Higurashi no Naku Koro ni/WMG

Demon Granny Onyuu is nowhere near as nasty as she's portrayed.
Her real personality is closer to her daughter and granddaughter; she's simply very protective of her household name. So she has to act stubborn, but it's all just that, an act. For example: Add her acting all "we totally did it!" around the curse killers, when she herself wants the killers; the sale of the lots explicitly to bring in new blood; the way she acts towards the Houjous in Massacre and Festival Accompainment. She was never truly nasty - she just had to act that way because that's what's expected of a family in power.
 * Kicks her daughter out for marrying an unapproved man, but doesn't obstracize her or her daughters in most any other way;
 * Tries to kill Shion at birth, but it's just an act. She expects to be stopped and told to work around the twins;
 * She sends Shion to a boarding school, but her punishment for her escaping is relatively minor (horrific, yes, hurtful, yes, fatal or permanent? Not in the slightest - real Yakuza would require fingers, not fingernails!). And she's not sent back. Her real reaction was probably closer to "took that scamp long enough! Why if I was her age, I'd have been out of there in a week!";

The Hinamizawa Syndrome is a strain of chickenpox.
Explianed here.

Miyo Takano is a descendant of Gaoh.
Both of them have that sort of blank stare, and are unafraid to mess with destiny itself or kill people, and both have the intent of becoming a God. She's crazy because it's In The Blood. Well, that and

Rika is in Purgatory, She is being purged of the sin of Sloth.
Almost every single arc in the series ends with Rika's gruesome death. The cycle does not end until.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni is actually the Higurashi main characters' game of 13 Dead End Drive.
Rika is already present in some form in the game. The club's whole purpose is to play things like board games, and their imaginations are no doubt stimulated from having seen actual murders (and having it happen to themselves). Sure, that board game doesn't exist in 1983 Japan, but maybe they invented it.
 * Status: Very nearly Jossed. This hasn't been completely confirmed yet, but events in Umineko suggest that
 * In the anime of Umineko, Maria is seen watching . In addition,.
 * I always just thought that that was just a shoutout.
 * From what I have seen, it appears that Umineko happens after Higurashi. In fact,.
 * Oh it's been jossed alright. Battler refers to a book called Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni during the first game, quoting a line from Tatarigoroshi-hen when Keiichi and his mom are discussing "the perfect crime".
 * Perhaps they're Mutually Fictional?
 * Oddly enough, it seems that although.

Rena is responsible for the Curse of the Colonel
After all, the curse hinges on a lost, unsalvaged Colonel Sanders statue...

Miyuki Soramachi from the newest DS version of Higurashi is actually Akasaka's daughter Miyuki.
This idea came from a youtube video by SPFanJB. In said video he lists several similarities between the two:
 * One: They have the same hair color.
 * Two: Miyuki Soramachi is investigating the same case Akasaka was investigating.
 * Three: They must be the same because no two people in Higurashi share the same name (except for Akira Toudou in Onisarashi-hen and Akira in Yogoishi-hen).
 * Confirmed in the game.

Rika is a witch.
In Umineko no Naku Koro Ni, the Witch Species is divided up into 3 subspecies: Witches, who can possess immense power in one world that is considered to be its dominion; Creators, who can "create a one in a world of nothingness."; and Voyagers,  . While it is true that Frederica Bernkastel isn't the same person as Rika Furude, nobody ever said that Rika wasn't a witch; so thus, she must be a Voyager, and  a Creator. "Rika:"
 * It seems as though  considers   to be akin to an alternate personality (happens at the beginning of Minagoroshi-hen in the manga).
 * This might actually be correct if we go through the events that occur in Saikoroshi-hen:


 * Considering the existence of it's not impossible that Bernkastel could be a separate person who originated as part of Rika.

Hanyuu is, or used to be, a Heroic Spirit.
When Hanyuu allowed herself to be killed to bring peace of mind to the people of Hinamizawa (or whatever it was called way back when), she fulfilled the requirements necessary to become an Avenger-class servant. When the villagers began to revere her as Oyashirou-sama her status shifted from "human heroic spirit" to "lesser divine spirit" by whatever system governs these things in the Nasuverse, whereupon she was kicked out of the Throne of Heroes and returned to Hinamizawa in a spirit form, where she remains, unknown and unseen, until Rika is born many years later. Dark Hanyuu is the result of having her legend warped by what the villagers believe her to be, turning her into "Oyashiro-sama" on some level without actually altering her personality. Her Noble Phantasm is that demonic sword she wields in Daybreak, and she bestowed that Scythe onto Rika as well.
 * Furthermore the Church knows this and has sent Ciel undercover as a teacher to observe.
 * Hanyuu would probably be of the "Avenger" class, as she was elevated to Divine Spirit via a sacrifice. However, she is a more perfect Heroic Spirit than Angra Mainyu, since she was not summoned experimentally and she was completely willing to let herself be sacrificed.

Has Mion really never killed anyone?
In Watanagashi-hen, isn't it possible that it really was all Mion's doings? After all, is there nothing I know of that guarantees that Meakashi-hen is the exact same thing. Perhaps Meakashi-hen merely shows that the exact same events could occur by either of the sisters.
 * Everything that I have ever read on the subject has said that Watanagashi and Meakashi are perfectly identical in terms of events, ergo the murderer is the same person in both arcs. There is some confusion as to whether or not Rika commits suicide-by-knife in both arcs, (the anime opening to episode 5 shows that she does, but the game seems to indicate that Shion tortured her to death), but Shion is definitely the murderer in both Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen.
 * No, they're not identical. In Watanagashi, Keiichi knocks over the motercycles and Shion rescues him. In Meakashi, Shion knocks over the motorcycles and Keiichi rescues her. I'm not sure what this means, but it's something I keep noticing. Any thoughts?
 * Everyone does say that they are the same, but is there any canon material or Word of God that agrees?
 * No Word of God that I can name off the top of my head, but the evidence that it's Shion in Watanagashi is pretty overwhelming, and there's probably a TIP or two that will confirm this. Recall, for instance, "Mion" shaking the ladder while Keiichi stands on it during the search for Rika and Satoko while ranting about Satoshi, something Mion would have had no reason to do.
 * Thwarted in Minagoroshi-hen, when.
 * I read somewhere that Mion has killed in worlds unseen though, something along the lines of Keiichi and her do get together and she kills off people she sees as a threat to them or just killing people who give Keiichi to much attention thus are a threat to her chances with him. Not 100% on if it's true or not, but pretty sure she has killed in worlds unseen.
 * Indubitably, but until they are published they might as well not exist.
 * I also saw that, but it was on The Other Wiki and in need of citation so taking that with a grain of salt.
 * I can offer two explanations for why she has never been seen killing: Either she did it first and learned from her mistakes in alternate universes faster, or Rika initiated some events that resolve her homicidal tendencies, such as the game club.
 * Matsuribayashi-hen showed that Mion herself started the game club to help Satoshi and Satoko through their time with their abusive aunt and uncle. The biggest problem I have with this theory is why then did she not remember her "sins" in Minagoroshi-hen when everyone else did? Really, unless we get any information that she has killed - through concrete TIPS or otherwise - we have to assume she hasn't.
 * You're all forgetting an important point: The subject's own mental state, stress level and decisions may be factors and may be enough to save them in some cases, but the insanity is triggered by leaving Hinamizawa. Keiichi for the funeral, Rena when moving, Shion when ostracized, Satoko and Satoshi and their relatives when their parents dragged them along on vacation or whatever, etcetera. I can't come up with any compelling reason Mion would ever leave Hinamizawa, ever, even for a day or two.
 * Keep in mind, though, "the insanity is triggered by leaving Hinamizawa" is something that was, in all likelihood, originally said by the same person as "Oyashiro was an alien doctor"; and there seem to be a few places where the theory breaks down (like where Senator Sonozaki presumably has been exposed, is absent from Hinamizawa for extended periods of time, and shows absolutely no signs of manifesting symptoms).
 * Also, according to Hinageshi-hen, Mion attends prep school outside Hinamizawa, and is fully capable of developing symptoms, even if they are a bit unusual.
 * Remember, though, that all of the symptoms begin as "paranoia which seems like depression". If one is careful in the treatment of the early symptoms, and doesn't become agitated, it doesn't spread. Also, I am curious whether the pills that Rena ceased taking when her mother left were Irie's Hinamizawa treatments. If they were, then anyone living outside of Hinamizawa who's careful and takes their medicine should have been asymptomatic. Similarly, all of the actual going nuts happened due to acute stress, rather than the leaving itself.
 * Disproved in the games. Mion is mentioned as being the only person who's never snapped.

