It leads one to question:

-What is the purpose of this game?
and
-What are Beato’s motives.

Purpose of the Game.

Now what is the purpose of this game. To deny witches and magic? That’s what it looks like. But the real purpose should be rather to find the real culprit of the murders, since the stance is that Beatrice is claiming to be the culprit. Now she’s claiming to be the murderer because she says magic exists and magic is the cause. However why is she so proud of it? Like murdering 17/18 people is something to be happy about. I’ll go back to that later.

The purpose of the game should be to find the real culprit. Episode 26 Battler was suppose to be the fight to figure out the culprit and solve the mystery. But Battler failed to do that in the end. It wasn’t because of Beato’s final riddle. Its because he wasn’t even trying to find the culprit – he was just trying to basically destroy Beato by using the most ridiculous theories he could come up with OR pin the blame onto one person. Want proof? Look no further than-

SMALL BOMBS IN THE FOOD.

He just made up the most retarded thing he could think up and simply threw it as the cause. That’s not trying to find the culprit – that’s just making up stories. There is nothing in the chapel in EP 2 that ever suggested bombs were used and how would anyone even bring a bomb onto the island without anyone noticing (remember the people that came to the island had to go on a plane before going on a boat). Then he tried to pin all blame of the murders on Eva in EP 3, despite the fact that in EP 4 it was pretty much denied to hell and back that she’s the culprit when we looked at her with love. He was just pinning blame and making up half-assed theories to try and kill Beato and go back to Ange. He wasn’t trying to find the culprit he was just trying to defeat Beato.

What is the purpose of this game. Is this a game of just Anti-Fantasy and Anti-Mystery? If that’s the case then where’s the fight to discover the identity of the culprit fit in. Believe in magic or not, there is a human culprit on the loose. And Anti-Fantasy vs Anti-Mystery ignores that component completely. Rather than being Anti-Fantasy or Anti-Mystery, how about the third component.

To find the human culprit you must look for one. Therefore there is a three-way battle.

Anti-Fantasy vs Anti-Mystery vs Pro-Truth

Are you looking to deny magic or are you looking for the culprit. In episode 26 Battler proves he’s fighting to deny magic at this point and not to find the truth. Unfortunately completely denying magic is impossible. Which leads one to wonder: Why didn’t Beatrice deny his asinine theories.

Beatrice’s motives

According to Lambda in the final moments of the episode and season Beatrice could have easily destroyed the theories presented by Battler, especially small bombs. So why didn’t she? In the game Bern and Lambda theorize it’s because Beato was acting again, similar to EP 3. But what was the purpose of acting in a situation and crying out for Battler to kill her. There simply is none, so Beatrice was not play acting. She was truly genuine.

Now when people die Beato normally laughs about it. But after Ange died she was mocking her death at all – she was very straightforward and almost seemed sympathetic to how Ange was simply destroyed like that. Then during the battle when Battler began making up stupid theories she just called them amusing and played along. Why did she do that? Because she knew that if Battler kept attacking her like that she would die.

So we come to the core of it all – what is Beato’s motivation? Not even for this alone but for everything. The fact that red text exists is proof enough that the culprit is human – Beato didn’t have to give all that information to Battler so he can formulate theories, especially if she wanted to win. But that’s just it – as Bern and Lambda said Beato cannot win. She’s outnumbered. Red and Blue text alone are double-edged swords to her and the double troll witches don’t want her to win either. Yet she’s aware of all of this and continues on.

The reason – Beatrice wants the mystery solved. She wants Battler to win.

Well thats it for this review. The anime is over (for now?). Most posts on this blog will consist of posts concerning the VN now among other things. Just so everyone knows: Umineko Chiru EP 6 – Dawn of the Golden Witch will be released on December 30th. Look forward to the next installment…if you can read moonrunes or spoil yourself. As for EP 5, Witch Hunt announced translation is completed and that the editting process is in the final stages.

Look forward to it~

best sisters ever

Kasumi and Kyrie – The Two Sisters

In this episode Kasumi’s motivation for going after Ange is revealed – a plot for revenge against Kyrie. The story goes like this: Kyrie was the older sister and Kasumi was the younger sister. Unlike the Ushiromiya family, which is male dominated, the Sumadera family is female dominated. Kyrie being the oldest daughter of the main family meant that she would one day succeed the family and become the head of the Sumadera family. Because of this she was put under rigorous training by her family. And looking at what kind of family the Sumaderas are it couldn’t have been the most loving environment. Kasumi on the other hand lived a very easy life – she was mostly ignored by the family and never had to work hard to be in a good position. She lived basically like a princess.

So everything goes well for Kasumi until Kyrie finally gives birth to Ange, who is considered by the Sumdera family as a bastard child. Keep in mind Kyrie had an arranged husband beforehand, but they apparently weren’t married yet from what Kasumi implied. So Kyrie marries Rudolf when Asumu dies and the Sumadera family is disappoint. Now Ange says that considering how the family hands traitors, Kyrie would probably be killed for doing something like this. However Kasumi implies that under the table money deals between the Ushiromiya family and the Sumadera family occurred, thus allowing Kyrie to leave with the mere punishment of disinheritment.

Now the Sumadera family needs a new heir. Since Kasumi is the second oldest she becomes the new candidate. However she’s not nearly as bright as Kyrie and the family probably gives her an even worse treatment than they gave to Kyrie. So Kasumi becomes hateful and decides to one day take revenge on Kyrie. But then the Rokkenjima massacre happens and Kyrie dies. So Kasumi eventually decides to kill Ange instead, using her as a proxy for her revenge on Kyrie.

