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Umineko no Naku Koro niFollow

#1 Mar 09 2011 at 1:53 PM Rating: Excellent
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Edit: Holy crap, I missed the last two chapters of the first arc! Smiley: lol

So, I feel dumb for not knowing that the Higurashi people have an entire series of When they Cry stories Smiley: lol I just finished the first arc of Umineko (When the Seagulls Cry) manga, and it reminds me a heck of a lot of Higurashi. The first arc was suitably crazy, and mysterious, without quite the horror that the last series had (although Maria sure loves her crazy eyes). Long story short, 18 people are stuck on an island for 2 days, over the course of which they all seem to die (well, in the first arc at least). There's a witch seemingly involved as well. In the first arc:
Everyone dies but George, Battler, Maria, and Jessica. Beatrice appears at the end, and seven years later this story is found in a bottle in the ocean, signed by Maria, part of whose jawbone was discovered among the corpses.

Obviously this is the bad ending: no one tries to solve the riddle to find the hidden gold, so the characters are kinda screwed from the start. But several of the scenes are... iffy. Potential spoilers ahoy!

1. I don't think Kanon got stabbed by Beatrice. He has a nice long speech about confronting the witch, then takes a stake to the chest and dies off-screen. All that is clearly seen is him falling back with the stake in his chest. My thought? He stabs himself, and doesn't actually die later. Not positive on that now, as he seems one of the core "good guys" in the second-to-last chapter.
2. Grandfather was totally not the corpse in the furnace. The proof given is the toes on his feet. But the condition is hereditary, and by that point we have several other dead candidates.
3. Shannon I think is dead, as are a couple of the other folks among the first sacrifices, because you can see their faces. You cannot see the face of Kyrie or Battler's dad (although his sideburns are there). I think the only other clear face is Krauss, but it might be Gouda. That makes potentially 4 people still alive.
4. Maria is creepy, but I don't think she's involved.
5. The true killer is likely more than one person, and knowing how Higurashi went, it's possible that all the characters aren't even introduced yet.
6. I feel like the characters get drugged in the study, because of the mention of the strange smell.

So who do I think the actual killers are?
1. Kyrie
2. Kanon Darn it...
3. George... somehow. I am super distrusting of him. Darn it again...
4. Gouda. I don't know why, but he irks me.

I'm also pretty sure there's another character involved and yet to be introduced, thanks to the image on wikipedia showing some girl I don't recognize. Yeah, that would be the second witch. Great. I hope it's like Higurashi, where the witches basically just duke it out by replaying the scenes over and over again, as opposed to taking an active, direct role.


Anyway it's really good so far. Anyone seen the anime? Higurashi was totally better with sound, and as the original game was sound novel motivated primarily by sounds, music, etc., I'm guessing that carries on with the new series!



Edited, Mar 9th 2011 3:12pm by LockeColeMA

Edited, Mar 9th 2011 4:39pm by LockeColeMA
#2 Mar 09 2011 at 3:20 PM Rating: Good
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Apparently, the anime butchers the manga.

They tried too hard to make Umineko seem like a sequel to Higurashi, characters become one-dimensional, and the main characters are vastly different.

I think I want to read the manga, and stay the **** away from the anime, lol.
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#3 Mar 09 2011 at 3:29 PM Rating: Excellent
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Kirby the Eccentric wrote:
Apparently, the anime butchers the manga.

They tried too hard to make Umineko seem like a sequel to Higurashi, characters become one-dimensional, and the main characters are vastly different.

I think I want to read the manga, and stay the @#%^ away from the anime, lol.


Just read a comparison on the anime versus the game (sound novel) itself, which ended with:
Quote:
ENJOYMENT AND OVERALL

Umineko anime can basically be defined as a great story with a horrible execution. And that is not right; for, on an anime market with a lot of mediocre stories with great visual/audio/atmosphere candies, Umineko is exactly the opposite, being hard to digest.
For a sound novel player, it's a complete session of rage, of 'Why the heck was that cut?' and 'Hey, they did that wrong! Bastards!'.
And for an anime-only viewer, it's a 'How do I make head or tail of this thing? Eh, never mind, someone's been killed again' reaction chain.

To conclude with, I would recommend Umineko the anime only to those who are new to anime in general and have only watched around 20-30 series so far. More experimented watchers would definitely be able to sense the plot holes and lack of affective implication. And they will not enjoy that.
(As a small parenthesis, this is quite opposed to my recommendation of the novel/manga; I recommend the novel/manga to absolutely anyone. Read it and you won't regret it.)


At least I'll enjoy the manga! Smiley: lol Still, I'm disappointed that this is a complete 180 from Higurashi, where I felt the manga was far inferior to the anime. Ho hum!

Also, the manga is LONG. Each arc seems to be its own series, and each series has about 20 chapters, each about 50-60 pages. HUGE!
#4 Mar 09 2011 at 9:47 PM Rating: Excellent
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I really should finish the visual novel for Umineko, it was good but for what ever reason I stopped part way through on the third play through for a different ending. For both Higurashi and Umineko I would have to say that my order of preference for completeness, quality and over all story telling would be VN>Manga>Anime. Higurashi(anime) started out really well but the second season tapered off a bit with the whole beheading and nice boat events looming in the recent past, had the second season of Higurashi been better (not censored and tamed down because hurr durr violence on tv and such), I would say the Anime would have been better than the Manga. The Umineko anime however, was so god awful it landed a spot in the "Holy Trinity of Anime that don't Exist" along with Tsukihime and Disgaea. The Manga was a vast improvement but I definitely preferred the visual novel, but for those short on time or without the drive to play through several story lines the manga is definitely a good substitute.