Related to the above: possible sequence of events in the "worlds unseen"
Thus explaining why Rika gets Satoko to intervene in Tatarigoroshi-hen and prevent the entire sequence of events, which in turn explains why Mion doesn't remember: the last time it happened was centuries ago.

Rena is biologically related to Dr. Irie.
Two characters with reddish-brown hair, an obsession with "cute" things (and/or people), and the ability to become unusually mature when the situation calls for it. A coincidence? I think not!
 * Are you saying that Rena's mother was a slut that would sleep with men she was not married to unprotected and get pregnant by them? Because if you are, then you have either watched the show, played the game, or read the comic. Reina does look more like Irie then her own father.
 * I for one always suspected that Mr. Ryuuguu was not Rena's biological father. However, because he is kindhearted, he treats her as a true daughter rather than vilifying her for the actions of her mother.
 * Maybe they're cousins or something. While they do look a lot alike, and they have similar personalities, the wiki states Rena to be 15 and Irie to be anywhere from his late twenties to early thirties; they're a little too close in age for the "Irie is Rena's father" theory to be entirely credible.
 * Expanding on the above post, while the age difference sort of eliminates the chance of Irie being Rena's father (unless he seriously liked older women as a kid), they're not too far apart in age to have been siblings. Irie's family was shown to be rather poor; Rena could have been given up for adoption so she could be properly cared for.
 * If he is in his early thirties, he could have been an extremely young father.

Rika is a mass murderer.
Going by the first episode of Kai, she isn't jumping back in time when she retries the events of that June; each and every ruined Hinamizawa continues to exist in an alternate timeline. She's repeatedly creating new versions of Hinamizawa to get massacred, with no clue how to stop it from happening - and going by her comments at the start of Kai's arcs, she could have stopped retrying at any time.
 * I got the impression that she wasn't so much creating new worlds as much as traveling between existing alternate universes. Of course, that would mean that even if she stops Takano in the one universe of Matsuribayashi-hen, there are still an infinite number of universes where Takano's plan succeeds...
 * Well, Rika and Hanyuu are selfish immortal loli's, and content to stay in the one universe that works as opposed to fixing every other universe.
 * And how exactly are they supposed to fix the other universes when they barely survived a world where everything went their way?
 * Fixing a universe was a backup plan/last resort to "Travel between alternate Hinamizawas until I find one where nobody is crazy". They underestimated the size of the Timey Wimey Ball and Rika ran out of extra lives.
 * Trying to "fix" all the other universes wouldn't work anyways, even if it were possible. The quantum physics take on alternate universes states that each and every action and choice made by human beings spawns an alternate universe for every choice and action that wasn't selected (or as my science fiction teacher put it, "all possibilities exist simultaneously"). You can have hundreds of Onikakushi-hen timelines where the only difference is Keiichi choosing to wear a different shirt one day, multiplied by the number of shirts he owns and multiplied again for each day in the loop where that shirt could be chosen. It's an exercise in futility to even think of changing all the infinite universes where Takano's plan succeeds, much less visiting them. And even if she tried, Rika's presence would create new choices and possibilities in the world she visited, creating still more Bad End universes where her attempts to fix things backfire horribly.
 * on a more positive note, using the previous comment, that means that Rika didn't just win in that one. In the final world in Kai, Each day that, using the above example, each day Keiichi chooses a shirt to wear, and that being multiplied each day, and that having no effect on Rika winning, then all those worlds also had Rika winning.

Rika is only imagining
More specifically,.
 * I'm pretty sure this one's jossed by the game's TIPS; apparently the queen theory itself is jossed by the fact that the villagers didn't have mass freak-outs after Rika was killed ahead of schedule in Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen.
 * Also disproved by other two details: one, victims of Hinamizawa Syndrome level 5 can hear her footsteps and her incessant apoloziging because their senses are shapened by the paranoia, and two, she takes on a literal physical persona in Matsuribayashi.

Saikoroshi-hen really happened and Hanyuu was hiding the truth from Rika when she said that it was All Just a Dream.
Why would Hanyuu prevent herself from accessing the world that Rika was currently in on purpose? She obviously has enough power to exist, if not to resurrect Rika again. Rika's mother was the eighth reincarnation of Hanyuu in that world, but who says that Hanyuu was the original Oyashiro-sama in that world to begin with? Rika could only talk to Hanyuu because the stone gave her some sort of access/communication (similar to Scrying) to the world whence she had come from. The only reason this never happened in other arcs is because Hanyuu was there all the time; Saikoroshi-hen being the lone exception.

Lastly, can you really believe that Hanyuu, the Hanyuu we all know, would trick Rika into just to hammer in the aesop she wanted? Doubt it.
 * The game suggests that she actually chooses staying in the other world, but wakes up in the original one anyway, with no memories of that last day. This heavily suggests it really was an illusion caused by Hanyuu.
 * In the visual novel Rika remembers, so she did choose to leave that world.
 * Maybe Hanyuu wanted to be Anvilicious about it and took it a bit too far?

