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Umineko no naku koro ni Original Soundtrack
Release Date: December 9, 2009

Artist: Shinichi Sakurai, Moriwaki Masatoshi, dai, zts

Tracklist:

1. Majo ga Sumu Shima
2. Odayaka na Gogo
3. Odoru Shoujo Ningyou
4. Oimotometa Saki
5. Hai Yoru Fuan
6. Hirakareta Kinki
7. Sasori no Harawata
8. Requiem
9. Kobore Ochiru Namida
10. Yuuutsu na Gogo
11. Shizuka na Kattou
12. moon
13. Kokoro Oku no?
14. Kiniro no Hiai
15. Anryoku ni Shizumu Kan
16. Warau Monocle
17. Shukugan no Fukashigi
18. Toki wo Tabisuru mono
19. Karen na Reishou mono
20. Yami de Hohoemu mono tachi
21. Chiisana Sekai
22. Tojita Heya
23. Aka Ikutsu Nise
24. Kudasareru Shinpan
25. mortal stampede
26. Ouja no Tatakai
27. Shuutan no Senritsu
28. mirage coordinator
29. dreamenddischarger
30. happiness of marionette
31. Answer

Download Part 1«
Download Part 2«

This OST includes all the soundtracks used in the anime as well as remixes of songs from the sound novel OST. Though it’s not as epic as the original OST, there are still some good tracks to listen to, especially the epic remixes of well known sound novel BGM’s such as dreamenddischarger, mortal stampede and miragecoordinator.It’s a shame that some of the epic tracks in this OST was not even used in the anime, “dreamenddischarger” being one of them. It would have made some scenes more engaging IMHO.

Anime Final Impressions

Since I’ve mentioned the anime, I’ll include my final impressions about it here. Overall, I’ve found the Umineko anime to be just decent. It’s not too bad nor it is very good. For a stand-alone adaptation of a 30-50 hour long visual novel, I thought they did a decent job considering the time that they’re given.

Really, it’s not really THAT bad as majority of VN readers as saying. Yes, some of the directing choices were bad. Questionable choice of adapted scenes, animation errors which were not even fixed in the blue-ray version, pacing problems, many red and blue lines omitted. However, I guess that’s to be expected due to time constraints. At least the anime included all the important scenes and delivered it excellently given the limited time. The experience may not be as epic/awesome/brick-shitting as the novel, but it was still an entertaining experience nonetheless.

Though having saying all that, I still believe that other animation studios/directors could do a much better job. I for one support a change of staff or animation studio for the next season. I really think Studio DEEN was not motivated enough to adapt this series at their full potential. Heck, even I find this fanmade ending to be a much more superior closing scene for the series. This scene made me emotional in the fanmade ending while the anime ruined it with the ED song. They should’ve cut the ED instead of the OP. Here’s the link for fanmade version I’ve been talking about.

So overall, I would still strongly recommend anime-only watchers to read the novel to further understand the characters, and further explore the mystery aspect of the plot, both of which was greatly missing in the anime due to time constraints. It’s a shame since these were the two most important aspects which makes this story unique and enjoyable.

End of the Golden Witch English Patch

Speaking of the novel,the hardworking English Translation team popularly known as Witch-Hunt, gave us a Holiday present.

They just recently released the full english translation patch of the 5th novel of the Umineko no naku koro ni universe entitled “The End of the Golden Witch”. The patch could be downloaded (Here), (Mirror). After downloading, Don’t forget to give the folks at Witch-Hunt a big thank you for their efforts and non-stop dedication they put in making this successful. Also, be sure to support the creators, 07th Expansion, by purchasing the original game. Here’s the opening movie preview for those who are interested.

Opening Movie: “Umineko no naku koro ni Chiru ~End of the Golden Witch~”

New Characters FTW!! I guess it’s time to enter the world of Rokkenjima once more and help Battler reveal the true mastermind! Finally, my holiday will be more meaningful! Have fun reading guys~ and Season’s greetings from the CP staff!

