Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

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What is the best part of Umineko?

MUSIC DUH I MEAN COME ON!!!
12
22%
The characters. I mean, wow, they're just so... developed.
3
5%
Magic. Magic is awesome.
3
5%
MYSTERY, HECK YEAH DENY THAT WITCH'S BUTT TO THE ENDS OF PURGATORY!
6
11%
Trolling. I know I may sound masochistic when I say this but... yeah. I like being trolled.
1
2%
Theorizing and trying to figure out what the heck is going on.
6
11%
I can't pick. Can I choose everything?
15
27%
Umineko sucks. It's cliche. You should watch Twilight.
9
16%
 
Total votes: 55

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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by kwando1313 »

DLANOR IS PAFEKUTOU <3

Also, you should read EP6. It's even greater than EP5.
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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by Wooper »

Okay, so now that I've finished with Higurashi, I'm moving on to Umineko starting tomorrow! So super excited <3
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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by kwando1313 »

GET UMITWEAK WITH UMINEKO K?
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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by lazyplague »

Just for reference This is Umitweak.
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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by Topaz »

kwando1313 wrote:DLANOR IS PAFEKUTOU <3
<3
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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by Mimi »

So this is uber late but I have a story to tell that's related to Umineko no Naku Koro Ni. Well, kind of. Only in name. And in fanbase, I guess. Anyway, without further, here's my boring story that no one will read. Probably.
Spoiler : :
So about four months ago (when I said late I mean late), I went to a conference. What the conference was about is pretty irrelevant because something crazy happened during that conference.

I MET MY DOPPELGANGER.

She had the same kind of hairstyle I had (short hair). She looked like a tomboy (pants, shirts, etc.). She wore glasses (like me). She also had the EXACT SAME BIRTHDAY AS ME. She's Asian. She loves anime, videogames, etc...

...and most of all, she's a super, crazy Umineko freak. She was a legitimate, Umineko freak. Not like me, who really likes the concept of Umineko, but is too lazy to actually try and solve anything. She was legitimate. She solved Umineko and she played every episode and she was constantly looking at Umineko blogs and etc.

I was like... WHOA.

:shock:

So... yeah.

These facts are probably the reason why I wasn't able to pop up on AAO for a while.
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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by kwando1313 »

That is kinda crazy. Are you the Erika or are you the Bernkastel in that relationship? xD
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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by Mimi »

I really don't know...

We even have the same tastes in anime! GORE AND DARKNESS! D:
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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by AquaAce72 »

Finished Umineko.
Spoiler : :
Episode 8 kinda overstayed its welcome, but in the end it provided a satisfying conclusion. I loved the conversation between Battler and Hachijo where they talked about the emotional ending of one of their novels and how it was more satisfying that just a standard mystery novel ending. Very clever.

Also, I really don't understand the people who were angry that the ending wasn't "definitive." I mean, the killer was basically spelled out. We even got an "answer key" of sorts from Ep. 7. Will describes the main trick in each murder and yet still people complain for answers. One of the major themes of the game is to not stop thinking! Ep. 8 even criticizes people who demand the answers without giving any thought. It all just seems a bit silly to me.

Anyways, Episode rankings!

Episode 5 - Excellent in every way. Best pacing in the series, extremely suspenseful at every turn.
Episode 6 - Interesting "locked rooms" and a very exciting plot point; the logic error.
Episode 3 - Another very suspenseful episode that introduced and fleshed out EVA Beatrice, one of the most interesting characters in the series.
Episode 4 - The story at the core of this episode was among the best, but the entire experience was bogged down by excessive side plots.
Episode 7 - This one started out and ended good, but ehh... it dragged the whole "Yasu reveal" a bit too long.
Episode 8 - An excellent conclusion to the Umineko series... unfortunately, it just takes FOREVER to reach that conclusion. Lots of obvious filler in this episode dragged it down the list.
Episode 1 - Worst paced episode in the series, but for understandable reasons. It had to introduce the characters and setting all at once, but it felt a bit excessive. Only thing keeping this from last place was the atmosphere in the latter half and the excellent closed rooms.
Episode 2 - Started out sorta dull (in comparison to the other episodes) and ended the same. This episode's main purpose was to introduce the Shkannon love triangle (except you don't know it's a triangle yet, lol) and the murders generally weren't as interesting.

Overall, I enjoyed this thoroughly and await WTC5.
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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by Mimi »

I tried my hand at painting Beato. There are a lot errors--especially the face--but I think for a tired attempt at copying the original painting, I did all right. :\
Spoiler : :
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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by enigma »

I just learnt something that I've always suspected....

Kinzo should not sing. And Genji is pretty damn sarcastic and deadpan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKKAoC9mLBM
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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by NihilisticNinja »

*Cracks neck*
AquaAce72 wrote:Finished Umineko.
Spoiler : :
Also, I really don't understand the people who were angry that the ending wasn't "definitive." I mean, the killer was basically spelled out. We even got an "answer key" of sorts from Ep. 7. Will describes the main trick in each murder and yet still people complain for answers. One of the major themes of the game is to not stop thinking! Ep. 8 even criticizes people who demand the answers without giving any thought. It all just seems a bit silly to me.
Spoiler : :
I disagree.