Every single part of Higurashi is Rika's Dying Dream.
The only thing that's real is Rika getting hit by that truck before Saikoroshi-hen and this is all Rika's last dream.
 * Theh shouldn't just Saikoroshi be a dream?

Higurashi-Rei is a series of dreams the characters are having.
It's the only way they can make any sense for one matter (call me crazy, but I would not act all chummy towards someone who, oh, tried to kill my best friends). For another, the dreams could possibly represent how the characters are recovering mentally and emotionally from going through the same 100-year-or-so period, and how they are looking forward to being able to get on with their lives.
 * Of course, if the girls dreamt The Embarrassment Chapter, it also means they're all Covert Perverts. And if Mion or Rena dreamt it, it will also give the shippers a lot to talk about...

Hanyuu is a witch.
She somehow became an Umineko-type witch after her mortal death, but didn't know it so just decided to define herself as "god".
 * This is supported by Lamda-Delta's memoirs wherein she defines a god as a being with no restrictions (including the restriction of their own meaning) and thus a being who's existence no longer has any meaning. Hanyuu doesn't fit this definition and thus is not a god. It should be noted however that the idea that Hanyuu is a god was created by her descendants, she simply chose to go along with it.
 * Three words that are Umineko spoilers:.
 * More evidence in favor of this: Matsuribayashi-hen. She refers to the events of June 1983 as a "game", and It would seem that Fredrika's actions at the end were a way of Ret Goneing the entire series as a way of saying "Screw you, Hanyuu. I don't lose."

Hinamizawa Syndrome is actually caused by a Kishin
...probably sealed under Onigafuchi swamp. They both cause terrifying paranoia and hallucinations that can cause people to turn Ax Crazy as they get close, with delusions like a strong impression that someone is coming after you or an illusion that makes you think you're attacking something other than what you are. Only the throat-clawing is a direct consequence of the parasite, the effect of which is only noticeable when combined with the Kishin's influence. This is also part of why Hinamizawa Syndrome hasn't spread much; beyond the village, it's out of the affected area.

Satoko's uncle had Hinamizawa Syndrome and, left alone, would have killed her in any universe in which he reappeared
This doesn't seem like that much of a stretch. In the Massacre arc, Rena comments that she knows that they don't have much time left to save Satoko and Rika says that she's correct. Since if it just continued as it was already going there wouldn't be a time limit at all so much as "as soon as possible", they obviously both knew that Satoko was going to die if this kept up. Add to that the fact that he's been out of town for ages, and that when she finally asks for help he gets even more violent and seemingly tries to kill her, and it's a no-brainer.
 * Furthermore, the only reason he returned to Hinamizawa was because of his girlfriend getting murdered which would certanly cause a lot of stress. Also, given the grudge Hinamizawans hold against his family, and the fact that four members of his family were cursed in previous years, the decision to return to Hinamizawa doesn't seem like something a rational person would do.
 * Plausible, but he doesn't display enough paranoid tendencies. Even if he is, it's unlikely he'd be over lvl2 at most.

In Saikoroshi-hen, Rika's mom had known Hanyuu.
Since Rika's mom was the reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama in that world, she would have been able to see Hanyuu just like Rika was able to in the other worlds. However, at some point in the past Rika's mom asked Hanyuu to make everybody start treating her like an ordinary girl (as opposed to treating her like the reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama). However, Hanyuu was unable to do so, and Rika's mom stopped believing in her and thus destroyed her. Much like what happened in Umineko no Naku Koro Ni with. This brings us to...

Rika's mom allowed her to kill her.
While Rika was trying to kill her mom she explained what had happened to her in particular mentioning Hanyuu. Since Rika mentioned Hanyuu her mom knew she wasn't insane and furthermore realized that Hanyuu had been real Her desire for Rika to happy combined with guilt for not believing in Hanyuu drove her to allow Rika to kill her.

In the first world Rika existed in, Satoko died much earlier, and possibly, so did Irie.
If you look at Rika's conversation with Irie where she convinces him to examine her brain to cure Satoko, some of her Oracular Urchin-ness shows up again. If we assume that all instances of that were caused by the time loops and try to remove all of those from the scene, then Rika really should not have known what Irie was planning on doing - running away with Satoko. Even if she did, she would have lacked a lot of the arguments that she convinced him with. Because of that, the first time through, Irie did try to run away with Satoko. He may or may not have made it without getting caught, but he himself notes that Satoko really had no future even if he ran away with her - she was at L5 and would eventually die. Because Satoko wasn't around, the game club was never formed, and Rika grew up rather alone until her death.

This is one of the first things that Rika tried to change through the time loop - by telling Irie to experiment on her now that she knew what he'd tried to do, she was able to improve her worlds just a bit.


 * Furthermore, she knew that there would be problems if she let Takano poke around in her head. Hence why she states that she'll be fine if Irie's the one doing the operation.

In Rika's actual first loop, she didn't see the third year.
Takano went through with the plan earlier, because she thought Rika's mother could function as a backup Infection Queen. Rika tried a few methods to get out of this, like running away with Irie, until she hit upon the idea of convincing Takano that she was the only Infection Queen and killing her would trigger an outbreak; thus changing the timeframe from "Takano first starts manifesting symptoms" to "Takano decides to Kill Em All For Science".

There is some connection between Rika and Takano, possibly that they are somehow the same person.
"Why or Why Not" makes a surprising amount of sense if you assume that both of them are singing it.

Hanyuu is not Furude Hanyuu.
If you look at the final arc, she is quite obviously using the same trick Rika is. She only drops the facade when speaking to Takano alone (not even around Rika, of all people). Therefore, it stands to reason that there are things she is trying to deceive Rika about, and all information we get from her, directly or indirectly, is suspect. In fact, maybe...

Hanyuu and Lambdadelta are playing both sides against Bernkastel
Because Hanyuu likes playing matchmaker.

The so-called "Perfect World" shown in Saikoroshi-hen / The Dice-Killing Chapter is the only real world.
This theory is put forward and detailed by TahYills over here as an Anti-Fantasy stance on Higurashi. Essentially, it holds that the world depicted in Saikoroshi-hen is the actual world, and the rest of the series an elaborate fantasy spun by Furude Rika.

Despite how this world is described as the "Perfect World", Rika's standing in this realm is less than ideal... but this is mainly due to her own actions. The "original" Rika of this ideal world is mentioned to have been rather standoffish, a bit prideful and selfish. Her childish ego is dealt a few blows when her few friends move away, leaving her vulnerable to being bullied by some of her classmates as revenge for her former behavior. And why did her friends transfer away? Because of the dam project, which will eventually flood the area where their town lies, meaning that everyone will eventually move away.

