Ranked #930

Umineko no Naku Koro ni

The thrill in playing a game does not come from our chances of winning. It is the weight and pressure of losing that fuels our fascination. It is why people challenge, why they gamble and why they compete. The adrenaline that comes from defying defeat is what motivates us.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni attempts to be an anime that depicts a game in which the lives of the Ushiromiya family are in the hands of a wannabe Phoenix Wright and a bratty witch who is more tsundere than terrifying. What starts off as a deliciously dysfunctional family drama (that happens to have gruesome murder and black magic involved) soon turns into a train wreck. What we have here is Survivor: The Scooby Doo Edition.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni sadly is not a great psychological thriller nor is it an anime about a great debate. It is about a young man named Battler who sees a blue sky and insists that it is green. For the entire anime. It does not matter that everyone else points out the obvious to him. He is wrong and strong and will go down insisting that he is right. Thus this anime begins to fall to pieces when you realise it is not a battle of wits, but a battle of patience-- just how long is Beatrice going to put up with Battler's idiocy? Boredom, she claims, is the reason behind any of her actions. Certainly the audience itself must be bored to put up with an anime that is clearly insulting their intelligence.

And insult our intelligence it will, unless you are too wrapped up in the gimmicky insanity and cheap distractions of this story's plot. Repeat in red: this is a bad anime.

Basically the entire anime becomes interspersed with scenes in which Beatrice tries to tell Battler that 2 + 2 = 4 but it ends with him just arguing and insisting that the answer must be 5. He just does not want to believe that either magic or a familiar murderer is behind the deaths on the island. Which makes no logical sense. He basically says for the entire anime, "Nobody in the family or staff is a murderer. There are only eighteen people on this island. The murderer must be Beatrice. But Beatrice does not exist since witches do not exist. So then the murderer must be one of the eighteen because a nineteenth person does not exist. I refuse to believe one of us is the murderer, so that can only mean that the murderer must be Beatrice. However, she is not real because witches are not real. But--" How Battler made it this far in life without choking on his own spit is a wonder.

The pointlessness of this entire anime is exacerbated when glaring evidence in front his face basically says magic is real:

Beatrice teleports them through the mansion and grounds WITH MAGIC. Beatrice can stop the flow of time WITH MAGIC for them so they can have debates. WITH MAGIC, she can make her words float in the air in red in front Battler's face. She is able to separate Battler into two beings, one with a physical state and the other a mere consciousness, WITH MAGIC.

And yet Battler refuses to acknowledge she is a witch? No. Just no. Even dogs know when not to piss all over your couch after you smack them around for a bit. It is insulting to even call Battler retarded since that would be offensive to retards. Not even Kanon's light saber that grows out of his arm is as ridiculous as that logic. And yes, for some reason, this anime turns into Chaos;Head, as the characters start growing or conjuring flashy light weapons out of their bodies. Actually, it just starts getting insanely funny after a bit because everyone basically turns into an action hero by the end of the anime. "Magic does not stand a chance against my kung fu!" Or the power of love, or the power of hope, or the power of determination. Umineko no Naku Koro ni gives us a lot of options. Choose your destiny.

What started off as a fascinating melodrama about a cruel, horrible, greedy and messed up family getting their comeuppance with their grisly murders soon turns into an anime about magic and witches and gruesome deaths that simply happen so a point (and a rather stupid, obvious point) can be made to the village ignoramus.

Beatrice herself isn't as badass or clever as everyone makes her out to be. A real genius would lay the trap and watch and the foolish prey fall into them. That is all well and good in the first four or five episodes, which honestly are very enjoyable. Eventually, Beatrice willingly inserts herself and several elements into the story which means that she is directly controlling the outcome. She is not so much hunting wabbit by laying a trap as she is ramming a metal spoke down its throat. Maybe she should have held out for duck season?

Umineko no Naku Koro ni at least looks nice. Minus a few glaring errors and sloppiness on the part of Studio DEEN, the artwork is fairly good. It is very rich in Gothic elements, and the recurring checker patterns stand out thematically. The character designs are also very good, which each person looking rather distinct from the other. The setting is mostly on the island and the mansion, and the place is littered with sprawling, manicured gardens that give the air of creepy upkeep in a lonely, dank place.

