Umineko no Naku Koro ni

One word to describe Umineko: Unfocused. "Inconsistent" might be another appropriate adjective for this massive disappointment. It lacks any kind of direction in every possible aspect. There are numerous themes constantly fighting for center stage, every single one of them lacking the subtlety and thought necessary for such an ambitious endeavor to work. It's like watching a toddler try to jam together the pieces of five different puzzles. For one arc, the focus is entirely placed on ideas of greed and money's control over people. Yet another arc tries to explore how pain in one person breeds their cruelty to others. Umineko is incapable of choosing a main theme and it results in a big pile of half-baked philosophies that don't fit together as seamlessly as they should. There are far too many characters, many of whom are wildly inconsistent in their characterization. This is a huge problem with the main villain, Beatrice, who will go from cruel witch to wise woman at the drop of a hat, with no explanation whatsoever. A great majority of the cast just feels like props to be killed again and again, with no heart. Once again, we see a problem with all of these characters battling for narrative control, each one sharing their motives and sob stories and such, only to be thrown aside again once it's time for somebody else's turn in the spotlight. It doesn't help that half of these characters are downright irritating, without a single redeeming trait. The last bit of icing on the inconsistency cake comes with the tone of the show. It's no secret that it's supposed to be a Gothic psychological horror, but certain details completely detract from whatever atmosphere Umineko has going for it. For instance, there is a scene that is supposed to be rather gruesome, where one character repeatedly kills two other characters in a variety of different ways. At one point, she decides to kill them by... crushing them with a giant cake! After seeing so many brutal murders and feeling genuinely immersed in the manic breakdown, this one silly insert feels out of place and takes you out of the moment. So many stupid, silly, anime-cliche things are thrown in out of the blue. Some other offenders are three magical sniper girls with animal ears and a lion-boy-ghost that makes a mockery of the relatively serious plot point that he is associated with. As far as animation goes, Umineko isn't quite as bad as Higurashi but it's still ugly to look at. Even some of the character designs are ugly, if not utterly ridiculous. The music is decent - the opening song is absolutely gorgeous and probably one of the best things about this anime. The ending is just plain awful. The one main story line isn't even resolved! In fact, absolutely nothing is resolved! We're given plenty of answers for questions we never even asked, while our actual questions are just ignored, as if entire scenes didn't even happen. I was debating on how I felt on Umineko while watching it, but the ending solidified my negative opinions toward it. Don't get me wrong; Umineko is not a hundred percent terrible. The logic games between Beatrice and Battler make for solid entertainment, and when the tone of the show is not being screwed up, it actually nails the isolated, Gothic atmosphere. The magic in this universe is quite fascinating, if not confusing. Some arcs are better than others: they range from brilliant to absolutely stupid and everywhere in between. All in all, it's not something I would recommend. Being from the same writer and director as Higurashi, I figured Umineko would be a story of similar caliber. Sadly, it is not even close. Don't waste your time unless you really feel the need to watch everything in the naku koro ni universe.

Umineko is one of those series that really makes you think. Though the ending was kind of annoying, I found that it did offer up some good plot and story when it came to the main portion of the story. Starting off with the bad. Umineko didn't really end, it left with an uncomplete ending that ends halfway through the game series. This makes less sense then it would have for Higurashi, Ryukishi07's other famous work, because Umineko is more straight forward than Higurashi was as a game series. I have to say that that's where the story was lacking, other than that, it was a very good adaptation of the original Umineko game franchise up until the 4th game. The good things do far out number the bad things though. When it comes to character development, you have all these family members that are all wanting control over the family's inheritance and mansion. A couple are in it for financial gain, one of them wants to gain the acceptance of her father, and the other just wants to screw over the rest of the family. When it comes down to actual character development, the series takes on the development of Rosa and Eva as two very close sisters, but at the same time hating each other. This is all without spoiling anything in the series, I can promise you that. Then you have the Youth in the family who just want their parents to get along and stop fighting over the inheritance. Later on you even get character development for characters that were really only supporting characters for the first part of the series. Moving on to the story, I wouldn't expect less from Ryukishi07, he really takes certain times to blow your mind in this series and create characters that you can just despise while telling a story, the story was awesome. I love Ryukishi's art style in anime so that was a highlight for me and the soundtrack was just amazing. I have to say that I really enjoyed watching this series. Final Verdict: You should give it a chance and don't let the ending bother you too much.

