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This article is about the version of Mion as seen in the main Higurashi When They Cry story. For other versions, see the disambiguation page.
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This article is about a character in
Higurashi When They Cry.
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Overview

Mion Sonozaki (園崎 魅音 Sonozaki Mion) is one of the main characters of Higurashi When They Cry. She is the president of the Hinamizawa after-school games club, Shion Sonozaki's twin sister, as well as the current heir to the Sonozaki family.

Profile[]

Mion is one grade higher than Keiichi. She is the class representative.

She is the active class representative type, which is the second most common type. She is a leader, someone who makes friends with everyone, regardless of gender or age. Because of her high-strung, easy-going, hyperactive personality, those around her never have to be bored. She is about the best kind of friend anyone could wish for. Her personality is somewhat marred by a tendency to sound like an old man, but that’s something to be forgiven.

Mion likes games of all kinds, be they card games, board games or video games. Because of who she is, her games tend to be high-tension. It’s to be expected. She plays with her friends in the context of club activity.

(Taken from the MangaGamer store page, which is translated from the 07th Expansion website.)

An older student at Keiichi and Rena's school. She's also the class representative. She has a bad habit of talking like an old man sometimes, but she's always energetic, cheerful, and reliable, making her well respected by those around her. Every day after school, she goes to her "club," where she plays different games with Keiichi and her friends. She'll do whatever it takes to win, inspiring terror in those around her. (Taken from the Gou website.)

Appearance[]

MionOGCasual a (1)

Mion's casual outfit in the original art style

Mion is a tall teenage girl with teal eyes. Her hair is long and light-green in color, with bangs parted at the center of her face. While she normally ties her hair in a ponytail, she can also let it down on occasion, allowing her to pass as her twin sister Shion. She also has a tattoo of a demon on her back, which is only shown in the opening to the 2006 anime.

Mion's school uniform outfit consists of a white short-sleeved shirt with pink stripes on her collar and the ends of her sleeves, as well as a long pink pleated skirt. Her shirt is covered by a yellow vest and the uniform is completed with a red tie (light green in the anime).

Mion's casual outfit consists of a yellow t-shirt with a black turtleneck and blue jeans, along with a white sweater tied around her waist. In the original spriteset, she has an airsoft gun[4] holstered on her left shoulder, though this is removed in other portrayals of her.

Personality[]

Mion has a confident and outgoing personality, allowing her to naturally fulfill her roles as class representative and leader of the club. She is a sociable person who is well liked and respected by other students at the school, as well as the villagers of Hinamizawa in general.

Mion is an avid collector of board and card games, and bases her school club around them. She is fiercely competitive during these club activities and revels in taunting her opponents when she is winning. The rules of their club permit members to use underhanded methods to gain victory, and Mion takes full advantage of this rule both by directly cheating as well as preparing resources beforehand, such as when she brings extra ingredients to a curry cooking battle in Watanagashi. While she has a competitive streak during games, this has very little transference to her day-to-day life, where she tends to take a more laid back approach to issues such as studying.[5]

Mion has a tendency to make dirty jokes, particularly towards Keiichi, and the two of them regularly engage in crude banter with each other. This trait of Mion extends to her choice of penalty games for the club activities, which regularly involve getting other members to wear various fetish outfits that she has amassed in her club locker along with her games. Keiichi describes Mion as "acting like an old man sometimes"[6], and she also frequently uses that phrase in referring to herself as "oji-san (おじさん)", translated as "this old man" in the visual novel and "Uncle Mion" in the manga.

Despite Mion's tomboyish disposition, she also has a more feminine side and wants to be seen that way by Keiichi due to her crush on him. While she usually plays along with Keiichi's remarks about her boyishness, she also secretly feels hurt by them as they cause Keiichi to see her as a friend rather than a love interest. According to Shion in Watanagashi, Mion is "on the fence as to whether she wants to be a boy or a girl". Mion gets easily flustered when it comes to issues around her romantic interest in Keiichi, a stark departure from how she usually acts. Unlike Shion, she is bad at lying about her feelings.

