[Disclaimer]: This entry might contain MINOR spoilers. However, while the analysis might push you to these minor spoilers, NO foretelling spoiler is present. Therefore, please follow the same guideline, and understand that any spoiler can just ruin this critical part of the story for any reader. Good reading!
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For those who were following my articles when Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai was airing, you probably know what is the purpose of such article (see? I promised it!). For those who don’t, welcome to the weekly analysis article for Umineko no Naku Koro ni.
These articles will serve as more afterthought and information regarding the most recent aired episode. As a VN reader myself (that would hard to make the patch without doing so…), I will provide highlights and missing information that would certainly help in your journey to the Golden Land. However, bear in mind (as stated in the disclaimer) that because of my knowledge, some points might have more importance than they should be. That said, I will try my best to keep an anime only point of view (and the fact there is no “answer” yet helps to avoid blunders).

Of course, I would suggest you to think about it yourself a bit, elaborate some theories before reading my articles.
Be sure to have watched the episode before reading this ! (Talk about obvious, but better being cautious than being sorry later on)

This week, I will focus mainly on the following points :

1. Maria
2. 18 or 19 persons on Rokkenjima?
3. First Twilight
4. Random comment: What DEEN screwed up so badly: Characters relationship
   

[Analysis]

I. Maria

Maria was shown quite disturbingly serious during the reading of the letter: is her behaviour normal?
We should probably take a neutral observation at this point (since DEEN erratic facial distortion isn’t anything to take seriously): Maria was shown reading quite an intricate content. I might sound a bit weird, but remember it is the same 9 year old child that often utter “uu uu” and can go very persistent over trivial matters.
Therefore, isn’t that strange for her to read that kind of letter?

To elaborate this point, one would require Japanese knowledge: although it is rather difficult to check with the anime alone, we can testify with the game that the letter was absolutely not in plain Hiragana, but filled with kanji. And to make things interesting, several of them are certainly not suited for a 4th grader (such like 師 for fifth grade, 錬 and 契 for seventh grade).
Ironically, we can also consider the translation of the letter as yet an adapted proof as well: the way how it is worded wouldn’t be really usual for a 9 years old girl either.

Here is also information from the characters themselves in the VN. This is Kyrie’s opinion about it, when she talks to Battler (skipped in the anime):

“I had suspected that it might have been Maria-chan playacting, but the contents of the message were extremely complicated, so it’s hard to think that Maria-chan prepared it herself.  ……However, I can’t deny the possibility that Maria-chan is working together with someone.“

Of course, we have seen a shadow close to Maria at the end of Episode 1-1, but that absolutely doesn’t mean the one who gave the umbrella was the same person who gave that letter. By this extension, one might have speculated that Maria made a prank or really believed in this stuff, considering how she is really obsessed with witches and occult magic.

Now that it is pretty clear that Maria obviously didn’t write the letter, there is still the big problem behind that which I mentioned above: the fact Maria could read it.
Why is it such an issue? Because like I explained above, the content of the letter is way too complicated for her to understand, let alone read. Therefore, it is highly possible that Maria was in contact with the author of the letter for quite some time.

How long? It is difficult to say: we are obviously stuck with the “not enough information” position that even VN readers wouldn’t be able to answer accurately. That said, it is truly a wonder how come a child like Maria can read it… unless, we consider that line from her game bios:

Rosa’s daughter. The father is unknown.
She often gets in trouble for speaking like a young child.

She has no concern whatsoever for studies or friends; however, she shows a strong interest for the occult, black magic and such, and memorizes many inconsistent bits and pieces of information with her natural gift of memorization.

Therefore, it is very likely that Maria didn’t even read the letter, but in fact recited it. That is certainly surprising, but not impossible, especially if we speculate a possible brain washing or hypnosis that could make Maria devoted in such kind of stuff.

Obviously, there are still a lot of shrouded mysteries regarding Maria, but so far, it is very clear that she has a middle-long lasting bound with the author of the letter (we still cannot confirm that the killer IS the same person that had written the letter).

II. 18 or 19 persons on Rokkenjima?

This question seems quite strange to begin with: aside of Kyrie’s speculation, what really makes it impossible for an intruder (or even more of them) to invade Rokkenjima whilst no one else knows?
Regarding this point, it is necessary to bring up facts from the novel, as once again, the anime series doesn’t explain everything.
As you all might know, Rokkenjima is owned by the Ushiromiya family, or more precisely, by Kinzo. Therefore, the access of this island is restricted by the family itself and the harbor at Niijima (the closes mainland area) is regulated by employee of the Ushiromiya family.
This actually explains why in the VN, most characters don’t exactly believe in the presence of a 19th person. That is because there is “no way” for someone external to the family to get there, unless they have their own private boat (which is a bit unlikely unless drastic speculations).

Furthermore, as you noticed, the typhoon engulfed Rokkenjima quite early: We know that Kanon went to get the kids at 6:00PM for dinner, while they were having their picnic at the beach around 3:00PM. Therefore, the Typhoon was around Rokkenjima during this timeframe.
Since Eva, Rudolf and Rosa’s families arrived at 10:30AM that certainly doesn’t give a big timeframe for a random stranger to get over there before the typhoon (expecting them to get before Eva and the rest is a bit unrealistic, because the servants were waiting for them. Therefore, any visitor would be spotted due to the transport, even if they came stealthily).
Considering there was absolutely no weird activity reported when the Ushiromiya arrived, it is clear that the intruder(s) weren’t with them on the same boat.

If we have a rough approximation of the time needed for them to get in the mansion, we can speculate that the external persons would have the chance to get on Rokkenjima only after 11:00AM. That doesn’t leave a big leeway considering the activities on Rokkenjima due to the family conference.
However, this doesn’t rule out that that person(s) might have been lurking on Rokkenjima the day before or something of that kind.
And this is where another of Kyrie’s reasoning (again, unavailable for the anime series) is handy:

We are talking about Beatrice, the very same woman that Kinzo was seen infatuated with. Therefore, one thing doesn’t make sense: even if Beatrice doesn’t want to be seen (or let’s be blunt: assaulted) by the Ushiromiya siblings, what prevents Kinzo to give an honor guest room or protection? Kinzo has absolutely the means to do this kind of things if you consider the mansion and the number of servants.
Therefore, is it really possible to imagine Kinzo letting his beloved Beatrice to be soaked dead? Very unlikely.
However, unless some of the family are in cahoots with this stranger(s), it is very hard to imagine 17 persons (not 18, since Kinzo is literally camping his study) unable to bump on someone who “shouldn’t be there” for several hours.
Even if we consider the servants covering such farce, we have the cousins probably not staying all the time at the same place, while there are the adults on the other side (parlor etc).

Now to get back with Kyrie’s main argument, it is indeed very weird: why would anyone use Maria as a roundabout way to prove their existence? Of course, mailing that kind of letter prior the meeting isn’t all convincing either: there is no way for the siblings to check the authenticity of the letters, therefore it is high probable they don’t believe in it (a bit like in this scene but absolutely skipped by DEEN… again).
But why Maria then? Why not a servant that would be much more credible? or even better: one of the sibling before hiding themselves?
Every pieces of information makes the presence of “Beatrice” very unlikely…

But this is also for this very reason that her existence is possible: what really prevent people to use such stratagem to actually make the siblings doubt each other or even their own family?
Reverse psychology might sound as cheesy as Yugioh Trap fest or Death Note KEIKAKU DORII madness, but here, we are talking about a situation where a well prepared individual is trying to deceive a whole family group and their servants. Therefore, what is the best weapon to take out several enemies at once? Using deception in order to make them doubting each other or even better: to make them going against each other.

What I mean is that: as much there are weird choices for the letter author to be that evasive on their existence, it is also by itself a good plan to cast doubts on their targets.
Although it sounds a lame “back to square one”, there is in the end not enough information that confirm if there are more chances to have only the Ushiromiya and the servants (18) or if there is 1 or more persons lurking on Rokkenjima.

For this reason, how about summarizing everyone’s whereabouts at that time?
1) It isn’t possible for the cousins to be behind this
2) It cannot be any of the following adults : Krauss, Eva, Hideyoshi, Rudolf, Kyrie.
2) Not really clear in the anime, but in the VN, Rosa was actually taking a nap at the mansion and only went to look after Maria when it is raining
3) It cannot be Gohda as he was cooking, nor Shannon and Kumasawa who were preparing the rooms.
4) It cannot be Nanjo because he was playing chess with Kinzo (which automatically implies it cannot be Kinzo either)

That leaves us with few possibilities:
-Kanon: he was preparing the rooms with Shannon and Kumasawa but had to leave to get the children for dinner. Therefore, nothing can prevent him to hand over the umbrella and the letter, and then feigning ignorance.
-Natsuhi: she was not seen after being asked by Krauss to leave the parlor. She stated in the VN that after the discussion with the other adults, she went to sleep.
-Genji: It isn’t exactly clear what he was doing for the whole time.
There is a major problem with this: how trustworthy Maria can be? Certainly, expecting her to see Beatrice is very far fetched but… how is it possible for her to “mistake” Genji or Kanon? If anything, it would be much more of a farce than an attempt to convince a little girl.
Aside of a possible ridiculous attempt with such fancy dress, it would be more logical to expect a woman to wear this… unless we have an interesting loophole: let’s imagine a character says “here Maria, Beatrice told me to give you this”. As innocent as she might be, Maria could “paraphrase” it and turn the whole situation into something more unexpected.

Therefore, with all the reasoning “from this point”, there are enough reasons to either believe there are only 18 persons or 19.

III. First Twilight

This episode ends with a very gruesome note: 6 persons have died in such fashion that Hideyoshi’s comment could be agreed by many. That said, in order to resolve the mystery, it is better to allow us as much information as we can get.
For your convenience, here are the TIPS of the first 6 who died on the first twilight:

The first thing you will probably notice is that there are 2 kinds of corpses: Krauss and Shannon had their head smashed partially. However, Rudolf, Kyrie, Rosa and Gohda had their face completely destroyed, preventing proper identification.

This is where it becomes interesting: how can you testify these corpses are INDEED the aforementioned 4?
It is obviously possible for anyone to recognize Krauss and Shannon, and by extension, confirm their deaths. However, it isn’t the same for the other 4. This is of course a bit tricky but still possible: nothing prevent the 4 (or one/several of them) to pretend being dead and use a body double (prepared corpses of freshly killed unrelated persons with a remote resemblance in body proportions). Otherwise… why the culprit didn’t smash Krauss and Shannon like the other 4?
The opposite might be to the culprit’s disadvantage though: if they leave everyone’s identity obvious, that would definitely give away it is either the remaining 12 or yet another person(s). But again, this modus operandi doesn’t make sense with the aforementioned problem: the existence of the 19th person.
Therefore, it is actually hard to conclude if it was just to mess up with the survivors or… perhaps was it plainly a blunder? Perfect crime doesn’t exist so even the most intelligent criminal might make a critical or seemly irrelevant mistake that can be a vector of thoughts (or misleading clue) for the remaining persons and/or the detective.

Of course, if we consider the usual locked island murder mystery, we might also doubt about the mandatory “doctor”, so Nanjo. But I believe it is really irrelevant here because the way how the corpses are is obvious: all of them are dead and there is hardly a make-up or trick for CRUSHED faces (if it was plain peeled appearance etc, that might be the case, but hole in the head… hardly possible).

IV. What DEEN screwed so badly: Character relationship

This section will not serve as yet another “rant” about DEEN and their cuts, rest assured. Instead, it will provide elements that will allow all of you who didn’t read the VN to understand a bit more the characters of this series. I will follow the family ranking in order to make things easier to pin point.

Ushiromiya Kinzo:
As explained briefly by Battler, Kinzo was assigned to revive the Ushiromiya family and he managed splendidly with a much bigger estate in the end, after few mere decades.
Again, the anime explains that Kinzo “got the gold” from Beatrice, the witch, in exchange for his soul.
However, the little interesting detail might be HOW he managed to build such business with “gold” only.
To begin with: who would ever believe someone would have so much gold ? (few kg are already ridiculous for a single individual… but 10 tons…?). It is arguably impossible for a single man to actually lurk around with this insane amount of gold. As result, the gold is obviously used as a collateral: In fact, Kinzo managed to get supports/backers and thus proper money that could be restored plenty with the gold.
But in order to do so, Kinzo needed to win the trust of the businessmen which wouldn’t be that easy with unidentified gold: remember that each ingot is cast with the rate of their purity and the seal of the bank. Therefore, 10 tons of gold out of the blue looks like a phantasmagoric lie from a mad man. But Kinzo managed to win such trust: in fact, he has shown a part of the gold to a certain president of a big company and he was asked to select a random ingot so that he can analyze it.
And as you might imagine, the said president was astonished to find out the ingot was indeed pure gold of 99,99%. From this point, a sheer amount of backers granted their trust to Kinzo and with such investments, Kinzo managed to start his business during the Korean War.

This is very relevant to the story because:
1) this is the main reason why the siblings used the “10 tons gold myth” to put pressure on Krauss. Even if they might not believe in the 10t of gold themselves, the story of the gold ingot IS true which at least give some justification to all of them to “believe” in it.
2) that ingot was in fact retrieved by Krauss which is the one he has shown to Natsuhi.

As another subject regarding Kinzo, the anime series unfortunately give him the “mad man” image. What they skipped with Kinzo was also, like I explained in my other articles, the fact he cannot bear his sons and daughters as he consider them as vultures who are only waiting his death to feast on his fortune.
For example, here is his whole speech when Krauss tried to make him come for lunch (in Episode 1-1).

“They do not care about me!!  What manner of men is everyone then, trying to drag me out of here!!??  Very well, kill them!  Dismember them, make them into firewood, feed them to the witch’s hearth!!  Put a pot in that hearth and boil wormwood!  Force the imbeciles who dare try to lure me out of here to drink the broth of the Apocalypse!  I will soak their dregs in liquor!  Aah, Genji, where are you!?  Call for Genji!!  Have my demonic absinthe prepared! The whispering of the green fairy reaches me no longer!!  Aah, Genji, where are you?! Call for GenjiiIii!!!”

And this is what happened with Natsuhi before the whole story with the one winged eagle engraved in her heart:

Kinzo: “Ho…  Genji did?  ………If my friend thought it was that important, then I have no choice but to listen.  Tell me, …what business do you have?”

