tl;dr: A very unique story that tries to slowly weave an intricate build up to something grand, but slowly starts falling apart in the second half.
Umineko is a bit of a strange story. I suppose it has mysteries in it, but overall, it’s less of a mystery than it is a story about people playing a game based on mysteries. And furthermore, the key trick in the mysteries isn’t something that’s found by analyzing the details of the murder themselves, but rather by analyzing how said details are presented to the reader. As such, it’s a very meta type of story with a good deal of complexity. However, I think this is an example of how just because a story has depth and is intricate doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s good.
The first arc begins with an introduction to the wealthy Ushiromiya family as they meet on their own private island, Rokkenjima, for their annual conference. However, a mysterious series of locked roomed murders begins, supposedly being carried out by the Golden Witch Beatrice as part of a ceremony to bring about her resurrection. However, the first protagonist, Battler, refuses to believe in her magic regardless of what occurs. This leads to Beatrice pulling Battler off the ‘game board’ and vowing to convince him that she truly is a witch, while Battler remains insistent that magic does not exist.
This gives rise to the first meta-aspect to the narrative. It isn’t entirely made clear to the reader how this works exactly, though over time it does become relatively clear from context. It’s not really possible to discuss the details without delving into spoilers. But in a broad sense, Beatrice can veil the story in illusions that makes the events that occur seem like grand works of magic cast by witches. However, ultimately everything is something possible within the realistic bounds of normal people. It is up to Battler, and the reader, to try to see through the illusion into what is actually occurring to prove that no magic is taking place. For the next three arcs it goes through the murders on Rokkenjima repeatedly, each playing out pretty differently. And alongside that through character interactions, flashbacks, and even flashforwards, it delves into the various members of the Ushiromiya family, their backgrounds, and their relationships with each other. Though it isn’t clear where things are going, these arcs are well written and really interesting when first reading through them.
Similar to Higurashi, an earlier work from Ryuishiki07, the main story of Umineko is divided into four question arcs and four answer arcs. Though unlike Higurashi, I don’t think the question/answer labels really fit this time around at all. The first four arcs certainly do bring up a lot of questions and no good answers. And though things definitely change tremendously after that, the fifth and sixth arcs don’t really answer much either. Things do start to get much more meta however.
From the second arc and onwards there were various mechanics that make things more elaborate at a meta-level, such as Red Truths spoken by Beatrice which are always true and Blue Truths spoken by Battler that Beatrice must always respond to. Still, the focus was still definitely much more so on the murder mysteries than the higher-level meta-discussion between Battler and Beatrice. However, in the fifth arc it becomes clear that these mechanics weren’t being used anywhere close to their full potential. Their expanded use elevates what was just the story of someone trying to forcibly solve mysteries into a meta-level battle of wits with the mystery at its core. Ultimately, I would have to say that this battle in and of itself is written quite well, though everything surrounding that in terms of characters and such is an unpleasant mess so it’s hard to really get into it.
The seventh arc is what I would consider an actual answer arc. It goes through and explains essentially everything that needs to be explained about the earlier arcs, or at the minimum provides enough information that it should be reasonably possible to figure things out on one’s own. To be clear, by that I mean that before reading this arc it isn’t really possible to figure out any of the mysteries that pervade the narrative. It’s possible to point out inconsistencies and make minor deductions, but the core trick I don’t think is something is reasonable to expect the reader to be able to figure out on their own. I’m sure that there must have been some that did, because with a large enough group even just making shots in the dark is enough to find the solution to anything. But it’s nowhere near the typical type of mystery trick, and thus one should manage their expectations. This core trick is decent I guess within the larger context of the narrative, but going back to the earlier tricks in episodes 1-4 knowing that trick, the rest is all pretty trivial, so overall I think the mysteries in the first four episodes are pretty weak.
The eight arc is where I feel the story really fell apart however. At this point there isn’t really much of a mystery anymore, essentially everything was filled in by the seventh arc, so all this adds in terms of that is explicitly filling in details that can be inferred or details that don’t matter all that much. The main focus is one something else entirely however, it goes all in on the meta. The previous answer arcs had been amping up the meta-factor, but the eight arc takes it to a whole other level. The plot becomes completely ridiculous, which is pretty fun at times. However, there are larger thematic issues in play that result in it feeling incohesive. The first is that it felt like the author was using the meta-aspect to essentially communicate directly with the reader. However, as the meta-story becomes the main story, and what was merely metaphor become physical parts of the plot, things start to blur together in weird ways that make the messaging feel incredibly inconsistent.
The second thematic issue is that the message it does seem to be trying to convey is just no good. The moral of the story in Higurashi ultimately was the power of friendship. As such, I kind of want to go along with that and say that the moral of the story here is the power of family, but I feel that’s kind of missing the point. The message more so seems to be that everyone is complicated and everyone has good inside them despite what horrible things they do. That’s a pretty standard message as well, but it doesn’t quite seem to fit here. In most stories that have such a message, it is done through explaining the extreme circumstances that resulted in characters taking specific terrible actions. but with it trying to convey that that’s not who they truly are. Umineko feels like it’s doing the opposite. It kind of feels like everyone in the Ushiromiya family, or at least those one generation under Kinzou, is screwed up internally and by default would go down the path towards doing terrible things and only in just the right circumstances can that be avoided. The messaging about it not being any single person’s fault is fair enough, but spreading the fault out amongst the entire group doesn’t just make it disappear. And thus, pretty much all the positive emotional beats in the final arc fell flat completely.
The final arc also heavily involves investment in the entire cast, but at least for me I couldn’t bring myself to like any of them. To be clear I don’t really hate anyone either, but I don’t feel the narrative did a good enough job of getting me to like them either. The slice of life in general isn’t very good. The romance is all terrible. And while characters are easy enough to understand the motivations and backgrounds of, it didn’t really feel like I could empathize with them. I feel that part of that comes down to there just being far too many characters and certain aspects of characters being more convoluted than they needed to. But beyond that I just kind of feel that the cast of Umineko in general just isn’t all that likable, especially compared to Higurashi. I’m also really not a fan of the semi-reuse of characters from Higurashi, even if they aren’t actually the same. I also feel that the ending dragged on for too long, and that the epilogue was wholly unnecessary and somewhat off putting.
Like Higurashi, the manga of Umineko had arcs published simultaneously drawn by different artist. I think the art for Umineko is much more consistent both in style and quality so it isn’t as much of a mixed bag as Higurashi was. Still, there is a bit of up and down from arc to arc, with its overall being pretty solid. There are a lot of great character designs, heavily in part due to the nature of how the illusions allow so much freedom into just having fun with the designs irrespective of everything else.
