Ranked #494

Umineko no Naku Koro ni (Manga)

Like it's spiritual predecessor Higurashi, Umineko no Naku Koro ni is split into eight arcs, with the first four being question ones and the last four answer. This is a review of the first arc, Episode 1: Legend of the Golden Witch, often refered to simply by the series name, like on here, due to it being the first arc.

As a forewarning, I may end up comparing this to Higurashi a lot due to them being very similar, but I'll try to do so as little as possible.

Ah, the story. In this we get Ryukishi07's usual style of telling you as little as possible for the question arcs so you have to try to fit it all together. The plot here is fairly typical of a horror/mystery with a group of people being stranded somewhere as they all start to get killed until there are none left ala Ten Little Indians. What Umineko adds though, is magic, possible insanity and some of the most gruesome murders I'm seen in any media.

In fact the main problem the plot seems to have is just how in the dark in leaves it's readers. Of course I can't fault it on this though as it's a mystery series with this being only the first arc.

Sadly though, it being the first arc is also probably the main fault the arc has overall as due to that we don't get a lot of the wonderful elements and banter between characters that we do in later arcs. It's still we'll done though and manages to maintain a disturbing tone from the first murder to the last.

As I seem to be noticing with a lot of manga I've reviewing as of late, the art is one of the worst things the series has going for it. Thankfully, it does get better as the series progresses. The backgrounds are all fine and dandy, but the way the characters are drawn by this artist looks off a lot of the time, though it's good when it needs to be.

Disturbingly, the best drawn things in this arc are the corpses... I'll say this: I remember watching the anime several months ago and complaining about all the censoring that was done on the corpses. I am now GLAD they did that. Honestly, I think if I'd seen some of those pictures with detailed colouring, I may have lost my lunch. Just... Look for yourself, but you have been forewarned all you squeemish people out there!

Charcter wise, this series is a little lacking. I don't mean that there's too few of them, oh no, we get nineteen in this arc alone. Where it's lacking is the actual development of the characters and this is a problem that we had back in Higurashi too. The characters are all fun from the adorable ones to the ones you just want to punch in the face at times, but they're all brutally underdeveloped little things, doomed to forever maintain one character trait.

They are luckily all memorable thoug, something to be thankful for in a series with so many who often end up dying before we even can remember their names.

Despite my griping, I am happy to report that this series is very enjoyable. The beginning is a bit slow and deductions can drag on once in a while, but when the shit hits the fan it gets good.

I'm really hoping that this becomes more popular as right now it's only really known by Higurashi fans for the most part, so I'm really hoping it can break away from that and become a story unto itself.

I am happy to give this frighteningly gruesome ride a 7 out of 10, leaning on an 8. read more

When They Cry 3, dubbed Umienko no Naku Koro Ni is considered the spiritual sequel to Higurashi (direct in my opinion). Like Higurashi, its a mystery/thriller but with more emphasis on the mystery aspect. The state of affairs for the adaptions of the Umineko Visual Novel are pretty damn messy at the moment. There's the anime, which is a godawful piece of crap that's worth no one's time. Than there are the manga adaptions which are still being published. Simultaneously no less. Needless to say, it can get pretty confusing but that's what this review is for.

The premise is typical stuff for a murder mystery. The Ushiromiya family has an annual get together on the island of Rokkenjima. Of course while they're staying there, a storm comes a long and the next thing you know, half the people on the island are dead. Than its adopts the classic whodunit angle and we've got ourselves a run of the mill mystery. Except Umineko is anything but run of the mill, but I'll get to that later. The protagonist is none other than good ol' Battler, who's fairly silly, perverted and has a pretty good sense of humor. He's also very level headed and has a knack for thinking in a logical manner. All of this is integral to the story but it might not be so obvious as to why at first. Now an important detail to know is that Episode 1: Legend of The Golden Witch, is fairly different from the other 3 episodes. It has a completely different mood and tone from the others because the point of it is to establish characters and pose some initial questions to the readers. You can look at it as a long prologue of sorts, as the real story begins in Episode 2.

That's not to say that its bad by any means, on the contrary, episode 1 is a very good stand alone story that sells its mystery quite well. The suspense is excellent and a lot of the murders will leave the readers scratching their heads. Of course its all presented in a textbook fashion but considering what it has to work with at first, it does a splendid job.The pacing is great, if a bit on the slow side. Unlike the anime, the manga includes a lot of the details that the VN had in regards to the characters and story. It also has a very interesting spin on the more ambiguous events that in my opinion, add a lot to the elements of the story. It presents a whole load of interesting characters, like the abusive mother Rosa, the atypical loli Maria, the overcompensating grandfather Kinzo, and of course, the Endless Witch Beatrice. Although Umineko does have a tendency to take your impressions of characters and twist them hundreds of times over. In that sense, it has great characters who are certainly not what they seem at first.

The art is great, definitely better than the generic designs that DEEN did, and leagues above the VN's "art". Although the proportions on both the male characters and females can look kinda weird at times, its got a distinct style that suits the overall mood of the story well. Some of the details are exquisite, its definitely a pleasure just to stop and admire some of the spreads. The only problem I can think of about the presentation is that it doesn't have one of the VN's strong points: the BGM. Of course, this is the limit of the medium, but the VN's BGM went a long way in adding to the atmosphere. Some scenes in the manga are not as poignant without the appropriate tracks playing in the background but I guess its fair trade for the art.

As a mystery, Episode 1 is great if a bit familiar. I said before that Umineko isn't typical at all but the story only really takes off in the later episodes. Unfortunately EP1 is the only one that's been completely published so far, so you're looking at 3 other episodes that are still incomplete. There's continuity between each episodes, so this publishing method isn't exactly the best, seeing how the whole thing is fragmented right now. I wouldn't ever recommend watching the anime, so if you want to pick this up, I'd say do it sometime in the future unless you don't mind the wait. The only other option is to read the VN which I also wholeheartedly recommend if you really want to know what happens next. read more