Medium: Anime
Episodes: 26
Rating: R
A couple years ago, a writer calling himself Ryukishi07 put out a series of visual novels called "Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni", which straddled the boundary between mystery and horror. They were well-recieved enough that they got an anime adaptation in two parts, one covering the "question" arcs (in which, like Lost, all the story gives us is more questions) and a couple of the "answer" arcs (in which the muddled mess that is Higurashi starts to clear up), and the other covering the two biggest answer arcs (which, since they were the final two arcs in the story, explained EVERYTHING). Of course, the second part, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai, had a lot less of the twisted mindfreaks, horrific gore, and chilling surprises which made the first series such a nightmare, but it was extremely enjoyable in its own right. Ryukishi07 went on to write a sequel series of sorts, Umineko no Naku Koro Ni, it got its own anime adaptation, and that's where our tale begins.
Now, let's talk controversy.
Umineko watchers are soundly divided into two camps, those who read the Umineko visual novels, and those who didn't. Viewers who read the novels and also watched the anime hated it. They chastised Studio DEEN for dropping plotlines, bits of dialogue, semi-important scenes, and for not further elaborating on concepts and certain characters' motives. They ripped it a new one for being... Well, a typical novel-to-movie/novel-to-series translation.
The viewers who didn't read the novels first, however, thought it was okay- Definitely not as solid as Higurashi had been, but still an okay watch. I'm in this camp. Those in the "didn't read" category also tend to think Battler is an insufferable idiot, which... Okay, yeah, he has his moments, but he still manages to be kinda likeable.
Now, all that explained, let's get down to it: Umineko is okay. It's not great. It's not a horrible pile of suck that should have never been conceived, but it's certainly nothing noteworthy. If it's anything, it's extremely confusing to describe. Bear with me, I'm going to be very disorganized...
The show focuses on the small island of Rokkenjima, where a rich family is gathering on the head's estate for a yearly conference. Soon, we're thrust into a supernatural murder mystery that may or may not be supernatural- All of the murders may or may not have been committed by the Golden Witch Beatrice (pronounced... very strangely, see title), and the whole series of murders may or may not be a sick game she's playing to prove a point to an entirely indecisive rebel. Battler, one of the head's grandsons, refuses to acknowledge Beatrice's existence as a witch- maybe as a person, but certainly not a witch. No matter how many times she performs magic in front of him, or how many times she kills using magical means, he is determined to solve the mystery using logical, ordinary explanations. The problem is this: There were 18 people on Rokkenjima. Battler doesn't want to think that anybody in his family is capable of killing off everybody else. So there must be a ninteenth person, Beatrice. But since (and he declares this to her face) "Witches don't exist!", that means there could only be 18 people. But since it couldn't be anybody in his family, it had to be somebody else, a 19th person, Beatrice. But...
Even despite this circular logic fail, and the fact that Beatrice drags him out of his own reality to watch how other realities could have unfolded under various conditions ("Oh, so I couldn't have done any of that since I wasn't there? Well, what if I was in the house to start with, instead of appearing at the end, and could have been talked to at any time?") he somehow manages to prove that 2+2=5 (for extremely large values of two) and that he can explain the unexplainable using mundane means. Beatrice and Battler duel a dizzying duel of confusing logic, even more confusing plot devices (like the Red Truth and the Blue Truth), mind-boggling terms (like Furniture: golems created to act as servants and loyal bodyguards. When the servant Kanon says "I'm only Furniture", he's not saying he's on the same level as, oh, a couch...), and loads and loads of characters. Remember when I said there were 18 people on Rokkenjima? Well, that stops being true after the first arc, because Beatrice has a LOT of Furniture. And then there's Ange, from the future. And the witches Bernkastel and Lambdadelta, who come to observe Beatrice and Battler's 'game'. And Virgilia, the previous owner to the title "Golden Witch". And...
You know what, let's just stop there. That's the main thing Umineko has going against it. It throws far too much at the viewer in its 26 episode span than we can honestly digest. DEEN could have doubled the length of the arcs, added in everything they missed, and the show would have been fantastic, pleasing both fanboys and newcomers alike. Maybe it would have even lived up to Higurashi's success, or bypassed it entirely. I know some fans are eagerly awaiting the release of the second series, Umineko no Naku Koro Ni Chiru. And you know what? I'll probably watch that one too, because the story ended on a particularly interesting note. But here's hoping that DEEN takes a step back and fixes their freaking timing. Umineko no Naku Koro Ni was just too rushed to be truly enjoyable, so extending the length of the sequel's run, slowing down every once in a while so the stragglers can figure out what's going on and catch up, or maybe even giving us a couple recap episodes to explain what the hell we're watching would be absolutely appreciated.
Pros: Interesting story and concepts; excellent visual style; the Witches are very engaging characters; a lot of (if not all of) the OST is ripped straight from the original visual novel, which means it's very well-done; Lady Bernkastel looks like a grown-up Rika Furude, and that makes me squee.
Cons: Tons and tons of characters; concepts and plot devices were glossed over; pacing was too fast in some places and too slow in others; initially felt as though it was a straight ripoff of Higurashi; sometimes went too over-the-top.
Rating: 6/10
Pass/Fail: Pass, but barely.
...As a side note only barely related to the review at hand: Ryukishi07 is freaking awesome. Ryukishi07 is freaking awesome, because he found out about an unofficial translation of his works, and decided that instead of acting like a paranoid copyright-clinging jackwad like everybody else has been recently, he'd be cool and actively encourage the team behind it to keep going. And for that, I respect him. A lot. We need more chilled-out creators like him.