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Umineko no Naku Koro ni OP Single – Kata Tsubasa no Tori
Release Date: August 19, 2009
Artist: Shikata Akiko

Tracklist:

1. Kata Tsubasa no Tori
2. VII
3. Kata Tsubasa no Tori -instrumental-
4. VII -instrumental-

With CDscans

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Lol i love this OP, reminds me of Beato wearing striped thighhighs~!! XD

Summary:

The episode starts off with the servants, together with Rosa and Doctor Ganjo, discovering the greusome deaths of Jessica’s, George’s and Battler’s parents at the chapel.It seems that the killer killed them in a horrible manner by cutting their stomachs open while stuffing candies it. Battler and the others saw this and was greatly shocked, enraged and saddened.

After seeing this greusome murder, Jessica immediately blamed the guest Beatrice for commiting this unforgivable act and decided to search for her. Gohda and Kanon were ordered to follow her.
When they entered Beatrice’s room, they could not find her. They instead a found a letter provoking them and stating that she will not be captured easily. While Jessica was more enraged by the letter, Kanon comforted her. Beatrice, the witch, suddenly interrupted and stated that she will use them as the next sacrifices for the second twilight.

Beatrice summoned Goat-deaded servants to attack the couple while Kanon fought back with his magic red sword. After Kanon defeated the goat-headed servants, Beatrice summoned the 2 stakes of Purgatory, Asmodeus and Satan. The stakes pierced through Kanon and Jessica’s bodies leaving them both dead. Beatrice wasn’t satisfied and decided to humiliate the couple more by moving Kanon’s body out of the room.

Meanwhile, Battler and the others are solving the mystery behind the murder at the chapel. George wondered how the culprit managed to lock the door at the chapel while the only key which could open it was found on Maria’s envelope.

The world suddenly froze as Meta world Beatrice suddenly challenged Meta World Battler how to solve this closed room mystery without relying to magic. Battler managed to solve this mystery by guessing that the culprit may have switched the keys found on the Maria’s envelope while they were asleep.

Preview: Episode I-IV – “skewer”

Thoughts:

I’ve got to say that this is my favorite episode so far. They did a great job with the chapel scene though the censorship kinda ruined it for me. I hope this censorship will be absent in the DVD’s/BD’s. The magical fights have also started, and I have to say that I was relatively impressed. Yui’s voice as Asmodeus was fitting and Mio voicing Satan just made her character hotter than what I imagined. Jessica’s and Kanon’s deaths was also depressing as I could remember from the sound novel. Curse you Beatrice for not even giving Jessica a chance to hear Kanon’s real name at her final moment (;_;).

The first meta-world battle argument between Beatrice and Battler also was satisfying enough, though they were less tense and engaging compared to the sound novel. I was also satisfied on how they handled the red truths, though sometimes it can become quite annoying with all the texts flying rapidly at the screen. Overall, I was impressed with this episode and now I even have more high expectations for them for the upcoming arc.

Summary:

The episode begins with Rosa and Maria riding a train to the airport to meet with the other members in the Urishomiya family. At the train, Rosa had become abusive to Maria as a old kind lady gave her some sweets. Meanwhile, at Rokkenjima preparations are being completed for the arrival of the Urishomiya family. As the family arrives, the scene suddenly stops as Beatrice and Battler from the meta-world confronted one another about the start of the second game.

At the rose garden, Kanon had seen Rosa abusing Maria once more because of the the child’s story about witches. At the mansion, the adults are talking about their grandfather’s wealth as they noticed that the typhoon is starting to close in to the island.Rosa noticed that Maria may be still outside so she went to search for her. After Rosa found her, she noticed a woman standing in front of the garden. Maria acknowledges her as Beatrice and asked her to fix the candy that was smashed by her mother.

Beatrice ordered Maria to close her eyes while suddenly, golden butterflies surrounded them and restored the broken candy. Rosa could not beleive what she saw. Beatrice then gave Maria and Rosa letters and ordered them to not open it until the appropriate moment comes. Beatrice entered the mansion as Kyrie noticed that she was the same person as that of the portrait.

At Dinner, Kyrie was asking Gohda if the guest that she saw will join the family dinner. Gohda told everyone that the guest’s name is Beatrice and she will be having dinner at the VIP room. Everyone started doubting the existence of this guest that Kyrie saw. Kyrie had concluded that confronting Genji would clear up some confusion. Meanwhile, Shannon had accepted George’s proposal by accepting the ring that he gave her. The episode ends at the chapel, where all of the adults accepted the guest Beatrice existence as a true witch.

