Okay, so this is about half impressions on Umineko’s latest episode, and half a wrap up of the first episodes of the summer season. Overall I have to say that this is a very successful season, and the second-best Summer Season I have ever seen based on first impressions. The best was in 2006, but that one is nearly impossible to beat anyway: it had something of everything and about half of the series were ground-breaking, did something new and/or were just plain awesome.
This seasons stands out in its surprisingly large amount of great, nice and enjoyable series: only a small fraction of them was dull or uninteresting. This season actually shows an interesting effect of the economic recession that hit Japan so hard: you can see that the quantity of series is slowly decreasing (although it’s not even by that much; this season only has one or two shows fewer than last year). You can see that there has been a great increase of moe, because it’s been clear by now that moe sells. And yet on the other side of the coin, the amount of bad series has decreased dramatically as well.
This season only has four series that I’d classify as below average (Element Hunters, Princess Lover, Kanamemo and Juuden-Chan; okay, five if you consider Weiss Survive as a series, but I don’t). Compare that to previous years, in which those numbers are twice as large, even 2006 had more mediocre series the current season and this trend even continues in years as 2003 and 2004, where the amount of series that debuted in total was even smaller. So yes, I’m really happy with this season.
As for the shows I’m going to blog (I can only blog 4 new shows this season), I decided to go with the four shows with the most ambitious setting. That obviously includes Umineko no Naku Koro ni, and I’m also going to cover Bakemonogatari and Canaan (and yeah, Umi Monogatari is also dropped now). As for the fourth show, it’s all going to depend on whether Tokyo Magnitude (Noitamina) turns out to be good or not. If not, then I’m going to be covering Aoi Hana.
As for this episode: it was awesome. I’m now starting to see why people are liking the story so much. It was a real improvement over the first episode in terms of acting, not to mention the shocking plot twist at the end.
I was expecting people to die, but to see six people already killed off within the second episode… that definitely was something I didn’t see coming. So, we basically have twelve people left now:
– Battler, the red-headed protagonist of the series (or at least, that’s how he’s being portrayed). He indeed was much less annoying than in the first episode, although the boob-jokes remained.
– Kinzou, the grandfather, whose intentions still are a rather big puzzle in the way that he seems to be inviting his entire family in some morbid battle of wits. It’s a bit of a weird dying wish, if you ask me.
– George, the blue-haired guy who just lost the one he proposed to in the death frenzy.
– Maria, the annoying little girl who seems to function as either Beatrice’s medium or spokesperson, depending on whether Beatrice is a ghost or an actual person. I just do wish that the creators would handle her foreshadowing a bit more subtle. I mean, with those close-ups anyone can see coming that she’s going to turn evil at some point.
– Jessica, the yellow-haired girl. We still don’t know much about her either but she seems like she’s going to be an important character.
– Eva, the woman with Takano’s voice. She’s obviously meant to be the red herring for the first part of the story. I mean, she’s acting so obviously evil that there has to be more behind her.
– Hideyoshi, Eva’s husband, though we haven’t seen much of him yet.
– Chiyo Kumasawa, the older woman maid of the house. Did we see her in this episode at all?
– Kanon, the servant who feels himself to be just an object and likes to repeat this to everyone who wants and doesn’t want to listen.
– Genji Ronoue, the white-haired servant. Not much has been shown about him either.
– Natsuhi, Jessica’s mother and the one who kept freaking out and seems to be the most emotionally unstable of the main cast.
– That doctor whose name I can’t seem to find.
Meanwhile, Maria’s mother Rosa, Battler’s mother Kyrie (who SO doesn’t look her age), Battler’s father Rudolf, the butler Gouda, the maid Sharon and Jessica’s father Krauss seem to be killed off, not including the possibility that someone used a fake body somewhere. There are all just simple first impressions of course. While a lot of the characters seem innocent at this point, I’m positive that all of them have something to hide.