Episodes: 26
Rating: R
A couple years ago, a writer calling himself Ryukishi07 put out a series of visual novels called "Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni", which straddled the boundary between mystery and horror. They were well-recieved enough that they got an anime adaptation in two parts, one covering the "question" arcs (in which, like Lost, all the story gives us is more questions) and a couple of the "answer" arcs (in which the muddled mess that is Higurashi starts to clear up), and the other covering the two biggest answer arcs (which, since they were the final two arcs in the story, explained EVERYTHING). Of course, the second part, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai, had a lot less of the twisted mindfreaks, horrific gore, and chilling surprises which made the first series such a nightmare, but it was extremely enjoyable in its own right. Ryukishi07 went on to write a sequel series of sorts, Umineko no Naku Koro Ni, it got its own anime adaptation, and that's where our tale begins.
 |
| Battler is not Phoenix Wright. However, he does try to be... |
Umineko watchers are soundly divided into two camps, those who read the Umineko visual novels, and those who didn't. Viewers who read the novels and also watched the anime hated it. They chastised Studio DEEN for dropping plotlines, bits of dialogue, semi-important scenes, and for not further elaborating on concepts and certain characters' motives. They ripped it a new one for being... Well, a typical novel-to-movie/novel-to-series translation.
The viewers who didn't read the novels first, however, thought it was okay- Definitely not as solid as Higurashi had been, but still an okay watch. I'm in this camp. Those in the "didn't read" category also tend to think Battler is an insufferable idiot, which... Okay, yeah, he has his moments, but he still manages to be kinda likeable.
Now, all that explained, let's get down to it: Umineko is okay. It's not great. It's not a horrible pile of suck that should have never been conceived, but it's certainly nothing noteworthy. If it's anything, it's extremely confusing to describe. Bear with me, I'm going to be very disorganized...
The show focuses on the small island of Rokkenjima, where a rich family is gathering on the head's estate for a yearly conference. Soon, we're thrust into a supernatural murder mystery that may or may not be supernatural- All of the murders may or may not have been committed by the Golden Witch Beatrice (pronounced... very strangely, see title), and the whole series of murders may or may not be a sick game she's playing to prove a point to an entirely indecisive rebel. Battler, one of the head's grandsons, refuses to acknowledge Beatrice's existence as a witch- maybe as a person, but certainly not a witch. No matter how many times she performs magic in front of him, or how many times she kills using magical means, he is determined to solve the mystery using logical, ordinary explanations. The problem is this: There were 18 people on Rokkenjima. Battler doesn't want to think that anybody in his family is capable of killing off everybody else. So there must be a ninteenth person, Beatrice. But since (and he declares this to her face) "Witches don't exist!", that means there could only be 18 people. But since it couldn't be anybody in his family, it had to be somebody else, a 19th person, Beatrice. But...
Even despite this circular logic fail, and the fact that Beatrice drags him out of his own reality to watch how other realities could have unfolded under various conditions ("Oh, so I couldn't have done any of that since I wasn't there? Well, what if I was in the house to start with, instead of appearing at the end, and could have been talked to at any time?") he somehow manages to prove that 2+2=5 (for extremely large values of two) and that he can explain the unexplainable using mundane means. Beatrice and Battler duel a dizzying duel of confusing logic, even more confusing plot devices (like the Red Truth and the Blue Truth), mind-boggling terms (like Furniture: golems created to act as servants and loyal bodyguards. When the servant Kanon says "I'm only Furniture", he's not saying he's on the same level as, oh, a couch...), and loads and loads of characters. Remember when I said there were 18 people on Rokkenjima? Well, that stops being true after the first arc, because Beatrice has a LOT of Furniture. And then there's Ange, from the future. And the witches Bernkastel and Lambdadelta, who come to observe Beatrice and Battler's 'game'. And Virgilia, the previous owner to the title "Golden Witch". And...
You know what, let's just stop there. That's the main thing Umineko has going against it. It throws far too much at the viewer in its 26 episode span than we can honestly digest. DEEN could have doubled the length of the arcs, added in everything they missed, and the show would have been fantastic, pleasing both fanboys and newcomers alike. Maybe it would have even lived up to Higurashi's success, or bypassed it entirely. I know some fans are eagerly awaiting the release of the second series, Umineko no Naku Koro Ni Chiru. And you know what? I'll probably watch that one too, because the story ended on a particularly interesting note. But here's hoping that DEEN takes a step back and fixes their freaking timing. Umineko no Naku Koro Ni was just too rushed to be truly enjoyable, so extending the length of the sequel's run, slowing down every once in a while so the stragglers can figure out what's going on and catch up, or maybe even giving us a couple recap episodes to explain what the hell we're watching would be absolutely appreciated.
Pros: Interesting story and concepts; excellent visual style; the Witches are very engaging characters; a lot of (if not all of) the OST is ripped straight from the original visual novel, which means it's very well-done; Lady Bernkastel looks like a grown-up Rika Furude, and that makes me squee.
Cons: Tons and tons of characters; concepts and plot devices were glossed over; pacing was too fast in some places and too slow in others; initially felt as though it was a straight ripoff of Higurashi; sometimes went too over-the-top.
Rating: 6/10
Pass/Fail: Pass, but barely.
...As a side note only barely related to the review at hand: Ryukishi07 is freaking awesome. Ryukishi07 is freaking awesome, because he found out about an unofficial translation of his works, and decided that instead of acting like a paranoid copyright-clinging jackwad like everybody else has been recently, he'd be cool and actively encourage the team behind it to keep going. And for that, I respect him. A lot. We need more chilled-out creators like him.
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