Natsuhi: “Y, yes… ………Breakfast will soon be prepared, and I would greatly appreciate it if you would join us…”

Kinzo: “I will eat here.  Have it brought here like always.”

Natsuhi: “But Father…  This is the annual family conference.  Please, at least let them see your face.”

Kinzo: “………Go back downstairs.  Are you asking me to join in on the discussion of how they chew my inheritance to bits after I die?  How foolish.  ………They can keep talking about that kind of thing as much as they like without me.  And if that’s what you call a family conference, it’s nothing so important that I should leave my room for it.  I am busy.  Do not bother me.”

With his last words came the threat that any further questions would be useless. …Natsuhi realized that adding any further pleas would finally bring his wrath down upon her.
It would be annoying to hear Eva sarcastically say that she hadn’t been able to convince him after all, but there was nothing more Natsuhi could do…

Natsuhi: “………Is that so……?  …Understood……  I am sure that everyone will be sorry to hear it, but I will tell them.”

Arguably, it doesn’t make him any more “sane”, but he is certainly not without any strong aversion to his offspring (with good reason that said). There are even more things like: how he actually sent Kanon to spy over Krauss and the rest’s discussion, and sneering at it, but several moments with Genji and Nanjo. In fact, Kinzo becomes erratic only when he starts a speech about Beatrice or when it is about his “foolish” offspring.

Ushiromiya Krauss, Natsuhi and Jessica:
As you probably noticed with Episode 1-1, there was some cold bound between Natsuhi and Krauss. This is mainly because Krauss doesn’t exactly seem to put as much efforts as Natsuhi for the sake of the family.
Krauss’ comment to Natsuhi didn’t just made react like this, it was much more deep in fact (it isn’t just about being insulted as a maid servant), as you can read below:

“D, dear, don’t you understand what they’re saying about you?!  These people are baselessly calling you a traitor to Father!!  They are making light of the fact that we protect the glory of the Ushiromiya family and in order to receive that glory from Father, we have been purely spending our days expending every effort.  They trample all of that underfoot; what a painful rambling!!!  You are you.  Why don’t you talk back!  Since you won’t talk back, I have, but for a while you have been relying completely on me!!  Are you telling me to go cool my head and come back?!  It’s a-lways me!! Even though I have always seriously considered this family’s affairs, you’ve…!! Whaaaaaa!!!”

And it is actually making things worse with the ingot:

Natsuhi was shocked…… Krauss had always said that Kinzo’s gold was just a fabrication. So she had believed it as his wife. However, the reality was different. Since he held definite proof, he had been even more sure than the rest of the siblings that the legendary gold existed. Because of this, Krauss was deeply frightened at the possibility that someone other than himself would find the gold that he had failed to find, costing him everything.

……But to Natsuhi, this truth was more than enough to split open her heart. She had thought that, as Krauss’s wife, she should be his closest confidant, which was why she had been selflessly supporting him. …And yet, he had hid this fact from her until today.  ………Why?

Natsuhi: “……Ha, ………have I been, …………so undeserving of your trust…………?”

Krauss: “………I didn’t mean it like that.  It was only that there was no need to mention it.”

Natsuhi: “I, ……is that all a, …………a wife means to you…………?!”

Krauss: “Calm down…  Becoming passionate easily is one of your bad habits.”

Natsuhi: “You’re the one who’s making me like that, aren’t you!!!  I have been supporting you as a wife ever since I married into this family…!  For your sake, I threw away the family I was born into, I’ve been offering up my heart and my body to serve you…!!  And in return, ………what is this………!!? How could…… …………How could you…………!!”

Krauss grimaced, looking annoyed…
His expression effectively communicated how much he disliked this part of Natsuhi…

Natsuhi: “……It doesn’t look like………, I will be of any use to you anymore…………”

Krauss: “Hmmm, that’s fine.  ………I can resolve the troubles with the siblings by myself.  I don’t need your help.”

Natsuhi: “That’s wrong!!  This is the Ushiromiya family’s problem!  It’s true that I am not permitted to have the family crest imprinted on my body!  But I am still your wife!!  Even so, …..are you saying I’m not capable of helping you…?!  Are you………!!!?”`\

Krauss: “……………I especially wouldn’t want to risk getting you involved.  It would probably make your headaches even worse than they are now. Take a rest for today.  The siblings will deal with the siblings’ problems.  It has nothing to do with you.  That is all.”

This is actually the setup of the whole situation between Natsuhi and Jessica. To make the story short, Jessica’s situation isn’t as happy go lucky as it might look like first. Jessica is average at school, but because of her status as the child of the elder sibling of the Ushiromiya, she has the prime position to be the next heir.
However, the matter regarding the succession of the family doesn’t interest her one bit, but considering Krauss and Natsuhi, she was pushed in her studies to be a distinguishable person. Because of this, their relationship isn’t anything stellar.
Therefore, it isn’t anything common for her to complain she doesn’t want to be like her parents and that she doesn’t respect them. On the other hand, it isn’t uncommon to see Natsuhi and Krauss asking her to stop talking out of turn.

After the letter incident, Jessica was outraged to see such greed and the whole mess disheartened even more. However, George explained to both Battler and Jessica that even if parents have to get their hands dirty, they will do whatever it takes them to assure a future to their respective family. And money is obviously a main factor as much as it sounds ugly.

This is where that scene between Natsuhi and Jessica starts to be much more deep than a simple token of consideration:
After being depressed by Krauss’ revelation regarding the gold, Natsuhi went into distraught and couldn’t help but feel like she was indeed a borrowed womb and so forth. She does acknowledge that Jessica doesn’t like her, but still, she tries to regain her spirits, thinking she should do her best to assure her daughter’s future.
And at this point, Jessica meets her. The scene was remotely the same except Natsuhi was a bit more grumpy due to the headache (which is actually chronic with her) but Natsuhi’s monologue reveals she really doesn’t want to lash her frustration on her daughter hence why she asks Jessica to leave her alone.
Jessica was a bit awkward with this but remembers of what George said about the responsibilities of the parents. Seeing her mother in such pitiful state made her think about the talisman.
And that very action was pure heart warmth for Natsuhi who wasn’t expecting this at all. To see her own daughter that often rants about her to be considerate is something that eased her heart instantly. As result, the mood was quite effective and Natsuhi promised Jessica to give in return a treasure she cherished in her childhood.

Ushiromiya Eva and Hideyoshi:
What makes the “relationship” between Eva and Natsuhi that heated up is of course the succession matter.
Originally, Eva should have lost her name due to being married with Hideyoshi. However, at that time, Natsuhi wasn’t able to get pregnant, which displeased Kinzo (no successor etc). Therefore, Eva took this opportunity and convinced Kinzo that she could make her husband entering in the family register. As result she would be able to give a proper successor to Kinzo.
Kinzo was fine with this, while Hideyoshi was thankful as he lost all his relatives so having a family is something dear for him. Thus the situation was pretty complicated when Eva managed to be pregnant before Natsuhi.
Thus George was born and only 5 years later, Natsuhi could give birth to Jessica.

Meanwhile, Hideyoshi is in fact a diligent president of a chain of fast food restaurants that got an excellent growth. However, Hideyoshi was too busy with the welfare of his company and didn’t make sure he held enough stock. As result, malicious stock owners took this opportunity to buy the majority of this, which will allow them to kick Hideyoshi out and name the president of their own, for their profit.
Thus, Hideyoshi’s fault was actually being a manager that was too devoted to realize the danger of being stock-listed.

Ushiromiya Rudolf, Kyrie and Battler:
The situation with Rudolf’s family is somewhat different. As implied with the “name calling” by Battler, Kyrie isn’t Battler’s mother. She is in fact Rudolf’s second wife.
Battler’s mother, Asumu, died 6 years ago. But the peculiar point is that while Battler was bereaved by the death of Asumu, Rudolf didn’t exactly take his time and remarried with Kyrie. Because of this, Battler couldn’t forgive his father and abandoned the Ushiromiya to live with his maternal grandparents. However, after 6 years both of them died one after another and Battler had no choice but to get back to the Ushiromiya family.

This is why Battler didn’t go to the family conference for 6 years.
As you probably see, Battler doesn’t harbor any hard feeling towards Kyrie and actually considers her as a big sister, though none of them start being superficial by calling each other son and mother.
As for Rudolf and Kyrie both trust each other and are partners in business. In fact they have a long lasting relationship regarding this area, which is probably the reason why they got engaged so fast after Asumu’s death. However, one thing that the anime skipped is that Rudolf didn’t say anything about his copyright dispute with an American company, and Kyrie only learns it for the first time when Krauss talks about it.
As another fact the anime skipped is that Rudolf and Kyrie have a 6 years old daughter, so Battler’s step sister, but she wasn’t present for the conference because she was sick. Thus Kyrie asked her family to take care of her while they are away.

Ushiromiya Rosa and Maria:
There isn’t much to say about them, aside that Rosa owns a design company but that doesn’t go past beyond a hobby for her.
Meanwhile, Maria’s father’s whereabouts are unknown.

Servants: Genji, Shannon, Kannon, Gohda, Kumasawa, Nanjo:
As the anime mentioned for a very short moment, Genji is one of the few persons that Kinzo actually trust. To be more precise, Genji has Kinzo’s greatest trust of all and is probably one of the rare individuals that Kinzo consider as his peers.
Even so, Genji never loses his “pro” touch and remains strictly his servant. Despite this very strict contrast, there was a nostalgic and companionship between the two.

But Genji’s not only appreciated by Kinzo, but also by the other servants and even family members alike. Particularly Shannon and Kanon: both give a deep respect to him, calling him Genji-sama, while Gohda and Kumasawa consider him as their senior.

As for Shannon and Kanon, a lot of information is missing for them: both are 16 years old (yes there is a 7 years difference between George and Shannon, and no, nothing wrong with this) and they were living in a orphanage together. They aren’t blood related but what is important to know is that Kanon considers Shannon as his elder sister, calling her “nee-san”.
However, they didn’t start working at the same time. Shannon was adopted by a maid of the Ushiromiya and worked in the main house for 10 years even though servants usually work for the main house for 3 years (yes she worked at the age of 6. This is why Battler knows her though didn’t recognize instantly for obvious reasons). Kanon only started to work 3 years ago.
What is however very odd with the 2 is that they are considering themselves as furniture, which is definitely pulling a clear distinction between them and the family.
As for the whole matter regarding “Sayo”, Shannon is actually a pseudonym used by her for work, and Sayo is of course her real first name. This is also the case for Kanon: in fact, servants from the Fukuin House receive a pseudonym with the kanji 音 read as “on”, and there are more servants such like Renon and Manon, but they aren’t on duty on 4^th and 5^th October 1986.

Gohda is a servant that was hired two years ago as a chef. Even though he is the servant that worked the least for the Ushiromiya house, he has a big experience from his past work at a hotel. Due to his qualifications, he was noticed by Natsuhi and he soon proved to be appreciated for his skills.
However, what wasn’t exposed at all was Gohda’s ostentatious personality. Pure show off, Gohda doesn’t hesitate to give a long speech regarding the menu and so forth. Consequently he often does several actions in order to get appraisal. However, because of this, he is also doing too much for this which resulted into an accident at the start: Gohda was actually preparing the tea cart for the siblings but he took too much time, trying to be perfect. Knowing he wouldn’t make in time (and obviously receiving the blame), he pushed the cart to Shannon who was coincidentally passing by. As result, Shannon was caught within a fool atmosphere between Natsuhi and Eva, the later saying the tea might be cold etc.
However, since he was hired by Krauss and Natsuhi, he isn’t in touch with Kinzo (which is the reason why he doesn’t have any crest of the Ushiromiya family on his clothes).

There isn’t much to say about Kumasawa except that she is in her eighties and that she is a part timer.

Nanjo is Kinzo’s personal attending physician but also a close friend, next to Genji. Although Nanjo knows Kinzo for years, he was never upset with the later even during his enraged outburst. The two of them are often playing chess and they also discuss about several famous matches together.
Unfortunately for Nanjo, he is unable to make Kinzo stop drinking alcohol, which doesn’t make his job any easier.

That was quite a long list, but its purpose wasn’t to cover everything that was cut in the anime (it would be even much more longer than this), but at least, it gives a lot of food for thought regarding character backstory, and thus theories and perhaps idea of the culprit, if you of course don’t believe in a 19th person or a witch.

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…There, I’ve finally finished the first article. That was an insane ride for me, as I spread it for 3 days and it took me a lot of time to keep the best “view” for first time viewers. I certainly hope that its content will help you to resolve the mysteries of Umineko (and enjoy it more, of course!).
If you have any suggestion and the like, please don’t hesitate to post them in your comments (my apologies for my writing style: being a non english native doesn’t exactly help).
Also, if any VN reader notice something weird, please contact me ASAP. I’m pretty confident I didn’t pull any future events or theories that require more information, but just in case.

Well then, hope you enjoyed by wall of text (…56xx words… my biggest article ever…*so tired*)

Yep, I definitely think so.  I’m hard pressed to think of another director still in the TV anime business that is so capable of marrying style and substance for the purposes of creating a gripping opera full of both drama and comedy.  Consider this latest episode of Shin Mazinger:

Right from the start Imagawa is giving us a taste of what is yet to come by showing us the end of this latest arc.  Tragedy is in the air, but we know naught how we get there.  Such is the purpose of that which is yet to come

My little angel from the very first episode.  Here she actually has lines and we learn that her name is Lorelai and that she is at the Kurogane House doing an errand for her “papa”?  You don’t have to squint to notice something about the picture above and the adorable little girl shrouded in what may very well be Imagawa’s vision of heaven’s light.  The idea of Lorelai as a symbol of purity has been planted and yet it constrasts with what we see above…..or does it?

Shiro is immediately smitten and it’s love at first sight, hence the title of the episode “First Love? The Beautiful Lorelai”

It doesn’t take long for Shiro to drag her on a date either.  Funny that it should be the sea, for it hints at a certain legend and a tie to this Lorelai.  I’m talking of course of Die Lorelei by German poet Heinreich Heine, a golden haired siren who lures unwilling sailors to dash their ships upon a rock with her siren’s song.  As you can see our Lorelai certainly fits the description so far.  At least physically….

Not the consistent association of Lorelai with water.  A simple bath that Shiro wants to keep peeping toms away from, or a hint at a hidden nature?

