OP Theme
One Winged Birth by Shikata Akiko
All I can say to this opening theme is wow! I thought Shikata Akiko’s singing of the games opening theme Umineko no Naku Koro ni was good but after watching this, I think it has given it a good run for its money. The animation involved was a less violent version of what they did in the first Higurashi Season, showing each character, althrough much briefer as it had 19 people to go through instead of 6 or so they did in Higurashi. One thing I did like was the Happy Halloween Maria scene, basically for that cruel laugh that they gave Maria, similar to Hanyuu’s scary face in Higurashi Kai. One thing that I think could have been improved on is modifying the scenes a bit for each arc, as the scenes shown such as ShannonXGeorge and Happy Halloween Maria are focused on in episode 2 instead of Episode 1. I would presume this OP will remain until the third or fourth arcs where other important characters will be added. Surprised they didn’t add Bernkastel/Lambadelta in this one through…. guess they can’t show them off to original Higurashi fans too early. Finally, first views of the room where Battler and Beatrice shall battle it out look promising!
Episode I-I: Opening
This episode starts with Kinzo with Dr Nanjo, similar to the beginning of the game series. Kinzo is once again calling out to his true love Beatrice, with Nanjo watching on. Somewhere out on the sea, Battler Ushiromiya is fighting his own grief which is his fear of all abnormal means of transportation, such as the speed boat they are travelling on to Rokkenjima. Once they arrive, a shining sparkly light covers the characters individually whilst Battler introduces them. The family introduced so far are Battler himself, two of his cousins George and Maria, his aunts and uncle Eva, Rosa and Hideyoshi and his father Rudolf and half-mother Kyrie. As they walk along the pier, Battler meets his other cousin Jessica and is recieved a good punch from her after his perverse interests stray. Also with her is two servants Kumasawa who jokes around with Battler about taking out his perverse actions on her, and the cook Ghoda. As they all head up to the mansion, they make note that the normal cry of seagulls (Umineko) is missing.
As they walk towards the mansion they travel through Kinzo’s famous rose garden where Maria stops to look at a flower that seems unhealthy in comparison to the others. George comes up with a clever idea where he wraps a wrapper around the rose to help her identify the rose dubbed “Maria no Bara – Maria’s Rose”. At the enterance they meet up with Kanon who as expected is very quiet and doesn’t say much. Once they are in the guest house bedroom, they meet up with the other maid Shannon, which causes Battler’s pervert mode to activate again, earning him another punch from Jessica.
Whilst this is occuring, the oldest of Kinzo’s children Krauss, Head Servant Genji and Dr Nanjo are trying to convince Kinzo to leave his study to spend time with the family, much to his protests that they gave up in the end. With the adults, discussion turns to the inheritance with Eva targetting Natsushi with a few bits of scattered censorship depending on the station you watched it on. Causing her to run off in tears and Kumasawa pitying her for the poor treatment she recieves. Not going to bother translating it too much, if you want to know what they say, translate it yourself or play the game.
While the parents are debating the family inheritance, the cousins come across the witches Epitath for those who don’t know, states:
My beloved hometown, the sweetfish river running through it.
You who seek the Golden Land, follow its path downstream and seek the key.
If you follow the river downstream you will find a village.
In the village, look for the shore the two will tell you of.
There sleeps the key to the Golden Land
He who lays hand upon the key shall travel under the rules below.
At the first twilight, you shall life up as sacrifice the six chosen by the key.
At the second twilight, the surviving shall tear apart the two who are close.
At the third twilight, the surviving shall praise my honorable name of high.
At the fourth twilight, gouge the head and kill.
At the fifth twilight, gouge the chest and kill.
At the sixth twilight, gouge the stomach and kill.
At the seventh twilight, gouge the knee and kill.
At the eighth twilight, gouge the leg and kill.
At the ninth twilight, the witch shall be revived and none shall be left alive.
At the tenth twilight, the journey shall end and you should reach the village of gold.
The Witch will praise the wise, and should bestow four treasures.
One shall be, all the gold from the Golden Land.
One shall be, the resurrection of the souls of all the dead.
One shall be, even the resurrection of the lose love.
One shall be, to put the Witch to sleep for all time.
Sleep Peacefully my most beloved witch, Beatrice
Possibly with a few ammendments from Game to anime. After mocking the witch at the beach, Maria tells Battler and Jessica that the witch will target them. To ensure their safety, she gives them each a scorpion medallion necklace as scorpions are said to ward off witches. When the weather gets worse, Maria decides she wants to check on her rose. In the windy period before the store, all of the cousins search the rose garden for the missing rose that isn’t there. Eventually, Maria calls her mother Rosa over to help them look for it. Eventually her -uu annoys Rosa so much that she….
… starts to hit Maria over and over again, each time with Maria getting louder and screaming -uu more. Whilst this is going on, Battler tries to step in but is pulled back by George and they all leave Maria there alone hunting for the rose. During this time period when it starts raining, the shape of Beatrice carrying an umbrealla appears in the background after Kinzo throws his family ring into the sky. Later on that evening, the other cousins and Rosa find out that Maria is still outside. Feeling guilty, they all go and hunt for her, eventually finding her with the umbrella and saying that Beatrice gave it to her, concerning everyone…
ED Theme
la divina tragedia ~Makyoku~ by Jimang
The animation is quite interesting for me. Usually I would find this style boring but even without the characters, there seems to be a very active mood to it which really got me interested. The song however blew me away and for one of the first times ever, I am more impressed with the ending theme than the opening theme. Whilst being disappointed with the Higurashi Ending Themes (Except why or why not which was okay), this has made up for it entirely. I think the addition of the next episodes name was also really nice, the use of the extended chess board was also very effective and I think the best bit was at the end seeing Beatrice and Battler sitting next to each other getting prepared for a game.
Quick Note
Haha, been a long time since I wrote a summary for anything. Hopefully they will improve as this series continues. There may have been some slight mistakes that I made as I wasn’t as careful as I usually am with translation, therefore relying also on knowledge from the game.
Graphics
I thought the graphics were pretty decent. I must admit that they wern’t as detailed as they used in the Higurashi series but on the other hand, the quality of the art was pretty good and I can see it improving, especially when we get into the next few episodes were more content happens. I thought the character introduction scenes were pretty good with the different art style used with their name on their image. The only problem I really thought was in the opening scene with Jessica and George by the window. The character proportions were what I felt a bit out of whack, with someone as thin as Jessica looking much bulkier in the OP segment. Besides that, no real call for concern.
Music
The music was pretty good and it seems like the series will involve both original work and remixed versions of game music. Songs such as worldenddominator will be good to listen to when the song comes around. Also looking at the credits, they have a lot of instrumentalists on board to create different songs which is very promising.
Storyline/Characters
As can be seen above, the summary of the storyline has been added above. The storyline overall was rather washed down in comparison to the game however that is to be expected, with I assume a lot of pointless stuff able to be cut out of this episode in comparison to future episodes. Most characters were just introducted today however the relationship between Maria and Rosa was portrayed well and worked well hand in hand with the game.
Personal Opinion
What can I say…. I think this may finally be the series that will get me back to reviewing anime. For this episode, Personal Opinion scores are replaced with the score for the OP and Ending Themes.
Total
Graphics: 7/10
Music: 9/10
Storyline/Characters: 15/20
OP Theme: 5/5
ED Theme: 5/5
Total Score: 41/50 (82% – A-)
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