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Umireread: Legend of the Golden Witch - Chapter 10: The Six Chosen by the Key
Sun, Oct 5 1986 - 6:00AM
The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.
I’m so excited for this chapter, you have no idea.
Extremely funny mental image of Yasu going to Natsuhi’s room, seeing the charm, then deciding “well if she’s off the table then I’m killing that asshole who gave me night duty while he did his crossword”. Of course, she probably had to kill Gohda to help avoid any incriminating testimony from her changing her assigned position last night, but it’s still funny to think about.
Since the rest are the adults, it’s easy to think about Gohda being an odd one out and the obvious replacement for Natsuhi, but given the above I wonder who the unfortunate backup was. Maybe Rosa? Or potentially one of either Rudolf or Kyrie, originally intending to only kill one of the adults per pair?
I love how Genji goes “Sorry. The Telephones are down” then “By the way Gohda is missing”, and completely neglects to mention that Natsuhi’s door is coated in bloodstains. Just leave the most obvious detail as something for her to find out for herself, you know.
“Natsuhi had a pretty good idea” is SUCH a funny line. Not even concerned by the horror movie trope, she already suspects which family member did it. I wonder who her mind immediately jumps to - although let’s be real, it’s probably Eva.
Eva tries to check on Kinzo and Natsuhi immediately shoots her down. It’s really funny how blatant the cover up is. Like, you’re unlikely to question it, since we keep getting fantasy scenes of Kinzo in his study, but it sure is there if you go looking for it.
Speaking of - the moment we see Kinzo in the office here, we’ve accounted for 17 of our 18 (with 5 known missing). Good game Shannon, we have our six chosen by the key.
Natsuhi, alone in the study, worries about how much Eva is going to tear into her, and then immediately makes up a pep talk to make herself feel good. I’m telling you, these study scenes are a goldmine.
Yeah, Eva absolutely would have been the one to leave bloody scratch marks all over Natsuhi’s door.
Here we go
HERE WE GO
…Okay, you can have that one. Saying it’s a sigh of relief right as they uncover the bodies is very cheeky, but the irony balances out how tense the scene is. It’s a breather for the reader as well.
We actually get a breather with the kids as well. Final moments of innocent Battler caught on tape.
Chills. Full chills.
And here it is.
Allow me to indulge for a moment.
When I was a kid, my first anime was The Haruhi of Melancholy Suzumiya. I watched it through low-resolution fansubs that had been posted on a YouTube that was still in its youth, with each episode awkwardly split into three parts since you couldn’t upload videos longer than ten minutes. I probably watched that at an age that was slightly too young for it, but as a kid who only knew the world of animation through the veneer of kids cartoons and Matt Groening shows (except maybe that one time I watched Spirited Away when I was 5 - which also left a stark impression on me), it really opened my eyes to a world of new media that I hadn’t even conceived of before. I really wanted to see what else there was.
Anyway, my second anime was Higurashi no naku koro ni.
If I was slightly too young for Haruhi, I was definitely too young for Higurashi. But that was part of the appeal, I suppose - the prepubescent desire to cast away the shackles of childhood and prove your maturity. That you’ve grown up. I legitimately remember 10 or 11 year old me showing a friend the scene of Rika stabbing herself in the head while going “look at what I’m watching now! Look how mature I am!” - admittedly, this was to a friend who had allegedly already seen all manner of films rated 15 or 18, so it arguably would have been relatively tame to them, and boasting about your maturity is undoubtedly the most immature thing a person can do.
While the initial appeal there was that Higurashi was “mature”, it was still really interesting. There was good intrigue there, the plot had me hooked, and from start to finish it was a really good piece of media. I’m pretty sure my younger self saw the scene where the sound of gunshots are covered up by fireworks at the local festival and thought it was the smartest plot point in any piece of media ever. Anyway, a short while later, I heard that there was going to be a sequel anime to Higurashi - a new show, called Umineko.
Now, I had a fine time with the Umineko anime. I would have been 12-13 as it was airing - still eager to consume media I was too young for - and, with no bar for quality, I enjoyed it. There was cool gore! The mystery was exciting! The red truth was such a neat concept and the witch fights were badass! Sure, it may not have had as much of a lasting impact on me as Higurashi, but it was still good, right?
Well, it wasn’t good. In fact, pretty much all the anime reviews I saw for it were negative. There were still a few fools like myself who had enjoyed it, but there was one thing I kept seeing - a sentiment that was effectively universal. A simple statement.
“The Visual Novel is so much better.”
I held onto those words for a few years.
I don’t know what the instigator for it was, but somewhere down the line, I decided to act on it. I bought the original japanese version of Episodes 1-4 and 5-8 through what I believe was the old Witch Hunt site - quite possibly one of the dodgiest deals I’ve ever made, as anyone who procured Umineko back in the old days can attest to - and applied the fanmade english patch. The PS3 sprite mod looked so much better than the original sprites, so I installed that as well. And, 10 years ago, I started playing.
It was… fine. I wasn’t a huge fan of how the text covered the whole screen, rather than appearing in text boxes, like it did in the other VNs I’d played. I say that as if I’d actually played any VN other than Katawa Shoujo at that time. But, I remembered liking Umineko, so I pressed on. I pressed on through the boring introductions, through the boring discussions of the inheritance, waiting to get to the cool parts where Beatrice showed up and the magic fights started happening.
But then, we got to this scene.
There I was, sitting with my laptop on holiday, with my cheap earphones plugged in, as the cousins approached the gardening shed. As the adults told them not to get any closer. As they did so anyway.
What followed is some of the most unrelentingly raw reactions to a visceral scene like this that I’d ever seen in any piece of media, ever. This wasn’t the dulled impact that the anime had hit me with - this was a full, unfiltered, uncensored dive into the immutable affliction of being human. They’ve got no faces - you could feel Battler’s unmitigated despair oozing from it all. These weren’t just characters reacting to a scene in a book. This was something more.
This was the moment that I fell in love with Umineko.
Perhaps I gave too much background to that statement - perhaps I’ve fallen afoot of the same criticisms I levied against the earlier parts of the tale for not getting to the point quicker. But that is the play-by-play of how, 10 years ago, this scene went straight for the jugular and bled me dry. This is where I knew I wasn’t just reading another version of that anime I’d seen the years prior, I was reading something special.
I would be remiss to say this is entirely down to the writing - a lot of this is also heavily driven by the blaring tones of goldenslaughterer. If Umineko was simply a series of 8 books, it wouldn’t have had the same effect on me as it has done for the past decade. If this scene wasn’t equipped with one of the most perfect aural accompaniments imaginable, I don’t think it would have stuck with me as much as it did. But the palpable emotion dripping from each word - the killer performances from each of the VAs (Jessica’s screams are INCREDIBLE) - and the musical storytelling doing just as much heavy lifting as the writing is… it’s an inimitable experience. This is what everyone was telling me that I was missing out on back in the halcyon days of 2009. They were right.
Perhaps it was for the best that I did give it those few extra years, so that I could truly appreciate the masterwork being crafted before me. I can’t imagine even beginning to comprehend the themes or the mystery of this tale at age 13, when I scarcely did so at 17. But regardless of the what ifs, this is the path that led me to what I consider, with no exaggeration, a pivotal moment in my life. It’s hard to describe the emotions that were stirred as I approached this scene for the reread - if I had to approximate it, then it would be unbound excitement mixed with trepidation, a great interest in re-experiencing such an important scene tempered by a fear that it may not have been as good as I remembered.
Of course, it wasn’t going to hit me in the exact same way that it did the first time round - you cannot recreate the sensation of a sucker punch when you know that it’s coming. But I can say, with certainty, that this scene was just as good as I remembered. That it still hit all the points that made me fall in love with the story originally.
I cannot wait to keep reading the rest.
Honestly, after what I’ve just said (and my feelings at large), it feels sacreligious to stop and dissect this scene. It’s something you want to just let play out, to absorb the experience - part of me wants to just skip straight to the end.
But still, I’d feel remiss not to mention Nanjo’s acting here - he goes into doctor mode and then realises “wait, I need to be more emotional” before dropping it immediately. One of those moments that doesn’t arouse suspicion on a first read but feels super blatant afterwards.
In for a penny, in for a pound. Hideyoshi looks and sounds so pained having to perpetuate the crucial lie over here. You can really feel the thoughts running through his head of “do I expose it? Is it worth it?”
AND THEN WE GET HIT WITH WORLD END. I cannot stress how much music matters to me and accentuates the experience; a sound novel utilised to the full extent of the medium can truly produce a story that no traditional paper novel ever can.
Phenomenal work from the VA here - they clearly got the memo that this is a panicked “no” of not wanting the lie to be unveiled, rather than one of sincere desire to protect George. Again, you can still interpret it as the latter, so you’re unlikely to pick it up on a first read, but absolutely there on the reread.
There’s an incredible parallel made here of George holding onto Shannon’s smile, while Battler is doomed to remember the gored faces of his parents. Not only is this great by itself, it’s yet another example of fantasy versus reality, with George being able to hold onto happy memories by being ignorant to the truth (even if that truth isn’t a real truth in this case).
“Proved beyond doubt”, the narrative says, about the one body that we should doubt.
No commentary - this is just a great line and I wanted to highlight it.
And so all the associates chime in to cover it up.
I feel like it’s fairly easy to miss how well Eva is taking the whole thing in this scene. Everyone else is traumatised, and she’s holding up remarkably well.
Interesting how it’s the associates setting up the howdunnit as well! I suppose Yasu wants to make sure that element isn’t missed by the would-be detectives.
And so Umineko tells you to your face that this is the story about a serial killer who wants to be discovered. I suppose there’s already elements of that in the letter to solve the Epitaph, but it’s really made explicit here.
I’m still riding the high of the first twilight. I’m not sure if there’s any other scene in Umineko that I’ll gush about to that extent, but I know there’s plenty of moments yet to come that won’t fail to blow me away.
I know it’s integral to the story, and it wouldn’t work otherwise, but I do have to say that the howdunnit hook adds so much to Umineko that wouldn’t be there otherwise. Some of my fondest memories from the first readthrough was trying to figure out how it was all done (without ever considering the scenes that were lying to us, oops). I’m really looking forward to going through that all again, with the lens of love.
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Hey so about 10 years ago (literally give or take a week) I read a funny little visual novel called Umineko no naku koro ni. I have been irreversibly changed for the better and to this day I have never read anything that comes close to being as good as Umineko. Honestly, there's a part of me that believes I never will.
So, after ruminating about that, and noticing how eerily close we were to October 4, Umineko Day itself, I've decided to dive back and read the whole thing from start to finish with all the knowledge I've gained since then (both of the tale, and as a person). I've really enjoyed seeing some other people liveblog their thoughts about it (both for first time readers and re-readers), so I figured I'd throw my hat in the ring for that as well!
I've made a sideblog to throw the posts in (as not to annoy the dozens of followers here, who I'm already on thin ice with), and I'll be tagging all the posts with #umireread to keep them organised that way. Apparently no one has used that tag yet. Very surprising!
I'm a stickler for organisation, so the plan is to give each Chapter their own post, with scattered and formulated thoughts throughout. I'll probably have some end of Episode reflections as well to mark each milestone. Also, obviously, heavy spoilers ahoy. Don't touch that blog if you haven't finished reading it yet. I honestly think your first readthrough of Umineko is one of the most magical things you can do with your life, it'd break my heart to ruin that for anyone.
Anyway back to never posting anything and just reblogging things on main. Overly long analytical posts of my favourite piece of media ever on the side. Zip zap zoom
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Umireread: Turn of the Golden Witch - Prologue
The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.
It’s certainly bold of Umineko to go from “standard” difficulty in Episode 1 to “expert” in Episode 2. I’m not sure exactly what warrants such a dramatic change? If we’ve “solved” Episode 1, then we should be able to readily bat away the fantasy scenes it introduces away from Battler’s perspective. I suppose the culprit committing suicide before the end and the rule of Battler’s perspective being untrustworthy 30 minutes before his demise could be quick tricky to theorise around, but I’m not sure if they’re “expert” by themselves. I guess we’ll wait and see.
Both of these outfits are great, I kind of wish we got to see more alternative clothes for the cast. Shannon’s comparison is funny, since this probably would be the first time she’d seen an aquarium.
Oh we’re in George POV here… That’s interesting. I’m not entirely certain why this is the case? My initial thought was that omniscient narration might have been saved for only contents on the message bottles/forgeries, to represent the author, and that this was forced by us not being allowed to see Shannon’s POV as per Knox’s first, but I don’t think that’s the case on either fronts - I believe the Episode 1 Prologue was omniscient despite being outside the realm of forgeries, and we do get Shannon’s POV slightly later, so I’m actually not sure what the meaning is here.
Given how much we’ve already delved into the themes of fantasy and reality, I’m surprised how long it’s taken us to find a comparison to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. I suppose that one is a bit too obvious of a comparison to make, so I don’t mind it being absent thus far in favour of more original thoughts.
Hooting and hollering. Applause all round.
At this stage I’m still concerned about reading too much into it, but I can’t help but wonder if this line is a slight nod to Yasu’s gender dysphoria. As in, despite identifying as female, part of her is doubting that she has a “real” female body and is getting caught up over it.
