READ UMINEKO !

any time you ask someone if you should read umineko, it probably goes something like this:

you: yeah, im thinking about checking out umineko.

them: YAY ! its incredible, it changed my life !

you: oh, cool ! so, like... whats it about ?

them: .............ok so,

and its just kind of left fairly ominous. often with a "DONT LOOK ANYTHING UP" warning, its sometimes a little tricky to get much info out of someone regarding just why umineko is so damn good. so. without saying spoilers, im going to try my best to explain why i have loved this series since i was in middle school, and why i still love it so deeply to this day. maybe itll convince you to check it. maybe it wont. regardless, lets be honest, this piece was overdue and inevitable anyway. my umineko autism is unstoppable.

lets start from the top.

the year is 1986. it's october 4th - time for the annual ushiromiya family conference on rokkenjima, a private island owned by the patrairch of the family, kinzo. with them not being sure how long he'll be alive, since his health has been not the best for the past while now, they are determined to get to the bottom of this inheritance business.

for the first time in six years, battler is coming back to the island too ! he learns of the existence of the witch, beatrice, who supposedly gave kinzo ten tons of gold and aided his revival of their family name many many years ago, and an epitaph written next to her portrait.

things start going weird, and by the time midnight strikes... the game truly begins. people start getting killed in increasingly bizzare, seemingly impossible ways. in fact, their deaths match eerily up with the epitaph. it rapidly becomes a question of: is the one of the 18 on the island killing everyone ? or does the witch beatrice really exist ?

thruout episodes 1-4, we're cycling between the days of october 4th and 5th, watching different murders carry out and try to comprehend how they are being done. is it a human ? or is it the witch ?

...that's only really the tip of the iceberg. some more things umineko is about include:

what is truth, conceptually ?
what is magic ? how can it hurt, how can it heal ?
if you truly knew someones worst depths, saw them at their absolute lowest, their cruelest - could you forgive them ?
what is a name - in terms of power ? how about affirmation ?
fiction- as a conversation between author and reader, and the intimacy + trust that relationship involves
...and so much more!

its a sound novel, a meta-fiction murder mystery, a story that bare faced stares you in the eye and holds your hands and asks, so intimately, for you to TRY. it wants you to solve it and repeatedly, openly states it. its incredibly stupid and corny and is unafraid to be that. its heartbreaking and some of the most real, raw portrayals of cyclical abuse, grief, and trauma ive encountered to date.

and beatrice is there. :0)

the reason people often are so cagey regarding specifics of this series is pretty simple; it is SO EASY to accidentally spoil huge pieces for people, but also because its really fun watching people puzzle out things blind for the first time. the first time you read it, youre in battlers shoes. the second, and subsequent ones after ? youre on the witch side of the court, cackling away as newbies flail around and try to grapple with what the hell is going on.

...so why SHOULD you read it ??

umineko, hands down, has some of the most painfully raw and real portrayals of how the cycle of abuse can affect an entire family the entire way down - and how tumultuous breaking that chain can be. these arent cardboard cutouts of what people think abusive family members look like; ryukishi 100% knew what he was doing here, and it shows.

the soundtrack is spoken about a ton, and for good reason !! theres beautiful calm orchestral pieces that feel like roaming the rose garden, hype electronic tracks accompanying insane magic battles, and a specific piece that is such a haunting gutpunch that its almost nauseating. i mean this in the best way.

...and then, of course, there is beatrice herself. im Not just saying this because im hopelessly gay, okay. a tumblr post by transgendersalmonella really sums up a lot of my feelings too, as follows:

the problem with talking about umineko is, the further u get into the story, the less u want to talk about it with people who havent read umineko, bc theres something so intimate about the symbolism. i dont want to expose beatrice, i love beatrice, i want to protect beatrice, all of beatrice, and theres no way to explain all 100+ hours of feelings and discoveries of The Heart contained within. i could tell u who beatrice is, but u wouldnt understand. i could tell u why beatrice is, but u still wouldnt understand. u have to spend two hundred hours with her to solve her riddle. you have to be paying attention to learn how to love her beyond the way she appears and the things she does. you have to be tricked, but then once you are.... you learn the secrets of her magic, and you want to share it with her always, in a golden land. but that sucks bc i want to talk about umineko but i cant spoil umineko so i cant talk about it without potentially spoiling it for some unsuspecting party, truly a closed room mystery........

one day, maybe you will understand why beatrice is genuinely one of the best characters of all time. i dont say this lightly.

rereading umineko also has been an intensely valuable experience for me while working through the disaster that grief hammered into me since a massive traumatic-yet-complicated familial loss several years back. i wont elaborate on this too much, but... well... youll just have to see, wont you ?

it is an experience. sometimes it is really funny. sometimes it is heartbreaking. i dont know who i would be without having read it in its entirety; watching the anime as a kid was fun, but reading the whole tale as an adult really was something i needed to do. ive stated it in my Top Favs page, but i genuinely think if you want to understand me as a person, you need to read umineko.

HOW do i read it ?

my go to recc is to grab the steam version and then use the 07th mod patch - the voice only patch, so you can experience the awesome work the cast put into embodying these characters while using ryukishis really cute sprite art. you can also use umineko project, which has a different translation and is essentially a full port of the console version, including fancy sprites, animated elements, and a new ui look. its up to your personal preference.

i, obviously, encourage you to buy the series if you can ! buuuuut... if youre my pal and need a hookup, i gotcha covered. ;0)

all this to say. PLEASEEEEEE READ ITTTTTTTT PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEAEse.