Umineko no Naku Koro ni

[Ryllharu]

No mystery/speculation at all(except Battler and Rosa suspecting each other), which is a little disappointing. Loved the grotesque scenes. Maria's promise was great. Good "fight" scenes. I thought the dialogue between the witches was slightly short but other than that I thought it was great.

I disagree about the mystery and speculation completely. The bookends of the episode (Shannon and George's death scene and the discussion between the witches) were the most important parts.

That Bernkastel hasn't been an observer is interesting. If she is as formidable as Beatrice claimed at the end of the first arc, then Battler may have gained an incredible ally, while Beatrice has gained a very large foe. On the other hand, now that it seems Lambdadelta, the witch who is absolutely guaranteed to slay her target, isn't quite dead, Battler may be in even deeper than he thought. I like the dynamic between the three, Beatrice's amusement, Bernkastel's dignified disgust at Beatrice's personal taste, and Lamdadelta's mischievous fury at Bernkastel.

The other key point, was Beatrice's reaction at Shannon and George's trust in each other. Beatrice is usually much amused by those who oppose her. She certainly is at Battler, and she loves to toy with Kanon. The same has typically been the case with Shannon as well. Until her speech about her and George's love. Beatrice became swiftly very serious, and enraged, something that we have never seen before. She had a very negative view of love and relationships. That they were only physical, that George would look at Shannon lustfully and just use her. Shannon defended their bond, and pushed Beatrice over the edge.

When you combine that Kinzo's behavior, and especially his remarks about apologizing to Beatrice, it becomes a potentially huge character development for Beatrice. There are rumors that she wasn't simply his alchemist, but perhaps his mistress as well. Did Kinzo seduce Beatrice, then betray her? Perhaps this lead to her death, and she is attempting to return for vengeance. She simply needs Battler to acknowledge her, as the others do.


While I want to think that Maria figured out that Rosa lied to her, that scene was more likely Beatrice torturing Rosa the same way that she toys around with Kanon's semi-dead body.

As for Battler, I'm glad he has his spirits back, but he is still pathetic for giving up in the first place. Maybe Bernkastel can straighten him out.

I think Bernkastel finally solved our dilemma about how the hell this was all happening under the rules of the game. Beatrice was cheating. She was trying to force Battler to give up. The "one-sided game that isn't entertaining" simply wasn't fair in the first place, just a display of Beatrice's power. She was giving Battler all these helpful hints, like the red text, but making it impossible to be explained without magic anyway. That's why she created not only one "closed-room" riddles, but two.

[Xrlderek]

I should have clarified, I didn't mean that the information was useless or anything like it, just that they spent very little time on trying to figure out who the human culprit/culprits are. The last murders weren't even analyzed or even thought about.. and Battler's weakness was disappointing. The backstory and characterization was nice.

Bern's comment about the one sided game could just mean that the game was dominated by Beatrice. I will be a bit annoyed if it turns out that the situations are impossible to explain without magic at the end, I hope that is not the case, but I think the intro to the series that I linked earlier is pointing out that it is hard but possible.

[Nadouku]

Well, what can I say? Magical things... happened, but the torture with Rosa is what I liked best. Other than that, Battler appeared out of nowhere and challenges Beatrice again, hopefully winning this time and not giving up. Good luck to you, Battler!

[MasterOfMoogles]

I like how in-game Battler only sees the "magic" AFTER he has been drinking in the dining room.

[Buffalobiian]

I didn't think too deeply about the mystery because it doesn't make much sense to me. Visually, this episode was good.

Battler hitting on Maria followed by Maria innocently complying was funny.

[Ryllharu]

The chessboard resets once again:

[gg]​ Umineko no Naku Koro ni​ -​ 12

I love the changes to the OP this time. So much more is added, that the upcoming arcs could be a considerable test indeed.

------------------------------------------



Beatrice is ramping up her number of allies, so I wonder where Bernkastel and now Lambda are going to manifest themselves now that they have decided to openly enter the game.

It looks like this arc might be Eva's lead. There is a bit more depth to her than we had thought, now with her split personality (maybe it is Lambda?) from her ambitious younger self. It also seemed like Rosa was a bit more timid and far less assertive than she was. Perhaps the events of the last iteration have wormed their way into her personality? She still left Maria in the rain, since that event has yet to change from iteration to iteration.

I think that most importantly, we learned that Beatrice is not precisely who she claims to be. Maybe she simply inherited the name as a title, but Beatrice was taught by another witch of the very same name.

Beatrice could be Kinzo's lover and somehow have remained youthful with her powers, or she could simply be the daughter of his mistress.

It seems we will have to accept that magic is a possible reality, all dependent on belief. If Battler can convince everyone (Kinzo and Maria being the hardest) that magic cannot possibly exist, the Beatrice would be forced to act as a human, without any supernatural allies. I suppose her own belief would still grant her some power, but the effects would be minimal, and her powers would vanish completely once Battler could prove they could all be performed by human means.

Battler has a focus now, hopefully it will be much harder for him to fall apart like last time.



As for the OP, after watching the full episode before looking at it again, it looks like the girl in the portrait is now Eva! The hair color and eye color combination matches Eva's young persona. If Eva's youthful belief that she should be the head were strong enough, she may have become a witch of sorts herself, which is how she manages to manifest herself...in front of herself. Or so her young persona says.

I can't figure out who the girl falling past the moon is. Maybe a young Rosa?


EDIT 2:

Back in episode 5, Bernkastel named Beatrice an Endless Witch, which we learned this episode from Old Beatrice means that she should be able to fix things endlessly as the highest class of witch. But Beatrice only uses her powers to break things endlessly, tearing happiness from the Ushiromiya's. She is not being a very good student.

