Umineko no Naku Koro ni

A few things before reading this review:
-yes, I am one of those who have played the sound novel before watching the anime;
-no, I will not make this an essay of comparison between the two, nor will I praise the novel over the anime; however, it is inevitable that certain comparisons will indeed appear, in order to explain the flaws of the anime;
-this review might seem a bit unfriendly to someone who has no clue what Umineko is about. In fact, it's much more addressed to those who have partially or completely watched the anime/read the manga/played the game.

Let me begin with a simple assertion. Umineko ... as an anime is a bad experience. Note that I did not say horrendous nor terrible. The Umineko anime is not at all a complete train-wreck, despite all the hatred it receives from the fandom; it's simply nothing more than mediocre. In other terms, it feels similar to trying to bend a very detailed paper figurine in a jar that's too small and ruining it in the process. Yes, the figurine was remarkable beforehand. But no, it did not remain so afterward.
There are two main reasons why the Umineko anime doesn't work:
-adaptation decay (butchering of the characters and the plot for time's convenience) and
-the very little effort Studio DEEN put into making it (bad graphics, right music at the wrong time, wrong character designs, overall wrong atmosphere).

BUTCHERING OF THE CHARACTERS

One of Umineko's main put-offs is the fact that is has such a large cast of characters. You cannot help but forget who is who, who is related to whom, where someone popped out of, what the purpose of a certain character is and so on and so forth. The adaptation from the novel to the anime meant losing a lot of development for plot's sake, and that really adds to the overall confusion. Except for the very main two characters (Battler and Beatrice), almost all the other characters are uni-dimensional. Name one word that relates to Rosa - abusive. One that defines Maria? Whiny. One for Ronove? Cookies. See the point?
While it becomes (or should become) clear after a while that in the wit game of Umineko, the humans are nothing more that chess pieces and the witches are simply devices to advance the arguments, that isn't an excuse. Why should you watch something where you don't care for any of the characters? Again, this is still the adaptation's fault. The original source material, while still keeping a few members of the cast undeveloped (I'm looking at you, Hideyoshi and Nanjo), at least managed to make all the characters likeable – therefore less likely to suspect. The anime didn't retain that; quite the opposite. You end up feeling exasperated most of the time by almost everybody.
Now onto the main characters: Battler and Beatrice.

Battler:
-supposed to be the epitome of manliness, logic and determination [novel];
-ended up being the most delusional of them all (ironically), has huge shoujo eyes and most of the times doesn't make any sense at all [anime].

Beatrice:
-complex character, acts all cruel, rough and unrefined in the beginning, but manages to melt halfway through and create a friendship/rivalry bond with Battler, to the point of finally being able to transmit to him the purpose of her existence [novel];
-complete bitch who takes a 180 turn in the last episode and goes all helpless moe moe kyun for no reason [anime].

BUTCHERING OF THE PLOT

Like it or not, the original Umineko story is damn complex, a complete, subtle mindfuck, in fact. Perhaps that is why it doesn't work that well in the visual format of the anime. Anime watchers are used to taking something literally as it is. Umineko was not supposed to be like that – hence even the unfriendly red text. Unfortunately, Studio DEEN didn't manage to clear the misconception at all. To get to the point:
One of the main questions that arose while experiencing Umineko (both in the sound novel and the anime form) was this – why the heck would Battler try to deny the existence of the witch when she's obviously sitting in front of him, cackling inelegantly and hitting him in the head with her pipe? It seems utterly ridiculous and pointless. A complete waste of time.
However, that is not the case. The novel, having the advantage of underlining concepts in a textual form, managed to clear this. The anime didn't. To explain further on:

Say Mary (Beatrice) is a multimillionaire and Ben (Battler) is a salary-man. There is a great business plan (the murders) going to unfold. Ben claims that you can manage that business with an amount of experience similar to the one he has (logic). Mary claims that you can only do it with a lot of money (magic). They decide to settle this in a game of monopoly (the anti-fantasy vs. anti-mystery game).
Now obviously, in a game of monopoly there are restrictions. You can only play with monopoly money. Had Mary played with real-life money, Ben would have absolutely no chance of winning. That's why, Mary's moves are restricted as well. It's a completely fair game.
Proving the point, basically Battler doesn't have to deny magic, period. He would never be able to do that, with Beatrice appearing in front of him and whatnot. He has to deny magic on the 4th and 5th of October 1986 in Rokkenjima, based on the fake scenarios created by Beatrice. It's logical, it's fair and with the right ideas, it doesn't contradict itself at all, quite the opposite. That is the whole fun and magic of Umineko.

Of course, some might say, how the heck were the viewers supposed to know this with the anime not explaining it? Unfortunately, by the explanations being cut, they simply could not know it. The novel had a lot of detailed sidelong concepts to help the whole logic battle (chessboard turning, Hempel's raven, Schrödinger's cat box) which the anime only briefly mentioned and never insisted on. In other words, a mystery which seemed barely solvable in the novel isn't solvable at all in the anime. That's why, if you're watching Umineko expecting to get a straightforward, definite answer, you won't get it. Which is sad, considering that the main purpose of Umineko was to make you have a brainstorming session. Besides, when in an anime you have to consult additional sources to realize what the heck is going on, that in itself is a problem. I'd say watch Umineko for some other aspects than the mystery, but honestly, there's nothing more to watch if for. And that is Studio DEEN's fault.

EXCESSIVE FANSERVICE, COMPLETELY UNRELATED HIGURASHI ATMOSPHERE, UNSYMMETRYCAL EARS: I'm looking at you, Studio DEEN

That's exactly as the title says. You could feel that the staff members of Studio DEEN were completely desperate by simply throwing a glance at the DVD covers. Or by the excessive amount of cleavage in all the female character designs (minus Bernkastel, who, funnily enough, did have quite the bust in the original material). It's very likely that DEEN themselves realized the Umineko anime was bad as it is; and that they had no other plans in which to compensate that.
Now I don't have anything against this particular studio; but you as a viewer could definitely sense that they screwed up. There is a famous screenshot in which Eva has a huge ear on one side of her head as opposed to the tiny one on the other side. That goes beyond the excuse of lack of funds. It's simply not caring for. The other main mistake is probably the fact that DEEN tried to promote this as a Higurashi sequel as much as they could to be able to milk money out of the fans. Why should Maria have the Hinamizawa syndrome eyes? They are irrelevant and out of place. Why must there be those weird sideways camera angles? And that emphasis on the gruesome death scenes instead of, say, the reactions of the living (much more important to the plot themselves)?
As for the art, while not being overly-pretentious, it manages to be above barely watchable. In fact, it's a nice change from the shiny shiny artwork nowadays. Still, it doesn't rise above the overall mediocrity of the execution itself.

Let's stop this lament at once, though. For Umineko also has certain redeeming characteristics, though not enough. To name them:
-the music. Yes, used mostly inconsistently, but taken as a whole, very good music. However, that is still thanks to the sound novel tracks remixes;
-OH! DESIRE. A perfect ED theme. Almost as if it was the studio's message of 'You want to get trolled? Well get trolled till the end, then!';
-OP theme;
-good, fitting voices for the characters (surprisingly, Shannon's voice actress managed to suit her personality really well).

