A very solid episode this time, and instead of the chaos of the past few episodes, it was surprisingly slow-paced as it showed the aftermath of what happened in the previous episode, as well as develop the current storyline even further.
The past few episodes also completely changed how you should look at this game that Battler and Beatrice have been playing. Looking back, Beatrice’s plan right now is indeed pretty clear: she had the scenario of this mysterious person killing everyone but five (including him/herself) of the Ushinomiya Family + Staff, and she twisted those events around to make them seem like magic with some sort of illusion. Apparently she thought that as long as she did this for long enough, the ingenuity of this mysterious killer would go unnoticed and Battler would be forced to accept that witches are real. It indeed seemed like a nice, though one-sided plan at first, but like the past episodes showed: there’s no way you can get a raging bull to shut up, just by yelling at it.
However, with the new Beatrice, this is completely different: why would the new Beatrice want to bother faking the deaths when she can just as easily kill people herself? Is this world perhaps a copy of the original world where Meta-battler came from, or something similar, and the witches have the power to play with the rules just as long as they match what really happened? We now know that Beatrice did everything in order to be accepted in the outside world as a witch, which indeed seems to signify that she had no powers in the world Meta-battler came from but instead of the worlds she created herself, and of which Eva-Beatrice is now a part of.
However, at the same time I wonder: remember how in the first episode, Battler’s father said that he was probably going to get killed the next day. Back there, he knew that something fishy was going on, and he was going to die, however there’s no sign of that here, even though this arc is supposed to focus on the adults. That means that not just the order of victims is different for each arc, but even before that they differ slightly… In any case, I also liked the extra bit of info on Battler’s parents: this episode really gave a bit more character to them, since they’ve stayed pretty much in the background until now, being immediately killed off and all.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Oh and regarding spoilers, my patience has run out right about now. DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE EVENTS THAT HAPPEN AFTER THIS EPISODE. From now on, if I even suspect an Umineko-related comment to have spoilers of the visual novel I will mercilessly delete it. This of course doesn’t go for most people, but every week there seem to be one or two people who can’t resist to ruin the fun for those who haven’t played the games yet. Even when properly marked, it’s really hard not to look at them, and I unfortunately don’t have the software here for proper spoiler-codes.
If you want to talk about the Visual Novel, doesn’t it make sense to look for a forum or blog that discusses the Visual Novel instead of the anime?
I think new Beatrice can’t just kill people with magic, because the same rules of magic apply to her. As long as Battler doesn’t belive in magic, nothing that can’t be explained by actions of mundane killer can happen to him. Note that the one time where he witnessed the supernatural, was when he temporarily gave in to Beatrice in the previous ark.
Just a side thought, is it possible that body of the ‘Beatrice’ that fell to the death in the past, could have been preserved by Kinzo (crazy person he is) and then used to fake death of a woman in the first arc?
My top suspects at the moment are (I think there are at least two peopleworking together):
1. Doctor (pretty sure)
2. Natsuhi (maybe)
3. Jessica (maybe)
4. Kirie(maybe)
2. Natsuhi (maybe)
The additional background info regarding Kyrie’s past and Eva’s personality is pretty nice.
I suspect that it’s Eva this time. Probably due to stress or anger, she developed a split personality and started killing people. Maybe she subconsciously realised it, and used the idea that it’s a witch’s fault to lessen her guilt. Though the part may have been faked, but I find it weird that Rudolf, Kyrie and Hideyoshi all didn’t comment on how different witch-Eva and current-Eva looked.
Yeah, the lack of comment on how young EvaBeatrice looked was odd …
It was also interesting how Beatrice was called the Golden Witch Beatrice at the end, despite the fact that she is supposedly no longer Beatrice.
@ Kessler: “Note that the one time where he witnessed the supernatural, was when he temporarily gave in to Beatrice in the previous ark.”
More than that, if you notice, that was the one time Battler is shown *explicitly drinking*, i.e. he saw what he saw when he was wasted.
The Golden Rule in this series is don’t trust anything unless Battler sees it or its written in red. That one instance negates rule number 1.
It was good to see Kyrie and Rudolf actually do something instead of dying like everyone else, including giving us more information about their background, but I find those Siesta girls a bit annoying. I guess they’re appropriate for someone like Eva-Beatrice though.
Also…we’re definitely supposed to take for granted that Eva is the obvious culprit this time around, but that’s too easy, which is why I’m still thinking that there are more people involved than just her and Hideyoshi.
However…am I crazy or might there be a hint in Ronove’s refusal to confirm the latest deaths? Yes, he wants Beatrice back in the game but his avoiding the issue also seems pretty suspicious to me.
On a related note, from what I can tell they’re really going straight towards some kind of “reconciliation” between Battler and Beatrice, going by her reaction to his rejection and Virgilia’s advice. Naturally, that probably won’t mean the end of these games since too many questions haven’t been resolved yet but I’m wondering how they’ll pull that off in a convincing manner.
If you notice Evatrice wasn’t distinguished as a younger looking Eva by either Rosa, Rudolf or Kyrie. Anyways I thought Kyrie’s information gave her a broader background. There is more to her than ‘the cool smart big sis’ figure for Battler and she probably holds some resentment for her stepson because he was born from the woman that stole her man, while her own child died.
Ronove refusing to confirm the three being dead should raise a flag. He had no problem saying Rosa and Maria are dead, so why leave open the possibility that someone survived by not confirming that they are dead as well?
Evatrice doesn’t seem to care much for the mystery as much as the killing. When Beato was doing things she made closed rooms and vanished bodies. Evatrice is just killing to kill and there is quite literally no mystery in what she does (i.e: no closed rooms).