This anime built up so much suspense but then it turned out to be a waste since the main character went back to where he started. The story repeats itself over and over and nothing ends up being solved. The best part about this anime was the ending song because it was kind of catchy. Other than that I wouldn't recondite this to anyone who is looking for an anime that involves mystery, since the story line doesn't move.

Before I begin I will say, yes I have read the visual novel. Yes I do think the anime is less good. 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.

I loooooooove the art style. Alot. Each character was interesting, I didn't LOVE every character, but I did like quite afew. I did really like Maria and Beatrice and afew other, more spoiler-ish characters. The plot was quite amazing, but that is expected since it was from the creator of Higurashi. I have not played the VN, but it must be amazing, since everyone says it's way better then the anime. I reccomend this to any Higurashi fan, although you don't 100% have to like Higurashi to like this. Thanks for reading!

Starting out, I did not have very high expectations for this series. There seems to be a general consensus among Umineko fans (and 07th Expansion fans in general) that the Umineko no Naku Koro ni anime is an unpalatable bastardization of the original visual/sound novel format. Not having played through the novels myself, I can't say if that's true or not, but I can say that I was pleasantly surprised by this series. The Umineko no Naku Koro ni anime (hereafter just "Umineko") does a couple of things very well. The premise itself is a classic "And Then There Were None" motif with a supernatural twist that is mostly a welcome addition. The pacing is quite good; there is just enough action to keep things moving, and generally the dialogue doesn't bog the show down. The soundtrack contributes greatly to the tension and suspense, and the allover mysterious atmosphere of the show and a number of the characters (particularly the witches) makes it easy to stay interested. If you're watching for the first time, you will definitely be curious to see what happens next, provided you can stomach the violence. (This series definitely holds one, if not several, contenders for the title of Anime's Craziest Death.) The vast majority of the characters are little more than character designs with names; they have simple motives (love, money, power), and simple connections to one another (family, lovers, etc.). I'm generally really turned-off by flat characters, but this works for Umineko as most of the people on Rokkenjima (as well as the witches' "furniture") are basically pawns on a chessboard. It's the game being played that is important, not the pieces on the board. The first three "episodes" (which are more like mini-arcs but are perhaps better thought of as rounds in a game) are fairly well put together and enticing. This creates a non-linear story line, which was simultaneously intriguing and frustrating. It adds multiple dimensions to the plot, offering alternative scenarios and sometimes exposing questionable motives or allegiances (again, this is definitely true of the witches, but also of Kinzo, Eva and Rosa). On the other hand, multiple outcomes obscure the truth, which is part of the point, but makes for a sometimes irritating viewing experience. Things start to fall apart during the final round, though, as the story diverts in a new direction. Without revealing any spoilers, I'll say that a number of new characters are inserted in the final few episodes, right as the climax begins to build, and diverts the story away from Battler's struggle with Beatrice and the murders occurring on Rokkenjima. As a result, there is very little worthwhile buildup to the final confrontation, which ended up being immensely anti-climactic. These episodes seem to bear the message that magic is what you make of it, but this is extremely muddled with the utter confusion created by the new characters and their interactions. Aside from offering some redemption for Maria, the final round of the game felt woefully incomplete to me, and be warned, the ending is far from conclusive or satisfying. In short, I liked this series for its intriguing premise and found it thought-provoking and interesting. I did not like the mess of loose plot ends left at the conclusion and the confusing and arguably pointless side quest during the final act. If you are looking for a series with soulful characters, an unambiguous plot with a clear delineation between good and evil, a conclusive outcome, and little to no gruesome deaths or violence, I'd suggest you pass on this. Despite this, I certainly don't feel that this series is guilty of being the pernicious garbage I'd come to expect from its reputation. Umineko will never end up on my list of favorites, but I'm glad I gave it a shot.

Umineko is my favourite anime ever. At first it makes absoloutely no sense but you have to pay a lot of attention. Most anime it's written in black and white and easy peasy to follow. But Umineko challenges you to think, become a part of this Battler/Beatrice game. See is Battler right, see if Beatrice right. Are they both right? Or is one completely wrong. It is a mind anime to me. I payed a lot of attention, remembering little details from everywhere. It made much more sense when you pay attention and think yourself. Beatrice tells Battler that only stuff she did is possible by magic. Battler tries to disprove her theory. Maria, the 9 year old girl who idolizes Beatrice, gets frustrated at her family who wave off Beatrice as a figment of her imagination. Like I said, it makes you think. Who's dead? Who's alive? The characters are based off the Higurashi characters a little but the story line and characters couldn't be more different. Umineko is not a follow-up to Higurashi, it is a different anime all together. It is as gorey, if not more, than Higurashi but it is a fantastic anime. People who are unable to follow it have not payed a lot of attention. Before starting this anime, I knew I had to pay a lot of attention. I hung onto every word each character said instead of just listening to what happens. I adored this anime for the reasons it made me think, a very good story line and the art work is fantastic. Not many people will agree with what I said, but I think this anime is fantastic.

