Umineko no Naku Koro ni Shi: Forgery of the Purple Logic

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Note: This review might contain what some could consider a spoiler. Not about the plot, but about the concept of this manga itself. The spoiler has a warning before it in the text, so feel free to read the first part of the review even if you don't want to get spoiled.

Forgery of the Purple Logic is a bit different from the main Umineko series. While the witches are still present in the narration, the crime is presented as entirely manmade without any help of supernatural, so witches don't appear as a pieces on the game board. This means Forgery of the Purple Logic is ... much closer to a "regular" mystery fiction. This makes it more inviting for the reader to try and solve the mystery themselves as they read it, which is also helped by the focus on Purple Statements in this manga, a tool that I would say is the most "user-friendly" for readers who want to try playing the detective. And since it didn't get that much screentime in the main manga series, I'm glad it's getting more use with Forgery of the Purple Logic.

The art is sadly not as great as the main parts, with crazy scenes and over the top reactions toned down, but in the context of magic not being involved, I guess it's understandable.

The mystery is written intriguingly and really drags the reader in with high expectations of the complex yet clean and well written solution that one would expect from Ryukishi07. Alas, here is where my main beef with this manga comes into play, though I admit that whether it's a merit or demerit depends on your own opinion. This is also where the SPOILER-ish part comes in -

We are never provided with the full solution to the mystery. The final conclusion is practically just a hint at the solution as a whole and the details of how did the culprit did it or even the full identity of the culprit is never revealed. Yes, this one Umineko manga is different and it is presented as a direct challenge to the readers to fully solve the mystery. Which is fine if you like challenges like this, but personally I would like to also get an actual solution. For now, I can only trust Ryukishi07's writing that it does in fact all makes sense with the solution and that the solution is a viable one.

So yeah, it there was an actual finale I would have rated this 8/10 (well, and given that the solution wouldn't be some unpassable bullshit, but I doubt that would happen). It is still an interesting read though, especially for Umineko fans.