Mion Sonozaki

"Well, it seems that all types of things happen in the adult world."

- Mion Sonozaki

Mion Sonozaki is a character from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. She is Shion's twin sister, as well as the heiress of the Sonozaki House. Mion is the most known sister of the Sonozaki twins, as well as the most mentally stable and tomboyish one.

Summary
Mion is the heir of the head of the Sonozaki family, and is the leader of the Hinamizawa School club. As the oldest in the class, she is the Class Representative, often shortened to Class Rep. She is the granddaughter of the current Sonozaki head Oryou Sonozaki. Because her mother, Akane Sonozaki, married a man from outside Hinamizawa, the heritage was passed immediately down to Mion rather than Akane, as she was the next oldest female. As the Sonozaki family is quite rich, it is obvious that Mion has a large allowance. The 50,000 yen that was announced as the winning prize at a game tournament is said to come from her own pocket.

Mion is 17, according to Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Matsuri, with a birthday in early February.

Mion is a tomboy and calls herself "oji-san" throughout the games, manga and anime. However, no matter how boyish she acts, she also has a girly side when opening her heart, mainly to her twin sister Shion Sonozaki. It is revealed and very often strongly hinted that she has a crush on Keiichi Maebara, which she expresses by picking on and teasing him at every possible occasion.

Due to being the next heir, Mion was branded with the oni tattoo on her back. The tattoo is a right reserved for the oldest child and thus the heir, but Mion was actually born as the younger sister, and therefore born with the name Shion.

Mion and Shion intentionally switched places when they were young, because "Shion" (current Mion) felt it was unfair for only one of them to attend family meetings. They swapped the day the oni tattoo was to be branded, resulting in the younger sister "Shion" (Mion) becoming the next heir. No one but the twins themselves seemed to be aware of this, and it is never brought up in the anime nor hinted.

Despite Mion's wild personality, she is noticeably the only main character who does not commit murder or becomes dangerously violent (possibly excluding Rika Furude). However, one of the TIPS reveals that she was once driven to kill as a result of jealousy over the attention Keiichi was getting from others, which she responded to by decided to eliminate the "competition" and keep Keiichi for herself.

If she needs to defend herself, Mion is also the only one who does not wield a weapon—her weapons are her body and strategical mind. She is trained in martial arts and is well-versed enough to even take down Okonogi easily, who has been training for years more than Mion has.

Although Mion is seen using a syringe once in Onikakushi-hen, it is later revealed in Tsumihoroboshi-hen to be a black marker, which Mion was going to use to draw on Keiichi's shirt. It is said that the marker appeared to be a syringe because of Keiichi's paranoia and resulting hallucinations.

Appearance
Mion has long, pale green hair and teal eyes. Her bangs part in the middle and she ties her hair into a ponytail. She has a trim figure and a large bust. There is a large demon tattoo on her back, described in the sound novel and shown in the opening of the anime's first season.

During her school days, Mion wears a white short-sleeved shirt with green (anime) or red (games) tie and wears a yellow, unbuttoned vest. She also wears a long reddish-pink skirt, black socks, and brown shoes. During her free days, she wears a yellow shirt with a slight black turtle neck, a white sweatshirt tied around her waist, blue jeans and brown shoes. She also wears an airsoft gun in a holster on her shoulder, though it is never used in the anime.

Once, in the anime's first episode, she is seen wearing a different variation of her free-day clothes; instead of her usual outfit. She wore a white shirt with a dark-red collar, shorts, a green sweatshirt tied around her waist and a purple gun holster.

Bathing Suit
In the first episode of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei, Mion was wearing a Chinese-style red and yellow bathing suit. Oddly enough, the large trademark demon tattoo is missing from her exposed back. This is due to the fact that (according to the TIPS) Mion has waterproof skin makeup for such events.

Personality
Mion acts energetic and confident, often teasing her friends. As the leader of the after-school games club, she organizes various card or board games, which she has become extremely good at, partially through cheating. She is the club member that tends to win the most, but as Rena reveals to Keiichi, she was the biggest loser at the beginning of the club. Mion designs most of the "punishment games" that the loser must perform, but, again, at the beginning, she often had to do them herself. It is a tribute to her determination that she has advanced so far in skill.

Although Mion seems very self-confident and tomboyish, it is revealed that she is quite girly. This is an important point in Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen, where Keiichi decides to give a doll he won to Rena rather than Mion, thinking that she would not like girly things; in Meakashi-hen, this event is shown to trigger the development of the Hinamizawa syndrome in Shion. However in Minagoroshi-hen, Keiichi is able to resolve this fate by giving the doll to Mion instead (of course Mion is a little hesitant to take it, as she says, "Wh-what?! I don't like that sort of thing! I'm sharp and spunky as you always say!" Keiichi, however, tells her that she's still a girl to him and she ends up revealing her girly side by saying, "Yes, I will treasure this doll," and looking lovingly at the doll.)

As the heir to the Sonozaki family estate, she must act very formal and responsible when dealing with family matters. As a result, Mion has another side of her personality that is in complete contrast to her normal self. When she assumes this role, she becomes almost completely expressionless, and very serious. A good example of this side of her is from Meakashi-hen, where she forces Shion to rip off three of her own fingernails as punishment, despite the fact that she cares deeply for Shion and later rips off three of her own as retribution.