Mion cares deeply for her friends and has a strong sense of justice. In Meakashi, it is revealed that she challenged and interrogated her grandmother due to her belief in the injustice of Satoshi's disappearance. Her more mature outlook leads her to take practical considerations into account, which helps her to avoid making rash decisions but can also lead to her feeling helpless to challenge existing systems. This is particularly demonstrated in how she reacts to Keiichi's suggestions on saving Satoko from her abusive uncle in Tatarigoroshi. In Minagoroshi, Rika notes that Mion is more stable than the other club members, and as such has never herself succumbed to Hinamizawa Syndrome.[7]

While Mion is acting in her capacity as successor to the Sonozaki family, she takes on a more authoritative disposition and can put aside her personal feelings in order to coldly carry out her duties. This is traditionally believed to be the result of a "demon" living in each Sonozaki successor. Mion demonstrates this persona in Meakashi when she has Shion tear of three of her fingernails as punishment for her escape from St. Lucia Academy and support of Satoshi. While she puts on this front publicly, she also feels a great amount of guilt at the family's unequal treatment of Shion and privately chooses to undergo the same punishment as her.

Background[]

Mion and Shion were born as twins to Akane Sonozaki and her husband. According to the family traditions, one of the two twins was supposed to be strangled at birth in order to prevent disputes over the succession, but while their grandmother Oryou was rumored to have tried to do so, she for an unknown reason did not carry it out[8]. As such, the two twins grew up together and frequently swapped places, delighting in the inability of adults to tell them apart.

In Meakashi, it is revealed that Mion was born under the name "Shion Sonozaki", but had swapped places with her sister on the day that the heir was to be given the demon tattoo, and as such permanently assumed the role of "Mion Sonozaki". She denied knowing about the tattoo arrangement beforehand. (Articles on the wiki will refer to Mion and Shion by the names they are known publicly by.)

Mion was raised from childhood by Oryou as the successor to the Sonozaki family. While the succession would normally go to her mother Akane, she was disqualified from the role due to a disagreement with Oryou over her marriage to a yakuza member. As such, she would sit alongside Oryou in village council meetings as a child in order to learn her future role, as would sometimes even address the council in her official authority herself[9].

Despite being a child at the time, Mion was an active member of the Onigafuchi Defense Alliance, which led the protests against the Hinamizawa Dam Project. She would frequently get involved in violent altercations with the dam construction workers, to the point of throwing bricks at people[10]. As such, she often found herself in trouble with the police.

Mion formed the after-school games club in 1982 in an attempt to reduce the time Satoko and Satoshi had to spend around their abusive aunt[11]. She used to be really bad at the games and would frequently have to take the penalties herself, but over time started to engage in dirtier strategies to secure her victories.[12]

At the main time period of the story, Mion is the oldest student at the Hinamizawa school, and thus serves as the class representative. She also helps out at her uncles' stores on an irregular basis depending on their need for manpower[13].

As heir to the Sonozaki family, Mion has a sizable personal allowance and access to a large amount of resources and information, which she deploys for purposes ranging from researching the food preferences of their opponent baseball pitcher Kameda in Tatarigoroshi to relocating the corpses of Rina and Teppei in Tsumihoroboshi. She however is limited by her position and the Sonozaki family's history, and thus cannot use this for personal goals that run contrary to the family's reputation, such as sheltering Satoko from her abusive uncle[14][15]. Mion also has the authority to speak in Oryou's place at village council meetings, which in Meakashi is used by Shion following her imprisonment of Oryou and Mion.

Relationships[]

Overview[]

Sonozaki Family

The Club

Other

Keiichi Maebara[]

Although Mion and Keiichi are simply friends, it is suggested that Mion has strong feelings for Keiichi. Due to Keiichi's denseness however, he has difficulty noticing Mion's feelings and apparently only regards her as his main rival at the school club and a great friend. Meakashi shows that Mion was incredibly hurt when Keiichi made light of the fact that she doesn't act feminine enough and didn't give her the doll.

In Minagoroshi, the fact that Keiichi decides to treat Mion like a girl when he does give her the doll, even though she doesn't have such a good image of herself, shows that they could both engage in a relationship if Mion was more confident.

In Miotsukushi, Keiichi values ​​Mion much more than he seems, after the confusion of the party that was supposed to celebrate Keiichi's succession as a class representative turned into his accidental engagement party with Mion. Keiichi admits that marrying Mion would not be a bad idea. They even have a date, even if it was just a punishment game.