Lorelai’s father is revealed to be one Heinreich Stroheim, thought to have died, but apparently alive and feared to be in association with Baron Ashura and Dr. Hell.  Hmm….Heinrech…a familiar name….how was it associated with Lorelai again?

In any case, Lorelai has taken Shiro to meet her father in Germany, and so our story moves to that location as Kouji makes haste with Mazinger Z to follow him

An Imagawa style moment, where less is more.  A simple water colour to paint capture in time the beginning of the clash of wills that is yet to come, and a toast to the combatants as Stroheim wishes Kouji good luck and bids welcome a chance to see Mazinger in action.  Excellence

After complete failure and losing the Battleship Saluud, Baron Ashura’s command of Dr. Hell’s army has been revoked and given to Count Brocken instead?  Is he any more up to the job?  Well I think a better question is whether there is any other option

The second Imagawa moment of this episdoe, as we see a personification of Stroheim’s Mario N7.  Just another one of his ways of adding an extra hint of menace to a Machine Beast

More female robots?  Hmmm…so the man that built Gamia Q, a series of blonde haired attack robots in the shape of a female, also built these, and has a blonde haired female daughter who appears seemingly innocent…

Cross is just in the nick of time.  The cavalry is here, which means that Nishikori Tsubasa can’t be too far behind either…..oh if they only knew

Dad is weird eh?  Well…Shiro does have a point when he mentions his grandfather.  I like this little quirky moments that again aren’t too in your face and are just sort of their to remind you of what’s happened to the characters and what may yet be to come

Mooooooooooooooh!  Oh well, can’t blame Shiro for being freaked out by the phantom of the bloody opera.  Speaking of what’s happened and what’s yet to come, Stroheim mentions that Shiro’s mother is here, and curios that we would cut to a shot of….

Nishikori Tsubasa?!  We’ve already met her but…..

And we’ve already met Count Brocken and Baron Ashura, too very dangerous fellows.  But what are they doing here and…..are they sitting on rocks….and is that water?  Why would Lorelai bring Shiro here….unless…..

Oh my lord…..

And so the episode ends.  Doing things outside the box, but with vision, a touch of style, marriage of elements from multiple series into a working narrative, and always leaving off with a cliffhanger that leaves you wanting to see the next part of the tale.  Imagawa truly is a master of his art, and the mecha director to beat at the moment.  A shame that more people are not watching Shin Mazinger, but I think that if they were too that it would speak for itself more than I could here.  As long as we live an era where series like this are still possible and directors like Yasuhiro Imagawa who maintain a vision are allowed to work, I will continue to be satisfied with this little thing I call anime.  You heard it hear on Straight Up Saturdays!

No, you will never guess what that is all over her face :3

So being one of my most eagerly awaited episode to air this week it is only natural that I stay up at 3AM to write thing entry before going to bed. Thankgod for caffeine and Eve’s sexiness being flashed about. You will also notice that she doesn’t wear a bra of any sort (not that *I* am complaining being a typical fellow).

Thoughts: Since the previous episode focused on Blade kicking ass with his copy cat ability, this weeks episode moves onto to showing Eve’s kickass doppelgänger abilities. Actually I am not at all sure why it is dubbed doppelgänger since from what I can see her abilities are more of a “morphing” type but hey, at least the name sounds cooler than calling her a morpher. Once again though the episode finished as fast as it started which is something I’m sure is good from an enjoyment point of view but it does mean that it leaves you wanting for more and waiting a whole 7 days is more than enough to drive someone (me) up the wall.

Well the episode this time starts off with Cruz being turned into the slave of the group as he was bullied into going into town and buying tobacco and a drink for Blade and Eve. After buying the wrong brand of drink for Eve, she kicks him (naturally) and drags his butt with her into town to go buy the correct drink. Things don’t go so smoothly as Eve and Cruz is soon cornered by the villain of the week that we saw in the previous episode. Since I don’t know his name I will call him magic boy for now (but later Eve then dubs him with another of her genius nicknames).

The magic kid turns out to be one of the 4 god generals (typical) so naturally Cruz shat himself when he saw who he was up against. The rest of the episode was actually the battle scene between Eve and magic boy who refers himself as the needless whose powers are the closest to God. This does seem to be the case as through the episode he has managed to splendidly wound Eve without breaking a sweat, form an impenetrable shield around himself to protect himself against Eve’s rage and even dropped a huge spiked ball on top of them. However his ultimate trick of removing the ground and replacing it with spikes instead proved to be his downfall as Eve, with the help of Yamada, manages to figure out the truth behind Magic boy’s magic trick (which I will reveal later on when the screen caps come).

The fight surprisingly ends with Eve drilling through Magic boy and it would seem that one of the strongest enemies have already fallen. I was half expecting Magic boy to be able to escape and come back later for revenge but this doesn’t seem to be the case and if the generals keep dropping like flies like this in the next episode then they really are going to run out of enemies pretty soon. This therefore makes it damn more interesting to think what would happen to prolong the story as it becomes less predictable.

The episode itself was simple quality. From the constant gags to the fitting BGM to the fanservice provided, everything about this episode screamed quality and most importantly enjoyment. It was great fun to watch this episode and pretty soon you find yourself immersed into the whole story in a blink of an eye, and then when you see the ED theme beginning you sit here silent, wondering how awesome of a ride you have just been through. Eve was damn sexy (EXTREMELY SEXY) throughout and it was always a wonder how her clothes ripped just enough to not show off anything important at all. Now this is what I call a cocktease but I like it! As for the more important question of whether Cruz is an annoying, spineless and weak brat that a lot of use are fearing we have to face, I honestly don’t find him annoying whatsoever!

Preview: It is Blade’s turn to take the spotlight.

Screen caps and comments:

The episode starts off hilariously with Blade abusing his new found powers on poor Cruz (or Yamada) in getting him to buy him some tobacco

Eve ponders when Cruz will leave but that is besides the point. I included this shot mainly because of Eve’s sexy pose

Cruz’s comes crying to Eve who is surprisingly sympathetic

Well up until the point she goes into zombie mode like Blade and bullies Cruz into buying her a drink

Unfortunately for Cruz, his hard work doesn’t pay off as he buys the wrong drink and…

Earns a boot to the head

You may wonder why Cruz has an oppai pillow in this scene (and indeed I wondered the same) but it turns out that after buying the drink the pair ran into another human hunting testament

For now they hide in a building but…

They are not without company and Magic boy reveals himself to the pair

After having seen the kid in action beforehand, Cruz goes pale and shat bricks

Magic boy doesn’t even wait for an introduction before impaling Eve with a furry of knives

Fortunately she is able to recover using her powers but…

She can’t break through his barrier at all

Eve ends up being pushed back by more knives and ouch does that look painful. Not…the…face!!!

Well doesn’t that put a new twist to “dropping the anvil”

Magic boy goes for the kill on Cruz…

Who is saved by Eve just in time but it turns out that her ability requires her to have energy to sustain

Eve runs out of energy and gets pwned once again

Fanservice? At this time? Why not!

Magic boy unleashes his ultimate trick and transforms the floor into a hell bed of spiked nails

Cruz fishing out anything to help Eve in her fight and came up with…

No it isn’t a can of spinach!

Being unsympathetic Magic boy then explodes the can all over Eve

MOEEEEEEEEEEE!

But Eve didn’t find the funny side of having her drink go all over her

However, this last trick turned out to be Magic boy’s downfall and I am sure even you will know what his powers are by now

So in order to test out the theory out heroes…

Jump to the ground and confirms that Magic boy’s powers is actually the ability to control illusions (as expected from a magician)

Even then transforms her big drill and clothes a la magical girl style

Magic boy is shocked at this since Even should have no energy left however…

He failed to overlook the calorie content of Eve’s favorite drink

“IT’S OVER 9000!!!!!!!!”

Now it’s on and someone is going to get his ass drilled to the heavens

Eve even exposed the truth behind his shield which was actually the concrete wall he was hiding behind

“GIGA EVE DRILL BREAKERRRRRRRR!”

And so makes the end of another enemy but Even feels as if she is being watched (well you are damn right being in an outfit like that!)

The next douche to fight Blade. He seems like a strong one

Well it seems like I will be taking this GAR series for this season’s GAR fix thankyou very much.

Because “Awesome” isn’t a replacement for “AAAAAAAAMEEEEEEEEN!” (Says Mr Anderson)

Having watched this episode about 4 or 5 times already (and the OP/ED even more than that) I have finally decided that it deserves a place in my heart this season and a place on the blog.

Thoughts: While at first this series have been ravaged by people who probably didn’t even watch the episode but decided to take a beating on it anyway because of it’s highly unique, original and conflicting ED as opposed to the actual premise of the episode (and well, a lot of things at that), it is great to see that the series is finally gaining some fanbase ever since the subs started rolling out because frankly, it deserves the attention.

This episode did a lot to appeal to me and that isn’t just the GAR and manly energies that it emitted amongst the humorous acts that the main characters, or namely Eve, get up to. This is where the summary and promo pictures really get broken down and show you something that you really didn’t expect with the characters. I somewhat predicted that Blade was going to be a badass with his signature grin being plastered around even before the series started but for Eve to have such a childlike and erm…”playful” personality, it was really unexpected in a positive light.

The manliness of the episode certainly clicked and while the humor was more hit and miss, it hit more frequently for me. There were also bits in the episode that made me burst out in laughter (eg a certain princess comes rolling in on her motorcycle then getting kicked in the face for being to dere dere) and that is always a good thing. It is slap stick comedy and I like it, others might not.

The story was messy but not in a way where you couldn’t get what is going on. There is obviously a lot that needs to be filled in but for now they started things off with a quick introduction of the characters and the situation, a cheap cannon fodder villain for the good guys to show off their skills and a kick ass battle scene where people scream to increase their power levels. Unfortunately though this does mean that the episode gives off an impression of being a knock off for the legendary Gurren Lagann with it’s unique mix of GAR and humor. Personally I am really against comparisons being the “be all and end all” of any new series as it usually blinds the viewers into thinking that said new series can never be as good as the series it is trying to rip off from as well as those unfair comments of how you can hate a character because they looks similar to another character in a different series for being a rip off. I think that Needless is similar to Gurren Lagann only in the sense that mandarins are similar to oranges (they are both citrus fruits) and should be enjoyed all the same, without the needless hate.

Though truth be told manly GAR has always ticked my fancy ever since Gurren Lagann and seeing the formula work once again is a godsend amongst repetitive genres like romance eroge adaptions.

The fanservice was a real shocker for me though as I never would have expected the ED to be something that panders to otaku fetishes…in contrast to the manliness of the OP I felt that it was a mismatch child of some GAR anomalie but it surprisingly worked! Who says you can’t have GAR without blinding service? This might be history in the making (if it wasn’t for Gurren Lagann showing the way first).

Anyway I enjoyed this first episode quite a bit. It is cliched good smashes bad but it is also enjoyable and fun. The characters are likeable and the mood is so far lighthearted and fun with manly bits thrown about. I won’t be worried about the story just yet as the are going to be getting into that soon enough and the ED is drool worthy. A very good start in my eyes.

No screen caps this time round but have fun with the OP/ED themes.

Edit: Because people wants…

Firstly, this is Cruz’s green haired sister who went missing after facing off against a walking hunk of human terminating metal. Whether she is dead or alive is unknown but Cruz seems to think that she is. I on the other hand hope she does come back since she 1) looks hot and 2) Seems too important to die so early on.

Secondly we have Eve Neusch wan stein-sama who kicks ass and chews bubblegum…and probably also took all the gum from Blade since she is quite the trickster and air head.

The Ushiromiya family is finally reunited on Rokkenjima on the 4th october 1986. However, as the typhoon is engulfing the island, an harbringer is sealing this family meeting into madness and mystery.

_______________________________________________________________

During dinner, Rosa is trying to find the person who lent the umbrella to Maria. However, it was none of her siblings as they were still having a “friendly” chat regarding the inheritance. The servants were also busy with their work so it wasn’t them either, while doctor Nanjo was playing chess with Kinzo for the whole time. As everyone remains clueless about this matter, Maria happily states it was Beatrice who lend her that umbrella. Of course, this answer leaves everyone perplexed and Krauss just let the matter slide, amused by Maria’s innocence.

After Maria is done with the dinner and dessert, she pulls out from her bag an enveloppe which bears the crest of the Ushiromiya family along with a sealing wax, in which Kinzo’s seal is engraved. This unexpected event surprises most guests at the table and Maria explains she received from Beatrice and that she should read its content only when they are done with dinner.
As Maria is about to read the letter, Hideyoshi and Nanjo have a quick glance at the enveloppe and it is indeed the crest of the Ushiromiya Head’s ring that Kinzo always bears.
Maria reads the letter and its content was written by “Beatrice”. Welcoming the whole Ushiromiya family, Beatrice explains she was Kinzo’s advisor and Alchemist. Because of the end of the contract, Beatrice is now claiming back the gold she had bestowed to Kinzo along with an interest. However, she states that everyone has a chance to keep the inheritance should they disclose the location of the gold. In order to do this, she invites them to resolve the riddle of the epitaph that Kinzo had displayed for 2 years.

There is really one thing that disturb me in this scene and… it is Maria’s facial expression. At some point, I was wondering if DEEN tried to make her look like L5 Rena and it wasn’t pretty at all if you ask me.
Whilst Horie’s voice pretty much nails how Maria should sound “abnormal” and “dead serious”, the animators decided to pull an erratic face that makes Maria insane, instead of being serious and in trance.
The other problem I would say in this scene is actually how the adults’ behaviour was: originally, the plain sight of the enveloppe would have turned all of them in jeopardy and here, only Natsuhi and Rosa has a remote reaction to this.
Hideyoshi also tried to snatch the enveloppe, upseting Maria until Kyrie manage to calm everyone and convincing all of them to listen to the letter since it isn’t Kinzo’s message but “beatrice”’s. That is why I believe the scene with Maria crying a bit letter doesn’t exactly work well: almost all of them ignored her and were just going totally in panic…

After such smashing revelation, the adults are trying to figure out who “Beatrice” is and if the gold really exists.
After much fruitless discussion, the siblings are rushing at Kinzo’s study, begging him to explain himself regarding the content of this letter. However, this plea ends on deaf ears and Kinzo doesn’t pay heed to this, ready for the game between him and Beatrice.