As we saw in Episode 1, magic is when other people can engage in fantasy with you; where your mutual fabrication can shut out the truth. With a loved one, the prying eyes of others do not matter; your shared fantasy shuts them out. Love is magic.
I know George does have his fair share of fans and defenders, but it’s the stuff like this which really puts me off him. Even if it’s behind a layer of jest, his controlling tendencies are just way too uncomfortable for me. It’s like there’s a part of him which is indulging in the “master and servant” angle between him and Shannon, which is skeevy by itself, but thoroughly tainted once you consider Yasu’s insecurities and feelings about being seen as furniture. Would she be happy with George? …Maybe? But would she be able to heal? I don’t believe so.
Life can be beautiful when you reject the grey sea of reality and immerse yourself in the deep blue of fantasy.
I think it’s interesting to look at this and consider the implications of the relationship being a case of Yasu having immersed herself in a fantasy and then opting to bring it about to reality. Can reality hope to match the bliss found in fantasy? Can it only do so through magic? Does realising her daydream here inspire her to realise her thoughts regarding Battler and Beatrice?
George once again being a bit too weird for my liking. I wasn’t content to let Battler retreat behind the justification he had for fondling his relatives in Episode 1, I’m not content to let George retreat behind the facade of japery here. No matter how you spin it, an element of the true self always resides in the false self.
Yasu takes great effort to not let George feel her fake chest pressed against him, awkwardly diving in a way to give him her head and naught else. Fortunately our gentleman isn’t going to proceed to do a Battler and expose the whole situation.
I’ve said it before, but my main interpretation of the George and Shannon pairing isn’t that Yasu truly loves George, but that she likes the fantasy of the “ideal” relationship that heteronormativity has painted for her. It’s moments like this which make me feel more steadfast in that interpretation - if Yasu was truly happy to be with George, why would she not risk the truth to be revealed? Why was she happy to let Battler uncover her secret in Episode 1, but not the man she is on a date with here? I read that as the voice in the back of her head saying that she’s not really happy with this pairing. She’s just deluding herself into it. Once again, fantasy and reality are in opposition with one another.
Fantastic writing here where both Shannon and George agree that the sea is deep blue, only for the third party narration to call the sea grey. Hammers the point in perfectly, is honestly a little dry humour-esque, and overall further contributes to the broader concepts of fiction writing being able to strip away the meaningful emotions and complexities of the humans it claims to describe. Episode 2 is starting strong.
So yeah, we’ve seamlessly transitioned from George’s POV to Shannon’s. I suppose we need to revisit the earlier reference about how this should technically be a direct violation of Knox’s 1st, since we shouldn’t be able to follow the thoughts of the “culprit”. Of course, there’s a few catches here, any of which could be valid - we are pre-mystery, so Knox is not yet in effect; Shannon is not the culprit at this point, or we are specifically separating Yasu from Shannon for this purpose. I’m leaning towards it being the case of Knox’s 1st only being active during the mystery segments, since the main point of the rule is to stop the author from tricking the reader by giving a fake internal monologue. I mean, I suppose that is what’s happening here, but we’ve flipped our own chessboard 360 degrees so it’s best to acknowledge that it happened and just press on.
So there’s two things I’m taking away from the scene - first of all, the use of a mirror is an apt symbolic choice for dealing with Yasu’s self hatred. Is she able to accept herself? Can she be happy with the person she is now? The answer is no - she shatters the mirror, she shatters the reflection, she shatters the visage of the person she sees herself as at that moment. But, alongside this, I believe this moment is meant to be the moment that the explosives are tested. The point of no return - where Yasu is serenaded by the sweet song of vengeance, where the final step before confirming that the massacre can be arranged is completed, that the bombs that ensure her victory are still in working order. This was her last chance to back out from what must be done. But of course, it must be done.
Very complex thoughts here. The physical limitations placed upon her body are what render her as furniture; a being incapable of love. In a sense, being furniture is not to suffer, because a table does not yearn for the earthly pleasures it cannot possess; it knows its place. To suffer is human; but Yasu is to suffer grievously, as furniture attempting to become human. She dehumanises herself for what she lacks; but this very act of self hatred elevates her from furniture. By accepting this suffering, she necessarily becomes human. This is a concept that Umineko has a lot to say about, and I’m looking forward to digging into some of the future confrontational scenes between Yasu and Beatrice.
Yeah, I’m fully interpreting this as being the moment that the explosives are tested on the shrine. The thunder is the deafening cacophony of munitions ringing out.
Welcome back to Rokkenjima, everyone.
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Umireread: Legend of the Golden Witch - Chapter 6: Sandy Beach
Sat, Oct 4 1986 - 3:00PM
The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.
We finally have our first real entry to the Tips menu in the form of the Epitaph, but it’s just a copy of what it says without any further notes. Going forward I’ll just comment if something is added that I think merits inspection, other than starting each post with “no new tips this time” or “there’s something new but there’s nothing to say about it”.
I mean, I have to make the joke about Maria being the one writing the Tips, right? We get the Epitaph in our “book” and then she pulls it out of hers. Anyway Maria writes all the tips 100% canon confirmed
Battler says he’s hungry and Yasu immediately goes into “I would do anything in the world for you” mode.
Umineko is just full of microcosms of itself, isn’t it? This whole scene of the kids discussing the Epitaph is just one giant metaphor to the narrative structure of the mystery as a whole. The Epitaph tells you about a sweetfish-filled river, so you take it as the truth. You try to figure out where it is, but it’s fruitless, because it doesn’t exist. The same applies to all the testimonies and text that dances around the red truths later - if you take it at face value, you’ll find yourself in a dead end. It’s only when you take a step back and realise what the words actually mean that you arrive at your actual truth.
Absolutely WILD take. You’d really think Maria would be big into the fantasy motifs associated with castles. That being said, this probably does track - Maria has probably been on days out to actual castles and, as a kid, found them relatively mundane and boring. Under the lens of reality, theme parks are indeed the more whimsical of the two, and probably easier for her to lose herself in fantasy-wise.
Hitting the nail on the head there by focusing on the Kanji of the Epitaph being important, eh?
Yeah this was just me at every family meeting when I was her age.
Battler cutting the Gordian Knot here. This is a really interesting line, honestly - it’s a sense of pragmatic bluntness that I don’t recall us getting a lot of later (although that might just be my memory), but moreover, it shows a sense of gunning for answers without caring for the why. It’s definitely a far cry from Erika levels of depravity, but it’s neat to know how much he grows as a person as this story goes on.
I do wonder what Yasu’s thoughts are regarding this discussion. I know she’s rooting for Battler - or anyone, really - to solve the Epitaph, but I’d loved to have seen a beat-by-beat reaction of her internal thoughts to everything going on here.
Maria talks about wanting to believe in Beato and Yasu chimes in immediately. Feed that imagination and you can use her to your advantage later.
Good to know that we’re establishing the servants being willing to lie in service of fantasy this early on.
Battler goes “woah, that’s scary” and then Yasu immediately retreats and goes “nooo it’s not that scary please like me”.
I’m imagining a conversation where Maria asks Rosa for a book for her birthday, a happy Rosa asks her which one she would like, and then Maria goes “The Lemegeton :)”
I dunno man, I used to cast fire strike on scorpions at the Al Kharid mine to train my magic and they didn’t put up much resistance.
I’m imagining an alternate universe where the Rokkenjima Massacre never happens and Maria grows up as one of those girls obsessed with Star Signs and Crystals.
“Even I don’t think of myself as the sort of loser who’d laugh at something like that”. Oh Ryukishi is coming for the throat of anyone who makes fun of other peoples’ interests. I think this is quite a neat comment to drop - like, internally, part of me wants to say that he’s painting with too broad a stroke here, but at the same time I don’t think he’s wrong at all? Like, using the above example of people obsessed with astrological signs, it’s pretty common to see others poking fun at them because obviously it’s not real. But is that a valid reason to disparage them? Aren’t we all retreating into our own personal fantasies of reality, especially when it comes to more existential topics? Umineko, at its core, really is a story of compassion for your fellow man. I think this is quite a direct point for the story to make, but it’s a well warranted one.
Yasu, once again, is writing Battler as the ultimate gentleman dreamboat who would be her perfect partner.
This scene is quite interesting in that it gives you a good insight into the philosophy of the trio here - Battler, results focused, is initially disappointed that the roses will be battered by the storm. Jessica chimes in, saying that they were lucky to have lived and left an impression on them, and George echoes this by saying that the finite nature of their existence is what truly allows you to admire them in their bloom - with Battler coming around to their way of thinking afterwards. I like seeing Battler being so open minded, but I also like thinking of this as a reflection of all of their thoughts about life in general.
Oh that’s a scathing comment from Jessica. Literally one scene ago we had a callout directed towards people for looking down on what brings others joy, and now we have Jessica calling Maria’s obsession “pointless”. That has to be an intentional criticism of her character.
Mother of the year incoming.
The themes of fantasy and reality rise once again. Of course, the rose is gone - presumably it was pruned by Yasu to get Maria into this situation - but none of what the cousins or Rosa is saying here actually helps Maria. You can’t help her with the truth, you can only upset her. So do you force the truth down her throat? Do you make her even more upset, so you can feel vindicated that you’re right? Or do you approach her in a way that might actually calm her down? To be fair, I’m not entirely sure what the right approach would even be in this scenario - I’d presume the best bet is to weave some fantastical tale that the rose ran away somewhere, or that it wasn’t wilting and was actually getting ready to hide before the typhoon hit, so it’s actually safe and sound under the dirt. But anyway, I certainly know what the wrong approach is in this case!
Yasu writes the Ushiromiyas as completely rotten, who cannot be changed and aren’t worth saving. “But Battler, my hero? He’s different. He’s the good one.”
Once again, Umineko is such a good dive into the human condition. I’m almost certain that Rosa and Maria are based on a real case he saw during his time as a social worker. Rosa is a terrible mother, but you can see why she’s ended up like this. Not just because she’s issuing the same treatment Kinzo gave to her generationally, but because she’s a single mother who is not able to cope with Maria’s additional needs and struggles by herself. Her actions aren’t excused - and they certainly aren’t excusable - but you clearly understand why Rosa is like this. I’m so grateful whenever a piece of media is able to navigate a difficult topic like this with an understanding of the humanity behind both parties without just taking the easy route and vilifying one of them.
Wow, George is so great with kids! Anyway, let’s defend the mother who is beating her daughter.
It’s actually really messed up that both George and Jessica are so defensive of Rosa’s actions here. The generational trauma is real - they’ve both absolutely received similar treatment growing up and have become numb to it.
Yeah? You think what Maria wants the most right now is to be left alone? Bet you feel real good about yourselves letting that 9 year old get a beating, huh?
Through the lens of Yasu’s writing, I can’t help but see this as a venting moment - a reflection of the times that she was hurting, that she wanted someone to reach out to her, but it was too proper for them to do so and so a blind eye was turned against her. After all, it’s the Ushiromiya family, their entire tattered history is full of them simply ignoring their problems and waiting for them to go away. No doubt Yasu was frothing at the bit at the prospect of them trying to “wait for the problem to go away” while standing on top of several tons of military grade explosives.
It’s worth mentioning that I’m writing these notes as I go, because occasionally I’ll make a comment and then be pleasantly surprised by seeing a point I make be immediately reinforced by the narrative. Case in point, we have some discussion from Battler about how messed up it is for George and Jessica to act as they do in this scene.
Honestly, I want to revisit a suggestion I made earlier about Maria implanting herself onto the rose - if we read this scene with that assumption, this all hits so, so much harder. The wilted rose, the odd one out, has disappeared - and no-one seems to care. And here we have Rosa basically confirming that’s a one-to-one reflection of Maria’s school life; a wilted rose that people tolerate at best, want to see gone at worst, and the odd one out without any friends regardless. It’s just sad all round.
Also, Fortitude is the perfect pick for this scene - such a great track. Flawlessly captures the emotions at play here.
And we find ourselves in a Kinzo scene to send us out. With no witnesses in the study, this is the fantasy of an empty room. The sound of rain against the window with no-one there to care. A study draped in isolation and silence, all alone. It is left to the reader to decide what is lonelier - this vista of emptiness, or the abused child in the rose garden.
Beatrice.
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Umireread: Turn of the Golden Witch - Chapter 1: 'Furniture'
The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.
And so Episode 2 starts… With a flashback inside of a flashback! Umineko is my favourite slice of life story.
That’s a very loaded statement when the broader implications are considered. On the one hand, there’s the gender identity angle, with Yasu considering herself a normal girl (to which we say, hell yeah), but it’s also batting away the notion of furniture which we know to be abnormal (in the sense of being non-human). Either way, considering what she’s been through, Yasu being able to view herself as “normal”, even if it has to be through the lens of Shannon, is pretty heartwarming.
Oh, and sure enough, the notions of furniture are mentioned 5 seconds later. I’m always relatively pleased when a line of thinking I have is immediately reinforced by the plot once I continue.
So there was a pretty rapid succession of thoughts here - the immediate reaction was “here we go, Yasu’s at it again”, but then I took into account that this isn’t necessarily in the realm of the message bottle, so this could just be a scene that was entirely reality. But then I realised that we’re in Shannon’s POV, so yeah this is entirely Yasu exacerbating Natsuhi’s pain once again.
