New Aniplex.Exe Visual Novel ‘Hira Hira Hihiru’ Demo Now Available on Steam

Aniplex.EXE has released a demo of Hira Hira Hihiru on Steam, DLSite and the Japanese DMM store. It offers an early look into the newest game from Aniplex’s experimental visual novel brand which currently has no release date confirmed beyond a 2023 window. English subtitles are already available for the demo.

Hira Hira Hihiru takes place in the Taisho Era of a fictional world where the dead come back to life. This phenomena has always happened but the people who come back have faulty cognition, memory issues and lack awareness. Slowly but surely their bodies rot away until there’s nothing left.

Japanese society calls those people hihiru, and their treatment has changed over time. While ages ago they were considered holy, now they’re shunned. The academic community has now officially recognized their condition as a medical condition and given it the name Aerodema.

The story unfolds through the eyes of two young men. The first one is Masamitsu Chigusa, an assistant to Dr. Shūhei Katori, who has been studying Aerodema to find a way to improve their living conditions, which have sadly not evolved much in Japan. The other protagonist is a student called Takeo Tenma who has always seen the Aerodema as a distant issue but that suddenly changes one day.

Hira Hira Hihiru is written by Renya Setoguchi (Musicus!, Kira Kira, Swan Song), with character illustrations by Zennosuke (Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus The Awakening of Golden Jazz). MANYO (Kara no Shoujo, Flowers, Collar x Malice) handles the soundtrack and Kenzo Nagaoka (Swan Song, Toradora!! Portable, Sakura no Toki) does the UI design. The development team is BA-KU (BLACK SHEEP TOWN).