Again, although I think the time allowed for this is fine, the whole discussion with the siblings looks a bit underwhelming, not conveying the urgency of the situation but also their greed (but since they completely removed Jessica’s indignation…).
Also, again, I will sound like a broken record, but Kinzo lost yet another charisma point: here, he is just mumbling again about Beatrice. Originally, he was totally ignoring his offspring, managing to “eat in silence” with dignity, instead of pulling a tantrum. A small detail indeed, but it does change the extent of how you can perceive a character.
Using Closed my Heart wasn’t bad at all for the end of the letter, though, like many VN readers, I would hav preferred 犯行の予告状読み上げ（ラック眼力) for the whole scene

Moments later, Battler and Kyrie have a little discussion regarding the possible author of this letter. Kyrie is straight and start wondering if they are really 19 on Rokkenjima.
To explain her point, Kyrie uses her “flip the chessboard over” reasoning and starts pointing few inconsistencies: if a 19th person is trying to manifest their existence, why would they use such a roundabout way, using Maria as their messenger?
There is no point for that person to remains hidden considering their utmost advantage with Kinzo’s inheritance. Therefore, Kyrie believes Beatrice is among the 18 of them and that person is actually trying to create an illusion that a 19th person exists.

Battler and Kyrie are then joined by Rudolf. As the later wants to have a talk with Kyrie, he explains that they couldn’t have a word with Kinzo at all. Then as the thunder is roaring, Rudolf announce that he will be killed tonight.

The discussion between Kyrie and Battler was shortened in a good way: there was no way for Kyrie to elaborate all details that make the existence of a 19th person void, so the primary element of it is fine.
However, what I didn’t like here is how Rudolf announced he was going to die tonight, in a very nonchalant way. It was underplayed and seriously not conveying the bizarre mood of this scene and how he really mean it (as he was supposed to be nervous and dejected).

Meanwhile, Krauss beckons Natsuhi in a locked room. In there, she is shocked to learn that Krauss does own a gold ingot of 99,99%, with the family crest carved in it. Absolutely in shock, Natsuhi can only accept that the gold of the legend does exist.

This is probably one of the scenes I disliked the most. The ingot scene was strictly speaking, used to show a big lump of gold, which, by extension, should make think to the audience that the gold exist. Certainly, it was the primary objective of this.
That said, I believe the lack of explanations in Episode 1-1 make it a bit random. Back with the adults discussion, Eva, Hideyoshi, Rudolf were claiming Krauss found the gold, but why would they suddenly use a myth to state that Krauss managed to save his investment without any supporter? The missing element in this discussion is the fact that Hideyoshi explained that the business world knew about Kinzo and that the later presented to a certain president the gold he received from Beatrice. That businessman took 1 ingot at random and upon inspection it was pure gold at 99,99%. From this point, Kinzo won the trust of many from the business world.
And here, Krauss actually explain that he managed to find with great efforts that ingot before his siblings could. This little explanation could only needed 15 seconds in the last episode and like 4-5 here. Not totally important but it would have made this scene less random.

Now my real gripe here is the fact they totally mauled down again Natsuhi’s development here: originally, Natsuhi was indeed shocked upon the sight of the gold but… what horrified her the most is that Krauss shows her that ingot only now, after the whole letter mess. Natsuhi felt so dejected by her own husband despite she took care of the household the best she could and always supported Krauss. Therefore, the fact Krauss didn’t tell her anything just shattered her again as she felt her own husband doesn’t trust her. That is actually a snowball effect with what happened earlier with Eva.

Few moment later, Jessica finds her mom in a poor state and wonders what’s going on. Trying not to worry her daughter, Natsuhi tells her that she just has yet another headache and asks Jessica to leave her alone as she is fine. Concerned about her mother, Jessica offers her the scorpion talisman Maria gave her during the picnic. Touched by this, Natsuhi gladly accepts it.

And here come the very touching moment. Despite the cuts, they managed to convey a nice mood between Natsuhi and Jessica, but the extent is totally flattened.
As I explained above, Natsuhi was actually completely depressed after what Krauss did. Furthermore, Natsuhi KNOWS that Jessica hates her because she is strict and really wants her to become the heir of the Ushiromiya, even if it goes against her own wishes.
Conversively, they skipped from the start all elementd that made Jessica “hate” her parents: to begin with, after the whole letter chaos, Jessica was indignate to see the adults going all greedy over the money, but she learned a very nice lesson from George. This is why, upon seeing her mother like this, Jessica rememebers of what George said (that even if they have their hands dirty, parents are doing their best to assure the future of their children), she starts being considerate about Natsuhi, even if she didn’t express much love towards her.
This is also the reason why Natsuhi is very deeply touched by Jessica’s concern.
As you can see, the mood is a bit the same, but the context and extent are totally different.

The cousins are going back to the guesthouse with Shannon.
As they arrive, George and Jessica ask Shannon if she wouldn’t mind joining them in playing some trump cards along with Kanon. Interested by it, Shannon goes to the servant room in order to check the schedule but she encounters Kanon and Genji. It seems the whole schedule changed due to the recent event at the Mansion and the three of them are assigned to the guesthouse by Krauss. Genji leaves the room and Shannon tells Kanon that the cousins invited them to play together but Kanon obviously think they have to decline the offer since they are furniture.
Shannon doesn’t go against this decision and leaves to decline the cousins offer. In the process she bumps on George and both are acting intimately. Meanwhile, Battler learns from Jessica that both George and Shannon are dating.

Did they REALLY need to make that closeup to Shannon’s breast? Actually I wonder why they wasted like 20 seconds on this sequence despite they could have save it and start when they are arriving at the guesthouse, with George asking Shannon to join them.
Same goes for Jessica: do they need to insert such blatant fanservice pose? She could be just next to Maria, instead of being bend like this, with a view on her butt *sigh*.
Regarding Kanon and Shannon, I’m not sure if Kanon should be as tall or taller than Shannon but that’s an unecessary concern. What worried me a bit is the total lack of Kanon “nee-san” or anything that points out that he considers Shannon as his elder sister. Actually, from this scene, one would rather expect Kanon to be more “mature” or “older” than Shannon which isn’t the case at all.
That said, I’m not sure if removing Genji from this scene was the best idea: I must admit that it was nice to see Kanon with that reaction after Shannon left, but it is kinda ambiguous to figure what he is feeling. Originally, Genji doesn’t leave the room yet and when Shannon does, Genji tells him that he should sometimes act like someone of his age, but again Kanon insists in a depressed way that he is furniture so there is no need for that. That might be the same message with Kanon sighing afterwards, but that also removes a “bound” between Genji and Kanon. The fact they removed yet another element of this relationship confirm why Shannon and Kanon don’t call Genji “Genji-sama” in the anime. Truly disheartening that few words can change completely the mood and relationship between characters yet they don’t do that (despite they do have the time for this).

At the arbor of the garden, George gives to Shannon a ring. Bewildered, Shannon is unable to accept such present but George tells her it isn’t a request but an order. From this point though, it is up to Shannon to choose which finger she will wear her ring on, which will be her answer tomorrow.
Completely overwhelmed by this situation, Shannon pretends she has things to do at the mansion. Fine with it, George goes back to the guesthouse.

Shannon is back to the mansion and check if all windows are closed. As she thought noticing something, she walks off, completely clueless that a golden butterfly is following her.

As the clock is about to reach midnight, the 18 persons on Rokkenjima are either busy with mundane things or sleeping already. However, none would  expect a tragedy to occur the very next day… none expect Kinzo.

You know what is scary? Taken out of context, the “it is an order” turns George into a narcissit borderline playa here XD.
This is where I believe they should have kept that whole “boob joke” with Battler: not only to give more comic aspect to Battler instead of being a perv, but to give some sense to this scene.
To explain further what really happened, when Battler was about to gropes Shannon, he was expecting to be slapped soon but it was his “way” to communicate with girls. However, he was shocked to see that Shannon was only bashful and didn’t move one bit, so he was about to really grope her. Jessica intervenes and hit Battler’s head with her elbow. And here comes Battler’s famous “nahahaha, thanks Jessica!” which surprises everyone. Then Battler explains to Shannon it is no good and she has to retaliate. However, Shannon, being overly kind and serious in her maid role, says Battler is a very important guest this year and she cannot abide to this request, unless if it is an order. And there we hav George saying it is an order and everyone is happy with that.
That’s why the “it is an order” in the ring scene looks a bit out of place even with the romantic mood ( I think it BREAKS the romantic mood as George is kinda forceful as result, even if he doesn’t mean it in the anime).

The BGM used for the end of October 4th was sasorinoharawata which was also a good choice by itself.

October 5th, 6:00AM. Kanon and Genji are leaving the guesthouse to start their morning chores at the mansion. Kanon is going to the kitchen, greeting Gohda who should be preparing breakfast. However, he is absent and Kanon wonders if Gohda just overslept. Kanon picks up the phone and tries to contact him but it seems the phone is out of service.

Meanwhile, Natsuhi wakes up from her slumber and contemplates the talisman Jessica gave her previously. Suddenly, she hears someone knocking at her door: it is Genji. The later apologies for waking up her early, and reports her that because of the lightning during the night, the phone is unusable.
Furthermore, he is unable to find Gohda and thus, the preparations of breakfast haven’t started yet. As he is reporting this, Natsuhi notices Genji’s troubled face and upon checking where he was staring to, she is shocked to see the door of her own room covered by blood red fingerprints. Bewildered by this “bad taste prank”, Natsuhi puts the priority on the preparation of breakfast.

Now, I must say the scripters had a good idea to shorten the time needed for Natsuhi to notice the fingerprints on the door. Even if it is Genji, something like this probably disturbs him a bit, which makes this subtle hint for Natsuhi working.

Natsuhi finds Kanon in the parlor but not only he still couldn’t find Gohda, but more people are missing: Krauss, Rudolf, Rosa and Shannon are nowhere to be seen. As Kanon is leaving with Genji, Eva and Hideyoshi arrive from their room and Eva wonders if  Krauss and the rest aren’t with Kinzo.
Natsuhi is going to check but Genji was waiting for her and spontaneously lends her the key of Kinzo’s study.

Again, I will not discredit how they shortened this scene: it went straight to the point and all characters had their idea of where the rest are. 2 other subtle relationship hints were given as well: the way how Natsuhi stares at Eva when she questions her gives away how she suspect Eva to be behind that prank.
As for the other good execution: the way how Natsuhi expressed her gratitude and how the seiyuu said it managed to convey how she was thankful. By extension that also means the key of Kinzo’s study is something that not even the masters of the household would be able to have.
Even if anime watchers wouldn’t realize how having this key is a privilege, they can have an idea how it isn’t something they can be granted like this (especially that Krauss was forced to knock as Kinzo’s door at several occasions instead of asking the key to Genji).

Natsuhi is knocking at Kinzo’s room door but there is no response. So she opens the door and is surprised to see Kinzo awake, facing a window. Natsuhi tries convincing him to attend breakfast with the family but Kinzo refuses in a dry way.
Disheartened by his decision, Natsuhi apologies and is about to leave but Kinzo stops her and asks if she sometimes longs for her family. Natsuhi declares she is Ushiromiya Natsuhi, and therefore is devoted to this family only. Contemplating this answer, Kinzo wonders how the situation would be if Natsuhi and Krauss had their position switched but quickly stop mumbling. Natsuhi, deeply touched by it, swears she will protect the name of the Ushiromiya. Kinzo acknowledges this and states that even if she isn’t able to bear the crest of the family due to her blood, she has the one winged eagle carved in her heart, which is the real proof of her being Kinzo’s family. Struck by a tremendous emotions, Natsuhi shed few tears.

The early part of this scene was also a good way to build up the bound between Genji and Kinzo. Kinzo was shown as a madman and always in his study, however, we were shown that Genji has the key and that Kinzo even called him “my friend”. I was worried they would skip this important part as they didn’t show that Genji and Kinzo had a drink together but it is fine like this.
However, I’m still concerned that they made Kinzo really “obsessed” with Beatrice without giving him some common sense: Kinzo “knows” his sons and daughters are just lurking around to get his inheritance, hence why he feels stupid and unecessary to show up:  not only it will disrupt his preparations for the ceremony with Beatrice, but also, he doesn’t consider them as family, since they are just slaves of money.

Aside of that, the scene was left pretty much intact which was very important for the plot and Natsuhi’s development. No complain about it except the little nitpicking earlier.

Natsuhi leaves Kinzo’s study and bumps on Eva who was wondering if Krauss and the rest was with him, but it wasn’t the case. They are soon joined by Genji who still couldn’t find them but reports to Natsuhi that the garden storagehouse is kinda weird.

Later, Natsuhi, Eva, Hideyoshi, Genji and Kanon go over there and are shocked to see a big magical circle on the storagehouse. Hideyoshi notes that it is similar to those used in demonic ceremonies.
Kanon tells everyone that the sigil wasn’t present the other day and Eva orders him to take care of it. Kanon then opens the storagehouse.

It is a pity they had to shorten this scene as Natsuhi could have the “upper hand” after such warming moment. In fact, both She and Eva were going back to the parlor. The other change is that Eva was actually expecting Natsuhi to make Kinzo leave his study, as Natsuhi believes she isn’t hated by him. Therefore, Eva was ready to sneer at Natsuhi and her failure but Natsuhi actually kept her dignity and stated she understood Kinzo’s feelings regarding how his children. Eva is taken aback and Natsuhi, completely “reborn”, suggest some tea. Eva was unable to criticize anything in Natsuhi’s behaviour and could only follow her.

As for the shed, I’m a bit displeased that they insist “could they be in the shed?”. That was actually a nonsense and original, Eva was saying it as if it was impossible. The thing is that Eva asked Kanon clean this sigil as it wasn’t pleasant at all, especially since it is part of where she has grown up. Therefore, Kanon checks the shed, not because they think they are inside, but because there are tools that would allow them to temporarily repaint the shed.

The children are in the mansion with Nanjo but suddenly, Genji arrives and whispers something to Nanjo, horrifying the later. Both are quickly leaving the mansion which picks the curiosity of the cousins.
George asks if Maria wants to go with them but she prefers watching TV.
I really didn’t expect some Ura Higu (special bonus for each DVD of Higurashi Kai) to be “airing” there, but heh XD. That said, I believe Chiaki Kon needs to be a bit more humble here: I mean, showing the Ura Higu where she appears as a hornless Hanyuu? well…

As the cousins are approaching the storagehouse, Natsuhi spreads her arms and orders them to go back to the mansion. Intrigued by her mother’s behaviour, Jessica ignores this and rushes to see what’s going on.
Struck by horror, Jessica screams. Battler and George approach and discover the gruesome scene: corpses are in the storagehouse, their head smashed brutally.
Eva orders George to take everyone back to the mansion, but both he and Battler are completely dumbstruck, while Jessica desperately tries to reach Krauss.