So far we’re getting a healthy amount of suggestion that, romantically, George was just “there”; that Shannon’s feelings for him didn’t particularly develop due to his character, but rather for just being an eligible option in the right place at the right time (similar to how Jessica saw Kanon).
Do they, though? My mind wanders to the many tales of how fake sommeliers can convince wine tasters of unusual methods of appreciating the wine; how people just assume a several hundred dollar bottle of wine must taste nicer than a cheaper vintage, when the difference could be entirely miniscule. Your perception is muddied by what you inherently believe must be the truth. It seems like an odd thing to focus in on - a rich family having expensive tastes - but when Umineko is so concerned about reevaluating your axioms, questioning why you believe the things you do, this does feel like another microcosm of the plot.
Meanwhile, Krauss joins in with Eva to bully Natsuhi regarding her headaches. An indication that the Ushiromiya blood is closer with each other than the borrowed wombs they parlay with? Or another case of Yasu inflicting as much misery onto Natsuhi via the narrative as possible?
“Pretty sure” is a funny phrase to use here - it’s meaningless at a glance, but once again, it’s hammering through the themes of glossing over reality with a layer of fantasy. Did he? Who knows. But we can believe he did to improve our view of him, can we not?
As someone who doesn’t remember the intricacies here particularly well, does JESSICA implant the ideas of romance into Shannon? That’s VERY interesting if so.
I suspect a good majority of early Episode 2 is going to be Ryukishi intentionally wounding anyone who is here for a re-read. The Furniture connotations hit hard.
And so the true villain of Umineko shows itself! Heteronormativity!
I’m using that term a little loosely - in truth, I should really be using the broader sense of “societal expectations”, since that’s the crux of what’s going on here. Shannon mentioned being a “normal” girl, but what does that mean, exactly? What is “normal”? Generally, a concept decided by the wider views of the society that surrounds us, rather than something derived from within. However, heteronormativity is a huge factor in the dangers of social expectations that Umineko highlights, as the expectation for people to enter a monogamous (straight) relationship, rampant in your teen years, can greatly shape and warp how you grow as a person.
You may think I’m talking from my own experiences there. You’d be right. You may be inclined to believe that heteronormativity greatly warped my sense of self, growing up as an asexual teenager who (at the time) thought they were strictly a cisgender male. You would also be right - I won’t be getting specifically into the personal issues I faced because of this, but you’ll definitely see a hard bias against the concept on my end (which, fortunately, Umineko also ensures to chastise).
This was a lot of words to say that “Jessica growing up believing she had to be a girly girl who likes boys warped her as a person and was the first domino in this ensuing tragedy”.
“If George were to appear at a time like that, she’d have no chance of keeping her cool.”
Anyway, here’s George.
Did they, eh? The start of Episode 2 is fairly ambiguous when it comes to the place in the timeline, so it’s interesting getting details that can help pin it down. I’m hesitant to say that this is fabricated - there’s no way Eva would go along with a fake Kinzo appearance, so surely we’re at least 2 years back?
After mentioning generational trauma and the cyclical nature of abuse in the Episode 1 Wake, it definitely stands out more whenever the mentions of abuse crop up. Thanks Kinzo.
And here we are - THE moment that the feelings take root.
One thing which I think is important to address before we progress is the nature of Shannon’s feelings - I, personally, don’t like the Shannon-George dynamic, and a big part of it is this sense that she’s only pursuing him because she wants a “normal” romance in her life, and that the walking definition of milquetoast finds himself as the most eligible option in her position. She doesn’t love George, she loves the idea of George - and of course, that can develop over time, but that’s a questionable foundation.
But here’s the thing - does that matter?
There’s an excellent video from Philosophy Tube centred around Brexit (of all things), which raises a great point about people voting when they have been misled or deceived - while they have made an “incorrect” judgement based on what they knew, does that necessarily mean that vote is invalid? Are those feelings invalid?
In my personal opinion, yes - I’d say so. But as with most philosophical questions, a personal answer is not a true answer; my thoughts are not reflective of a greater truth of the universe. You can argue that, if someone is fed lies, and they make a vote based on those lies, then that vote is still perfectly legitimate. I might not agree with you, but the argument is there to be made.
I bring this up because it’s reflective of Shannon’s situation - because I think her feelings for George developed in the “wrong” way, I’m not supportive of the relationship. But does that matter? Shannon still has those feelings, regardless of how they developed. My preconceived notions cannot override that. As before, going forward, I’m likely to be critical of George and Shannon - but my distaste does not override their legitimacy. Anyway, moving forward.
Very funny to see the narrative also writing George off as “average”.
I think it’s worth mentioning heteronormativity again here in terms of George being influenced by it. Again, the choice word is “unfortunately” - completely telling of the expectations that George has thrust upon himself. He, too, is weighed down by society demanding that he enters a normal relationship; and that’s before any of the Ushiromiya expectations factor into it.
Highlighting the use of “Irresponsibly” here.
Honestly, this scene is actually kind of phenomenal on a reread - fueled by society at large, Jessica’s desire for romance causes her to ship George and Shannon together - pushing them close even when they may not have been otherwise - which in turn causes her to spiral and doom her away from Kanon. I am a sucker for tragedy and we are delivering right now.
And here we juxtapose societal expectations with familial. Not only is George expected to marry and start a family, he’s expected to enter a political arrangement, with him being used as a vessel for the Ushiromiya that cares not for the human behind his position. The former expectations twist and warp the human; the latter ignores it entirely. Which is worse?
Eva’s discussion about how she grew to love Hideyoshi rather than marrying because of it is an interesting parallel to the discussion we’ve just had regarding Shannon falling for George for just being there. It might just be my interpretation of it, but it feels like Umineko wants to paint that Eva-Hideyoshi dynamic as a negative thing, which is an interesting reflection of how it doesn’t seem to do the same for Shannon-George. But again, maybe that’s my preconceived notions tainting the scene - it very well might just be alluding to it while passing no judgement.
Not content to dehumanise just her own son, Eva has it out for the servant girl as well.
There’s a line here about George being in college and getting “wonderful grades”, so that probably places him at about 20-21? He was born in March, so that would have made him one of the youngest when he started school in April, so he’d have entered university at 18 and graduated at 21 or 22 depending on whether he went for a Bachelors or a Masters. So with Kinzo alive, we’re probably 2-3 years in the past?
I probably shouldn’t care about this too much - Ryukishi tends to play fast and loose with the span of time in his works (fall of the Soviet Union, anyone?) so trying to pin hard numbers on this is likely an exercise in futility.
Interesting - engraving into your heart conjures the same phrasing that “Kinzo” gave Natsuhi during her study scene in Episode 1. A sly hint that such an exchange was fabricated by Natsuhi, given her use of the term here?
It’s interesting how the POV bounces back between “I” and a third person “Shannon”. Possibly Yasu taking time to distinguish or dehumanise herself?
It’s interesting how Kanon is used as a way for Yasu to express the internal emotions that she’s not allowed to paint onto Shannon. There’s quite a few scenes where Shannon isn’t allowed to react and Kanon does it for her.
And so Yasu was so perturbed by Eva and Natsuhi’s words that she added a new voice to her internal dialogue.
Did you know that the answer is love? I wonder what happens if you extrapolate that idea to the plot as a whole. I’m sure there’s no relation.
So what’s the implication here? Yasu is giving herself a pep talk into using the bombs to destroy the shrine? But if that’s the case, that narrows the window significantly, since Kinzo died pretty much immediately after Yasu solved the Epitaph, right? So either this takes place at a very specific moment in time 2 years ago, they somehow faked Kinzo coming down to get George to leave but somehow Eva didn’t become suspicious, or the timeline isn’t consistent.
Ah, so it’s about conformity - an amusing sister topic to our previous discussion on societal expectations. It’s about Yasu needing to do something drastic, to ensure that something will change; that the life of furniture does not continue forever. Blowing up the shrine, and the eventual Epitaph Murders, are a chance for her to wrestle back control of her life; to have a say in what happens, rather than be a lower life form working around others. Eva and Natsuhi were the tipping point; the moment she starts to think more of herself, they both try and rip it from her, and she’s no longer willing to sit back and let that happen.
There’s a time limit on this as well, which almost certainly contributes to this being the inciting incident for the birth of Beatrice inside of Yasu. A perfect storm of pressure on all sides.
Kanon’s arrival here is fun to think about - after all, scenes with all 3 of them are still just a raging internal monologue. These should be very interesting to think about going forward.
I wonder how much of this is reflective of reality - of course, none of this could have happened, as it was a mutable mark that healed in a few days regardless; but it’s more interesting to think of fantasy adorning reality rather than replacing it. Perhaps Yasu burnt herself with cleaning chemicals - as an act reflective of willpower. To injure oneself and feel the pain; after all, furniture cannot feel pain, so it’s a pledge to herself to be human.
And from that moment on, Shannon was tormented, doomed to suffer the curse we know as being human.
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Umireread: Table of Contents
Following an Episode's completion, the Episode Title will link to a google doc with all the chapters, if you would prefer to read in that format.
Preamble
Episode 1: Legend of the Golden Witch
Prologue
Chapter 1: Arrival at Niijima Airport
Chapter 2: Arrival at Rokkenjima
Chapter 3: Guesthouse
Chapter 4: Dining Room
Chapter 5: Epitaph on the Portrait
Chapter 6: Sandy Beach
Chapter 7: Letter and Umbrella
Chapter 8: Legend of the Gold
Chapter 9: Night of the Storm
Chapter 10: The Six Chosen by the Key
Chapter 11: Curtain-rise on Tragedy
Chapter 12: Occult
Chapter 13: The Two Who Are Close
Chapter 14: Boiler Room
Chapter 15: Besieged
Chapter 16: The Golden Witch
Chapter 17: Notebook Fragment in a Wine Bottle
Epilogue: Tea Party
Epilogue: ????
Wake
Episode 2: Turn of the Golden Witch
Prologue
Chapter 1: 'Furniture'
Chapter 2: Wonderful Utopia
Chapter 3: School Cultural Festival
Chapter 4: Chessboard Preparations
Chapter 5: Guest of Honor
Chapter 6: The Witch's Move
Chapter 7: 'Furniture' and 'People'
Chapter 8: Wedding Ring
Chapter 9: Halloween
Chapter 10: Jessica and Kanon
Chapter 11: New Rule
Chapter 12: A Suspect
Chapter 13: Wolves and Sheep Puzzle
Chapter 14: Devil's Proof
Chapter 15: Fleeting Resistance
Chapter 16: Surrender
Chapter 17: Resurrection
Chapter 18: Banquet of the Witch
Epilogue: Tea Party
Epilogue: ????
Wake
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Umireread - Legend of the Golden Witch: Wake
The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.
And now for my secret epilogue.
If my heart was not as full as it was, this would be a Post-Mortem. This would be a dissection of Episode 1, a mechanical look at the themes and thoughts developed throughout.
But this is not a heartless check of a cadaver. It is not without respect to the dead. I’m not here to talk scientifically, nor am I here to mourn; we are here to celebrate the life of the story we have just consumed. Henceforth, this is not a Post-Mortem - it is a Wake.
One of the issues with structuring Umireread as a reactionary play-by-play is that it’s difficult to say anything significantly meaningful about the story - while the opportunity has arisen from time to time, we’ll be doing the proper deep dive into the themes here.
Episode 1, while relatively simple on the surface, already establishes quite a lot of the significant themes that Umineko desires to talk about. Of note, we’ve leaned quite heavily into the concepts of truth and fantasy, the dangers of appealing to tradition and the resulting generational trauma, and the ease of dehumanisation towards those you don’t understand. I do not necessarily think that the levels that these are explored in Episode 1 by themselves are of significant note, but rather these explorations lay a phenomenal groundwork for future exploration instead of being complete topics in isolation.
Undoubtedly, the most significant theme explored in Episode 1 is that of truth versus fantasy. This exists in the text not just as a tool towards the mystery - with Battler noting in the Tea Party that he can only trust what he sees, and hence making clear that many of the seemingly unusual elements of the murders are entirely fabricated - but as a way of dealing with truths that offer nothing but suffering. Drawing from a background as a social worker, having been exposed to many terrible incidents and realities of domestic life that the greater public turns a blind eye to, Ryukishi accurately depicts denial as a coping mechanism and paints it with a nuanced brush that does not outright condone it - as evident from the cousins disparaging Maria for pushing her idealised fantasy forcibly onto them - but also ensures that the reader can see the benefits of such a tactic, with many characters being confronted with the truth in a way that is needlessly upsetting. The first twilight makes this evident with Battler being traumatised by witnessing the mangled corpses of his parents, burning the terrible picture into his psyche forever; while George is able to look away from the scene, and avoid having to carry the same weight from witnessing his would-be fiancée in such a state. There is no benefit to their mental health for many characters being privy to the mutilated states of their loved ones, yet the scenes continue to be witnessed by them, bringing naught but avoidable misery.
