When They Cry/...no Naku Koro ni - Ryukishi07 Appreciation Station

[blkmage]

The game is available through certain online retailers. As for the translation, there is an unofficial fan translation patch which has been recognized by Ryukishi07. As far as I'm aware, the only people who've played the game at all are me and Fish.

About Rika and Bernkastel, I gave a brief explanation in this post.

And now, for Episode II-ii:
[spoiler]I liked how they're handling the meta-game and I really loved the BGM they used for the first Beato vs. Battler encounter. There's not much to complain about in terms of pacing. It looks like it's another solid setup episode. I'm really looking forward to next week.

The major thing of note here is the appearance of Beatrice, albeit in different clothes. Also of note are the several slight changes in how events turn out.[/spoiler]

Speaking of next week, stuff about the preview for II-iii:
[spoiler]DREAD OF THE GRAVE BGM YESSSSSS, it should be awesome, the first and second twilight. The second twilight of this arc is the part that turned me from "this is pretty cool" to "UMINEKO IS GLORIOUS".[/spoiler]

Anyway, quit slacking, everyone, I want to read your impressions.

[Yamamaya]

Thanks for the info. They really should have included her in the anime, it just makes this season that much more confusing.
I must say I love the animation in When Seaguls Cry. It's really a step up from Higurashi.

Yeah I believe I will try to purchase the first few visual novels.

I'll give my impressions once I watch the last two episodes.

[Bobtheduck]

I must have missed the [spoiler]Tomitake Flash[/spoiler] in the Umineko anime, but... I wonder if the reason they don't have [spoiler]Tsurupettan[/spoiler] is due to copyrights... Plus it's a bit strange for JESSICA to sing that song, even if she did in the VN originally... I mean, it doesn't exactly fit her, does it. *cough*

[blkmage]

I must have missed the [spoiler]Tomitake Flash[/spoiler]

Check George's shirt.

Also, if you are spoiler conscious, Comiket has started, and so Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru (When They Cry 4) Episode 5: End of the Golden Witch has been released. This means that tons of information (both fake and real) should start flying around the Internet right now.

[Yamamaya]

Ah yes episode 7.

[SPOILER]It was nice to see Maria and her mom's respective spilt personalities come out. Beatrice is feeling a bit too much like a sterotypical villian atm. Hopefully she'll be fleshed out more in the upcoming episodes. [/SPOILER]

[blkmage]

Episode II-iii: [color="Red"]It may surprise you.[/color]
[spoiler]This is an episode jam-packed with noteworthy things. First of all, we're at the First Twilight, where six different people are now dead. Also changed is the murder method, which is arguably much more grotesque.

We then reach the Second Twilight, where, well, a bunch of different things happen. First of all, we learn that Kanon calling himself furniture wasn't just his low self-esteem. Secondly, we learn that the stakes that have been piercing people are actually girls transplanted from K-ON! (no, really, the VAs for the two in this episode are Yui and Mio). Again, the victims are (necessarily) different. Also note that Kanon's and Jessica's relationship was sufficiently close to qualify them as candidates for the Second Twilight (I'll bet you were expecting George and Shannon).

Finally, we have the introduction of the red text, which was implemented quite literally. I don't know that it's necessary for the text to be scrolling in three different directions, though. Nice that they kept the sound effect.

The only adaptation whining I've heard was the lament that Dread of the Grave wasn't used in the episode, which honestly isn't that big of a deal for me, since I'm confident that they'll have plenty of chances to use it.[/spoiler]

[Bobtheduck]

I find it funny that the didn't censor [spoiler]The faces that were ripped apart[/spoiler] but they did censor [spoiler]The stomachs ripped open[/spoiler]

Particularly because Higurashi actually showed (at least a still image of) just that, before this... Seems weird.

I also think the [spoiler]"red text scrolling by on screen" is kind of cheesy... If it had, like, shown up before his eyes or something, so we know he saw it,[/spoiler] that would be one thing, but the way it was... really silly.