Preview: Episode II-III – “Weak Square”

Thoughts:

After watching the episode, I have to say that I feel bad about Maria about how she was always abused by her mother. I guess this is one of the reasons why she developed her weird personality. About the meta-world, I think they handled it well enough even though it was quite short.

As of now, one minor problem that I have with the anime is Beatrice’s personality which just isn’t shown to be evil and sinister enough towards Battler and the servants. I guess this is due to the cuts that they made specially on the Meta-world scenes. This is really important for Beatrice’s character development later on in succeeding arcs. I say this because I immediately become a Beatrice fan when I recently finished the 3rd game a few days ago, which I have to say was EPIC from start to finish.

So with this, things are finally starting to fall in place as the pieces for the 2nd game are now complete. With the appearance of the Beatrice in the game board, expect that things will start to become interesting from here on. So yeah, Happy Halloween! kihihihihihi~

Summary:

The episode starts off between October 1984 and December 1985 where George and Shannon are holding out a date at an aquarium. George has confessed that he was interested in her after all this years that she had met her as a servant. Shannon was delighted at this and blushed afterwards.

On December 1985, Shannon broke a mirror at a small shrine located at Rokkenjima. She yelled to the skies that she had fulfilled her promise and now it is Beatrice turn to keep hers. On October 1984, Eva’s family had visited Rokkenjima for a meeting. While the meeting was taking place, Jessica and Shannon were outside the garden talking about George’s personalities. Jessica noticed that Shannon had liked George based on her actions.

While they were chatting, George has noticed them and decided to join in the conversation. Eva noticed George talking with the servant and started to threat her. Shannon decided to reflect on her feelings on why a furniture like her was given a heart than can love other people.

Beatrice suddenly showed up in front of her and told her that she make George fall in love with him for all eternity. In exchange for this, Beatrice told her that she must break a small mirror at a small shrine near the shore. Shannon has rejected this and told her that bad things might happen if she broke the mirror. Beatrice gave Shannon an option to change her mind if she wishes to so she gave her a golden butterfly ornament. According to Beatrice, it has the power to grant her wish if the mirror at the shrine is destroyed. Kanon saw this conversation but Beatrice had left.

On August 1986, at a beach on Rokkenjima, Shannon had thanked Beatrice because of her magic so she decided to return the golden ornament and told her that she would not use it anymore because she believed that they should be the ones putting in the effort to make their relationship last forever. Meanwhile, Jessica has invited Kanon to join her at a school festival. Kanon noticed that jessica acts differently in school compared to her usual self in the mansion.

Back home at Rokkenjima, Jessica told Kanon that people can change themselves to something they want to be and that he should stop treating himself as something as a furniture. But Kanon couldn’t accept this and insisted that humans and furniture cannot love each other. Kanon relaized that Beatrice was just playing around with the couples by giving them false hope.

Preview: Episode II-II – “Early Queen Move”

Thoughts:

What a lighthearted episode to start the 2nd arc. We got ourselves focused on the character development of this series which was pretty much absent in the first arc.

Between the 2 pairs, I prefer the Shannon and George pair the most because 1.) any character being voiced by TEH RIE = win and 2.) Even though Yu Kobayashi is awesome, Emo-Kanon is just plain annoying for making poor Jessica cry ;_;. The lack of Tsurupettan was a bit disappointing since the song they used in the anime didn’t add the epicLOL randomness feel of the scene. I remember laughing hard when I got to this part in the novel. But yeah, at the end, I guess it’s okay. At least they still used Jessica’s VA to sing the song. ヽ(´ｰ ｀)ノ

Next week, a special guest will appear as the 2nd round finally starts! Again, I can’t wait! XD

Summary:

The episodes starts off with Natsuhi, Battler, Jessica and George entering the room to find Maria. When they entered, they saw her singing while facing the wall while Kuwasama, Doctor Ganjo’s and Genji’s corpses lies around behind her.