Having lost her control over her former friends/enforcers and faced with the knowledge that things would continue to change against her wishes, Rika constructs a twisted Escapist fantasy where she becomes the most important person in the world, with an invisible Goddess as her best friend. The world revolves around her so completely that if anything ever happens to her, her Goddess BFF will bend time and space to bring her back to life. Feeling deeply sorry for herself, Rika paints herself as a Tragic Heroine, jerked around by circumstances beyond her control.

In her fantasies, the dam project failed because most of the citizens rallied against it -- and those who didn't oppose it, who disagreed with popular opinion/what Rika wished would have happened, are severely punished. This includes Sakoto, a girl who bullied her in real life; now their positions are reversed, with Sakoto an outcast, losing everyone she cared for, beaten, abused, and completely reliant on Rika's mercy and compassion. Since the real Mion wouldn't play with Rika, she pulled a Twin Switch, replacing her Mion with a nicer, more agreeable Mion and imagining the real Mion as an unstable Yandere. Even her own parents die in her fantasy just to make her more important and extra-sympathetic.

Hinamizawa Syndrome doesn't make sense as a disease because, again, it's all in her head. She makes it all up, imagining all these brutal murders and deaths that are all promptly negated by her handy-dandy Goddess best friend. A twisted game of make-believe, one that she loses herself in more and more as time goes on. This doesn't go unnoticed by her parents, who eventually start taking her to see doctors and therapists -- leading to the conversations she has with the doctor in Saikoroshi-hen where she tells him bits and pieces of her fantasy world.

Eventually, she's given a chance to make things better; some of her classmates offer her the opportunity to start over and take a stab at friendship, while her worried parents show her more attention and concern. However, rather than make the best of reality, Rika chooses to utterly reject that reality and substitute her own, going to drastic measures to cement that rejection...
 * And how would you explain the arcs that focus on people Rika never met?
 * Simple. Rika has a rich imagination. She made up different characters to suit her needs. Like Keiichi -- he's nothing but a Satoshi Expy, but with his personality tweaked to suit her purposes. The whole conspiracy and everyone in it got made up, too -- note that in Saikoroshi-hen, they don't appear at all. Anyone who doesn't appear in Saikoroshi-hen exists only in her twisted escapist fantasy. Anything that focuses on them is just Rika fleshing out their backstories or toying with them. Like the first arc WE see -- which definitely isn't the first story Rika's ever told herself about her own sick little world by a long shot -- she imagines Keiichi coming to distrust the others, and being punished for not sticking by his friends and listening to, effectively, an adult who comes in and makes trouble, disrupting her vision of "how things should be". Much like how, in real life, she has to listen to the adults that rule her life and comply with their decisions and wishes, whether she wants to or not. Adults aren't just useless, they're disruptive, manipulative, and untrustworthy, with little regard for what 'mere children' think.
 * I shall destroy this theory with the red truth. Battler does not appear in Saikoroshi-hen. In Umineko no Naku Koro ni Episode X, Rika met Battler. Battler's existence has already been confirmed in red.
 * You take that silly little crossover as undisputed fact? When it involves crossing over with a series known for having Unreliable Narrators and playing with The Treachery of Images?
 * Yes, in the same way I take "In Tsumihoroboshi-hen, Rena killed Rina" to be an undisputed fact i.e. "In Story X, Event Y was shown". However, The claim I am trying to disprove is people who don't appear in Saikoroshi-hen don't exist. Battler does not appear in Saikoroshi-hen, Battler's existence has been confirmed in red. It does not matter whether Battler's meeting with Rika actually happened.
 * But saying that the characters of Rika's world who don't appear in Saikoroshi-hen don't exist, which appears to be what the OP intended to say, is still valid. After all, Umineko no Naku Koro Ni's world is stated by Word of God to be separate from the worlds of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. If we accept the concept of witches as people who snapped under the strain of reality and so went off to the insides of their heads to create their own realities and the plots overall as a type of metaphor, Battler can still exist whether or not he met with Rika and the OP's theory about Saikoroshi-hen can still hold.
 * Um, maybe I'm missing something, but how does Battler not showing up in Saikoroshi-hen disprove this? This WMG denies that the Mion of the Games Club is the real Mion. However, the Games Club Mion appears in Umineko X. Therefore, if this WMG is true, Umineko X is fictitious.
 * Saikoroshi-hen and all of the other arcs are works of fiction. Fiction Identity Postulate: All fiction is equally real. Any event that occurs only in a single person's mind is less real then any event that occurs outside that person's mind. Therefore, none of the arcs exist solely within Rika's mind.
 * It is, however, possible for a work to be fictitious within a fictional world. If this WMG is true, Umineko X is no more canonical than any Higurashi arc other than Saikoroshi-hen. In fact, given that Umineko-X!Battler is identical to a person that Rika has never met, aged three years from the time of Higurashi, this WMG being true would make all of Umineko probably not canon, and the red and blue truths therefore meaningless!
 * The story Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni exists within the Umineko universe. It was written by Furude Rika (or someone who knew her) based on her experiences (regardless of whether they were real of delusions). Due to the Devil's Proof, I refuse to explain how she has able to get a story published within three years. The narrator of Umineko X chose to incorporate characters from Higurashi into Umineko X. Thus, even if the above WMG is true it is possible for the events of Umineko to be canon, and thus the red and blue truths retain their meaning!
 * That is not how the Devil's Proof works! The Devil's Proof simply excuses you from proving that Higurashi is not a dream sequence, hallucination, or fantasy. It does not give you license to propose an unexplained and unlikely element in your own hypotheses. Now, how did a child (and possibly a murderer at that) get a book the length of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni published and widely read inside three years?
 * Battler's theory using the Small Bombs is a valid Blue Truth. Therefore the Devil's Proof does give me license to propose an unexplained and unlikely element in my own hypotheses.
 * Battler was incompetent when he tried that. And show me an example of an "invalid Blue Truth", or otherwise prove that the Blue Truth is checked for any kind of validity, logical consistency included.
 * I withdraw my complaint, but propose this change to your plausible theory: In Himatsubushi, Akasaka wrote a book about Rika's case. It is unknown which, if any, arc of Higurashi preceeds Umineko. The in-universe work Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni is Akasaka's account of the events of Higurashi, possibly based on speaking with Rika.
 * Ooh, colors!

An easier (and Pro-Fantasy) version: Everyone is Rika's (or Satoko's) furniture... somehow.
Like the above, Rika/Satoko escaped the bullying by making the Games Club. Eventually, it got boring, so she decided she wanted to play a game that she didn't already know, making Takano/Lambdadelta so that she'd have someone other than furniture to play against, and Hinamizawa Syndrome so that her opponent would be a challenge. Unfortunately, it got... a little out of hand, so her mentor, Hanyuu, engineered a reset. This makes Rika the obvious witch, but Satoko could be as well; she just doesn't want to use out-of-character knowledge, so she gives it to Rika.

