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…
Gonna go watch this episode now! And by the way, the villain from Higurashi didn’t seem innocent at all to me. From the beginning something wasn’t right about them and I didn’t trust them.
Dang it, psgels. Your blog post makes me really excited for this episode, and yet it’s downloading at the speed of a snail. T_T
Confused yet 😉
And also, don’t try to think of the culprit in terms of how Higurashi did it. For all we know the culprit can be very obvious and in our faces. It doesn’t work like Higurashi where you have a small handful of characters to pick and choose from. Anybody is capable of committing the murders (not even the mackerel is excluded from the suspicious list!) as long as they have the chance and the motive.
Still, as you said: yes the third arc is considered the true beginning of the game. EP 1 and 2 set up the premise and gets you used to everything, but this is the episode with the most impact, along with future arcs.
I wonder though: are you surprised Maria is dead now? She was Beatrice’s little messenger girl and always survived to the very end, but this time she was killed off very early into the entire scheme of things.
This implies, in my opinion, that the 2nd twilight killer may not be the same killer as the 1st twilight or the same culprit murdering everyone (if the culprit is a stagnant person). Why would ‘Beatrice’ kill off her messenger? This means ‘Eva-Beatrice’ is perhaps a representative of a new killer. Whether she represents Eva or not though is an entirely different story…
To quote Battler “What the hell is going on?”
Im not even gonna bother trying to figure this out right now… Better just watch the whole first season before trying to think of anything
(Then wait for Umineko Kai :P)
@Frost: Actually it’s Umineko Chiru, not Kai 😛
And while I probably don’t have any right to say this, and I might very wrong, I think that the alternate dimension in which Beatrice was with Battler was called “the Purgatory” (at least from some info I have read, and it would connect it to the remix of the OP (Umineko no Naku Koro ni) of the visual novel that Shikata Akiko did some months back for her Harmonia album).
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER.
innocent child my ass, you’ll see.
Here’s a good, fan-adopted name for the “shadow realm” of which you speak: the “metaworld.” Try using it next time in your future entries.
@Divaa
Disregarding the warning you set up, they said no spoilers.
Beato didn’t seem to be particularly mature. She seemed to be more like a kid who’s trying to fix things without quite realizing what she’s doing wrong. On the other hand, the awkwardness that results makes her cute, something I never expected from a Beato with intact memories. (Epic, yes. Cute, no.)
This arc feels like it’s about making her moe. First loli, then dojikko, and now tsundere? 😉
I’m sure many were expecting Eva’s inner self to become the new witch, the physical similarity with the character in the OP pretty much spelled it out so that idea didn’t surprise me too much. I didn’t think she’d proceed to replace Beatrice outright though.
I’n not sure if I buy that Beato is really just a child inside, rather than simply too self-absorbed and not used to dealing with someone like Battler, but I can sort of see why she would give that impression.
Beato’s other side was quite surprising. Guess Battler showed her what’s up.
I APOLOGIZE FOR WRITING IN CAPS BUT YOU WOULDN’T READ THIS IF I DIDN’T. IF YOU ARE AN ANIME WATCHER I HIGHLY SUGGEST YOU do not read THE COMMENTS HERE.
As a fellow VN reader I am appalled that there are douche bags who give out VN spoilers to you guys. Grow up man, you’re not helping. Be a good little kid and let the anime watchers have their fun and shut up like the rest of us.
When is Battler gonna learn…
In chess, play the pieces. Not the player.
I liked how Beato’s voice actress sounded totally different in that scene. I was kind of surprised. I’m confused, though. Weren’t the meta-Beato and the Beato that went to talk with Eva-Beatrice the same? At least that was what I got out of it. It makes it awfully confusing, though..
@Pafiume
Yep, Beato jumped into the game board right after getting an earful by Battler. Trying to “make up” for what she’s done.
Not a spoiler, because in the VN this has already happened, but it should be noted that at that point Battler basically told Beatrice to go f*ck herself and stomped out of the game (no longer recognizing her as an opponent).
i like how Battler left the tea parlor using Shannon’s magic barrier thing.
Hey Star-crossed anime blogger(?), long-time umineko reader, first-time commenter.
This episode blew my mind, and potentially blew many preconceptions I had right out of the water.
I’m just lost all over again…
I have no idea what could possibly come next, hahaha…
Wow, that was unexpected. If in Higurashi I could at least tell what the premise of the show was, here we are completely left in the dark.
If we have a regular Battler and meta-Battler, does it mean that the Beatrice that’s featured in the different arcs (like the one that gave Eva her name and power)and the one that’s sitting in the meta-world are different as well?
This show makes me think of quantum physics. The world shown in each arc is the normal 3D world, while meta-world is a 4D world, tha’s outside of linear time flow.
God, I’m sure that whatever ideas I have, I’m missing the true meaning by a mile 🙂
My perception of this is that it looks like Battler got to Beatrice. When Battler ceased to just be a human toy and became almost her equal in the metaworld, she started to respect and even care for him as a constant opponent. He wasn’t disgusted with her actions in the game, which was something she enjoyed; he was disgusted with her as a person and showed it most appropriately. He ruined her fun and she realized that she’d loose him as an opponent.
That shock caused a change of heart that I suspect is going to cause her to act against Eva-Beatrice. Now if that causes Beatrice to act against her own game then I think we’ll see the end of Eva-Beatrice or regular Beatrice, perhaps even both very soon.
In any case this round is almost over and sadly I’m more interested in what Battler will do than anything else.
I strongly recommend to review this comments section once the arc ends, it´s amusing to read the speculations once you know how it ends. This arcs end is for many reasons my favourite part of the whole VN.
Ok a new witch. More stuff thrown in and old stuff left unsolved. Infact, my beloved 6 linked closed room is still there awaiting an explanation. But who cares, we’re forced to review the whole thing when we will have all the pieces of the puzzle in place, at the end of the show. So i’ll let it be by now.
Battler is still so.. so.. useless. When will he start arguing as he should?
And by the way if this anime should be really Higurashi style, the real culprit shpuld be one killed of at start and thus thrown out of the game, acting in the shadows. Who’s always out of sight (alive or dead at that), that you hardly notice his existence of all? Mr K.. Mr Kin…? I bet he’s the mastermind.
Again, if you guys are expecting answers right away to the mysteries then don’t. The fun of Umineko is that you get to use the facts you’ve been given (the red text) and try to theorize on your own. If you’re going to want answers to every last thing at the end of all the arcs then it’s useless (as Battler would say) because Ryukishi said in an interview that the answers in Umineko would not be spelled out for us like they were in Higurashi.
Take the 6 closed circuit rooms for example. Let’s try and produce possible killers, using what we know.
-Could any of the parents do it?
Most likely no. They were together all night long and if someone had been out for a long period of time and then returned that person would be put under suspicion. Since that isn’t the case none of the parents are the killer of the 6 people.
-Could any of the victims do it.
Possible, yes.
-Could any of the children do it?
Honestly, I don’t think they did. George and Jessica had people they cared for as victims, Battler…well the main hero being the culprit all along is just a bad twist so no and Maria is too small to fight against big guys like Genji, Kinzo and Gohda.
There’s also the doctor Nanjo to consider.
😉 There, now try and theorize yourselves