Everyone realized that they were killed according to the writings on the epitaph. Battler and George asked Maria who is behind all of these murders and she said that it was all the work of witch Beatrice. According to her, she was ordered to face the wall and sing a song.
Battler could not accept this explanation and was enraged. Meanwhile, Jessica noticed that her mother was missing from the room, Maria said that she was reading a letter before she left. After Battler and the others found her, they saw her getting shot at the head which instantly killed her.

Maria then recites the ninth and tenth twilight and congratulates Beatrice and tells her to lead Maria into the golden land. Battler tries to shoot the golden butterflies, and the scene ends in Beatrice’s laugh.

Meanwhile, in another world, Maria, Battler, Shannon, Kanon and Jessica talked about the previous events that happened between them. They all concluded that the crimes were done by Beatrice through magic powers since it was impossible to do by humans. Battler couldn’t accept this explanation because he argued they can’t prove the existence of the witch.

Beatrice then appeared in front of him that resulted Battler to be shocked. Battler still argued that Beatrice was just an illusion that was made through the beliefs of Maria and the others. He concluded that Beatrice was making him believe in her so that she could exist. So in order to avoid this, Battler has promised to deny her existence by proving each mysterious event with human tricks. Beatrice just got more angered so she proved her magical powers by killing all the people in front of Battler. Despite this Battler still insisted to deny the existence of the endless witch.

On another world, a witch name Bernkastel called Beatrice to entertain her since she wants to run away from boredom. She had came because she heard that Beatrice is planning something interesting. Beatrice promised to grant her request then immediately leaves.

Preview: Episode II-I – “Middle Game”

Thoughts:

What a great episode to close off the first arc! Almost every scene in this part of the visual novel was animated and the result is awesome! I loved both Beatrice’s and Lady Bernkastel’s voices and character designs. (Lady Bern/Older Rika = HAWT <3) They did a great job transitioning between the tea-party and the witch scenes which I think succeeded in confusing majority of the first time viewers. I remember being very amazed yet very confused at the same time when I got to this part of the novel. So again Kudos to Stuio DEEN for doing an excellent job!

For those who are confused, here are some things that will hopefully help answer some of the questions/misunderstandings:

- The Tea party scene takes place at the meta-world called the Purgatory/afterlife.
- It is not clear at this stage what caused the deaths of the four children. In the visual novel, it is stated that their corpses are not found when the police arrived.
- At the last part of the episode, the person that Lady Bernkastel was talking to is not Battler, but is actually to us (the viewers).

I hope that clears some of the confusing stuff. ^_^; And yeah about the preview, I lol’d hard many times while watching it. Beatrice’s narration was hilarious and I was surprised to see that they were going to include the epic tsurupettan scene! Anyways, things should be more light-hearted this time as we start the next round. So yeah, Let the fun begin!

Summary:

The episode starts off with the discovery of the corpses of Hideyoshi and Eva. George was truly saddened by this experience and cries deeply while hugging her mother one last time. Meanwhile, Natsuhi found a strange letter at the room which was again supposed to be one of Beatrice’s letters.

Maria meanwhile notices a foul smell outside the room therefore the two servants Kanon and Oba-san were ordered to check the cause of this problem. At the boiler room, Kanon found golden butterflies flying throughout, he then started talking to someone named Beatrice and attempted to kill her. Unfortunately, this attempt has failed miserably since he could not sight her presence and he was killed instead.
Battler and the others followed to the boiling room and found Kanon lying on the floor and was stabbed by a stake. Battler decided to follow the culprit and noiced that he was too late. At the boiling room, they found another burned corpse which was then confirmed by Doctor Nanjo and Genji to be the one of their Grandfather’s.

After the incident, they decided to hide to their Grandfather’s room since they concluded it was the safest place in the mansion. In the room, Battler noticed a writing on the epitaph near the witches portrait which contents was similar to the murders that have been happening throughout the mansion.

After reading the epitaph, Maria noticed there was a letter at the table that was not there moments ago. Natsuhi then suspected the culprit has done this therefore she concluded the person that put the letter was related to the culprit. There were four people that was not close to the epitaph and they were all threatened by Natsuhi to leave the room immidiately. Before leaving, Battler decided to give Maria one of the scorpion charms.

