When They Cry (うみねこのなく頃に Umineko no Naku Koro ni, lit. When the Seagulls Cry) is a Japanese murder mystery dōjin soft visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion. The first game in the series, Legend of the Golden Witch, was first released at Comiket 72 on August 17, 2007 playable on the PC; the game sold out in thirty minutes.[1] The story focuses on a group of eighteen people on a secluded island for a period of two days, and the mysterious murders that befall most of the people. The goal of the game is to discern whether the murderer is human or of some other supernatural source. Umineko is the third title in the When They Cry series, preceded by Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, and followed by Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru.
Square Enix, Ichijinsha, Kadokawa Shoten, and ASCII Media Works all published various manga adaptations of the series. It was also turned into a 26-episode anime by Studio Deen, which aired in Japan between July and December 2009. A series of novels written by Ryukishi07 are published by Kodansha Box. A fighting game based on the franchise named Ōgon Musōkyoku was released by 07th Expansion on December 31, 2010. The word umineko is the name of a kind of seagull known as a Black-tailed Gull. Naku means "to make sound" (鳴く), specifically referring to those sounds made by non-human organisms. According to the original creator, Ryukishi07, the red Na (な) in the logo is an official part of the title.
