Right. I wasn't expecting much from the beginning. I actually had no idea what Umineko was about, but I knew it had a witch, a family, and a mansion. I went to see the anime, but it was so horrible that I preferred to erase it from my memory and start the saga adapted in manga. I will start with the elements that I thought were cool.
Basically episode 1 is a battle of the protagonist, Battler, with himself, in his quest to find the assassin inside the mansion, and, most importantly: to deny the existence of the Golden Witch, Beatrice. That point, specifically, is cool. Battler seems to have a future as a character.
OK, now I come to what I think wasn't cool:
- First of all, and probably best known among non-readers of Umineko, are the edgy faces. "Ah, but why are the edgy faces so bad?", someone may want to know, and I understand. Edgy things, like faces that represent insanity, anger, or hatred, are usually very exaggerated facial expressions that are there precisely to express a feeling without necessarily showing it. As if it were very difficult to create a character who can convey his feelings without reducing everything to a contorted grimace and a stick out tongue, as if this were extremely natural. And yeah, Umineko is full of scenes like this, if at any time Maria intends to change her personality, she will simply start contorting her face and laughing hysterically, because it is very difficult to create a more organic character that actually generates fear. Those expressions she makes are more comical than scary, in fact. And her mother beating her up for making those faces, with even more faces kkkk
Other example of this is Natsuhi in her clash with Eva, it literally becomes a war of who shouts the loudest, but this in itself is not a defect, who has never been in a family discussion and started shouting out of nowhere? The problem really lies in the faces and death threats, which, because they are uttered by characters we barely know, sound more like unpalatable insanity than a simple family disagreement.
- Another problematic point is how the manga doesn't know how to anticipate or prepare. Anticipation in plot twist is considered basic to believe that what was there all along, and a plot twist without anticipation simply sounds like a "the author pulled it out of his ass". And Umineko EP 1 is full of plot twists that have no basis whatsoever. An example of this is the corpse of the head of the family being found in a room, completely charred, and only at that moment is it revealed that the man had 6 toes on each foot, just because otherwise they wouldn't know how to identify the body. Couldn't it have been told before? Couldn't it be a fact somehow mentioned or just referenced? But no, it suddenly existed because the author needed it.
There is a scene that one of the characters, Eva, kind of anticipates her father's movements by putting a piece of paper between the door so that he couldn't leave his chambers without leaving a remnant. OK, this served to make Battler doubt the provenance of the case and cogitate the existence of Beatrice, but why did Eva do that? Until that moment there was no suspicion and no crime concerning that part of the mansion, so what she did sounds quite meaningless. And the episode ended and nothing was commented on, she was just super psychic anyway.
And another example of this, is when Battler returns the lucky charm to Mary. In one chapter, the climax is in Battler saying that he is without the amulet, so it was not for him that Battler was spared by Beatrice, this to try to prove to Maria that the witch does not exist. A few chapters later, however, Battler says it was a lie and that it was always with him, just to give it back to Maria and protect her from any threat. Something that could be simply grounded quickly, but isn't, creating yet another script convenience.
- And now, what disappointed me the most in this manga, the characters. I have three main points that express my displeasure with the cast:
Case 1: They conclude things on their own
Umineko's characters vary greatly from super geniuses to amoebas during the manga. One thing that is really inexplicable is how sometimes they just come to incredible conclusions out of nothing. A good example of this is Battler's stepmother, this is before any murder happens. Battler is upset about how the family is fighting and falling out, and about the letter that was left between them, apparently written by Beatrice, and Kyrie, the stepmother, suddenly comes to his side and starts overflowing with wild theories, just out of the blue. Not even Battler was talking to her, and suddenly she comes up with endless strands of thought and history. It's not such an unreal thing, she could really be a genius just hiding, but since it wasn't something anticipated, she seemed more like an NPC who needed to leave crucial information for the character.
Case 2: They change personality
This one is more recurring. The cast of Umineko doesn't seem to have any personality at all. Battler is even minimally characterized, his beef is about whether the witch exists or not, so he denies and asserts this several times, even if very conveniently. What is even more convenient, is how the rest of the cast behaves: in chapter 20 there is the murder of three people in front of a child in a locked room, there being only the 4 of them there. Since Mary is a child and they don't suspect her, Jessica, one of the young women remaining in the mansion, immediately blames Beatrice for the deed. What we think: OK, she believes Beatrice." However in chapter 21, literally a few pages later, she sees her mother with a bullet from the gun she was holding in her head, and her reaction solely and completely is to bawl at her mother's dead body, "Why a suicide?" stating this several times. Knowing that there was a certain Beatrice causing serial murders, stating this a chapter earlier, and knowing her mother, who shortly before was determined to hunt down the culprit and get revenge on him, what was the obvious and singular alternative? Since Jessica herself had already received for herself the truth that Beatrice was real? it makes no sense.
Examples of this personality change are not lacking in Umineko. George, another young survivor, feels hatred for the mysterious killer who is taking his entire family, but when it is mentioned that Beatrice was the mistress of the head of the family, and he is trying to revive her with black magic by sacrificing her descendants, he puts himself in the killer's shoes and says he would do the same. ??????????
And another factor: they are always in sharp nuances of "Beatrice exists", "she doesn't exist!" when it suits them, the ones who run away from that the most are Natsuhi and Eva, the rest of the cast keeps contradicting themselves. There is a consensus that the murder in the locked room from the inside was Beatrice's doing, and in the next case they have already forgotten that conclusion and doubt her strongly again. It sounds very forced.
Case 3: They are dumb when it suits the author
Battler and company see the witch's ritual in chapter 3 or 4, read about the nights of the murders and Beatrice's return. But for some reason, the geniuses who solve murder cases chapters later, were too stupid at the beginning to know what it was all about, and they don't associate any of it with what happens later. Only in chapter 20, after more than half the house is dead, do they come to that conclusion, late, when it is already useless to them.
And what about the death of Kanon, the servant? In a fit of rage, he decides to go against the witch, In the most thoughtless way possible. Because of this abrupt change of personality, he is conveniently killed.
Plus Umineko's characters are too shallow, reduced to exaggerated facial expressions to show any emotion. An extremely low level manga, with a dirty build up that can't sustain anything, and a lot of things that were left totally open and will probably be covered up in the following episodes. A very bad start.