While the four people left inside the room were trying to figure out one of the magic symbols, they recieved a call from someone. Natsuhi answered and she only hears Maria’s singing, they realized that she was in danger. When they found her, she was singing alone in the room facing the wall and behind her they found the corpses of Doctor Ganjo, Kumasawa, and Genji.

Preview: Episode I-V – Fool’s mate

Thoughts:

As a visual novel reader, I am again very satisfied by how well they handled this episode mainly because of the pacing they’ve used. They managed to include in all the important details without making it seem too rushed. Most of the scenes were really well handled especially on the last part of the episode. It really sets the mysterious mood very well and its also a great set-up for the next episode.

There were also some moments in this episode where I got a good laugh at, and that includes Battler knocking Maria’s head (Well, it’s about time..), the Mackerel can (<3 mackerels), and the Rena cameo (I guess Rena forgot her weapon at Rokkenjima.). I guess its fun to have these kinds of things once in a while. ^^

Judging from the preview, I can’t wait to see Beato’s appearance and hear her voice. But at the same time, I am also curious on how they will adapt this since there are only few contents left within the first arc. I hope they include the tea party next episode. I really can’t wait for the next one!

Summary:

The episode begins at the murder scene that happened the garden shed where Goerge founds out that Shannon accepted his proposal before her death. Eva was not satisfied when she heard this, while his father comforted his son by saying that she accepted it wholeheartedly. Back at the mansion, things are starting to get more creepier as the maid founds out traces of blood at the dining table where the meeting was held on the previous night.

Back at the room, Battler said he was more angered than being saddened and he swears that he’ll never forgive the killer. Hideyoshi and Doctor Nanjo tries to figure out the mysterious symbol from the shed. Maria answered that it was a symbol from the 7th symbol from the sun that it came from the Old Testament of the Bible.

Genji then entered the room announcing to everyone that communication to the island was out which means that the killer was still on the island. Eva also found out that their father was missing in his room. They tried to look for him but failed. Battler overheard the servant’s conversation at the kitchen as they were talking about the real identity of Beatrice. He joined in the conversation when they revealed to him that Beatrice has no human form. Maria also entered the room supporting this claim but in the end Battler did not believe this and ignored it.

They went back to the room and when they were speculating about the identity of the killer, the mood became more intense and chaotic when Eva accused Natsuhi for the disappearance of his father. Battler resolved this conflict by proving that Eva’s accusation has some flaws. He also states that Eva too is suspicious herself and should not be making false accusations about others.

Eva and Hideyoshi went back in their rooms to rest. After a while, the servants called them to join for dinner. They would not respond to the call, therefore, the servants forced their way in, only to find out the couple’s tragic deaths.

Thoughts:

Okay, now that I have finally caught up with the novels, from time to time, I’m going to add in some minor comparisons between the two medium.

Compared to the last 2 episodes, I liked the slower pacing this time around. They managed to include all the major events without making it feel too rushed. I liked that things are starting to get more interesting as they try to solve the mysterious and shocking things are happening one after another. I am also starting to like Battler more, mainly due to his determination to find the culprit behind all this, not even believing in any kind of supernatural elements such as witches and the like despite all the mysterious events that happened. I also enjoyed Maria’s crazy facial expressions. It really fits her weird personality as described in the visual novel.

There are some minor things that I didn’t like, and one of them is the conclusion of Shannon’s death, which was more dramatic and memorable in the visual novel. They also didn’t show what the family thinks behind the cause of Maria’s strange personality. Despite these, this episode still was the most enjoyable for me so far and I hope they maintain this kind of pacing throughout the series.

I liked this OP. Just like Higurashi, the song choice and the addition of Italian lyrics were good enough and fits with the dark and mysterious mood of the series.

Episode I-I – “Opening“

Summary:

On October 4th, 1986, members of the Ushiromiya Family arrive at Rokkenjima Island, a private island owned by the family, for their annual gathering. On their arrival, George and Maria noticed something different compared to the last time they went to Rokkenjima. The noisy seagulls and the small shrine that used to be on a large rock near the coast are now gone. When they were about to enter the house, Maria noticed a weird rose in front of the garden. George marks the rose with a candy wrapper to let Maria watch over it when they go back. Meanwhile, Klaus Uroshimiya tries to talk with his father Kinzo, but it seems that he was not in the mood.