But yeah, this is really fun do to, and the exact reason why I love mystery. This episode really reminded me why I originally became a huge fan of the first season of Higurashi: there’s so much that’s going on, but at the same time the creators know how to make the viewers keep guessing and formulate theories. It feels like it’s Higurashi all over again and Ryuukishi07 has really proven himself to be an incredible writer: not only is he a master of keeping these mystery-stories entertaining, but when the mystery stops being the main focus he still manages to write intelligent and meaningful dialogue, like what happened in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai and Rei.
The only downside to this series so far are the character-designs. Studio Deen’s series usually look very good and they’ve got an array of unique looking series, but this just feels like a combination of their average styles. That was a bit of a disappointment, but this series is indeed one that shouldn’t be watched because of its graphics.
On a side-note: a small thing I liked in this episode were the small shots of seeing how all of the different characters like to spend their time while waiting (crosswords, puzzles, card games. Nice addition). I especially liked how Grandfather was playing chess with himself. That may give a hint that Beatrice indeed is something supernatural. Either that, or he’s just an incredibly boring guy.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Now this is why I originally became a fan of Higurashi
I haven’t seen any Higurashi’s yet (yes, shame on me, I do plan on doing it soon though) but I already knew what they were all about. There aren’t that many murder mystery-anime so I welcome this one with all its over-blown acting, bombastic music and over-the-top feeling. Clearly not for anyone who takes themselves too serious.
I’m quite intrigued by the mystery already and it’d be great if no one spoils anything in the comments 😛
As for the summer of 2006, I wasn’t watching as actively back then, was there anything except for NHK, Kemonozume (still need to see that), Bokura Ga Ita and the sequel to Honey & Clover?
Oh and about the whole “clearly not for anyone who takes themself too seriously” part, are you sure this is the right choice too blog? Delving all too seriously into *why* the grandfather wants them to have a big battle of wits and stuff… it doesn’t really seem like the kind of questions you should be asking if you just want to enjoy this. It’s not going to be clever in the same way Monster is, surely it’s going to push beyond belief more in a way that Code Geass is doing?
James: yup, there certainly were. There was a unique series called Flag, Le Chevalier d’Eon aired back then and for an underrated comedy there also was Muteki Kanban Musume. On top of that, Otogi Juushi Akazukin, Night Head Genesis and Power Puff Z are considered utter garbage by most people, though I personally loved them.
Oh, and about the difference between the “no Naku Koro ni” series and Code Geass, in my view it’s the following: Code Geass felt like the creators were making stuff up on the spot, it had dull and clichéd characters with non-sensical character-development. If the character-development in Umineko is going to be anything like Higurashi, then they are going to be nothing like what happened in Code Geass. The story also might seem random at first, but it’s very well crafted and a lot of thoughts have been put into it.
In case you don’t remember, the doctor’s name is Nanjo Terumasa.
@ Psgels:
Fair enough, like I said, I haven’t seen Higurashi yet. I just assumed – because the show has been so over-the-top – that not everything was going to make sense. The mystery is enough for me, but if all the puzzle pieces fit together that would be preferable.
I’m totally with you on the character designs by the way. Bland.
Out of curiosity, what made 2006 the best summer of anime? Was that the Gurren Lagaan year? I can’t remember.
It actually helps out a lot when you’re animating something based on a pre-existing work, particularly if it’s a non-standard visual novel where dating female characters isn’t really the point or even not applicable at all.
Something like Umineko or Higurashi relies exclusively on the quality of its writing, given the relatively low production values involved in the games themselves. I mean, it’s clear Ryuukishi07 himself already did all the writing he needed to do, across several games so far, and the anime staff just needs to be good at adapting.
And just because I like making unpopular statements, for the record, I don’t even think Code Geass was *that* nonsensical when you really think about it. Still, it’s clear that was a different kind of production (not an adaptation, for starters) and writing wasn’t really its strong point at all (of course not), so the comparison doesn’t really work either.
Hell yeah! It was great. I agree with you on most parts, but what have Studio Deen to do with character-designs? I haven’t read the VN (my bad), but judging from pictures, designs are close to the original ones. And, as we know from Higurashi, 07th Expansion’s character-designs are… not as good as their storytelling.)
