Here’s a topic that’s long overdue! How did you first discover 07th Expansion? What was it that hooked you to the series?
If you say “The Higurashi Anime” or “I’m from Kazamatsuri and don’t know what I’m doing”, then… Well…
Hopefully we get some more interesting answers 
What can I say? It was one of my friend’s favorites so I ended up watching it. When I got into VNs later I read the original sound novel.
I also discovered it by The Higurashi Anime back in May 2007 before the second season started a couple months later. A friend of mine recommended it to me and it had me hooked. I kept asking her questions, but all she replied was: “Just keep watching” so I did.
I read the Onikakushi demo a bit later and then read the rest via Mangagamer’s first translation.
Mm mm. I’d love to hear specifically from people how it hooked them.
Oooh in that case well, I think it was the suspense that really hooked me the most of the anime. I really wanted to know what happened next. Also there was also the horror aspect since oh man what is happening to the characters of this show why are their faces being distorted, just what??? I also watched it at night time so whoops. I got attached to the characters and then seeing them die over and over again I just wanted a happy ending for them.
The VN only made me get even more attached to these characters. ;w;
Unlike most people, I got into 07th Expansion through Umineko. I found some of its OST on youtube (mainly the zts tracks) and decided to download the VN. The first episode didn’t hook me much but the second was awesome. Before finishing the whole VN (it took me over a year ^^") I watched the Higurashi anime as well.
A friend gifted me the first chapter of Higurashi without context. I read through it thinking it was another garbage slice-of-life VN (because those can be fun to read in their own right)… But I think you could guess how thoroughly those expectations were shattered. However, I would say the fact that I wasn’t expecting the deep psychological horror aspect made it even more satisfying. I hadn’t really experienced that kind of horror before; the kind that was genuinely creepy, unlike the cheap jump-scares people seem so eager to put in modern horror films.
Unfortunately for Aspirety, I too discovered it by watching the Higurashi anime. Actually, never mind that, I first heard about 07th Expansion from the Higurashi anime but I didn’t bother to get into it until I watched the Umineko anime. The Umineko anime, being as unsatisfactory as it is and of course not concluding the series, made me curious to finish the series, so I started listening to some of the VN’s. And of course, cause it seemed like the small following that Umineko had was very devoted to it and liked it a lot, I thought it should be a fine series, and it hasn’t been proven untrue. Well, thus far. 
One of my friends constantly spammed me with “read umineko”, “have you already read umineko?”, “i think it is time to read umineko” and yeah 
at the end i’ve read it and now I Love it (and Bern of course 
)
I personally found Ryuukishi through the higurashi anime, and went a while without reading umineko before a friend of mine told me a thing or two and then I rabidly consumed it for the mystery, victorian fashion, and occultism.
Just reading your answer made me think of myself with my friends hahaha.
I discovered 07th Expansion because there was a girl I liked, and she loved Higurashi (the anime, though) so she always said to me that I should watch it and things like that. Around those times my brother started reading vns (Katawa Shoujo, as an example) so I started to find some interest in visual novels.
After a while I realized Higurashi had a vn, and thankfully I didn’t watch the anime by then, so I decided to read it.
At first I wasn’t sure what the story was about, just that there were crazy girls and a festival, so the begginning of the story was peace and tranquility for me… until the first murder!
What I liked the most of the story was how all pieces came together and give you the anwer. Higurashi Spoiler: I liked a lot the scene when Takano tells the story of demons in Hinamizawa to Keiichi. The first time she tells it, it gave chills to my spine. But the scene that surprised me a lot is when Keiichi was talking with Shion with the phone and Keiichi supects her of being the culprit of what was happening
Some guy I don’t talk to anymore gave me Umineko on a flash drive back in high school. Keep in mind this was over seven years ago, and ONLY ep 1 had been translated (in a much rougher state than what it is now). I was absolutely blown away, it changed my life. Waited for each chapter to release, biting my nails and devouring them within days. Been an umineko fan since.
I was skipping class to study for a literature contest 9 and a half years ago. Instead, I watched the first season of Higurashi anime - it was completely worth it. 
A few months later, the second season started airing. After finishing it, I went up youtube and somehow stumbled upon the Umineko novel opening. Waited patiently for the Witch Hunt translation and devoured the first episode.