Another Anti-Fantasy stance: Onikakushi-hen is the only true arc.
Mion was pressured by her family into trying to kill Keiichi. Ooshi figured this out and warned Keiichi to be on his guard, setting off his paranoia. Following the "door incident", Rena and Mion spoke to Irie, coming to the conclusion that their friend needed to be kept from harming himself or others. The three of them contacted Keiichi's parents, getting their approval. Mion offered to keep him sedated until preparations can be made, thinking that this will keep him alive while getting her family off her back. Unfortunately, Keiichi had a reaction to the drug used and lapsed into a coma. The end of Onikakushi was Keiichi beginning to dream while reaching for a bat. Ever since then, people have been walking in and telling Keiichi about things that have been going on with them, and the Games Club meetings moved into his room.

Takano heard about someone burning an extra sacrifice and decided that it would be wise to lie low. Her appearance at the Watanagashi festival was to say goodbye before she left town.

Unable to believe that Mion would try to kill him, Keiichi created Shion as a sort of "nice Mion". He later overheard Mion arguing with Oryou and revised his opinion of her.

Rather than Satoko living with Rika, the reverse is true: Rika moved in with Satoko after her parents died.

Teppei is actually a decent father figure to Satoko and Rika. His abuse is Keiichi's interpretation of a Tsundere with an Elektra complex delivering a rant about how he doesn't care about her and may as well move out with Rina.

The "poor, persecuted Keiichi" fixes on Rika as the most "innocent" of the club, turning her into his Sympathetic Sue.

Rena eventually gives up on Keiichi ever recovering and finds someone else. Keiichi views this as "betraying" him in Tsumihoroboshi.

Minagoroshi was the result of Irie trying to shock Keiichi awake. Takano has returned by this point, and Keiichi fixates on her voice as the cause of his pain.

Matsribyashi was Keiichi making one final effort to break out of the nightmare. He succeeds, and awakens to see older versions of the Games Club (plus two other members, Battler and Hanyuu) playing Old Man, with Mion playing his hand. He croaks out the words "Second from the right", and there is suddenly a lot of hugging and crying.

At some point, Akane introduced Mion to a man about her age from another family with Yakuza connections, Ushiromiya Battler. They don't really hit it off, but Battler does join the Games Club. Umineko X was the result of Battler telling stories about some of the things his family gets up to.

Hanyuu is actually a distant cousin of Rika's. Rena does, in fact, go into "Take It Home Mode" over the horns she wears as a cosplay.

Eventually, Keiichi tells the others about his crazy dreams. Rika, by then either a mangaka or studying to become one, says that it might make a good story. Battler has some ideas for a sequel.

An Anti-Mystery stance on Higurashi
The "Hinamizawa Syndrome" hypothesis is wrong. There is no parasite affecting the people of Hinamizawa, and the Curse of Oyashiro-Sama is real. Hanyuu is a witch pretending to be a god. Takano is an avatar of Oyashiro-sama, taking vengeance on those who break the rules and leave the village.

Anti-Fantasy for everyone!

 * Mion: Watanagashi is the only true arc. The rest of it is her telling herself "they deserved it" and then, not buying that herself, "it wasn't my fault".
 * Hinegashi-hen is explicitly Mion's dream, therefore this is the most plausible Anti-Fantasy theory.
 * Okay, if Hinageshi is the only true arc, what was the Great Hinamizawa Disaster (which was implied to happen in this arc) and what prompted Mion to dream the other arcs?
 * Natural disaster. She dreamt the other arcs for the reasons that were outlined above. She eventually comes to terms with the fact she really did kill her friends, but she also believes all of her dreams thus far have been real and thus Hinegeshi-hen is the arc where she overcomes Rule X.
 * Hmph, plausible, I suppose except that there is no indication that Mion killed anyone in Hinageshi. Mion would not have dreamed the "justification" arcs if she had no memory of killing the others.
 * Rena: Tsumihoroboshi-only, and in Anachronic Order. After reading Document 34, she starts simulating a Hinamizawa Syndrome outbreak (possibly with the rest of the club). She eventually reaches the conclusion that the only way it wouldn't be an unmitigated disaster is if someone gassed the village shortly after it started.
 * Satoko: Yakusamashi. After seeing everyone killed, she thinks "this can't be" and starts trying to find a "good end".
 * Shion: Matsuribayashi. Rika triggers a bit of mass hysteria, but everyone eventually calms down. Shion finds Satoshi and starts reading him the book "Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni", replacing characters in it with ones he knows.
 * Takano: Minagoroshi. All of the other arcs are examples she uses to get support from Tokyo.

The Hinamizawa Syndrome parasite can survive in conditions other than Hinamizawa.
The parasite is waterborne and lays eggs in the host's blood. The eggs can survive in a large number of conditions, but once the parasite matures, it's basically "locked in" to a specific set. Hence why the parasite starts triggering symptoms when someone moves away: it can't survive in the new place, so it tries to either go back to somewhere it can live or make sure that it has offspring.
 * Rather than being Infection Queens, the Furude family just has a genetic immunity.

The Furude and Sonozaki families are related.
First of all, compare the way Shion and Hinageshi!Mion act compared to the others. Shion (as demonstrated in Yoigoshi-hen) somehow manages to completely overcome the disease over 20 years, presumably without it triggering.

What about Hinageshi!Mion, then? Despite being in a similar situation to Onikakushi!Keiichi (thinking that the entire village was out to kill her), she seems to become depressed and is able to listen to reason rather than lashing out.

Also consider this: Despite almost certainly having left the village at least once (her husband is, after all, from outside), Akane never manifests symptoms despite reasonably stressful conditions. These seem to indicate that the Sonozaki family has some kind of resistance to Hinamizawa Syndrome.

Also, both families have nonstandard pigmentation as a default, in a series where such is actually pretty rare (the only other remotely exceptional color being blond).

Hinamizawa Syndrome was created to be a biological weapon.
The earliest documented incidents of Hinamizawa Syndrome were among World War II soldiers from Hinamizawa. Early during World War II, a biological weapon was developed and used against Hinamizawa. Fortunately, the weapon proved to be ineffective outside of Hinamizawa and thus plans to use it were abandoned. All of the soldiers who showed symptoms are one's who enlisted after this weapon was used.

Hinamizawa isn't a village in Japan, it's a domain in Ravenloft.
The original June 1983 (whatever it was...) drew the notice of the Dark Powers, who duplicated the town of Hinamizawa and the surrounding countryside, repopulated it, and introduced the village to the Land of Mists. The darklord (whoever it is) is cursed to never see the end of June 1983; that's also when most of the story arcs occur, simply because in smaller domains the darklord's curse is harder to ignore.
 * Expanding on this with the Rika's-Perspective Anti-Fantasy stance above: When Rika sealed herself inside the imaginary Hinamizawa, she was trapped inside a domain where her desired world was made real, with the curse that she would suffer as she did in it.