Being able to turn a blind eye to these truths, while it does not undo them, allows the characters to exist in “fantasy”, letting their mind save them from the horrors they do not need to comprehend. The Tea Party refers to collective fantasy as “magic”, stating that being able to retreat to such a place with others is something special, painting it as a positive thing. While I will not be getting too deep into the specifics, as I am not a theologian, we can see this phenomena in real life in cases such as Religion. Regardless of the truth of what happens to us after we die, humans are aware of the concept of oblivion, and for as long as they have had intelligent minds they have sought to reject it. Religions and other explanations that seek to deny the possibility of oblivion - even if they are not grounded in any known scientific principles or evidence - are an example of this sort of mentality. Religion, and these beliefs as a whole, act as a boon that makes the lives of the people within them better. Similarly, the world is host to significant horrors in all shapes and forms - war and famine are such broad terms that they almost feel sanitised, but the reality of them is devastating, and the fact that so many humans across the world are living in such unimaginable conditions can take a significant mental toll on the human mind. To those living in first world countries, who do not need to worry about where their next meal is coming from, whether today will be their last as explosives rain from the sky, whether continuing to live is even worth the suffering laid before them - being cognizant of these truths is not necessarily a positive thing. It is easy to forget in the information era, with easy access to the affairs of the world at a moment’s notice, but humans have spent the vast majority of their existence completely unaware of the events of far-off places. Even just a hundred years ago, if someone were to ignore the reports of a newspaper, they would be able to live their life centred on the actions and events that were immediately relevant to them. Such a life is not a moral failing; many of those who trek through social media sites, learning of terrible events in far off places, will never make a difference towards them. Their knowledge of these affairs offers no tangible benefit for them; only a further sense of dread towards the state of the world. Even those who deny this notion and insist on being educated on these matters, under some sense that this information makes them a better person, fall prey to the fantasies that have been constructed around them. While the news may lift the veil on atrocities in the middle east, there is a notable lack of reporting to many African countries and the events that are ongoing there. Would being acutely aware of the atrocities taking place over there actually benefit you in any way? Or, for the sake of your mental health, is it better to not concern yourself with negative affairs that may never impact your life in any way? Umineko takes the approach that can be constructed through game theory, stating that if truth makes your life measurably worse, and fantasy makes it measurably better, then you should opt for fantasy; on the understanding that your fantasy may not make the lives of others measurably better, and should be shared with caution and care.
On a lighter note - generational trauma. Umineko also establishes quite early on that the Ushiromiya Family are old money - while Kinzo managed to rebuild the family in the post-war era, meaning there is some separation of tradition and the Neo-Ushiromiya, the family has returned to conservatism and places great value on old fashioned ways. The family is significantly patriarchal, with the dining room arrangements establishing that grandchildren of the family matter more than the married partners of their parents. Women are thoroughly treated as being second-class, if not worse, with the term “borrowed womb” showing up on several occasions - stating that they are nothing to the Ushiromiya but a machine to pump out more children for them. This mentality takes root in Jessica, who as early as Chapter 1, feels defeated over the fact that her sex makes her inferior to men. Kinzo’s lecherous ways are also displayed as a trait that has progressed through the family, with Rudolf being a notorious womaniser and Battler having several moments where he is acting perverted towards all manner of girls in the family. Regarding the aforementioned mentality, Umineko makes sure to portray this in a negative light, by investigating how this stigma affects those who must abide by it. Kinzo is noted as having raised his children quite forcibly, being no stranger to beating them for insolence or perceived misbehaving. This iron-fisted approach to parenting has carried through to the next generation, with most of the cousins admitting to having received beatings, or physically receiving them through the course of the story. This most notably flares up in the portrayal of Rosa and Maria, with Rosa having trouble maintaining control over her life as a single mother to a neurodivergent child, exacerbating the problem by lashing out uncontrollably as she has learned from her father. Rosa’s reaction to being awoken by Genji in Chapter 7 is reminiscent of deep-seated trauma, believing her being stirred is an inherently negative sensation that will be accompanied by heavy reprimanding; potentially of a physical nature. This manifests in her tendency to violently beat Maria, ensuring that the cycle of abuse continues for generations to come, should the Ushiromiya family not be put to a stop before that.
Finally, Umineko makes explicit in the Witches’ Tea Party about the divide between treating characters with love and respect, identifying the human behind them, and seeing them as nothing more than parts of a story. This is reflected even within the story by the nature of dehumanisation, with characters such as Eva removing the humanity from Shannon and seeing her as naught but “some servant girl”. In the same way that someone reading a story with no intent to engage past a surface level understanding would reduce a character to mere tropes - for example, boxing Eva off as a “girl boss” and only engaging with her through the lens of that trope rather than as the complicated character she is - characters who are vibrant with their humanity have it taken away by those who do not care to understand them. As we will come to see, one of the beating hearts of Umineko is that of Yasu wanting someone to understand her; to see her not as a cold-hearted serial killer, nor as an illegitimate child seeking revenge, nor as a trans girl boss who can do no wrong. Anyone reducing her to an aspect of her personality and failing to engage with her beyond that lens has failed to fulfil her wish. She wants to be truly known, appreciated in her entirety by the uncountable aspects that are present in every human being. After all, if you reduce a character to a surface level trope - to but a single purpose in life - then they would be no different to a piece of Furniture.
Umineko will continue to build upon these themes and explore them in the Episodes to come - however, even isolated from that, Episode 1 has done a remarkable job of establishing and exploring these concepts in a way that most readers would fail to comprehend on an initial reading, let alone an immediate follow up should they decide to do so again without progressing further. In the same way that a character in a story must be appreciated in their entirety to be seen as human, so too must Umineko be consumed in full to truly appreciate the work that it sets out to do. After all, you must open your own heart to be able to realise the one that lies before you. Without love, the truth cannot be seen.
Beyond these themes, Umineko Episode 1 is a good piece of literature - by itself, it offers what feels like a relatively realistic depiction of a rich family thrust into a murder mystery situation, where the characters flail and doubt themselves while the clock runs down on what could have been an avoidable tragedy. There is a pervasive sense of dread as more characters are killed off and the survivors struggle with the reality that they do not even know what is killing them. It indulges in horror tropes that we do not really get to see in future episodes, as fantasy is accentuated and tools are provided to help cope with the mystery and avoid drowning in the uncertainties that plague would-be solvers of Episode 1; when a culprit could be identified relatively readily, but cannot be confirmed due to the probatio diabolica inherent to the possibility of a 19th person, or other outcomes such as hidden passages or inexplicable scientific tools that could bypass restrictions placed on apparent closed rooms.
Episode 1 is at its best when it’s really digging into the humanity of the characters - I have listed the first twilight as a specific highlight already, with the visceral reactions feeling incredibly real - perhaps to an extent that I would not be surprised if Ryukishi was drawing upon a specific incident he witnessed during his time as a social worker. However, Umineko is at its worst when the opposite occurs, when humanity is cast aside for the purposes of narrative or exploration. There are several instances when characters will have just gone through unimaginable grief, and within hours are casually chatting about concepts like children who just read something cool on wikipedia. And of course, the story is served a great disservice by opening so heavily with Battler attempting to grope his family members.
Umineko Episode 1 also appears to dwell quite readily in subversion. In many ways, it looks to make the reader lower their guard, before hitting them in a way to ensure that they know they are reading something different to what they are used to. The game opens with a jovial mood and several tracks reminiscent of more generic visual novels, before introducing more complicated musical arrangements and the horror themes further on. The Tea Party in particular directly tricks anyone expecting Umineko to be a rehash of Higurashi, making it clear mere moments later that this will be a very different tale to the time loop mystery that many had read before. Battler’s antics may also be viewed through this lens, with early Battler appearing more like a generic protagonist in a work targeted towards otaku, erring on the side of lechery and having it swept aside as a joke. Whether this was a wise approach, given that early Umineko (and much of the merchandising) is designed to appeal towards otaku while the work itself is a scathing criticism of them, is yet to be seen.
And, if I may finish by indulging myself once more, I just want to quickly reflect on the current state of the reread. I have no doubts that we will be finishing this - while I can’t guarantee that I can handle near-daily updates for the next 20 weeks, this shan’t be a project that will be abandoned halfway. We will progress to the very last lines of Episode 8, by hell or high water.
We are around 32,000 words into this extended analysis. I wasn’t quite sure what form I wanted this to take when we started, beyond a vague idea of the format, but I feel like we’ve already got past the initial hurdles, dealt with some growing pains, and settled into a good approach regarding what should be addressed and omitted for each chapter. Which parts should be acknowledged out of interest, what jokes should be made for levity in our own work, and what demands a more thorough investigation under a microscope. While Episode 1 is actually one of the longer episodes, funnily enough, I still foresee us easily writing more than 200,000 words by the time the pen is placed down after Episode 8. I anticipate Umireread to be longer than even the longest Episode of Umineko.
That being said, thank you to everyone who has engaged with this so far - while this is still a project I would want to undertake even if it was all being projected into the void, the humble amounts of interaction have been good to see. I appreciate that we seem to have a couple of readers coming back for each post, and a few people who have left their own comments and thoughts - which have all been interesting to read. As I said at the very start of this work, to all the people who have joined us already, to all the people joining us now, and to anyone who may join us, no matter how far in the future, thank you for taking part in this journey. I hope that, just as the love evident in every part of Umineko radiates from the page, the love within my own words can be seen by all that they reach.
With that, Episode 1 comes to a close.
Seven more to go.
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Umireread: Legend of the Golden Witch - Chapter 3: Guesthouse
Sat, Oct 4 1986 - 12:00 Noon
The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.
Interesting note in the tips about how there’s canonically multiple “on” servants on Rokkenjima, and that Kanon and Shannon just happen to be the two that we see. I wonder what Yasu’s other personalities are like… and how many costumes she has to be able to fool the rest of the family.
Not entirely related to Umineko, but I do like how George is still considered “one of the kids” at age 23. Speaking as a 27 year old, entirely accurate, he’s still a baby, but it’s so common to see pieces of media treat people in their early 20s as bonafide adults - so this is really refreshing to read.
BATTLER DON’T SEXUALISE THE FUCKING CHILD. This is undoubtedly the low point of Umineko jesus christ
There’s a point made here about Maria always keeping her promises - that’s joining the “George never lies” in the folder of things to keep an eye out for going forward.
George??? You can’t just laugh and say “the cousins didn’t feel complete” without Battler in response to him talking about groping a 9 year old??????? Like, maybe there’s a point here about how Yasu would have been a similar age to Maria the last time she met Battler and crushed on him, but really this is just indefensible, creepy writing that the story is much worse for.
Moving swiftly on - it’s interesting how Kanon is introduced as being around 2 years younger than the group, but Shannon is described as being the same age. I suppose it’s an intentional ploy to make sure they’re not twins (which would raise more suspicion about them being the same person, and could risk skirting close to Knox’s 10th), but it’s still something to take note of. I wonder what the ages of the other “on” servants are given as?
Yasu once again stuttering as her mind fills with thoughts of “hot boy”.
I hate the justification here. Like, I’m glad that Ryukishi is at least trying to paint Battler as more than a mindless perv by saying he does it as an act to lighten the mood, but like, you’re still writing him as a perv. You can just have him be charming without trying to randomly sexually harass every girl he meets. But then I guess he wouldn’t be taking after Kinzo, eh?
So. This scene.
I think of all analytical re-reads of Umineko, this is probably the most notorious scene to pick apart, since it’s simultaneously another case of Battler being a creep at the start of the story, but arguably one of the most important moments where Yasu’s entire plan was inches away from falling apart.
On the one hand, I am a sucker for the stuff going on behind the scenes here - Yasu wants to be caught. She wants Battler to discover that Shannon is a fake identity, but Battler being unable to “commit to the bit” (if you will) prevents him from doing so, and there is no universe where he is able to prevent the massacre before it even begins. It’s dramatic irony at its finest.
But… What message does that really give? The moral is “if Battler was more of a perv then everything would have been okay”, which is, uh, not good? The most charitable reading here is one of Yasu writing this scene intentionally as “I wish Battler was more forward/aggressive but he’s a real gentleman”, which I’m still not super on board with. That potentially has some insight into Yasu’s psyche and messed up relationship with sexual urges, especially if you see it through the lens of a metaphor for Yasu being unable to engage with other people in that way, but that still leaves us with the big issue here.
The biggest problem is this is another scene of Battler being a creep far before the audience is hooked. So far, we’ve been introduced to almost 20 characters, none of them have really done anything yet, the plot hasn’t progressed beyond “they’re here for a family meeting”, and our protagonist is out here sexually harassing women once again. I legitimately do not blame anyone who gets to this point and then immediately puts Umineko down, never to pick it up again. Maybe this would have been a good scene to put at the start of Episode 2 for the earlier reasons, but as is, it just does far more harm than good to the story as a whole. Nevertheless, we powered through it the first time, so we’ll keep pressing through here as well.
Nice pause before furniture here. I can’t help but feel that she scrambled for that excuse, and that the real reason she’s hesitant to stop people from Battler-ing her is, once again, because she’s desperate for her deception to be uncovered.
It’s extremely funny to see this just plainly stated and brushed away. I sure hope this isn’t foreshadowing to Kanon and Shannon being the illegitimate heir of the Ushiromiya family or something.
Alright, after Battler being the absolute worst against Maria and Shannon, I think we’re through the low point. Don’t get me wrong, we’re about to barrel into the inheritance discussion, which is possibly one of the driest parts of the whole story, but I’m fairly sure all the perv stuff is out the way and we can stop being disgusted at the guy we’re supposed to root for.