There are two routes with Kasumi – you can pity her or you can think she’s justified in her hatred of Kyrie. Honestly I think the former. Kasumi got a huge dose of karma from Kyrie’s actions and didn’t like it. As Ange said, there’s no reason to hate Kasumi. She’s not evil she’s just extremely pitiable and pathetic. I mean seriously, ripping up the diary of a dead little girl and kicking around an 18 year old with your bodyguards. Wow you look sooo big and tough right now. Kasumi is basically a loser who thinks she can become happy if she takes revenge on Kyrie in some way.

But enough about her.

The Black Witch

The Black Witch was spoken of before by Maria in the 2nd arc – she’s described as the personification of hatred inside of everyone, but especially in cases where anger is pushed to another person to make someone feel better about themselves.

Now we see the Black Witch as Eva-Beatrice. But is she really the Black Witch? Certainly not. As I mentioned in this post here the Black Witch is seen in the form of the person the viewer hates (or in Ange’s case ‘hated’) the most. Because Ange hated Eva she saw the Black Witch as a younger looking Eva. Eva-Beatrice specifically because she is considered to be the part of Eva that always hated her family and wanted to get back at them for rejecting her, so I can see why Ryukishi decided to make it her rather than sailorfuku Eva.

As far as Eva showing up to murder Ange – basically what happens is the Black Witch, realizing that Ange sees her as Eva-Beatrice, decides to summon Eva from the dead to kill Ange. However it’s more likely that she lied and just transformed into Eva’s form. Either way Eva comes back from the dead to murder Ange (surprisingly bringing a Winchester rifle with her) but Ange ends up getting her killed by summoning Mammon.

The death of Kasumi and everyone else.

This is probably the most peculiar part of the entire scene. The stakes seem to appear and kill all the bodyguards, along with Kasumi. Yet neither the men nor Kasumi can see the stakes and the girls themselves are transparent. Now Ange says they can’t see because they lack love, but it’s most likely this: they can’t see because the stakes aren’t actually there killing them.

So the question is who killed all of those people. My guess: Juuza.

It was a very foresty area after all – he might have thought Ange was taking too long to return, went after her, saw Kasumi and her bodyguards attacking and sniped them all with his weapons (considering he’s a private military soldier I don’t doubt he has some arsenal of weapons which he brought with him). It explains why the bodyguards couldn’t see the stakes, but somehow they were still dying one by one.

Also another interesting part. The anime doesn’t include any types of endrolls, but here’s a particularly curious part from the endroll of the 4th arc.

According to endroll Ange died in 1998, presumably on Rokkenjima. However in the final shot of her on the island she was alive and well. So it makes you wonder how much of what we saw was fake? My bet was that everything from Ange summoning the stakes to kill Kasumi’s gun men became fake. Or perhaps did someone kill Ange right after Kasumi died? Another thing – in the same endroll Kasumi isn’t listed dead either.

Well that’s it for this analysis. Next week is the end of the season. Of course there are rumors of a 9th episode, but nothing confirmed just yet. It would be nice, but I doubt it. After the season ends I’ll put up my thoughts for how the murders occurred in each game.

In Umineko ‘furniture’ is defined as a being that is not considered human. The three servants (Genji, Shannon and Kanon) are not listed here, as they have more of a complex of believing they are furniture rather than actually being furniture (the entire laser sword and magic barrier stuff – never happened). They do count to the “no more than 18” limit and should be considered human, despite what they say otherwise.

(B)Ronove

One of the 72 demons of hell contracted under Beatrice, Ronove is considered to be Beato’s head demon servant and her favorite. Although furniture should be obedient to their master, Ronove is incredibly casual in his talk towards Beato and even teases and tricks her at times, which makes them look more like good friends towards each other. Although we have not seen his fighting capabilities yet, he is surely a powerful demon to have the honor to be called Beatrice’s head servant.

Besides that though he is a superb chef, creating delicious cookies that any being would crave after taking a single bite.

Purgatory Sisters

Beatrice’s personal furniture harem, these seven girls are sisters named after the seven deadly sins of hell. Despite their love for torture and killing they do have the personalities of teenage girls and the sin they represent obviously reflects on their attitude. Listed from oldest to youngest.

Lucifer of Pride – The eldest sister and the ‘leader’ of the sisters. Although she enjoys acting haughty and superior, in reality she’s the weakest of the seven and is normally taunted by the other sisters when defeated in battle. She is considered the representative of the sisters and is normally seen talking for all the sisters, especially around Beatrice.

Leviathan of Envy – As the 2^nd oldest sister, Leviathan views herself as a representative of the other sisters towards talks with Lucifer. It’s no secret that she’s a huge crybaby, whining and complaining when she doesn’t get something and easily gets jealous. She is the slowest to develop of all the sisters in terms of power, but due to her inferiority complex and jealously her power multiplied to a point where she can easily thwart any of the sisters in battle.

Satan of Wrath – An angry girl, who enjoys getting people angry with her so she won’t feel lonely, Satan is a sort of class president in her bossy attitude towards all the stakes. She’s described as a ‘tsundere’ without the ‘dere’ part and rarely shows any signs of kindness. At times she’ll end up yelling at the other stakes, knowing she’ll be scolded back at, just so that she can relieve her loneliness and feel important.

Belphegor of Sloth – The middle sister and is perhaps the most mature acting one out of all seven. Even though she represents the sin of the laziness, Belphegor is actually incredibly hard working. This is because if she works hard enough then her master won’t have to do anything – thus Belphegor’s hard work causes laziness, rather than being lazy herself. However she is almost serious to a fault and is rarely ever treated with kindness by anyone because of it.

Mammon of Greed – The greediest of the sisters, who enjoys getting her way. Of course it depends on how you look at greed: greed can be bad (greedy for money) but can also be good (greedy for knowledge). Mammon herself is the most honest of the sisters, but tends to be a firestarter in conflicts between the sisters in order to monopolize through greed. Out of all the stakes she is considered Ange’s best friend.

