she is the only person that could help him, that she won't let him 'transfer out'. She demanded him to talk to her and started laughing insanely, making Keiichi push her away, and run. After fainting in the forest nearby, he finally woke up, to discover that he was in his home, under the care of Rena and Mion. The two said that they should have the penalty game from the "ohagi homework assignment", and Rena grabbed him from behind as Mion tried to injecte him an unknown drug, making Keiichi kill both of them, by bashing them with his baseball bat. Later in the series, it is revealed that the killing intentions of both, Rena and Mion, were actually delusions of Keiichi's mind caused by paranoia, both of them meaning no real harm or danger to anyone.
Tsumihoroboshi-hen edit
Tsumioroboshi-hen begins with a water-gun fight, which the last contenders were Rena and Keiichi. They enjoyed the battle, the tension. The fight ended in a draw by Mion's call, both agreeing to finish it later, but they did not forget the penalty game - they made Mion, Rika and Satoko work in the near restaurant, while wearing outfits, such as a maid's clothing or a schoolgirl uniform.
While in the restaurant, Rena declared that she "will take Satoko home!" (omochikaeri!), and there she met Rina - a female friend of her father - who asked her to pick which cake to bring him.
On her way home, she talked with Keiichi, as he said that moving to Hinamizawa has brought him happiness, and Rena agreed. Keiichi said that it's scary to think that these happy days might fall apart, both Rena reacted by saying that "if you fall, you'll fall - no matter how cautious are you", but because of that, she said, you need to live everyday to the fullest so that even if you fall you'll be fine. Keiichi agreed, and Rena said she'd like to go treasure hunting again. They seperated, and Rena went to trash heap.
When she got there, it began raining. Rena entered an old van, that she has shaped like a house for her, with dolls and a bed. In there, she remembered of her mother before moving to Hinamizawa.
When Rena got back home, she discovered her father replaced the entire living room. She also found out that Rina picked the new furniture, and that the old ones were thrown out of the house and are currently in the yard, while it is raining.
Afterwards, her father asked her to go to the neighbouring town and pick up 2 jackets for him - also chosen by Rina.
After being to the the tailor, Rena went to a close café. In the café, there were a hot-headed man and a calm woman (the face of the woman wasn't shown) arguing, threatening two men. Apperantly, the woman lent the men money, and they were supposed to return a larger sum, and they returned the same amount.
The man, saying the woman was a part of him, and whoever insults her - insults him, and when that happens, it won't be over easily. After the man left for the toilet, the woman told the men to get the money ready by today, so that they will cut their ties with him. Saying it was impossible, she made them sign a contract. The man returned, and asked her "how was her Hinamizawa husband doing" and how much money could she get off him.
Rena overheard the entire thing, and later saw the woman's face - Rina.
After they all left, Kasai and Shion entered and found Rena, somewhat cheering her up. Rena asked Kasai if he knew them. Kasai answeared, saying the man is Teppei Houjou (Satoko's abusive uncle) and the woman is named Mamiya Rina - but that's just her stage name and her real name is Ritsuko, and she works as a show girl in a store nearby. He said Houjou was Rina's pimp, and that they are horrible pepole to get involved with, and Rena asked how bad. Kasai didn't want to answear, but Rena repeated the question, yelling. It seems that they live on gambling and blackmailing, and that they also "badger". Shion explained it was when a woman bait in a man, and they are getting along, another man barges in, yelling at him for "messing with his woman" and takes his money.
After hearing that, Rena quickly left to follow them.
While digging in the trash pile later, she meets Rina. After a heated arguement, Rena ends up beating Rina to death with a pipe. When Teppei confronts Rena's father, asking where Rina is, Rena leads him to the trash pile, where she beats him to death as well.