While heading for lunch, Battler noticed a painting that was not there when they last visited. Shannon, the servant, explained that it was painted on April the year before last. Maria claimed she knew the woman in the painting, and her name was Beatrice, a witch that has been said to live on the island.

Meanwhile, Battler noticed a passage that was written under Beatrice’s painting. Jessica told him that it was an epitaph that his Grandfather wanted to write. Maria said that she claims to know the meaning of the passage and the location of the hidden gold. Battler remembered the strange story his grandfather had told him about the contract he made to the witch Beatrice, that he traded his soul for money and fame.

After going to the beach, they went back to the garden to search for the rose that George had marked earlier. Maria called her mother Rosa to help search for the rose however the rain was starting to pour. Rosa was irritated at the repetitive loud sounds Maria was trying to make which results into slapping her in an attempt to stop it. Rosa then leaves her child Maria because she was fed up on her because she was still insisting on finding her rose. After some while, Battler, George and Rosa searched for the missing Maria and when they found her, she had an umbrella with her. Battler asked Maria where did she borrow the umbrella and she said that she borrowed it from Beatrice.

Thoughts:

Having have read some of the first parts of the Visual Novel, I think the pacing for this adaptation was pretty fast. They skipped proper introductions to the already huge amount of characters in this show. I think first time viewers will have difficulty connecting between these characters. Despite this concern, I still found the rest of the episode to be entertaining. From Maria’s irritating phrase and child abuse to the appearance of Beatrice, I thought they did a good job setting up the dark and mysterious mood of the story.

As for the production values, The animation was good, seeing as they brought back some of the character designs and expressions from Higurashi. There are some voice actors that I liked, but there are some I did not. Maria’s voice actor was fitting while Battler’s one looks uninspired and does not fit well with his character.

Episode I-II – First Move

Summary:

The episode starts off at the family dinner where they discussed from whom did Maria borrow the umbrella from. No one believed Maria as she claimed that it came from Beatrice. After eating, Maria takes out a letter from her bag which supposedly came from Beatrice. Maria said she was ordered by her to read out the letter to everyone after they have all finished eating. The letter explains that Kinzou had terminated the contract with Beatrice. With the termination of the contract, Beatrice wants to regain all of the gold Kinzo had took but Kinzo added a special agreement that if the family finds the hidden gold of Beatrice, she will return everything including the ones she took.

At the living room, Kyrie talked to Battler speculating that Beatrice is one of the 18 persons in the Rokkenjima household. Meanwhile at another room, Krauss showed her wife Rosa one of the gold bars that thier father supposedly received from Beatrice. At the garden, George gave a silver ring to Shannon and then proposed to her.

The next day, Genji waked up Rosa to tell her that Gohda went missing. They noticed a door along the corridor was covered with blood-tainted hand marks. Kanon also told her that the other family members went missing including her husband. Rosa looked around and checked if they were in Kinzo’s room. Genji gave her his fathers room key so that she could enter it. Once inside, his father told her that even though she is not directly related by blood, she has still part of the family and the one who will inherit the glory of the Ushiromiyas.

After the conversation, Genji one again called Rosa to tell her that they found something unusual in the shed. Once there, they found the dead bodies of the missing people. Jessica, Battler, and George rushed to see what was happening in the shed only to find out the brutal murder of their loved ones.

ED Sequence – “la divina tragedia ~Makyoku~” by Jimang

I liked the visuals for this ED but the music just didn’t connect with me. It sounded more of a rock song to me rather than a mystery one. I still prefer the OP more than this. Maybe i’ll appreciate it more if a female sings this instead of a male. =P

Thoughts:

Definitely a step up from the previous episode, The mysteries and suspense were greater this time around. We are just on the second episode and there were huge amounts of casualties already. Now, I really have no idea where this will all head into. I guess by now I have more reasons to catch up to the visual novel. I guess I did not feel any sympathy to the deceased ones (except for Shannon), given their small amount of screentime. That’s the only concern I have with this solid episode. I’m really looking forward to the next one to see the aftermath as well as the cause of these murders and mysteries.