Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?
Neo: Because I choose to.
Personally I enjoyed the series. Why do I like it so much in contrast to the harsh opinions of my peers?
One thing is for sure, people lose sight that the most important thing about being human is that we choose to be human, we choose to be stubborn, irrational, and ignorant despite the fact the truth is right in front of us. Human tenacity is simply amazing, how we constantly fight on and on. Despite the odds despite the fact we may be wrong, we can choose to fight and persist in what we believe in and this is precisely the case with Battler, who constantly denies the existence of magic throughout the series despite the fact it's right in front of him. You're probably thinking, "This reviewer is a complete idiot." People make the mistake tenacity is always the bad ignorance that exists in this world. At times they are the same thing, but we cannot forget that it is the same tenacity that led to the exploration of ideas and creation of inventions we use every day. Before the space travel was possible, people believed anyone who dreamed of traveling to the moon as mentally unbalanced or just plain stupid. Those scientists who had the drive to make space travel possible constantly ignored the harassment and ridicule of their peers through their own tenacity and perseverance to make their own dreams come true. As a result those same people that were called "loony" are the most respected people in our society and they've bestowed upon us technologies, such as cell phones and silicon computer parts, for our everyday use that we usually take for granted. I liked Battler's constant endurance throughout the series, he never gives in despite the odds. Call him stupid, but just like us, he never knew what was going to happen in the end. He fights not because he's denying magic, but because he refuses to accept such a fate as a mysterious and brutal death. Battler fights for what he believes in despite what others may think and this catches on with all the other characters toward the end of the series. Jessica, George, and many others begin to fight fate rather than accept it, because it's fate that denies them their dreams and hopes of the future. Sometimes we don't realize this, but fate can be changed. Despite the fact the world comes down around us, we can make the best of it and change the current environment into something positive in order to bring about a better tomorrow. We can criticize their character and actions since we have hindsight of the entire series, but, everyone's, especially Battler's, tenacity, sense of justice, and value for life is something to be admired until the end of the series.
On the flip side, Beatrice we can all the "sum of all fears." She in the beginning, is the epiphany of cruelty, sadism, and blindness. She is what I see as the people who harass and ridicule those who believe in something that they truly put their hearts in. However, I've learned, especially in the recent months, that people aren't cruel on purpose. I've began talking with peers at my school who have harassed and constantly put me down. I discovered that while some of them acted out in blind ignorance due to their superior status as the Valedictorian or star athlete without any past consideration for feelings (much like Beatrice), a lot of them have personal problems, problems that really dwarf my own problems. Most of both parties forget that I'm a human too, not just that little quiet person in the classroom and, as a result, cause a lot of unnecessary tension and anger. Of course when people begin to understand each other, that's when they can put aside differences and work together toward common goals. You can always simplify Beatrice being a tsundere character, but I always like to find deeper meaning in any anime I watch rather than criticize it for some bad faults. We should always keep in mind the there are messages that the author sometimes wants to get across and uses the cover "entertainment" to keep that message hidden. Why? Well if the message was so obvious then we wouldn't be able to appreciate it more would we?
However, everyone is blind to the one invisible magic that brings about happiness in the world. That magic is love. Without love we wouldn't have actions such as forgiveness or kindness. We would fuel ourselves with hate and anger and lead very self-destructive lives in the process. There's also the magic of choice, because we choose to do something that we do it. Battler fights against magic not necessarily because he hates it, but because he refuses to acknowledge defeat that would forever leave the fate of his family a mystery, and a cruel fate that would be.
