August 17th, 2012
Clarifying some things about Umineko
Anime Relations: Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Umineko no Naku Koro ni Specials
Greetings, non-existent reader and welcome to this more or less pointless blog post. Before moving on to the actual topic, allow me to include some background information.
I've seen the first and most likely only season of Umineko no Naku Koro Ni and despite recognizing lots of severe flaws I did derive a somewhat high amount of enjoyment from the viewing experience. I did, however, enjoy the Visual Novels even more and I'm currently playing the 7th one. Why did I enjoy them more than the anime? The short answer is merely that they had a lot more time on their hands to maintain a reasonable pacing and include certain things that added to the depth of the story.
Since the original work is something of high complexity and depth, there's lots of room for misunderstandings; in fact, there are several things I don't understand yet and I doubt finishing the visual novels will clarify everything. There are, however, a few misconceptions about the franchise that I actually can deny. Of course, I would leave room for criticism or denial of my denial, but I doubt anything living will ever see this. Here goes!
1. "Battler does acknowledge the existence of witches and magic in general, but denies that any form of magic or a witch was involved with the murder of his family".
This is simply not true. I believe the cause for this misconception is the fact that Battler at some later point refrains from denying Beatrice and Kinzo when they're shown outside of the game board. In fact, during Natsuhi's conversation with the "witch" Beatrice and illusion of Kinzo, Battler recognizes that she is in fact all alone in the room. In order to ease the pain of Meta-Beatrice, however, he adds "Don't worry; we're still outside of the game board. So I won't deny you or grandfather over there".
In fact, Battler states an uncountable number of times that he denies the EXISTENCE of magic and witches. He does, however, not resort to the cruelty of denying magic when it's not relevant to his battle with Beatrice. He's just reluctant to deny something he does not believe in out of cruelty.
2. "The magical scenes do take place but can still be denied. It's not a matter of which side of the story is true or not, as long as Battler can explain everything with humans'."
Once again: incorrect. The entire point of the story is to decide whether a witch named Beatrice used magic and demons to murder the humans on Rokkenjima. As Virgilia confirms in the visual novels, no kind of magic Beatrice shows can actually support the existence of witches as any unknown occurrence might strike you as magic without the proper knowledge. Just as our technology today could be explained by magic by someone who existed 1000 years ago. In short, the only objective perspective with relevance to the game is the perspective of Gameboard-Battler. Anything else as shown from the Meta-world or claimed by Beatrice should not necessarily be believed as the truth.
In fact, as sad as it might make you, there are lots of hints everywhere in the story that magic does in fact not exist. Eva-Beatrice mentions in the visual novels that everyone involved with the story are humans. I cannot however remember the actual quote so I confess that it might be appropriate to reserve some skepticism. I believe the intent was to rule out animals as culprits (and it might just be an issue of formulation from Expansion07) but it should also rule out the existence of witches. I can however, accept, that a witch could be counted as a human (even though I think it’d farfetched) but the seven sisters of purgatory and all the other demons that appear are NOT human.
Furthermore, when it comes to the murder of Natsuhi in the first game, Barnkastel and Lambadelta have a conversation in which the latter witch states in red that she was shot with a gun by another person. Bernkastel states that she shouldn’t say such a thing in red since Beatrice is trying to make it so that she made the bullet bounce into Natsuhi using magic.
I cannot claim this with certainty before I’ve finished the last two novels but there are LOTS of implications that magic is in fact nothing but fiction.
3. "The mystery can be solved by watching the anime alone".
This is the claim I'm the most confident in denying. You see, the adaption of Umineko No Naku Koro Ni does not only cover an insufficient 50% of the story (and a season 2 seems unlikely) but is also rather poor, leaving plenty of details and red truths behind. If there is one thing that would be absolutely VITAL in solving the mystery, it's a list of all the red truths that you can use for your personal deduction of the mystery. In short, without some sort of help from another source, you will NOT be able to solve the mystery of Umineko.
I've seen the first and most likely only season of Umineko no Naku Koro Ni and despite recognizing lots of severe flaws I did derive a somewhat high amount of enjoyment from the viewing experience. I did, however, enjoy the Visual Novels even more and I'm currently playing the 7th one. Why did I enjoy them more than the anime? The short answer is merely that they had a lot more time on their hands to maintain a reasonable pacing and include certain things that added to the depth of the story.
Since the original work is something of high complexity and depth, there's lots of room for misunderstandings; in fact, there are several things I don't understand yet and I doubt finishing the visual novels will clarify everything. There are, however, a few misconceptions about the franchise that I actually can deny. Of course, I would leave room for criticism or denial of my denial, but I doubt anything living will ever see this. Here goes!
1. "Battler does acknowledge the existence of witches and magic in general, but denies that any form of magic or a witch was involved with the murder of his family".
This is simply not true. I believe the cause for this misconception is the fact that Battler at some later point refrains from denying Beatrice and Kinzo when they're shown outside of the game board. In fact, during Natsuhi's conversation with the "witch" Beatrice and illusion of Kinzo, Battler recognizes that she is in fact all alone in the room. In order to ease the pain of Meta-Beatrice, however, he adds "Don't worry; we're still outside of the game board. So I won't deny you or grandfather over there".
In fact, Battler states an uncountable number of times that he denies the EXISTENCE of magic and witches. He does, however, not resort to the cruelty of denying magic when it's not relevant to his battle with Beatrice. He's just reluctant to deny something he does not believe in out of cruelty.
2. "The magical scenes do take place but can still be denied. It's not a matter of which side of the story is true or not, as long as Battler can explain everything with humans'."
Once again: incorrect. The entire point of the story is to decide whether a witch named Beatrice used magic and demons to murder the humans on Rokkenjima. As Virgilia confirms in the visual novels, no kind of magic Beatrice shows can actually support the existence of witches as any unknown occurrence might strike you as magic without the proper knowledge. Just as our technology today could be explained by magic by someone who existed 1000 years ago. In short, the only objective perspective with relevance to the game is the perspective of Gameboard-Battler. Anything else as shown from the Meta-world or claimed by Beatrice should not necessarily be believed as the truth.
In fact, as sad as it might make you, there are lots of hints everywhere in the story that magic does in fact not exist. Eva-Beatrice mentions in the visual novels that everyone involved with the story are humans. I cannot however remember the actual quote so I confess that it might be appropriate to reserve some skepticism. I believe the intent was to rule out animals as culprits (and it might just be an issue of formulation from Expansion07) but it should also rule out the existence of witches. I can however, accept, that a witch could be counted as a human (even though I think it’d farfetched) but the seven sisters of purgatory and all the other demons that appear are NOT human.
Furthermore, when it comes to the murder of Natsuhi in the first game, Barnkastel and Lambadelta have a conversation in which the latter witch states in red that she was shot with a gun by another person. Bernkastel states that she shouldn’t say such a thing in red since Beatrice is trying to make it so that she made the bullet bounce into Natsuhi using magic.
I cannot claim this with certainty before I’ve finished the last two novels but there are LOTS of implications that magic is in fact nothing but fiction.
3. "The mystery can be solved by watching the anime alone".
This is the claim I'm the most confident in denying. You see, the adaption of Umineko No Naku Koro Ni does not only cover an insufficient 50% of the story (and a season 2 seems unlikely) but is also rather poor, leaving plenty of details and red truths behind. If there is one thing that would be absolutely VITAL in solving the mystery, it's a list of all the red truths that you can use for your personal deduction of the mystery. In short, without some sort of help from another source, you will NOT be able to solve the mystery of Umineko.
Posted by Solemnmind | Aug 17, 2012 10:33 AM | 0 comments