Now, this was one of the scenes that I was expecting the most and the mood felt a bit mixed here.
I must admit I didn’t expect them to show that much, even with the usual “darkned area” censor method. That being said, I wasn’t even expecting Golden Slaugtherer to be played there and that could have pleased me like no tomorrow… If they timed it better :s.
I believe they should have started it when Jessica screamed, but they should have also shortened a bit the “intro” part of the BGM so the pumping element would reach the said scene.

Nanjo performs and autopsy and states that probably more than 6 hours had passed after their death, and the damage on the skulls were done after they were killed. Upon hearing this, Hideyoshi can only lament that it was the work of the devil while Battler collapses, letting loose a scream.
George then asks if there are 5 corpses but Hideyoshi confirms there is a sixth victim. George is horrified to see a lifeless arm whose ring finger wore a diamond ring.

Now that is the part that makes me annoyed a lot: They completely downplayed everyone shock: most if not all were silent except Jessica being right on the spot.
Nanjo’s behaviour was fine and they didn’t forget to make him sweating considering the insane situation. However, what  really looked silly is how Hideyoshi and Battler reacted…
First Hideyoshi, for obscure reasons, start STANDING UP and watch the others, as if to insist how it is insane… I mean, why didn’t they just make him smash the ground with his hands in his despair, instead of overdramatizing him?
Battler was much worse, because there was a pure lag: from the moment he said “what kind of joke it is?!” he remained silent like a damn statue. And only when Hideyoshi said ALL of his stuff, Battler drops his umbrella and starts bending himself once, then a second time before screaming.
Honestly, they totally watered down his reaction and he was absolutely scripted: the timing was bad and him to react only way much later despite his own dad is lying there, dead and his face smashed!
Having heard the drama CD makes me wonder… why didn’t they allow Ono to shine like this?! Battler was totally struck by this which was a big contrast with how he was interacting with Rudolf from the start. Then our big guy really went insane and totally freaked out that all the victims have no face anymore, like bunch of monsters. This was important to really give emphasis on how gruesome and horrifying this sight is.

This is the reason why I wonder they used the remaining time for George and Shannon. George didn’t even wait a sole second and asked Hideyoshi if there are only 5 corpses. I wasn’t too pleased by that because George also is concerned a lot about Battler and originally tried to “comfort” him. It needed few moments for everyone to regain a bit their spirits before going forth with another matter.
Also, although the whole ring thing is easier for the watchers to realize how painful the scene is for George, it actually turned the scene into a blunt “shock” instead of a quick descent in despair.
After Battler had his crying share, George asks if there are 5 corpses, but Hideyoshi confirms there is another. At this point, George was almost killed emotionally and in tears asked if it is Shannon, which Hideyoshi confirmed. And this is one of themost heartwrenching part of Episode 1, because George realized his fiance died, but he also asked Hideyoshi if he could see her again, even if she is smashed like the others, and the whole question regarding “did shannon accepted his proposal?” was also on delay until we got a depressing confirmation from Hideyoshi. Due to this, I wonder if they will let Hideyoshi shine with the matter regarding the ring.

If you want to see (or rather listen) how the scene should be, I made a video of the first twilight with screencaps of the episode and the said scene from the Drama CD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJgPKOM3Q9E

and with the original BGM, golden slaughterer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoA4GPciKe4

I really hope they will redo the scene for the start of 1-3 because they really went very blunt on Shannon’s death which doesn’t allow George and the rest to realize how cruel it was…

_______________________________________________________________

Overal Thoughts:

Episode 1-2 didn’t exactly win me that much because, as you could read above, I believe they slaughtered a lot of character development and relationship for obscure reason.  This is why I couldn’t give more than 6/10 even if the pace is arguably much better than Episode 1-1.

But again, I believe the scripters could have done a much better job in conveying the emotions of several characters. For starters, there was many way to gain several precious seconds here and there (i.e: various unecessary animated sequence like Maria eating her cake, etc but especially the cousins going back to the guest house with Shannon). With this, they could have extended more lines for few characters that would change a lot of their depth.
But the real problem was the first twilight that got cramped way too much, which totally killed the emotions of the characters, especially Battler’s.

I really believe they should have cut right when they discovered the corpses or when Battler started to scream for Rudolf and Kyrie, sayign “there is no face, there is no face !!!!”. That would have given the episode a big touch of big shock, while here, they bluntly show that Shannon died, which lessen the impact and the possible lingering emotions regarding Shannon and George.

Aside of the last scene, again, various instances weren’t animated in a proper way (Maria’s witch face was really ridiculous) and the sheer number of stillshot doesn’t help in that regard. I’m a bit afraid of the whole quality of this show because Higurashi was much more tricky due to the background (which were very detailed, even in Season 1) and the colors used. Even if Umineko has much more characters, most of them don’t have many motions/movements which make me wonder if the budget isn’t anything lower than Kai…

Or perhaps it is because the budget was cashed big time with the large seiyuu cast? Who knows but that doesn’t exactly justify everything, especially if we consider how little many characters talked during the first 2 episodes (who said Gohda…?).
I was pleased to hear more of the original BGM but these certainly don’t make up for all the characters cuts they have done… Hopefully, if they can keep a better timing for these, without cutting that much, it would be an excellent treat for the VN readers.

Anyway, now that there are still 3 episodes for the rest of Episode 1, the pace should be settled better than both Episode 1-1 and 1-2, but I’m still concerned by the lack of character develpment and depth which will make various hints and elements void without prior knowledge or explanation…

The Sighs of Kaioshin Sama

This past week has been quiet interesting when it comes to Haruhi and some of the raging, defensive and just plain bizarre reactions to Haruhi Second Season’s fourth episode (the one that many feel is one repeat too long) that I’ve seen, and I’ve found that a lot of them keep repeating and getting recycled as well, as if to try and match the nature of the arc itself.  Obviously being the fandom watcher that I am I’ve come to feel that there’s enough material here to warrant an article.  And so here we begin with:

#5  Kyoani is trying to make the viewer feel like the characters (Yuki) feel

How can one be so sure I wonder?  People interpret things in different ways, but I’m pretty sure Kyon feels desperate as opposed to outraged (fan reaction) at the idea of an endless summer and I’m not entirely sure if Yuki feels much of anything at all other than perhaps pity if she’s capable of it.  Outrage doesn’t come to mind as something that I would imagine the author intended to make readers feel in relation to these events or when reading the original novels, and I doubt it’s what Kyoani intended either.

#4  If this keeps repeating I’m going to consider dropping the show

Haha, strikes me as an empty threat.  So many people have waited to long on a new season to give up less than halfway through because of a stubborn drawn out arc.  Then again stranger things have happened and I’ve seen people drop a show after less, but still……

#3 Higurashi and Star Trek had repeating arcs/episode segments and weren’t this criticized for it

I don’t think the issue is that of repeat so much as what many consider a rehash.  Essentially it’s that little progress made tends to make people think of an episode as wasted.  Higurashi accomplished something new in the narrative with each iteration, and so did the Star Trek episode Cause and Effect.  Haruhi on the other hand…..I’ll just say it’s debatable.

#2  The DVD sales are the only true measure of whether this episode was a success/good or not

Really….people have gone down this road now.  I don’t know but this REALLY seems like it’s reaching for a justification when the best option I can think of lies in examining ones own personal values.  DVD sales do not necessarily equate with critical acclaim and overall quality (Some shows no matter how critically acclaimed they are will never sell more DVDs then an Isshoni Training), they primarily equate more with popularity and desirability of the product, just like any other consumer item.  This statement also shirks the issue and puts the show on a level of materialistic value rather then personal value and what an episode or show means to one as a viewer.  It’s like disavowing any real appreciation one has for the show and looking for the nearest exit.  Very silly.

And…….

#1  Only Kyoani could get away with this

*Looks up and around the internet*  Ummmmm……it doesn’t look like they are getting away with much of anything from what I can see.  People are RAEGING left and right, showing their distaste for this episode and generally making a big stink about it.  By far this popular comment has given me the most consistent WTF reaction to discussion about this episode.  It just borders on flat out denial as to how controversial this episode has been for the Haruhi fandom.

But I Do Know Who You Are

Over the years there have been a lot of similar character designs in anime, after all there’s only so many ways in which you can give a character a wacky hairstyle and all kinds of accessories before you run out of ideas.  What of the ones that seem like borderline copy pasting though.  What about the ones that come out in such short intervals between one another that you can’t possibly imagine how one didn’t inspire the other because it was popular.  There have been a lot of these, but here are my top 3 personal favourites from over the years.

Number 3:

Cham Huau (Aura Battler Dunbine 1983-1984)

Lilith Faw (Heavy Metal L-Gaim 1984-1985)

OMG cheap Sunrise/Tomino/Hajime Yatate.  Apparently Cham was really popular in Dunbine so Tomino brought her back one series later in L-Gaim as Lilith and even hired the same voice actress to do both.  I wish I knew the answer as to why if they wanted a fairy character in both series they couldn’t at least have come up with a new design.

Number 2:

Fate Testarossa (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha 2004)

Eve (2005)

Yami (To Love Ru 2008)

Three magical lolis, three that have long blonde haire and red eyes, three with a penchant for dressing in gothic back, three that prefer scythe like blades for their weapons……coincidence?

Grand Champion Number 1 Uno Supremo:

C.C (Code Geass 2006)

Amber (Darker Than Black 2007)

Sakura Shishidou (Sora Kake Girl 2008)

Aruka Schild (Needless 2009)

Holy crap C.C is not only immortal, but capable of reincarnating herself and travelling between anime series.  That’s the only explanation I can possibly give for all of these long green haired yellow eyed girls.  I’m guessing that cart she was on must also be an interdimensional time travelling machine as well.  Considering the pattern I think we can look forward to seeing C.C again somewhere in 2009.  Truly the girl has no name, for C.C is but a concept and an ideal that has no attachment to any given anime.  Gilliam Yeager watch out, a new time diver is on the loose.

Ignoring the gaping hole where I left off back in episode 8 purely because the series started to become all shakey which really affected my enjoyment of the it, it is good to see that this is the real episode since a long time where the series makes a strong comeback and proceeds to move forward at full steam (episode 13 also did this but I wasn’t sure until watching this episode). So with a fresh new OP/ED theme and things getting back on track, I shall continue with my selective review of the series. Bring on the Basquash!

Hell yea! We are back in business!

Thoughts: Well basically this episode was all about the death match team Basquash has with team KOK (kind of like King of Fighters but it is actually an acronym for King of Kings headed by Falcon, pretty neat no?). However, while the whole episode was about Dan and the other fighting the odds, rain and all, against their rivals, in the background there are a lot of movements that followed and some shocking revelations for Sela and Iceman. In fact you could say that while the previous episode was for Dan’s personal growth, this episode is definitely for Sela and Iceman to reach a turning point in their lives.

For Sela, while it still wasn’t stated what reason she has to go against her father but inevitably has something to do with the death of her mother, fought this match with pride on the line to prove to her father that she can do it. I am guessing that since Sela abandoned her father after the tragedy she became independent and to personally show to her father that she can survive without him, this match was one she had to win to keep that pride.

As for Iceman it was even more of a shock to see his vivid nightmare like that. Now what does a sharp blade, blood and Iceman’s arm concerns have in common? Well the only thing I can thing of was that he lost his left arm and boy do I hate when I’m right (suddenly, this became my catchphrase of the day). Through some unknown past it seems like Iceman had managed to get his arm cut off which was replaced with some mecha arm. The stress of this match finally put his robo arm out of commission when he put in every effort to pass the winning ball to Dan who then surprised us ALL when he passed that ball to Sela when he realised that he wouldn’t make the goal. So instead of being selfish as usual, Dan actually is growing up and learning that teamwork is needed in this game. Well HELL YEA! to that. Not to forget when the new ED kicked in, I was jumping and cheering like I did back in episode 7 because at this point I knew…the Basquash which I came to love is finally BACK!

But that said there will also be tears come next episode when Sela finds out what happened to her father. In actual fact, some son of a gun had assassinated Sela’s father when the match ended leaving the viewers either silent due to the shock or screaming “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” out loud in a high pitched voice…unfortunately I am the latter type of viewer and I screamed like a girl.

Seriously, what makes this series unique from the rest of the bunch is that ALL of the characters here have some kind of tragic story to tell but the extremely good thing is that rather than them going all angst and emo as if the whole world is against them to the point were their cursing becomes so painful that you just wonder why the heck they haven’t died yet, they are all able to move forward and towards the future with astonishingly strong wills and a burning desire. Sure Sela will probably breakdown when she finds out that her father (who she is tsundere for) has died but that is nothing that couldn’t be sort out within an episode when she has frank friends like Dan. He will get her back onto her feet within an episode and they shall all go riding off to the moon again to blaze some Basquash into the face of the enemies.

Like I say though, the episode was done extremely well. The mood was there, the atmosphere was there and who couldn’t get hyped up when the hilarious commentator says something like “Ohaiyo! Sekai no yaro domo!” (it definitely gets anyone in a mood for a fist fight). The action was there, the hype was there but most importantly of all the story was there. It was a real cliffhanger to see how team Basquash was going to make a comeback after being 42-12 down after half way point but trust Haruka to bring in the big guns with a fresh batch of non-stick trainers straight from Nike (but poor Ganz for having to feel her wrath haha). To see things move forward again brings a tear to my eye and once again this series has reclaimed an eagerly awaited spot on my list.

On a final note I think that the new OP theme cannot compare to the first one at all in bringing out the nature of the series whereas the ED is pretty much on par with the first one in terms of awesomeness. Love Eclipse to bits and this series wouldn’t be the same without their songs.