Beelzebub of Gluttony – Similar to Mammon, Beelzebub is a greedy food lover who enjoys gorging on anything she can find (even chewing on her own arms at times when she can’t find food). Because she always talks about food at times she tends to be a calming presence and is not the most serious of the bunch. However she rarely thinks before she acts, which normally gets her in trouble.

Asmodeus of Lust – The youngest sister, Asmodeus wishes to find someone to be with in order to look more like an adult to her sisters. Even though she’s the sin of lust, Asmodeus herself is normally kept away from lewd topic discussion due to her young age. Since they’re the youngest, her and Beelzebub tend to get along well with each other between all the sisters.

Siesta Sisters

Also known as the “Siesta Sisters Imperial Guard Corps” and “The Memorial Troops for Pendragon”, these three first appear when Evatrice summons them in the middle of EP 3. It should be made clear that Evatrice did not create the Siestas, but summoned them. Unlike the Purgatory Sisters, which are strictly Beatrice’s personal demons, the Siestas are more or less considered to be hired hit men who work for the person who summoned them (in EP 3 it was Evatrice, in EP 4 it was Kinzo).

From left to right

Siesta 410 (Yonichimaru) – A playful Siesta who enjoys teasing others, especially those who act too seriously. She’s in charge of firing the arrows and calculating the curve when she links up with others, and is normally seen linking with Siesta 45. Although she has a rough personality she easily succumbs to loneliness.

Siesta 00 (Double O) – First summoned in EP 4, Siesta 00 is the unofficial leader of the group. She values doing her work to the point of perfection to please her employer and considers any type of foolishness inexcusable. However, because of her demeanor and her will to never give up, when she is defeated she is normally treated quite harshly – thus her eyepatch and scar.

Siesta 45 (Yonjuugo) – A timid girl, who gets easily flustered and is naturally a bit clumsy. Despite that she has excellent targeting capabilities and is considered to be a pro at it compared to her two teammates. Although she is normally bullied she always does her best to please her summoner.

Siesta 556 (Gogoroku) – Not pictured and dead at the start of the game. She was destroyed in a battle against the Black Witch. In the team she was in charge of defense, never firing to strike but to defend.

Sakutaro

Maria’s personal furniture and best friend. His vessel (the stuffed animal) was created by Rosa, his humanoid form created by Beatrice and his very soul created by MARIA, you can say that he is a special being to Maria’s heart as he was a collaborated effort by the people Maria holds closest to her heart. It isn’t hard to imagine that he represents Maria’s heart and her happiness, due to their close bond.

He is destroyed by Rosa before Rokkenjima. Or rather his vessel is – his soul and existence still lives on, but because Maria believes he is dead then in her eyes he no longer lives. Sakutaro himself was created as a friend for Maria and doesn’t appear to have any type of demonic powers unlike the other furniture introduced thus far into the game.

Gaap

Not exactly furniture, but is rather a demon contracted by Kinzo and summoned in EP 4. Her and Beato are close friends, if not best friends, and they normally enjoy shopping for clothes (despite Gaap’s perverted fashion sense) and playing tricks. Gaap’s power is teleportation – she can create black holes from anywhere she wants (although there is most likely some limitation to her ability) and send whatever is dropped to another location via another black hole. You can say that when you lose your keys or anything else like that, it’s most likely Gaap playing a trick on you.

A special analysis of Maria’s family – including Maria, Rosa and Sakutaro.

The best type of relation you can ping Sakutaro and Maria’s relationship to is to compare them towards the old classic adventures of Calvin and Hobbes. Well it’s a bit different than that, considering some circumstances, but it’s the best example. Before we get into Sakutaro let me just give everyone a basic idea of what kind of child Maria is exactly.

Maria Ushiromiya

Maria is nine years old and has a well known fascination with the occult. Now because of this fascination she tends to be very isolated in her class, as she’s considered to be creepy. Anytime she’s not being isolated she’s being bullied. Although it wasn’t always like this – according to the VN Maria use to have many friends in her old home and even had birthday parties with other kids. However after she moved and began to get into the occult (which is presumed to of happened because she began meeting with “Beatrice” annually on Rokkenjima) she became socially isolated. This didn’t go well with her mother – partly because Maria didn’t have any friends which worried her and partly because Rosa looked bad being the mother of a weird and socially awkward child (or she thought she looked bad).

So Maria created her own friends, with the belief that they were real. This included Sakutaro, but there were more than just him (the forest band and a bunch of others). The idea that Maria could create a ‘soul’ for her toys and make them her friends is what granted her the title of Origin Witch. Is there more to this though? After all, just making an imaginary friend can’t constitute one becoming a witch. Of course it depends how one looks at witches, but that’s a completely different topic.

Anyway, as we know Rosa “kills” Sakutaro. Now “kill” as in she destroyed his stuffed animal or rather vessel. However, as Ange said Maria only believes Sakutaro is dead because his vessel is gone, but Sakutaro can appear whenever he wants to anyone as long as they know of ‘magic’. Now what does this mean for Maria? Is she REALLY going to kill her mother – then again who kills their mother over broken toys or toys that got taken away. Which makes you wonder-

What is Sakutaro?

Okay besides the obvious ‘he is Maria’s friend and stuffed animal’ and what not, there is more to it. Think about what Sakutaro always said to Maria (or what she thought he said) when Rosa was out sleeping around with men (no that is not Rosa’s job to clear it up). He consistently told Maria that Rosa loved her and did care about her – that she was just busy with work, but would spend time with her daughter if she could.

