Category: Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense

Holy crap! How many extra dimensions can a story get within just one arc? Turn the chessboard upside-down? How about reaching into a completely different dimension to find an extra side of that chessboard hidden!

With this episode I’m really starting to see Ryukishi07’s brilliance as a writer, and it was by far the best episode of this series yet. Where to start?Eva finds the gold, but instead of stopping the murder her second personality takes up a life of her own, goes after the gold and becomes the next Beatrice, the mysterious girl that we’ve been seeing in the OP? What the hell?

Screw trying to prove that the murders didn’t happen with magic. My theory still stands that the real murderer is probably some sort of illusionist and Beatrice and the other witches are pulling all sorts of illusions to confuse Battler. However, what does this mean for the entire nature of the games that Beatrice and Battler have been playing? Beatrice actually did not know that this was going to happen. Does that mean that for every arc, she just puts the initial pieces into place (as in, the magical servants and gives them the right instruction), and then watches everything play out like she wanted to? And what exactly does it mean of being in that “shadow realm” of theirs. It’s one thing that psycho Eva took over the title of Beatrice in this arc, but why did Beatrice also give up her name in that shadow realm? It destroys so many theories.

First of all, if she just did that to fool Battler, this would simply come to light at the end of this arc when everything gets reset again. Also, it also doesn’t mean that Beatrice simply wants power, because she just gave that up like it was nothing and didn’t even seem to be upset about it. Also, the way Beatrice and Ronove spoke about psycho Eva, in that “I’m not going to tell you because you’re not going to understand it anyway”-way was surprisingly genuine. There’s no reason for them to have said that if that were just part of the play, so more and more signs are pointing towards a whole dimension of magic not only in the “shadow realm” (by lack of a better name), but also within the island itself.

And then comes the final quarter of this episode in which Beatrice (or Beato, I guess) shows a completely different side of her. She really is an innocent child at heart, that laughing of her was just a way of her playing around, albeit in a bit of an extreme way. I’m not sure what exactly went on in her twisted mind, but she seems to have a complete lack of morals. This is just a guess from me, but even though Bernkastel and ΛΔ have formidable powers, they never actually went against Beatrice and Battler pretty much was the first one who slapped her in the face among her charade of various servants and furniture. And on top of that, the Beato on the island has also completely swapped personalities and is the complete opposite: mature, aware of her loss and while she still has pride, she says goodbye to her servants with her head held high.

Right now, my guess at who’s the murderer is also completely different. Eva is of course a huge red herring, as are Rosa and Beato. If we are to take from Higurashi, the killer is someone who has stayed in the background who seems innocent at first sight. That leaves the biggest suspects at this point Battler’s parents and Eva’s husband. These are the ones who have had the least amount of attention so far, and they do have their own sets of motives, to try and get rid of Krauss and become the inheritor/inheritor’s husband/wife.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
And remember: please refrain from mentioning anything that happens in the visual novel after this point…

Whoa, talk about turning the chessboard upside-down. This episode pulled a lot of things that I suspected that the creators were saving for much later. This episode seems to be the real start of this series.With this episode, this show gained a whole new dimension.

So yeah, Battler finally started to look beyond the illusion of magic. It took the help of the former Beatrice, but finally this series is moving away from that one-sided slaughter-fest in Beatrice’s favour. This episode basically created six people in six different rooms, with all of the keys to these doors in their possession. This series then went on and confirmed that the one or ones who killed them is among the five Servants and Kinzou. Whoa, that seriously narrows things down, but it’s still a huge mystery about what the hell went on in these rooms.

The obvious suspect right now is Kinzou. This guy was the only one whose corpse wasn’t shot in the chest. This guy also has money: he could have used it to create an incredibly realistic fake body. He then could have hidden somewhere in the boiler room, and snuck out when nobody was looking. He could have used this method to survive in the first arc, and in the second arc he was one of the people who survived everything, so it does fit. But yeah, that doesn’t yet explain the locked-room mysteries of the second arc.