Screen caps and comments:

Praying for luck but I just lol at how Sela’s pet copies her master ^^’

A nightmare for Iceman which was indeed quite freaky to see and gosh imagine the pain >.<

Of course though at this point we had no idea about his condition

You can’t actually see here but his left arm was shaking whilst holding the cup

Haruka noticed his condition pretty early on and it was given the death flag right after she noted that it was hot

Team KOK VS…

Team Basquash! minus 2 people (LOL)

Sela’s father visiting the grave of his wife. Whatever he did in the past I am sure that he regrets it too

Meanwhile Ganz is slacking on his delivery (oh he is so going to get it soon)

Showdown! and it is the usual flashy stuff that we’ve seen before

But things changed as it started to rain and Haruka gives a swift call to Ganz to hurry it up

Meanwhile, Ganz is happily eating breakfast blisfully unaware that his teammates are losing

The thing is, with the floor being wet from the rain Dan and the others can no longer play well but this didn’t affect KOK as they can fly…cheeky buggers

One of many painful falls for Dan

The scoreboard doesn’t look very good at all…

Finally Ganz arrives with the delivery but Haruka isn’t impressed at all

HEAVENLY PUNISHMENT!

And thus Ganz didn’t wake up ever again

Well the important shipment from Ganz were actually new sneakers

“Ready to rock!”

Clash of the Titans!

Iceman fought hard and used his remaining strength…

to face plant Falcon to the ground!

But his left arm is trashed and this was where it became clear that it wasn’t his original arm…ouch

The final destroy pass

Which Dan catches with flying colours but is unable to get past Falcon’s defense

Surprisingly Dan passes to Sela who wins the match for them

However, while the cheer and hype was going one someone swiftly kills off her father (whaaaa tragic incomming)

So what more does the “antagonists” of the series have planned for Dan and the others

This scene after the ED theme (which I forgot to mention) was impressive as Slash shows that Dan is still far from reaching his level

Dan got outclassed in every way in their little duel but I am sure Slash cheated with a GN drive…

Slash then goes to boast that Dan couldn’t even touch him/her

But if that was true then what are those scratch marks on your shoulders?

Maybe Dan is still improving afterall as he smoothly leaves the match instead of screaming his head off like usual

The time has finally come for Umineko. Pretty much like the other series I have blogged in the past, the summary will be in black while my comments will be colored in blue. As a VN player and leader of the translation group of the said VN, you can certainly expect few comparisons and the like: I will not deny the fact that few things will rub me the wrong way, but I definitely know that an adaptation cannot be totally faithful.

Of course, my summaries and comments will be void of spoilers, though they can have several information regarding the cut scenes. Please look forward my usual analysis/extra articles!

That being said, I hope you will all enjoy the journey to the golden land in this animated media!

Ushiromiya Kinzo is seen asking to his attending Physician, Nanjo Terumasa, how much time left he has before passing away. Upon hearing he has only 3 months left, Kinzo unleash his rage, clearly not yielding his life until he manages to have the smile of “Beatrice” once again…

That intro was weirdly misplaced: I believe that it almost looks like its time frame is set just before everyone arrive which is actually false. Not exactly anything important, and I liked how Kinzo was insane here, though he didn’t have much time to show his composed side.

Rokkenjima, 4th october 1986.  The members of the Ushiromiya family has arrived to Rokkenjima, the private island owned by the head of the family, Kinzo. After being absent for 6 years, Battler visits once again Rokkenjima with all of his cousins, George, Maria and finally Jessica. Speaking of which, her growth impressed Battler to the point he becomes mesmerized by her chest. As he is trying to grope her, Jessica beats him down.
The rest of the group (Maria’s mother, Rosa; Battler’s parents, Rudolf and Kyrie; and George’s parents, Eva and Hideyoshi) are joined by Kumasawa Chiyo, an old servant.

Then, George notice the absence of the Seagulls which were usually greeting them with their cries. Before moving out, Maria notices there is something missing nearby the harbor: a shrine. Unknown to everyone, Maria starts mumbling about bad luck…

Now that is a lot of things they changed, and ultimately cut. They simply removed altogether the airport scene. Well, although I was a big fan of it, because it managed to give a quick overview “who is who”, it can’t be helped considering how they have to condense the story as much as they can. However, they simply didn’t use a possible characterization period for any characters aside of Battler.
Actually, I’m more concerned about the lack of informations regarding the characters: about Battler and the tense relationship he has with Rudolf. Same goes the complete lack of dynamic between Battler and George (there is almost no “admiration” here). I really think they could have extended this scene for 1 minute and use some same antics of the original airport scene: I really don’t think they could have done the lenghty intro, but right now, only the cousins minus George could have a proper screentime. And even so, they really severed a lot the “interactions” between the characters: Battler is only shown as a pervert, they skipped completely the rivalry and “brawl” aspect between him and Jessica. That is unfortunate I believe, as it simply diminish the possible antics between the characters.

As a side note, I don’t get why they made Maria thinking about “bad luck” alone, let alone George finding out about the seagulls, as it was Battler who was really concerned about it (and “umineko no naku koro ni” line has a lot of symbolism later on).

As the group makes their way to the mansion, they are welcomed by the beautiful rose garden nearby. Maria’s attention is however attracted by a single rose, which looks less healthy than the rest. As she looks concerned by it, George uses a candy paper to embelish it, which indeed relieved Maria’s mood.

Battler soon meets another servant, Kanon. However, the later doesn’t exactly keep it up in the discussion and Jessica tries to cover him, telling Battler that Kanon is just a bit silent.
Upon seeing such situation, another servant, Gohda, asks Kanon to greet the guests properly but the later states they are just furniture, leaving the place.

Once in the guesthouse, the cousins are greeted by Shannon.  Her gifted body attracts Battler’s pervert side which is again calling down Jessica’s wrath.

That is a… “healthy” unhealthy rose we have here. Of course, it is a not so important element, but I must say I’ve seen roses in a much worse shape than this.
Again, the garden scene kept its essence, though I’m again saddened to see they have shortened Kanon and Gohda screentime: it really lessens/removes the incompatibility impression from Kanon, who is really introvert and silent, while Gohda is actually a show off, borderline bossy.

Now, what didn’t exactly work right with me was Shannon scene. Not only I wonder why they made such a zoom on her chest when she was about enter in the room, but they really defined Battler as a stupid pervert without much thought: his inner thoughts and “gratitude” towards Jessica were comedy gold, especially if you have listened to this part of the drama CD.

On another category, I must admit that Kugimiya Rie pleasantly surprised me with her soft voice: it was certainly refreshing to see her NOT voicing a silly loli tsundere, pulling a high pitching tantrum every 5 seconds (yes, I’m looking at YOU, Louise).

Meanwhile, Ushiromiya Krauss, the elder sibling of Kinzo’s offspring is trying to make the later attend the family conference. However, this attempt fails, making Kinzo more enraged than anything else.

A little while later, the cousins and Shannon enter to the mansion and as they are going for lunch, Battler notices something that wasn’t there before: a portrait of a young woman. Shannon explains Kinzo ordered an artist to paint it, 2 years ago and Maria adds that this person is Beatrice.

During lunch, Battler thinks again how Kinzo managed to gains such assets during the great earthquake of kanto.

That scene was really cut short for unknown reason: why did they sever Kinzo’s lines that much? Unless the anime only watchers are very sensitive or noticing the elements in Kinzo’s study, one would wonder: why this gramps is simply yelling like a nutty?
I’m definitely disappointed that, even if they could have shortened it into mere seconds, they should have made Kinzo yell about how today is very important to him and how he doesn’t care about his children.

To be faire, I really think they could have cut short by a lot Kinzo’s backstory.

After lunch breaks, the adults are together in the parlor, discussing about the assets of the Ushiromiya family. Since Kinzo was declared to be dead with 4 months to live, last year, it is reasonable to think he can die at any moment. However, Eva, Hideyoshi and Rudolf are all wondering about Krauss’ financial situation despite being able to build such a resort on Rokkenjima.

Few roundabout comments later, the trio implies that Krauss is actually using their father’s money for his own personal use, branded as embezzlement.
Infuriated by such accusations towards her husband, Natsuhi orders Eva to leave immediately. However Eva bluntly states Natsuhi isn’t in position to issue such order, being unable to bear the crest of the family. Being hurt as being treated like a borrowed womb, Natsuhi is speechless. Because of this predicament, Krauss asks her to leave which makes her run away, in tears.

Probably the best rendered scene, the discussion between the siblings was good albeit lacking of contrast: it is a pity that we didn’t see the adults being overly “friendly” first and having a very gloom and sneaky tone when the MONEY discussion topic finally emerged.
Aside of the missing setup, the essence of the discussion remained fine. However, because of the lack of the setup, the whole catfight between Natsuhi and Eva was watered down by a lot: there was a growing tension over the time the two were jabbing at each other previously, but here, they went on high heels without much after thoughts. To make things blunt: they really have shown this scene, just because it is a mandatory, but as a unfortunate result, I would say that discussion and argument turned much less impressive due to the compressed aspect of it.

Aside of the mood being not so well conveyed, I must also say that few details changed completely the personality of few characters: What I didn’t exactly like was Kyrie and Rosa drinking in their corners as if it wasn’t their problem. This was even more noticeable with Natsuhi being bullied by Eva, despite that originally, Rosa wasn’t easy when Eva was about to viciously attacking personally Natsuhi with such speech.

On a completely different note, as much as I liked the seiyuu performance here (though still need time to get accustomed to Rudolf’s voice, and Rosa sounding way too young), I’m however concerned by the quality already: the proportions of the characters here were really off at times. Worse, it seems the animators have a problem with Natsuhi’s chest and decides to change it like clothes in mere seconds (the third screenshot shows pretty much that her… assets are almost as big as her head…).

Checking closely the portrait, Battle notice a weird text alongside: an epitaph. Battler has no clue what is its purpose, but Maria states it is where the gold is hidden. This is actually referring to the legendary gold that Kinzo used as a collateral to gain business partners and the like. It is said to be 10 tons, which is 20 billions of yen (at that given time of course). Kinzo always had claimed that he made a contract with Beatrice, the witch and was granted that gold. Of course, Battler doesn’t believe this tale about, which upsets quite a lot Maria as result. Trying to make up with her, Battler pretends he believe in Beatrice and Jessica suggest they should all go to the beach for a picnic.

A very good shorteneing process I would say, and I must say that I liked a lot how they characterized Maria here: she really looks innocent and enthusiast here, which matches very well her design and voice.
My “only” complain here would be Battler reaction towards the gold: it is certain that he already thought 10 tons is a tad ridiculous, but he was supposed to be helluva surprised upon hearing the whooping sum of 20 billions yen. Here, he shrugs it off as he knew it already (which doesn’t exactly help the interactions Battler and George supposedly had).

One question though: why didn’t they put the whole epitaph? I’m sure anime watchers would be curious what it is about here.

The siblings are still discussing regarding the inheritance and due to the suspicions regarding a possible embezzlement, Rudolf, Eva and Hideyoshi are giving few conditions so that Krauss can “earn” back their trust. Thinking Krauss managed to find the gold of the legend, they shall share it among the 4 siblings, with a favorable portion to Krauss as the head of the family: 12.5 billion for the former, while the other 3 get 2.5 billion. However, they ask Krauss to pay them 10% of their share in advance before march.

Krauss is thinking for a little while, but flip the tables: he reveals that he actually knows all of their financial situation as well and points out that Eva, Rudolf and Rosa need money badly. However, he “can’t” help them since they claim it was impossible for him to raise such amount of money without sponsors. Therefore, he invites them to resolve the riddle of the gold together.

Another good shortening process may I say, though it is a bit too bad they couldn’t really insist on how Krauss basically overwhelmed them. What actually worries me is the fact that Rosa was only shown yelling (she didn’t have any lines before this point) which might give a lot of wrong impressions to her normal behaviour.
Another weird point is: they didn’t play any “surprise” expression for Kyrie when Rudolf’s money issue was revealed by Krauss. So much little details that can change dramatically a character’s stance or personality…

A minor but annoying point though: do they really need to use such cheap “horror movie”-like SFX when each siblings get their turn in the discussion? It really looks like the animators are overdramatizing some elements of this episode.

The cousins are trying to solve the riddle, though it doesn’t seem to be possible to figure about the cryptic lines. However, Battler and Jessica are poking fun at the epitaph after reading such creepy lines, which obviously doesn’t please Maria.
Maria is pulling a tantrum, but she is still concerned that her cousins might make Beatrice angry after such claims: therefore, she is giving them some scorpion charms that should protect them from evil magic.

As I’m repeating myself: I’m pretty sure they are focusing a lot on Maria, which isn’t bad by itself.
A detail I noted: they didn’t forget her little fang in her design, which helps in her characterization as a little playful girl, and not a blunt “moe moe” child.
But again, it seems George is favored to be a plain background character when the cousins are all together huh…?

The time allocated for this scene is nice, though again: why didn’t they show the whole epitaph? Since it is a prime piece of the mystery, it should at least shown to the watchers already (and no, I believe the very short screentime of the epitaph doesn’t exactly allow most people to read it properly).

As they are going back to the Mansion, Maria is however unable to find her rose. Completely flustered, she calls her mother, Rosa to help them. However, Maria’s habit of saying “uu” is taking its toll on Rosa’s patience. Unable to bear it after so many orders, Rosa has a fit and slaps Maria.
Maria is crying and doesn’t stop with her “uu-uu” which multiplies Rosa’s abuses. Battler tries to intervene but Rosa states that Maria is already 9 years old but still keep this very childish habit, which doesn’t help her to make friends at school.
Battler is still concerned but George tells him it is a problem between parent and child so they should leave them alone.

Maria is still claiming her rose should be there and doesn’t stop her tantrum. Fed up, Rosa leaves her looking for the rose alone.

Here comes the second scene that gives a lot of contrast to the whole “family” situation in Umineko. As I said before, the anime did cut a lot of setup, which is actually removing a certain shock factor: Rosa was shown as a very kind and composed mother as a facade, but suddenly turns mad when it is about Maria’s habit. This is actually the reason why Battler “is surprised” after such violence.
The other little nitpick I would point out is the lack of discussion between Maria and Rosa regarding the location of the rose: Rosa becomes fed up not only because of the “Uu Uu” thing, but also because Maria stays stubborn about the rose. Rosa was originally shown as saying “the rose isn’t there or someone took it. that’s all!”. Here, she basically jumped on the “Uu Uu” which certainly missed a step in the process.