ENJOYMENT AND OVERALL

Umineko anime can basically be defined as a great story with a horrible execution. And that is not right; for, on an anime market with a lot of mediocre stories with great visual/audio/atmosphere candies, Umineko is exactly the opposite, being hard to digest.
For a sound novel player, it's a complete session of rage, of 'Why the heck was that cut?' and 'Hey, they did that wrong! Bastards!'.
And for an anime-only viewer, it's a 'How do I make head or tail of this thing? Eh, never mind, someone's been killed again' reaction chain.

To conclude with, I would recommend Umineko the anime only to those who are new to anime in general and have only watched around 20-30 series so far. More experimented watchers would definitely be able to sense the plot holes and lack of affective implication. And they will not enjoy that.
(As a small parenthesis, this is quite opposed to my recommendation of the novel/manga; I recommend the novel/manga to absolutely anyone. Read it and you won't regret it.)

One must remember that the Umineko no Naku Koro ni anime is an adaptation. While the anime in itself may not necessarily warrant harsh scores of 2 or 3, in comparison to its source material, it is extremely, extremely lacking. I find it inconceivable that anyone could give this series, even if they never read the sound novel, a 9 or 10 out of 10 rating. While the sound novel may not have been a masterpiece, it was intriguing, exciting, and, at times, moving. In its adaptation into an anime, the entire thing was turned into something disgustingly shallow and one-dimensional.
I doubt that any ... studio or director would have been able to cram every single detail of the sound novels into 26 episodes. However, the way it was done was nothing but uncouth.

I was looking forward to Umineko from the moment I heard of it. I wasn't a big fan of Higurashi, but the synopsis made it seem reminiscent of my favorite book, And Then There Were None, and more fitting to my tastes in general. After the first five episodes, I couldn't describe it in any way other than "shallow." I hadn't heard of or read the novels at the time, but from the very beginning it felt as though something was missing. I heard the novel really was amazing, though, and sought it out. While there were flaws, the first four episodes of the novel felt much more complete than the anime. The story is mostly reading and the atmosphere is set more by the music rather than the visuals. Despite this, R07 managed to make the experience very enjoyable. After finishing it, I then continued with the anime, hoping it would at least somewhat meet the level the sound novel did. Of course, it didn't come close.
The anime really has no continuity or flow whatsoever. I found myself asking as the episodes progressed, "Wait, did they cover event X?" and holes simply cannot be left in a mystery story (what Umineko is presented as), other than intentional ones. Small things, such as Battler and Beatrice's reactions to each others' actions were left out or glossed over, making the story incredibly superficial. A lot of fun from the sound novel came from these moments between them.
The meaning behind events happening and secrets slowly unfolding is completely lost. In fact, the fight between Battler and Beatrice, anti-fantasy vs. anti-mystery, might as well not exist in the anime. It's supposed to be a detective/mystery story, albeit a strange one, and not simply that of a fickle witch murdering over a dozen people for fun, which is what the anime turned it into, at least until the very end where it does a rapid, poorly timed 180. Of course, the end was the "same" in the sound novel, but then it was clearly thought out and planned. The anime made it seem as if the producers/director forgot all about the end until the last five minutes of the final episode, then shoved it in.
By the end of the fourth game, one should be able to determine the culprit. By reading the sound novel, I believe this to be possible. I don't see how it could ever be done watching the anime alone.

The art is something that is clearly hit-or-miss. The main reason people seem to be put off from the sound novel is the "horrendous" art. Yes, different heads put on the same body and then turned into different characters. Yes, boxing glove hands. The art of Ryukishi07's works is clearly all about the faces. Whether the art of the anime is better or worse is something I'll let you decide for yourself. However, I think it's unquestionable that the facial expressions of the sound novel are exponentially better than the anime. I won't say that they are drawn well, but something has to be said of bad art that can manage to send chills down spines and make someone not want to read it at night because of frightening expressions. It would be hard for any animator to capture the riveting expressions of the sound novel, however I think they definitely could have tried harder, or at least have done a wider variation.
Of course, the faces weren't the only things animated. Some characters (Rosa) clearly look better than others (Battler), however no one looked totally dreadful, though some people would beg to disagree with that point. In some cases I actually found myself preferring it (Maria actually looks like a nine-year old), but I can't understand why they felt the need change nearly everyone's eye color to blue.

The sound was the most decent thing. The sound of the sound novel was excellent, as to be expected. The music really makes the setting, and even some scenes. The anime remixed some of the songs and used some of the original sound effects. Some fan-favorite songs were left out, but overall they did a decent job in this department.
The song for the opening was very good; I was happy to see they used Akiko Shikata, who did the opening for the sound novel. While, other than "yami o kirisaku OH DESIIIIRE," I disliked the ending song itself. I found it very fitting for Kinzo, however.

While many characters aren't expanded on in the sound novel until Episode 5 and the anime goes up to Episode 4, the anime made it seem as if no one, aside from Battler and Maria, had a personality. Several scenes left out of the anime expand on many of the characters, mainly the adults. Every adult in the anime, aside from Rosa, the cruel, heartless, "mother of the year," might as well have been there to simply add to the body count. For instance, a scene completely left out of the fourth game in the anime, known as the "Krauss Counter," made Krauss (the only adult I actually disliked at the time) likable. While the scene itself was probably the most over-the-top out of them all and not vital to the story (though it actually was part of the group held underground escaping), it made it harder to be suspicious of Krauss, who seemed to care about money more than anything else beforehand. Several scenes that were included were done very poorly, such as Rosa and Maria at the end of the second game and the Sisters of Purgatory, Kyrie, and Rudolf fighting in the third game. It was these many moments centered around the adults that actually made them seem like people rather than warm bodies existing for the sole purpose of dying.
The characterization is so important to the series. A mystery has three parts to answer: the whodunnit, the howdunnit, and the whydunnit. In this series, its easiest to focus on the whydunnit, as opposed to many other mysteries.
Beatrice says that witches exist and that everyone is being killed by magic. Battler refuses to believe in the existence of witches and magic but can't deny that the murders are happening. If it's not magic, then one of the eighteen has to be the killer. One of the reasons the sound novel is so compelling is that every one of the possible culprits is likable in some way. As the it progresses, you don't want to believe it's any of them, but you know someone has to be guilty. Watching the anime alone, I wouldn't mind suspecting nearly anyone; I'd have no attachment to any of the characters, and therefore the story.

The saddest thing about this series is that it ruined what is an, if not great, at least enjoyable, story. Those who hated it are missing out on a story they could have gotten to really like. Those who loved it should definitely start reading the sound novel, if anything to read Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru, which will probably/hopefully never see an anime adaption.

In my own perspective, "Umineko no Naku Koro ni" is a very entertaining and enjoyable masterpiece. It's just sad that it has been quite underrated because of its comparison to Higurashi and that the Visual Novel was still a lot better. First of all, don't go thinking it would be close to Higurashi 'coz its plot is a lot different though similar. Higurashi's main point is horror while Umineko is more of a thriller or rather something like a mind battle like "Death Note" and even includes witches and magic. For me, this is one of the most unpredictable anime I've ever watched and does ... not deserve being underrated. It's a series that would actually even make you want to rewatch the whole series after completing it.


