Una espectacular introducción. Si fuese una obra en solitario, seguiría siendo una historia solida. La ambientación es espectacular y cada tema que tratan es interesantisimo, ver a la familia aristócrata charlando de Economía política, ver sus conflictos familiares, rapiñandose la herencia de un padre que sigue vivo, la tensión y violencia intrafamiliar están manejadas con mucha madurez.
Los elementos fantásticos se presentan lentamente, haciendo dudar sobre la existencia de la bruja, me fascina que Beatriz no aparezca directamente en ningún momento y su mayor acto de presencia sea en los últimos minutos de la obra para coronar con broche de oro este historia.
Al principio creí que era una historia sobre la razón sobre lo irracional, la búsqueda del dominio de la mente sobre lo desconocido, la idea de dar vuelta el tablero, correr el eje el misterio para encontrar la verdad desde una nueva perspectiva.

Before anything else, I believe its appropriate to briefly discuss the soundtrack and what it accomplishes. From lighthearted moments shared between the cousins to the tense air surrounding the family’s inheritance affairs, EP1’s OST serves as the ideal companion to the story’s gradually shifting atmosphere, with goldenslaughter executing the episodes tone shift just as effectively as the first time I read it. It may not have the tracks Umineko is most remembered for, but it achieves what it sets out to do to perfection.

Moving onto the actual writing, its important to acknowledge what first impressions mean in Umineko. The airport scene is the audience’s first encounter with most of the Ushiromiya family, who make up a large portion of Umineko’s cast. More importantly, it is the last time Eva, Rudolf and Rosa will collectively be portrayed as the ‘likable’ siblings. Rosa is a charitable woman and the ideal mother. Eva/Rudolf are a fun, playful pair that a number of brothers and sisters will likely find themselves identifying with. The more chapters we progress through, the more we understand our first impression deceived us. Once the story moves onto mansion, a different face appears on these characters. We soon find one of those playful siblings repeatedly tormenting an already sympathetic Natsuhi for reasons the audience are not yet aware of. Shortly after, Maria's loving mother is seen mercilessly beating her daughter in front of the cousins. However, the episode continues to dig into their characters by giving us a small portion of their depth that would later be expanded on in the following episodes.

Perhaps the single most fascinating character showcased in EP1 is somebody we meet in the story’s very first scene, the family head himself: Kinzo Ushiromiya. There is virtually no consistency within Kinzo's characterization. In his first appearance, we see a sympathetic old man breaking down under past regrets, wanting nothing but to see a certain woman’s smile. A similar scene is shown a few chapters after, however, there is a notable difference. Rather than portraying him sympathetically, the words beneath his weeping hold a far more possessive, disturbing implication behind them. Unless we’re to pay close attention, this difference is very easy to overlook. Few chapters later, this is no longer the case. Kinzo's weeping is replaced by optimism and his fascination with magic finally makes itself known. This is built on in our next meeting with him as he shows a more competitive persona that is confident in his capability to snatch the aforementioned woman’s smile. Before his death, we’re shown Kinzo one last time with arguably the most jarring portrayal of his character yet. In front of Natsuhi, Kinzo is shown as the proud head of the Ushiromiya family. While his stance toward the siblings is unchanging, the tone of his speech is far more composed. We see his first act of kindness as he allows the suffering Natsuhi to regain her lost self-esteem with the implication that she, more so than any of his children, is worthy of becoming head of the family. Based off these scenes, making out who Kinzo is meant to be is nigh impossible. It is only at the very end of EP1 that we receive more insight on his character through his servants and the cousin's interpretation of their words.

The significance behind these scenes not only forces us to contemplate who Kinzo is, but it also adds intrigue behind the woman whose smile he yearned for, Beatrice. Until the tea party, Beatrice is not a character. We have no idea who or what Beatrice is supposed to be. The cousins theorize who this Beatrice could possibly, with guesses ranging all over the place. That in itself is the force that drives the narrative forward.

Along with Kinzo and Beatrice, a third character who heavily contributes to the plot of EP1 is Maria. Unlike the former two names mentioned, she is consistently present throughout the episode. What distinguishes her from the rest of the cast is she does not abide by conventional logic. Early on, her belief in magic is viewed innocently as something several girls her age might be interested in. It is not long after when we’re reminded yet again that first impressions in Umineko are not reliable. We begin to see the nature of how Maria operates as she stubbornly stands outside in the middle of a harsh rainstorm after being abandoned by Rosa. Her fixation on a single rose seen earlier that day tells us that they (Battler and the cousins) are not dealing with a regular girl, and that becomes even more apparent directly after the first twilight when the first 6 victims are killed. Fortunately, George gives the cousins, as well as the audience, an understanding for Maria’s disturbing speech and indifference to everyone’s deaths. We’re led to believe that this knowledge in mind would protect her strange behavior from their judgement. It is because of this belief that the slowly growing intolerance toward her becomes especially effective in showcasing how their predicament is impacting them. Despite how conflicted the cousin’s feel at the sight of Rosa beating Maria, they begin to share in her frustration after a certain point. Maria’s stubbornness and inability to cooperate with others drives the remaining cast into madness as everybody in the mansion is dying. until the boiling point is reached when Natsuhi points her gun at Maria and she’s forced outside, where its presumed the killer is waiting for them. Oh yeah and Natsuhi is pretty good here too I guess.