The score proves to be the best thing about this anime. The music ranges from choirs chanting to atmospheric classical suspense sounds. The sound effects are also very good, and the voice cast is full of veterans and talented seiyuu. The OP theme is excellent, having the kind of earnest and not hyperbolised emotion that is lacking so very much within the anime itself.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni is tainted with a horrible cast of underdeveloped characters. It is utterly disappointing that the antagonist of this series rides on her insane behaviour and quirks. Beatrice's motivations lack... well, motivation. And her cruelty is hardly satisfying as we eventually see the payoff from her actions reduced to zero in every arc. There is no weight to her actions since there is the imminent reset that happens sporadically. Is this supposed to be a psychological thriller? It's not. What she is supposed to be doing is watching the blind rats run around the maze and then bite one another's necks when they encounter each other. Beatrice seems to be sticking skewers in the rats whenever they don't run the way she wants them to. Not exactly the sign of a clever, dastardly villain, now is it?

The only characters who are not completely terrible are curiously the most despicable ones, like Rosa, the abusive mother of Maria who is also the youngest and least mentally balanced of the four siblings. Eva as well ends up being one of the better, more developed characters of the series, and she is just a mean, evil, horrid woman. George and Shannon are hands down the worst characters in this series and they move from being a tragic romantic couple to becoming a pair of lovebirds you just want to shoot for sport. The sad thing is that Genji, the butler with barely any emotive lines, ends up being the most intriguing character since one wonders why he is so loyal and dedicated to a bunch of worthless rich brats. He remains poised, collected and an enigma without ever becoming over the top and just plain silly like the rest of the characters. THAT is fascinating characterisation.

But the real mess is Battler. He is arrogant, stubborn and extremely immature. Watching him argue with Beatrice is like watching teen couples arguing on MTV. He lacks any reasoning, he is an idiot, and he is shallow. How do we root for this man to win when all you can think about is someone sticking a foot in his mouth to shut him up? Some more intriguing characters like Ange appears (the resident Super Girl), but her introduction is far too late into the series to save it, as she is the only Ushiromiya who is not a nut case, insensitive, retarded, selfish or spoilt.

A major problem with the cast is how huge it becomes. Bigger does not mean better in this case. Adding themselves to the story are some Playboy-- er, Siesta Bunnies, that take at least five minutes to kill someone, and the shota-loving Stakes of Purgatory, who are seven groupies fashioned after the Seven Deadly Sins. And seriously, what is the point of Bernkastel and Lamdadelta? The goat-head butlers have a more significant role than those two.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni ended up being a travesty of an anime. It is frustrating, and not in a good way. It is truly a detriment to your personal sanity. What starts off as a giant tower of crap devolves into such a pile of dung by the end, and you are left wondering whether this is supposed to be a comedy or a tragedy. Well, we see that it is more a tragedy than anything else-- what a horrible thing to happen to those who watched this!

If you want a real murder mystery that is filled with lies, deception of the other players, justification of moves with truths and evidence, lucky breaks, and dependence on expert timing and logical thinking, then go pick up copy of the Parker Brothers' Clue. read more

Umineko is an outstanding anime. But it has a serious problem: IT IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK AT THE FIRST GLANCE.

If you are expecting a standard murder mystery, IT IS NOT.
If you are expecting an other Higurashi, IT IS NOT.

The author of both Higurashi and Umineko, Ryuukishi07, seems to have a hobby of throwing crazy stuff at the face of his readers. And in Umineko, he threw A LOT.

So watching this anime, you need to prepare for some WTF moments. The first one is at the end of the first arc, and the second is in the middle of the second arc. Many people have dropped this anime at those points, they just can't accept them. But if you can and go on, you'll realize they are what make Umineko unique and why the VN players love Umineko.

Umineko is not a anime for everyone. Because compare to Higurashi, Umineko's content is much harder to consume. The first arc has nothing special (except the ending), the second arc is quite painful to watch. You'll need a lot of patience. read more