Shion Sonozaki
Shion is Mion's older twin sister, who is shunned by the village and mistaken as the younger twin. They do not bicker about the family heir conspiracy and often switch places at meetings without the family members noticing. In all versions of the series, they are shown to be very close, despite not seeing each other often. It is shown that despite their constant bickering in public, Mion opens up to Shion about many personal subjects and both are quite close to each other. In Tatarigoroshi-hen, Shion is implied to actually be a much more difficult opponent than Mion in their club games; when Rena asks Shion to join a club game, Shion replies, "Oh, I wouldn't want to ruin Mion's reputation as club leader. Hey Mion, how about a sister showdown?", resulting in Mion blushing heavily and quickly escaping the conversation.

Keiichi Maebara
Keiichi and Mion's relationship is arguably the one most expanded on through out the series. Keiichi and Mion's relationship is often hinted to be very strong, and Keiichi and Mion are hinted to have feelings for each other, most notably in Meakashi-hen, where Mion confesses her love for Keiichi to Shion. However, Mion herself has difficulty not only in gathering the courage to voice her feelings across to Keiichi, but also in getting him to acknowledge her as a feminine girl. When Keiichi fails to give Mion a doll he won, saying she wouldn't like it anyway and gives it to Rena, Mion is later seen crying and being upset over this. However, this is all reversed in Minagoroshi-hen, when Keiichi notices Mion's expression and gives her the doll instead. In Tsumihoroboshi-hen, when Keiichi hugs Mion as an apology for killing her and Rena in Onikakushi-hen (which she and Rena do not remember), she blushes and stammers profusely. An example of Keiichi's feelings is during Watanagashi-hen, when Keiichi is about to be tortured by who he believes to be Mion. Instead of resisting, he states that if it will soothe the demon inside of Mion she may go ahead, only asking in return for her to save both Mion and Shion.

In the sound novel and manga adaptations of Watanagashi-hen, both Rena and Shion tell Keiichi that Mion is upset over the doll not being given to her. Toward the end of the arc, Keiichi wants to buy the doll and give it to Mion. He later on stands with the doll in his hands, saying to himself "If I ever see you (Mion) again... When I do... If I do... Then... this time... I will give the doll to you... So you'd better take it without making fun of me. I know you'll probably be all stubborn and say you don't want it. But in the end, you'll turn all bright red and take it from me," giving hints to why things turned out differently in Kai. In the Watanagashi-hen visual novel arc, where Keiichi gave the doll to Rena and made Mion upset, he went to buy the same doll a few days later and give it to Mion as an apology. Believing that Shion was Mion's disguise, he gave both the doll and a whole-hearted apology regarding his ignorance of her feelings to Shion, a second before Mion appears from the toy store's counter and witnesses what Keiichi had done (which explains her frequent embarrassment and leaving the classroom every time Keiichi looked at her, as witnessed by Satoko at least fifteen times in one class session during episode 5 of the first season). Near the end of the arc, he buys the same doll a second time and tries to give it to Mion (who was again Shion in disguise) before he is stabbed by Shion. This marks the third time he gave the same doll to the wrong person, without Mion ever knowing his true intentions.

Rena Ryuuguu
Mion and Rena are best friends and have been since the start of the series. Shion considers Rena to be Mion's rival when it comes to Keiichi's feelings, though they never fight about it. Mion and Rena share with each other almost as much as the twins, possibly partly because Shion is away from Mion so frequently.

Satoko Hojo
Mion and Satoko are good friends through out the series. Like Keiichi, Mion sometimes enjoys teasing Satoko, as seen in Onikakushi-hen when she asks the color-blind Satoko to distinguish broccoli from cauliflower. Still, despite her teasing Mion does care for Satoko. Their closeness is especially evident in Meakashi-hen, as Mion begs Shion to spare Satoko's life and offers to die in her place. She agrees to Shion's lucrative terms for saving Satoko (apologizing one thousand times), though she ultimately fails.

Rika Furude
Mion is close friends with Rika, having known her since she was a child. Rika deeply cares for Mion. Mion and Rika are both in line to be the heads of their households, though Rika inherited her position much sooner than Mion, after her parents were killed. Rika also seems to be interested in Mion's breasts, as seen when she fondled them saying "I won't lose."

Trivia

 * Only a very small number of subbers have noted the fact that Mion says "oji-san" very clearly in many lines where she refers to herself. Oji-san can mean either uncle or old man. MangaGamer's translation of the games includes this detail as "Uncle Mion".
 * Oji-san is sometimes confused with Onji-san meaning king or same. Which however it may appear to be considered that Mion says "Onji-san" when she's really saying "Oji-san"
 * During the ending special of the 2nd episode of Kai, when Hanyuu recites the "ABC's of Higurashi" and asks Rika to provide an input for the letter S, Rika replies, "Shii and Mii go 'Gugegegege'!" This utteral sound is heard during the Zombie Tag game when Shion and Mion were acting as bloodthirsty zombies, and also in the 5th episode of Rei, when Mion receives a violent uppercut from a lovecursed Rena.