This was more what I was expecting compared to the first episode (played the VN btw). My only complaint is the scene where Maria reads the letter. Not going to spoil so i’ll just say that the portrayal was completely different/unfitting and they just threw crazy faces on the little girl for shock factor. I’ll be happy if they keep those crazy faces for a certain someone later on though. Everything else was done pretty good though.
I have a feeling you’ll enjoy Aoi Hana more than Canaan, but I might be wrong in that. Type-Moon’s adaptations have been mostly mediocre, with the possible exception of some of the Kara no Kyoukai movies. Aoi Hana, on the other hand, seems to be building up to be exactly the kind of of series you love writing about.
Lol, I wanted to say ‘drop Ghost’, but you already did.
Haven’t watched Umineko 2 yet; still catching up on the past season.
P.S. – it’s still not working to post here from Opera! Not even with the newest version.
ancalyme: thanks for reminding me about the opera issue. Unfortunately, the reply from the blogsome staff has been anything but helpful:
http://blogsome-forum.blogsome.com/viewtopic.php?t=4808
I’m not really sure what I can do about this issue, and I just hope that it’s not too much of an inconvenience.
As for Aoi Hana and Canaan: I indeed liked Aoi Hana better; it’s a great series full of emotions, though I fear that there’ll be too little to write about it. Compared to some of the other shows this season, of course.
I’m not that bothered by Type-Moon either. Sure, Fate/Stay Night wasn’t that good, but Tsukihime and Kara no Kyoukai were pretty nice to watch.
Diss: pretty much as noted above: NHK ni Youkoso, Bokura ga Ita, Kemonozume, Honey and Clover, le Chevalier d’Eon, Flag, Muteki Kanbanmusume, Night Head Genesis, Otogi Juushi Akazukin and Power Puff Z. A lot of those are niche titles that never became that popular though, and especially the latter three depend a lot on whether you can stomach an annoying brother, kiddish stuff and really silly stuff respectively.
Kyrie is actually not Battler’s real mother. Battler’s mother died around when he was six and Rudolf remarried Kyrie. So Battler regards Kyrie more like sister than mother.
And don’t think about solving mystery of Umineko. You are going to get mindraped very soon…
PS. Orginal Fate/Stay Night visual novel is one of the best visual novels ever written, but DEEN manage to make mediocre… (well, it’s super hard to adapt a novel with length of Lord of the Ring into 13 episodes anyway…)
@Veldril:
You mixed something up – Battler’s mother didn’t die when he was six; she died six years ago.
@psgels: Not that you get the wrong impression – The above isn’t a spoiler or anything, as the whole ordeal with Battler’s family s is mentioned right at the beginning in the Visual Novel. I didn’t want to post it though because I assumed the anime will pick a special time to reveal Battler’s background, but it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.
ancalyme: Are you sure your problem is in Opera? Almost everything works fine with my vesion (9.64).
The only thing that doesn’t work is the “submit” button at the “numbers screen” so I have to press enter.)
Oh tjorry. I remembered the age swap with someone else >
I haven’t seen the original Higurashi series but this episode made me want to check them out. I was expecting someone or at least more than one person to snuff it, but six people dying is what I was not expecting. Jessica’s anguish over the loss of his father was amazing. Battler’s reaction seeing his stepmom and father die was just bad acting. And seeing George’s face when she saw the ring was very much realistic. I also have to comment on the room where the gold was hidden: big locks and chain reads: hey nothing’s hidden here so stay out. LOL. Also, Maria’s face when she was reading the letter was really freaky. Loli with a scary face, really is horrifying. Also, the older maid did not make any appearance on this episode, I was wondering if she was the perp or it was just a coincidence. Really a step up from the lame first episode. Will check Higurashi now, excuse me…
@tealovertoma
Actually Umineko is pretty well crafted (it is in the VN at least). The problem is the anime came off pretty ‘not taking itself too seriously’ but the VN is the complete opposite.
The question of why the grandfather is doing what he’s doing is very important.