Reminds me of the live action Higurashi movie... The "Uso Da!" scene more closely mimicked the graphic novel by distorting the voice, inverting the colors, and flashing the words in Kanji on the screen, which shook... A scene that was legitimately frightening for me in the anime became a huge farce for me in the live action movie... Among many other things wrong with the live action movie...

[blkmage]

On censorship:
[spoiler]I think the scene with the faces was censored, but by large areas of shadow and not mosaic'd out. I believe the Higurashi broadcast was censored too, either by mosaic or shadows everywhere. The DVD version is not and that is what I expect of the Umineko DVDs as well.[/spoiler]

About red text:
[spoiler]As for the red text, it helps that it's displayed like that because it spells out the exact words used. There are a few instances in which the way the red text is worded allows for certain things that might not be obvious if you don't think about the claim carefully enough.[/spoiler]

EDIT: I must say that the Umineko musicbox OSTs are delicious. zts is fantastic.

[Yamamaya]

I also found the censorship rather funny. BTW blkmage, where do you find new episodes of Umineko? I can't find subs until the day after the episode comes out(Friday).

[SPOILER]Did anyone else find the whole fight scenes a bit silly? Especially the antler furniture. Anybody else catch the Rika, Hanyu cameo?[/SPOILER]

[Fish and Chips]

I love the smell of Shounen in the morning.[spoiler]The fight scene struck me as something they probably pulled off better in the sound novel. Though logically, this is where the audience's expectations are divided; the Anti-Fantasy sentiment says "How can she just summon goat-headed servants?" while the Anti-Mystery factions says "Of course she can summon goat-headed servants." It's just a placeholder for Battler's conjecture, since if he can't find a rational solution, they might as well really have been killed by goat-headed servants.

Kanon randomly materializing a sword was out of nowhere though. When did this become Fate/Stay Night?[/spoiler]Also, I actually enjoyed how the [color="Red"]red text[/color] was implimented, since I wasn't sure that was something they could translate from the SN to the Anime.

[Yamamaya]

[SPOILER]Yes, Kanon's blade was rather shounenish. I wonder what type of weapon Shannon has. I tend to side with the Anti Fantasy Faction. There has to be a logical explanation for this power of hers. No one had any true powers in Higurashi, minus the ability to reset the timeline. Of course I could be wrong. I just hope the series doesn't drift away into a shounen phase. It's interesting how Rosa has now taken up the role of the protector.[/SPOILER]

Speaking of which, I believe the last episode of Rei came out today.

[Fish and Chips]

Unfortunately, as the sole known purveyor of the Pro-Fantasy/Mystery Combo theory, I have my work cut out to explain these things.

Also, concerning the Stakes of Purgatory:[spoiler]Once a stake has selected its target, probablity of missing is absolutely zero, however only the target may be injured. Seeing as they're named after the seven deadly sins (and "Alledgedly" the seven demons associated with them in certain religious texts), this means we can ascertain some things about the characters depending on which Stake they were killed by.

Stake of Asmodeus - Lust
1. Killed Eva (1st Turn)
2. Killed Jessica (2nd Turn)

Stake of Beelzebub - Gluttony
1. Killed Hideyoshi (1st Turn)

Stake of Belphegor - Sloth
1. Killed Nanjo (1st Turn)

Stake of Leviathan - Envy
1. Killed Kumasawa (1st Turn)

Stake of Lucifer - Pride
1. Killed Genji (1st Turn)

Stake of Mammon - Greed
1. Killed Kinzo (1st Turn)

Stake of Satan - Wrath
1. Killed Kanon (1st and 2nd Turns)

Now some of these are fairly obvious, like Kinzo and Kanon, but I'm really intrigued to find out about Genji, Nanjo, and Kumasawa's deaths. Pride, sloth, and envy? I'm hoping they're planning on expanding on this, but knowing Japan and Western Culture, might just be a gimmick (as if the seven uniformed girls wasn't clue enough).[/spoiler]

[blkmage]

The first airing of Umineko is Wednesdays at 1:30 JST. Since I've already played the games and know what's going to happen, I look at the episodes beforehand. That is, I hit up the thread on 2chan and see the screengrabs. Then, when the raw comes out later that night, I watch that sometimes. Then, the group that's subbing it usually releases it the next day, which I grab as soon as possible since I hang out in their IRC channel and have a bunch of RSS feeds for this sort of thing. Basically, it's a matter of knowing who's subbing it and how fast they generally release.