Rokkenjima is engulfed by the typhoon. Kinzo is “waiting” for Beatrice, ready to start their game.
Meanwhile, Maria is still looking for her rose despite the heavy rain. However, a shadow with an umbrella is approaching…

As I said it several times on Animesuki, I really like how they are portraying Kinzo’s madness, but as result, they also dampened a lot his “charisma”: sure enough, he does yell like a nutto for that little game with Beatrice, but before that exact moment, he was calmly forming his “defense” and explaining his magic of miracle”. That is why I think they changed a bit too much Kinzo, because before being a completely twisted old man, chasing after a witch myth, Kinzo is a very strong man who gives people an awed respect (hence why I was expecting Wakamoto for his voicing XD).

Again, the way they animated Maria pleases me more and more, and I’m surprised they actually have shown.. THAT silhouette! That will certainly be interesting how certain people will consider this.

The rest of the cousins are called by Kanon for dinner. However, the young servant wonders where is Maria. The cousins thought she came back with Rosa at the mansion, but it isn’t the case.

At the rose garden, Rosa is trying to find Maria and is soon joined by Battler, George, Jessica and Kanon. After a few moments, they managed to find her, still looking for her rose, but with an umbrella.
Rosa being worried and sorry about her behaviour, embraces her daughter tightly. Jessica praises Maria for being toughtful about the umbrella, but the later reveals that she borrowed it from someone. As Battler asks her from whom, Maria happily tells them it was Beatrice.

No nitpicking at all here: it was certainly a good place to end the episode.

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Overal Thoughts:

As you probably figured out with several of my comments, I must admit that the first episode of Umineko no Naku Koro ni didn’t impress me at all. I can only see it as “average”, 6/10.
For starters, this rating is rather geared how much I enjoyed the episode. If you were about to ask its rating as an adaptation, you might expect something MUCH harsher in that regard (I’m pretty sure desy and sky would be much more merciless than I would be).

As I explained, this first episode (not the series, we are far from a whole impression) didn’t go that well because they have cut so many things without keeping a proper cohesion and transitions between the scenes. Due to this, the events felt really disjointed and using a “on your face” type of introduction didn’t help I believe.
I understand they wanted to introduce quickly the mysterious aspect of the franchise with Beatrice, but it certainly was to the detriment to the character developments of any character that are within the first 3 cousins.
Even George himself didn’t do much during the whole episode.
Whilst I was expecting cut scene and that most of them were indeed a good choice (beach scene etc), they didn’t make efforts into giving a certain cohesion between the characters, and therefore their interactions. The result of this is that the pacing became poor and the execution was rather bland.

This could have been prevented, I believe, with the original airport scene: with a mere 2 minutes, we could have seen Eva poking fun on Battler and Rudolf, Rudolf bullying Battler, Kyrie’s “interactions” with Battler and how they jab to each other with wisecrack. In its essence, it could have been very effective to build a “mood” between the characters. That could have given the illusion of “family” that suddenly got twisted with that ugly money affair.

This is because of this lack of characterization and details that I believe being a VN player is ACTUALLY an advantage: although it is very likely that it would make us more annoyed by some “cut scenes”, it is on the contrary not so confusing for us to understand what happened in X or Y case.
The biggest example would be how Eva is biking against Natsuhi: it looks like Eva only brushes Natsuhi because the later is in her way to milk money from Krauss. However, the thing becomes much more complex and subtle when we add a thorough series of sly comments regarding Jessica”s “future” and how Natsuhi is trying to educate her. So far, it doesn’t look like both have a personal grudge against each other and they just biked against each other because:
1) Eva is accusing Krauss for being a traitor to the family
2) Natsuhi is ordering Eva to leave, despite the former is an “outsider”.
Few details do lessen several scenes, and you really don’t need the very line from the VN to convey it.

I strongly believe that they could have ended with the money affair or when Beatrice appears with the umbrella  instead of removing another scene instead: having put the tea time between the adults would have been good for several reasons: how the parents are looking after their children, how certain bonds are already former (Rosa with natsuhi and Kyrie), the whole furniture issue (Shannon being “bullied”, Kanon being rebellous and pissed at Gohda, etc).
I wouldn’t complain that much if it was possible to keep the touch of it, but unless Chiaki Kon (the director) manages to do a good stunt, I will remain a bit skeptic regarding this.

This is unfortunate because I think Higurashi managed to be much better in conveying the quirks and personality of all character in the same time frame (I will admit Umineko has a much larger cast, but the game itself also require more episodes so it isn’t like they didn’t have the time for evaluate). Higurashi had so many atrocious cut, yet they managed to keep the mood and characters “intact” to some extent. Over here, with a VN player or neutral point of view, I must say that there isn’t much atmosphere as result. Family? Hard to say so with a complete lack of interactions except the greedy topic.

This is the main reason (not actually the cut) that I gave that soso rating. Of course, introducing a series like this is difficult and the first episode is often a “do or die”, so I think it is safe to say that the next episodes will be smoother in storytelling.
But for episode 1-1, I must say it looks like this episode is a blunt recap of 2 episodes that “weren’t aired”. Like someone said, it almost look like a “last week in Umineko…”.

As for the production value, few animations were really off, and the proportions of the design were kinda inconsistent. The budget seems on par with Higurashi kai which is fair, but certainly nothing to write home about.
It seems the budget was invested more on the large cast of seiyuu who are doing a very good job (still, I have a very big issue with George, Rudolf and Rosa…).
Meanwhile, the BGM are fine by themselves and we can recognize some familiar tunes aside of the remixes of “witch in gold (cembalo)” and “stupefaction” from zts. A far cry from the mediocre OST of Higurashi and Higurashi kai composed by kawai.

With the Spring season ending in a blink of an eye, we are once again back in the summer period and thus brings us a new batch of series to watch. Surprisingly, compared to last year there isn’t that many titles coming out this season (which is a blessing to some…*points to self) with 18 titles being covered in this preview. As usual laziness gets the better of me and the source for the pictures are taken from THAT Blog where you get more information on the series. Without further ado lets start things off with the first of this season’s titles…

All right so it’s like this.  Every season new shows come out and every season somebody goes all, “Blarg, this whole season sucks and there’s nothing worth watching”.  K, what you gotta do is look harder, cause last season looked pretty meh at first and everybody did the thing, but then like I found 6 new series right out of that season too watch.  That’s like better than average or something.  You be asking yourself why I’m talking like this, and truth is I don’t know, just sorta came out.  Anyway, this seasons a little shorter than average when it comes to the list of new shows, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something worth finding.

Element Hunters

Kaio: Eh….don’t go taking my colour there Deathie, I’m the red one.  Anyway this one has kids show written all over it and looking at the staff a lot of them have barely or never worked on an anime before.  The premise sounds a little bit generic in dealing with elements and having to return them to a proper place, but then again Nanoha sounded generic with a similar premise and ended up turning into a massive hit so it is possible to make something of a simplistic premise.  You know what gets me about this poster though?  If you guessed the girl in the bottom right then you are in fact correct.  Geez that outfit is tight and she looks so loli.  I’m going to hate myself for saying this, but that alone warrants me giving this at least one episode.

Deathie: Yea…I forgot. Anyway reading about it, this is clearly not the type of series that is aimed at people like me. But that is exactly what makes it interesting to check out and all the more reason to if it isn’t something that looks like it is aimed at elementary school kids (which some are checking the previous season). I think it is worth giving this a try and it may be a nice surprise that brings in some variety into the anime diet.

Sky: For me personally the upcoming season looks somewhat unimpressive overall, and this show is unlikely going to change that opinion. Granted, it is a kids show, so it might be harmlessly entraining to accompany a boring evening once in a while, but i am not holding my breath here. Never the less, as long as it doesn’t try to be too pretentious there should be little harm done in giving this a try.

Klash: Not my cup of tea. I seriously don’t have much time regarding this kind of show, and the fact the premises are pretty generic doesn’t help in that regard. Unless very (pleasantly) surprising, I guess I won’t check this show at all.

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Cobra the Animation -Rokunin no Yuushi-

Kaio:  A definite look for me no questions asked.  I’ve never seen the original, but now I have no excuse not to check this one out.  Not that I’m at any loss for gar with Shin Mazinger still running and not that I really know much about Cobra, but every time a sequel or remake of a classic 80’s series crops up I am obligated to watch it in order to further my knowledge of anime history.  Anyway the premise seems to be that this awesome space pirate decides he wants to lead a normal life all of a sudden and changes his identity in order to go undercover as a civilian.  However soon he finds himself drawn back into his former life and onto a new adventure.  If you ask me the concept sounds a lot like You No Mess With The Zohan, but we’ll see.

Deathie: Didn’t watch the first one and won’t be doing so now. This is a series way out of the court for me.

Sky: Same as the yaro above me – never watched the first one, and not feeling the slightest urge to do so. On that note, i remember watching some LA show on TV with same time a loooong time ago …yea …

Klash: I’m absolutely not in the “retro” trend. Pretty much like my 2 comrades here, I won’t bother with this.

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Princess Lover!

Kaio:   Oh christ here we go….I mean….yeah…..I mean…..Deathie….help……

Deathie: Err…well not much comment for me other than this being the typical series to add onto my watch list for better or worse. Well no surprises here that the cast is being voiced by a lot of relatively green seiyuus for such a mediocre type story.

Sky: Going by “innocent until proven otherwise”, as a romance fan i am going to give this one  ago. The premise and the title are not giving me many expectations and we likely have the fanservicy romance/comedy (that is more of a comedy than romance) of the season on our hands here, but we shall see.

Klash: Generic? Check. High school? Check. Harem potential? definitely. Fanservice? Not really hard to guess, captain obvious. Unless it is proved to be enjoyable (as in, in entertainement) instead being overly dependant of the skin exposure and bust size, I will pass.

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Kanamemo

Kaio:  Pfft….hffff, the premise for some reason sounds hilarious to me as it’s described on ANN.  “The story centers on Kana Nakamichi, a middle-school girl who had already lost her parents and just recently lost her only remaining relative, her grandmother. As a result, she ends up living and working at a newspaper delivery office. Everyone else living at the office are all charming, self-assertive bishōjo.”  I just can’t help but now picture a newspaper entirely run by Tsundere’s and what it might look like and yes there is a Rie Kugimiya appearance so there you go.  I don’t know what else to make of it, sorry.

Deathie: This looks like it will be Slice of Life genre with a veteran cast of voices. The danger here is that this would become the typical boring series that tries to be deep in a slow and “growing” manner…unfortunately I don’t do well with such a trick and the end result is that it just bores me. Design wise it reminds me of Hyakko and damn did I like that series. So here I say; surprise me.

Sky: Sounds like a moe-overload slice of life show, one which we tend to get every season as well. These are generally hit or miss with me, but as i do end up liking a number of them, this goes to watchlist. The seyuu cast is nothing to complain about, and the premise immediately made me recall Binbo Shimai Monogatari, and since i enjoyed said show (suggary sweet as it was) about the poor sisters, i say bring it on. If you dislike funny girls doing funny stuff, this is likely jnot going to be for tyou though from the looks of it.

Klash: Humm… a slice of life. Why no actually? Of course the premises don’t say much, but it might be interesting, depending of how they portray the interactions between the girls. That being said, I’m rather cautious regarding the art style from this image: whacky face potential? who knows.

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Sora no Manimani

Kaio:  Freaking black colour *swaps*….sigh….anyway, it’s a slice of life anime about people that get involved in a club where slapstick comedy ensues.  *Horrible Flashback ensues*  No no no no no, sorry after that last one I am just not up for it.  Besides I don’t even like slapstick comedy.  Maybe Klash’ll be more interested in this one.  Regardless of my views if there’s anything I predict becoming the seasonal hit with today’s anime audiences it’s this or GA.  You heard me forecast it here.

Deathie: Comedy romance eh? Now when was the last time we’ve had one of those. Well I’m not sure if Natsu no Arashi qualifies for it but I guess that is the closest thing since recent memories. Anyway the designs look “meh” to me but it wouldn’t hurt giving it a try. Well I intend to watch everything that interests me once anyway.

Sky: A romance comedy … and the first question that always comes with the genre: what are the chances we are going to get an actually conclusive ending ? In this case i am not sure what our chances are, but as a romance fan i am willing to find out. The premise doesn’t sound anything awfully new, but then again i guess an astronomy club focus might not be too bad, so this should be a fairly OK watch so longas they keep the interactiosn quirky enough.

Klash: The design is nothing to write home about: rather bland I would say. That said, you can’t exactly judge a book with its cover alone… If that series proves to be enjoyable in term of jabs and punch lines, I would be happy to have my comedy fix… Well as usual, it depends a lot of how dense the main protagonist and how far the comedy is relying too much on lame follows and the like.

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Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou

Kaio:  I just already envision Deathie slobbering over these girls.  Sure does look easy on the eyes, but I have a corollary for when this happens, and that is that, “The more eyecatching a promotional poster looks the less good the actual show ends up looking”.  Anyway this one is about magical girls (the main of which is kind of loli) and I like magical girls somehow so I’ll be checking this one out and to see if yet again I am right about a theory.  It also has Haruka Tomatoes in it so that’ll probably be interesting as she’s always enjoyable.

Deathie: You judge me wrongly as I don’t see any slobber. With all the binary numbers floating about I was beginning to think that this might do something that a certain magical index failed to do so; be entertaining. But aye, the bishoujo vibes run deep within this one but usually the story is compensated when that happens. Not expecting anything incase this turns out to be a predicted downer.

Sky: The poster looks nice (and here’s hoping it isn’t missleading), and the premise sounds rather entertaining, so it is a definite thing to check out, especially considering the seeming lack of such series in the lineup. The females being easy on the eyes certainly doesn’t hurt any, so i am having some hopes riding with this one – please don’t turn out to be the next Index!

Klash: Hohou… modern magician setup? Well just like what Desy and Sky said, if that series turns into a Index MKII, it won’t be pretty. So far however, the design is really appealing without much fanservice expsure (yet). The absence of a male lead might also prevent lame situations (aka more fanservice). One of the few series that might be interesting should they pass the usual “1-5 episodes” trial.

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Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

Kaio:  This is the one everybody is talking about as if to guarantee that it will be the summer smash.  While that might not actually end up being the case, it is Bones and even their weaker shows often end up being quite worth the watch and I doubt this one will be an exception.  This one also happens to sound immensely interesting since it presents a very real and always concerning threat to the people of Tokyo, and that is the earthquake.  The concept here is that scientists believe a magnitude 7.0 Earthquake is likely to strike Tokyo within the next 30 years.  This series is going to show an 8.0 and what happens after with all of the relief effort and events with survivors and rescue workers etc and Bones will be conducting real life research and interviews with earthquake survivors to put this together, which hopefully means it will be both accurate and meaningful in the long run.   I also fully expect this one to have Bones usual stock of interesting character with complex and equally interesting relationships with other characters so actually my standards are pretty high for this one now that I think about it.  It also has not only abingdon boys school doing the intro (I loved their work with Darker Than Black) but Kou Otani (Gundam Wing) doing the background music.  Very psyched for this.