Sakutaro always encouraged Maria to believe in Rosa being a good mother, even when Rosa had forgotten their promise to go to the movies together. At that point Maria was crying and pretty much giving up on believing in the goodness of her mother, but Sakutaro distracted her from that loneliness and pretty much saved Maria’s belief in Rosa. So what is Sakutaro to Maria – yes he’s her best friend, but perhaps can he be considered almost a guiding belief of Maria’s love for Rosa.

If you think of it that way it makes sense why Beatrice couldn’t ‘revive’ Sakutaro for Maria. Because in reviving Sakutaro you also have to revive Maria’s belief in Rosa and that she can really truly be happy with her mother together. When Sakutaro was torn apart Maria basically descended into hatred towards Rosa for destroying the lion. With Sakutaro’s death came the death of Maria’s love for Rosa, which Sakutaro had always encouraged Maria to keep alive in her heart.

However the fact that Sakutaro still ‘exists’ in some form, does that mean that all hope is lost as far as Maria’s love for Rosa. Only time (and that troll Ryukishi) will tell.

The meaning of Uu-

A spell for happiness – a spell to always be happy with Rosa that originated from one of the happiest days of Maria’s short life. The spell was ‘created’ when Maria was singing a song she heard while having a picnic with Rosa. However, Maria couldn’t remember half of the song and substituted the real lyrics with the sound ‘Uu-’. Rosa was so happy with how cute Maria was being that the latter decided to always use the sound and chant it to be happy with Rosa. So whenever you look back on earlier episodes of the season (episode 1 is a perfect example) keep in mind that most times Maria might have been chanting ‘Uu-‘ to calm Rosa and use her happiness spell. Of course Maria probably said the noise so much it appears to become a verbal tic (a sort of tourettes possibly).

The meaning of this phrase is probably one of the most tragic things in the entire game. Maria says the noise around Rosa a lot in order to make her mother happy and create magic, yet Rosa only becomes enraged by the noise rather than not. Maria can stop saying the tic around her mother of course, but if she does that then the spell won’t work and Rosa won’t ever be happy with her again.

So she keeps on saying Uu-

Continues to say it to make Rosa happy.

Only the spell for happiness merely enrages her mother.

But she will continue to say it, because it’s the only way in her mind to bring back the happy memories of her mother to life.

Rosa Ushiromiya

Black Witch Rosa. This is not canon.

She’s probably the adult out of the seven with the most development, which makes her a fan favorite. (along with other moments, such as Rosa Musou) But what kind of character is Rosa exactly.

Yes she’s not an amazing mother. At all.

But besides that, there is almost a certain aspect of inferiority. Specifically related to her older siblings. She never excelled in grades like Eva, never had a chance of being the next head like Krauss and was never really good with managing relationships like Rudolf (both in business and love). This inferiority has also led her to hate her siblings for certain reasons (as Beatrice described in her gourmet meal to Rosa in the conclusion of the second arc).

However, you have to wonder if all the abuse she suffered is still happening or is just in her head. In the game the narrator described how Krauss would punch her when she was a child. First off Krauss should have been busying trying to get Natsuhi pregnant since the 50’s, so I doubt he would have time to punch his little sister around. Besides, punching her? They have a possible 20 year difference between each other; I doubt that Krauss would be THAT stupid as to punch his little sister around.

Then there’s Eva, who has a very similar age gap to Rosa as Krauss does. I don’t doubt Eva bullying her little sister around at all and it still happens to this day (Eva calling Rosa stupid on several occasions). But then there’s Rudolf, who Rosa said had betrayed her and bullied her even more than the older siblings combined. But if he did that it doesn’t show it at all – between Krauss, Eva and himself he never shows signs of picking on Rosa. At one point in the game he actually tells Krauss and Eva to stop picking on Rosa, when they mock her fashion company. She also seems to get along fine with the three spouses.

Does she hold some hate to the family? Sure, it’s easy to see the family is full of pricks (well at least the 2^nd generation is). However it seems this hate has seeped into her relationship with Maria, going as far as to physically punish Maria, or sometimes just outright abuse her, just as her father had. Even worse there are signs of emotional abuse as well, what with ripping up Sakutaro among other things. Still it looks like this cycle of hate continues on.

Conclusion

Good End confirmed to happen Never 8(

Well I written more than enough I think. Of course this could go on and on, but that would bore you to tears.

Rosa and Maria’s relationship, both the good and bad aspects of it, is an interesting topic in Umineko. It’s a shame Ryukishi hasn’t devoted much attention to the other parent-child relationships, excluding the relationship between Battler and Rudolf, but even that development is still full of holes, mostly coming from Rudolf’s side of the spectrum.

Episode 22 is coming up this Wednesday and yes it should finally begin the 1^st twilight. I’ll probably post another profile article featuring the furniture + demons after that.

• Pre 1986 – Maria is a part of the Mariage Sociere with Maria, but ends up ‘denying’ Sakutaro by telling Maria’s he’s just a stuffed lion (although she only was repeating what her mother had told her about the toy). Ange feels guilty about this in the future.
• Oct. 6th 1986 – The boat and police come to Rokkenjima and find everyone dead in the mansion and later find Eva in the Kuwadorian.
• Oct 7th 1986 – Eva comes to take Ange away from Kyrie’s father (since he was watching over her while she was sick). Normally Kasumi would do this, but because Eva survived this time she took Ange instead. • A bunch of things happen and Ange gets sent to Saint Lucia Academy around the time she’s a teenager. Before that though she is given Maria’s diary, which she uses to ‘communicate’ with Maria (the scene seen in episode 19 during Ange’s explanation of her school days)
• Early in her stay at the academy she is able to summon the purgatory sisters. Due to her inept magical ability though Mammon is chosen to stay with her and Ange promises Mammon that she would definitely get powerful enough to summon the other sisters all together one day.
• Eventually Ange’s magic grows and she is able to summon all sisters at once. No one can still see them.
• However because her test scores were poor at the end of the school semester and her entire class got mad at her and forced her to right an apology letter to the entire class for making their overall average fall. During this time she becomes angry at the abuse and orders the stakes to kill all the girls (the quick flashback seen in episode 20) However, the stakes say they cannot do so. This makes Ange angry enough to start denying their existence one by one, causing their form to be destroyed.
• After she finishes off with all seven she gets angry at Maria and Sakutaro, who keep telling her to take the abuse without fighting back. She ends up denying Sakutaro’s existence (again) and his form is even temporarily destroyed. Maria becomes angry that Ange would deny her friend and Ange is thrown out of the Mariage Sociere (again). Ange then tells the girls that she wished she would have died with her family and doesn’t practice her magic again until after Eva’s death and meeting with Bernkastel.