The last thing I’ll mention is how well this sets up the mysteries for the rest of the story. As Ryukishi dubs it, the concept of Anti-Mystery vs Anti-Fantasy is an innovative approach to the genre that is fascinating off its premise alone. The EP1 tea party only solidifies this as we’re given a new layer of depth to look at when determining what kind of mystery story Umineko truly is.

tl;dr EP1 is good as fuck

When rereaded it becomes so much better because you now realize the subtext and you start to really understand what's really going on with the murders, with the characters and everything is so more emotional to me. Especially:
-Natsuhi's monologue
-George's proposal
-Kinzo's moments
-Maria's fantasy
-Battler's dialougues about Kyrie
And pretty much everything. Btw, you even have some foreshadowing as when battler said "At the end of the night i will grab "you" by the collar" just some minutes after he actually did it xD. Amazing.

(And also, the end felt so strongly different after realazing that the "witch" was actually really there. And when i rehear system0 ost i always imagine "Beatrice" coming into the Mansion's door appearing and i feel what she felt inside of her at that moment. And that's such a unique feeling, so good, even though so sad.)

Umineko is my favorite story of all time and this is my third reread so I'm not going to bother with rating the individual episodes since, while I do have my favorites and least favorites, it'd be hard to make it anything other than 5 stars.

This is just a series of thoughts on my readthrough of EP1 this time around. If you have any amount of interest in Umineko or you've finished EP1 but none of the other episodes or you’ve even read up through EP5 or 6 or even 7, do NOT read this. These are the thoughts of someone who has spent 10 years obsessed with the series and knows the ins and outs of its mystery, characters, and plot. Seriously, do NOT read this unless you have finished the whole thing.

Umineko is pretty widely regarded for having an incredibly slow beginning; of course it is necessary to get to know the family members, their relationships with one another, and to see just how they interact with each other and understand a little bit why someone might want to pick them off, EP1's introduction becomes significantly more FUN once you have an attachment to them. As the adults take a backseat in more of Umineko’s plot the further you get into the series, it's kind of fun to peel back the meta layers and see the story/forgery at its base elements. Rudolf and Eva have a pretty funny dynamic that comes off as childish and silly, but it’s chock full of resentment and bitterness. It’s strange to also feel slightly intimidated by Krauss again when that guy is, frankly, just a joke. Also, I have since seen Succession, so pretending that the Ushiromiya adults were the Roys made the arguments over the inheritance become kind of funny. I recommend this to everyone who has seen Succession using this formula: Krauss = Kendall, Eva = Shiv, Rudolf = Roman, and Rosa = Connor. You will not regret it. I prommy.

Umineko is not Umineko without the Answer arcs but it is also really fun to go back to the story and the legend of Beatrice without seeing her directly. It’s scary and ominous not knowing for sure if this story is a mystery or a fantasy because Umineko hasn’t fully revealed its hand yet as a solvable mystery. It is also kind of funny how much of Umineko’s core mystery is quite literally given away in EP1. Seriously!

The hints to Umineko’s solution are honestly genius. Everything you need to know about Beatrice and why she exists is addressed through Maria; Maria, for her part, becomes all the more tragic. “Uu-, uu-,” is already sad enough when you learn about why she says it in EP4, but in EP1 when she realizes the torii shrine is gone and starts speaking about “misfortune” and shouting “uu-, uu-, uu-, uu-, uu-,” over and over again, it’s obvious upon a reread that she is quite literally trying to ward off doom with what she believes is her magic spell. This little moment is amazingly recontextualized thanks to EP4, and it's also heartbreaking.

That first moment where Goldenslaughterer plays rocks. It’s such an amazing theme, and it’s no secret that the music in Umineko does a lot of the heavy lifting. This time around I was sort of tired of it being used in every single twilight, but when you only have Goldenslaughterer, Core, and Witch in Gold to choose from, it is a pretty welcome change. Of course, I adore the moment in the study with System0 too. But the part where Dead angle plays in the very end of the episode when Natsuhi goes out to duel Beatrice and the cousins are left baffled in an entirely empty manor is still one of my all-time favorite moments in the series. It has an ominous, mysterious, and captivating feeling that isn’t ever quite captured again. All of EP1 feels that way to me. Who is Beatrice? Why is everyone dying? What is the point of the murders? And then it ends with the witch reviving and everyone losing – and that is that. It’s scary, in a disconcerting, bug-crawling way.