Hey look: it's not that I don't like "loop stories." But we used to call them "choose your own path" stories. The decisions made would usually lead to different results. It had been tried with minor success in the When Cicadas Cry series, but with this title? LE-RO~Y JE-NKI~N~S!! The story starts out simple enough;"a magical murder mystery." It's first arc ends with a "bad ending." "But Wait! What about the murderer?!" shouts the [lead] who doesn't believe that magic exists. This ticks the titular witch off... And we get 3 MORE arcs (from the anime) of "bad ends," added characters (the lot of them fanservicy), and different ways of how characters get killed. The continued haterade, seemingly from EVERYBODY, towards Kenichi Suzumura is SURE AS HELL not helping. I keep thinking back to this show and what it could've been if more thought and planning had been put into it. I mean... A saner person would go, "That Witch Is The Murderer! Let's Burn Her To The Stake!" But you know. "Sanity" and "animu" doesn't seem to be the "winning combination" in the eyes of the otaku-base. (Yet the Cicadas did so poorly in the West that FUNi decided not to pick up the rest of the When They Cry series. So yeah.)

Well, the whole concept of this anime sounds great, the battle between logic and magic is really interesting idea, so the description of this anime sounded rather promising. But the realization... it's rather hard to explain my point of view without making any spoilers, but I'll try. I expected to see a good detective story with the interesting puzzles and solutions, and what have I got? There is no logic in battle between Butler and Beatrice. Ho many times he had solved Beatrice's puzzles? almost not once untill the last episode, and even then his solution was too suddenly. He just told her about every puzzle in every world, but he didnt share any of his thoughts with the viewer. It looks like the authors didnt wanted to think, HOW could the main hero solve this puzzles, they just told him the solution. And all the rest time we can see only his mood swings between "ok, Beatrice, give me some more time and i'll beat ya" and "I have ruined everythig" and this repeats for several times. I was rather close to drop this anime, and I only watched it to see the last episode, but even it worth not seeing.

I will attempt to write this review basing it on my experience as an anime fan, being as objective as possible. I will also voice out my opinion at the end of this review wich I will keep short.I have not read the novel and my review will not include any comparissons between the two. (Story 6/10) There has been a lot of strife between those who have watched solely the anime and those who have read the novel and also watche the anime version of it. Always arguing about the story (for the most part). So the story is basically about the Ushiromiya familly which is so very wealthy coming to their private island were the head of the familly lives to discuss the inheritance. However on their first day there the head of the familly (Ushiromiya Kinzo) is found murdered. As they suspect eachother about the murder there are even more unexplainable murders happening. So here comes the main male character Ushiromiya Battler (or Buttler to some) trying to explain the murders when the witch named Beatrice arrives and says that she killed them with magic. So to sum up they end up in a deadly game of wits, in which Battler tries to prove that the murders were commited by human means and Beatrice tries to make him admit that they were commited by using magic. If Battler wins they can all return safely however if Beatrice wins they will all die. To the point now, as a plot it had a lot of potential and it also sounds awesome, right? However there are major flaws and unexplained phenomena and certain cliffhangers that could have made the anime a whole lot better if corrected. As you can imagine there are a lot of murder scenes and that includes a lot of gore. Unfortunately the camera focuses more on the deaths than on the reaction of the witnesses (or those who found the bodies). Even though I said that I enjoyed the plot although I certainly wouldn't mind if they had paid more attention to it. (Art 7/10) The art is pretty amazing. There are some faults at certain scenes but that's about it. The characers look cool and all that.. However all or if not all then most of the female characters have a huge cleavage which kinda runs it because although they look good and all it means there is fanservice, which kinda ruins the whole mystery-horror-psychological atmosphere. (Sound 8/10) There are some very very nice songs and themes in it and the only reason that the anime doesn't get a 10 rating from the sound aspect is that the music is often misplaced. Many good themes are placed at the wrong time and vise versa. (Character 6/10) Battler Ushiromiya: A young boy whose mother is (or was) a detective and is the main male protagonist of the story. He's passionate good-natured and cares a lot for others. He's also calm and is able to think rationally under pressure. Beatrice: The main female antagonist of the story. She is the witch that killed everyone and decides to play a game with Battler out of boredom with everyone's lives being at stake. She is mostly cruel, ruthless and also both seductive and confident. She hates losing and will do anything in order to win. Many say there are more protagonists than Battler and Beatrice but those are the main two for me. Although the characters start out nicely, they have a sudden change of hearts especially during the last few episodes. Even more of them Beatrice. (Enjoyment7/10) Even though there are major flaws and cliffhangers I certainly enjoyed the anime and it encouraged me to read the novel. Many people will say otherwise but do not be influenced too much.. (Overall 7/10) You may find it lacking in certain sections and it is a good anime to watch if you're not a detail freak. If you're a begginer in watching anime you will enjoy this even more than I did. Then again it is a double-edged sword. If you've seen plenty of other series you'll start to notice flaws that may not even be that big of a deal.