I’d say Umineko is one of those series where, if you want to try and figure out the mystery, you’d have to be very patient and very smart because it ends up mind-raping you most of the time ^^;
A lot of the series will focus on Battler saying ‘blah, blah, blah’ and another person disproving his theory for solving the mystery.
looking forward to your review on tokyo magnitude (and also to seeing it meself :P)
I’m not really sure about Canaan. On your recommendation, I watched the first episode… and frankly, I found it utterly dull, and thought it seemed kind of pretentious. I’ll give it a bit more of a chance, but I fear we may have to part ways on that one. (:
Umineko’s first episode was just OK, but given how much I loved Higurashi, I don’t intend to drop Umineko ’til I’ve seen every last morsel of it. Ep 2 is downloading right now. (:
Also, there IS another bad show this season, which you haven’t yet blogged at all: “Needless”. God, it’s terrible… and the ending credits animation contains perhaps the most utterly out-of-place fanservice I’ve EVER seen. I can’t recommend it in the slightest, based on its first episode… but if you want to be thorough, you should probably check it out, and I look forward to seeing it at the very bottom of your list when you do your monthly review. 😉
-Tom
Kumasawa Chiyo did make a brief appearance (a couple of seconds, maybe): she was shown sleeping at midnight.
@ Tom, psgels already made comments about Needless. Check previous posts under First Impressions. As for me, I’ll continue watching Needless since it’s only the shounen fighting series of the season. I’m missing all the mindless action now that Kurokami and Regios has already ended.
@ancalyme: Type-Moon’s writer, Nasu, was actually involved in Canaan and Kara no Kyoukai’s development. Also, Canaan is not an adaptation. It’s the sequel to 428, though I doubt you need to read that to fully understand Canaan.
The biggest problem I had with the Umineko anime is the way they try to make Maria seem insane when she reads the letter. She’s described as looking serious in the VN, but that’s it. Many of the important details are left intact, so it’s a good adaptation overall.
Wow, six deaad already. Looks to be interesting. I definitely want to experience this “mindrape” I keep hearing about. As for the character designs, I’ll agree they aren’t great, but I like them more than the VN images on Wikipedia.
Also, I don’t see why Princess Lover is BELOW average-not exceptional sure, but still decent. Obviously not to you’re tastes though 🙂
Tom: I watched Needless, and it’s an average show for me. While obviously nothing special and the ED indeed sucks with the power of a thousand black holes, but it’s good enough for my weekly dose of adrenaline now that Hajime no Ippo’s New Challenger ended. As for Canaan, that’s indeed a matter of different tastes. The characters indeed are nowhere as good as in shows like Aoi Hana and the like, but I liked the direction so far a lot.
ES: yeah, my problem with Princess Lover is that it’s just SO not my kind of series. I’ve been doing these first impressions for more than three years now, and I’ve really gotten tired of seeing this same premise being repeated over and over… and over.
I’m with Tom, Needless was – along with Fight Ippatsu and Elementhunters – the worst show of the season for me. It was just plain awful. I guess I’ve kinda had it with shounen anyway, but when they’re *that* uninspired?
The other anime I didn’t care about – but seemed slightly better – is Saint Seiya.
The rest was “okay” IMO, I’d have actually picked them all up if there weren’t so damn many.
..Batter is really gettin on my nerves…
@tealovertoma:
The mystery is enough for me, but if all the puzzle pieces fit together that would be preferable
Watch out: if Umineko has the same structure Higurashi had, you’d better know the basic story is repeated multiple times. Every time the story repeats it changes development and epilogue, adding new elements to the puzzle or eliminating them. Its a brainstorming and you will not know the entire picture till the last story arc.
And about the comparison with Geass, please stop it for God’s sake! Higurashi was clever written and it nonsensical twists were planned and well performed. Geass idiotic nonsensical twists were the result of simple bad writing.
Having just seen the second episode of Needless, I unfortunately do have to agree that it sucks. It was fun while it was a brainless action show, but the whole second episode was a very bad attempt to be among the smart shounen series.
How’s Summer 06 and this year better than Summer 07? You crazy man?
Baccano!