Hope this post was informational for you. Next episode will be a personal favorite, because it looks like all the Ange and Maria flashbacks are finally at their conclusions.

Note: More information to be added as the anime continues. Please keep checking back.

Witch Classes

Before getting into the actual witches, the witch classes will be defined. In EP 4 we are given certain classes and which of the current witches fall into said category.

• Finite Witches - Witches with limitations on their power. Sometimes they remain finite because they have not achieved the level of infinite magic – other times they choose to remain finite, fearing not limitation.

• Infinite Witches - Witches with no limits on their powers or abilities. Endless Witches are an example of this class.

• Voyager Witches - Similar to infinite witches, the only difference is that they have the power to leave and enter different domains and travel between millions upon billions of different parallel kakeras. They are also considered the most powerful class of witch and most of them were born/created as voyagers rather than becoming voyagers over time. The only class that rivals their power are:

• Creator Witches - Witches with the power to create something from nothing (0 to 1). Many voyager witches have the potential to become creator witches, but almost fear becoming one and hold off on it. Creators are only second to Gods and the most powerful creators can go on to make entire galaxies with their power, if they are well trained.

There are also lower positions to witches, such as magician class or summoner class.

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Beatrice

Title(s): Golden Witch, Endless Witch

Class: Infinite Witch

Current position: Game Master

Overview: The series main antagonist, Beatrice is the Endless Witch who has lived for over a thousand years. Many years after the Kanto Earthquake of 1924, which wiped out all of the Ushiromiya family but one, she was summoned by Kinzo and contracted to give him gold in exchange for his soul. However he had fallen in love with Beatrice’s beauty and imprisoned her on Rokkenjima, keeping her captive so he could be with her. Beatrice soon escaped by committing suicide and being free from her human form, but was soon captured again. This time she was imprisoned in a homunculus made to look like her and had her memories erased, including those of her being a witch. In 1967 she was freed yet again when she fell off the cliffs of Rokkenjima while being led out of the forest by a young Rosa.

But her freedom was not truly freedom. Although Beatrice was freed from her shell and was no longer under Kinzo’s reign she was still trapped on the island due to her diminished power, partly because of the mirror in the Shinto shrine. In 1984 however, she had made a deal with Shannon, which ended up with the mirror breaking into pieces. Yet even that wasn’t enough – she still needed more power in order to leave the island and be free. So she started a game with Kinzo for her revival ceremony. This game takes place on Rokkenjima in 1986, during the annual family conference. If nobody on the island can solve the epitaph before the end of October 5th Beatrice is the victor and can revive.

However this ceremony leads to her battle with Battler, the only one of the first surviving four on the 10th twilight who did not believe in her existence, which is the current setting of the game.

If there more to her than we are being told though?

Virgilia

Title(s): Previous Endless Witch

Class: Finite Witch

Current Position: Assistant to Beatrice

Overview: The previous Endless Witch before Beatrice and her teacher. According to the game Virgilia was originally named ‘Beatrice’ herself and began the tradition of passing down the name ‘Beatrice’, giving her disciple the name. Unlike the childish demeanor her pupil has, Virgilia is a calm and mature motherly figure, wanting to take care of Beatrice and help her gain freedom from Kinzo’s clutches. However, Beatrice has to learn her stupendous troll skills from somewhere right? At the end of the third game Virgilia is revealed to be in cohorts with Beatrice, only pretending to side with Battler. Her true motivations aren’t completely known, but regardless of her trolling she seems to be a kind figure – even assisting Beatrice with creating Sakutaro’s humanoid form.

Eva-Beatrice (EVA)

Title(s): Endless Witch, Golden Witch, Head of the Ushiromiya family (EP 3)

Class: Infinite Witch

Current Position: Destroyed by Beatrice at the end of the 3rd game

Overview: A malevolent being living inside Eva since the woman was merely a teenager, when Eva solved the riddle and found the gold she was crowned the Ushiromiya head by Beatrice and given the titles Endless and Golden Witch. Although the younger version of Eva herself is very immature she also is a form holding all of Eva’s repressed anger to the family for not accepting her. Deciding that as the head of the family all the other members belong to her to do what she wishes Eva-Beatrice continues the resurrection ritual, but rather than making a mystery out of it such as Beatrice had Eva-Beatrice kills strictly because she enjoys it.

At the end of Banquet of the Golden Witch she is revealed to be merely a decoy witch, which Beato allowed to be created after Eva solved the riddle. Beato allowed Eva-Beatrice to her own devices and ultimately destroyed her.

Ange-Beatrice

Title(s): Endless Witch

Class: Infinite Witch, Golden Witch, Head of the Ushiromiya family (EP 4)

Current Position: Assisting Battler

Overview: Ange-Beatrice, known as ‘the last Beatrice’, is a piece thrown into the game by Bernkastel, in order to help Battler and destroy the insidious game that has been trapping her family endlessly. Ange herself is not extremely powerful in magic, but that’s only because she stopped practicing it. She was once a member of the Mariage Sociere, but was thrown out of the alliance after she denied the existence of Sakutaro and the Stakes of Purgatory as a young child.