And yeah, Eva found the gold. By the rules of the witch, there shouldn’t be any more murders after this, but who knows what’s actually going to happen after this? It’s also interesting how each arc focuses on a different woman, which probably means that in arc 4, Battler’s mother is up. I do wonder though: arc 1 was about the children, arc 2 was about the servants, arc 3 pretty much seems to be about the adults. So what’s arc 4 going to be about? The witches?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

I personally love those series in which you can never be sure what to expect, which is exactly the case in Umineko. Even after being spoiled that Beatrice was going to die I still loved how this episode played out. Seriously, can this series get even more intriguing? In this episode, we learn that Beatrice indeed existed once on the island, but died in an accident when she was with Rosa. That part is most likely true, and the killer used that story as a basis for his murders. At that point, Beatrice also says that there are only 18 people on the island. However, she says this inside a flashback. What does that mean? That there were eighteen people on the island when Beatrice died? Or does that go for the current time-line? Also, this episode ends up killing off all of the servants of the Ushinomiya-family for the first wave of victims. On top of that, it’s also revealed that the Kumasawa is the one who taught Beatrice her magic. That does make me wonder though: how did she let herself get killed off so easily in the first and second arc? Was it because she was with others? Did that prevent her from showing her powers? Anyway, my guess is that there is a number of people that the killer wants dead, and he ends up killing a few more in order to cause confusion and throw people off. We know from the previous arc that Battller, Jessica, George, Natsuhi, Maria, Genji, Rosa and Kinzou are not among these people, which leaves 10 possible sources of the killer’s hatred. This arc should also promise to be interesting, because we finally get to see a bit more from Battler’s parents and Krauss, who all died in the first round in the previous arcs. But yeah, the part in which Beatrice goes on a killing spree for the first six sacrifices is probably another illusion created by Beatrice, in order to throw Battler off. But how long can she keep pulling these things before Battler suspects anything? Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>

Holy crap… this series really seems to just get better and better over time. This episode not only was a major step up when compared to the first episodes of the first and second arc, but it was also much more solid, composed and the voice acting was also better than ever. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I really hope that the creators can keep this up. This episode featured a slightly new op with a bunch of new scenes here and there (nicely shaded, by the way), and it starts out again with a bit of background for the characters Beatrice and Eva. It tells something about the supposed nature of magic (very creative, I must say), and it shows how Eva seems to have created an imaginary friend in her attempts to stand out as a woman in the Ushinomiya family, especially discriminated upon by Krauss and Kinzou. Speaking of Kinzou, this guy’s an asshole. He isn’t the least bit subtle about his wishes to marry off Eva for his own happiness, is he? Still, in this arc we should probably see a different version of Eva: in the first arc she didn’t have to struggle a lot, because everyone else entitled to her father’s inheritance was presumed dead, and in the second arc she was dead herself. My suspicion is that she, along with some other heir, is going to survive the first slaughter, which should give her character a different dimension. This episode also destroys the theory that Beatrice herself was the culprit: she’s dead. Rosa killed her. I guess that that’s why she was so paranoid in the previous arc: someone she believed to be dead suddenly appeared. Of course she’d start doubting everyone and his dog. Still, we have no proof yet that there wasn’t a twentieth person on the island, because Beatrice also refused to red text that the minimum of people on the island is twenty. This final mystery person could prove the key to how the killer was able to move around and arrive at the right time to kill everyone. I’m beginning to suspect that the murders weren’t all committed by the same person; it’s either a bunch of accomplices, or two people are killing people on their own with different motives. And the nature of that meta world indeed is starting to look like a world in which dead people gather. With this, Beatrice’s motive may actually be that she wishes to return to the realm of the living, and there’s this link between her and Rosa that seems hold a key clue to solving this mystery. Oh and as usual, please try to refrain from mentioning what happens in the visual novel after this point, for the sake of those who haven’t read it. Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>