There’s a throwaway comment here from Maria about seeing herself as unsociable and it just kills me. My heart breaks for her. Although we haven’t got to the point of her going full creepy kid, so who knows, maybe I’ll grow to hate her again.
Interesting first mention of the war here. It’s one of those details that seems superfluous in the moment, and you’re probably skipping over it automatically, but the history here is fairly significant.
The big door sound effect in Umineko is definitely one of the more iconic ones in it. I can’t help but think that it sounds a lot like a video tape being played (heck, maybe it is, sound design is all about lying to your ears). I know it’s likely unintentional, but it feels thematic with the whole elements of having a fantasy story play out before your eyes.
bore-ral intensifies
And here’s our Golden Witch.
Umineko is a masterclass in misdirection with a lot of its writing. There’s a common theme where it will walk you through a truth, but then go “but no, you’re smarter than that, that can’t be right” and make you abandon the reality that it just waved in your face. In this case, it’s the discussion about the Witch in the Forest and Folklore - you’re told there’s a Witch out there, but come on, you and I both know that these sorts of stories are just made up to stop kids from running into dangerous places, so that’s clearly false. Anyway, while your ego is being massaged, there actually is a Witch in the Forest that the kids needed to stay away from, get rug pulled nerd
Would the 2 year time period of the portrait being installed roughly line up with Kinzo’s death? I’m not sure if it’s just an element of the reworked graphics, but you can see a portrait in Kinzo’s study as early as the Prologue, so I’m wondering if they just took the one that he had in there and placed it out here.
There’s a line here about the whole thing being creepy as hell - I can’t help but wonder whether she’s actually talking about the portrait, or the whole covering for Kinzo act.
No wonder you feel the same misfortune, given she’s the one who blew up the shrine to test that the bombs still worked.
Aha, here’s the dismissal of the sexism in the Ushiromiya family that I was looking for. I’m happy to rescind some of my comments about the presence of it in Chapter 1, although the story did leave that hanging in the air a little long for my liking. Especially considering Battler needed way more redeeming features to make up for his actions in these first few chapters.
Once again, very bold of the story to be going into excruciating detail about the Ushiromiya family before any of them have been endeared to us. Getting all of the details out of the way now definitely makes for a better story later on, but man, I just wish that anything of import had actually happened yet.
A lot of the discussion on chauvinism and sexism takes a very sorrowful tone when viewed through the lens of Yasu’s writing. If women are only good as “borrowed wombs” and she’s reduced to the level of furniture after the accident…
I also feel pretty sorry for Natsuhi here as a fish out of water. I honestly can’t wait for Episode 5 to see her front and centre again.
And then they all starved. The end.
God this scene is so good. Jessica is taking any chance she can to rebel against having to pretend Kinzo is still alive. Seeing her go “I feel better without him” and having Natsuhi slam her down for knowing the real connotation of that is *chef’s kiss*
A sealed room… I’m sure we won’t be seeing many of them in the future.
It’s interesting how our first proper fantasy scene isn’t even related to the murders or the actions of Yasu, but of Krauss pretending Kinzo is still alive.
Kinzo would know all about having your own body used as firewood.
Honestly, it’s kind of incredible how this scene immediately establishes the servants as associates for the fantasy scenes. As soon as we get the red truth that Kinzo died before the game begun in the Episode 4 Tea Party, anyone revisiting this scene really has the entire game blown open for them.
Sure is, buddy.
Sure are, buddy.
The mental image of Genji just sitting alone in the study and kicking back as he drinks to himself is so funny to me. I can’t help but wonder what he was feeling in these moments of protecting the masquerade.
Yasu giving the gold medal to Yasu here. Everyone else is unworthy.
…Well, that’s what the story is about, at the end of the day. Dealing with the true leader of the Ushiromiya family having multiple people in the same body.
We’re still in the opening stretch and we’re already repeating ourselves, woof. I’m glad we’re getting more Kinzo time since he’s the one actively reminding us of the actual plot, but I don’t think we covered any particular ground here that we didn’t already show off in the Prologue. I wonder if anyone has done a count of all the times we get a proper “BEATORICHEEEE” in the story.
I’m really glad Jessica is having so much fun with the Kinzo lies. She clearly doesn’t want to keep up the facade, but has to, so she’s making her own entertainment out of it to cope with the situation. As someone constantly inventing personal win conditions and games to play to stave off the suffocating mundanity of a normal life, I relate to that hard.
End of Chapter.
Bonus round!
Ah, I'd entirely forgotten about the Fukuin house stuff - yeah, you're right. I'm actually mildly disappointed by that, since it kind of nullifies the point on Shannon and Kanon's names being a reflection of their Ushiromiya heritage (since they're just names given out to all the orphans), and also the idea of having more personalities than just these 2 was kind of fun. I'd definitely be interested in seeing someone take a stab at a forgery with a third Yasu personality in the mix.
Seeing George projected onto Battler is definitely an interesting take, although I'm still a little concerned that this is falling more into "Ryukishi is horny" territory than a fully fleshed narrative idea. As much as I'd love to give him the benefit of the doubt, it's a bit too suspect given some of the treatment Rika and Satoko received in Higurashi. I suppose the real thing to see is whether this crops up again post-message bottles, or whether we can truly confine this to Yasu's writing.
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Umireread - Legend of the Golden Witch: Epilogue: ????
The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.
SHE’S HEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Considering I had very few thoughts on Bernkastel during my first playthrough, I’m ecstatic to really delve deeper into her this time round. I cannot wait for Erika to show up in the Answer Arcs. There will be so much gushing over the gremlins then, mark my words.
I have terrible news about the Answer Arcs for you, Bern.
Bernkastel comes in quite strongly with Umineko’s relationship to fiction, which isn’t necessarily a new concept by this point, but shes does so from a more heartless angle. There is interest in the humans, but not the humanity - the characters in the tale are mere playthings, inhabitants of a doll house to be bent and broken until the one playing with them decides to abandon them. From that sense, Bern is clearly the antagonist of the story at this point, but it’s not framed that way in the text for those who have not dug deeper. Beatrice is about understanding the human, Bernkastel is about using them. Diametrically opposed from the get go - but without love, this cannot be seen.
Simultaneously building the point that Beatrice’s motive is inscrutable, an opponent who wants to be defeated, while reinforcing the point we just made about caring for the humans behind the characters versus simply being interested in them. If characters in a story are just vessels for your entertainment, puppets made to dance for your whims, of course you’re not going to be able to understand someone who is treating that puppet like a living, breathing person. I’d say it’s a one-to-one comparison of a child doing exactly that at a real life puppet show; while good adults wouldn’t necessarily discourage it, and hurt the feelings of the child, everyone would inherently think the care of the child is misplaced into the inanimate puppets they’re attending to. But of course, in this case, it’s the child who is right, and the adults who are wrong.
Very amusing to see Bern emerge from a 100 year time loop and immediately go “I survived that endurance test but if this story sucks then that’ll be the death of me”.
Beatrice sure isn’t “one individual woman”, indeed! There are only 16 people, after all.
I wanted to make this observation back in Chapter 15, but opted to save it for here, as it felt more appropriate to end Episode 1 on it rather than let it get buried a little further back.
Umineko drenches itself in chess metaphors - from the aesthetic to the technical, through and through, Umineko wants you to associate it with chess. Battler and Beatrice are playing chess on the gameboards. Umineko is about playing chess.
But of course, Umineko is littered with misdirection. You’ve seen all the ways it’s lied to you so far, right? You don’t honestly believe Umineko is about playing chess right?
Good - because Umineko isn’t about playing chess. It’s about playing Mao.
Bern’s interesting philosophy towards literature surfaces once more. Once you’ve grasped the meaning behind it - the intention; the golden truth - you are free to do whatever you want with it. But there is no care or love in Bern’s interpretation. Once it’s your story, you rip out its guts for your amusement. What else would you do with it, after all?
I think there’s something to be said about how cruel and merciless this is. We’ve already established several camps when it comes to the consumption of literature - the dilettantes, who care not for deeper meanings or even the real intentions behind a work, and are happy to repurpose it for their own devices. As a contemporary example, you can see this as the type of people who will write schlocky fanfiction about characters, careless to the canon and happy to put words into their mouths that they would never say, for baseless interpretations that they favour. You have Beatrice’s approach, to understand the humans behind the characters, to be able to reach golden truths behind the media itself. I suppose to continue the fanfiction metaphor (which is apt, considering the nature of forgeries), these would be written stories that feel lifted straight out of the source material. That perfectly complements it and would fit in as an actual part of the world it came from.
Bern’s camp is the most perverse - to reach the understanding required of the Beatrice camp, and then gleefully reject it for your amusement. This one doesn’t fit as nicely into the metaphor we’re developing, but if you’re willing to humour me for a moment, I’d say we can represent it as fanfiction that goes against the wishes of the canon. That, while far from amateur, deviates from the story; making main characters go down different paths, engage in different love interests, killing off characters like a curious god testing their powers.
Of course, this immediately feels like a disconnect - after all, how is that a bad thing? Isn’t it good that fans are engaging with the work and exploring alternate possibilities? Well, I’m absolutely not arguing that someone writing an unconventional ship for a series they like is somehow doing it out of malice. But the point here is that, when a story is written, the author has a specific intent. If they pour their heart and soul into these characters, they know what they want to happen with them; if the pen conjures up the human inside of the vessel, then the author is writing what has to happen with them. If you are able to see those very elements, and choose to defy them, you’re ripping apart the manuscript. You’re crushing it as you please. In an extreme case, such a thing could be quite upsetting for an author to see - to have their beloved characters defiled in such a way.
But, most importantly, we’re not talking about fanfiction of a popular anime or the like. In Umineko’s case, we’re talking about what was a real life event - with real life human beings. Reconsider this example not with a fanwork of shonen or a cartoon, but of fiction written about a tragedy. If modern examples are too evocative, you could consider how this applies to something like the Titanic. What is the morality of using that disaster as set dressing, without having thoroughly researched it yourself? What of the James Cameron film, and the love story contained within? What of the many other terrible Titanic films?
It’s kind of hard to come up with specific examples for Bern’s camp. For example, you could look at how YIIK used a real life tragedy irresponsibly as part of its plot, but you could just as easily argue that was a case of them being dilettantes rather than people who had actively cared for the incident they were using.
I don’t think I’ve conveyed all that in the optimal way, but I hope the point tracks. I suppose it boils down to “Beatrice’s philosophy on literature is good, the Dilettante philosophy is bad, Bern’s philosophy is the worst”.
Once again, it’s up to you how much you want to respect a story once you’ve uncovered the heart of it. Treat it with love, or scrap it for parts. Either option is valid in the greater scheme of the uncaring universe.
Bern really wants us to break Beato, huh?
Well, I suppose she’s not actually talking to us here. Unless I’m mistaken, this is Bern talking to Ange, right?
I suppose we should address the elephant in the room, and how the Witches’ Tea Party fits into the greater canon of Umineko. While we’ve stated that the meta scenes in Purgatory are a reflection of the mental struggle that Tohya is facing, there isn’t really an equivalent parallel to be made here.
I think it’s something of a fool's errand to try and explain this all away with reality. After all, we seem to be safe to say that Witches do “exist” in the greater When They Cry canon; Higurashi was inevitably coated in supernatural elements by the nature of the time loop, and Bernkastel referring to those events here does confirm that Umineko shares the same universe (unless it’s a significant misdirect on Ryukishi’s part, which is a non-zero possibility, but I’ll be discounting that for our purposes). Featherine existing in Higurashi Gou further ties the universe together, so I think we’re relatively safe to say that the Witches’ realm exists as a narrative tool to connect the Sea of Fragments that contains the gameboards of Higurashi, Umineko, and Ciconia.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that this is free of meaning, however. If Bernkastel is talking to Ange here, then we can’t discount the possibility of these scenes being representative of the mental struggles that Ange is facing. The gameboard layer of message bottles and forgeries, the meta layer of Tohya coming to terms with what transpired, and an additional layer of Ange attempting to do the same in her situation. Of course, we’re not going to properly be able to explore that until we’ve actually met Ange - but we’ll get to that in due time.
And that’s a wrap on Episode 1! For all the criticisms levied throughout, I do think Episode 1 is a good time - of course, it’s hindered by the fact that it’s effectively just a giant introduction to Umineko, and there is no piece of (quality) media where the pilot can exceed the highs that the show will go on to achieve. However, we’ve had a good establishment of themes, exemplary work on what to expect going forward, and is obviously very meticulously crafted in a way that I hope even new readers can see (even if they can’t quite comprehend exactly what is going on behind the scenes). Umineko is actually three stories layered on top of each other at all times - the mystery layer, of “truth” and “reality”, the fantasy layer, where the witches dance and false closed rooms are concocted; and the meta layer, of stories penned by broken people trying to understand themselves through what they have written. In this sense, Episode 1 has been nothing short of an artisanal lasagne - and the recipe is only improving as we go.
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Umireread: Legend of the Golden Witch - Chapter 14: Boiler Room
Sun, Oct 5 1986 - Indeterminate
The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.
And we’re off… with another Wikipedia section.
I kind of let it slide last time, when they were talking about Maria and childhood development, but I want to take that back now. George lost both his parents in a horrific murder moments ago. There is absolutely no way he would be engaging in intellectual discussion about the specifics of locked room mysteries, in the same way that the trio shouldn’t have been going “this is also interesting from a sociological standpoint!” a couple hours after they saw their parents/love interest mutilated in an abhorrent murder scene. Bad writing.