Story: 9
Now this is what you call an anime with a "really deep" story. Before enjoying this anime, let me tell you that the first 4 episodes were introduction only to the anime's plot. After that, episode 5 finally reveals the plot of the story so I suggest don't go dropping it before that if you think you already know the plot (well, if you really want to know the plot before you can continue, all I can say is this: Human vs Witch). Episode 6 will make you think this is getting boring, but let me tell you after watching Episode 7 you might finally like this anime. The major breakdown of the series is episode 10, as it would probably make you say "WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING HERE!?". Being unable to bear such breakdown might finally make you want to drop this anime, moreover, that the protagonist seems to have no chance (0%) in winning. However, let me tell you that the protagonist was just unprepared in those episodes and will finally show off his true might for the rest of the series. Regarding the breakdown in Episode 10, there'll be an explanation for that too. The last episode was satisfying, though you might think many of the mysteries were left unsolved, they were actually answered but in a way that you can already logically think how and just think of them yourself.

Art & Animation: 6
There's nothing special about the art and animation, but it's actually very good enough since I think it was given quite the budget.

Sound: 8
Though I've heard other anime with really good bgms, this has actually good ones. It has a very thrilling background when the protagonist shows off, and I love it. Most of the sounds were taken and remixed from the visual novel it has a good variety of sounds and all...

Characters: 8
Aside from the protagonist and antagonist, all the other characters were also given spotlight to know their story and even sometimes see a cool side of them, which is a plus actually. The thing I didn't quite like was the inconsistency of Beatrice's character (the antagonist), you may think of her as one of the most evil creatures but she also sometimes makes a character of a good person and even gets a bit feeling of romance between her and Battler (protagonist). Another one with an inconsistent character would be Maria, she's cute and adorable in normal situations and you might even cry for her when you see her being abused by her mother. However, her character often changes into an annoying evil brat. My favorite character is of course Ushiromiya Battler, he's cool and funny.

Enjoyment: 9
I really enjoyed the scenes in Umineko and I was very satisfied. If you enjoy a battle of wits, you'll enjoy this too. The only reason I didn't rate the enjoyment 10 but 9 was because there are also some boring scenes.

Overall: 10
I liked it so much. It's a gem that should be appreciated more.

So here I finally am, the bad guy who is gonna compare the anime of "Umineko no Naku Koro ni" against the visual novel.

I was happily waiting for the release of the anime, since I really liked the first four novels. While I wasn´t expecting TOO much of the story of chapter 1, chapter 2 has underlined my bad feelings......

STORY:
Overall, they followed the story well. Some keyfacts where sadly left out, like some explanations from Beatrice. Still, nothing too important was left out, but of course, MANY other funny or interesting things are missing; but in the end, you can´t push a whole book or ... novel in a 24 - 26 episode anime.

ART:
When I saw the first pictures I thought "OMG WHAT´S THAT?", but after seeing it in action, it´s not so bad as I thought. Still, it can´t underline some characters like Eva and Beatrice very well, but I say more about that later.

SOUND:
I always like it when good music from a visual novel is used in the anime again. in Umineko, the recycled old music well and used many new tracks, too. Most of the time, the music is underlining the situation perfectly; but in chapter 1, it started to annoy me that 3 episodes ended with the same track in a row...

CHARACTERS:
And here we are, at the biggest weakness of this anime.
While the parents like Rudolph, Rosa and Eva where intruduced as very nice people in the start of the novel (what changed not so much later), here we got to see only their ugly sides from the start.

Evas "lovely" side was completely ignored, making her look like a b**** from the very start until now. Kyrie was nearly completely left out of the picture, even though she already played a good part in chapter 1 and 2, even though she may be the most interesting character out of the parents. The grand personality of Kinzo is nowhere to be seen, you see him crying most of the time. Maria´s creepyness is so exaggerated that it hurts. Jessica is only presented as a lovesick girl, but not the strong girl she really is.

About Battler, he´s not half as fun as he used to be in the novel, since he´s reduced to to the tragic hero that has to oppose the witch, even though in the original it wasn´t like that.

But the REAL annoyance is about Beatrice.
Her funny, easy to tease character is completely left out, showing only the "evil witch side" of her, but not the interesting character she really is. The somewhat "friendly rivalship" between her and Battler is completely left out, as well as the fact that Battler calls her "Beato" since near the start of chapter 2l.

Partly, the art-style may be at fault as well, I have trouble imagening a sulking or happily laughing Beatrice with the mostly "serious" style.

ENJOYMENT:
When you ignore that it is an anime to an existing story, it´s not bad, and I will still continue to watch it, since the really interesting stories are gonna start now.

OVERALL:
Even with the left out things of the story, it would be a great anime, if they only didn´t screw up the personalities of the characters so bad. Because they did, the story isn´t what it could be, especially because the relationship between Beatrice and Battler is totally different.

Like that, many potential was thrown away, what makes me quite sad. It might be a good anime in it´s own way, and I still have hope for the second half, but it is not the "Umineko no Naku Koro ni" it should have been.

This is the story of a young creator named Ryukishi07 whose hit visual novel series Higurashi no Naku Koro ni became a hit anime and put him in the spotlight for great things. Hoping to capitalize on Higurashi's success, the same director and studio went to work adapting his spinoff visual novel series, Umineko no Naku Koro ni. Surely we could expect great things would come of it.

We were dead f*cking wrong.

This is anime at its most disgustingly deceptive, dragging you through 26 episodes of "mystery" and I cannot stress those quotation marks enough because half the time the mystery doesn't even exist. Hell I ... could hardly tell what was the meta-world, the real world, the alternative world, THERE IS NO PERSPECTIVE! None! I don't even know where I am half the f*cking time so how the hell would I be expected to know what's going on?!

The characters are a mess. We're rivaling Geass and Nanoha levels here in characters, and as such signifies, half of them have no personalities. Hell, you see them all die so many times over and over again that you just come to accept that's their purpose in all of this. In fact, there are some characters so f*cking annoying you cheer when its their turn to take the grotesque spill, but it's not even half as enjoyable as it could be because this anime is spammed with so much violence that it makes it seem uninteresting. I have never seen senseless violence become so BORING!

The art is laughable. Studio Deen has clearly learned nothing from Higurashi, kept the same production values and amped up the facial distortions to a saturation point that makes them entirely unremarkable. Fortunately they kept the original music of the games which is quite good in some case if you can hear it over blood splattering and insane laughter. Oh, and another rare prop to this series for Sayaka Oohara's performance. I wonder if she got drunk before coming in on days to voice Umineko. I hope so. She at least made it halfway entertaining.

But the real kicker is we aren't even close to solving any of the mysteries by the end of this and it ends with WAIT FOR SEASON 2 LOL. Now some of you may say "Hey Splitter! You gave Higurashi's first season a 9 and it did the same thing!" Yes it did, but it also got closer to the truth every episode and eventually made the big reveal that puts the whole series into focus while Umineko didn't do anything even remotely close to that. I've heard the games are better (more times than should be heard) but this adaptation does nothing to make me want to invest days on end into playing them and the adaptation certainly doesn't make me want to stick around for 24-26 more episodes as I care nothing about anyone in it and could care less if they all stay trapped in this game for all eternity. In fact, put Chiaki Kon and her staff in this game for all eternity with the characters. That's a suitable punishment for making this grotesque travesty of a "murder mystery". Seriously, all you've got is a good OST, a solid backstory with Maria and Ange (F*CK WHAT THEY DID WITH ANGE), and Beatrice's seiyuu performance. After that you have 22 eps of inane shit and characters you just want to see permanently shut up.

