https://youtu.be/6YKbPMJJ_5Y

How old are the characters?

I figured I would direct discussion to a thread rather than have it spread across User Talk pages. As far as I have wandered myself throught the Japanese and English Sound Novels, the ages are not given. Bringing in the manga version of Matsuribiyashi-hen I have read, "comic" end pages have Mion asking Shion's advice on how to develop a relationship with Keiichi with comically disasterous results in her final year. Another manga-only arc has Shion hounding Mion to prepare for her exams. 

So, one should expect that since most Japanese high school students enter at 16, this puts Mion at the end of Matsuribiyashi-hen at the age of 15-16. 

However, we have--reportedly since I have not seen it myself--the relatively newer Matsuri gives years for the birth of Mion and Shion. This would, according to it, put their age at 17.

"What We've Got Here is . . . a FAILURE to . . . communicate!":

One can argue for the age at either end of the range of about 15-17ish given the fact that Hinamizawa Branch School is not exactly an academic powerhouse what with Keiichi having to do a lot of the teaching, and Shion absent for long periods from her academy which could delay their entrance into high school or none of that applies and they are about 15 with Mion planning to take her examines that year to enter high school.

"Some Men . . . You Just . . . Can't Reach!":

So what is the evidence? Aside from the obvious "they are young teens!" and "not in a proper high school" puts them in the 15ish range for Shion, Mion, and Keiichi? I highly doubt that, even for his sanity, if Keiichi was in a high school his parents sent him to an essentially middle school!

Another editor Pteryon cites some Tweets and recollections from people that claim the Author basically states they are middle school aged. He does not give actual ages, unfortunately in what he linked on his wall. Fine. I also do expect the Author may not have really considered that level of exactitude. Pteryon further claims that the Matsuri increased the ages to better the appeal of the games. I am not sure I buy that, but I would love a reference for it. Therefore:

"You Run One Time? You Get Yourself a Set of Chains. You Run Two Times, You Get Yourself Two Chains. You Won't Need No Third Set 'Cause You're Going to Get Your Mind Right!":

I suggest this and welcome comment:

• Hold Off on Editing Ages for Now
• Someone with Access to Matsuri please take a screen capture of the Japanese which lists the year Mion and Shion were born.
• Any other indication of age from the Sound Novels should be screen captured as well.
• A "When and Where" the interview with the Author and, preferably, something more verifiable than "I remember."

With that, we can decide on an age range for characters and give a footnote(s) like: "According to the author . . . blah . . . blah 15" and "According to Matsui born in 1923, Cryogenically Preserved Unti . . . blah . . . blah . . . 17.3"

Footnote is not unheard of in the Wikia, particularly with characters whose stories take years for a few months and the authors wish to keep it them contemporary. Guides and previous issues may have different dates!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle forgot where Watson was wounded in Afghanistan . . . and also his name.

First thread of the section.

Reason: User alerted me to a funny and official parody of Higurashi in a moe anime. I agree we should include a reference to it. This reminded me that I have wanted to "dress up" individual pages for the individual anime episodes.

"Our Anime Episode Pages are Bad . . . and We Should Feel Bad": So I decided to "borrow" the basic layout from another Wikia I defile. Obviously, we would need to create a specific "infobox" as a template. I am not going to do that, I want input.

Go to:

Last Period Parody

and click on the "source" to see some of the things that could be useful for Higurashi. Yes, for THIS example some of the entries are "jokes" since I just want imput and am searching for these details of this specific parody episode. We could use the "Title Cards" for each episode as an Episode Picture, for example.

For those interested in the details on THIS parody see these links:

animenewsnetwork: Last Period parodies Higurashi and the actual scene.

I decided to "put" it in the Anime Only category. Let me know what you think, suggest, and other things about the layout. Some elements of this basic form will not apply for this parody. It may not apply to other parodies/references. So, for example, if Enma Ai ended her "Ippen shindemiru?" with "Nipaa?" then you would just have a page for that episode without much of the other details.

So let me know what you all think.