Note: less good, not awful.
Having watched Ryukishi07's previous series, Higurashi, I started watching Umineko with high expectations... and it met them, kinda. Not the whole way, not by any means, but while watching it, I experienced one of my favourite feelings while watching a show: a desire to watch it all, and understand everything.
Unfortunately, it does fall short on the explaining part, and by 'fall short' I mean doesn't make anything clear. Again, drawing a comparison to the VN, the novel explained everything that needed explaining, leaving you to work out the rest as you saw fit. After watching the anime, you're left wondering 'So this guy is trying to disprove witches... by arguing with a witch?'
It was an enjoyable ride, but afterwards, you were left wondering what the hell just happened.
Another problem was that the anime tried to squeeze the plot of a vn which takes several hours per story arc to read, into about 10 hours. Unfortunately, this means a lot is missing, and I mean a lot.
In and of itself, the anime a decent, a good watch, and worth spending the time watching... but you could spend that time reading the first story arc in its original format, and be far better rewarded. Given it's necessary restrictions, it's not bad, could have been better, but did all right.
But I, as many fans, feel sad at the thought of what it could have been.
