Synopsis
Hifumi Takano is a supporting character in the "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" series, a physician and researcher who was the first to seriously investigate Hinamizawa Syndrome. In the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai anime he is voiced by Tanaka Kazumi and first appears, in flashback, during the "Matsuribayashi-hen" arc — he dies in every iteration of the story well before the main events take place. His lasting importance to the plot comes from having raised Miyo Takano.
During World War II, Hifumi worked as a military doctor and noticed that soldiers from Hinamizawa were falling into psychosis and dying — this led him to identify and name the syndrome. In the same period he became close friends with a fellow doctor, Koizumi, to whom he taught his research; Koizumi would later repay the debt by helping Miyo find contacts and work after Hifumi's death. Hifumi also served as a mentor to Takemitsu Tanashi.
When the parents of a young girl named Miyoko (the future Miyo Takano) died, he was recommended as her guardian, though the arrangement was never formalized; the two only actually connected when she called him while fleeing a wartime orphanage, and he adopted her just in time. She first called him "my father's old teacher" or simply "sensei," but he gradually became a grandfather figure to her, teaching her basic medicine, the history of Hinamizawa, and his own theory of the syndrome, modeling his single-minded dedication on the real-life scientist Hideyo Noguchi.
The scientific community ridiculed his findings and his appeals to Tokyo went nowhere, driving him into depression and, eventually, dementia that ended his ability to keep working. Having lost his reason to live, Hifumi jumped from the roof of the hospital where he was being treated, leaving behind a suicide note that named only Miyo. After his death, relatives he had barely spoken to in life came forward for his estate; Miyo, who afterward referred to them as "vultures," settled out of court, keeping his research materials for herself.