Satokowashi-hen shows that in 1988, even though Mion, Keiichi and Rena are studying together at the same university, the relationship between the two remains undefined.

Rena Ryuugu[]

Mion is friends with Rena as leader of the club. Sometimes Mion will get rough with Rena when she goes on tangents about Oyashiro-sama.[16]

Other Club Members[]

Rika loves playing club games with Mion. Minagoroshi shows that Rika is especially fond of Mion because over the many worlds, Mion rarely repeats the same club activities.[17]

At first, Satoko seemed to be uncomfortable with Mion at school because of the Sonozaki family being responsible for the Houjou's ostracizing.[18] After the formation of the games club, Satoko and Mion form a good friendship.

Shion Sonozaki[]

Mion is Shion's older twin sister. Although Mion is the successor to the family, she still cares for Shion and was happy to communicate with her when the latter escaped from St. Lucia. Shion is one of the few people who Mion confides personal issues to, as seen in Meakashi when Mion becomes hurt over Keiichi not giving her the doll. Even though Mion had to punish Shion on behalf of the family in Meakashi by making her remove her fingernails, she still removed some of her own as well.

Oryou Sonozaki[]

Mion is Oryou's granddaughter and is training to succeed her as the Sonozaki family head. Despite her young age, Mion has enough authority to speak on Oryou's behalf. Oryou has revealed many secrets to Mion, such as in Tsumihoroboshi where the Sonozakis are not actually behind the curse and in Minagoroshi where Oryou wants to forgive the Houjous but is unable to because of her reputation.

Kuraudo Ooishi[]

Mion and Ooishi have an uneasy relationship due to Ooishi suspecting the Sonozakis of being behind every incident in the village. Mion and Ooishi will rarely cooperate when it benefits them, like in Tsumihoroboshi where they negotiate responsibility of finding Rena and resolve the "conspiracy" suggested by Takano's scrapbooks.

Role in the Story[]

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Question Arcs[]

Onikakushi[]

Mion is first introduced when she meets Keiichi and Rena on their usual route to school, and is established to be an outgoing but rather crude teenage girl. Two days later, she inducts Keiichi into her school games club through a fiercely competitive game of Old Bachelor. When Keiichi asks Mion if there was an incident at the dam construction site, she proudly tells him about the village's successful protest against the Hinamizawa Dam Project, but feigns ignorance on the subject of the dismemberment murder.

Three days after the Watanagashi Festival, Mion and Rena pay a visit to Keiichi, who was absent from school on that day due to feeling unwell. The two of them present Keiichi with a box of handmade ohagi, and tell him that he has to guess which of them was made by Rena as "homework" for missing that day's club activity. Mion also questions Keiichi about what he had for lunch, and suggests to him that she knows everything that happens around Hinamizawa. As they leave, she peeks through Keiichi's door one last time to tell him not to miss school the next day. Over the next two days, Mion continues to be disappointed at Keiichi's lack of participation in their club activities, including his failure to complete his ohagi homework.

When Keiichi begins practicing his baseball swing in the mornings, Mion initially plays along and encourages him. The next day however, she decides to confront him about his uncharacteristic behavior, and is berated by Keiichi for keeping secrets about the dam and Satoshi's "transfer" from him, as well as for the prank they played with his ohagi. Mion becomes tearful at Keiichi's rejection of her, but her expression darkens as she realizes it was likely Ooishi who gave him this information. She tells herself that she "should have just killed [Ooishi] back then".

Later that day, Mion visits Keiichi's home upon hearing from Rena that he fell unconscious. She asks Rena if she had called the Manager, and tells Keiichi that she will have to give him the same penalty as Tomitake-san for his failure to turn in his ohagi homework. As she brings a syringe towards Keiichi, Keiichi overpowers her and beats her and Rena to death with a baseball bat.

Watanagashi[]

Mion hosts a public game tournament at Yoshirou's toy store in Okinomiya, with a grand prize of 50000 yen from her own pocket. While all the club members manage to advance to the finals, Mion postpones the showdown due to a request for help from her uncle at a grocery store where she works part-time. To thank them, Yoshirou gives the other club members several toys as gifts. Keiichi's gift is a very girly doll, and while he considers giving it to Mion, he eventually decides to give it to Rena instead.