Okay, at this point I have no idea what’s going on with this series anymore. This episode was… disturbing to say the least. For the first time in this series, the gore really disturbed me, and this also is the episode that really put my ability to not believe in the witch to the limits. This time, Beatrice really goes all out with her magic. So at the start of the episode, we’re left with five people still alive: Battler, Maria, Rosa, Genzo and Genji. It would therefore be logical if one of them were the culprit: – Maria, if she indeed were the culprit, must have had some sort of help. Yeah, I suspected her before to be some sort of reverse red herring, but then again, she could never have killed six people at the same time. – Battler would of course be the perfect culprit: how often can we suspect the lead character of being the murderer? But yeah, he’s just been accompanied with others too often. – Genji is one of the more obvious culprits this arc: he distances himself away from the others near the end, he somehow ends up finding Nanjo and Kumasawa’s corpses in the middle of the rain, even though he was supposed to be inside, ready for the orders of Kinzou. And what the heck was he doing as Beatrice’s servant? That could have been an illusion from her just as easily. the question remains though: how did he fake his own death in the first arc? – Rosa also is an important suspect, because she is one who could have faked her own death in the first arc. But in this arc she has been constantly surrounded by Battler and Maria. If she were indeed the killer, she would have had to ally with the two of them. – And what about Kinzou? He survived in this arc, as opposed to getting himself burned. What’s the difference? Also, the only reason we have that he didn’t fake his own death is because he has six toes. Did he perhaps have an identical twin brother or something? Also, I’m intrigued because in this episode Beatrice didn’t seem to realize that Meta-Battler differed from normal Battler, who acted totally different in this arc. My guess would be that in the first arc, he had less reasons to despair because at least George and Jessica, who he seems to like a lot, survived. In this arc, he had nobody and had to be accompanied by the ever-paranoid Rosa. Instead, the one who fought back in this arc was Rosa, in my guess she was motivated by some weird kind of mother instinct, but in the end it seems that she lacked the willpower of Battler in the first arc to fully reject the witch. I think what made the gore in this episode work better was that for once the creators didn’t try to be as graphic as possible. For once that eliminates the need for censorship, but it also left a lot to the imagination, the psychological side of the gore. Especially during the *ahem*”dinner scene”… Umineko at the moment is really like Higurashi’s first arc over and over again. At first it seems like an incredibly disturbing murder mystery, but when the truth gets revealed there turns out to be such a deep story behind it. Heck, can we even be sure that everyone got killed here? Knowing Higurashi, there promises to be so much going on, despite that at first sight this just seems like a repetitive killing spree. Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>

According to tealovertoma, this episode was supposed to be mediocre, but I can’t see why. It yet again was a standard episode for Umineko, but the mystery yet again deepened, it gets harder and harder to explain everything with simple logic, which is exactly what the witch wants, and the situation gets more hopeless with every single episode. Sure, this show isn’t as good as Higurashi at this point, but what exactly is turning this series into a disappointment? I mean, seriously: what the heck is going on here?! At a certain point in this episode, the characters split up: Maria, Battler and Rosa go off in one group. Gouda, Sharon, Genji and George go off to the other room. At one point, Genji stays behind because he has to keep alert for any requests of his master. After that, Gouda, Sharon and George get attacked by the supposed “Beatrice”. Rosa, my prime suspect behind the murders, could not have done this, because she was with Battler all this time. Gouda (who I also suspected as the culprit) at the same time could have done it, but he got killed off at the end of this episode. It could be a big illusion, though. At the same time, we have Genji, whose whereabouts are unknown. Yet at the same time, he couldn’t have been the killer because he died in the first arc. Either that, or that was an illusion as well. But then again, there’s a good chance that the murderer is some sort of a magician. He could have pulled a fake body in any of the occurrences. What about Kinzou? All we saw was his dead body, but he at the moment is the only one who has the freedom to move through the entire house without being detected. He’s the one with the master key, right? It’s also interesting how the Battler in this universe is the complete opposite. While I called Natsuhi unstable at one point, she was like a sweet little kitten compared to Rosa. Because of this, I think that he gave in to the witch in this case. Or that could have been yet another illusion by Beatrice to get him to break down. I have no idea what’s real anymore: we know that the red texts are true, but is there any other part that we can really trust? I’m really starting to see the appeal of the Umineko series: it really builds further upon the first arc of Higurashi: mad, twisted, and nothing is really what it looks as things start looking more and more impossible to have happened without any sort of magic. Sure, this series isn’t anything amazing as of yet, but hey: we’ve still got tons of episodes left. Right now this series is quite likely building up. Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>