Deathie: Well the higher they go up, the harder they come crashing back down again. Sure this looks and sounds unique but so was Eden of the East of last season and that certainly wasn’t a series I grew fond of simply because the whole story didn’t really “click”. But this does look interesting as a scenario, I am worried about the actual content or, dare I say, plot. If it ends up being a girl and her travels then…erm…wait a minute, wasn’t that in the summary…

Sky: Well now, this is certainly a show i am looking towards to. For once the premise doesn’t sound like anything i would have seen in anime before, and is serious enough for me to expect a good story with Bones commaning the parade. So with a good premise, good company behind it, and ignoring the flashbacks that i used to think same of Eden, i am welcoming this title with open arms – looking to be a possible gem in an otherwise dull season.

Klash: Now that’s what we can call original for the season! With BONES behind the production of this show, there will be probably some expectations fulfilled here. The premise is indeed nothing that common and it is certainly filling a whole category of genre compared to the rest of the generic series we usually have. However, originality isn’t synonym of “certain hit” considering Higashi no Eden (yes, pretty much like desy and sky, I wasn’t impressed at all by this series…).

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Aoi Hana

Kaio:  Wow!  Coming of age AND Yuri.  No I’m sorry, I can’t really even pretend to feign interest in this one.  Deathie, salvage please.

Deathie: This has JC STAFF written all over it and damn, I hate it when I’m right. Actually they did do a “romance” series right in the form of Hatsukoi Limited but that was obviously because it was a full moon and that they have had more popular flops that I can shake a stick at it (when it comes to overbloated romance titles). With this I would probably be screaming for mercy but duty calls and it is in the trial bin.

Sky: Yuri. End of story.

Klash: JC Staff + Yuri: do you wish to die early? I certainly don’t. Definitely pass this thing.

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Needless

Kaio:  I think I mentioned to Deathie how alluring this picture was.  What was it I said…”Nice clothes” or something like that.  I actually went and looked this one up and the whole manga series looks to be drawn to be as stylish and eyecatching as possible.  As Deathie put it, “it’s filled with Bishoujo’s, I likes”.  Well I don’t know if I likes, but I definitely want to check it out.  Plus it’s by Madhouse who generally has a budget and is good at bringing the style of any given series over to the anime front so I’m not terribly worried that my corollary will carry through.  Now if only there were more manga chapters scanlated so that I could get a proper samply of this.

Deathie: I likes and I drools. The one main reason why I likes so much is that the style of it reminds me of those fighting korean manhwas which have been what I have been getting into for the past few months. Their style are different from the usual and actually, their stories itself aren’t half bad at all. Sadly this image is mainly a lie and things won’t be quite the same in the anime (look at ANN). Damnit, this was exactly what they did for Kurokami only that this manga isn’t korean. But nonetheless I am extremely interested at the plotline and will be hoping for the best.

Sky: Somehow the art style reminds mof Gurren Lagan here ^^’ At any rate, testosterone boiling story of the season you want, testosterone fighting anime of the season you get. Either way, this will likely turn out awesome, or the new and improved storyline will make you cry tears of resentmen. It has been a while since a good shounen action show though, so maybe this will be it.

Klash: Humm… why not, actually? Another gag comedy potential? Well as long as the series doesn’t try to take itself too seriously, I won’t mind so!

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Umineko no Naku Koro ni

Kaio:  This one has been announced for a long time and I somehow can’t believe it’s finally airing.  I absolutely loved Higurashi and liked what I helped proofread of Umineko’s visual novel script.  Remember those old murder mystery TV shows like Murder She Wrote that your grandmother was probably into (at least I know mine was), well from what I read of this it’s supposed to be something like that, only more to the killer on the loose on an isolate island scenario and with a supernatural twist and witches.  I’d call it a slasher flick, but then I would have to say that the characters were dull and uninteresting targets with a “kill me sign” on them and that certainly does not appear to be the case at all.  The story is layered and the characters bring their own personal family troubles with them to the island before any of the mayhem starts.  Klash will certainly know a lot more about it all then I could ever tell people, but the concept is fascinating, the characters are interesting and I will definitely be checking this one out in it’s animated form.

Deathie: And having the man behind the translating team for this game allow me to say: HOLY HECK KIIIIIIITTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAA!

Naturally, Klash doesn’t just head the witch hunt team, he has also been going around making people play this game and honestly, I am glad that he did the same thing to me as I have officially become a mindless addict to the stuff. It is simply the best Visual Novel I have ever played and this anime has a lot to live up to. Sadly with battler looking like a magical shoujo and George going on slim fast, I have already noticed faults. Nonetheless, what is a mindless fan if I don’t gobble everything related to this?And you can damn well be sure who is going to be keeping a track of this.

Sky: In a word – Hell Yes! A very much anticipated adaption of the very much appreciated visual novel, following in the footsteps of Higurashi, Umineko is a title not to miss this season. After having played the visual novel (courtesy of the taskmaster Klash), the story is indeed a treat both to ears with some great musical scores, and to mind, with some epic clash of wits in a battle of supernatural VS logic, coated in the shell of a murder mystery. The game is , to bluntly put, simple awesome, so towards the anime we march! … is what i would like to say, but after having seen the first episode that aired already, i am sorely (means i am ready to cry and slaughter puppies) disapointed – it was , simply put, one of the worst anime episodes i have seen in a good while, with horrid production values and pacing. Bleh … will see where this goes, but start is less than promising.

Klash:  Fufufufu… KEIKAKU DORII!
*cough, hides his whip*. Well well well… well. One of the most expected anime adaptation is about to be available, and I can’t exactly say if I’m dead afraid of the result or super excited about it.
Right now, after watching the first episode, I’m however more inclined to the “disappointed” spectrum: as you will read in my first article, the pilot episode has a lot of things left to be desired. That being said, if the anime series manages to keep the essence of its awesome original material, the ride might redeem itself over time.

As much as I love the series, I really cannot forgive anything silly DEEN has done in few instances, but that certainly doesn’t mean they have to be textbook regarding how faithful they should be with the VN anyway… Ah well.

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Spice and Wolf 2

Kaio:  It’s kind of sad that I got stuck about halfway through this shows first season, but no more excuses now, I really oughta finish this as the concept is pretty fresh.  Nothing like a good period series to get your mind off of the troubles of the modern world.  Some people prefer moe series, I’m looking for something more like Spice and Wolf.

Deathie: Spicy wolf is back to give you all important economical advice for such toubling times. Well I personally I’m not much of a fan of the series but it does do well in being a nice, relaxing, normal watch from the usual drama of other series. Ahh.

Sky: More medieval economics along with the wolf goddess Horo, here we come! And here i go along with it – the first season was throughly enjoyable and Horo proved to be a very likable and rather unique female lead, so i am always up for more of that, along with the pair’s travels and mishaps through the land. A rather unique series in all aspects, more than worthy of the time spent watching it.

Klash: As much as I liked Horo and the interactions with lawrence, I must say that the first season didn’t completely captivate me as the pacing was often disrupted by an overdose of medieval economic. This is actually detrimental to the series because it becomes bipolar: “all about horo” then switches with “ZzzzZZzzZZ market management”. As far as we can’t exactly expect that much of “action” in Ookami, I just hope the pacing would be less relaxed here.
Will certainly check this series anyway.

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Bakemonogatari

Kaio:  Vampire stuff with Hiroshi Kamiya following up on Tieria Erde by playing what looks like another manly man.  It’s by Shaft…..sigh….canyoudigit, and looks to be the supernatural series of the season with the main character Koyomi running into a new heroine every week and helping them solve a problem with a particular supernatural element, like for example ghost crabs and monkey’s paws.  Unfortunately I can’t say I’m really interested yet, but if I hear good things I may give it a shot.

Deathie: Well rather than being fanboy for SHAFT productions (TM) I am genuinely interested in the story. For some reason the style gives me a “darker than black” vibe and overall impressions is rather positive. This may be another gem to hit this season…and if not you will still have people jumping through hoops because it is SHAFT…

Sky: While Desy might be a SHAFT lover (damn him), i don’t harbour all that much love for the studio, and to to find their controversial approach towards stylized effects obstructive just as many times as they actually help to bring a point across. Never the less, darker stories tend to be hard to come along, much less decent ones, so one must always be on the lookout for more. The summary sounds potentially interesting, if episodic, so on to the watchlist this goes.

Klash: SHAFT is… not exactly a studio I would cherish. I still couldn’t stomach how they mauled Negima?! and Ef with their disruptive and nonsensical style… Though I must admit, I did enjoy a lot the OVA of Negima and Maria Holic. Again, it will depend how the execution will be handled: comedy with occult/dark stories aren’t that bad (see XxX Holic etc), but SHAFT being loyal to their modus operandi, I’m really cautious…

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Taishou Yakyuu Musume

Kaio:  When I first read up on this it was going to be another one of those ones that I didn’t even want to touch after the experience, but the concept does sound somewhat amusing if a little bit too much like “A League of Their Own” if that movie had mixed gender play.  I’m positively mortified at the prospect of another all girls club anime, but this one actually does have male characters in it even if they are potentially supposed to be a foil to our cute lovable all girls baseball team which will surely triumph and prove yet again that the female sex is the dominant one in anime……anyway, if I’m going to give another chance to a borderline all girls join a club type show it’ll probably end up being this one, and I’ve sworn to myself that before I die I will find a show of this type that I can relate to in some fashion.  So here I go again, this will be my experiment of the season.

Deathie: Usually I am not a sports watcher and the premise of sports + SoL would be an absolute killer for me. But add in moe and you will get more of a chance of being watched and this is exactly such a scenario. I am still skeptical though but at least wanting to try one episode out is a beginning.

Sky: Ah, Sports themed anime, the deadly toxin to scare me away anytime, anywhere, anyday. Might have soemthing to do with the mental trauma i received from enduring through all of Suzuka … at any rate – Sports. Get it away from me, it burns!

Klash: Unless this show manages to be enjoying with its quirks or “spectacular” assets like Saki, I will use my usual “no sport please” policy.

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Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Kaio:  It seems like there’s one of these shows every couple of seasons and I’m still just not at all interested.

Deathie: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Sky: If he is so depressed, why isn’t he dead yet …? Anyway, i haven’t watched the previous seasons, and have no will to find out either.

Klash: Didn’t watch the previous seasons, so heh.

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Hetalia Axis Powers 2

Kaio:  Still haven’t seen the first one and have heard mixed reviews about it.  Concept sounds amusing if slightly insensitive.

Deathie: Ditto what Kaio said but frankly, trying to start this again would be a hassle for someone who ironically doesn’t have all the time in the world.

Sky: Ah, more of the shameless stereotyping comedy the series is all about. Personally i didn’t find the first season all that funny though and dropped it, so no go with this one.

Klash: another sequel.

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GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class

Kaio:  Pass…..sorry.

Deathie: Oh look, it is Yggdra Union in disguise. Maybe if I squint my eyes it would really be like it *laughs*. Seriously though another SoL and may watch if it isn’t drop dead boring.

Sky: The umpteenth incarnation of Hidamari Sketch … might give it a look if i am bored enough, but not expecting to see anything new. But then again, that might be the point in a way of such series – more of the same if you like the former.

Klash: Ditto what sky said: it really needs to prove some “identity” early or it will just look like a “rinse and repeat” carbon copy of Hidamari Sketch.

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Canaan

Kaio:  There’s a lot of hype behind this one already and I admit I have not idea what it’s about as I don’t really follow the Type Moon stories.  I could tell you the story of the biblical region of Canaan and all that has to do with that, but I’m sorry I’ve got nothing for this.  The best I can add is that the poster looks interesting and Ican’t tell if that….one in the red shirts is supposed to be a man or a woman, but if I continue to hear good things I will be sure to try it out.

Deathie: This looks interesting and the summary reminds me of something about it…but I just can’t remember what. But Kaio…the one in red obviously has chests so how can you mistake her for a him. Anyway it looks like a dark and serious series with predicted gun shots, blood and hopefully gore. We shall wait and see…

Sky: Type Moon hype notwithstanding, they indeed tend to chug out pretty interesting stuff, and i will be there to collect. I know nothing of this title personally, but seeing it should be a rather dark and gritty story it warrants an instant check-up. And yea …how can you mistake that for a male ^^;

Klash: The premises look on crack, and knowing that Nasu is behind the scenario, we can expect for an explosive ride.
Although I’m not that much in the TM hype (I did love Tsukihime (REAL ONE), but I didn’t consider F/SN (be it the mediocre anime, or the average eroge) anything special), it might be interesting regarding the actual plot here. I just hope Nasu won’t start being cuckoo regarding “POWER LEVELS” and the like… and no, please NO MANA TRANSFER.

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Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~

Kaio:  From what I’ve read of this it’s supposed to be one of those Fish out of Water type stories of two pure and innocent girls who under the sea but at the start of the story leave in order to interact with the world at large out of curiousity.  If you ask me it sounds a lot like The Little Mermaid only with two bishoujos instead of one mermaid.  Apparently there’s more of a twist to it and they might have to save the world too or something, so it also sounds like it has elements of magical girl.  Will probably give this one a shot even though I doubt I’m going to end up keeping it.

Deathie: After watching the first episode, I was already marginally pleased with the overall effort of the series. Again another one with SoL vibes and again the same old worry. For now though I am willing to sit back and watch a few more episodes before deciding.

Sky: One episode in, and it provided a largely positive first impression. The production values are rather high, the characters seem to be a rather quirky bunch, and the story … well, we shall see on that, but there wasn’t anything to suggest it wouldn’t be a decent watch. And the concept of  a mermaid that doesn’t have a fish tale in water is not something you encounter every day either, so certainly won’t hurt as well. All in all, a quite colorful , if somewhat slow paced, series that likely will make good for a  fairly relaxing watch.

Klash: I didn’t watch the first episode yet, but the comments from my comrades above picked my curiosity now.
Hopefully, we will avoid cheesy “magical girls” element in this one… “hopefully”.