Ange-Beatrice resides in 1998, trying to unravel the mysteries of Rokkenjima from the future and find the truth that has eluded her for 12 years. At the same time she is avoiding her crazy aunt, Kasumi Sumadera, who surely doesn’t have good intentions for her.

MARIA

Titles(s): Witch of Origins

Class: Creator

Current Position: Unknown

Overview: Although she is still only an apprentice witch MARIA has a natural talent for magic and is quickly able to learn and create her own spells, even going as far as to create a soul for Sakutaro despite the fact that she is still training. With this magical power to create something from nothing, MARIA has been dubbed the Witch of Origins by her mentor Beatrice.

As a creator class MARIA has the potential to become an amazing witch in the future, even being able to trump powerful witches such as Bernkastel and Lambdadelta. Being a member of the Mariage Sociere, along with Beato, she has the power to summon furniture involved in the alliance. This furniture includes both the Stakes of Purgatory and even the Siesta Sisters. Despite holding the same staff as Eva-Beatrice, MARIA is not an Endless Witch successor herself.

Frederica Bernkastel

Title(s): Witch of Miracles

Class: Voyager

Current Position: Unknown

Overview: Dubbing herself as ‘The Cruelest Witch in the World’ Bernkastel wishes to thwart Beatrice’s game, taking pity on Battler. Her power is the ability to create a miracle, as long as the possibility of that miracle does not equal zero. She rarely uses this power though, saying a miracle is only a miracle when it shouldn’t happen. Although she had been supporting Battler from the sidelines, she realized doing such wasn’t enough. So to given assurance to her victory she put an 18 year old Ange Ushiromiya (coming from the third game) into Meta-World, in order to help Battler.

However, she also tricked this same Ange by telling her that there would be a chance that she would get her family back. Although she didn’t lie she didn’t tell the whole truth – in reality the Ange that would get her family back would be the Ange from the fourth game world, whereas the Ange from the third game world (Ange-Beatrice) never had even the slightest chance of getting her family back into the third world.

Lambdadelta

Titles(s): Witch of Certainty

Class: Voyager

Current Position: Unknown

Overview: The previous “Most Powerful Witch in the Universe”, before the start of Umineko Lambda was defeated by Bernkastel in a different game (implied to be Higurashi, but it isn’t completely affirmed) before coming to watch Beatrice’s game and how it unfolds. Even though Beatrice is the game master, Lambda appears to be the one pulling the strings from behind the scenes. Her goal is to keep the game going on for all eternity, in order to keep Bernkastel trapped in a bird cage once more.

Lambda’s power is the power of certainty – to kill and make anything happen with 100% certainty. However the power depends on the wish: for example if someone wished they had the will to pass a test she could grant that certainty. But if the will to pass that test waivered then Lambda’s power to help that person would diminish. If they would just wish to pass the test then they would instantly as long as they take the test. Compared to Bernkastel’s power, Lambda’s is far more kinder.

Goldsmith

Title: Badass Grandpa

Class: Summoner

Current Position: Head of the Ushiromiya Family

Overview: Not exactly a witch per se, but is still put into this category. Goldsmith and Kinzo Ushiromiya are the same people, however Goldsmith is the title Kinzo uses when referring to himself as a summoner (also going by Lord Goldsmith). Although he lacks magical power of his own, due to the interference of his black blood (passed onto Battler), he makes up for it in his will and studies. Thanks to his efforts he became quite talented in the art of summoning demons and witches and able to summon Beatrice to make a contract to receive ten tons of gold.

He is the primary antagonist in the 4th arc and is seen through the magical illusions to be the main mastermind in the killings of his family and workers. However he soon meets his own demise when destroyed by Beatrice in her anger. But he still lives on through OH DESIREEE

The Black Witch

Title: None

Class: Witch

Current Position: None

Overview: The Black Witch is a magical being with no form. If someone becomes angry at you, does something cruel to you or perhaps lives their life in hatred, you can say that the Black Witch is standing by that person’s shoulder, manipulating their feelings. Feelings of anger and hatred ultimately are considered to be ‘black magic’ and can not only wound the person afflicted by it, but also the person using it. Whether they realize it or not. However you shouldn’t be angry at the person manipulated – if anything you should pity them for giving into the witch and try to help them. Not that it will be easy.

In the series, the Black Witch is given the personification of Eva-Beatrice. However, it should be made clear Evatrice herself is NOT the Black Witch – the witch appears in the form of the person the viewer hates the most. Therefore, because Ange has always hated Eva the most she sees the Black Witch as Eva-Beatrice, while for Maria the Black Witch always appeared as Rosa when the mother was acting cruelly towards her daughter.

She is apparently destroyed by Ange, but it is most likely such a thing never happened. For as long as anger and hate exist, so will the Black Witch. In that sense you can say she is immortal through all.

lol look at me posting a spoiler image B)

Maria  – Happy Halloween for Maria

As the title suggests the song is very Halloween-esque. Yet I’m glad they didn’t zone in much on Maria’s creepiness, but rather mixed her occult fascination with her cute side as well. When the song began I was a bit worried of that happening, but soon enough my worries were dispelled. The lyrics are very cutesy and Horie does a wonderful job, as I truly can believe Maria is singing this song.

What I especially like is how the melody of the song itself sticks to a very Halloween theme (the entire Uu- thing mixed with the song itself in the background was very nicely done). Of course this song does have some light spoilers (when it came out Sakutaro was never mentioned beforehand) but it’s to be expected.

It had a good tune to it and kept your attention – the lyrics especially keep up well in accompaniment to the song itself. I can’t understand how Horie can sing so fast though I mean damn, some parts were just jumbled up. But I did especially like how part way in the song (when she started singing to Sakutaro) the song itself mixed in Sakutaro’s theme from the visual novel in a very smooth transition. Very nice catch.