While visiting the restaurant Angel Mort with his dad, Keiichi runs into a waitress who looks like Mion but claims to be her identical twin sister Shion. He does not believe this explanation but goes along with it for Mion's sake. When Keiichi loses a club activity the next day and goes home without food, he is visited by and given a bento by "Shion", who responds in an embarassed manner when teased by Keiichi as if she were Mion. Keiichi thanks Mion for the food the next day, and she stumbles over trying to respond as if Shion gave him the food.

With Rena and Shion's hinting, Keiichi realizes that he had hurt Mion deeply by not giving her the doll after the game tournament. Her offers to buy it for Shion, who he thinks is Mion, and walks into the toy store to make that request. To his shock, he finds Mion in that same store, proving that the two people were indeed twins and that Shion had been manipulating him to tease her sister. Mion is taken aback by the entire incident, and Rena asks Keiichi to give her some space the next day. She spends the day with Rena, who tries to take her mind off things with fun conversation.

At the end of the Watanagashi Festival, Mion questions Keiichi on whether he had seen Shion, which startles him as he had been trespassing on the ritual storehouse with her earlier. Mion shows up late the next day looking unwell, which she attributes to a hangover from the night before. While Keiichi is outside washing his face, Mion questions him on whether he had seen Tomitake or Takano the previous day, and then once again asks if he had seen Shion. She tells him that she thought he might give a different answer this time.

When Satoko and Rika go missing the next evening, Mion joins Rena and Keiichi in looking for them. While Keiichi is climbing a ladder and talking about Satoko, Mion starts rambling that the girl is cursed by Oyashiro-sama while shaking the ladder with a deranged expression. She snaps out of it when Rena returns.

Keiichi and Rena head to Mion's house the next day to confront her regarding their friends' disappearance, backed up by Ooishi and the police outside. Having heard Rena's deductions, Mion admits her guilt and tells them of the village's dark history from Onigafuchi to the present. She tells them that she is a demon who carried out the murders because of her responsibility as the Sonozaki heir. Still, she requests that Keiichi accompany her on one last walk alone with her. Mion takes him to see Shion in the Sonozaki's underground torture chamber, but knocks him out from behind while he is distracted and straps him to a restraining table. She prepares to drive nails into Keiichi's fingers, but stops herself due to the arrival of the police.

The police fail to find Mion after breaking in and rescuing Keiichi. Some time later, Keiichi sees Mion outside his house. Still sympathetic to her, he tries to finally give her the doll, but Mion stabs him with a meat cleaver. While recovering in the hospital, Ooishi visits Keiichi and informs him that Mion's body had been found at the bottom of the well in the underground chamber before when he had claimed to be stabbed by her. After Ooishi leaves, Keiichi sees a bloodied Mion in his hospital room and witnesses her hammer a nail into his finger in his final moments.

Tatarigoroshi[]

Mion is one of the first people to find out about the return of Satoko's abusive uncle Teppei to Hinamizawa, but initially withheld that information from her friends. She later explains that they had called the child consultation center on her aunt's abuse the precious year, but failed to get them to take action due to the lack of visible signs of abuse, and in fact caused the situation to worsen behind closed doors. As such, she felt helpless about the present situation. Mion rejects Keiichi's increasingly radical suggestions on finding a new guardian for Satoko, and is accused by him of being cold-hearted when she refuses to use her Sonozaki family resources to do so. She breaks down in tears. After Rena calls out Keiichi's hypocrisy, he and Mion make up.

Having heard from Takano that the Sonozaki family was behind Oyashiro-sama's curse, Keiichi goes to Mion's house and personally requests that she make Teppei the target of the fifth year's curse. Mion however denies that the Sonozaki family is responsible for the deaths attributed to the curse.

The night before the Watanagashi Festival, Keiichi calls Mion and entrusts her with taking Satoko to the festival for him, as he would be busy (murdering her uncle, unknown to Mion). Hearing this, Mion begins to shed tears as Satoshi had told her the same thing the previous year before disappearing from the village a few days later. They discuss the situation around Satoshi's disappearance. After the digression, she informs Keiichi that she had already arranged to bring Satoko to the festival beforehand.

