The official Frontier Works production diary has announced on Wednesday the title and release date of the live-action film sequel based on 07th Expansion's Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry - Higurashi) mystery visual novels. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Chikai will open in Japanese theaters during next year's Golden Week holidays, which run through the beginning of May. The Higurashi visual novels, manga, anime, and live-action films revolve around murders that coincide with an annual festival in a quiet rural village.

Plans for the live-action sequel were announced last April — even before the first live-action film opened in Japanese theaters on May 10. FUNimation Entertainment took over North American distribution of the first Higurashi television anime series from Geneon Entertainment and released the first DVDs last month. North America's Yen Press acquired the Higurashi manga for its Yen Plus anthology magazine and its eventual release in compiled volumes.

The title and release date for the latest installment of another mystery film franchise, Detective Conan, was also revealed on Wednesday. Meitantei Conan: Shikkoku no Chaser (Detective Conan: The Jet Black Chaser), the 13th anime film based on Gosho Aoyama's popular shōnen manga, will open in Japan next April. As a brilliant detective trapped in a child's body, Shinichi Kudo will once again face the elusive Kuro-zukume (Men in Black) for their "fated showdown."

26 million people have seen the annual Detective Conan films since the first one premiered in 1997. Viz Media is releasing the original manga in North America under the name Case Closed, and FUNimation Entertainment shipped DVDs for the television anime adaptation.