Well, talk about a different atmosphere in this episode. For once, nobody died and instead we’ve now come to fleshing out the characters, with Shannon, Jessica and Kanon being the first. What the hell is going on is still pretty much a mystery, but we did get quite a few new answers to what went on. Not the most spectacular episode, but I liked it a lot.
So right now we’ve either moved to the past, or a third universe. We either have ourselves a non-linear storyline like Baccano or Touka Gettan, or this series really is like Higurashi which resets itself every time Beatrice kills everyone (or lets everyone kill everyone), just in the way that Higurashi went. My suspicion is the latter, though. Beatrice is known as the “eternal witch” who likes to put people through eternal suffering. But then again that does raise the question of why she’s resetting in the first place when her goal simply seems to be regaining her powers and ruling over the island.
In this episode, it’s also revealed that Kanon and Shannon are siblings, or at least, Kanon referred to Shannon as his older sister. I could be mistaken in this because kids have a tendency to refer to anyone as older sisters or aunts. We also learn that they are the only two who can see Beatrice, which seems to suggest that either in the past or in this universe Beatrice has yet to say hello to Maria.
This episode was mostly about explaining Kanon’s deep-seated grudge at his position as a servant. He and Shannon both started out as furniture who fell in love with a member of the Ushinomiya family (for Kanon, this was Jessica). Shannon accepted Beatrice’s help and therefore got to date George without any problems. Kanon however, was different and refused Beatrice because she he believed that she kept toying around with the lives of others. So saying that people can’t date furniture in the first few episodes turned out to have been a bit of a rejection to Beatrice.
Jessica in the meantime very much reminds me of Mion: she’s supposed to be the heir of an important family, and yet when she is with her friends she puts up a completely different character. Perhaps she also has a twin in the same fashion.
This is also something seemingly unimportant that caught my eye, but with this series in which everything seems to be relevant, perhaps it’ll turn into an important clue later on: why do all of the direct heirs of the Ushinomiya family have just one child? Is this also something that was dictated by grandfather? And why is Maria the only one who doesn’t match the ages of the others? Did something happen with her parents in the past that caused them to go against Kinzou?
Rating: * (Good)]]>
Umineko no Naku Koro ni – 06
Rosa is supposedly a lot younger than the other siblings, which might also explain Maria’s young age.
George is 23, Battler and Jessica are 18, Maria is 9. Maria’s obviously younger since Rosa is the youngest of the 4 siblings…
They had a family tree on the official website for the anime.
http://umineko.tv/web/main/character/index.html
I would avoid looking down past the character design for Bern if I were you.
This deserves a repost IMO
http://i25.tinypic.com/2hi76fp.png
I beg to differ:
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/6850/1216100377417hd8.jpg
I just loved this episode! And the way Beatrice was getting along with Shanon made her look like someone really nice, doesn’t she have two personalities or something like that? I wonder…
Everyone has only one child, excluding Rudolf who has two – one from his first past wife (Battler) and one from Kyrie (Ange)
As Celd said Rosa is the youngest out of all 7 – she can’t be more than in her 30’s, while everyone else is between 40’s-mid 50’s. This is why Maria is younger than the others.
I feel the need to say this again, but the children can’t be in their 50’s.
It’s said, that Kinzo got the island after the gread war (WWII) and the parents mention often that as children they were affraid of the legend of the witch, this means they most have been 6-10 (at the most) when they were on Rokkenjima.
That means they were born in the 40’s which would make them (even Krauss and Eva) late 30’s to mid 40’s.
Sorry, pressed ‘Post’ to early.
What I wanted to say with that is, that Rosa would be mid to late 20’s (maybe 28 or 29).
Umineko is similar to Higurashi, certain events keep reseting. But the events in the episode all happened before the family meeting (as shown by the dates displayed during the episode).
“Beatrice is known as the “eternal witch” who likes to put people through eternal suffering. But then again that does raise the question of why she’s resetting in the first place when her goal simply seems to be regaining her powers and ruling over the island.”
Hm. First you’ve gotta be clear on this point: the Beatrice who aims to regain her reign on the island and the Beatrice who is actually resetting everything from zero aren’t one. Simply put, the first Beatrice’s universe is actually a gameboard inside the second Beatrice’s universe, and needless to say, the one on the other side of the board is Battler, in a fight to deny the existence of witch. The prev. arc, “legend of the golden witch”, only showed us inside the gameboard, but starting with this second arc, events outside the gamboard will be shown too, so I think you will probably get the hang of it soon.
have you noticed that the first scene in the OPENING show the Beatrice painting, BUT SHE IS WEARING DIFFERENT CLOTHES.
it’s similar to the ones Jessica uses.
silverz: Ack! Please keep these spoilers under control or at least marked. I know that I was asking these questions, but I asked them to people who didn’t play the VN either. It destroys a bit of the fun when someone who already exactly knows what’s going on starts answering them!
One thing you should learn about Umineko fans, there are very few who won’t spoil you or display their ultimate wisdom that surpasses the knowledge of the anime viewers by far to anybody who only slightly mentions it.
So I hope it didn’t destroy any expectations…if I was you, I would probably stop reading the comments of my own blog…even though it would be sad not to be able to ask about a review a bit more.
I realize the Umineko VN players are trying to be helpful, but yes…they could tone down the spoilers and game information a little bit.
Not all of us want to immediately know things that the anime might eventually explain later…like an episode or two in the future, for example. I think this is just a matter of showing some patience and prudence, it doesn’t require a huge amount of effort.
That aside, the episode was nice for characterization and compensated for the initial rush from the first arc. Beatrice really is cruel and manipulative, but it looks like she’s not entirely aloof. She’s oddly likable.
It’s funny but Shannon actually seems pretty interesting too, by this point, and even Jessica, who didn’t really do anything before, does have a personality. I suppose the relationships between the characters were fairly predictable, but its still positive for development. Can’t wait to see what comes next.
I also enjoyed this episode, didn’t felt too rushed and it helped fleshing out the characters.
I can only complain at the lack of Tsurupettan.
The events of this episode are before the Family meeting and are considered true for all repeats. Maria CAN see Beatrice but she isn´t on the island at this point.
I´m actually suprised they didn´t rush through this part of the story, they were suprisingly throughout with this “booring” part.
Also, why the reason for the subtile change in the Opening should become “clear” (aka confuse the hell out of everyone) next episode.
@Chounoke:
‘As children’ is a very general statement, because Jessica and Battler are seen as kids and both are 18 already. That’s all I’ll say on the matter, because their ages will become more distinguishable later in time.
Sweet, more details about the characters. The whole resetting thing too…
To those who played the visual novel ” Umineko”: has the VN been translated into english already? Otherwise, how did you understand, do you know how to read in japaneese? I already tried to play a VN but couldn’t read it because of the language , and that’s quite a great issue because the VN is meant to be read, otherwise it doesn’t make any sense. Could you tell me if this one has been translated, please? Thanks.
Windy:
http://witch-hunt.com/
superseaslug , Thanks a lot for your help!!!
Jessica indeed seems a lot like Mion: she’s like an oyaji when talking about potential relationships, and like Mion with the maid fetish (or was it Shion?), Jessica may possibly be behind predicting trends such as maid cafes and lolita fashion decades before their time. 😀