Mion later died along with the other villagers in the Great Hinamizawa Disaster.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai[]

Meakashi[]

After Shion escapes from St. Lucia, Mion communicates with her and helps provide a place for her to live while also regularly switching places with her, as Shion isn't allowed to be seen in public.

Shion is eventually brought before the Sonozaki family when she reveals her identity in public and has to repent for burdening Kasai and Yoshiroh Mion starts acting officially as the next Sonozaki head and forces Shion to place her hand into a device and tear out three of her fingernails.

Mion later hosts a public game tournament at Yoshirou's toy store in Okinomiya, with a grand prize of 50000 yen from her own pocket. While all the club members manage to advance to the finals, Mion postpones the showdown due to a request for help from her uncle at a grocery store where she works part-time. To thank them, Yoshirou gives the other club members several toys as gifts. Keiichi's gift is a very girly doll, and while he considers giving it to Mion, he eventually decides to give it to Rena instead. Mion cries to Shion about this, and the latter starts to develop hatred towards Keiichi.

Shortly after the Watanagashi Festival, Shion interrogates Mion about the curse and knocks her out with her stun gun, bringing her and locking her up in the underground torture chamber. Shion then starts going out in public pretending to be Mion as the real Mion starts to lose her mind, trapped in the cell and listening to Shion torturing and killing her friends.

Shion demands that Mion call herself Shion as the former claims the name of Mion. It's revealed that the twins had also switched places a lot as kids, and during a switch one day the younger sister was taken to get the Sonozaki demon tattoo and thus was forced to assume the role of Mion permanently. A delirious Mion agrees to her sister's proposal.

After Shion knocks out Keiichi and the police start breaking in, Shion sets Mion free and changes clothes with her, telling her to escape through the well. As Mion climbs down the ladder, Shion knocks her out with her stun gun and makes her fall down the hole, killing Mion upon hitting the ground.

Tsumihoroboshi[]

Mion joins the club in a water gun fight and loses, being made to wear a punishment outfit at Angel Mort. A few days later, Rena asks Mion to contact Kasai so she can return something to him in person. Mion agrees.

One day, the club sans Rena goes to the junkyard for treasure hunting and end up discovering the corpses of the people Rena's killed. Rena confesses her crime to her friends, believing it was the right thing to do as she couldn't trust them to help. Rena makes an example of Satoshi supposedly killing his aunt last year and admonishes the club for not helping him, especially Mion for not using her influence with the Sonozaki family to do something. Keiichi gets the club to reinforce their friendship, with Mion accepting that she wasn't a good enough leader then and forgiving Rena. Afterwards, the group buries the corpses in a forest and agree to keep it secret.

Rena convinces Keiichi that Takano's uncovered a village conspiracy involving the Three Families. When Keiichi asks Mion about it, she insists that the Three Families aren't behind Oyashiro-sama's curse. Mion says that Takano is infamous for her occult stories and tells Keiichi about the Sonozaki's secret precept, where they take credit for everything that happens to make themselves seem more powerful. Later, Mion reveals to Keiichi that she relocated the buried corpses using her Sonozaki connections since there was a development project planned for that forest. When she hears that the police are looking for Rena, Mion and the club claim she was seen in Gogura to throw off investigation; unwittingly, Rena falls further into paranoia when she hears of her "doppelganger".

The next day, Keiichi confesses to the club about his sin. Mion and the rest are confused since they see no reason for him to do this, and they console Keiichi by saying that friends don't need to share every secret between them. Mion says that even she has several arrests from throwing bricks at people during the dam war. Keiichi then remembers the events of Onikakushi's world: he suspected Rena and Mion of trying to kill him with a needle in his ohagi when it was just spicy sauce Mion added. When they tried to write on his shirt for a punishment game, just like what happened to Tomitake, Keiichi beat them to death. Keiichi cries and apologizes to Mion for killing her, but the confused girl assures him she's still alive.

Mion, Akane, and Kasai meet with Ooishi and the police to clear up their misunderstandings regarding the search for Rena. The Sonozakis gain responsibility for finding Rena and turning her over to police with a lawyer while the police gain Takano's scrapbooks and cancel their planned raids on Sonozaki facilities.