Keiichi really was being targeted in Onikakushi-hen.
Keiichi dies for reasons unrelated to Takano's plans in Watanagashi-hen, Tatarigoroshi-hen, and the alternate ending of Meakashi-hen. Keiichi is being targeted by Culprit X, who happens to be a doctor, and one of the parents of the girl he shot. Culprit X felt that the slap on the wrist Keiichi received wasn't enough and decided to take manners into his/her own hands.
 * Keiichi's death prior to Yoigoshi is adequately explained as the result of Rena's actions. If you are proposing that Keiichi died in Watanagashi/Meakashi and Tatarigoroshi due to intentional malpractice, I demand that you explain both how "Culprit X" found such rapid employment at that specific hospital and why a doctor with personal involvement in the case was assigned to Keiichi! For that matter, I demand that you explain why Ooshi did not warn Keiichi about the girl's parent(s) following him to Hinamizawa!
 * Culprit X is the girls father, she was born out of wedlock. And his family pressured him and his lover to not include him on the Birth Certificate, as it would bring shame to the family. Of course, she was of a lower class then him so marrying her would also bring his family shame. Therefore, the relationship between Culprit X and the girl is not public knowledge. It is not necessary for Culprit X to work in that hospital, the suggestion that he's a doctor is simply meant to explain how he could make Keiichi's death of the arcs where he dies in the hospital look natural.
 * ...plausible. I propose that Meakashi is not a fully true account either, and that Shion, tainted by association with Keiichi, was pushed from a balcony! And why are we debating a Higurashi-specific point in red and blue?
 * I'm gonna downgrade this to 'possible' in my book.all of the character-specific Hinamizawa disease deaths happen independent of Takano's plans, at least insofar as we're shown. Besides, as far as I know, he dies for reasons explained in the media itself. In Watanagashi, he's killed by Shmion, in Tatarigoroshi he dies of a heart-attack induced by Hinamizawa syndrome (the manga is the most explicit about this IIRC)
 * By the time Keiichi was killed in Watanagashi, Shion and Mion were both dead. Therefore, it was impossible for either of them to murder him. Knox's 8th. It is forbidden for the case to be resolved with clues that are not presented. Was the heart-attack that killed Keiichi in Tatarigoroshi determined to be caused by Hinamizawa syndrome by someone (e.g. Irie) who would have the medical knowledge neccesary to reliably make such a claim? Has any death whatsover been attributed to a Hinamizawa syndrome induced heart attack by such a person?
 * Because using the red and blue when debating is fun.
 * Yeah, but not everyone here even knows what the red and blue mean. We do still want this to be accessible to people only familiar with Higurashi.
 * Honestly, I think in this case their meaning should be obvious from the context.
 * The text can still be read no matter the color. So it shouldn't bother too much who don't understand it, but it is fun to who does.
 * One of you dicks please explain the colors!
 * Red is for facts and blue is for guesses. There's also green which is used to address the audience (for example to warn that a certain plant is poisonous or to explain what various Japanese honorifics mean), and gold which is sometime inferior to, but sometimes superior to red.

Rika wasn't really Out of Continues
Hanyuu was just turning that game into a Million to One Chance by refusing to play another round.
 * I'm assuming that Hanyuu really doesn't have Immortal Immaturity and is just as wise and intelligent as Rika is. However, she doesn't have as much patience and was putting pressure on Rika to finish the game already. Since Hanyuu knows she'd be lonely without Rika, she would likely say, "Oops, I lied!" and start up a new Hinamizawa.
 * Did Hanyuu specifically say that this was the last Hinamizawa she could create? I was under the impression that that had they had a couple more retries but Hanyuu was stressing that it was very few and they need to get this done right sooner than later.

Keiichi and Rena are messed up-Alternate Universe version of Akio and Sanae
After they survived the Hinamizawa disaster in this world, they went on to a different town to start over, with new names and a new life. Besides, look at them. Akio looks exactly like Keiichi.

The Yamainu were ALWAYS under Takano's control.
As part of Tomitake's Xanatos Gambit. He initially gave her control over the Yamainu to prevent her from finding out about the Banken. Tomitake was waiting for a period of excessive activity of the Yamainu so he could call them out for the corruption, and flush them out with the Banken. Kind of a cats and dogs scenario. Notice how the Yamainu are never shown protecting Rika, despite that being their alleged purpose.
 * They are shown doing that in Minagoroshi-hen. When Rika kicks the motorcycles and gets the thugs upset.
 * Well, duh. Something happening to Rika before Takano/Tomitake gave the word would have landed them in deep merde.
 * In Fact, in Matsuribayashi-hen, Rika uses this very concept (that Takano wanted to kill Rika herself, and in a particular way) as a bargaining chip.

Satoko was sexually abused by Teppei.
He did think her mom was beautiful, and Satoko does resemble her quite a lot. No Rina too..Plus it would have been an easy way to abuse, command, and manipulate her. A lot of fans think she endured sexual abuse during Tatarigoroshi-hen and it is somewhat implied, so the same should apply to her backstory and past/future abuse cases.
 * At one point, I think it's in Minagoroshi, Teppei looks at her and thinks about what he'd like to do when she's older, so that kind of implies it hasn't happened yet.

Rena's insanity in Tsumihoroboshi-hen and her actions was a direct result of Takano's manipulation.
There is a great irony in how Miyo, the actual culprit responsible for everything, was the one Rena trusted most and how she managed to make Rena believe that anyone but her could be that culprit. So after killing Rina and Teppei, Rena, despite Keiichi's help, was still in a very fragile state of mind. When they meet in the library, Rena tells her a story about her past and her experiences under the influence of Hinamizawa Syndrome, and as she talks about it, Takano figures out that her mental stability was fragile and that she would make a very easy target if she wanted to make someone believe her stories.

That's why she gave her her scrapbooks; to make her believe everything written, and for that to lead to the events of the latter part of Tsumihoroboshi-hen- Rena would be a very violent person, and Takano could use that as extra proof for Hinamizawa Syndrome. Nobody would even think of suspecting Takano of faking her death because Rena would have killed a lot of people by then and probably removed many obstacles out of Takano's path. According to the plan, anyway. When she saw that it didn't work, well...