Introducing Beatrice as an actual character is of course one of the most iconic moments in the series, and the tea party is quite fun with her infiltrating the metaverse and shoving her face into the player’s. Like “ooooh you thought I was going to be offscreen like the culprit in Higurashi was the whole time? No, dear reader, I am challenging YOU directly.” It’s very fun, like a character showing their face in an after-manga omake.

I really love Battler as a character, but I still maintain that his introduction in EP1 leaves a lot to be desired. I continue to be incredibly grateful that the “anime bullshit” is cut off pretty much immediately after this episode. I also continue to wish that it wasn’t included at all because I always always have to warn people who might be interested about it, and many of them stop reading because it’s fucking annoying.

This said, that aside, Battler in the latter half of the episode is incredibly endearing while also retaining his signature dumbassery. The moment he wheels onto trying to figure out the culprit and his personality makes a shift to viewing the murders like a solvable game is so…well, it’s endearing. And also makes you feel like, "dude that’s your family." When you know why the story is written this way (and therefore Battler is written this way) and who wrote it it feels very sad, like she’s directly imploring a Battler who might, by pure chance, one day read the story and solve it for her sake–by writing Battler’s perception of the murders this way, like a silly boy who’s solving a game, she’s begging the real Battler, on the offchance that he ever sees the message bottles, to do the same. She’s begging to be 'seen.' Fuckin’ hurts man!

On that note, Kanon has a little moment in this episode that makes me feel like shriveling into a little ball and crying for hours on end, and it’s the moment where Battler helps him with the wheelbarrow and he walks off with the bags of fertilizer and quietly murmurs the words “...Even I….” to himself. Now c’mon. C’mon. I can’t stop thinking about this!

Umineko is a masterclass in storytelling because it can be this upfront about its mysteries, it can tell you that the Maria who believes in witches acts ‘scary’ (per everyone else) because she is trying to be her ideal and it makes her read as ‘different’ and therefore ‘another person’, it writes that witches in the Umineko canon use magic to make people happy, and it tells you over and over again that Maria believes a witch can save her from the pain in her life. That magic has made her life worthwile. That it’s the only way she can cope with her reality. It is even revealed that Beatrice was a real person who Kinzo loved and now treats as a witch because he refuses to cope with her passing. If these deeply unhappy people believe so strongly in the concept of witches and what that represents to them, why does a witch rule over the island? What does that mean for the culprit who is hiding behind the face of the witch?

Umineko is also a masterclass in storytelling because it can slam all this in your face and you will still sit and scratch your head and be so completely taken in by the mystery that it feels impossible to solve, and I love that these two things can coexist.

On to EP2! Very excited to log my thoughts of that one next since I think it has the most hints in the entire series about what is going on, and I love the focus on Shannon and Kanon.

[Vague spoilers for Higurashi also included]

A pretty solid intro! I still need to read the tea party (and potentially anything that might unlock after that), but overall this is a fantastic start. The only thing that I didn’t particularly like is that there is a bit too much exposition, although this was an issue in Higurashi as well. I don’t think it held the experience back by any significant margin, but it’s a bit of a pain to click through a narrative that’s just over-explaining itself.

Otherwise, GOSH THIS IS SO GOOD!! The references, both blatant and subtle, to Higurashi are masterfully done (e.g. discussions of miracles; rolling die to illustrate the concepts of fate and the perception of miracles; turning into a demon in order to protect a loved one; similarities between Maria and Onikakushi!Keiichi’s letters; and so on). All of it is incredible, and feels very rewarding for people that are familiar with the series.

This is also my first time playing with CGs and updated sprites/backgrounds (and ofc the voice mod), and MAN is it good! I think Higurashi is far better played using original assets (save for the voice mod), but there’s no contest here — Umi needs to be played using updated assets. I was truly terrified of Maria every time she jumped on screen, and don’t even get me started on how much I loved Natsuhi and Eva’s showdown!!! Once the plot started rolling, it just didn’t stop, and things were always tense and I loved it.

The only complaints I have in terms of characters would be George (watching him basically force Shannon into accept his proposal was VERY uncomfortable, although I’m waiting to see if this is played more as a character flaw instead of fanservice), and Krauss (although we didn’t get to see much of him, and I imagine there’s a LOT to his character, I just think he’s sleazy and I wanna kiss Natsuhi instead). Other than that, my favorite character is definitely Natsuhi, and watching her gradually come to put her role as a mother before her family name was SO good to see!

But yeah! Great start! Can’t wait to see where this goes :)