Umineko Episode IV-I: End Game
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?
Analyzing Umineko no Naku koro Ni 
mm you’re right with Beato actions. Before if she had a sad face there have been always Batter seeing it. But doing it now wihout Battler, it seems strange.
About “love”, It is quite interesting the meaning given in Umineko. I got the same conclusion that you but my way to get it were not the same. maybe because in that scene I did not understand it at all.
Great blog. Hope do get some more interesting umineko-related things soon (smile)
Based on her reaction to Maria wanting to take Sakutaro outside, I doubt that Rosa would let Maria take it to the family meeting. She and her daughter are mocked by the siblings enough already that they probably had to leave it at home or something similar.
I’m not entirely sure when Rosa met with Kinzo but I am almost sure that it was *before Battler met with Kinzo near the end of that arc. Battler meeting Kinzo would indicate that Kinzo was alive at that time (unless it was a fake) partially proving Rosa’s innocence.
Also it’s good to know that Okonogi does not gas people for a living. One less bad guy to worry about 🙂
That is probably true. Although I find it odd that Sakutaro in general was never even mentioned by Maria before EP 4.
The entire thing with Battler meeting Suit-Beato in EP 2 is that he was drunk, so it’s very likely that what he saw was more of a delusion brought on by the alcohol. If that’s the case the Kinzo Battler saw wouldn’t have existed.
Yeah I doubt Ryukishi would use something silly like ‘Rokkenjima Syndrome’. Okonogi is more of a shout out character, similar to how Ange goes to Saint Lucia.