tl;dr: An anime that is literally just building up mysteries haphazardly without pushing towards solving any of them. Umineko no Naku Koro ni is a series based on a series of visual novels that is set in the same universe as Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. A lot of reviews seem to involve comparisons between the anime and visual novel from those that are already fans of the visual novel and seem to dislike the anime as a bad adaptation. This will definitely not be one of those as I simply have not read the visual novel and thus literally can’t make such a comparison. I will however have some brief comparisons to Higurashi, in that both series of visual novels as far as I can tell seem to follow the same structure, but at least in terms of the anime it worked much better in Higurashi than it did in Umineko. To put it simply for the sake of avoiding spoilers, ultimately this anime is about a logical battle between the protagonist Ushiromiya Battler and the antagonist Beatrice. Ushiromiya is an incredibly wealthy and powerful family with their own private island. They gather on that island for a family meeting where they are to discuss who will take over as the next head. However, a series of mysterious deaths occur, seemingly parts of a ritual at the end of which the witch Beatrice is summoned. However, Battler refused to acknowledge the existence of magic or witches. More mysterious deaths occur up until the climax of the ritual, but Battler still refuses to acknowledge the existence of witches, even when Beatrice appears before him. Apparently the ritual isn’t complete and Beatrice isn’t fully summoned until he does. Thus, Beatrice pulls Battler outside of the world, which is henceforth referred to as the gameboard, and causes it to loop back to before the ritual. I should note that Battler himself stays outside the gameboard, with a different Battler that has no knowledge of previous loop present on the gameboard in his place. The ritual repeats, though with a different scenario where different people die under different circumstances. Thus, the core conflict of the anime is mysterious deaths occurring and Battler having to explain how they could have occurred without the existence of witches or magic. This looping occurs a number of times with a different scenario to the deaths each time. This seems pretty contradictory from the get go. Why is someone in such fantastical circumstances as being pulled out of the world to watch over the world looping so strongly denying the existence of magic? I don’t think the anime ever explains the answer to this explicitly or implicitly, which can make things seem kind of confusing and dumb at first. Still, as it goes on, it becomes clear from context that it really doesn’t matter what Battler truly believes. Before he encountered any of the obviously supernatural phenomenon, he firmly refused to believe in witches or magic, and somehow he lucked into that disbelief being an obstacle to Beatrice. Thus, regardless of what the truth is, the victory condition for Battler, or at least a condition where he doesn’t lose, is to continue denying the existence of magic or witches. The premise gets even more complicated from there. While in the first arc Battler didn’t encounter any actual supernatural phenomenon until he was pulled outside of the gameboard, every subsequent arc has the deaths shown as occurring through supernatural phenomenon, such as with having demons teleport into locked rooms to kill people. But apparently, due to the rules of how magic works, the supernatural and realistic explanations exist simultaneously, in what is somewhat confusingly analogized to Schrodinger’s Cat. While what the viewer and Battler are shown is clearly supernatural, what matters is the circumstances at the end, and for each of those a realistic explanation also must exist. Showing these supernatural phenomenon and their results is the moves that Beatrice makes to attack Battler, and Battler counters those moves by substituting them realistic explanations. This brings me to my first fundamental issue with this anime. From what I understand, there is an actual solution to each of these mysteries that completely makes sense and is satisfying. But neither the viewer nor Battler are given enough information to determine it. I think to at least some degree the confusion this causes for the viewer is unintentional. There is no clear differentiation made between what falls under the realm of the supernatural and what doesn’t. Thus, it isn’t entirely clear what requirements the realistic explanation has to satisfy. Thus, someone watching with the intention of actually trying to figure out the solutions will not find such an experience pleasant because the anime seems to actively fight against people doing so. And ultimately, as far as the anime gets, the true answers to all the puzzles are never revealed. A satisfying explanation for the puzzles may exist, however as per the rules of the game Battler and Beatrice are playing Battler doesn’t actually have to find it. He just has to come up with some sort of explanation that works, no matter how ridiculous or how implausible it is. For example, for a locked room murder of three people he can explain it away as all three killing each other simultaneously or as one of them killing the other two and then accidentally killing themselves. These explanations are clearly dumb and if that’s what the actual solutions to the mysteries were that would make this entire franchise dumb, so I’m going to go out on a limb and considering all the praise it gets assume that that is not the case. But as far as the anime gets that’s the only explanations the viewer gets as that’s all Battler has to give. Why none of the puzzles are properly solved in this arc has to do with the structure of the original VN. How that was structured is that there were a series of question arcs that essentially just presented the mysteries, and a series of answer arcs that revealed the answers to the mysteries. Thus, these arcs don’t have the answers because the reveal of all of them in the answer arcs will flow better according to the narrative the writer came up with. This is also something that was done in Higurashi, so I’m certainly not doubting that such a structure can work. However, as previously mentioned, I think it worked a lot better in Higurashi’s anime than it did in this one. The first reason for that is that while the first season of Higurashi didn’t have all the answer arcs for it’s questions arcs, it did have some of them, so while everything certainly wasn’t resolved, there was at least some explanation for some things. The anime for Umineko is purely question arcs without any answer arcs so absolutely no explanation is properly provided, which is really unsatisfying. The second reason is the difference in genre. The first season of Higurashi was mainly a horror anime. Even if what’s going on doesn’t make all that much sense, the horror aspect can still work really well and in the case of Higurashi it absolutely did. Even without any answers, just as a horror anime it’s enjoyable to watch. However, Umineko is pure mystery, and unlike with horror which is much more journey oriented, the destination for mysteries is critical. A mystery story needs a satisfying explanation in order to work. Thus, for an anime relying solely on mystery, without a satisfying explanation for at least some of it’s mysteries the anime itself just doesn’t seem all that functional. The third reason is that Higurashi felt like it had more to it beyond the core plot. Higurashi had a good amount of comedy and slice of life that worked well in getting the viewers invested in the cast and circumstances surrounding them. Umineko has nothing close to that. We get a bit on a lot of characters, but not enough to get really invested in any of them. That may come down to there being a lot more character in Umineko compared to Higurashi, and …

