Synopsis
Mother Furude, voiced by Sayaka Ōhara, first appears in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai's Matsuribayashi-hen arc as the wife of Father Furude and mother of Rika Furude. She shares her daughter's distinctive purple-tinted hair, worn in a ponytail with a fringe, and dark purple eyes.
In the manga version of Saikoroshi-hen, her relationship with Rika is strained: she scolds Rika at length for sneaking into the Saiguden and is frustrated by her daughter's flat, indifferent reactions, not realizing Rika has already lived through these events countless times. Teaching Rika to cook only highlights the distance between them, since Rika has already picked up better skills from Satoko in earlier loops.
As a woman of the Furude line, she carries the "Queen Carrier" trait tied to Hinamizawa syndrome research, which is why Kyousuke Irie and Miyo Takano's interest in testing Rika partly concerns her too. When Rika volunteers as a test subject to help save Satoko, Mother Furude grows increasingly opposed and, after Rika develops a dangerous fever, demands that the experiments stop.
Officially, Mother and Father Furude are counted among the victims of the third year of Hinamizawa's "Series of Mysterious Deaths," she reportedly by suicide. In truth, the Yamainu poison her husband to silence the family, and fake evidence suggests Mother Furude drowned herself in the Onigafuchi Swamp; her body is never recovered, and the anime leaves her true fate unexplained. The manga reveals a darker truth: Takano dissected her alive, without sedation.