[spoiler]The differences between the anime fight and the novel fight are that the anime is animated and the novel has a bit more setup leading up to it and more on what happened afterward. Otherwise, it was fairly accurate in its depiction. This was the scene in the sound novel in which I "got" Umineko and it graduated from being just a followup to Higurashi. This scene is also important because it introduces the concept of furniture.

It's important to understand what Anti-Fantasy has to argue. The goats and Kanon's fight with them are a red herring. We know that the end result is that Kanon is absent from the room and Jessica's corpse has a stake in its back and that it's in a locked, closed room with the key to it inside the room. Anti-Fantasy only needs to show that this result is achievable by human means.[/spoiler]

[MasterDias]

[spoiler] Is "meta-Battler" seeing everything we are seeing(ex:Kanon's fight), or is he only seeing events where his "real-world" counterpart is present? I was wondering about this. I'm not sure if this was clear in the dialogue.

I'm inclined to agree with Battler at this point that both First Twilight murders are committed by a human culprit (or culprits). That's what it seems to point to so far.

Also, interesting and intriguing analysis of the stakes, Fish. Some of those raised my suspicions about certain characters.
[/spoiler]

[Yamamaya]

Hmm I was able to find Higurashi Rei raw but no subs yet.

[Bobtheduck]

Hmm I was able to find Higurashi Rei raw but no subs yet.

Which ep? 5? The newest ep of Rei is another Joke episode, just like the first one...

[Yamamaya]

I love those kind of episodes in Higurashi. After all, half of the time in Higurashi they were just doing club activities and having fun.

[blkmage]

This week, episode II-iv.
[spoiler]So Rosa is suspicious of the servants. Battler doesn't like Rosa's jumping to conclusions very much and makes her back down. It turns out red text has strange physical properties and flies funnily. More astute viewers will notice that Shannon dodged Kanon's attack pretty fast. Noticeably absent were the ghosts of Kanon and Jessica watching Kanon's reanimated corpse in the last scene.[/spoiler]

[Bobtheduck]

In the middle of watching ep 9

I've seen that Sheep and Wolf puzzle before... Someone made it into a level on Little big Planet. Weird.

EDIT: Holy... Freaking... Crap... That ending was insane. Not sure if it beats episode 4 of Haruhi (season 1, obviously) on my HFC scale, but it comes close.

[Yamamaya]

Interesting episode. It seemed to spend more time focusing on meta Battler and Beatrice's arguments. Maria is as creepy as ever, that's why she's my favorite character.

I see they censored various parts of the episode once again.

[blkmage]

So, II-v:
[spoiler]The pacing was pretty good this episode, although I wish they would have finished off the scene with Beatrice going into Natsuhi's room in this episode. It's a really good scene. I found it interesting that they've yet to use Dread of the Grave for any scene but they stuck in worldenddominator for Gohda trying to keep the door from being open. Of course, where this episode leaves off does worry me a lot about next episode's pacing.[/spoiler]

[Bobtheduck]

Didn't battler technically [spoiler]Lose already, by saying "I Give up" and acknowledging to everyone that Beatrice was real?[/spoiler]

[blkmage]

Didn't battler technically [spoiler]Lose already, by saying "I Give up" and acknowledging to everyone that Beatrice was real?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]No. Meta-Battler and Game-Battler are two different entities. The match is between Beatrice and Meta-Battler. It's kind of the same distinction that Bernkastel and Rika have: they're kind of the same person but one persists outside of each particular world and the other is a part of each particular world.[/spoiler]

[Yamamaya]

Loved the random cosplaying chicks in this episode.

[SPOILER]Well this time Battler actually gave into Beatrice. Also meta Beatrice asked Battler to become her furniture. It's possible all of the servants have been enslaved in a similar manner except by the grandfather. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out. [/SPOILER]

Speaking of which, I'm going to download the demo for Umineko and Winrar so I can unzip the english language patch. Thanks to Otaku USA I managed to find all the necessary websites.

