/jp/ - Otaku Culture

It's calendar schizo time!

Throughout Higurashi Gou we are shown calendars that display the current date. In particular Rika's tear-off calendar that we see in Onidamashi, Nekodamashi and Satokowashi is of interest. This is because there are 3 instances where these calendars display the wrong information. In one case the calendar shows the wrong Rokuyo day, in another it is the wrong Sexagenary day and in the last it is the wrong old Calendar date. Assuming the incorrect days shown are some type of clue I have attempted to find out what they mean. What I have found so far is that many dates used within Higurashi and Umineko are linked by their Sexagenary day.

There are 60 Sexagenary Days (Sexagenary means 60, the days are numbered 1-60), so the odds of two random dates having matching Sexagenary dates is 1 in 60. There are 6 Rokuyo days (Roku meaning 6), so there are 360(6 x 60) possible combinations of Rokuyo day/Sexagenary day, so the odds of two random dates sharing the same Rokuyo day and Sexagenary day are 1 in 360.

List of dates relating to Higurashi and Umineko that have matching Sexagenary days AND Rokuyo days (1 in 360 chance):

Rika's Birthday(1971/08/21) matches Watanagashi 1983(1983/06/19)
Rokkenjima Massacre Day 2(1986/10/05) matches Watanagashi 1984(1984/06/17)
Battler's Birthday(1968/07/15) matches Watanagashi 1985(1985/06/16)
Keiichi's Birthday(1969/04/13) matches George's Birthday(1963/03/16)

List of dates relating to Higurashi and Umineko that have matching Sexagenary days only (1 in 60 chance):

Mion & Shion's Birthday(1968/07/10) matches Rokkenjima Massacre Day 1(1986/10/04)
Shannon's Birthday(1970/05/25) matches Watanagashi 1988(1988/06/19)
Ryukishi07's Birthday(1973/11/19) matches Watanagashi 1980(1980/06/21)

In Higurashi Gou episode 4, the calendar for Thursday the 23rd of June displays the wrong Rokuyo day(It doesn't have a Rokuyo day). Instead it displays the Kanji for it's Sexagenary day, Mizunoe-Uma. This Sexagenary day matches Rokkenima Incident day 2 and Watanagashi 1984.

If Takano turns 34 years old in 1983, then her birthday is 1949/06/20. If this is the case then:
Takano's Birthday(1949/06/20) matches Satoko's birthday(1971/06/24) Sexagenary day.

Rika's Sexagenary day is Yang Earth Tiger and Satoko/Takano's is Yang Metal Dragon. The Tiger vs the Dragon is a common trope as the two animals are seen as rivals.

Characters whose birthday's I have checked but that do not seem to have any matches just now:
Ange,
Jessica,
Maria,
Lion,
Rena,
Satoshi,
Ooishi,
Kanon(?)

At this point it seems to be worth going through every date that appears in everything 07th related and seeing what else matches. It's not exactly fun doing this though and we need to know the full year/month/day to get the sexagenary day. There are lots of characters we know the birthday of but not the year. All the Ushiromiya adults for instance.

>>33423582
>>33435168
The reason I was asking if we knew when Kanon was meant to have been born is because if Kanon's birthday is 15 going on 16 during the events of the Rokkenjima incident then his birthday is 1970/10/06 which has the same Sexagenary day as Ryukishi's birthday and Watanagashi 1980. Going from the dialogue in EP1 (I haven't bothered checking the other episodes) it seems more likely he is already 16, not to mention the whole Kanon = 16 stuff, it's made complicated by the fact that his birthday is meant to be the day after the conference ends. If you ask someone what age they are 2 days before their birthday what are they likely to say? Their current age or the age they will be in 2 days?

tl;dr Ryukishi had Astrology in mind when he was picking the dates for the stories he was writing so they all end up linked together.