This episode takes a bit of a step back as it explains more about “Gretel”‘s past. Her classmates were… stereotypical to say the least, but at least it’s good to see a bit more attention for her, and a bit of a more detailed report of what happened to Eva after the massacre of the third arc.
Maria was surprisingly tolerable in this episode, though. There’s one thing that I agree that the anime adaptation screwed up: the first few arcs showed her evil side way too much. The past two arcs actually gave her a bit of a character. The way she teased Battler with his fear of flight and how she was resurrected by Ange through magic (again, questioning how much magic there is in this world, and whether the world she came from is the same that Meta-Battler came from).
This episode also showed that even the starting events of each arc don’t necessarily have to be the same: we don’t know whether Rosa confessed about how she killed Beatrice in every single arc, because in this arc we see how Kinzou himself decides to attend the family meeting due to Krauss’ incompetence. This episode also raises the question: is Kinzou really alive? We’ve seen him a few times, but that says nothing: we’ve also seen Beatrice once in a while, and she too clearly wasn’t there. The only question is the point at which Natsuhi talked to him in the first arc: I’m still not sure whether that arc was completely free of magic, or whether it too had magical elements in it.
By the way, now that we’re nearing the end of this series’ airtime: has a second season already been announced? I know that the “no naku koro ni”-franchise should be popular enough to warrant a sequel that animates the answer arcs, but lately I’ve seen too many series that are in need of a sequel, yet never ended up getting one.
Rating: * (Good)
Sad to say that the answer arcs have not been fully released. So i guess if we are going to have one, it could be two years away.
I read somwhere the second season goes under the suffix of “chiru”.
As for the episode, LOL blue text now. Realizing the red texst weapon was a bit unfair and onesided, Beatrice let Battler have his own coloured text. At least the match is a bit more balanced now, or will it be another trick to win easy? Pity the very first sentence Battler pronounced in blue was crushed by events in the subsequen scene. LOL
This serie is so LOL and continues to be even more LOL episode after episode.
I dont even think that the visual novel players have all the answers yet, us anime watchers will probably have to wait around a year for the conclusion and all the answers. Isnt this series 26 episodes?
@ Solaris: Pity the very first sentence Battler announced in blue was crushed by events in the subsequent scene. LOL
– Not necessarily. Unless real-world Battler sees it himself or it was announced in red, its merely a “show”, like the scenes Beatrice pulled in the last arc. And Beatrice *diddn’t* disprove it in red, now, did she?
@ psgels: Has a second season already been announced?
The fifth game has just been released in October, and we can count on 8 games in all. So that’s maybe 1 and 1/2 years away, I’m afraid.
Next year, however Ryukushiki is going to be having another series, Ookami Kakushi, apparently in the same setting.
‘Answer’ arcs are only at Episode 5 so far, we will probably/hopefully get to see Episode 6 on the December Comiket. Which means it will take quite some time until a 2nd anime season will be planned/aired. The earliest release date for the final Episode would be December Comiket 2010…
And oh, about Battler seeing Kinzo himself in the second arc, take note he was shown drinking before he did so.
@Deus:
EP5 was released on Summer Comiket, August 15th. But yes, we’ll have to wait for the final Episode at least for 1 year. Not saying this is a long time though for what we’re getting…
Ookamikakushi, the visual novel for PSP, has already been released (still have to read it…) but yes, the anime adaption was announced for early 2010. Don’t know what you mean with ‘same setting’ though. Different location, different characters, different story. If you mean that it resembles his other works then yes, kind of inevatible with that premise.
@ marebito: I’ve been going by Anidb which says “same setting”, but it could be wrong I suppose. It would be good to know from any VN players if it shares the “general” world of Higurashi and Umineko.
No, it has nothing to do with Higurashi and Umineko.
Just someone hired Ryuukishi to write the story for them.
Going by what has already been mentioned, I’m sure we’ll still have to wait a long time before an anime adaptation of the remaining arcs can be made.
Other than that, this was an interesting episode. The blue text seems to give Battler a good tool to formulate his hypotheses and force Beatrice to respond to them instead of just choosing to avoid answering.
But now that they’ve brought up the issue of Kinzo being dead, I’m starting to think we’re seeing another magical illusion this time around. Kinzo almost never interacted with anyone during the previous arcs and when he did the circumstances were always a bit suspicious. Natsuhi could have imagined meeting Kinzo and the servants could have been acting out following his instructions.
On a partially related note, I don’t think Ange is literally reviving Maria with magic as much as she is imagining things after reading the diary. I suppose that’s where the whole bit about the power of belief comes from, no? We’ve seen more and more references to that. I also agree with Maria being a bit more tolerable right now, during these flashbacks, but I’m worried about that image of her as a witch in the opening sequence. The obvious conclusion would be expecting her to have a similar role to Eva-Beatrice.
@ Camario: Regarding magic, I’ve always been partial to the description of magic as it’s repeatedly been described:
Magic is supposed to help people. It can shift the blame for a broken vase from a little girl who will be punished to a cat that will not. It can allow a man one last chance to speak to his lover. It can turn a tawdry tale of murder, greed and hatred into a terrible and glorious battle of mortal good against supernatural evil.
Maria and Ange’s “magic” may be this form of magic.
It’ll be smart if they end or suspend the series before the last PC game was released. That way it leaves viewers hanging and many of them (in japan, they don’t care about foreigners) will go out and by the PC game.
@Zaric: Well the first ‘core’ arc (Umineko Chiru) has already been released since August, but it’s unsure whether Ryukishi will finish EP 6 by the Dec. Comiket. If he can’t then EP 6 will only be out in August.
Needless to say, don’t expect the sequel to be out within a year, like with Higurashi Kai.
Anyone else notice that Kinzo is strangely healthy in this scenario? Wasn’t his reason for not attending past meeting due to sickness?
Mmm, Battler is even sexier with blue text, oooo la la
For those who are interested:
Today Episode 6 has indeed been announced for Comiket 77 on December 30th. Saying that this made my day would be an understatement.
Umm.. Let’s see.. Ryuukishi07 releases one umineko Episode at every Comiket, and Umineko will probably end with Episode 8 (4 Question Arcs and 4 Answer Arcs).. EP 8 will probably be released in December/2010 in Comiket 79.. That means DEEN can begin the adaptation of the Answer arcs some time before EP8 (october, maybe?)
The anime didn’t mention it but Beatrice’s game board starts Oct 3rd. Everything before October 3rd is the same for every arc. Ange was sick before October 3rd so there’s a 0% chance of her not getting sick and attending the conference.
It’s Oct 4th, not 3rd.
And there’s no need to mention it clearly. It’s been implied throughout the anime.