Overall, I give Umineko no Naku Koro ni a 4 out of 10.

This anime needs a solid review from someone who enjoyed the visual novels and enjoyed this series. Now if you were looking for a masterpiece that was craftily made by a work of geniuses, fully-fleshed out with minor discrepancies, this anime is not for you. If you enjoy a good the-gore-is-all-over-the-place-just-to-piss-off-the-main-character kind of anime, you've found it. Let me begin my review by saying that this is not an amazing adaption, nor is it a terrible adaption, it's an adaption nonetheless and fans of Ryukishi07's other work will greatly enjoy this series. I also will be comparing the anime to VN (visual novel) quite frequently.

Story: ... 10/10
A very original story, but while it lacks the luster of the VN it still gets the job done. Battler, our hero, arrives on his grandfathers island after six years of absence with 17 other family members. A rumor a witch exists flies through the air that day and mysterious murders begin to occur at night. Your usual occult story? Not in the slightest. Battler encounters the witch and challenges her that he can prove that WITCHES DON'T EXIST *WHILE* playing with a *witch*. The idea is a little crazy, but it sure as hell is interesting! Battler tries to solve the witches riddles to save his family from Ryukishi07 aspect is that the story occurs numerous times, each time a different way, but unlike Higurashi, the main character is aware of what is going via a meta-world perspective. The game he plays with the witch is like that of a game of chess, in which the witch will set up her trap, and Battler will counter with a rebuttal to try and out wit the witch. Full of twists and turns, it is sure not to disappoint.

Art: 7/10
Serious business here guys. Studio DEEN failed, but not too hard. It well... DEEN'd. The animation varies from time to time, and sometimes experiences moments of QUALITY - but not on a Kampfer level scale. The character designs are all adapted from the visual novel and fit perfectly (although the female characters bust sizes undergo extreme inflation, typical DEEN). The fight scenes are really nice, and often very exciting. For those of who've played the visual novel, watching your favorite battle scene surely won't let you down. The meta-world use of red text was applied really nicely and I was very impressed with the animators decision. The red text literally flies across the screen, because in the VN the red text is just said. A smart decision not to remove the red text (as it is very important to the story) and a smart way to use it. Some of the art was also imported from the VN, which is a really nice touch.

Sound: 10/10
Hot damn. Great soundtrack, awesome opening, solid ending, sound effects and seiyuu's galore. A fair amount (more than eighty percent) of the BGM comes from the visual novel, a doujin (self-made) game that had a ton of doujin artists compose songs to accompany it. The use of the same doujin music is what makes the anime that much better. Your favorite (or soon to be) background songs make up for the sometimes silly animation. The opening "One-winged Angel" by Shikata Akiko (same voice of the VN OP) is really cool with a strong mysterious almost melancholic sound throughout. The ending "Kinzo' Madhouse of Divine Tragedy" by JIMANG is a good kind of creepy and loud, which gives off the right vibe for this anime. A lot of the sound effects came from the visual novel (SURPRISE) and work well with the anime. Pretty much every other voice actor/actress decided to play a role in this anime, since the cast of characters is MASSIVE. Beatrice's voice is awesome, Daisuke Ono plays Battler, Yui Horie as Maria, and a ton more (go check 'em out! It's no joke that a ton of prominent voices are in this)!

Character: 10/10
Well you wanted sniper bunnies, right? How about trendy maids that represent the seven deadly sins? Oh, Victorian dresses and fancy-pants clothes? Come on down! Battler is a musclehead (poorly adapted by DEEN into a fabulous pretty boy in animation only) who probably isn't as intelligent as the nine-year-old cousin, but he's got guts. Rivaling Kamina in manly finger pointing and bro power levels, Battler yells, hits on his cousins and laughs in the face of death. A real manly man, who fights for his parents and his family. Beatrice is the epitome of "troll" in the animated universe. A bitch, a trickster, a murderer, a liar, a cheater, and everything else you can think of. You've really gotta see this chick in action to believe it. The rest of the cast is humongous, but there's a character for everyone (I think the author followed Tite Kubo with this: Not exciting enough? ADD A NEW CHARACTER), and I mean it in the best way possible. These are dynamic, interesting characters, not one-sided shallow flat designs.

Enjoyment: 10/10
The enjoyment is the most important factor in an anime I believe, and seeing as how I really liked the visual novel, I was very happy with this adaption. If you were a fan of the VN, watching it get animated is really fun. Do I recommend this anime to everyone? No. This is NOT everyones slice of cake. I DO recommend the visual novel version of this to everyone though, which DOES flesh itself out (but actually game of the visual novel takes 10+ hours to play through, as oppose to the two and half the animators got to convert it). With what DEEN had, they did a pretty good job with the time alloted.

Overall: 10/10
Fun to watch and interesting to talk about.

This anime does great with what it was given. Do I think 26 episodes was enough to fit in more than 45 hours of reading? No. I don't. I think this series would have been even better as an OVA released over time or four separate TV Series, but with the nine hours the animators had to bring this whole anime together, I think they did a wonderful job.
Before or while you watch this anime, you may want to play the visual novel, but don't steer away from this anime just because I said that. The visual novel fleshes out the plot, while the anime covers the dramatic scenes and between the two, a great product is formed. If you're on the fence about this anime, give it a try; it's different and it's exciting.

Something has to be wrong with the author of both Higurashi and Umineko no naku koro ni, since both series are extremely twisted, violent and have some kind of sick focus on violence against kids...

...BUT, at the same time this guy has quite a talent to get people hooked up to his visions of mystery and horror and that's what makes his works pretty outstanding from many other mystery anime series. Once you started the first season of Higurashi no naku koro ni you were fascinated by the tension surrounding the secrets of Watanagashi. That's exactly what happened to me watching Umineko, I was completely ... sucked into this world of terrifying witches and gruesome murders.

To make one thing clear, I never read the novel or anything, so I basically had no background information on the story or scenario. This is quite important because people call the Umineko anime a bad adaption, so for me it was possible to watch it without being influenced by the original.

- The Story:
The basic story of Umineko no naku koro ni is very complex and complicated. At first you will find yourself in some "who-is-the-murderer"-scenario, but pretty soon the story reveals its true face. On the one hand, this complexity of multi-layered storytelling is exciting and makes you want to dig deeper into the mystery, but on the other, due to some pretty confusing sequences, it becomes pretty difficult to follow (especially in the last arc). Sometimes you have to sit down and arrange all the information you got from the anime in your head to really see through. Since there are many characters in this anime, you cannot expect to get to know everyone in detail, but there are more than enough flashbacks of the important ones to understand their motives.

- The Atmosphere:
Similar to the first season of Higurashi no naku koro ni, there's a special atmosphere surrounding the storyline of Umineko no naku koro ni. The level of tension is high most of the time. The anime plays with people's thoughts and feelings pretty often and you will find yourself surprised and confused by sudden story-twists as well as shocked by the level of gore and violence presented. As for that part, the violence in Umineko no naku koro ni is very harsh. While you travel into the puzzling nightmare of the witches, you will witness many scenes of brutal massacre and torture along the way.

