Shion Sonozaki

Shion Sonozaki is one of the main characters from the Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni anime and games.

Shion is Mion's twin sister. She is well-known for her spectacular mental breakdown and the ensuing bloodbath in those arcs, her mischievous nature when it comes to teasing the other club members, as well as for her relationship with Houjou Satoshi, which has been the subject of at least four different songs. Her and her sister's age vary depending on the source from as low as 14 to as high as 17 years with 15 years at the end of Matsuribayashi-hen fitting the details of the story and subsequent manga.

Appearance
Shion resembles Mion in every way, except Shion leaves her hair down and has a yellow ribbon tied on the back of her head to differ from her sister. Like Mion, Shion has long, pale green hair and teal eyes.

Starting with Minagoroshi-hen, on her school days Shion wears a short sleeve buttoned white shirt with a blue- or white-striped ribbon tied around the collar, and a blue mini-skirt. On her free days, she wears a sleeveless vertical-striped turtle neck shirt. On the chest region of the shirt, there is what appears to be yellow gems of some sort. She also wears a black buttoned mini skirt and small white heels.

Shion's original boarding school uniform is only seen in the beginning of Meakashi-hen. It consists of a long sleeved white blouse, a red tie, a pale gray blazer, a navy blue skirt, white socks with blue stripes on the top and brown shoes. It is sometimes included in art or other media, but officially it is only seen that time. In the concluding panels of the manga version of Matsuribayashi-hen, she visits Hinamizawa dressed in her St. Lucia uniform primarily to dote on Satoko and insist she call her "Nee-nee."

Personality
Despite her being seemingly more girly and refined than Mion, thanks to schooling at St. Lucia, she is incredibly shrewd, cold, manipulative, and delinquent, more so than Mion. She hated St. Lucia, calling it a "factory for manufacturing ladies" and got in trouble with the administration numerous times for various misdemeanors. To escape, she studies all of the school's security systems, guard schedules, and behaviors of the administration staff, to the point where she manipulates them by propagating a rumor of her having a love affair with a male teacher. In Watanagashi-hen, she enjoys angering Mion and making her jealous by taking control of Keiichi whenever she has the chance. In Meakashi-hen, when the motorcyclists attack her, she is capable of mapping out how to ruin their reputations in numerous ways to create the most entertaining and interesting outcome for her own enjoyment. Also in Meakashi-hen, Shion easily manipulates the whole village of Hinamizawa. When Furude Rika, Hōjō Satoko, and Kimiyoshi Kiichirō go missing, Shion exploits the resulting paranoia to her own advantage in order to lure all of her targets to their deaths in perfect fashion and fulfill her own "promise" to Satoshi.

Despite being cold to hating Satoko in some arcs, Shion also has the capability to become fiercely protective of her. In Minagoroshi-hen, when the club members were trying to plan out how to save Satoko from her abusive uncle, Hōjō Teppei, she threatens to kill everyone who stands in her way of killing Teppei, even those whom she cared for, and only calms down when Keiichi allows her to bash his head with a chair. In this arc and possibly others, Shion is willing to die for Satoko. Later in Minagoroshi-hen, when she pleads to Takano to kill her but spare Satoko, Takano agrees and kills Shion by shooting her in the head, but later kills Satoko after she answers a question.

Like Mion, Shion often behaves as a very cheerful and friendly girl. In the arcs where she is protective of Satoko, Shion acts like her older sister by both helping out whenever she can and teasing as a sister would. She has a very supportive personality and openly supports Satoshi, convincing the store owner selling the large stuffed bear he wanted to give to Satoko for her birthday to hold it for him to allow him to earn the money to pay for it. Under the influence of the Hinamizawa Syndrome, Shion will become violent as her paranoia grows as it did in Keiichi and Rena.

Shion tends to become envious very easily and frequently, which contributes to her progression of the Hinamizawa Syndrome, her violent insanity, and how she chooses to seduce the victims "to make sure they get what they deserve." In Meakashi-hen, Shion's inner "demon" awoke out of jealousy when she was listening to Mion talk about Keiichi; she found it unfair for Mion to have a living crush nearby when her own crush was possibly dead. Other things that drive Shion's jealousy include Mion's status as the next heir of the Sonozaki family, Rika's status as the reincarnation of Oyashiro-Sama, Satoshi's protection and love for Satoko, and, as Shion describes it, Ryūgū Rena's own inner "demon" which far surpasses her own in terms of power and monstrosity.

Abilities
Her weapon is a stun gun.

Trivia

 * Shion is a bit of an anti-hero since she is both a protagonist and an antagonist, though her murders were committed under the influence of the Hinamizawa Syndrome and arguably not out of her own malice.
 * Since Shion has a liking towards teasing and playing pranks on others, especially Mion and Keiichi, she is often noted as the internet meme Luv or troll of the Higurashi series. Also, the "Shi" (kanji for poetry) in "Shion" is also spelled the same as "shi" (kanji for four), so fans celebrate "Shii's Day" on April 1st, which is also April Fool's Day, as a homage to her name and unique personality.
 * Similar to Satoko's case, Shion is the only other character in the series who has reached L5 that has not scratched her throat at any point in time.
 * In Higurashi Daybreak, Shion often says "Ora ora ora!" when attacking. This is a reference to Jotaro Kujofrom JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, in which he yells whenever he does a quick combo chain.
 * Shion has an irrational fear of canned foods. When she was younger, Kasai used to tell her stories about canned foods containing human meat.
 * Shion bears some similarities to Saki Yurikawa, one of the main antagonists of Reiko the Zombie Shop. Both possess similar hairstyles, were infamous for their murderous, psychotic behavior, betrayed (and even murdered) innocent people with no remorse, and both were known for having an estranged relationship with their siblings (Midori in Saki's case and Mion in Shion's case).
 * St. Lucia is a Catholic bording school which, in one visual novel, Shion regards as a living hell. Her stay in it is portrayed in the abandoned manga Utsutsukowashi-hen. It is also the name of the school Ushiromiya Ange attends in Umineko no Naku Koro ni.