Umineko no Naku Koro ni - Episode 3: Banquet of the Golden Witch
Umineko WHEN THEY CRY Episode 3: Banquet of the Golden Witch

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Banquet Of The Golden Witch .

The 3rd installment of the Umineko series and an episode which is more enjoyable than the previous ones in many ways .

Story - 8

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON ??????????????????????????


That's probably what a completely new reader to this would ask on more than one occasion .Which is pretty understandable .Weird "furniture" being summoned with absolutely no explanations .No answers to the matter of what exactly "witches" are and no proper bearing of the situation as a whole being given by the author .
...
It is fucking lovely .

Okay so I might seem pretty biased since I've already finished it (the entire series) but I'm really not .Umineko is a weird story you see so when ,as a person who's finished it , read through and see the "extremely" subtle foreshadowing and clues I can't help but smile to myself as I read .The weirdness is not a bad thing though .Stuff like that gets revealed later so if you judge this chapter individually then you're being unfair .Umineko has to be seen as a collective series even though it's broken into parts .

My lord the plot twists in this are amazing .

So wonderful and so unexpected .If I want to teach someone how to troll I'd tell them to go read Umineko .The approach to solving mysteries is very intriguing as well .Various concepts like "Hempel's Raven" and "The Devil's Proof" being applied to the point of abuse (which isn't a bad thing at all) .

If I were to have a problem with it it would be that the story is sort of hard to follow a times .There's a point near the middle where an explanation of the epitaph (you should be well acquainted with this by now) seems to be slightly hard to follow even as a rereader .I understood what was being said but it didn't seem to stick .As though understanding one part of the dialogue would mean that to understand the next one you'd lose the current understanding you have .

Slightly hard to understand what I'm saying isn't it ?Well ,reading it would give you a better idea .It's hard to put into words .

But it was okay and it was only for a few moments so I'll let it off for that .

Art - 9

I've read other reviews on this series and to be honest I'm amazed when I see people rating Umineko's art so far a 6 or 7 I mean....

Is there any other manga that does panel arrangement as well as Umineko ?
NO .

Is there any manga that does troll expressions as well as Umineko ?
NO .

Is there any manga that can do shocking page transitions as well as Umineko ?
NO .

NO .No to all of those questions .The art itself even without all that is pretty damn decent .Too decent .How do you not clap for it ?It perfectly represents the emotions so well this thing should deserve an award ...

Okay so let's talk about the bad stuff about the art .Sometimes it feels a bit over the top with it's expressions .Some panels (few if I might add) also seem to have less work put in them than others .There's also.......................................................................................................................................................................................

Nope there isn't anything else .That's pretty much it .There aren't any other problems with the art .You all should be bowing down to the paperback that you bought or your computer screen .

Character - 8

We have some cool moments for Kyrie and Rudolf who were killed off too early for any character expansion in the previous episodes .A bit of Kyrie's past is expanded upon as well .I must say that the Ushiromiya family has some badass members .

The main focus of this episode though ,is Eva Ushiromiya ,eldest daughter of the family .She does her part quite well (especially at the end when she trolls someone) .Her background and reason's for disliking Klauss are all shown in this episode .

"It's useless .It's all useless"

Why is it that I find myself smiling whenever Battler says this line ?When you add this kind of powerful quote with an awesome panel/page transition and amazing art then you'll know that some shit is going down for real .

Beatrice is as wonderful a troll as ever and we get a small glimpse of her true nature at the end (after one of her glorious moments though) .She takes an odd ,refreshing turn in character during the middle of the episode as well .

Enjoyment - 8
Well this is pretty funny .

I rated this an 8 before writing this review but now that I'm done writing so much cool stuff I have this urge to go back and rate it a 9 instead .Only the knowledge of the glory that is Episode 5 can hold me back .

Also this review is spoiler free so don't worry about anything that seems like a spoiler .It isn't .

Now that you've spent three minutes of your life reading my ode to Umineko if you don't upvote this review and immediately add it to your PTW I'll get mad......

It's strange that there are no reviews for this manga. So let me explain why this episode of the story stands out more than the previous two and deserves 9/10.