- The Design:
Compared to the novel's deformed and quite bad original character designs (which I have seen at a friend's before) the design of the anime characters is more than satisfying. Of course there are some minor flaws with details such as the exaggerated chestsize of most of the female characters older than 9 years (Yet another witch called Yoshika Miyafuji would probably like this design). All in all, the design fits the characters, Battler is a terrific protagonist while his opponents are evil and scary as hell.

- The Final Conclusion:
Umineko no naku koro ni has many good elements. The story is complex, exciting and in most parts far more convincing than Higurashi's story plot. This anime's problem is the presentation of said complexity. You have to be on your guard to catch up to the plot all the time. I have to admit that I lost it in the last arc a couple of times as well, so I can understand the people who prefer the novel, which probably gives you much more time and information to understand the storydevelopment. BUT that does not decrease the fun I had watching this mystery horror anime series.
I even had a nightmare of the endless golden witch herself last night, so trust me when I tell you: Beatrice EXISTS, uuuh~

I'm writing this review without having played through any of the sound novels.

I went into Umineko expecting something similar to Higurashi- inexplicably creepy behavior from otherwise trustworthy people, grisly murders, etc. What I didn't expect, though, was that Umineko would be EXTREMELY CRACKED OUT.

That was a mistake. Because I've got to say, out of all the anime I've ever seen, Umineko is one of the most cracked-out of all time. Just when you think things start to make sense, they throw in something that will make you spit your drink all over the screen. By the end of the series, it only made a modicum ... of sense.

STORY: 7/10. I wish I could rate the two parts of the story separately, because I enjoy one far more than the other. I didn't like the whole "Battler tries to solve the mystery" part at all, because I've never been a fan of whodunnit mysteries. When he's explaining the "this person could have been in this room and killed this person, and then this other person..." shtick, I find myself completely and utterly lost. The whole situation really reminds me of the "Remote Island Syndrome" plotline from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, except ten billion times more complicated. I can't keep up with that kind of detective-style reasoning. It doesn't help that a lot of this comes many episodes after the murders themselves happen.

However, the other side of the story- with the various witches and Beatrice attempting to prove herself as a witch- I found extremely compelling. Maria's story was the part of this that I enjoyed the most. The reason that Beatrice had to make Battler acknowledge her was very clever, I thought. The mythology of witches in this anime is really awesome.

Some people have said that it's stupid that Battler continues to deny witches even as he is shown proof that they exist (he is teleported, separated from his physical body, etc.) and we, the viewer, get to see actual scenes of magic being used. The explanation for this is that magic scenes in this anime are pretty much just hypothetical. We don't know whether they actually happened, or if they're just a visual illustration of what COULD have happened if magic existed.

ART: 8/10. When I was watching Higurashi, especially the first season, I was like, "dang, Studio DEEN, you're not always that great at this." But as time went on, I saw that art improve. I think that by the time this series came out, the art had improved a lot. I didn't have any complaints about the art in this series, nor do I remember even a single instance of animation that looked off-form or weird. The character designs are lovely and look great, the colors are rich, and the Victorian-styled setting is beautiful. Nothing really knocked my socks off about the art, but overall, it's pretty good, at least above average.

Oh, and also, the particular videos that I got of this series were censored. They had pixelated censors over any particularly gory scene. Now, censorship scares me more than any creepy murdering witch ever could, and I have to say that the censorship here completely sucks the enjoyment out of the gore in this show. I hope some uncensored versions are released soon.

SOUND: 8/10. I don't always notice sound that much in anime, but there were a couple instances where I was like, this soundtrack is pretty awesome. Some of the background music in this anime is truly great. I also love the OP and ED. The OP is just straight-up epic, very heartfelt and emotional, and it fits the anime perfectly.

The ED took a bit longer to warm up to, since the guy who sings it has a pretty weird-sounding voice. However, as I got used to it, I really fell in love with it. It's raw, dramatic, and scary. The one thing is that I think for horror anime, sad songs work better as EDs- they really add punch to the tragic death scenes, while this ED sounds more angry. Then again, this anime doesn't give you much time to mourn the characters that die. They're really more like pawns in the game than people to feel sorry for.

CHARACTER: 5/10. There are a LOT of characters in this anime, and they just keep adding more and more and more as it goes along. Even from the very first episode, you're hit in the face with at least 10 different characters, and I found it very hard to remember them. At least they all have the same last name. The sad thing about this is that, since there are so very many characters, none of them really get that much time to shine. Only a few characters (such as Maria and Ange) get background stories or character development.

While most of the characters seem fairly well-thought-out, there are a few that left me asking, "Why?!?!" The prime offenders are the Siestas, who are just completely out-of-place in this anime. They look like stereotypical villains in a sci-fi magical girl fanservice anime. With bunny ears, crazy hair colors, whiny voices, and slutty costumes, they really took away my ability to take certain scenes seriously. Their hyper-precise death blows are very scary indeed, especially when they're ruining a touching scene by killing people out of nowhere, but why couldn't they have been more like the Stakes of Purgatory?

Kanon and his laser-sword-arm also take away from the creepy gothic feel of this anime, but some of the other characters ARE really awesome. Maria reminds me of Rena from Higurashi, with her crazy pendulum swinging between cutesy little girl and psycho killer. Bernkastel and Lambdadelta (who have some connection to Rika and younger-Takano from Higurashi) didn't get nearly enough screentime to do justice to their awesome little side story, and I hope there's a second season that explores them a little more.

ENJOYMENT: 7/10. A lot of the time, I was just sitting through the Beatrice/Battler deduction scenes, because I couldn't follow Battler's logic at all. The scenes I really enjoyed were the grisly murder scenes... the touching scenes between lovers, especially when they were suddenly killed right afterward... and the scenes exploring the Rosa/Maria relationship, anything with Sakutaro, Ange's past, et cetera. It was often hard for me to keep up with all the new characters being introduced, though. I had a pretty decent time watching the anime.

OVERALL: 8/10. I think I enjoyed the concepts behind this anime more than the show itself. A lot of the time, the pacing was too fast to keep up with, and the events happening onscreen were too ambiguous to understand. However, when I finished watching the show, I found myself sitting and thinking, appreciating the concepts of witchcraft and the struggle between the humans and witches. For that reason, I think I'm going to check out the sound novel, since it probably goes into depth about those things a lot more.

I'm hoping for a second season that will explain what's going on and unveil the mystery of the events on Rokkenjima Island. Kind of like what Kai did for Higurashi. The ending to this series was both satisfying and unsatisfying- it felt right, but left so much more to be explained. Ultimately, I'm hoping that even someone like me, who can't grasp Battler's detective reasoning at all, will be able to comprehend Umineko.

Made by the same people who made Higurashi no naku koro ni which happens to be my favourite series of all time ^^

If you don't like gore and psychologically testing anime this may not be for you even without the sadism and torture like its predecessor had.

I am totally hooked on this. Only 5 eps are out finishing a story arc like Higurashi and the plot twists are amazing. I would describe it as a loose detective-like almost Pheonix Wright with gore and a psycho little girl who is absolutely adorable.