The class continues to worry when Rena still hasn't come home. At school, Mion hears that Rena called the school and told Chie to meet her somewhere; Mion ordered some bodyguards to follow Chie just in case. After Chie leaves the school, Rena arrives and takes the building hostage, tying up Mion and her classmates. While Rena negotiates with police, she beats up a restrained Mion in anger for moving the corpses and betraying her friendship. Keiichi tries to make Rena calm down. Later, Keiichi lures Rena's attention away from the classroom while Satoko and Rika break free and rescue everyone else. Mion is carried outside on a stretcher by paramedics, where she watches Rena and Keiichi duel on the school roof. When Ootaka attempts to train snipers on Rena, Mion tells him to stand down since Rena is coming around thanks to Keiichi.

Mion's fate after Rika's death and the Great Hinamizawa Disaster is unclear.

Minagoroshi[]

MinagoroshiCG (1)

Mion hosts a game tournament at Yoshirou's toy store in Okinomiya, similar to what she's done in previous worlds. After the festivities, Yoshirou gives everyone except Mion a prize, with Keiichi getting a very girly doll. Rika thinks about how Keiichi not giving Mion the doll resulted in tragedy in prior worlds, and the player can choose for Rika to tell Keiichi what to do or do nothing. Regardless of their choice, Keiichi gives Mion the doll, and she reluctantly but happily takes it.

Later, Mion recruits Keiichi to work as a host for an auction on Watanagashi. She provides the club with ohagi made by her grandmother, and Keiichi recalls the feeling of something suspicious being put in them. Mion says this is the first she's brought ohagi, but Keiichi feels it isn't. He says there must be a sewing needle inside and Mion becomes concerned, but Keiichi believes she would never pull a dangerous prank like that.

While retrieving items for the auction, Mion mentions that Rena came to her for advice on what to do with her dad dating a potential scammer. Talking it out with Mion helped Rena calm down and decide on a course of action. The club goes to the toy store for more items and come across a mahjong set. They practice a mahjong trick called the Tsubame Gaeshi and bond with Ooishi when he shows up and demonstrates the move to them.

After Satoko's abusive uncle returns to Hinamizawa, Mion and the club struggle on how to help her. They call the child consultation center and ask them to help Satoko, but after some observation they determine that no abuse is happening. The group decides to petition the center themselves, and when they are rejected again, the club spends the next few days gathering more people and explaining the situation. Mion brings Keiichi to a Watanagashi meeting one night so he can appeal to the council of elders and get the Three Families' assistance. Mion explains how the animosity between the Houjous and the Sonozakis began, and that Oryou really does want to forgive them but doesn't want to risk losing face. Keiichi becomes more determined to get the Three Families on his side. Keiichi's appeal is ultimately successful, and Satoko is rescued from Teppei.

A few days after the festival, Mion and the club notice that Rika is feeling down, with some strange people guarding her house. Rika tells them the truth about Hinamizawa Syndrome and Tokyo, and her fears that she will be killed later. One night, the Mountain Dogs attempt to break into Rika's house, and she and Satoko escape. The rest of the club appears and helps them fight off the soldiers while running through the woods. They plan to escape to the Sonozaki house and steal a van, but their hopes are dashed when Takano shoots and kills Keiichi. The rest of the club are restrained by the Dogs, and Takano decides to execute Mion first since she's the club leader.

After Rika's death, the spirits of the club members reunite and accept Hanyuu as one of their own, convincing her to lend her assistance in the next world.

Matsuribayashi[]

The Connecting Fragments section shows Mion's formation of the club and Oryou confiding in her the desire for a new wind to come into the village.

Hanyuu Furude is introduced as a new student to the class, and Mion inducts her into the club after a game. Later, Rika and Hanyuu get the club's advice on how to defeat Takano and the Mountain Dogs by disguising their concerns as a comic book idea. Mion provides strategic advice regarding traps.

The club learns that Rika's comic idea is not just fiction. Mion gathers everyone at the Sonozaki house to prepare a plan of attack, where they decide to fake Rika's death and make it seem like she's been dead for more than 48 hours. The club hides out in the torture chamber as Ooishi performs his part of the plan, and on the cameras they see Kasai and Shion bringing in an injured Irie. The Mountain Dogs soon invade the estate, and Mion helps everyone escape through the underground passage.