Anyways, for the benefit of the people:
Rudolf Ushiromiya, killed at the 4th twilight. Gouged in the head by the stake of Asmodeus (lust)
Hideyoshi Ushiromiya, killed at the 5th twilight. Gouged in the chest by the stake of Beelzebub (gluttony)
Kyrie Ushiromiya, killed at the 6th twilight. Gouged in the stomach by the stake of Mammon (greed).
And no, there aren’t any spoilers in this post I swear~
Ah finally EvaBeatrices theme, (when she summons the Siestas) my Favourite.
My theory (!) what actually happend in at least this part is that Eva and/or Hideoshi kill Rosa and Maria.
Kyrie (and Rudolf possibly) suspect Eva and Hideoshi(This would also be consistent with the first episode). (Their alibi is weak if we think they are accompliches, Eva might be faking her Headace). Kyrie and Rudolf head off to the mansion with Hideoshi to look for evidence and/or question Hideoshi, Eva secretly follows them. One mess later Eva is the only survivor, “prepares” the corpses and sneaks back to the Guesthouse.
The weakest part of the theory is obviously that Eva is TOO obvious as the culprit.
@Unentschieden: That wasn’t Eva-Beatrice’s theme that was the Siesta Sisters theme 😛
@Shounen A: “It was also interesting how Beatrice was called the Golden Witch Beatrice at the end, despite the fact that she is supposedly no longer Beatrice.”
Beatrice actually has two titles, the “Golden” and the “Endless” (as opposed to say, Lamdadelta’s “Witch of Certainty” or Bernkastel’s “Witch of Miracles”).
Golden – gives the power to create vast amounts of gold via alchemy.
Endless – grants the power to kill/resurrect endlessly. It also confers the name “Beatrice”.
Not really useful for spec purposes, but it should explain Beato’s titles somewhat.
Beato is so meek now. The series just keeps getting better!
Another strong episode! Not much else for me to say, though… I feel like every comment I make has to be an angrily worded complaint about something or other, just because I read the VN.
So… I’m pretty sure they changed up the soundtrack a bit. And that makes me very ANGRY.
Very insightful–I always enjoy what you have to say. I’m not sure if I agree with the theory of a different human killer (or set of killers) per arc, since they’re always resurrected at the beginning of each arc. If one argues that it’s illusion that makes it seem to Battler that everyone is resurrected, then it would be just as easy to say that no one has never really been murdered at all, and even that has always been illusion. I do think it’s plausible that there has been a human killer (common to all of the arcs) who the witches lend their illusions to, possibly to hide their guilt and to hide who their true target is. In that case I’d definitely be suspicious of the doctor. Feel free to poke holes in my supossition, though! It may be totally wrong, but it makes the most sense to me so far, if I discount magic. I kind of believe in the magic, though 🙂
Speculation: One theory of mine is a “Life of Pi” situation. Basically, what do you think happens if witches are actually *disproven*? So far, the Ushiromiyas, despite the family circumstances, have shown to care for each other and fight for each other. They’ve shown bravery and honor, against the magical and the unimaginable. The family’s not perfect, but in their last moments they shone brightly (all except Kinzo, who’s a douche).
If magic is disproven, all that leaves is a bunch of greedy vultures killing each other.
The “Witches”, if they’re real, could in fact be the vanguards of the family honor.
Battler should take that into consideration in his duel.
There’s a misconception about the nature of each arc as far as I’ve read blogs. At the end of each arc, no one was resurrected. We just move from one parallel world to others. So the world that everyone die remain that way. We just observe another possibility of other worlds.
Ahh, thanks, Vedril and Deus. I’ll reformulate my theories based upon what you said! 🙂
SPOILER
Sorry, couldn’t resist saying that.
I guess you can say I know much about Umineko, but not so much to the extent that I want to flaunt my knowledge at those who are new to the series, or those who would rather not have it be said.
You have my sympathies.
But if someone actually does spoil something (like the time that Beatrice does that thing I won’t talk about), what will you do about it?
I think Ve’s theory on Eva’s split personality is a possibility. When Eva’s husband saw Evatrice, he wasn’t shocked by her nature. In fact, what he did seemed to imply that he has seen her this way times before. And he seemed to be the one who is always pulling her back to normal. Anyway, i look forward to Eva’s reaction on the murder of her husband in the next episode!
I enjoyed how Kyrie and husband fought in this episode. SUPERB! And i didn’t know until now that the 7 sisters could be damaged by gunfire and bleed, like humans!
I like seeing the other side of Beatrice too!
@Ray Ray: Actually witches and demons can be damaged by gun shots, because it’s considered ‘anti-magic’ weaponry.
However, anti-gun barriers can be put up, but normally it takes a while. The Siestas, however, are demons designed to be tactical guard units so they already have anti-bullet shields up and running manually. That’s why even if Kyrie and Rudolf DID shoot at them (which they actually did at first in the VN) it would be no use.
@ Ray Ray: “I enjoyed how Kyrie and husband fought in this episode. SUPERB! And i didn’t know until now that the 7 sisters could be damaged by gunfire and bleed, like humans!”
The mortal enemy of magic is science and logic. So in that sense, it actually does make sense that human weapons which run entirely on the principles of science can hurt them. Notice the gun didn’t split in half whenever Kyrie parried (because the gun is inherently counter to magic).
And really, those two are badass. I mean seriously, they pwned Stakes. Stakes! Metahuman monsters with incomprehensible powers. Must have taken a course of badass from Asakasa over in Higurashi.