Studio Deen uses colours that arn't too overpowering but help portray the environment and the ... characters personalities very well. The charcters are well drawn and the larger eyes exaggerate the strong emotions constantly appearing throughout.
The soundtrack isn't as good as it could have been but its not really a big part as the intricate dialogue keeps your mind busy wondering and predicting 'her' next move.

This anime is worth watching because there is an air of mystique about it that draws me you in wanting more and to figure out the mystery about the Witch.

This review is based solely on the anime.

The Umineko franchise has a huge fan-base as it’s based upon a popular Japanese murder mystery game and visual novels (VNs) made by 07Expansion. Most people who played the games and read the VNs are disappointed with the way Studio Deen presented Umineko to the big screen, particularly changes in the story and animation of the characters. My rating changed constantly throughout the series and resulted in a 5. It appeared as a show incredibly unique and original in the beginning but resulted in something totally bland and deficient in the end.

Story (4):

Umineko has an incredible plot consisting ... of a philosophical war between fantasy and reality. The anime began on an intriguing note as it introduced a murder mystery, but it progressed into something far too complex for 26 episodes, leaving the story with a major cliffhanger. Numerous questions were presented throughout the series, and nearly all of them were left unanswered. The content is hard to consume as so much info is thrown at you all at once, not to mention the multiple characters. The viewer will tend to become confused with the alternate universes and misdirections. E.g. A character can appear as an undefeatable supernatural being in one universe and a defenseless human in another, affecting the mystery-solving case. Additionally, some supernatural aspects were not explained.

The anime revolves around a fantasy vs. reality battle. Battler, one of the murdered family members, participates in a one-on-one logic battle with the Golden Witch Beatrice. Beatrice aims to make Battler acknowledge her as a witch, and Battler fights to prove that the murders were not the result of magic by providing logical explanations behind the murders. He does this by observing him and his family get murdered repeatedly in alternate universes. This strategy makes Umineko appear unique from other mystery anime, until Battler and Beatrice turn the gameplay into something dramatic. Their drama causes several distractions when they turn away from the mystery by throwing random insults at each other and going on non-speaking terms. The drama overshadows the main point of the story: the mystery. Their immaturity causes the series to become something silly instead of serious, and the anime ends with the mystery unsolved.

Umineko served several misdirections in its plot. The game has rules that seem helpful in solving the mystery, but some rules were not presented until late in the game. One of those rules was the “red truth.” Beatrice uses the red truth in the game, declaring that everything she says in red is indeed the truth. The rule was that only a witch is able to use the red truth, but Battler does the same thing later. Like the “red truth,” some of the rules were misused, making them appear to be null and void. It would’ve been a good strategy to solve a mystery, if it was actually factual and all rules were introduced at the start of the game.

Characters (5):

There are a massive amount of characters (>30 people), and they quickly increase as the anime goes from one arc to the next. The game would’ve been more enjoyable if it remained with the approximate 20 characters in the first arc. Because of the various characters, the mystery becomes even harder to solve as you have to understand the reason for their presence. The introduction to some characters were used to become observers (and interferers) of Battler and Beatrice’s game, and it causes the drama to worsen throughout the series.

Some of the characters appear unbearably annoying in the beginning, but character development progresses as the story unfolds. It explains the meaning behind the characters’ behavior by going into their past or behind-the-scenes during the murder cases. Thankfully, it focuses on the important characters and not waste time on the less active ones.

Beatrice and Battler are the two MCs that people tend to either hate or love. Beatrice’s personality changed constantly. She goes from fulfilling her role as the evil witch with clever tricks to a good witch by showing sympathy and being emotional, and the cycle repeats itself. I eventually gave up on trying to understand her and just watched the series.

Battler is introduced to the series as a pervert, immediately giving the viewer the wrong impression of the series. Some of his points in the argument doesn’t make sense, and he appears as a wimp by sometimes becoming emotional during the game. However, he’s quite the persistent being who’s determined to prove the non-existence of witches and magic, despite the various supernatural beings surrounding him.

Art (10):

Similar to the Higurashi series, it’s basically your typical Shōjo artwork with big-eyed characters. Readers of the VNs and players of the game would most likely be appalled to see their characters drawn with big eyes. I exceptionally loved the artwork and European theme. The gory scenes, especially dismantled bodies, and well-animated backgrounds were drawn to fit the horrific theme of the anime. The characters' faces were drawn perfectly according to their emotions. E.g. The terror in their eyes is enough to terrify the viewer as murders commence. Also, Beatrice's face changes along with her personality. One moment she looks innocent, and she's looks evil and terrifying the next.

Sound (9):

The OP and ED were amazing songs, and the lyrics give teasers about the series. The lyrics of the OP describe the night of the murders itself: “The banquet of the irregular night repeats itself again and again” and the game between Battler and Beatrice “Destroy these captured illusions.” The ED is fast-paced and scarier with the creepy dark hallways of the mansion. The lyrics describe a person’s desire to encounter Beatrice: “Oh beloved demon, grant me a wish.” Creepy organ music played in the background sometimes, boosting the suspense of the series.

The characters reacted appropriately to numerous situations. The witches had their whole-hearty laughs. People mourned for their loved ones, and their reactions are so realistic.

Enjoyment (4):
Honestly, this is the worst mystery anime I’ve ever seen. I was excited in the beginning with the unique plot and introduction of the game, thinking that I was in for a treat. However, I was disappointed and confused, especially with the ending. It was a major cliffhanger, and I found it mostly to be a drama instead of a mystery anime. I started reading the manga where the anime left off (Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru - Episode 5: End of the Golden Witch), and the drama worsened so much in the first few pages that I gave up on the Umineko franchise altogether.

Overall (5):
Umineko appeared as a promising anime and turned into something tedious. Fans of mystery anime may become disappointed with a misleading story and a horrible ending. There are gory and disturbing images, but the mystery becomes unsolved with the viewer most likely being confused.

Please note: This review will be the review of an anime-only reviewer. I will not be comparing/lamenting the adaption quality.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni is a fantastic story. Taking elements of both Eastern and Western mythologies, we are thrust into a battle between witches. A battle of fantasy vs reality, where we can trust nothing we see, and are forced to reason our way out of a labyrinth of lies.

The music is strong, if not particularly noteworthy. It supports the scenes well, but one will not be humming the themes walking down the street. The OP/ED are excellent, though. By now, we know that DEEN ... is not a fantastic animation studio. It would come as no surprise that occasionally, there are some art problems.

A very large part of the appeal of Umineko though, are the characters. By the end of the show, you know each character and love most of them. Each member of the family receives a time to shine. This is also supported by one of the most complicated, and interesting antagonists I've seen in anime, the Golden Witch, Beatrice.

The other main draw is the story. The issue with this, is that one cannot discuss it without giving away large plot points. Suffice it to say, that there are layers upon layers of plans, lies, and rules, both written and unwritten.

Umineko is going to be a tough sell to later viewers, as a large part of the charm of the series is wildly speculating the questions of who and how. Ryukishi07 is a gifted writer, and anything by him will be an interesting journey, if nothing else. Do yourself a favor and don't rush through Umineko. Umineko isn't for everyone, but those who "get" it, will love it.