Story - 9
The plot continues to show the great confrontation of minds, but in this episode we receive something slightly different. Instead of focusing only on battle where Beatrice and Buttler are trying to defeat one another, story provides us with Eva's and Beato's past. Without going to spoilers I want to say that their backstories are key features of this episode, because we get explanation of characters' motivations. This leads to a huge development of ... the overall story, where readers have to deal with plot twists.

Art - 8
Just like in the other episodes art is very good. Emotions of despair, fear, horror and madness are drawn in way that you will get shivers. There was a moment, where I turned over the page and got scared.

Characters- 8
Characters are interesting as always: Charismatic Buttler, foxy Beatrice, ambitious Eva and etc. You get attached to them pretty quickly. And also we get development of those characters, which really makes your reading experience more enjoyable.

Enjoyment - 10
Personally, I really enjoyed this episode. It gave me sleepless nights, because I wanted to know what happens in the next chapters (thanks to cliffhangers).

Overall - 9
I think it is a fair score for such nice experience. I can't wait to read next episodes. If you read this review without being acquainted with the Umineko No Naku Koro Ni series, try to give it a chance. It will definitely leave you enjoyed.

Thanks for reading.

Umineko continues to showcase its utter fraudulence in the face of storytelling. Tell me, if everything the characters do is the result of Beatrice's game, does any of the characters have meaning? If I am watching a Family Guy episode and Peter makes the decision to save his wife instead of his kids but then we find out that the situation itself was staged, would it not make the "character writing" null and void?

The contrivances and nonsense that take place in this episode have peaked past a point of return. Kanon, who has no prior experience fighting, can keep up with an Angel of Death ... using his magical zanpakuto he manifested because of his dick and balls. After Kanon wins his fight, he promptly gets jumped by the rest of the Angels of Death. Kanon is in a dire situation to which Shanon summons a magical danku barrier and saves Kanon's life. How one looks at these FURNITATURE servants use magic and think "this is good" is beyond delusion.

The entire episode is centered on Beatrice's actions and her relationship with Battler-kun. With absolutely no pretense, Battler and Beatrice have a defined rival type of relationship. This notion is completely unfounded because the audience has literally seen Battler stripped buck naked because he cannot win against Beatrice. What type of rivalry results in one party consistently getting out-paced and losing? The type of nonsense logic Umineko absolutely loves to throw in the audience's face. The red herring of "smart" sounding phrases such as "Devil's Proof" and "Hempel's Raven" only serve to implicate the story has more wits to it.

The garbage worldbuilding within episodes 1-3 only serves to promote more contrivances. Apparently, without any setup, Beatrice can use her red command to destroy a witch that is objectively stronger than her. On some JJK shit, Eva Beatrice forgot to "put up a curtain" that will make her magic items impervious to real-life things such as guns and whatnot. Meaning, regular degular humans such as Kyire and Rudolf can fight and win against these trained Angels of Death. Imagine I'm a 16-year-old boy and I'm supposed to fight against Mike Tyson, but, luckily, Mike Tyson forgot to drink water the day of the fight and now I can beat him. It does not make any damn sense. Just because the Angels of Death can be touched, it does NOT mean these regular humans should be able to beat them in a 1v1.

Furthermore, the action in this manga is straight-up terrible. If anyone in their life has read a battle shonen before, it is EXTREMELY easy to see how Umineko shits itself in this department. The action has zero choreography often resulting in thick lines moving across the screen. The dialogue is so unnecessarily corny and cringe, it is like asking your nephew to write what he thinks is cool. Rudolf fighting this 13-year-old-looking Angel of Death and consistently flirting with her while fighting? Heat bro gas fire raw. Kyrie having a "jealously-off" with an Angel of Death whose powers directly come from being jealous? GOAT RAW KINO!!!!!!

In addition to the plot, I would love to touch upon the bigger picture things in episode 3 like how apparently Beatrice was lying to Battler virtually the entire episode. Or how the other witch is manipulating Beatrice but I feel that is above my pay grade for now. Overall, goated manga of course. Either turn off your brain or tune into therapy because there is no way anyone with standards could consider this good.