I'll try and explain where much of the complaint comes from here. The killer is basically given to us, yes. However to claim that we were in any way given a full answer key or that will "describes the main trick for each murder"... bewilders me. Will explains Episodes 1 and 2. Now there are some alternate interpretations and wiggle room here, but there is a pretty basic and obvious solution given for each. (Although it's worth noting that Ryukishi actually had to explain the suicide trick in Ep. 2 to an interviewer after-the-fact, so... Will's answer key could be considered a bit too vague.)

Episode 3? He explains the earlier murders but essentially skips over the end. Episode 4? Literally all he says (except for what happens at the very end) is that what people say happened isn't what actually happened... which we more or less already knew. And given how little information we actually ended up getting about the fourth game board from an objective perspective... something further would have been nice.

Chiru? Episode six's gameboard is short and comprehensible. Five, meanwhile, is pretty up-in-the-air. Exactly who did what and who was in on what exactly? Who exactly killed Krauss and why? We permanently shift to a meta perspective in Ep. 5 literally mid-sentence. Exactly how does that one end? Everybody dies, of course, but does it all happen at the very end? What exactly becomes of the plot to break Natsuhi? Etc. We know absolutely nothing about the period between that parlor scene and the bomb.

And then there's various pieces of background information that are frustratingly vague. what is episode 8, for instance? Does it actually exist somewhere in physical form, or was it all a manifestation of Ange's psyche? How did the message bottles work- were the magic scenes included? Because that would make Episode 1 incredibly out of place, given how it essentially had none. Same for the meta scenes in Turn. Did the message bottle have those? (Okay, probably not.) These are less important pieces of data of course, but they would certainly be nice to have, if you want a concluding episode and feel like you've adequately explained the mysteries directly.

There is actually a good deal in Umineko that wasn't resolved, and that's the thing that people tend to get critical about, I've found. I really am less bothered by that than I am by Ryukishi's desire to essentially cheat and make the word "dead" nearly meaningless. In my opinion he should either have figured out some way to reword Shkanon's deaths so that he could have his "personality death" motif without making it akin to all the others, or removed it. But eh, whatevs.
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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by eighthbit »

NihilisticNinja wrote:*Cracks neck*
AquaAce72 wrote:Finished Umineko.
Spoiler : :
Also, I really don't understand the people who were angry that the ending wasn't "definitive." I mean, the killer was basically spelled out. We even got an "answer key" of sorts from Ep. 7. Will describes the main trick in each murder and yet still people complain for answers. One of the major themes of the game is to not stop thinking! Ep. 8 even criticizes people who demand the answers without giving any thought. It all just seems a bit silly to me.
Spoiler : :
I disagree.

I'll try and explain where much of the complaint comes from here. The killer is basically given to us, yes. However to claim that we were in any way given a full answer key or that will "describes the main trick for each murder"... bewilders me. Will explains Episodes 1 and 2. Now there are some alternate interpretations and wiggle room here, but there is a pretty basic and obvious solution given for each. (Although it's worth noting that Ryukishi actually had to explain the suicide trick in Ep. 2 to an interviewer after-the-fact, so... Will's answer key could be considered a bit too vague.)

Episode 3? He explains the earlier murders but essentially skips over the end. Episode 4? Literally all he says (except for what happens at the very end) is that what people say happened isn't what actually happened... which we more or less already knew. And given how little information we actually ended up getting about the fourth game board from an objective perspective... something further would have been nice.

Chiru? Episode six's gameboard is short and comprehensible. Five, meanwhile, is pretty up-in-the-air. Exactly who did what and who was in on what exactly? Who exactly killed Krauss and why? We permanently shift to a meta perspective in Ep. 5 literally mid-sentence. Exactly how does that one end? Everybody dies, of course, but does it all happen at the very end? What exactly becomes of the plot to break Natsuhi? Etc. We know absolutely nothing about the period between that parlor scene and the bomb.

And then there's various pieces of background information that are frustratingly vague. what is episode 8, for instance? Does it actually exist somewhere in physical form, or was it all a manifestation of Ange's psyche? How did the message bottles work- were the magic scenes included? Because that would make Episode 1 incredibly out of place, given how it essentially had none. Same for the meta scenes in Turn. Did the message bottle have those? (Okay, probably not.) These are less important pieces of data of course, but they would certainly be nice to have, if you want a concluding episode and feel like you've adequately explained the mysteries directly.

There is actually a good deal in Umineko that wasn't resolved, and that's the thing that people tend to get critical about, I've found. I really am less bothered by that than I am by Ryukishi's desire to essentially cheat and make the word "dead" nearly meaningless. In my opinion he should either have figured out some way to reword Shkanon's deaths so that he could have his "personality death" motif without making it akin to all the others, or removed it. But eh, whatevs.
There's always the KNM Rosatrice theory. Not perfect, but somewhat satisfying.
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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by kwando1313 »

Or... You can be like me and not care about any theory and read how this is more of a romance VN than mystery...? xD
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Re: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Post by NihilisticNinja »

eighthbit wrote: There's always the KNM Rosatrice theory. Not perfect, but somewhat satisfying.
The problem is that there are various, various deep flaws in KNM's hypothesis and even just his arguments against the official solution. I think I brought a couple up earlier in this thread, actually. I'd have to check.
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