VIEWER DISCRESION ADVISED
Umineko is a franchise that began as a series of visual novels created by Ryukishi07. The novels were then turned into games that were never released outside of Japan. A twenty six episode anime was also create for about half the Umineko series. Many products were made for the series due to it's critical acclaim being created by the author who wrote Higurashi: When They cry.
A wealthy family meets every year on a getaway island for their family reunion. They are soon thrown into a murder mystery one rainy night that involves the legend of the Golden Witch known as Beatrice. A long game featuring magic verses reality ensues. Though the Golden Witch's legend to revive her says all on the island are not to make it out alive.......
This manga consists of a whole lot of volumes. I believe there's fifty five volumes in all. I wasn't aware that this was such a long series when I firsts started reading Legend of the Golden Witch. Higurashi was a series I read years ago. Not all the different arcs really appealed to me, so I jumped around reading only the arcs that had good art and a storyline that I was interested in. Umineko was released in big omnibus volumes in English that covered a good portion of the story each volume. Be prepared to hang in for the long run as there's eight arcs, split up into four arcs each section. I've never read a manga that could take the same story and spin it into multiple forms. Each arc retells the same mystery from a different point of view while giving more background on the family's involvement with Beatrice. The original mystery is a very gory one landing on the line of horror mixed in mystery. As the story is retold, you get more genres added in the plot, such as action fantasy, romance, and logical battles. Nothing is truly as it seems in Umineko. Just when you think you have the mystery pinned down, Another pawn enters the chessboard to turn the game inside out. That being said, Umineko won't appeal to every reader. It's a mystery that's long winded in story as well as dialogue. You'll have to read since many speech bubbles are filled to the brim with dialogue. Especially in the battles with red truth where the person must state the facts of what happened that night without the opponents ability to rebuttal. A big cast of characters also exist in the Umineko universe like most mystery stories. These characters shape the foundation of the different games played based on the murder that took place. Ryukishi07 made a series that allows you to come up with your own answer to mystery. The conclusion takes a long time to get to. I would gasp when I would finish each volume only to find that there was a whole other arc to read..... This happened a lot until I decided to start reading Umineko digitally(imagine all those big manga volumes in my room..). Bookstores stopped carrying them too.... Probably because people lost interest as the story got longer. I would recommend reading this series digitally right off the bat. Unless you're a collector, Umineko will take up a lot of space in your room..... That's space better taken up on a cloud or device. Taking a step back to the conclusion of Umineko, It's not what you would expect given the dark nature lingering over the whole series. At a certain point in the story, you start to feel that the effort is useless due to the fact that events lead you to believe this. I won't spoil the story. Don't worry. However, The ending wasn't one that I was completely satisfied with but I accepted. I'm not sure I would read this manga again for a long while. Most of the story was enjoyable though.
Different artists joined the Umineko project. I'm not going to lie to you. I wasn't a fan of every artists that jumped on board. I think I like the artists that started out the series the most. Each arc had a new artists that took getting use to. It must have been a very fun series to draw considering all the different characters.
Umineko: When They Cry is a somewhat complexed piece of art. Some readers will hang in there through the long story to appreciate everything this manga is. Others will find the story too complexed to comprehend and give up after a couple of volumes. Japanese people even find Ryukishi07's works hard to understand.
No comments:
Post a Comment