Keiichi Maebara

## Voices

**Keiichi Maebara** (前原 圭一, *Maebara Keiichi*) is one of the protagonists in the *Higurashi no Naku Koro ni* series. He serves as the protagonist of four Question Arcs: *Onikakushi-hen*; *Watanagashi-hen*; *Tatarigoroshi-hen*; and *Taraimawashi-hen*. He acts as the villain in *Tsukiotoshi-hen*. Other than Akasaka Mamoru in *Himatsubushi-hen*, he is the only male protagonist. He is a very sociable, charismatic boy with a lively attitude, and his talented tongue allows him to fit in the town quickly and make new friends. While his exact age is never explicitly stated, he is implied to be 14 in most media (or around 17 in the live-action adaptations) since he is a grade below Mion, who is facing her final year at their school before entering high school. It is confirmed in the visual novels that his birthday is in April, making him the same age as Mion for a couple of months each year.

## Appearance

Keiichi is a slender boy with brown hair and blue or violet eyes. He is the tallest member of the club, except for Satoshi, and is taller even than his teacher, Chie Rumiko. He is described to be very attractive.

During school, he wears a white collared shirt over a red t-shirt, black pants, a belt, and black shoes. During his free days, Keiichi wears a black, sleeveless shirt beneath a red vest, green shorts with a black belt and red shoes.

Keiichi's school uniform is almost an exact replica of Satoshi's, but with a red undershirt instead of a blue one.

## Personality

Keiichi is a passionate individual who tends to express strong emotions freely, for good or ill. He also has a great amount of charisma, which is presumably why he's already so well-liked in Hinamizawa by his friends and the other villagers who know him. Keiichi is also in love with life in Hinamizawa, because it's so much more fulfilling than his old life.

He has a strong belief that fate can be defeated, and he's the one who teaches Rika and Hanyū through his actions that fate can be broken, and how to do so. He inspires Rika multiple times with his unyielding determination.

Keiichi is normally open and outgoing, but when something comes between him and his friends, he can become very withdrawn and overly self-reliant, making it easy for him to develop Hinamizawa syndrome. It takes him remembering his mistakes from other worlds for him to really start trusting his friends.

Keiichi is terrible at cooking. When he tries to cook for himself in *Tatarigoroshi-hen* after his parents have to leave town for a few days, he almost sets his house on fire. Luckily, Satoko and Rika arrive and prevent the disaster. It seems that one of the only things he can safely make is instant noodles, which happens to be one of his favorite foods (ginger pork flavor). He also dislikes other housework.

Keiichi's most important talent is his ability to influence people with words, which is such that Rika has dubbed him the “Magician of Words.” He often uses this ability in playful situations, such as when he successfully sold tako(octopus)-less takoyaki at the Watanagashi festival, or when he got 100% on a curry-cooking assignment by making rice balls.

He is also perfectly capable of using words to good effect in serious situations. In *Tsumihoroboshi-hen*, when the club was on the verge of falling apart at the junkyard, he was able to reunite its members. Likewise, later on, he was able to snap Rena out of her madness. In *Minagoroshi-hen*, he convinced Shion not to kill Teppei. He even managed to rouse Rika from the depths of despair. Not to mention, he made use of his ability several other times during the long process of freeing Satoko from her uncle.

On the other hand, Keiichi has been known to accidentally wound his friends with insensitive remarks, sometimes exploding in anger at people, even at those who don't deserve it. He is also extremely curious, especially towards “forbidden” things, which often gets him into trouble, sometimes leading to his demise (see *Onikakushi-hen*, *Watanagashi-hen*/*Meakashi-hen*, *Nekogoroshi-hen*).