I got into Umineko through Ougon fighter I saw on one of the torrent trackers. I downloaded it and even played with one of my female friends, who got addicted to Umineko later aswell. I learned more and more and decided to read a VN. Turns out one of my friend had all of the Umineko EPs on his pc and I downloaded them from him thru some weird p2p client that he was using 
I still haven’t finished Higurashi but I’m rereading Umineko again.
Sorry Aspi, but that’s where I’m technically from. Well, I did put both Higurashi and Umineko on my wishlist when I read the name on discord and liked the synopsis on steam, so I have that going for me. And then, when I had sufficient money a good friend, I was able to begin reading Umineko and liking it so far. So those of you that still haven’t put away their pitchforks even though I told you to, you can do so now, it’s safe to say that I’m also a 07th Expansion fan.
Weirdly, my first experience with 07th was a rather negative one.
I was reading Rewrite at the time, and absolutely loving every moment of it. I had just finished a route, and was about to enter the ever-hyped Lucia route, of which I had heard so much about. While I had heard the names Higurashi and Umineko before, I’d never really looked into either.
As the route progressed… so did my disappointment at what I was reading. Shoddily put together scraps of good scenes and cringeworthy ones with pacing shot to hell. I wanted to personally slap the writer in the face for this thing, it bugged me that much. The ending felt idiotic and it was, by far, the worst part of what I had read up to that point. When I later learned that the route was written by a writer who hadn’t worked on any other part of Rewrite, it all sort of came together. I was not a Ryukishi fan.
Now, how did I start the path to being the Ryukishi fanboy I am now? Well, that started with… uhh… the Higurashi anime. I’m sorry.
To be honest, I didn’t enjoy the first season at all. I had considered dropping it, and definitely would’ve if not for the insistence that it gets better by a friend of mine, who had recommended it to me in the first place.
and oh boy, did it get better. Soon after finishing that, I was informed of the Umineko tea party, taking place on, from what was known to me at the time, “Kazamatsuri’s sister site for mystery stuff.”
After that… it just kinda spiraled into reading as many 07th Expansion related things as possible, like Rose Guns Days, and even being on the Episode 4 podcast for Umineko.
I actually found 07th Expansion years back through a Higurashi clip on YouTube. I was incredibly put-off. Too violent. To this day, the idea of reading Higurashi is a bit…anticipated, but uncomfortable.
Years later, I discovered Umineko through an internet friend. I was put-off again when I realized it was from the same writer as Higurashi, but read it anyway to understand my friend better, as a lot of her thinking and viewpoints were influenced by the games.
I’ve actually got a decently interesting story for this.
Many years ago, one of the first anime I ever watched was CLANNAD. Maybe a little more than half-way into the first season, I was already so impressed. I was brand new to the medium and the types of stories it is able to tell, and I became slightly obsessed. I began to do extensive research on it, learning about Key, visual novels, etc.
On the Key wikipedia page, there is an entire paragraph dedicated to Key’s influence on Ryukushi07. Oddly, I have a very specific memory of the moment when I was reading this paragraph, and went on to read the the plot overview of Higurashi… and I was amazed by how cool and intricate it sounded.
The fact that I remember this moment so vividly is ironic to me, because for the longest time I never looked into 07th further. With the popularity of the anime, I heard about Higurashi all the time, and after meeting Aspirety, I heard about Umineko all the time… but they were always something “I would get to soon”, despite sounding so cool.
I took many years… but after reading Umineko Episode 3, I can now officially say that I am hooked.
This may sound weird if compared to the rest of the stories but the first time I came to hear about 07thExpansion was playing Osu! with some friends (if you are unfamiliar with Osu!, it is a rythm game for the PC and android which songlist is made up by the community, as it has an extensive database of user uploaded songs), we had this thing playing together while taking turns to select the next song, and there was this guy that played a lot of 07th expansion songs, and I really loved them. I asumed it was some doujin music group, it was not until a few years later finishing the Higurashi anime that I found out what 07thExpansion actually was.
I really love the stories, they have changed my lifestyle, but the music has always been a big part for me, it evokes so many different feelings and emotions, from joy to saddness and a lot of passion.