It does suffer from a truly bewildering use of theology, but that's kind of hilarious so whatever.
OKAY SO, this is my post about Umineko no Naku Koro ni! I started watching it in anime club because, well, it was one of the ones voted for and I did not have much of a choice in the matter. But I did think it was reasonably entertaining, if unusually fast-paced--it is not spoilery to say that people were dropping off like flies, because that is pretty much the driving force of the series. Still, I didn't think it could keep it up for 26 episodes if they cut the cast in half every two. And then, uh, this is where the difference between my anime-fan friends and my live-action-fan self showed up, because when I said "hoshit, Run Lola Run" they just looked at me funny. I suspect that aspect was not really meant to be a surprise, but hey, I lived a sheltered life, I did not know these things. So suddenly things became a lot more interesting! And full of mind games! Which I like! (See icon for something that never really happened in the series but totally should have.)
--and then this happened and you know how sometimes you discover interests you did not know you had? Yeah. Um. (For the record, that clip doesn't make any more sense subtitled and in-context than it does otherwise, and it doesn't stick anyway. Because nothing ever sticks. Like I said, Run Lola Run. Only with a malevolent outside force causing it and a person taken from within it forced to watch it over and over. And also Japanese rather than German. But the protagonists do both have unnaturally red hair! And that is all that matters really.) So suddenly I became even more interested, albeit in a slightly more eyebrow-raising way. Shut up.
Unfortunately, I have not actually finished the anime yet--the club only did two episodes a week for eight weeks--but I fully intend to, and thanks to burningvigor I acquired the first episode of the visual novel it was based on, which is um quite a lot longer, seriously I think it took me like ten or twelve hours to get through the material the anime covered in five episodes. But it actually gives the characters some backstory and personality before killing them off willy-nilly, and having to sit through five hours of family politics makes it so much more rewarding when the bodies start to hit the floor. Plus I don't remember the music from the anime as much, but the music from the dramatic sections of the visual novel is awesome; honestly it's a major contributing factor to the drama in and of itself, and hella builds up the excitement when shit gets crazy. So now I am like flailing for the other episodes, asdfghjkl; why do we not get these things over here. D:
BUT IN ANY CASE. Behind the cut I shall give a better description of what the series actually is, since I know you are undoubtedly riveted. Undoubtedly.
So there is this family called the Ushiromiyas! And they are rich as fuck, or at least the granddad is, but granddad is running low on time, oh dear. So the family gathers at grandpappy's private island, theoretically to catch up on how everyone is doing but really to argue over who gets the inheritance. There are the adults--granddad's four children and their three respective spouses, most of whom are honestly not that important--their own kids--Battler, Jessica, George, and Maria, who are considerably more important--and the servants, a couple of whom are also kids but mostly they are old folks.
Granddad shuts himself in the study, because he hates all his relatives. Said relatives go on to argue over the inheritance and generally be assholes, although Battler's step-mom Kyrie is actually kind of awesome but unfortunately she is not very important. The kids are less worried about money, which is possibly why they get to stick around more, what with not being total assholes most of the time. Although Maria, the youngest, is kind of annoying at times, but she gets better. Actually she is one of the few characters I am genuinely intrigued by so far, the others being Battler and, well, we'll get to that.
So anyway, tempers are high, everyone goes to bed. Family politics. Kind of boring.
--and then in the morning six of the people on the island show up with their faces bashed in, and it is not quite as boring any more.
Thus begins an INTENSE MURDER MYSTERY, because a typhoon has left them trapped on the island and the phone lines are down and everyone is kind of freaking out. Things are crazy and no one knows what's going on! Except Maria, who really is not freaking out at all because the nice witch in the garden said everything would be okay.
And yeah, the Ushiromiya family has a legend about a witch named Beatrice who helped granddad get all the money and fortune to build up the family in the first place and would eventually come back to collect interest. There is even a portrait of her in the main hall! It's very pretty. But no one really believes in that, right? ...right?
More crazy stuff happens, people drop off like flies in increasingly impossible ways, the remaining ones to figure out if the killer is a mysterious other person on the island or--gasp!--one of them, and then time runs out and OH NO BEATRICE, which is where the Run Lola Run kicks in. Because Battler is the one person who absolutely refuses to believe that any of this was caused by supernatural forces, and Beatrice thinks that is adorable. She's kind of bored, after all; it might be more fun to see if she can break this guy. I don't remember the exact lines in the anime, but in the visual novel she actually says "I'd love to make you kiss my feet," so...yeah. She pulls him out of time, turns back the clock, and makes him watch a new version of events to see if he can explain what's going on this time. Rinse, wash, repeat. Actually Battler is kind of really stupid about this, given that he was taken out of time to watch events repeat themselves but he still refuses to believe the magic exists, but that idiocy is what keeps him alive so secretly I like to think he's doing it deliberately. And then eventually that clip I linked earlier happens, which, yeah. ANYWAY. That's Umineko! And there is lots of other crazy shit, believe me, but I won't go into that because I don't understand it either. So now, have a bunch of fanart collected from the internets, because hey who doesn't like picspams of cute guys in eyebrow-raising situations am I right?
Start with a cute one! Aww, so sweet.
Beatrice comes with multiple outfits depending on the round; I personally like the dress better, but the schoolgirl one is probably easier to draw. Also, the shirt-handcuffs in this one are awesome.
More cute!
Most of the fanart does not descend into outright violence, but there are a few that do! Even if it's only blood.
Like this one!
and this one which um yeah.
I like this one because it is so creepy. LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU
The phrase for this, I believe, is "marshmallow hell".