[Buffalobiian]

The pacing of this new arc is good. I found the last one a bit slow comparatively.

Beatrice being Kinzo's daughter is an interesting idea, and very plausible too. The only thing I found weird would be why Kinzo still calls her Beatrice instead of whatever birth name she had.

If the preview was indicative, Beatrice would have killed Old Beatrice after she became of age, so she wouldn't have used the title until then.

[Nadouku]

Battler seems comfortable sitting on the couch and discussing matters with Beatrice. Looks like something's going on somewhere when Battler finally gets a lead on.

[Marik]

Umineko no Naku Koro ni ED Single - la divina tragedia ~Makyoku~ [Jimang].rar

MegaUpload

This song is so f'n awesome.

[Buffalobiian]

Umineko no Naku Koro ni ED Single - la divina tragedia ~Makyoku~ [Jimang].rar

MegaUpload

This song is so f'n awesome.

His pose is awesome. Totally.

[Marik]

Haha yeah. He has a cape and everything. His live shows are probably amazing, visually.

[Ryllharu]

Stupid Battler, tricks are for Beatrice.

[gg Umineko no Naku​ Koro​ ni​ 13

[Nadouku]

The former Beatrice? Oh man, this is so confusing, but at least I like the seven sisters that came out to "play" with Kanon.

[Buffalobiian]

I don't even know what to say about this anymore, but each repetition seems to be more enjoyable than the last, so I can't complain.

[Ryllharu]

[gg Umineko no Naku​ Koro​ ni​ 14

It seems like ever since Ronove came into play, he has been undermining Beatrice's authority. He interrupts her diatribes, ignores her, occasionally even throws a snide remark her way, and here he even cut her off, as if he was running the show.

It seems more like the children play with each other (Beatrice and Battler) while the adults (Ronove and 'Virgilia') are really running the game this episode. They also brought quantum theory into the show, just in time for Railgun!

Still, if Eva has found the gold, doesn't that mean that she has "won" and the game ends? I suspect things won't go quite the way the riddle and Beatrice has implied they will.

[Nadouku]

I like the random magical things that happen, so much that I forget what I was originally looking for. Oh well, at least Battler seems more confident in his argument, with Virgilia's help, of course.

[Buffalobiian]

I loved how they gave such a long-winded, technical name to describe what we'd call an unproven hypothesis. More simply put, an idea.

It seems like ever since Ronove came into play, he has been undermining Beatrice's authority. He interrupts her diatribes, ignores her, occasionally even throws a snide remark her way, and here he even cut her off, as if he was running the show.

I just saw him as rather defiant since he's conscious that he's a valuable piece of furniture, but I completely agree regarding this episode. In that last round, Ronove and Virgilia were pretty much teaching their respective sides how to play.

I wish they'd explain what the "sweetscent river" was.

[MasterOfMoogles]

So, if they didn't die from an accident, suicide, homicide, or trap, what did they die of? What does that even leave?
Animals? (this might be construed as an accident?)
Natural disaster? (accident as well?)
Natural causes?

This first twilight is extremely different from the last 2 first twilights:
1) 6 bodies gruesomely killed and thrown in a shed.
2) 6 bodies gruesomely disemboweled and left in the chapel.

I feel like one of the smarter adults must have come up with this one:
Rudolph, Kyrie, Eva, maybe Krauss? Perhaps they discovered the plot that usually kills them in the first twilight, and it involved the servants?

The doc is also terribly suspicious since he never has alibis for anything. Nanjo telling them not to shake Shannon was also pretty strange. Did he not want them to wake her up? Haha. Since we haven't seen any red, I even have doubts as to how many of these people are dead.

[Ryllharu]

It finally hit me now that they brought in quantum undead-cat theory into the series.

This is why Beatrice likes to murder people in closed rooms. She quite probably has to. As long as the room is shut and locked, the undead-cat state exists. In this case, it isn't whether someone is dead or not, but the whether that she can use magic or not.

So long as no one opens the room, just as Battler and Virgilia pointed out about the courtyard, Beatrice can claim that anything could have happened there. In this case, the sin furniture turn from spikes into girls. No one else is left alive in the room, so there isn't anyone to refute Beatrice's assertions. Once the room is opened, magic cannot exist anymore, especially because Battler doesn't believe in it, and only a dead body, killed by normal means remains, because that is what Battler witnesses.

The only reason he can't explain it is because he needs to come up with a make-believe version himself. He can make up all the scientific mumbo-jumbo he wants, and it will be the truth just as much as Beatrice's magic is, so long as no one opens the door and creates another version of the truth.

[MasterOfMoogles]

That's some pretty crappy magic. It can only kill people in such a way that they could have been killed by normal people?

It seems to me like the "magic" here is roughly on the same level as "imaginary friend". My imaginary friend exists and you can talk to him, you just have to believe! He actually wrote part of this post for me!

The reason Battler can't explain the murders is not because he needs to come up with a make-believe version, it is because he doesn't know. Just like us, Battler doesn't know who the real murderer(s?) are, or their motives.

It's a piece of cake to break any of the "closed" rooms we've encountered so far. In fact, I think there are 2 likely explanations for this one.
1) The adults grouped up and murdered some people. In this case, they could set up the situation as it was. Of course they "find" a key on Shannon's body, they used it to lock the door earlier.
2) The servants actually set this up. Genji, Shannon, and Kannon are all not actually dead. One of them simply locked the door before faking death.

I'm not sure which I like better. I like to think the fantasy scenes have some grounding in reality. This makes me think maybe Genji "killed" Shannon and Kannon. Then maybe "killed" himself? Of course, the doc is on on it with them.