So what crafts a compelling mystery? Is it the horrendous crime that's committed? Is it the brilliant mind game between the detective and the criminal? Is it how charming and shocking the story's twist might be? Or is it the impactful ending that have you surprised? If you're looking for any of these I mentioned, turn your back now, it's not too late because Umineko no Naku Koro ni or When Seagulf cry portrayed none of those. DEEN is not a bad studio despite lots of people don't like its art style and the low-quality production values which many of their projects possess. I had a great time with many DEEN's anime like Konosuba, The tales of Melodies/Memories and of course, When They Cry. When They Cry showed that DEEN is capable of handling a mystery. It was an interesting anime that keeps people guessing after every arcs. When They Cry accomplished that by creating a mysterious atmosphere surround all over the place along with strong and determine characters, every bits of mystery is revealed bit by bit so the viewers can join the journey and solve the case in its runtime though most of us failed. Sadly, I can't say the same about Umineko no Naku Koro ni. "Tomorrow, when the seagulf cry, we will be safe." Well, they never cry but I do because of boredom. Umineko no Naku Koro ni is a mess of a story with no redeeming quality. It provided a mystery with no clue or whatever so we never follow along the story. You will keep wondering yourself, "what the hell is happening here?" all the time. And the characters ranks from bland to annoying to unbearable. Umineko no Naku Koro ni introduced a very large cast with basically no back story except a brief introduction by the narrator. As a result, very bland and one-dimensional characters who we surely won't care about because most of the time they're lying dead like insects. And my god, the protagonist, portrays no sight of intelligence. He's just spouting nonsense and stating it as fact. And when you hope for a good end to feel that your horrendous journey is something not wasted. No, you shall not pass, there is no end, there is no answer to satisfy you. It's hangover. In all my years of reading and watching mystery, I have never seen such a disaster. If you haven't watched Umineko no Naku Koro ni. Listen to me, just don't watch it. It's not worth watching.