Gonna be real: this is fairly uncomfortable. It’s played lightheartedly, but hitting Maria several times, even semi-playfully, feels very inappropriate after the scene in the rose garden. None of these characters are acting anything like they should under the current circumstances.
This story is very obviously fictional and fantastical in nature.
And so we get to the big scene. While the first twilight is my personal highlight of Episode 1, I’m pretty sure most people agree that this one is probably the most important.
So, Yasu throws away the title of furniture, and sacrifices the Kanon persona, knowing there is no turning back now - there’s no shortage of analyses for that. What really stood out to me here was the roulette discussion - it’s something that has been brought up quite a few times, as the concept of the Demons’ Roulette is pervasive throughout Umineko, but I haven’t had any major thoughts on it so far. Here, as the focus, I think the roulette is a reflection of the massacre as a whole.
Yasu wants to be stopped - but she, at this point, knows that’s almost certainly not going to happen. The family are too caught up in their own drama, they’re too self centred, their thoughts have turned to staying alive rather than solving the Epitaph. They want to solve the murders, but they’re not on the right wavelength to understand Yasu. Her motive is inscrutable, her methods esoteric. The Ushiromiya family is doomed. The roulette is red or black.
She, however, is the zero on the roulette. Yasu is the green. When Kinzo spoke earlier of the high risk, high reward of the roulette, this is what he meant - either everyone dies, Yasu gets her revenge, we see the likely outcome of red or black. But if someone solves the Epitaph - if someone understands Yasu - if someone discovers her, this extra spot on the roulette, they win. And she wants to be understood. By someone - anyone. She wants them to win.
Beatrice’s game is one where she always wins; she casts a dice and cares not for the result, as she is content with any. If the roulette is red or black, the house wins, she profits. But if the house loses - and the family are rewarded with their 10 ton payout - she still wins. Because she has traded all the gold for an honour that no money could ever buy.
Man, it always feels unfortunate when I have to go directly from making a deep point to a more surface level observation, or comedic note - but I do like the consistent use of “makeup” across the murders. Very funny when it’s quite literal for the faked deaths. But even for the real bodies - earth to earth - it adds this layer of doubt and fantasy to the level which should have none.
Yasu has had little control in her life. She has suffered because of the actions of others, from the moment of her conception to where she is now. The events of October 4 and 5 - presuming the roulette hits red or black - is a final gambit to wrestle control back from the world that denied her. And just as Yasu decides to go out on her own terms, Kanon wrestles the stake from his chest, a final action that gives him the say in his own demise. It is an act of agency - an act of one who is no longer furniture.
Kumasawa, once again, is having WAY too much fun with this. She can’t even hide the smile this time.
I think there’s something to say about the Ushiromiya pride being their downfall here - bodies are dirty. They don’t want to disgrace their own hands with them. They must send for the doctor so that they may make the inspection. If any of them had taken a pulse, checked for themselves, or even tried to rush to assist - the plan would be over. But Yasu knows that these people will fall prey to the fantasy. Why would they help her? No-one ever has. This must have been cathartic to write.
So given the Kinzo situation, this must be the moment that Natsuhi immediately clocks the servants as being culpable. Being aware of what she knows, and aware of what she knows they know, contextualises a lot of her upcoming jitteriness towards them.
You know, we haven’t had Kanon’s death tip yet. I suppose it might be because they’re going with the whole “he could be alive in Nanjo’s office”, but it’s another cute little hint that something’s off here.
Oh we have it again with the characters going off about the history of polydactyly in the family. Umineko is at its best when we are really feeling the human behind these characters. It’s at its worst when they’re listing off facts in a scientific manner right after someone close to them just died.
Oh yeah we get Kinzo’s death tip before Kanon’s. This scene is so suspicious before you even start to really think about it.
So that means Krauss and Shannon are in the clear, right? After all, we saw Krauss with half a face, and Hideyoshi told us that Shannon was there with half a face as well. It’s a good thing that there are no co-conspirators here who would lie to us to preserve the mystery.
Oh, the clock’s getting bigger as we progress through the Epitaph. I like that a lot. Very imposing.
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Umireread: Legend of the Golden Witch - Chapter 8: Legend of the Gold
Sat, Oct 4 1986 - 10:00PM
The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.
Taking a quick second here to say that I’m kind of disappointed that the Steam Version doesn’t play the OP every time you boot it up. I really loved booting it up every day during my initial read and watching it to get myself hyped again. Like yeah, I suppose nowadays I can just watch it on youtube whenever I want, but it’s just not the same, you know?
It’s almost like having the fantasy they’d constructed of their parents shattered by the grim truth of reality is a negative thing or something. Someone should write a 1.1 million word visual novel about that idea
23 year old talking down to a 17 year old moment. It’s always funny how young adults see themselves as full fledged adults rather than kids.
Yeah wow this scene is really going all in on the theme, huh. At first glance, it’s a pretty normal scene of kids being upset that their parents are mad. But really it’s just another proxy of the horrors of truth without kindness.
Saving this as a reaction image for whenever Battler says something perverted.
And so our great countdown begins! Honestly one of the coolest parts of the overall mystery of Umineko is going through the motions of there being a potential 19th person on the island, to there only being the known 18, to Kinzo being dead, to Shannon and Kanon being a single person. So, so good.
Another one of those lines where Ryukishi definitely smiled to himself while writing it. Yeah, there sure aren’t a full 18 people on the island!
Oh, and here’s our first Devil’s Proof - it’s interesting that Battler is the one to bring it up. I wonder if this is a concept that he discovered on his own, or whether it’s another hand-me-down from Kyrie that he’s grown accustomed to.
And hey, Chessboard Thinking! I guess this chapter is just “THEY SAID THE THING” central. I suppose that makes sense given this chapter is basically named after the episode title.
I’m not so fond of it when Ryukishi has a character do something and then immediately use the narrator to talk about them doing it, but this kind of line is really good in my opinion. We picked up on Battler using this type of thinking on the boat in Chapter 1, and now we’re getting confirmation here (several hours later) that it’s something that he picked up from Kyrie. If nothing else, I’m glad that Ryukishi isn’t the kind of writer who’d say this without justifying it elsewhere with an example.
Kyrie caps off this section by saying that her logic is full of holes, but honestly, she lays out a pretty solid deduction. It’s funny how many times someone will get something right and then go “nah that can’t be it”.
Man, my heart really breaks for Maria here. REALLY liking her more than I did first time round. I kind of want to say that she’s even more upset here than she was at Rosa’s mother of the year moment in the rose garden, which is an interesting look into her psyche if so.
God, the cut back to Kyrie here is stark. A 9 year old is all by herself in the hall, practically traumatised, and here’s Kyrie going “hey she can give us the answers!”
What makes this one interesting, however, is that it’s framed as Kyrie trying to cheer Battler up. I’m… not entirely sure I agree with this being portrayed as a good thing? Like, it’s not a conversation Maria will learn about, so it’s not going to hurt her, but being so lackadaisical to someone else’s suffering doesn’t sit well with me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the world’s biggest advocate for “Don’t set yourself on fire to make others feel warm”, but I kind of wish there was a little more here about care for Maria’s wellbeing from at least Battler (if not Kyrie). I don’t know, this one just feels a little off.
So this is probably going to be my hottest take for the entire reread - but I don’t like this line.
When you read it the first time, it’s a HUGE point of intrigue, and honestly one that causes a lot of readers to perk up and start paying attention. After all, murder mystery, Epitaph talks about sacrifices, and now someone says they’re going to be killed? That’s got to be important.
But the thing is, I feel it’s a little… unwarranted? Like, in hindsight, this line feels way too dramatic. I’d argue it’s unearned, honestly. I’m not dismissing Rudolf’s sentiment behind this line, but given what he’s alluding to - a confession about Battler’s true lineage - it definitely feels like it’s being written unrealistically to make the story seem more mysterious. I just can’t see anyone actually saying this in this specific manner for the given topic.
Of course, a facetious “You’re probably gonna kill me” doesn’t carry the same weight, so trying to find something that keeps the mystery without sounding needlessly obtuse is kind of a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too situation. I guess I’d opt for something like “There’s something that’s been building up for a while… And it’s gonna come to a head tonight. …Honestly, it’ll be a miracle if I’m still here in the morning.” That’s still a bit needlessly obtuse, but it feels way more natural given the circumstances.
After the earlier observation of “Episode 1 is written with an intent by Yasu to make Natsuhi suffer”, I can’t help but notice it showing up over and over again.
Once again we’re literally telling it as it is. I do wonder how different people would be treating this if it hadn’t first been introduced as Genji dressed up as Beatrice to discredit it.
Yeah Yasu is REALLY going in on Natsuhi here. It’s uncanny.
LIKE FOR REAL, ALL IN
You know, I was about to comment about how tense this scene is, getting everyone into position for the first twilight. Making a point to separate the different groups. And then Battler just has to go and say this, huh.
Another scene where both Shannon and Kanon are being addressed independently by Genji. Kind of interesting to think of it as the final meeting for how the night is going to go.
A special case indeed.
Another win for self indulgent self insert Yasu writing her to be sleeping in the same place as her crush. Next you’ll tell me there was only one bed.
It’s EXCEPTIONALLY funny to have Shannon gushing over Battler, and then the plot IMMEDIATELY misguiding you to George. I legit don’t think there is any way you could even notice this on a first time read unless you were approaching Umineko from an uncannily adversarial approach. Like, I think it’s reasonable to pick up on Kanon potentially liking Battler from the big bulging muscles scene earlier, but unless you’d somehow figured out them both being the same person, I don’t think you’d really be able to pick up on this detail from what you’d already seen from Shannon.
Ah, and here’s the Fukuin name drop. Very funny that the latter part of it is the “on” Kanji once again. I wonder how many more examples of Kanji wordplay we’ll see as hints to the Epitaph?
I made a note back in Chapter 3 where I’d forgot about this detail and thought the other “on” servants were additional identities of Yasu. I actually edited that post to respond to a reply about that and address it, in case anyone missed that.
You know, it’s very telling that George’s response to Shannon saying “I would have to obey that request if it was an order, since I’m furniture” isn’t “you’re not furniture”, it’s “that’s an order”. Very romantic.
George’s relationship skills in this scene overall are just pretty creepy. The impression I’m getting is that Yasu is writing this from a space of heteronormativity - by all sensible metrics, George looks like an atrocious partner for her here, but this is the kind of relationship that society wants you to have, right? He’s a rich disney prince here to whisk her away for a happily ever after. She should want this, right? She doesn’t believe that in her heart, but she feels like she should want it, so it’s written out of a place of obligation rather than love.
For some reason I remember Thank you for Being Born playing here, and man, it really isn’t. Pass isn’t a bad song, but man, I do not care for it. Another one that feels overly generic - funnily enough, it kind of reflects the forced heteronormativity by sounding like what “heartfelt confession” music should be without really saying anything special, but I’m almost certain that isn’t intentional.
Yeah George? You sure understand the meaning? Not even a hint that there’s something more going on under the surface here?
Really, the most realistic part of Umineko is that I’d also want to kill everyone in my immediate vicinity if George proposed to me.
Oh the glass shattering here is phenomenal. Perfect mood setting.
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Umireread: Turn of the Golden Witch: Chapter 2 - Wonderful Utopia
The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.
This is a promising chapter name. I presume we’re in for quite the fantastical time, then?
Not content to just monopolise the scream market, Jessica’s VA corners the funny market with an extremely exaggerated read on hugs and kisses. I honestly couldn’t imagine reading this without the voice acting.
Ah, I suppose the scene we opened on wasn’t the first time she saw an aquarium then - although it does say something that she can go on that date again and have it feel like the first time. Young love, eh?
This is an interesting one to think about - Yasu definitely wouldn’t have seen this in a positive light. I can’t help but wonder where things would be if George had tried to be a little more forceful.
I suppose this falls more towards a Bern-esque hypothetical that rips the guts out of the characters for the sake of a story - the answer would be that a fundamentally different George erases the human that Ryukishi has built up inside him, and the plot effectively doesn’t happen with an early exposure of Yasu as Furniture.
God man. I love Jessica so much. My heart really breaks for her all the time.
Yasu is unsettled by how extreme her Beatrice persona is, the lengths she has forced her to go to revoke her status as Furniture - but none of this would have been possible without that very forceful push to destroy the status quo.
I, too, loved having my imaginary friends mess around with others when I was younger.
I’m… pretty ambivalent towards all this discussion of the mirror and the torii shrine? I’m not seeing much of a deeper meaning here - beyond the initial assumption of it being the adornment of the test of the bombs - so all the framing of it as a magic sealing mirror that stopped Beatrice from existing falls flat for me. The fact that it’s discussed in this much detail makes me think I might be missing something here, but I’m starting to suspect that it is just intentional misdirection.
I remember being extremely bored at the start of Episode 2 on my first read, but man, it’s really out for blood with anyone rereading it. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the sections focusing so heavily on ‘Furniture’ hit harder once you know the connotations behind it, but man.
We have an angel and a devil on the shoulders here - one of them is telling you to abandon the concepts of love and be content to live a pitiful existence as furniture, and the other is telling you to kill everyone in the world.