Also- according to some Umineko no Naku Koro Ni TIPS, Lambdadelta aided Takano, which makes a lot of sense with this theory- probably, Lambdadelta's power guaranteed that Rena will be driven insane and murderous, though not that Keiichi wouldn't manage to snap her out of it.
 * Plausible. Rena was most likely at end-stage level 3 or 4 by the time her and the rest of her friends  thusly would only be a small push towards being murderously violent and level 5. Keep in mind Level 3 onwards brings forth mental instability, so those documents were extremely likely, if not certain, to be the thing that drove her over the edge.
 * Also keep in mind that Takano does basically the same thing (that is, fuel one of the kid's paranoia) in both Tatarigoroshi-hen and Meakashi-hen. She tells Keiichi and Shion the rumors that the Sonozaki family is behind the annual Watanagashi Festival murders.

Chie won't ever get married
According to one story her standard is curry related. She turned a guy down somewhat due to him not liking the thought of eating curry every day. She also seems to dedicated to her students.

Mion is just as overprotectiveas Shion, and can slip as easily as her
What stops her from being violent and staying level headed are her friends, family, and group activities. She also has her role as both the leader of her friends and the future leader of her clan to keep her close to earth. Take that all away or get her overly stressed and..

In one world Mion cracked due to her love towards Keiichi
She thought her affections for him were effortless and unrequited and that made her crack when she knew that Rena was also close to him.

If something negative happened to affect Irie's HS research Shion would crack again

 * Confirmed, by "Limit".
 * Wasn't that a fanfiction that was won in a contest thus they asked one of the manga artists to draw it out?
 * Possibly, but since it was officaly published it can be considered part of the Expanded Universe, in my opinion.

Takano is Stein and Medusa's love child.
She even kind of looks like them!

Rika is the player.
Rika is the player in a computer game. She's been trying for ages to get the good ending, but the game is fiendishly difficult. At the end of the first season, she finally figures out that information from playing the game is carried over even if you reset. At the end of each playthrough, she dies and goes to the "New Game / Continue?" screen. She's figured out what the common scenarios are, and managed to unlock Hanyuu, but the disk is full so she can't save her progress.

Rena is secretly French.
This explains her cool hat and orange hair.
 * Well, Reina does sound a bit French though it's probably Japanese. How about half french? Had french ancestors?
 * The name Reina is of Spanish origin.
 * She could be part Mexican. There was an influx of Irish immigrants to Mexico at one period in time, so red hair is entirely plausible.
 * Reina means "queen", I think.
 * "reina" does mean "queen" in Spanish, but Reina (礼奈) is a Japanese name that is only coincidentally spelled the same as the Spanish word.

Even without taking Hinamizawa Syndrome into account, Shion is still psychologically unstable and carrying the strong potential to violently snap
Considering the conga line of traumas and misfortunes and being tossed aside by her family and losing her birth-right (and birth name) and losing her true love and whatnot, she probably has a lot of unresolved issues just waiting for the right trigger to set her off. To the point where even without the Syndrome, she'd still go violently mad if pushed too far in the right (wrong) direction.

Hanyuu was the true villain of the series.
Umineko eventually reveals that Lambadelta's true power is to guarantee the certainty of a certain solution, as long as someone continues to work toward that solution without faltering; the duration of the person's trials are unspecified, but if they keep at it, they'll be rewarded. Doesn't this sound just a bit like what Rika had to go through to reach her perfect end? Lambdadelta, who seems to be Miyo as a witch, once played a game against Featherine Augustus Aurora, who seems to be Hanyuu as a witch. In this game, Bernkastel was trapped for what seemed like forever. A glance at Lambadelta's ability would strongly imply that she was on Bernkastel's--and by extension, Rika's--side.

Bernkastel's poem's represent the stages of grief.
The five stages of grief are a theoretical set of emotional steps a person may go through when confronted by a loss or a terminal illness. The stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Not everyone goes through all five, they may skip a stage, remain stuck or return to a stage they have previously moved on from. Bernkastel skips bargaining but goes through the other four in order.


 * At the first time, I do my best to try against the inevitable tragedy. - denial
 * In the second time, I become disgusted towards the inevitable tragedy. - anger
 * The third time, disgust is overwhelmed into painfulness. - depression
 * But by the seventh time, this all becomes a farce comedy. - (reluctant) acceptance

Satoko is colorblind.
Just a guess, but in book 5 of the manga, the others mention that she can't tell the difference between broccoli and cauliflower. Any talking about this or mocking of this ("Hey, Satoko, which is the green one?") makes her more angry. Maybe she really can't tell their different colors from each other, and just doesn't like to talk about it?
 * Not really a theory. It's pretty much outright stated in the original VNs that she's colorblind, at least with regards to green.

Hinamizawa Syndrome is rabies.
Both diseases can cause irrational actions in their victims, and even the end result is similar. Rabies results in hydrophobia and difficulty swallowing due to paralysis of the throat. Hinamizawa Syndrome's end result is...the victim clawing their own throat out. This raises further questions as to why such a common disease wasn't identified as such by Hifumi or even Miyo.
 * I think that toxoplasmosis is a closer real-life counterpart. Although it's still controversial, some studies consider toxoplasmosis to cause symptoms including increased jealousy and suspicion, hallucinations, hearing voices, and persecutory delusions. The possibility that the parasite affects human behaviour was proposed around the 1950s and then ignored until around the 2000s, which might help to explain why Hifumi failed to make the identification and why his thesis was ridiculed at the time. Of course, unlike Hinamizawa Syndrome it's not confined to one geographic location, but maybe there's a particularly nasty form of the parasite that only exists there?

Keiichi is at least being influenced by Satoshi
Just so I don't say Keiichi is a reincarnation of Satoshi, whose similar ages would imply some kind of stretchy logic. First of all, this theory needs the acceptance of a corollary:. Now that we have that out of the way, Keiichi. Not only he acts as the key pillar for the aversion of certain events, he is recognized by Satoko as her "nii-nii" in at least one occasion. Not only that, but he proves as useful as, if not more useful than our local goddess in terms of crisis aversion (extra points for not whining). Short version:  Long version: Due to his will to be by Satoko's side,. Hanyuu learned of this and took him secretly even to Rika through the loops. . Of course, you can also say there was another God aside from Hanyuu that was provoking seizures to little kids, so, yeah.
 * If you want to believe in a Satoshi is Keiichi, then consider that
 * Following the logic of the last theory, does that mean that Good to know.

Haruhi Suzumiya is the reincarnation of Rika.

 * Rika has died so many times over the course of the series, so it's plausible that once the loop she made is over she'll die young anyway. As far as the connection to Haruhi goes, at the end of the series Rika notes to herself that she can keep that June going as long as she wants. Conclusion: Higurashi is basically an extreme version of Endless Eight and Rika, unlike Haruhi, is fully aware of her power. In other words, the loop isn't limited to Rika's subconscious desires.

Keiichi and Mion are the Canon Couple

 * Supposedly, the author (in a news release or something) intended for Mion and Keiichi to be shown to have feelings for one another (although it's not really touched upon, since the author wants to avoid a Romantic Plot Tumor situation). So, what the hey, lets mass guess and say they're the canon couple.
 * Given the previews for Musubienishi-hen, I'd say you're right.
 * Heh. Musubienishi ended up pairing Keiichi with Oryou, which cannot possibly be taken seriously.