The Synopsis doesn't really help much so just a heads up it's 4 episodes with roughly 5 eps each covering each episode ( so it's like 4 "games" covered ). Knowing this I can start the review. Does magic exist? You won't even know anyway from watching this. This is what I would call the Demo edition of Umineko; You don't need to spend money ( not much if you getting it legally ) and you don't even need to spend 100+ hours on it. This is what you get for how little effort you decide to put into it; an unfinished/resolved mystery with plot points that make 0 sense, very little character development and mediocre fight scenes. Story: The idea of the story is interesting however the anime executes this rather poorly. When I was watching this I felt like it was like splicing " clips ", kind of like if you imagined making a show but remove all the "unnecessary " bits, you just get a show that jumps quickly to the next scene without any transitioning and some moments they skip so far that what they mention has you confused as to how, when and why they even got there. Another issue is with Battlers reasoning's, the point of the show focuses on the battle between Beatrice who is trying to convince Battler that witches/magic exists ( which she call it "surrendering" ) vs Battler who is using rather stupid outrageous reasons to deny the existence of this. Battler's meant to sound smart but since the story is limited, Battler comes out as being an absolute idiot who can just say something like " oh they ate tiny bombs and that's how their stomachs were destroyed " and the witch can only just laugh at it and accept it without arguing back. You get the point. Art: The arts alright, it looks like there's a light glare constantly shone on the screen which can get rather annoying but it's not too bad. Most the efforts on the gore and some of the magic flash shows. Sound: Sounds literally the only good part of the anime, it's not as loud and High quality as the VNs tracks but the tracks are good. As every person ever who has heard the Opening, it's impossible to skip that amazing opening, can't get sick of hearing it for 25eps straight. Oh, the voices are alright too. Character: Lack of character development is a big issue in this, really the only ones who get decent development is Maria, heck the MC Battler and Beatrice actually barely got any development. Every other character probably got like the basic background knowledge and that's it. Enjoyment: I'll be perfectly honest, I only went through those 26eps only cause I have read the VN and was interested in seeing what its like animated. That's basically the only thing that kept my enjoyment there. Outside VN experience i'd say ep 1 and 2 are the hardest to endure, ep 3 and 4 does pick up the enjoyment a little... ehh if you into Battler/Beatrices rivalry. Overall: It's straight up a bad adaptation, you basically just watch this than if you curious you will go to Manga/VN for further information. This only covers half of Umineko so yes you will feel bad after watching this and either crave for more or just give up. After all this is what you get for not spending the effort in reading 100+ hours of text.

I watched this anime within a week and its all fresh in my mind. For those of you guys who are still confused about the story, you are not alone and i may summarized it a bit better(spoilers). I have not read any light novel and just watched the anime so I am not so bookworm biased on this. My summary(SPOILER BUT ITS WORTH UNDERSTANDING): The setting takes place at an isolated island where the whole family meets up from such a rare occasion in the years that they were apart. The grandfather was known to be the wealthiest man because he held a contract with the witch by the name of Beatrice. The grandfather was mad with black magic and sorcery that there was rumors that Beatrice may had been his dead mistress, her soul was caged on the island from his greed, she was inherited the power of the witch from the previous witch, she is not a real witch at all, she immortal and was human before, and so on. ??? The adults of the family wanted to inherit the gold from the grandpa and so the game begins where anyone within the 18(x) people on the island can win to claim the hidden gold. but at the cost of unknown sacrifices made by the witch herself or some other factor Sequence of mysterious death appear according to the witch's foretelling letter. If all members of the household acknowledge the witch's existence, then its game over and the eternal witch wins. If anyone can solve the riddle of the mysterious death, its their win. if they found the hidden gold, they can be a witch and golden land(idk). THEREFORE BATTLER AND BEATRICE BATTLE OUT TO OUTWIT EACH OTHER FROM REALITY VS MAGIC! MULTIPLE PARALLEL SCENARIOS OCCUR FROM MYSTERIOUS DEATHS AND THEY MUST BE DISPROVED! AND ALSO, BATTLER'S SISTER APPEARED IN THE STORY. ITS JUST HER STORY FROM THE TIMELINE THAT OCCUR WHEN NO ONE FROM THE ISLAND CAME BACK HOME.

sorry for my bad english (don t kill me please) i was saw in the past this show for alot recomendations,and i was really dissapoinment and i only put thing who i remember, first,many of the characters are annoying,easy forgotteable,the unique character only see looking good is "bernkastel " the sound/music....mhhh....i dont remember so much, the operning its a boring wannabe- orchestra,nothing special,beatrice probably makes you ears bleeding when she starts laughing story ??? repetitive,and uninspired,people going to a mansion in a island and later unknown things happen and kills the all characters and later gets a sorpresive reebot and sitll alive i think.... i dont recomend this to anything,try to watch another anime....

