My Umineko experience began with the anime, after a friend of mine sent me a link to the opening theme. (Katayoku no Tori is still one of the best opening songs I know.)
I got hooked pretty fast since I like mystery stories. I read some books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Cristie back in the days. But after the first arc was over, Umineko got magical… and very confusing. My greatest “wtf” moment was the entrance of bunny girls who could fire beams by holding hands.
Even though Umineko remained in my memory as an unfinished confusing mindfuck anime, I never forgot its good parts. So when I found out that the original is a VN, I knew I’d read it one day, which is exactly what I did a few months ago.
I can’t say I enjoyed all of it. The first four episodes were more of a chore than anything since I already knew what would happen. On the other hand, that knowledge granted me a different viewpoint on the events and a slightly more advantageous starting point to close in on the mysteries.
I actually pretty much marathoned the VN. I didn’t make breaks in-between the episodes. Instead, I made txt files where I wrote down everything that seemed important or suspicious to me, as well as some of my own theories. (I still have those files on my pc.) And I used those notes to ponder about the mysteries while reading. It worked pretty well for me.
I’m not sure what to say about Umineko overall. The concept was amazing. The voicing and OST were among the best I’ve ever heard. The mysteries were really good and there were enough of them to keep you more or less interested all the time.
What rubbed me the wrong way, though, was the length. 8 Episodes were a bit too much. 6 would have been sufficient with better text management. There was just too much text, many passages were repetetive or even downright pointless. So were certain characters, like the two demons of love farce (I give you a trial of love and grant you immortality). Some of the ‘funny’ passages I didn’t find funny at all, they merely broke immersion. I think Ryuukishi needs to work on his comedy placement, because letting things take a ridiculous turn during a life-and-death situation (and then switch back whenever) just ruins everything. I’m referring to the ‘loser flag count’ in… I think it was ep4.
I love philosophy, so I can confidently say I learned some interesting stuff by reading Umineko. Trying to solve the mysteries was fun. I felt a sense of accomplishment whenever I guessed something right, but I sometimes got overwhelmed by the amount of confusion thrown at the reader. Overall, it was certainly a good read.