We’re just lampshading that here and now, I see?
While I suppose we’ve already dug into a lot of the framing of fantasy and reality in Episode 1, Episode 2 sure is starting strong with it here. Maybe things are terrible. Maybe life is pain. But if you believe hard enough - you convince yourself of the fantasy, you seek out the magic - the sea can be deep blue to you too.
It’s interesting seeing all these conversations through the lens of internal dialogue - of Yasu convincing herself of things, swayed by her many aspects - but for the most part there’s not much to add beyond acknowledging it. This is a great scene, but it mostly speaks for itself, you know?
Umineko and NieR: Automata sit in a very questionable hall of fame where they make a poignant scene comedic by censoring the word “love” and letting our immature minds fill it in with any other four letter word we desire.
Over a million words to comprehend the meaning of a single sentence. It sounds insane, but it’s so worth it.
It’s really weird seeing Kinzo outside of the study. His sprite feels so out of place on a sunny day.
There’s a few moments of disconnect here where the sprites are yet to change to the emotion that the text is describing, which gives you odd combinations like this.
The answer was there all along Kinzo, you just had to make an imaginary girlfriend and pretend Beatrice was still there with you.
…I jest about that, but come to think of it, isn’t that partially the truth? The servants make a point about how they buy into the illusion of the Witch for Kinzo’s sake. I know that’s partially a hint towards Yasu’s existence, but I can’t help but wonder if that’s part of it as well. Of course, mandating servants to indulge in your fantasies means they are not treating them with love, but with compulsion; and, as hard as you try, you cannot obtain magic by sheer compulsion. Kinzo’s many years as a sorcerer are more than proof of that.
I feel a little underwhelmed by the chapter name being “Wonderful Utopia”. I suppose it’s reflective of Yasu’s honeymoon period following the establishment of Beatrice, where she can enjoy the temporary joys afforded by a relationship with George, but I think I was expecting something a little more… juicy, I suppose. Ah well, it’s not like we’re leaving the flashback period any time soon.
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Umireread: Legend of the Golden Witch - Chapter 16: The Golden Witch
Sun, Oct 5 1986 - 11:30PM
The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.
Given Chapter 17 is more of an Epilogue than an actual chapter, there’s something to be said about how, for “Legend of the Golden Witch”, the halfway point is “Legend of the Gold” and the final chapter is “The Golden Witch”. There’s no real meaning to this, I just think it’s a neat little thing in the choice of naming.
Full disclosure - I remember coming out of my first readthrough enjoying the prospects of Jessikanon a lot. I’ll be keeping an open mind and find myself willing to change my perspective if the story swings me that way, but I vastly preferred the idea of Kanon with Jessica than Shannon with George.
Yet again, everyone knows that knowing the meaning behind the magic circle will do no good, and simply upset them, but Battler decides to pursue the truth regardless. A harmful truth is better than a blissful ignorance.
Once again - we find ourselves in a parallel of the scene with the receipt. Everyone took Eva’s word for it when she literally could have been lying about it. Once again, no-one other than Natsuhi can confirm the letter wasn’t there before she placed the canned food, nor can she defend against the accusation that she was the one who placed it.
Hey, so about all those phone lines being out?
This definitely isn’t a plot hole, as it’s addressed by the characters in universe, so it’s pretty safe to say that they were indeed tampered by the servants and fixed at some point (if not by Yasu making the most of the time while everyone was in the study, then by one of the servants on the way back to the parlour.) Either that or, you know, magic.
Oh, this is an interesting misdirect. I like this one a lot - providing a solution to a problem that didn’t even really exist in the first place. That’s surely how Kinzo was drawn out of the study, and not, you know, him not being alive in the first place.
Yasu has no knowledge of this, right? She wasn’t there to see Battler give Maria the charm back (it would be contrived if she somehow had eyes on that moment without anyone seeing her), and I’m not entirely convinced that Maria would be bringing up the anti-magic charm to Beatrice of her own volition. With that in mind, I think it’s worth chalking this up to Yasu having a soft spot for Maria, not wanting her to die horribly - something which would match up with the second message bottle also seeing the little girl survive to the end. I think that does make the wilted rose a weak point earlier, since it seems out of character for someone who clearly cares for Maria’s wellbeing to actively torment her, but I suppose it’s not impossible to rule it as something Yasu did for the greater cause at hand, especially considering everyone would be dead within 48 hours anyway.
LIKE THE HEROINE OF A TRAGEDY.
Natsuhi’s final duel here is a thing of beauty - she’s the heroine of a tragedy, but that was the entirety of the episode behind her. Plagued with headaches, having her loved ones torn away from her, accused of atrocities far beyond her control and thrust into a leadership position that she did not want - Yasu’s writing has ensured that Natsuhi suffers at every single turn of the past two days. But not here. She’s allowed to go out honourably.
I see this as a humanised element of Yasu - a realisation towards the end of her work that, while she’s used Natsuhi as an instrument of catharsis, tormented the one who has ruined her life, perhaps she has been a little too harsh in what she has put her through. How she herself has ignored the human behind the monster; and reduced Natsuhi to naught but someone deserving of torture. In this moment of lucidity, Yasu relents, and allows Natsuhi to have a fitting ending - one where she still dies, one where she does not make it to the golden land - but not one of embarrassment. Yasu is not a cold hearted killer. There is that part of her that allows her to see the best in even the worst of people; no doubt the same part that allows her to let Rosa go out so elegantly in Episode 2 despite her horrific treatment of Maria. Yasu is human. And I think that’s beautiful.
Once again, Jessica’s VA steals the show for Episode 1. Everyone gets really good moments, no-one lets a scene down or shows any weakness, but between the wretched wailing and asthma attacks, no-one matches her level of performance.
Yet.
A gentle nod to the format of the gameboards - but a stark reminder that, at the end, it all returns to nothing. An explosive finale that ensures nothing is left behind. What a way to send us out.
And so the clock rolls over from 24 to 0.
Sleep peacefully, Beatrice.
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Umireread: Turn of the Golden Witch - Chapter 8: Wedding Ring
Sat, Oct 4 1986 - 10:00PM
The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.
I know this isn’t the first time that Santa has been brought up in relation to fantasy vs reality, but it is a pretty apt comparison for the message of the story. No-one ever says that it’s cruel or immoral to lie to kids about there being a magical man who delivers presents around the world. If it wasn’t for the fact that they have to learn the truth eventually - since they’ll need to help perpetuate it for the next generation - would it be better if they spent their entire life believing it?
Case in point.
It’s interesting how much time they’re devoting to setting up devil proofs here - priming us for the introduction of the Red Truth and showing how many issues we’d have trying to solve the story without it.
Come on Ryukishi, you can’t just say “wow! I’d love to read a story about a child seeking revenge!” in your story about a child seeking revenge.
Episodes 1 and 2 dwelling so hard with the incorrect axiom of “the killer doesn’t want to be caught” really torpedoes the arguments that the characters are able to come up with. By now, it should be pretty reasonable to figure out that the killer wants to be caught - and that they want the Epitaph to be solved. But why? Is it possible to even construct a plausible theory for that at this point?
This scene is just oozing in the overall truth, isn’t it?
Very funny to see that “human woman” is in bold here, but not “single”. Don’t want to make the regular accomplices and the resulting roulette too obvious now. I’m sure Yasu is pleased to be perceived as a human woman, though.
You know, I’ll have to see how much this facet of Maria’s personality remains in the Tohya Forgeries, because this really isn’t doing it for me - and I’m wondering how much of it is down to this being Maria’s actual personality, and how much of it is down to Yasu focusing on that element of her.
No comment necessary.
Echoing my former comments on how, regardless of how their relationship formed, you can’t deny how much it means to her.
Shannon’s use of ずっとずっと here made my ears prick up - admittedly due to the immense amount of times that I’ve listened to Revelations. While it’s definitely too much of a stretch to link these together, I do find it interesting how the phrase is used here for “always, always” yet in Revelations it’s used as “again and again”. Of course, the latter translation is meaningless nonsense if you think of a single gameboard - but if you think about it over the wider Sea of Fragments?
This is really interesting to compare to the philosophical discussion of the life of the wilting rose in Episode 1 - all the cousins talk about their thoughts on seeing the rose, being glad they could see them when they bloomed, but here Yasu is the one considering not how she feels about the Cicadas, but how they feel themselves. And isn’t that the actual important part of it all?
Okay - so this was going to happen eventually, but now is as good a time as any. Allow me to chime in on Umineko’s central theme of “love” as an asexual person.
I’ve alluded to how you can interpret Umineko as a criticism of heteronormativity before, but even at the core, Umineko is intrinsically connected with the base human instinct of love. I’d go as far to say that Ryukishi (at least, at the time of writing) wasn’t really aware of asexuality, and just assumed that experiencing love was a base part of the human condition that everyone experienced. Mildly amusing if so, since it means he too has fallen victim to building arguments on flawed axioms, while writing an entire tale about that very issue.
However, even as an asexual… I don’t mind this. I don’t feel seen by Umineko, but there’s a key component to how Umineko has been written that stops it from being entirely unrelatable: while Umineko dwells in romantic and sexual love, Ryukishi is writing with unrestrained love towards his fellow human beings. He’s writing with love towards the world he was born into. The world that we were born into. While he may not have done so intentionally, platonic love oozes from his work.
That’s why I can still resonate with the central message. Maybe I don’t love anyone in the way that Ryukishi expects I should. Maybe my body, too, is effectively furniture. But even still, I can love my fellow human for existing. I can love the joys that we can experience because we are alive. I can say thank you for being born - not just to others, but to myself. I can relate to that. And, honestly - I think everyone can. Maybe romantic love isn’t something that everyone can or will experience. But a general love to the world around them? I do think that might indeed be a universal part of the human experience.
…I’d love to leave this little aside there, wrapped up nicely in a bow, but I did have a bit of a gut punch at the “maybe I too am furniture” note - because, yeah, in hindsight, that might be directly aphobic. That might be the line that’s devalidating to asexuals. But, again, I don’t personally have a problem with that, because that concept is directly stated to be Yasu’s line of thinking - not a view that finds itself entirely endorsed or condemned by the narrative. Because it’s just what she thinks - and it’s up to you to decide how you want to feel about that. Yasu is hurting, her beliefs come from a place of trauma - I don’t feel invalidated by that. I just want the person who believes that to become better, to heal. I want to be able to love the human who lies behind that layer of unmitigated despair and agony. And, again, isn’t that ability to understand what Umineko is about?
Once again, moving swiftly on from a deep dive to a more regular point of analysis. The concept of a “tie” in Beato’s game is an interesting remark - because how would that happen? Of course, with full knowledge, this is a board state where Yasu is caught and apprehended (all it takes is a lucky shot from one of the guns), but the Epitaph is not solved and the bombs still go off. But, if you don’t know that, how does a tie work in this game? You catch the culprit or you don’t. So this is a pretty strong hint towards Beato having a failsafe.
This is one of those scenes where I’m deeply curious about what’s going on behind the scenes. How much did Yasu reveal to the adults here? We know the chapel is connected to the secret room, so it’s very possible that she straight up showed them all the gold.
Actually, thinking about it, there’s an alternate solution for the First Twilight here, isn’t there? You could actually Red Truth that the door was locked, since we could have got in/out via the underground passage to Kuwadorian. Although of course, that doesn’t play nicely with Knox, even if we allude to the presence of a secret passage with the code in the chapel.
I’m going to be honest, I don’t actually remember them doing Role Calls after Episode 1. The first one stuck out to me a lot, but I guess the repeats didn’t leave as much of an impression.
No Kumasawa, Shannon, or Nanjo this time. Very interesting - we already know that the Role Calls are untrustworthy since we have Kinzo in the study, but even if you wanted to say “but that’s just his body”, we have Kanon in the corridor and Beato in the VIP room, so that’s an impossibility there. I’m going to rescind my Episode 1 remark about the missing people being those who are sleeping, and just flat out say that I don’t have any reasonable conjecture on why the people who aren’t in the Role Call are absent from it. Natsuhi’s absence in the first Episode torpedoes the idea of it being accomplices. Could not give you a single theory that connects these missing pieces together.
And time for the First Twilight… for the second time.
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Umireread: Legend of the Golden Witch - Chapter 11: Curtain-rise on Tragedy
Sun, Oct 5 1986 - 8:45AM
The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.
I joked earlier about Gohda being targeted after Natsuhi was off the table (and how that probably wasn’t the case), but man, the updated character info becomes so much funnier if you approach it with that read. A sarcastic “How unfortunate” and “He was originally supposed to be on duty”. Yasu really twisting the knife there.
Man, her default reaction is to assume she’s being blamed, huh? Like mother like daughter when it comes to trauma reactions, it seems.
Once again, it’s really interesting to read all these scenes where character reactions to the incident are re-contextualised as their anxiety over being an associate.
This one in particular is a pretty fun scene, since you get Nanjo and Hideyoshi trying to reassure each other over the whole thing. Bros for life.
Not quite sure what Natsuhi’s intention is here - go to the study to have a meltdown in private, perhaps?
Kumasawa is having the time of her life once again. Absolutely living for the chance to put on a performance and play things up for the others. I’m actually surprised that this isn’t a huge giveaway of her involvement, since she’s absolutely not taking this seriously, and we’ve already seen her penchant for dramatics during her desires to tell ghost stories on the boat trip.