Okay, so this series isn’t exactly the best of the season at the moment, but then again that’s only logical since it’s clearly only building up, and yet I’m already enjoying it a lot. when this series started, I admit that I was really doubtful whether or not Chiaki Kon would be able to pull off this series, considering the other shows she has worked on after Higurashi, but this again shows that even directors with flawed records can be able to produce good series if the source material and guidance is good enough. Anywaay, while the first arc focused on the younger generation, this arc puts the focus at the servants, as they’re labelled as the prime suspects. This episode shows that someone killed Kanon and Jessica, dragged Kanon out of the room and locked the room afterwards. There are only six keys in existence that are able to open the lock, since Beatrice ruled out window-climbing and lock-picking with the red texts. There were two keys inside the room as it was locked: Jessica’s and Kanon’s. That means that there are four keys left, and all of them are in the possession of the four servants left alive. In this way, the most suspicious one is Gouda. He could have faked his own death in the first arc and he had no alibi for the death of Jessica and Kanon. Furthermore, Battler’s argument of how such a guy with a nice face couldn’t possibly be the murderer is weak. Try saying that to Higurashi. However, that doesn’t really mean that one of the servants is the culprit. Have we actually seen it confirmed that all four keys are present at their owner? I think that we’ve established by now that the killer is a good pick-pocket. He could have just taken one of the servants’ keys to make it seem like they did it, which also would make more sense because it would be stupid of a servant to put the blame on himself like this. In this way, Rosa fits as the main suspect: she too could have faked her own death in the first arc, and taking charge of the situation as a leader figure does kind-of take suspicions away. That just leaves the question as to who committed the murders here. The illusions in this series become weirder and weirder, and harder to logically explain. Previously, you could just assume that the murders on Kanon were flashy set-ups by Beatrice, but Gouda actually felt the zombie-Kanon as some sort of solid matter. Do you suppose that the killer actually used some sort of magic mushrooms in order to accomplish that? One thing that rather annoys me about this series is how they keep censoring the gory parts. I mean, come on. Take a look at Himitsu ~The Revelation~ for example: in that series the corpses were even more disturbing, and not even an iota was censored, which really contributed to its dark and creepy mood. This show airs like, how late? 2:00 in the morning? What kid is going to be awake at that hour? And as usual: when discussing this episode, please refrain from mentioning events that happen after this point in the visual novel. Rating: ** (Excellent)]]>

Oh boy, even more questions are asked throughout this episode, but at least the premise of this series is starting to become a bit clear now. It’s indeed a series very much like Higurashi, but the whole iterations are much more similar and the whole ghost world around it has a much bigger role here than it had in Higurashi. I’m not sure yet whether or not the endings for each arc are going to be the same, but who knows? In this arc, it was pretty clear that some of the scenes are viewed by ghost Beatrice and ghost Battler, while others aren’t so much and are rather a speculation of how Beatrice would make Battler believe things went. Otherwise I can see no way to explain Beatrice suddenly summoning walking bunnies and two of the seven sins to kill a bunch of people. Also, Battler never mentioned the deaths of Kanon and Jessica even though he was very much trying to explain the deaths of the first six corpses. Speaking of which, he’s really been reasoning with the assumption that Maria had nothing to do with the murders, but she’s been acting so evil that she’s turning into some sort of reverse red herring. I mean, for a girl with a bipolar disorder who doesn’t seem to think it weird that blood is everywhere, I wouldn’t be surprised if she did turn out to be the killer in the end. A lot of things would make sense if this was true in any case. In any case, this episode destroys the theory that one of the six people who were murdered first might have prepared a fake body. Instead of Maria’s mother Rosa, Natsuhi got killed off this time, Shannon stayed alive in exchange for Eva and Gouda wasn’t killed in exchange for Hideyoshi. This could mean that Shannon, Rose or Gouda did use the trick of the fake body in the first episode, but this time decided for a different strategy. Another big difference with the first arc is that the killer showed some of the gold. This is going to bring actually finding the gold as a much more important goal than it was in the first arc. On top of that, the second set of sacrifices is also going to be different this time. Who know, perhaps this arc is going to end in an entirely different way. Oh, and when discussing this episode: please refrain from mentioning events that happen after this point in the visual novel. Rating: * (Good)]]>

