Episode 4 review

I’ll be honest, personally speaking, I didn’t truly find episode 5 to be particularly entertaining for much of its runtime. In fact, I found a good chunk of it to be a little hard to sit through at points. However, I think that the irritation and impatience I was feeling as I read was exactly the kind of feelings the author wanted to evoke in me.

One of the primary goals of this episode was to illustrate how the status quo would be shaken up from here on out. Beato is no longer the Game Master and is now essentially a vegetable. Lambdadelta and Bernkastel have hijacked the Game for the sake of curing their boredom and have begun to insert more characters aligned with them and their interests, in particular, Erika Furudo, who serves as the new primary rival to Battler. Lambda, Bern, and Erika are spoiled children much in the same vein as Beato. However, they lack the charisma and charm that Beato had which supplemented her childish side and made it more endearing. I have to admit that I’m not especially fond of these characters, especially in comparison to Beato and the characters that serve her. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that this may have been what the author intended. This Game was originally meant for Beato and Battler. The fact that these outsiders have butted in and taken control of it the way that they have while not really doing anything particularly interesting with it has caused them to subsequently kill it. This isn’t just from my perspective as the reader, but also within the context of the story, as the Game initially ends until the “????”. When I realized this, my impression of this episode improved a lot, even if I wasn’t really feeling it much during its runtime.

We get a lot of major reveals over the course of this episode as well. Some of which once again call my understanding of the world and how it works into question, leaving me extremely confused. I think that the biggest revelation is that Kinzo has been dead this entire time, and his death had been covered up by Natsuhi, Krauss and Kinzo’s closest servants. Now, I can’t remember for certain whether or not this had happened but I’m fairly certain that in the past, it had been stated using the red truth that there has always been 18 people on the island of Rokkenjima. If Kinzo has always been dead the entire time, that would mean that there is definitely an unaccounted for person in each of the previous episodes. Maybe I misread/misremembered something during this part and Kinzo is only dead for this timeline? I’m really not sure, but I’m positive that it will get clarified.

I hadn’t really made the connection before, but the locked room scene in Kinzo’s study made it pretty obvious: the debates that take place in the dimension where characters are observing timelines/fragments affects what happens within the timelines/fragments themselves.

Natsuhi was the Ushiromiya family member that got a lot of focus this episode, which was great. I mentioned in my review of the last episode that I was hoping she was one of the characters who’d get some more screen time going forward. I really loved the scene with her and Beato in the rose garden as she gives some more insight into her relationship with Krauss. We learn that even Krauss, who has constantly been regarded as the most manipulative and selfish of the four siblings, has a cute and caring side to him. It was also made pretty clear that Krauss is actually rather trusting of people, even if it is to his detriment, as this aspect to him is what led to him accumulating his vast debts that have placed him and Natsuhi in a very precarious position.

Aside from the fact that Kinzo has been dead at the start of all of the previous Games, one of the biggest reveals of this episode was that Natsuhi was originally forced to take care of a child provided to her by Kinzo because of her initial inability to get pregnant. After cursing the child and wishing that it would disappear, an accident with a servant caused the both of them to plummet to their death off the side of a cliff. This was a little curious because the method of death is extremely similar to how Beato’s homunculus died. I feel like this is a very important plot point that’s going to get brought up again in the future. During this episode, it was mainly used as a way for Lambda to manipulate Natsuhi and place further suspicion on her, but I don’t think that the fact that the adopted child’s death is so similar to Beato’s homunculus death is a coincidence (or it could be, lmao).

Aside from establishing the new status quo, it seems like the other big goal of this episode was to provide the author’s commentary on fantasy, mystery, as well as fiction writing in general. I’m an uncultured swine, so I Googled Knox’s Decalogue to see if this was a real thing and it actually is a thing that was created by Ronald Knox who was a famous detective fiction writer. I’m very fascinated with this, and once I’m done playing Umineko, I want to learn more about it. I hope that the author continues with this commentary on fiction writing, because I’m really interested in what they have to say.

Now I’ve got to talk about that finale. I did kind of see Battler inheriting the title of Golden Witch/Sorcerer coming. After all, he solved the epitaph, and when Eva-Beatrice solved it, she herself inherited the title during that timeline/fragment, so it was properly foreshadowed and everything. I didn’t expect Battler to become the Game Master however. I’m very curious as to how this will affect the next episode. Part of me hopes this means that the Ushiromiya family isn’t going to be brutally murdered this time, but another part of me feels like that’s wishful thinking.

Even when I’m not necessarily being entertained by what’s taking place, I’m still totally infatuated with what I’m reading. This episode dropped a lot of major bombshell reveals that have recontextualized a lot of the prior events of the story. Now that Battler is the Game Master, the status quo looks like it’s going to be dramatically changed even further. I’m still 100% on board for this ride, and I’m eager to get back to it.

Also Dlanor and her broken English are very cute.