Akane Sonozaki

Akane Sonozaki is the eldest daughter of Sonozaki Oryou, the current head of the Sonozaki family, and the mother of twins Mion and Shion Sonozaki. In Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai she appears as a supporting figure whose backstory and true importance only surface gradually, arc by arc.

Once groomed to inherit the family, Akane instead fell for an outsider yakuza boss the Sonozaki never sanctioned. When Oryou refused to approve the match, the two settled the conflict in a kendo duel; Akane lost, was made to tear out a fingernail as penance, and forfeited her claim to headship, which passed to whichever of her twin daughters was born first. That is why, before the ceremony marking the heir with a demon tattoo, Mion and Shion secretly swapped places — a switch their parents, by all accounts, never uncovered.

Beneath her traditional dark kimono and outward deference to her mother, Akane keeps a stubbornly independent streak; as a teenager she earned the nickname "Demon Princess of Shishibone." She and Oryou cannot reconcile in public, but stay close in private, and Akane understands exactly why her mother must protect her standing before the clan. That insight is why she quietly counsels Keiichi Maebara to back down after he confronts Oryou over Satoko Houjou's treatment.

By the story's climax she becomes instrumental in the plot against Miyo Takano, handing over Takano's notebooks to investigators and, alongside her uncle Saburou Sonozaki, gleefully outmaneuvering the corrupt police official Ootaka. A skilled kendo practitioner, Akane is voiced by Kikuko Inoue in Japanese and Megan Hollingshead in English.