Miyo Takano was motivated to fufil her agenda after being inspired by Dr Jonathan Crane...
...A.K.A Scarecrow. Crane was bullied back when he was a kid. With that, he thought that he shouldn't be a weakling anymore. He grew up to become a psychologist at Arkham Asylum, secretly experimenting with his fear toxin. Donning his scarecrow outfit and using his fear toxin, Crane spreads fear upon the people of Gotham just to show that he is someone not to be messed with. Similarly, Takano had a similar childhood, thought that she should show the people of Hinamizawa she ain't a loser, grew up to become a nurse just so she could experiment with the Hinamizawa diease, all with the intend of unleashing it upon the village and showing them who's boss. Now all she needed was a scary (and sexy) scarecrow outfit but that black dress worked out fine anyways.
 * HOLY IMMINENT CROSSOVER FANFIC, BATMAN!

The system in Hinamizawa village is a good mixture of patriarchy and matriarchy

 * The Gosanke are Sonozaki, Kimiyoshi and Furude. 1. The leader of Sonozaki is a female. The next in place, Mion, is her granddaughter. And the one who almost succeeded the Sonozaki family is Mion's mother. Three possible successor/leader of Sonozaki are all female. 2. The leader of Kimiyoshi is an old man. A female in this family, Kimiyoshi Natsumi, were not talked about like a successor. 3. The present leader of Furude is Rika, a female; however the previous one is her father. So... my guess is: Sonozaki leader is always female, Kimiyoshi leader is always male, and Furude leader is male for one generation, and female for the next. This is consistent with that every 8 generation there is a girl Furude who is considered Oyashirosama's incarnation and is Furude leader.
 * Wasn't it that there needs to be eight in a row to become Oyashiro-sama's incarnation, or did I just misread that? That aside, in Hanyuu's arc in the game, the head of the Kimiyoshi family is female, so I'd say that it's about half and half. The Sonozaki family's head, however, is female. There hasn't been any word of a male Sonozaki head, so I think it's likely that most heads of the Sonozaki family were female.
 * Yes, Oyashiro-sama is reincarnated only when there happen to be eight females in a row. And to me it looks like neither "matriarchy" nor "patriarchy" nor a mixture, but simply that the first-born child inherits (unless they do something to be removed from that position, like Akane) regardless of gender.

The anime will be shown on Adult Swim

 * Or, alternatively, Syfy or Chiller.

Piecing together the Bernkastels and series relations definitively?

 * Okay, this is how I see it, after having read right through both Umineko and Higurashi. Higurashi was Featherine and Lambdadelta's game, with Featherine's piece being Hanyuu, trying to solve the mystery against Takano. This also brought about elevating Rika from the game board to the metaworld, in which all of the deaths before the good ending would form Bernkastel who appears in Umineko. At some point, Featherine and Lambda begin to tire of the game, and at some point it reaches a logic error (which is the imprisonment keeping Bern desperate for entertainment when Umineko comes around). This is also explains why Hanyuu is trying to stop Rika from getting her hopes up, and how Takano is suffering from Villain Decay by the time Matsuribayashi-hen rolls around. Bern, trapped in the game board by the apparent logic error, eventually solves the game, defeats the 'logic error' (probably something to do with Takano's 'death'). She then reaches the level of voyager witch, and continues over to the events of Umineko when Shkanoyasutrice's game with Battler begins after the events of Umineko EP 1, with Lambdadelta following along shortly after and Featherine watching the game from behind the scenes until Umineko EP 8. The only thing left unexplained (although not conflicting with any of the above) is the existence of Frederice Bernkastel, who writes the poems and (supposedly?) convinces Takano to go with her parents to the shop, creating the sinless world of the Dice-Killing Arc.

A theory regarding the club members ages?
Rena is confirmed to be 15. According to the visual novels, she was born in July. That leaves the puzzle of what the ages of the rest of the club members are.
 * Keiichi: 16. We know the series occurs in June and that he is in the same grade as Rena (based on the stuff he was studying, I'd say the equivilant of a US 10th grader).
 * His birth month is April in the visual novels, though the exact date and year isn't stated.
 * If the DOB of Mion mentioned below is true, then the year would most likely be 1967, making him 16.
 * Mion: 17. Keiichi's upperclassman, thus is older than him.
 * The remakes of the visual novel list her birthday as 2/11/66, but since it's a remake, it could be off.
 * That date for the purposes of the WMG, makes lots of sense. She's most likely a junior (using US gauge), and assuming average academic progression, one would most likely be 17 at that stage.
 * However, the TIPS in the original VN put the twins' birthday later in the year. If we go by this, since they are one grade ahead of Keiichi, they are not 17 yet.
 * Since they're both technically canon, it could probably go either way.
 * Shion: 17 (or 16; see above). Identical twin of Mion.
 * Satoko: 12. The opening episode says something about her and Rika being a few grades lower (logically this means 2-4 as 5 is most certainly more than "a few grades"), narrowing it down to 11-13. Mion and Rena said something about "that time in a woman's life" implying a period or something like it. This further narrows the age range down to 12-13. It should be worth noting that her birthday is June 24th, just three days after everyone dies.
 * That date would rule out 13 as Satoko would turn 14, which based on her appearance is biologically illogical.
 * The Watanagashi festival takes place on the 19th in that year. Careful counting of the days that pass shows that Meakashi and Tsumihoroboshi actually finish on the 25th, though Satoko's birthday was never mentioned.
 * Rika: 12. Generally accepted as being the same age as Satoko give or take a few months.
 * Satoshi (former member as a result of coma): 16-18. This one's the biggest mystery. All of it depends on knowing if 1. Satoshi was older than Keiichi and 2. determining the age of Shmion.
 * Detective Ooishi (or however the heck you spell it) actually mentions in the first season that Satoshi is a year older then Keiichi. Assuming that the above estimate of Keiichi's age is correct, that means that Satoshi is 17.

People other than the main cast became aware of the Groundhog Day Loop.
Unlike them, its only on a subconscious level, and it only starts to occur during the Massacre chapter. Keiichi's mom said something about the perfect crime again as it relates to Teppai. Onryu's Batman Gambit involving Keiichi (revealed during Festival Music) may be the result of realizing that 1. her actions were the cause of her death in the Cotton Drifting and Eye Opening chapters, and 2. on a subconscious level, she's aware of his incredible charisma and intends to use it to bury the resentment against the Hojos due to events of the Massacre chapter. Akasaka figured out that he needed to fall back due to Rika's prophecy. His need to help Rika in her time of need may of also been a catalyst for him to develop that CQC training MUCH earlier than he normally does.