The actual game is something very interesting because of its unstable and volatile nature. So many lopsided rules and its very tricky. For the most part, I was able to keep up with non-magic conjectures and I came out with a few of my own that could have worked out. The text colors were the really difficult parts because they can slash out a ton of conjectures that were once viable and now null. I thought it was fun, though I was looking forward to the use of the purple text from the original sound novel. It's disproving that a murder was caused my magic. Despite the fact it is perceived that it was caused by magic, there's always Schrödinger's cat: Battler wasn't there during the incidents, neither were we. Although the witch presents it to us as magic, it could have been done by human hands. Who knows? Maybe the Beatrice never needed the sacrifices, she was just playing God the entire time using magic. Maybe Beatrice is Battler's near-death experience, Battler fighting himself to live for the sake of his family. Maybe Beatrice is completely real and all that magic is presented to us as complete truth. We can never be certain. Just as there's no way we can prove that even our reality is corporeal or illusion, we cannot prove if the visible "magic" presented to us it physically real or false.
Onward with the review:
Story (8): We can all the story a game. A game that tests our wits and creativity. A game the really tests us to see whether we can find plausible solutions to an increasingly difficult dilemma. It's almost like an advanced science, where deeper and deeper research into more vague and difficult problems become close to impossible. It's a gamble, you never know what's going to happen. But we know the more risk we take, the less we would succeed. However, the payoff is much greater, therefore at times it's worth the risk. It applies to us in real life. In science, the more difficult problems scientists tackle, the less likely they'll come up with solutions to those problems. However, if they do come with solutions then they've contributed a lot more to society and built a new bridge into larger, unknown territory of study than if they took small problems and solved them easily. Battler faces an ever daunting battle with Beatrice that tests his resolve, wits, and risk. He takes a huge risk facing all odds for the sake of living, for the sake of avenging his family for such misfortune and sadness, for the sake of love. He might lose over and over again for taking such an enormous risk, but if he wins in the end, it will payoff substantially. I liked the game a lot, therefore I gave the game or the "story" it's high rating.
Art (6): Victorian-styled, wealthy class art was smooth and clean. The background and setting were all done really well. Character design was simple, but got across their personality really well. The one thing that really turned me off was the obvious fan-service done to most of the female characters. I mean if you're planning to do a serious series of wit and thinking, then at least make the characters serious. I mean yes breasts would be pretty obvious with the Victorian dresses they wear that tightly holds their waist and show off their busts, but the size of those breasts are enormous. On top of that, they add bunny homunculi halfway through the series, bloody bunny homunculi! If I knew any better this series would have been a blasted hentai game in disguise. It's a mystery-psychological series. If they made the breast sizes of most of the female characters more natural and regular, as well as keep to the wealthy, Victorian style of art, then it would have contributed to the overall serious mood of the series.
Sound (9): I loved the OP. In one word, it was epic. The overall music and voice acting was done really well, none of the voices stood out of place and the background music contributed to the overall mood of the series quite nicely. In fact, the voices of the characters were done extremely well. I really was disgusted by characters such as Eva and Rosa whose voices contributed so well to their overall despicable characters.
Character (4): Despite the fact I loved heroes such as Battler and Ange, as well as antagonists, like Eva and Rosa, I really hated the lack of character development for most of the characters. Yes we know it's a psychological-mystery thriller and you're supposed to include a lot of characters for red herring purposes to keep us busy, but none of those characters can be used as red herrings, or even culprits, because the lack a defining characteristic or fact that helps describe their alibis. I've read a a good number of mystery novels, and each one always gives at least a defining detail of character that may have helped us solve the mystery or drove us into the completely wrong direction with the red herring. Heck they might have left even a small quirky hint that would allow us to make conjectures to certain characters we read about in the mystery. Unfortunately Umineko doesn't accomplish this in the slightest bit and just puts out characters in this story just as lambs for the slaughter, serving no purpose other than to be killed rather than to lead us off and trick us.
Enjoyment (9): It was fun playing the game. One thing is for sure. If you're looking for a mystery that resolves itself at the end, then Umineko is not the series for you. If you're looking for something that constantly makes you brainstorm, use your wits, and makes you ponder quite a bit, then Umineko is something youwould enjoy.
Overall (7): Basically speaking, the series is good if you like to think quite a bit and can find a lot of positives and reflections in the series. If you're looking for straight out entertainment or emotion, this is not the series for you.