Please, do yourself a favor and avoid watching this anime. Even if you have zero interest in VNs (I was like that), just forget about the series, since you might someday change your mind.

The original is a masterpiece. I personally gave it a 10/10 in vndb; the story is among the best I've ever seen in any medium. The anime, on the other hand, is nothing special; you'll run into entertainment of similar value everywhere. It's barely worth 6/10.

I was introduced to Umineko through the anime. I had watched (and liked) Higurashi and had never read VNs before, so the idea of doing so ... here never even crossed my mind. I was amazingly lucky, though, as after the first 9 or 10 eps I decided to try the VN for no real reason (I wanted to check whether it had a certain type of gameplay - it didn't). I found the visuals ridiculous, but I soon realized that the execution of the story was far, FAR better than in the anime. Once I had gotten used to the graphics, I was hooked.

The tldr reason for why the anime shouldn't exist: it leaves out tons of detail and butchers the emotional content of the rest of the story with its ridiculous pace. Calling this mediocre series "Umineko no naku koro ni" is pure blasphemy.

First I must tell you: I quit this show after watching episode 7, so you can choose whether or not listening to me when I say THIS SHOW IS BAD.

The worst thing about this show was definitely the characters, or should I say - the main character. How can I like a perverted guy who is SO SMART to see the witch right infront of him, giving him hundreds of proofs she exists and still say witchs doesn't exist like a stubborn idiot? And besides, you can see all those other characters who got a rather sad story of lost loves, or beating mothers and ... all of that and they made him look rather perfect, I don't know anything about him.
And I really just don't understand Maria, what's up with that stupid character - Just a girl being abused and saying creepy things about witchs.
And I hate Beatrice's voice, but that doesn't matter, right?

After episode five you can barely understand what is going on there, and as more characters being added you start wondering what about the main story line, like the creatores decided to change their minds at some point.

I thought this series is going to be an amazing psychological thriller and all I got was pathetic main characters, a story that is hard to follow and no psychological things so ever, and yes, using the chess-board thing is not that psychological or genious.

In short, up to episode 4 this show is pretty good, but it just goes down hill from there.
I gave it a 3, and it might even deserve less.

It's been a long while since I was active in the site.

Umineko is somewhat of an "sequel" to the fantastic Higurashi series, although with almost no link between the two except for possibly 2 characters (which I will neglect to name to prevent spoilers). In October 1986, a group of 18 people, including members of the Ushiromiya extended family and their servants, decided to hold a meeting in their island, Rokkenjima, with the purpose of discussing how the wealth of the family is to be distributed after the death of the current head, Kinzo. Unfortunately, after the arrival of the entire family, a storm traps ... the 18 people, mysteriously preventing contact with the outside world. At this same point of time, members of the 18 slowly gets murdered one by one, usually in a bizzare manner, which was credited by Maria, the youngest member on the island, to be done by the endless witch Beatrice. However, her cousin, Battler, rejected any existance of witchcraft in the world, and thus, attempts to answer all the deaths via logic, an attempt which interests Beatrice herself...

Story
First of, I've never played the game, read the novel/manga or whatsoever. Thus, my only experience of the story is via the anime. Possibly based on that alone, I thought hte story was very well structured, with the exception of the 1st 2 episodes, which were absolute messes. However, I found it puzzling at a few aspects, including the fact that various supposed main characters, like Battler's stepmother Kyrie, to have so little screen time, and how some of the story plot just doesn't flow. Nevertheless, the story as a whole is above decent, and deserves praise.

Art
The characters, the background, the golden butterflies representing Beatrice all look decent, but the blood as been censored too much IMO, but it's decent enough.

Sound
Music is an absolute nightmare, and I do not think the opening and ending themes match the anime at all.

Characters
Now, for the long list of criticisms. As mentioned earlier, Kyrie was neglected any real screen time, which is a big nono, since she was supposed to be hte source of Battler's "turn over the table" motto. Characters were supposed to be interesting, but I found most of them to be annoying. Maria's just irritating, with her over-emo/creepy combo. George is a real... eyesore, Kinzo, supposedly a ruthless powerful man, was seen constantly crying, while Shannon and Kanon have been given inconsistent personalities as the story went on to the third arc. Battler, a supposedly intelligent person with a great logical view on the situation, has been seen just moaning about how he can't think of hte solution. The creators should really have looked to their efforts on Higurashi's characters while making this.

Enjoyment
THis is given a 7 only because the story keeps me on the edge enough to want to watch ti weekly, rather than to force myself to complete the series.

Asking a player of the game would get you a bad review on the story department as well, but if you're like me, and haven't played the game, the show is watchable, but beware of creepy lolis and a league of extraordinarily bad characters.

I'll start off with that i have not read the visal novel. This will be a review from someone who just watched an anime adaption without knowledge to its origin. The other review scores on MAL for this anime is such a rollercoaster, you have to make a choice. Is this really worth it to watch? I enjoyed this anime more than i hated it, hence the low overall score. But there are many things about this anime that is good if you count it as "another anime" and not an adaption.

I'll skip the intro and get to the points:

Story:

What appears to be a simple ... murder mystery turns into a mind battle of lies and truth in death note style. As in higurashi, you have several scenarios. One person go crazy, kill all, then it restarts with another person etc. In umineko's case it works the same. Just that it gets more and more... crazy involvements and for each reset is a new game which needs to be solved. It's a witch vs. Man battle. Where the man will deny the existence of witches, while the witch want the man to aknowledge them. With lots of confusing back stories, flashbacks which makes you go "What the...?" Many times. It's confusing but there is thoughts behind it. It'll be a 7.

Art:

I don't understand why people slay this anime for it's "horrible" art. I think the art is one of the more beautifull i've seen. The art in the visual novel looks alot worse in my eyes(hence a reason why i don't want to play it). Sure all the females have big breasts except the little girl but i don't complain about that. But variaton in sizes is nice. I thought the art and details to environment, clothing, characters was gorgeous! A 9 from me here.

Sound:

I think most reviewers here will agree that the soundtrack in this anime is the strongpoint of it. I simply love the soundtracks, opening and ending! The music really sets the mood and i love how they put "cartoon" sounds into the funny moments. It really did give it a fuzzy charm. Another 9 from me!

Character:

I'll agree. It's quite a large cast in this anime. And only being 26 episodes not all the characters have a chance for a backstory. But everyone has their own unique reactions and decisions which makes it good. You have the annoying little girl who can turn crazy at times. The objection pointing protagonist. The tsundere witch who is also evil. There are many characters here and i liked most of them. But i just can't stand those guys who have classes and act all sexy and hero. Too bad there is one of those here. I think the characters are given just the right amount of screen time for their roles and importancy. And they all look nice! An 8 from me.

Enjoyment:

This is a hard one. I enjoyed this anime very much. It got a beautifull soundtrack and gorgeous art to follow! A very big cast of characters is both nice and confusing. The amount of going back in time, flashbacks, backstories can really get on a person's nerve. I think anyone who watches this will go "WTF?" at least once. As i am not sure where this stands i give enjoyment a 6. The amount of "good" enjoyment overweight the "bad" enjoyment.