...*cough*
He's so resigned! Oh, honey.
So yeah.
Apparently this is the cover of a doujin? I WANT THAT DOUJIN.
Battler has a little sister! Actually I do not know much about her, but from what I can tell, she really, really likes him. Beatrice, not so much.
Honestly this is probably my favorite one of all, partly because it is just so pretty asdfghjkl; and also because of, um, other reasons. So it is the one I shall end on! If there are any of you still reading, anyway.
--and then this happened and you know how sometimes you discover interests you did not know you had? Yeah. Um. (For the record, that clip doesn't make any more sense subtitled and in-context than it does otherwise, and it doesn't stick anyway. Because nothing ever sticks. Like I said, Run Lola Run. Only with a malevolent outside force causing it and a person taken from within it forced to watch it over and over. And also Japanese rather than German. But the protagonists do both have unnaturally red hair! And that is all that matters really.) So suddenly I became even more interested, albeit in a slightly more eyebrow-raising way. Shut up.
Unfortunately, I have not actually finished the anime yet--the club only did two episodes a week for eight weeks--but I fully intend to, and thanks to burningvigor I acquired the first episode of the visual novel it was based on, which is um quite a lot longer, seriously I think it took me like ten or twelve hours to get through the material the anime covered in five episodes. But it actually gives the characters some backstory and personality before killing them off willy-nilly, and having to sit through five hours of family politics makes it so much more rewarding when the bodies start to hit the floor. Plus I don't remember the music from the anime as much, but the music from the dramatic sections of the visual novel is awesome; honestly it's a major contributing factor to the drama in and of itself, and hella builds up the excitement when shit gets crazy. So now I am like flailing for the other episodes, asdfghjkl; why do we not get these things over here. D:
BUT IN ANY CASE. Behind the cut I shall give a better description of what the series actually is, since I know you are undoubtedly riveted. Undoubtedly.
So there is this family called the Ushiromiyas! And they are rich as fuck, or at least the granddad is, but granddad is running low on time, oh dear. So the family gathers at grandpappy's private island, theoretically to catch up on how everyone is doing but really to argue over who gets the inheritance. There are the adults--granddad's four children and their three respective spouses, most of whom are honestly not that important--their own kids--Battler, Jessica, George, and Maria, who are considerably more important--and the servants, a couple of whom are also kids but mostly they are old folks.
Granddad shuts himself in the study, because he hates all his relatives. Said relatives go on to argue over the inheritance and generally be assholes, although Battler's step-mom Kyrie is actually kind of awesome but unfortunately she is not very important. The kids are less worried about money, which is possibly why they get to stick around more, what with not being total assholes most of the time. Although Maria, the youngest, is kind of annoying at times, but she gets better. Actually she is one of the few characters I am genuinely intrigued by so far, the others being Battler and, well, we'll get to that.
So anyway, tempers are high, everyone goes to bed. Family politics. Kind of boring.
--and then in the morning six of the people on the island show up with their faces bashed in, and it is not quite as boring any more.
Thus begins an INTENSE MURDER MYSTERY, because a typhoon has left them trapped on the island and the phone lines are down and everyone is kind of freaking out. Things are crazy and no one knows what's going on! Except Maria, who really is not freaking out at all because the nice witch in the garden said everything would be okay.
And yeah, the Ushiromiya family has a legend about a witch named Beatrice who helped granddad get all the money and fortune to build up the family in the first place and would eventually come back to collect interest. There is even a portrait of her in the main hall! It's very pretty. But no one really believes in that, right? ...right?
More crazy stuff happens, people drop off like flies in increasingly impossible ways, the remaining ones to figure out if the killer is a mysterious other person on the island or--gasp!--one of them, and then time runs out and OH NO BEATRICE, which is where the Run Lola Run kicks in. Because Battler is the one person who absolutely refuses to believe that any of this was caused by supernatural forces, and Beatrice thinks that is adorable. She's kind of bored, after all; it might be more fun to see if she can break this guy. I don't remember the exact lines in the anime, but in the visual novel she actually says "I'd love to make you kiss my feet," so...yeah. She pulls him out of time, turns back the clock, and makes him watch a new version of events to see if he can explain what's going on this time. Rinse, wash, repeat. Actually Battler is kind of really stupid about this, given that he was taken out of time to watch events repeat themselves but he still refuses to believe the magic exists, but that idiocy is what keeps him alive so secretly I like to think he's doing it deliberately. And then eventually that clip I linked earlier happens, which, yeah. ANYWAY. That's Umineko! And there is lots of other crazy shit, believe me, but I won't go into that because I don't understand it either. So now, have a bunch of fanart collected from the internets, because hey who doesn't like picspams of cute guys in eyebrow-raising situations am I right?
Start with a cute one! Aww, so sweet.
Beatrice comes with multiple outfits depending on the round; I personally like the dress better, but the schoolgirl one is probably easier to draw. Also, the shirt-handcuffs in this one are awesome.
More cute!
Most of the fanart does not descend into outright violence, but there are a few that do! Even if it's only blood.
Like this one!
and this one which um yeah.
I like this one because it is so creepy. LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU
The phrase for this, I believe, is "marshmallow hell".
...*cough*
He's so resigned! Oh, honey.
So yeah.
Apparently this is the cover of a doujin? I WANT THAT DOUJIN.
Battler has a little sister! Actually I do not know much about her, but from what I can tell, she really, really likes him. Beatrice, not so much.
Honestly this is probably my favorite one of all, partly because it is just so pretty asdfghjkl; and also because of, um, other reasons. So it is the one I shall end on! If there are any of you still reading, anyway.