Rating: 8/5/10

Jessica – Dokkyun Heart

Part of this song was featured back in Episode 6 of the anime, with the cultural festival. Now when I heard the song back then I wasn’t very impressed – it sounded like a highly generic fast paced J-Pop song and you could clearly hear some Higurashi references. After hearing the full version…I can’t say I was anymore impressed.

The song itself doesn’t have much substance other than Jessica screaming “Dokkyun Dokkyun” and talking about a princess dating a younger boy. Now that didn’t bother me (well it did somewhat) as much as the lyrics themselves. Part the song was literally referencing Higurashi (nipah nipah, au au, kana kana, usoda, then they mention footsteps following behind them). Like they couldn’t think of anything else to write for Jessica’s lyrics so they just said ‘hey let’s fanservice Higurashi and throw in some catch phrases!’ I mean really?

The character songs are suppose to basically speak about what kind of personality the character has in song – through lyrics and melody. Jessica’s song just made me think she was loud, annoying and thought of herself as a ‘lol princess with forbidden loves’. Honestly it just didn’t catch me and makes me think of her more as a one-dimensional character, who is just…generally annoying. The entire repetitiveness of it didn’t help either. Certainly not one of the best songs – it sounds like something just thrown together to be honest.

Rating: 4/10

Overall CD Rating: 12.5/20 which isn’t even a passing D-. Then again Jessica’s song mostly brought it down for me, Maria’s song obviously shined far more in terms of overall.

NOTE: This review may hold minor future spoilers.

(picture by 前川スゥ on pixiv)

George – Declaration of Love

This song, as the title implies, is about George’s love for Shannon. It starts off with a line from the anime, a violin solo, and then suddenly it bursts and begins to play some type of melody that is reminiscent of some type of Spanish Tango. The lyrics are pretty hilariously, with George basically laying out ‘rules’ for Shannon to follow, going from cute (‘When we’re alone don’t call me George-sama’) to borderline creepy (‘When you’re around other men than me, don’t blush like that’). Coupled with a couple crazy laughs and lines coming from the game, this song is a hyper active treat to listen to. Yet sometimes, although extremely crazy, it does become a little repetitive and like most songs in Umineko (well except Jessica’s) it contains future spoilers for EP 4.

Still the song is well done and very catchy. The entire ‘chubechuba’ chorus behind George at times just makes me giggle and imagine other males just popping in and out of nowhere to do that sound.

Overall rating: 9/10

(by unknown artist)

Beatrice – Chain

Now Umineko songs normally hold spoilers, but dear god I think Beato’s might have the most up to this point. The entire song not only spoils for EP 4 but it ALSO spoils some for EP 5. Anyways the song majorly revolves around the unfulfilled promise (because Yakusoku didn’t make grown men cry enough) and being obviously chained to the entire game, awaiting death and wondering why she was even born. There are also references to the epitaph inside (‘Go along the shore and you shall be raised’ and ‘fly towards the beloved hometown’). Ohara doesn’t sound much like Beato at the start, but comes out strong for the rest of the song.

The melody is ever changing, with guitar riffs and piano solos throughout the song. If you know the lyrics and understand the meaning behind them the song becomes very heart breaking as well. In any case, I think this is probably one of the best songs put out yet in the Umineko franchise. A fitting song for our beloved witch.

Overall Rating: 9.5/10 (because I’m one of those bastards who never gives perfect 10’s)

can’t find an HQ cover pic yet

CD Total Rating: 18.5/20 so around an A

What I like most about this CD is that both songs very high quality and they didn’t just focus on making one song amazing and the other song mundane – both songs were amazing for their own merits and I applaud the VA’s for doing so fantastic. For once Frontier Works got something done right.

Although I said I wouldn’t be doing episode reviews I do want to quickly note down important things in this episode.

Beatrice – the evil witch holding the Ushiromiya family captive, or something else?

A lot of people have decided to close themselves off to Beatrice completely, refusing to believe anything she says, after the ending troll. However when we arrive at meta-world she looks genuinely worried about Battler, when Ronove tells her how depressed he is after what happened. At this point there is no reason for Beatrice to act this way, because Battler isn’t around. So is Beatrice really the evil witch who should be hated or maybe is there a bigger picture?

Remember last episode with Lambdadelta, who clearly told Beatrice that the only reason she is a witch is because of her (Lambda). She also mentioned how Beato has to play to win so that she can keep the game going on forever. So one has to wonder – is Beatrice really doing this because she wants to or is Lambda pulling some strings.

Finally you have to consider the trolling itself. Look at it this way: Battler was fully ready to sign the paper and acknowledge her. With that signature he would have lost the game. If Beatrice really wanted to win wouldn’t she wait until AFTER Battler signed to troll? Instead she did it right before he was going to on his own, revealing her ‘true colors’. Lambda had caught onto this as well, hence the entire ‘play to win’ conversation. If Beatrice really wanted to win she would have held back her troll. Trolling Battler in a way assured her loss when she was so close. There was also her hesitation.

Without Love it Cannot be Seen

In this scene Okonogi confesses his undying love for Takano Miyo

A pivotal theme in Umineko, which needs to be understood in order to understand the game and the mystery as a whole. In case you didn’t notice it’s mentioned in the anime OP lyrics, the game OP lyrics and several times in Umineko itself. Okonogi basically explains it in the most accurate way, using Eva as an example.

• Ange believes Eva is evil and killed everyone, because she returned.

• Okonogi believes Eva did not kill everyone, because of the way she reacted to the deaths of her family.