So - in the preamble for Umireread, I mentioned that I’m applying Death of the Author here, since I feel you lose a lot of the heart of the tale once you open the catbox and rip out the guts. That being said, as much as I don’t want to canonise Our Confession for this read, it’s really hard to ignore. Even with Death of the Author in effect, it does feel like Our Confession is indeed a breakdown of the rules that were in play from the start, so it’s hard to go against them. Mainly, I like the interpretation that the servants were all on board with Yasu’s plan, identifying with their plight and being willing to help with their apparent atrocities as a way for them to do her right. And while that’s obviously true for Genji, it’s hard to read Kumasawa as that here, because she’s leaning so heavily into the “doesn’t realise it’s real and believes she’s taking part in a prank” side of things. We’ll see how it develops over future chapters, but it’s quite noticeable here.
Similar point to the gardening shed, but it’s very funny how everyone involved is so to the point of “Okay, please look at this clue. You got that? You’ve all seen it? Good, now let’s leave straight away.”
Battler had a line here where he went along with it, but yeah, it really is the associates pushing to make everyone leave. So much of Episode 1 can be pieced together if you make note of who is pushing people away from the crime scenes.
Yasu mentally thinking “well, I guess it’s time to break out the corpse.”
It’s very funny that Natsuhi has no idea what to do after Eva barged into the study, and is desperately looking towards Kanon and Genji for a story. The Natsuhi suffering arc continues.
I do wonder if the phones are actually broken at this point, or whether the servants have been meddling with them. Well, obviously they’ve been meddled with by the servants if they’re broken, but I mean that along the lines of “they’re actually still working, but we’re being told they aren’t”.
I can’t help but wonder if the characters so readily believing that Shannon was gushing over George instead of Battler is further commentary on the futility of taking what you see at face value.
There’s a funny line here about how this scenario made Jessica envious - I wonder if this was the instigator for her desire to start pursuing Kanon?
This one’s an interesting line - they don’t put much emphasis on it, but it’s good to see that we’re already tempering the idea of retreating to fantasy as a way to solve problems. It’s been pushed heavily as a coping mechanism so far, but of course, entirely foregoing truth is no way to go through life. You need to know what’s appropriate for any given situation to really be able to help someone.
Interesting how this is brought up again, but this time in a tone that ridicules you for believing it.
At this point, with how prevalent it is, I don’t think this is just intentional misdirection for the sake of the mystery - I think it’s a direct prompt to think deeper about what is going on in the story. It’s not just about accepting or denying what is being said on the surface level - it’s about actively thinking about whether you should or shouldn’t trust what’s being presented to you. It’s not so much ridiculing the idea - which we know to be true - but ridiculing taking the earlier account as fact without reasoning ourselves into it. About working towards a Golden Truth rather than accepting a Red Truth, if you will.
I’m actually a little fascinated by Eva’s game here. She’s playing this so strangely.
Again here - Eva is basically ratting out her fellow culprits. It’s a bold strategy, but I suppose she’s banking on the others overthinking things and believing that it can’t be them?
I suppose her ploy here is to secure her alibi by staying on the attack. When she’s this forward and accusatory when trying to find the culprits, it does make you think “would a guilty person be acting this way?” - of course, if you’ve played any number of social deduction games, the answer is almost always “yes, they’re trying to deflect”, but that’s not something you pick up on as readily in fiction as you do in person.
Umineko is a rare story where they can say this kind of line and get away with it. Usually it’s exceptionally eye-roll inducing when a piece of media goes “this isn’t like one of those pieces of media where X happens!”, but I can make an exception for it when your work is such a thorough deconstruction of the genre as a whole.
I wonder how Eva feels about Battler reasoning himself out of the truth - probably a mix of “God, what an idiot” and “Ha, exactly as planned”.
We’re even calling the double bluff now, how deep does the rabbit hole go?
I think the only reason that Episode 1 is as hard as it is mystery-wise is because of how counterintuitive the killer’s motive is. Battler gets pretty much everything right here, but he then wants to work with an axiom that the killer wouldn’t want to be caught - which is wrong - and so it all falls apart from a bad foundation.
Retracting my former statement about Umineko being allowed to be coy about referencing the genre, Ryukishi’s a total hack.
I do wonder what Higurashi being a canonical story in-universe means for Bernkastel and Lambdadelta existing in the meta realm. Although, to be fair, Umineko is also a story in-universe, so we probably shouldn’t get too held up on this.
You sure about that, narrative? Maria’s just having a good time watching TV, I don’t know what you’re on about.
“Probably” shocked his fellow servants, while they all go “yeah actually we hated that guy.”
Oh hey, a Battler perv moment that I actually don’t mind. It brings a nice bit of levity to the scene. I think the key here is that it’s not actually directed at anyone, so it’s not a “joke” at the expense of someone else’s wellbeing. God I wish the early chapter moments were more like this and less like him trying to grope his relatives.
Legitimately cannot get over Eva’s brass balls where she tries to clear herself by bouncing suspicion back and forth between her and her co-conspirators.
Fully acknowledging the alibi issue as well. As long as you attribute it to unknown motive X, you really do have all the clues you need here to solve everything.
LITTLE GIRL JUMPSCARE
This is a very mean change that’s been added in more recent editions of the game. Like, this CG was in the original PS3 patch I played back in the day, but the fisheye shot of Maria just faded into it. No scary sounds or intentional jumpscare effects to get you. It honestly feels really out of place because Umineko absolutely isn’t one of those stories. I hope there isn’t anything like this that’s been added elsewhere to the game.
Ah, and so we find Maria at her worst, honestly. I think the writing here is pretty lacklustre. While going for a complete personality switch to “creepy little girl” does big up the mystical elements and make the story more mysterious, it cheapens Maria’s character a lot by reducing her to an info dump. This would be far more palatable if they kept it as her over excitedly sharing information about her hyperfixation, or if they kept it in line with the letter reading earlier and had her doing a Beato impression of a time that she was told about all this. Maria immediately jumping from her usual self to “kihihihi foolish humans” just doesn’t feel organic at all - and again, in a story that otherwise so expertly captures the human element of all its characters, it’s a huge let down.
And so we finally learn more about the meaning of the magic circle painted on the shed! I remember being really intrigued by these when I watched the anime at age 13 and again when I read the VN at 17, but the mysticism scared me a little too much so I didn’t want to look into it much further. I have become much more jaded since then, and the demons are now welcome to take me away any day.
I do kind of wish that I had done more research into them, though. It’d be nice to be able to say something more about what’s going on here. Maybe I should have bought some books before jumping into this?
Oh hey
So, there’s actually not an awful lot to say here - if we look up this magic circle, we read this:
The Seventh and last Pentacle of the Sun. If any be by chance imprisoned or detained in fetters of iron, at the presence of this Pentacle, which should be engraved in Gold on the day and hour of the Sun, he will be immediately delivered and set at liberty.
There’s then confirmation of which names are written around it, talking about the Rulers of the Elements. We also get the translation of the Psalm:
Thou hast broken my bonds in sunder. I will offer unto thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call upon the Name of IHVH.
IHVH in this case being the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, used to represent the incommunicable name of the Supreme Being. Umineko does away with these semantics and just says “the Lord”.
With that in mind… There’s actually not an awful lot here that isn’t given pretty much word-for-word by Maria. Not to contradict myself once again and refer to Our Confession, but I do get the impression Ryukishi just used his passing interest in occultism to look up magic circles and demons, go “yeah, I’ll use that” when he finds something interesting, and implant it into the story without much further thought at the time.
I do find the references to the circle being engraved in Gold and escaping the chains of iron to be interesting, however - if nothing else, it feels like a thematic nod to the 10 tons of gold, with the iron being an allusion to the military munitions sealing the fate of the island. I’m not sure the Umineko version references iron specifically, so that might indeed be looking into it too much.
I’ll be keeping an eye on future magic circles to see if there’s any extra information we can glean from the Grimoire - although I suspect all implementations will be similar to this one.
I’ll also be interested to dig deeper and see what real purpose we have behind these magic circles. Are they just there to perpetuate the facade of the witch? Are they done as an ironic slight against Kinzo’s interest in sorcery? Does Yasu have an interest in this herself? Beyond that, how does their use in the message bottles compare to the forgeries? Definitely something worth keeping in mind as we press on.
Funnily enough, I bought a lovely hardback cover of the Lesser Key of Solomon in preparation for this reread, and it’s only when we got to this part that I realised all the magic circles are mentioned in the Greater Key, so I had to rush out and buy another book. Oops.
Rudolf’s talking about occult films here, but honestly, this applies just as well to the heart of the tale. These tales of Rokkenjima are false - but people want to see them, so a lot of effort goes into the forgeries and message bottles. You just have to hope that the intention behind these creations is one of love, not of malice.
Honestly - it’s funny to think that it might honestly be Rudolf’s reassurance here that launches Battler into refusing to believe in witches. Rudolf unironically drives Episodes 2-8 and stops Battler conceding after 1.
YEAHHHHH HERE COMES CORE! Phenomenal detective theme, another one of those tracks that make for quintessential Umineko.
I’m sure there’s something to be said about this line of reasoning and how that means we end up with the Episode 2 Chapel not being a false closed room but instead being the work of small bombs.
We don’t get happy Maria often, I’m making sure to savour it while we can.
Anyway, did you know that there's a limit of 30 images per tumblr post? Guess who only found out about that now! Haha! Whoops! Guess we're splitting this one into two! Continued in a reblog.
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Umireread - Turn of the Golden Witch: Chapter 7: 'Furniture' and 'People'
Sat, Oct 4 1986 - 6:00PM
The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.
Is the sky worsening? Or is the mood? With the talk of blue and grey skies, could the typhoon not just be a plot device to facilitate the classic setting of a murder mystery, but relevant to the deeper commentary of perception as a whole?
Poor Yasu. It must hurt a lot whenever she hears about George’s eventual dreams and desires and how they’re incompatible with her. The reality of the situation setting in, I suppose.
We’ve talked about finding joy in the mundane, and I do find myself wondering about the silly details of reality that don’t get addressed here. Who’s eating all the extra meals that get made? I presume whoever takes Kinzo’s meal to the study gets his, Yasu probably has to eat for both Kanon and Shannon whenever Gohda is cooking for everyone (since they can just cook a single meal and pretend both Kanon and Shannon has eaten when they do it themselves), but how are they handling Beatrice’s meal? Is Yasu eating all three? Are they throwing the food somewhere and hoping no-one finds it? This is one of those things that really doesn’t matter, but is fun to think about.
I do really love Gohda as an outsider to the servants - he adds a nice dynamic by not having everyone in the staff automatically being together on team Yasu. Thinking about it, I kind of wish we had more of a dynamic between Battler and Gohda, given they’re both “outsiders” to the family. I could see a natural bond happening there - and while the Ushiromiya tend to be naturally prideful and look down on the servants, we’ve already had scenes with George and Shannon falling for them, so there’s a precedent there for the new generation to look at them as humans rather than furniture.
And Kumasawa’s at it again. Still not quite sure what to make of this.
So this scene is interesting by itself - but it’s also another reflection on the absolute meaninglessness of tradition and seniority (even if it’s being done through Gohda’s tinted lens of desire). Is there something to be said about the western fascination detailed through the Ushiromiya being tied to a criticism of Japanese society unconditionally demanding respect for elders? This would be a pretty hot take for a fairly fundamental part of society, but I don’t think it’s inconceivable - we’ve already seen how Krauss, as the eldest, is easily the most incompetent of Kinzo’s children; and a good portion of the tale dwells in Kinzo’s sins as well. Perhaps, once again, Ryukishi’s past as a social worker has made him reconsider this axiom of society, given the amount of terrible elders he’s no doubt had the misfortune of encountering?
Another pretty heavy scene of Yasu questioning herself regarding the upcoming events of the night - although the phrasing of this “discreetly” taking place in the corner of the kitchen is rather amusing given how emotional Kanon is getting. Of course, if this was all taking place as an internal dialogue…
Yasu literally caught daydreaming, ha.
Can’t wait for the Nanjo black magic arc. I wonder if the book he picked up is one of the ones in a foreign language that he can’t read? Wouldn’t put it past him, if he’s sufficiently bored.
Interesting comment - is this reflective of Battler for this game?
I think there’s something to be said about all the times that Umineko is stating the central message in the early episodes, but you’re not going to pick up on it while your brain is focused on solving the mystery. Kinzo talking about how chess is about having fun isn’t going to tell you who the culprit is, why the murders are happening, or reveal any new information - but that’s exactly what’s happening on the meta level, isn’t it?
And we’re even literally talking about it going on in purgatory. It’s incredible how on the nose we can get at times.
It feels odd to ignore the Shannon-Beatrice scene here, but I’m withholding my thoughts on that. The inner monologue is inherently intensely complex, so it’ll be better suited to the Wake than a liveblog.
Another classic “Obvious” from Umineko.
Gee, Rosa is saying this like she’s under gunpoint. I wonder if she’s been coerced into something.
Well yeah, we have an entire Epitaph designed for that exact purpose.
There’s certainly something to be said about how the clock sound is the same one used for the guns being cocked. Quite a loaded concept, eh?
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