Okay, so after last week’s little episode of background, we’re back to the island and get another clue to what’s going on with this series. This series’ set-up is indeed a bit like Higurashi, but with slight differences. Most notably that Higurashi focused at different people with each arc, while in Umineko instead keeps on looping the same story with perhaps one or two slight differences that we’re not even sure of. So this episode shows a bit more of what happened in the first half of the first episode, with the big difference here the appearance of Beatrice. At this point, it’s still not clear whether these events happened exactly the way they did in the first arc, or whether Beatrice conveniently inserted herself into the story to make it seem to Battler that she indeed existed. Since Higurashi also was a really layered story, I also suspect something similar to happen here: the basic world has no magic whatsoever, but outside of it Beatrice’s power has free range, and her ultimate purpose seems to be to have everyone acknowledge her, and my guess would be that she tries to make everyone believe that she has magic, while in fact she doesn’t have any at all in the “real world”. This episode would then show that she managed to get accepted her powers apart from Battler, which is probably going to be the main focus of this series. If this indeed turns out to be true, then that must mean that Beatrice is a very talented illusionist. The way that she seemed to make Maria close her eyes while turning the candy back seems to suggest that, and I assume that she used some sort of trick to prevent Maria’s mother from seeing it. While it’s a bit far-fetched, the butterflies then could be the product of some sort of optical illusion concerning holograms. This episode also paid a bit of attention to Maria and her mother, and learn that Maria may have an issue of multiple personalities that run in her family. Perhaps Kinzou is also bothered by it, or his mysterious wife could be the key in this. It also could have spontaneously appeared with her, but in any case you could see that the two of them were related to each other in this episode. Maria’s mother at one time is the worried and caring mother, and the next moment she starts beating her own child. With that, it’s somewhat understandable for Maria to develop a split personality as well. With the way she seems to be closed in her own world, her ramblings about Beatrice could be blamed on her imagination running wild. In any case, while this episode did build up, I liked it a lot. Beatrice could have been a bit less stereotypically evil, but overall it was a very nice episode. Oh, but one thing: I know that we’re not supposed to expect much from the graphics in this series, but could the creators in the future please try to give Battler a less constipated face when he’s angry? This isn’t Dragonball Z, or anything. Oh, and to close off, I want to put a little disclaimer here: THIS POST IS ABOUT THE ANIME VERSION OF UMINEKO. If you want to say something about events that happen after this episode, then GO FIND A BLOG THAT COVERS THE VISUAL NOVEL AND PUT IT THERE. I really hate to put up this warning, but I’ve personally gotten really tired of all of the visual novel fans flaunting their superior knowledge to us simple mortals who haven’t played the game yet. I’m interested in seeing the speculations of other people who haven’t played the games yet, and are also in the dark of what’s going on here. What’s the point of hearing the speculations of someone who already knows what’s going to happen?! And sure, normally I’m not such a Nazi with this. A subtle hint of what’s going to happen next of course isn’t bad, but the problem arises with popular franchises as this one, when seemingly every single fan of the visual novel is keen to drop a small hint of what’s going on. With hundreds of “small hints” like these, it just doesn’t remain fun anymore. Not to mention the few not-so-subtle hints that float among them. I know that I’m confused, but isn’t that the whole point of this series? Then what are you doing trying to clarify things that were meant to be completely mind-boggling? Rating: * (Good)]]>