The club retreats to Satoko's mountains and lure the Mountain Dogs there, where Mion commands the club members and helps them take out many soldiers with a combination of traps and surprise attacks. Okonogi becomes impressed with Mion's command and disarms himself so he can have a fair fight with her. Mion consistently throws Okonogi to the ground in all his repeated attacks and praises the club, considering them her best friends in the entire world. After one last throw, Okonogi accepts that the Mountain Dogs have been bested. The group goes to encounter Takano soon after, who has a loaded gun and threatens to shoot Hanyuu. Mion offers to take the bullet as leader of the club, but everyone else rejects her. Takano shoots but the bullet ultimately hits nothing.

After Takano is taken away, Mion and the rest of the club go to enjoy the Watanagashi Festival. In the future, Mion continue studying to pass entrance exams for her school, having nominated Keiichi as the next club president and class rep.

Trivia[]

  • A popular meme in the Japanese fanbase is "Aruee?" (アルェー/あるぇー) or "(・3・)", derived from one of Mion's expressions in the original spriteset.[19]
  • According to the Tsumihoroboshi credits, it was intended for Mion to die during the chapter but this was changed.[20]
  • Mion's original casual sprite features a holstered gun, which is not present in later art styles because it is not used at all in the main story. It was intended for Mion's gun to be an illegally modified airsoft gun that would fire ball bearings, however a real-life incident encouraged Ryukishi07 to not include this.[21]
  • Mion is named such in tribute to many old galge heroines having "on" in their name.[22]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "作品紹介 — ひぐらしのなく頃に" on the Official 07th Expansion website https://07th-expansion.net/hig_gensaku
  2. Tatarigoroshi
  3. At a special Higurashi event, Ryukishi07 answered questions from fans and gave age ranges for the main characters. While audio and video recordings were not allowed, secondhand reports indicate that Mion is in third-year middle school. As the Japanese school year starts in April and her birthday has not passed in June, she would be 14. (1)(2).
  4. Hirukowashi.
  5. Onikakushi Day 1. In contrast, this person over here is quite laissez-faire about things. (Keiichi referring to Mion)
  6. Onikakushi Day 1. Mion sure does act like an old man sometimes.
  7. Minagoroshi Chapter 20
  8. Meakashi Chapter 1. "According to our long-held family traditions, one of the twins was to be strangled to death right after birth. (...) I heard the hag actually put her hands around my neck right after I was born. ...I don't know what exchange took place in that moment."
  9. Himatsubushi Day 2-3. Her role was to merely sit beside Oryou Sonozaki, sometimes responding to her requests... (...) The words she had spoken were unarguably said in proxy for Oryou.
  10. Tsumihoroboshi Chapter 22. Mion: "I used to throw bricks at people. I can't even count how many times I ended up in a cell at the police station. During the dam conflict, I was a regular there."
  11. Tatarigoroshi Day 8 Mion: "One of the ways we helped out was with the club, by reducing her time at home as much as we could, but..."
  12. Onikakushi Day 11 Rena: "This is a secret, but Mii-chan used to be really bad at the beginning. She'd never win."
  13. Watanagashi TIP 1: Who's Mion's Uncle? Satoko: "Mion-san helps her uncles out whenever their employees go on vacations. She's like a handyman."
  14. Tatarigoroshi Day 8. Mion: ""M-My house...?! No, that won't happen!! ...My... my grandma would never allow it...! (...) Going to Okinomiya is even more out of the question!! My father... He'd never let it happen, ever!!!"
  15. Tatarigoroshi Day 9-2. Mion: "...Just to be clear... My family may be rich, but... It's not money that I can use freely for myself, okay...?"
  16. Tatarigoroshi Day 4
  17. Minagoroshi Day 2
  18. Matsuribayashi Connecting Fragments 35: Formation of a club
  19. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Matsuri Official Complete Guide page 100. Ryukishi07: "Also, the internet gives some interesting catchphrases like Mion's "Aruee?", but I don't remember writing that (laughs)."
  20. Kanji transcriptions of Tsumihoroboshi notes (archive)
  21. https://dengekionline.com/pr/higurashi/05a.html#03
  22. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Famous Scene Investigation File 100
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