They use the same evidence, but they see it in different light. The fact that the massacre was labeled as an accident to Ange means Eva covered up the murders. To Okonogi it means simply that it was an accident that Eva merely avoided because she was at the Kuwadorian.

They have conflicting ideas on it. And their conflict all goes down to how they feel about Eva. Ange holds no ‘love’ for Eva, so she will never see her side on the issue and judge her as evil. Okonogi holds ‘love’ for Eva, and will therefore understand her feelings and see a greater picture in play.

The same thing is brought up only two minutes or so later. Okonogi tells Ange that he has someone (Juuza) waiting for her in the parking garage to pick her up and safely get her away from her crazy aunt. However Ange doesn’t believe in Okonogi and goes a different route. That route leads to her being chased down the stairwell, jumping down to the roof of a car and almost being captured. If Juuza hadn’t sensed something was wrong she would have been caught. Because Ange held no ‘love’ for Okonogi she didn’t believe in his words and immediately decided he was going to betray her. She closed off her heart and allowed herself to get into danger.

That is the basic idea of “Without Love it Cannot be Seen”. If you have love for something you will look at things from their perspective and will not immediately judge them based on your personal bias. If you do not hold love for something then you will condemn them without fairness – because you believe everything you see to be true.

Kinzo Ushiromiya: Dead or Alive?

This episode brought up a major question in the grand scheme of things: is Kinzo actually alive? Of course we’ve seen many scenes with him, but should we take those scenes as granted proof? It should be noted that Battler’s perspective is the only perspective to be trusted. That is: if Battler sees it then it’s real. If he doesn’t see it then it’s liable to be false. Of course we can’t just say everything Battler doesn’t see is false, because then more than 70% of everything we see isn’t real. However we do know this: scenes with magical things occurring in some form are false cover-ups made by Beatrice.

If Kinzo is dead before the start of each game then it means a massive group conspiracy is occurring.

These people would be aware for starters that Kinzo is dead:

• Krauss, Natsuhi, Genji, Nanjo, Shannon and Kanon.

Of course that isn’t to say Gohda might not be on it or Jessica even – but we know for sure these people claimed to be with Kinzo on multiple occasions during the game, which means every time they said they met him was a lie.

There is also Rosa to consider in EP 2 – if you think back she claimed to everyone that she personally met with Kinzo. However that would mean at that moment, if Kinzo is really dead, she is lying.

However there would be things cleared up by Kinzo being dead. For starters the receipt in the door. Look back to EP 1.

Natsuhi was in Kinzo’s study, claiming to speak with him. Eva put a receipt in the doorway after she (Natsuhi) left. Later they went to check up on Kinzo and he wasn’t there. If Kinzo is always dead then Natsuhi was merely lying about Kinzo and didn’t do anything to him.

Though if this is the case the question is – why would all these people cover up Kinzo’s death? The fact that Kinzo is always burned in the same way each game also can be a method to cover up an earlier death.

Future expectations:

1) Kyrie will probably get some development in this arc, if the pattern is correct. The fact that her birth family (Sumadera) is introduced through her younger sister in the future it also brings up the possibility of learning about Kyrie’s past.

2) In the OP sequence Maria was shown in a new outfit, holding Eva-Beatrice’s staff. Will she become a witch or not?

3) Sakutaro was never mentioned in the game until EP 4 nor is he seen on Rokkenjima. Did something happen to him maybe?

Ange Ushiromiya (右代宮 縁寿)
Age: 18 (6 in 1986)
Position: Head of the Family in 1998

Overview: The younger half-sister of Battler, from Rudolf and Kyrie. 12 years after the massacre of her family, leaving only her aunt Eva alive, Ange has become quite bitter and generally anti-social. She doesn’t find value in her fortune or position, only wishing to find the truth of what happened between October 4th and 5th 1986. Every game she is the only member of her family that comes out alive, as she was sick and could not attend the annual conference that year, and is taken under the care of her aunt, Kasumi Sumadera. However in the 3rd game that changes due to Eva’s survival. Because of this major change in the normal timeline Frederica Bernkastel, who wishes to thwart Beatrice’s game, approved Ange to become Ange-Beatrice (after Eva gave away the title of Beatrice with the inheritance) and allow the younger sister to ascend into Meta-World, in order to help Battler.

Amakuza Juuza (天草 十三)
Age: Unknown – most likely in his 30′s
Position: Ange’s bodyguard

Overview: Before 1998 Juuza had worked as one of the private guards for Eva, but was fired by her due to his friendly attitude towards Ange. Despite his young age Juuza is a professional guard, working for private military companies in Japan and France. Okonogi employed him to guard Ange for the weekend, but with her large sum of money she can keep him around for as long as she likes. He enjoys risky jobs and even if he were to get shot one day during an assignment he would be more than fine with the way he lived his life up to that moment.

Kasumi Sumadera (須磨寺 霞)
Age: Unknown – most likely around her late 40′s to 50′s.
Position: Current Head of the Sumadera family

Overview: Unlike her frank speaking older sister, Kyrie Ushiromiya, Kasumi is far more conniving and shrew in her behavior. Although she is the younger sister of the two, because Kyrie married Rudolf and left the family behind, Kasumi was recognized as the head of the family. Needless to say she seems to hold some type of disdain towards Ange and her intentions in trying to get Ange in her clutches surely cannot end well.

Okonogi Tetsuro (小此木 鉄郎)
Age: Unknown
Position: Retired CEO of Okonogi Foods and manager of the Ushiromiya fortune

Overview: He does not gas villages for a living. Really.

Back in 1986 he was the head of Okonogi Foods, which had ties to Hideyoshi’s fast food franchise. It was perhaps due to this that in her state of paranoia and progressive mental breakdown after the massacre Okonogi was the only person Eva trusted enough with managing the family assets.

Post to updated as future characters come along.