Mononoke
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Shigurui
Westlo: of course, all those seasons had their awesome shows, but the reason why I consider other seasons better is the quantity: Summer 2007 had some really dull and bad series for me, like School Days, Potemayo, Moetan and Zero no Tsukaima and Tokyo Majin Gakuen’s sequels (at least, according to some rumours I’ve heard), plus it had some really mediocre series as Mushiuta, Nanatsuiro Drops, Umisho, Devil May Cry and Doujin Work. Plus, Higurashi Kai and Baccano took a while before they got really good.
The series you mentioned indeed are all excellent, and the individual awesome series of Summer 2006 weren’t necessarily better, but for me there were a whole lot more of them, while 2007 only had these five that stood out.
This episode was even greater than the first!!!
I like everything about it, the character – design and the voices perfectly fit with this atmosphere of mystery and horror and each time we assist to an unexpected turn of events that let us stunned. But beside this , “Canaan” and “Spice and wolf II”, I don’t see another show as good as these , well, I keep on watching ” Umi monogatari” but from the first episode, some moments already seem to be dull rather than entertaining , I just love the setting but I don’t find anything else to it. And “Aoi Hana” was disappointing for me, especially the character- design that was rushed compared to the chara-design of other shojo ai series. ” Princess Lover” is quite a big joke, isn’t it, it doesn’t look like a serious series at all, and just about everything is there to make it seem dumb, what a pity! So I don’t really see this summer season as a an amazing one at all, almost every show turns out to be awful, but if this summer season would remain memorable ,it is for one show , ” Umineko no naku koro ni”, that’s greater than all my expectations!!! Just sublime!
Episode really lived up to its name as the first move and what a move it was. The deaths were pretty unexpected, well like you I expected some deaths but not 6 down so quickly. Another thing that made this episode great was having less Maria, meaning less “uuuuuuu” I just hope Beatrice possesses her or something so that she won’t make that unbearable noise anymore.
“This seasons stands out in its surprisingly large amount of great, nice and enjoyable series: only a small fraction of them was dull or uninteresting. This season actually shows an interesting effect of the economic recession that hit Japan so hard: you can see that the quantity of series is slowly decreasing (although it’s not even by that much; this season only has one or two shows fewer than last year). You can see that there has been a great increase of moe, because it’s been clear by now that moe sells.”
Yeah, I agree, there’s been an increase in moe, lolicon, fan-service infested anime in the past 3 years (MANY examples include Kanokon, Sekirei, Queen’s Blade, and the upcoming Chu-Bra anime). I kinda hate this. I kinda think anime is being abused and exploited this way (referring to increase in moe, lolicon, fan-service and fetishes). I mean, anime should be used to show people some good entertainment, NOT influence people into having sex fetishes!
Firstly, I loved the episode. I agree, it’s definitely the main reason I loved Higurashi so much: it keeps you on the edge of your seat, confused, and constantly trying to figure out the mystery. I often find my thoughts wandering to Umineko, like they had with Higurashi, and then I end up completely forgetting whatever I was doing before I started thinking. This episode was most definitely better than the first.
“I mean, anime should be used to show people some good entertainment, NOT influence people into having sex fetishes!”
Mkay, about that: you don’t get influenced into having fetishes, you just kind of… are. But I get what you mean.
Anime is being abused? Oh, sure, there are great anime out there, like Higurashi, and of course, there are the not so great anime. Just because the amount not so great anime is increasing, or just because creators are aiming to earn money with moe rather than entertain us with good content doesn’t necessarily mean anime is being abused. Anime has always depended on the money put into it and the money spent, so this is simply another way to earn profit: with moe.
But this is just me rambling on pointlessly again. -sigh-
“Maria, the annoying little girl who seems to function as either Beatrice’s medium or spokesperson, depending on whether Beatrice is a ghost or an actual person. I just do wish that the creators would handle her foreshadowing a bit more subtle. I mean, with those close-ups anyone can see coming that she’s going to turn evil at some point.”
She’s MEANT to be evil..
i.e. you’re talking out your arse.