At this point in time I can confidently say that When The Cicadas Cry is the best horror anime I have seen. It was well paced, had good characters, and offered genuine horror. I was excited to see When The Seagulls Cry as well, but it ended up being a little frustrating to watch. The time loop format of both shows make things complicated enough on their own, but When The Cicadas Cry kept the story itself simple. The characters were just trying to make it through the loop without dying. Seagulls, on the other hand has plenty of things that make the story more complex than it needed to be. Battler and Beatrice (the two leads) are in a battle of wits to determine if the mass murder of the loop they are in could only have been accomplished by a witch. This sounds simple, but the list of loose ends and questions involving the premise is staggering. They don't explain much at all. Even so, the actual game between Battler and Beatrice is very interesting to watch. If that had been what the show was, it would have been much better. The problem is that things keep getting in the way of the show's best aspect. Both players try to quit at points, Beatrice starts to feel guilty about all her murders for no reason, the timeline jumps around and shows the future while a game is happening, and a whole new main character is introduced. So many things are introduced that don't seem worth the trouble. When The Cicadas Cry got strength from its simplicity, but When The Seagulls Cry is too convoluted to have the same impact. There were plenty of impressive moments, and I liked it well enough, but it's not great, and certainly doesn't hold a candle to its predecessor.

Dikke lul jongen, Gewoon geweldig Ik zou m nog een keer kijken als ik geen leven had Die heb ik wel. Zoek nou een leven jongens In de elfde eeuw leefden er naar schatting zo'n 5 à 6 miljoen mensen in de Duitse landen.[2] De meeste mensen woonden in kleine dorpen of gehuchten, omgeven door akkers. De huizen waren doorgaans niet meer dan eenvoudige hutten. Ook in deze periode was een groot deel van Duitsland bosgebied. Het grootste deel van de bevolking leefde in behoeftige omstandigheden. De gemiddelde levensverwachting bedroeg nauwelijks meer dan 30 jaar. De kindersterfte was zeer hoog. Slechts een minderheid van de bevolking bereikte de leeftijd van veertig jaar. Ziekte, honger, dood en geweld waren een periodiek terugkerend verschijnsel. Ondanks de kerstening behielden pre-christelijke elementen hun invloed; geloof in boze geesten, amuletten en magie waren wijdverbreid. In de elfde eeuw werd de Duitse politiek mede beheerst door een conflict tussen de aristocratie en de achterleenmannen (vavassores), die in de regel van geboorte onvrij waren. Deze nieuwe sociale laag wordt doorgaans 'ministerialen' genoemd. Hun lenen waren niet erfelijk. In 1037 werd de "Constitutio de feudis" uitgevaardigd. Voortaan waren kleine lenen erfelijk. Er ontstond een klasse van ridders. De Duitse aristocratie was een bijna-ondoordringbare kaste. Deze groep besteedde veel tijd en energie aan langdurige onderlinge conflicten om macht en status, die veten worden genoemd. Van hen afhankelijke boeren werden met enige regelmaat gedwongen om krijgsdienst te verrichten.

Read the Visual Novel if you're interested, if not then skip this series entirely. The story is 1 is outstanding, but the presentation doesn't do it justice. Maybe there just wasn't enough time to go into further detail.

