Every character has a lot of focus throughout the chapters in the VN but nothing of that remained in the Anime. Umineko has a diverse cast of mostly adult or young adult characters and a complex weave of relationships between all those characters. As such, I think the Umineko Anime misses its goal of being a good mystery Anime. This partly because the story is not complete but also due to the aforementioned plot holes. This is possible (though insanely hard) in the VN, but at times impossible in the Anime. Mystery is the most interesting when the reader (or viewer in that case) is able to follow the mystery and is able to craft his own theories based on the clues presented throughout the story.
There are other inconsistencies thoughout the plot, also some minor ones (like in "episode" (chapter) 3, Rudolf and Kyrie are killed in the corridor and then shown in the grand hall), but yeah, you should get the general idea of my point. As such in the Anime, this case seems like a perfect closed room murder and is not solvable even though it should. In the anime, the stake is stuck in her forehead, which should be impossible since she committed suicide and it should be lying by her side. One such example of a plot hole is during the second "episode" (chapter) when Shanon commits suicide.
Every arc in Umineko is full of plot holes because scenes from the VN were randomly selected, adapted and stacked together. Many dialogues and key story elements have been omitted and as such, it's impossible to get to the truth behind every murder. Every "episode" (this is what chapters are called in the VN) usually takes 20+ hours to complete and has been stuffed into an arc of 4 to 6 episodes length. However, stopping after the first half leaves many many questions and plot points open that are resolved later in the VN.Īnother problem is the high density of events that are happening. It may sound weird, but that was a rather good decision on Studio Deens part, as a full story adaptation would have made Umineko probably the worst Anime ever due to being even more condensed. Not saying "the VN is better", but I want you to understand why the Anime is bad.įirst off, the Anime covers roughly half of the story from the VN. However, Umineko is flawed in many areas and to fully understand why, you have to take a look at the source material. An Anime does not get worse just because a VN exists - Anime has its own merits. I do believe every piece of art has a standalone value. The point of my review is not to praise the VN over the Anime. You a simple question: Do you really think an Anime with only 26 episodes (~8 hours) can do the VN justice? If your answer is yes, then congratulations, you can skip the rest of this review and go watch Umineko. Now, Umineko is an adaptation of the Visual Novel (VN) with the same name - a VN with high emphasis on atmosphere, a VN with complex characters that are all related to each other with a lot of backstory progressively revealed, a VN with a complex narrative structure, a VN that contains over 1.3 million english words, a VN that needs well over 120 hours to complete. and all of them are uselessĬonsidered by many to be the spiritual successor of Higurashi, Umineko has never managed to achieve the same amount of popularity as the former and has never been received as well. characters too many, i dont even want to remember all of them. i think im gonna cry at this point, i watched 26 episode and i still dont understand why is this beatrice's thing happens in the first place, what happen 6 years ago? who is batler's mother? why kanon has that blade thing in his arm? omg y u do diz.ĬHARACTERS. all he did was shouting random theory with no sense of logic at all. i was expecting some detective-like explanation from him. But okay, i think i know how he feels, he is like in a deep sadness so he wants to prove that even that kind of crime can be done without magic. Even the game itself is a magic, how the hell do you see your faimily getting killed again and again, and you still dont believe magic? its like he is just some spoiled brat who's contradicting himself, there is no magic, but the culprit is not someone he knows. But umineko, they show that this was a game about battler and magic existence which he rejects. The story itself is so confusing and illogical, lets say higurashi no naku koro ni S1 is also confusing, that i assume its just some random vilage with random killing in a 4 different arcs and no plots at all. And guess what i get from this anime? anger.īut i think its better to read my spoiler then waste 10 hours of your life i watched this without knowing the manga, visual novels and others. expecting this anime to have some thrill and blood and mystery like that one. I watched these anime because i really like higurashi no naku koro ni.