Edit: I did like the OP song for Seacats though, but that was the only redeeming quality of the entire anime series.

Edited, Mar 9th 2011 8:50pm by Manosuke
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#5 Mar 09 2011 at 10:33 PM Rating: Excellent
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Manosuke the Irrelevant wrote:
Higurashi(anime) started out really well but the second season tapered off a bit with the whole beheading and nice boat events looming in the recent past, had the second season of Higurashi been better (not censored and tamed down because hurr durr violence on tv and such), I would say the Anime would have been better than the Manga.


Completely agree with this. The first season is awesome - the second is only really worth watching to find out how it ends. I didn't care for the manga, but I only read 3 arcs and that was enough for me to lose interest.

And that opening song is AWESOME.
#6 Mar 10 2011 at 8:32 AM Rating: Good
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I have been following Umineko for years!

The anime was okay... I mean, sometimes it was mehish but most of the time it was passable. I haven't read the manga but, currently, I have read the first 7 VN translated in english by the Witch Hunt and I am waiting for the release of the 8th's translation. However, there's a very thorough summary of the 8th VN in this blog that I read while I wait for the Witch Hunt's patch.

So far, I think it was a very enjoyable series and that the meta characters are simply amazing. You will either love them or love to hate them as long as the story goes on.

Also, Higurashi cannot be compared to Umineko. The levels of insanity reach a whole new level once you reach the first Chiru arc.

I hope you enjoy it!
#7 Mar 10 2011 at 10:28 AM Rating: Excellent
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*Eye twitch*

Mangafox doesn't have all the manga issues out. I can't find the last chapter(s?) of volume 2 anywhere online... argh!?!
#8 Mar 10 2011 at 10:40 AM Rating: Excellent
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AmrikValefor wrote:
I have been following Umineko for years!

The anime was okay... I mean, sometimes it was mehish but most of the time it was passable. I haven't read the manga but, currently, I have read the first 7 VN translated in english by the Witch Hunt and I am waiting for the release of the 8th's translation. However, there's a very thorough summary of the 8th VN in this blog that I read while I wait for the Witch Hunt's patch.


Huh... around $32 for the first 4 VNs. I'm sorely tempted, haha! Am I correct in the thinking that you need to buy the games, but the translation patches are free?
#9 Mar 11 2011 at 8:02 AM Rating: Good
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LockeColeMA wrote:
AmrikValefor wrote:
I have been following Umineko for years!

The anime was okay... I mean, sometimes it was mehish but most of the time it was passable. I haven't read the manga but, currently, I have read the first 7 VN translated in english by the Witch Hunt and I am waiting for the release of the 8th's translation. However, there's a very thorough summary of the 8th VN in this blog that I read while I wait for the Witch Hunt's patch.


Huh... around $32 for the first 4 VNs. I'm sorely tempted, haha! Am I correct in the thinking that you need to buy the games, but the translation patches are free?


Actually, you just need to buy the 4th VN to get the first four VN. Each new VN of each arc bundles the previous VNs.
So, VN 1,2,3 & 4 are bundled in the 4th one (that's the first one I got) and the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th are bundled in the 8th one.

However, say you buy the 5th one... In that case, you won't have the previous four, because that's "Chiru". If you buy the 6th, you would only have the 5th and the 6th and so on. The same applies to the core arc (2nd one contains 1st and 2nd, etc).

Therefore, if you would like to read the VNs, you should buy the 4th (the patch includes the translation for the first 4 VNs) and the 7th rather than the 8th because the most up to date patch the Witch Hunt has released for the Chiru VNs only supports up to the 7th VN and they are just starting to work on the 8th.

Also, to answer your other question... yes, the patches are completely free and fan made and even the VN author sometimes answers the emails of the Witch Hunt to produce a better unofficial translation. They are a fairly awesome bunch.

Also, a fair warning... Ryukishi07 is terrible at drawing so you will have to get used to average and often wierd looking characters as you read the VNs. However, the music (and how it actually works really well for all the text you are reading) is one of the biggest highlights of all the VNs of Umineko which is why the lack of inclusion or the use of different songs in the anime were the source of many critics.
#10 Mar 11 2011 at 8:54 AM Rating: Decent
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Quote:
The Umineko anime however, was so god awful it landed a spot in the "Holy Trinity of Anime that don't Exist"



This.


Higurashi's one of my favorite anime but I completely erased Umineko from my mind.
#11 Feb 26 2012 at 1:09 AM Rating: Excellent
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Necro-post, but I'm an admin, so deal with it. Smiley: sly

Just finished the anime... and WTF!?!?!

Total cliff-hanger. Imagine Higurashi ending in the first season. NOTHING gets explained. A quick walk through "Umineko" google searches reveals names I don't even know (Yaku, anyone?). I feel completely ripped off. Higurashi's anime was SO superior to the manga... but Umineko makes me feel completely left out.

Also, I didn't care for the progression quite as much. Umineko brings on the magical quite quickly; Higurashi brings on the psychological right away but holds off on the metaphysical (and indeed, makes it a plot device to keep the story going, whereas I feel Umineko uses fantasy and magic the entire time).

Overall, I DID enjoy Umineko, but it sucks that it doesn't have an "answers" arc (while I felt the answers arc of Higurashi dimished the product, Umineko's answer arc would make it better).

GAH!!!

I guess I have no choice but to wait for the manga to finish and then to read all of it in one fell swoop Smiley: glare
#12 Mar 09 2012 at 12:24 PM Rating: Excellent
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More realistically just play the visual novels. They are better than both Higurashi and Seacats manga or anime.
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