*This is not a spoiler-free anime, as it is very hard to describe it without loss of generality.* Before watching this anime, I thought to myself: wow, another higurashi? must be pretty decent. And now I know that I was indeed very wrong. If it wasn't for my personality - I don't like leaving anime unfinished - I would have dropped this anime at the beginning of the second arc. So the story started off, like every other anime, setting up the environment and introducing the cast's relationships and importance to the plot. I would say, until the end of the first arc, it would've passed as a decent higurashi v.2. However, many things were vague as to why things happened the way they did in regards to the murders, so I continued to watch this anime, hoping that an explanation will come to give the audience a realization of what has happened. Onto that "explanation" that this anime tried to pull off: So there exists this witch named Beatrice that supposedly caused the murders, and she cannot be a full witch without everyone surrendering to her existence. And that is where the main character Battler, comes into challenge her because he denies it. At this point, the story gets good, as the mystery of the murders are supposedly cracked by Battler with intense logic and mind blowing but viable theories. Well, there ain't none of that in this anime until the final episode where he supposedly puts it all together from around episode 6 to 25, and literally sprouts bullshit that conveniently fits the pieces together. From episode to 6 to 25, it is painful to watch because of: - slow pacing - confusion - "wtf" moments - why does he/she have powers? Is he/she good or bad? What kind of punishment is this? Why is Maria watching a television episode of higurashi? (LOL) - random flashbacks to the past - conveniently trying to explain another bullshit created during the episodes. As for the art, nothing spectacular, but there are some "gory" scenes that aren't really gory but nasty in a way... I'll leave that up to you to decide if you really choose to watch this. One of the things that made me really dislike this anime was the characters. It lacked any kind of character development (one could argue that Beatrice changed over a few episodes, but she really didn't, or about the girl that looks like Rin from fate/zero - she becomes a main character for a few episodes). In addition, there were so many annoying characters, not because they act their roles badly, but because they had additional "Modus Operandi" (i.e. Maria's annoying "UuuUuu" and her laugh that scares you only at first but becomes overly tiring to look at, or Beatrice's laugh and her constant reminder to the audience that she is Beatrice, and the infamous "flip da chessboard") Simply, Uminkeo is a rip off Higurashi. I think the producer was trying to put all kinds of genre into one anime (magical girls, martial arts, crime, mystery, horror, suspense, romance, time travel ... etc) and it clearly didn't work. I would not recommend this anime to anyone, unless they specifically look for as MAL users put "a train-wreck"

This review of Umineko no Naku Koro ni is based solely on its anime and nothing else. I will not be comparing it to anything else and will judge it solely on what the anime showcased. Story(5/10) Umineko no Naku Koro ni's story is rather difficult to understand because of how it is told. The anime follows Battler as he battles the Golden Witch Beatrice to try and save his family. This story could have worked if not for 3 main problems. The 1st problem in this anime is that the main plot quickly becomes repetitive to the point where you are just hoping to see someone get killed in a cool way and no longer care about the actual story. The 2nd problem is the mystery side to the story where it try's to get you to solve its puzzles but doesn't give you all the necessary pieces. 3rd and the largest of all the issues is the fact that the anime itself is unfinished. Its ending hardly explains any of the problems showcased throughout the story and instead tells you to simply guess what might've happened in the show. Art(8/10) I actually enjoyed the art style of the show. Not only were the characters designs are great and fit each character quite well to their personality but the way people moments of insanity are done greatly compliment the anime and its music. The gore and magic in the anime is also done very well and showcase the shows brutality brilliantly. Sound(9/10) The best part of this whole show is definitely the soundtrack which has some great mood music. But the best part is definently the OP and ED which are both done beautifully showcasing both the animation as well as the song to its fullest potiental. Character(6/10) Another flaw within the anime is its flimsy characters. Whereas normally you care when a character is savagely murdered in this you are typically happy when most of them die. The adults are all made out to be heartless creatures who only care about their own greed. However during many of their death they attempt to showcase some sense of humanity which is always just annoying, because by the time they do you honestly don't care. The servants and demons/witches are actually interesting and needed to be explained in much greater detail. The grandchildren or our main characters have strong personalities but this also gets annoying due to the story. Beatrice is so messed up and when I say this I mean her character is flawed (notice how I focus on her while I put everyone else in groups) she starts off as complete antagonist performing grizzly crimes and simply laughing at the murders (her laugh is so annoying to where its more evil than her crimes). However her greatest flaw is the ending where she commits a giant 180 and is temporarily nice for no apparent reason... I wont even go on. Overall(7/10) Mystery animes typically follow straight and linear paths giving clues to the audience of how certain murders or crimes take place to show how the culprit committed the crime and is then caught as is usually done this allows us the viewer to feel like we are part of the anime... this doesn't do that. Even during few times that it does the show will completely ruin an intense mood by throwing flashbacks and backstory into the show completely ruining the mystery aspect of the anime. This causes the viewer to be completely disconnected from the show and not feel attached to these characters in any way. Its becomes repetitive very quickly and stops being an mystery anime completely. The few redeeming factors would probably be its animation and music which actually compliment the show quite well. This anime needed another 25 episodes to be able to actually be completed as it is now the anime is literally incomplete causing everything story related to suffer, until such a thing happens there are too many plotholes to actually enjoy the anime.