To end this review i'd like to remind you reader. You don't need knowledge from the visual novel or mangas to enjoy this. You will get "WTF?" moments and you will get mind-raped. About the ending? It was an open one for sure. And i don't know if there will be a sequel. But in return for the mind-rape you will experience a very colourfull cast of characters, beautifull soundtrack and very nice visuals!

I recomend this if you like occult themes, blood, gore and violence, murder mystery, magic and mind battles. What will your decision be?

When I first saw the character design I thought that It would be something for kids, specially when I noticed that the main character is behaving so strangely.

Well, I've to admit that the art design doesn't match with the theme of the story (personally I don't like it at all), but the story is great so far, I've only watched 5 episodes til now and it has nothing to do with Higurashi no Naku Koro ni I think, in fact this one is rapeating it has no goal, 'cause the strory is told in many senerios which is not in Umineko No Naku Koro Ni, ... the suspense is amazing and the gore scenses are magnificent.

You should definitely watch it, because it's rare when we are given such an awesome production.

Hum ... I almost forgot this one, the OST is INCREDIBLE!!!!

When Seagulls Cry is an unorthodox approach to the psychological/thriller/murder genre. An interesting story reminiscent of Higu No series I find that this series carries a love/hate relationship (either you like it or you do not). What first attracted me to this series was mere coincidence and I am glad I have taken the plunge to indulge in this psychological caper. Without giving much away I'd like to introduce one of the two side s imperative to this series.
[b]Fantasy[/b]
You believe in magic, witches and uuuu~ scary things that go bump in the night. this series relies on the premise that the outcomes are already decided ... but who is really behind these gruesome murders. Was there some human connection or is there really a component behind the Golden Witch.
[b] Anti-Fantasy[/b]
Magic is an illusion and while this group is a minority it is fun to speculate at the possibilities of how and (if your a Law and Order fan) who has the motive to kill all these people. A lot of critical details follow like Higu post-arc but lets say for now I have a peaked interest and a few theories to say that any side has plausible and weak arguments.

Imperatively, I find myself asking a lot of questions throughout the series that reflect the storytelling which is done in a very unique way. While one particular character stands out, Battler (who names their kid that anyway), interjects his quest to prove that no magic is involved often throws quite a few logical fallacies our way). Of course, there are contradicting elements throughout the story.
For example, there is Maria the character we love to hate who sides on the fantasy realm. While she is approximately six there is something more that meets the eye with her (besides wanting to punch her in the face half the time).

Interestingly, I hope to update this as we go along but as you have no doubt read the premise this tale hopefully lives up to your and my own expectations.

Alright, let's do this:) First thing I have to say about Umineko , it really lef me with some mixed feelings.Since there's an enormous amount of hate going around regarding this anime, let me clarify to which part of the fanbase I belong. This way, it would be easier for you to spot any bias that might seep in later in the review:)

1) I am a HUGE Higurashi fan: I breathe Higurashi, I think it is the best thing since hot water, blah, blah , blah, you get my point:)

2) I have NOT read the Umineko Visual Novel , so I won't have any complaints ... of the sort "OMG, they left out ____"


Alright, with that being said, here's my opinion:

Story:
For me this is the most intriguing story that was never told.Why? I believe the setting of the novel is perfect for a mystery.Sure, it might be a blatant copy of Aghata Christie's "Ten Little Niggers", but having a group of people on a secluded island with mysterious murders going on always makes up for some good suspense.Plus, most characters seem to have interesting back stories.So , what went wrong? Well, this potential remains totally unexploited, since the story chooses to focus on the supernatural world, whose inhabitants are the least complex characters of the entire cast.Let's face it, demons and witches are made to represent certain human traits, so how can we really make them into fully fleshed out characters? I found myself enjoying the ( sadly too brief ) insight in the stories of Ange and Kyrie much more than the entire logic battle between Battler and Beato, the latter being way too confusing at times ( especially when the event discussed happened a couple of episodes ago and you hardly remember the details of it ).
In short, the anime failed to create the deep bond between the viewer and the main characters that we had in Higurashi.

Art:
In general, very good.However, mouths and noses seem to disappear all too often.Also, censorship ticks me off on general principal, you either let an artist do a scene with gore , or you don't, pixelated cover-ups don't help the overall look.Can patches be released for an anime? We'll see with the dvd version, but untill then, art remains at 7/10

Sound:
Very good voice acting, nice music ( very very epic OP and ED in my opinion ), what more can one want?

Character:
As stated in the story section, great cast of characters, but we don't see much of any of the interesting ones. If ( hopefully ) there's a next season, that might change ...

Enjoyment:
It was actually a good show.Although it was far from my expectations ( as I've said, higurashi fanboy ), it was quite enjoyable and I was constantly looking forward to my weekly golden witch fix.I do believe that I should re-watch all episodes back to back in order to fully appreciate it, since that would probably clear up a lot of confusion.So, if you're wondering if the show is worth it, give it a shot.And if you have that option DON'T read the VN beforehand:):)

My first review, probably won't be great.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni. If you've seen it's precedes Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, then you should have about half a clue about what's going on. Umineko is similar to them, but WAY to different.
Don't expect the same thing, but be prepared for alot of mind screw as the plot proceeds.

Story - The story is great. I love how everything fits into place at some point. The anime is following the game's story fairly well, some things were left out, but no big deal.

Art - The art, at a first look, ... I would rate it an 8. Very well done, but not the greatest. Once you start to watch the anime and game more, the way everything is designed fades, but still maintains a good level.

Sound - Probably my favorite part in Umineko. The sound is simply to wonder for words. Some of the BGM music was left out for certain things in the anime, but they still kept alot of important BGM's. The music is one of the reasons I've come to love this show.

Characters - All of the characters in the show are fine. Battler, the main character, I think he is being interpreted well in the anime, but he still differs from the game in a huge way. Maria is probably one of the cutest in the show, and one of the creepiest, which the anime plays horribly straight. Jessica is a great character, but the anime isn't showing her great side. They only show her as a damsel in distress, and haven't even began to show her better side, very sad. George isn't getting as much attention as he should in the anime. Like Jessica, he isn't getting his better side shown.

The parents, specifically Rosa and Eva, aren't getting what they should in the anime. Eva is being portrayed as a total freak in the anime, and Rosa, I bet her fan base has declined because of the anime. She was introduced as Eva x10 to me. All of the other parents are ether barely shown or don't have much known about them, including Kinzo.

Now for Beatrice. She is only shown as some sadistic witch who only has pleasure in trying to get Battler to surrender. Her playful side isn't even shown. At some degree, her character is actually being portrayed well though, more her tsun side instead of her dere side.

Overall - The show is about to enter Episode 4. I have to say, even though alot about the characters and some parts of the story was left out, it is a very good show. I have high hopes for the last question arc, and I know it should end well. Umineko is, certainly, a very well done anime.

When i first started watching this series I just wanted something to watch so I was not expecting anything from it. But after watching the first two episodes I was like WOW this is good. If you like mystery and psychological stories with a mixture of gore and violence then this series is for you. The thing with this anime is that you have to pay close attention to all the little details to discover who the murderer is and your probably gonna have to rewatch some episodes to fully get it if u want to discover who the killer is for yourself.or if u ... rather u can just watch the series and let the main protagonist solve it for u but i like solving these sort of things myself before they do. All in all this is a good series and i cant wait for the next episodes to come out.