[blkmage]

We've got some more cast announcements for some characters that will be showing up shortly.
[spoiler]Lambdadelta: Oura Fuyuka
Ronove: Sugita Tomokazu
Virgilia: Inoue Kikuko

Say what you will about the rest of the production, but what Umineko has is a ton of awesome voice actors. The speculation for Lambdadelta was going to be Takano's VA, Itou Miki, but she's already cast as Eva. Then there was some rumour that Noto Mamiko was cast, which would have been awful. So what did they really do? Cast the VA for Takano when she was a kid, of course.

As for the other two, I'm not sure if Sugita's the right choice for Ronove (lol Kyon), but I'm pretty sure that Inoue Kikuko will be spot-on for Virgilia. Just think of Grace O'Connor from Macross F.[/spoiler]

[Fish and Chips]

I should have a copy of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Episode 4: Alliance of the Golden Witch arriving in the mail in the next couple of days (if not this afternoon). I'm not sure what this entails except that I'll apparently join Blkmage in thinking red text is hilarious.

Oh wait, [color="Red"]I do that already[/color].

[blkmage]

[color="Red"]Red text is already in the anime[/color] so people should be joining us right about now. [color="DeepSkyBlue"]Blue text, on the other hand...[/color]

[blkmage]

Episode II-vi:
[spoiler]And it's the end of another Episode! First of all, even though the Shannon and George scene really should have been in the last episode, it wasn't bad. If they did move the scene, I think that the scenes for this episode would have been better with a bit more time.

Rosa vs. the goats (a.k.a. Rosa Musou) would have been a lot better with the more complete run that we get in the novel. It's still a lot better than I expected and even came with enough worldenddominator.

The entrance to the Golden Land was pretty well done, although without some explanation, it might confuse people as to why Battler is naked all of a sudden.

The first tea party, in which Rosa is force-fed various things, was pleasantly disturbing. We finally get Dread of the Grave from Battler's entrance. And in the second tea party, we're introduced to super-paper! That is, Lambdadelta, the Witch of Certainty.[/spoiler]

[Yamamaya]

Higurashi Rei 5 was subbed a few days ago. For being filler it was actually pretty funny. It is a bit of a fanservice towards RenaxKeiichi fans, especially at the end. Grrr.

What's with all the hate towards the MionxKeiichi pairing? Grr.

[Fish and Chips]

"BEATRIIIIICEE~"

So my Umineko package arrived yesterday, and I've been speed reading through Legend of the Golden Witch again to unlock the music box and time traveling for that episode. Anyway, a possibility occurred to me:[spoiler]Though I still subscribe to my Logical!Beatrice theory, as long as we're supposed to be discussing totally human alternatives, I have reason to suspect Eva plus one other killer. Eva's already demonstrated her niche for martial arts, telling Rudolf she could knock him unconscious in a single blow. That said, tempers flare, she'd take down one siblings "Accidentally," the rest hesitating to react—thinking she'd just succumbed to the heat of the moment—when down goes another, and possibly another. Hideyoshi may or may not have played part, in which case it becomes Eva plus two killers. After eliminating the four (...or is it three?) in the dinning room, tracking Gohda and Shannon individually would be simple, though one of them was probably grabbed spur of the moment when they couldn't touch Natushi.

The Anonymous Killer would then later backstab Eva (and Hideyoshi?) when they were separated from the remaining family, and presumably safe from her second (third?) partner.

Eva is overall the least distraught of all the family members when they discover the shed (and Hideyoshi already has a penchant for acting a role), and still has the clarity/forethought to do stuff like stick a receipt in Kinzo's door to frame Natushi (who, again, she couldn't touch).

Reasons for leaving Natushi alive would be both/or (1) maintaining the illusion of the summoning ritual, leaving her alone because of the scorpion charm hung on her door, and/or (2) requiring a scapegoat to pin the crimes on, as Eva failed to do with the receipt.

The Anonymous Killer then takes out everyone after Eva and Hideyoshi are disposed of, as well as probably/possibly murdering Kinzo.[/spoiler]