#wtrc

[EPISODE 1]

In the Summer of 2025, I launched one of my largest threads on Bluesky. It was an episode-by-episode analysis of Umineko: When They Cry. I delivered several of my impressions and observations as I was reading it for the first time, with only the mildest knowledge of what it was actually about. I have decided, at long last, to repurpose my thread into a series of articles to facilitate its readability. The writing shall be left mostly untouched, unburdened by hindsight, in order to convey the many feelings that organically sprouted within me during the discovery phase. This is one hell of a journey and it continues now!

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So, let us actually discuss the setting of Umineko, its presentation and general atmosphere. Specifically, in contrast to Ryukishi07's first work, Higurashi. Both stories reside in small corners of the world that hide a greater scale but they exist in opposite ends of a sociocultural spectrum.

The mountain town of Hinamizawa, in Higurashi, is a location right out of one's childhood nostalgia: an idyllic, picturesque image of the Japanese Countryside that might no longer exist. A familiar yet distant place, a dream grounded in the relatable yearning for "simpler times." Every environment and background were captured by a photographic camera and slightly blurred, thus making it all seem like a distant memory of the past. You could have lived in this town, you could have heard the cries of the cicadas during Summer. You might have even known this place.

Conversely, the island of Rokkenjima, from Umineko, with its opulent Western-style mansion built on top of it, couldn't be farther from that feeling of familiarity. 'Tis the realm of the obscenely wealthy, sliced out of a mystery novel or a dark fable, removed from everyday life.

It's an extravagant setting befitting the eccentricity of the truly rich, but it is also an oppressive place beholden by inescapable traditions and generational trauma. Therein lies the contrast. Hinamizawa feels like a village where its inhabitants may live their lives "freely", blissfully unaware of the invisible cage that surrounds them. However, the characters from Umineko are keenly aware that Rokkenjima is their prison, one that bounds them to an existence of despair and repression. Being trapped, chained to our social customs, status, family traditions, Capital and the Patriarchy, is decisively a Theme in this novel... and that is even before the cast becomes literally trapped by yet another force outside of their control. By the way, as much as I adore the classic aesthetics of a Ryukishi07 game, I wouldn't fathom to experience this work in any other way than this polished presentation, which befits the grandiose nature of the setting - bells, whistles and all.

Fate is an important theme in Ryukishi07's works. Specifically, the idea of "Fate" not as an unknowable, inexorable act of God but, rather, as a human product. It's the result of your own will clashing against the will of others. In Higurashi (spoilers), this idea is presented in a frank manner. Over the course of its run, it methodically dispels the notion of the Supernatural working against the characters and it establishes a very human threat behind it all, one backed up by powerful institutions and money. An adverse result can be overcome because the enemy isn't all-powerful but man-made. Higurashi is a story about finding strength in community against an imposing yet ultimately fallible opponent whose stature crumbles when its "inexorability" is thoroughly challenged. No Kings.

Umineko tackles a similar theme but it's approaching it from a more abstract angle. It's about Fate as a social construct: one's own destiny being determined by upbringing, wealth, innate privilege or lack thereof. The adversarial entity is much more insidious; it does not come in the form of a clear opponent that can be fought once its existence is made apparent. As previously mentioned, the "cage" here is present from the start and everyone is locked in it, regardless of status. The (true) enemy is a force built upon hundreds of years of hierarchical indoctrination so intrinsically baked into our very core that escaping from it would require a complete rejection of the Ego. It's no wonder the idea of witches, magic and a Golden Land seem appealing to some of these characters. It's a chance to run away from this horror, to be freed from the prison of social expectations but... is it real? Or is it just a lie meant to obfuscate a harsh truth?

Umineko asks the Big Questions! What is a Man? Is it a miserable pile of social constructs? Does Man have agency or are we all pieces atop the chessboard of Fate? What if the chess players were also on the board and thus trapped in the same cycle as the rest of us? Many layers of meta-text.

I shan't lie, whilst these philosophical musings feel intellectually stimulating to corroborate, the "story" is getting pulled apart in all directions simultaneously in an effort to convey said themes and they all contradict each other. It's becoming a rather unwieldy read. Here's an example: a gruesome murder scene is established. The characters will spend a long time talking in circle in an effort to make sense of it. Meanwhile, in a different part of the mansion, the witch is literally shown summoning a bunch of demon servants to murderize her next victims. Then we cut back to the previous murder scene and the characters are still playing detective as if this were a regular Agatha Christie novel... and then, we cut to Battler and Beatrice having their game of "Fate Chess" outside of the fiction itself. They're doing the Ace Attorney shtick. It's a nightmarishly structured, weirdly paced narrative that becomes tedious to follow with its many moving parts existing in spite of each other. The readers know more about the plot than the characters on the chessboard, making their "deductions" redundant.

We are also supposed to buy into the idea that magic might not be real and take Battler's side of the argument but he cannot actually prove that it isn't real, for now. All the while, the Witch is empirically demonstrating her magic - which is most likely a case of unreliable narrator. I can see the threads of this elaborate web of setups eventually connecting together in functional payoffs but, unfortunately, the journey to get there is extremely jumbled and glacially paced. It's sad because, by far, the strongest parts of the novel are its deeply tragic and human characters. They are especially hopeless as they squirm in their self-made little cages inside a much bigger cage, unaware of how little power they hold in this constantly repeating cycle of tragedies. I want to care about them but the confounding structure (and the meta-fictional aspect) make it hard. I have to emphasize that a game of "Fate Chess" where even the two players are pieces on the board is, conceptually, a brilliant metaphor for the inescapable, existential dread of socially-enforced roles. Nobody truly lives outside of the Construct, not even those who "control it." To summarize my experience with Umineko, thus far: fascinating, high-concept yet weirdly explored themes. Exceptionally-written characters somewhat lost in the bloat of structure and pace. I have only read two episodes out of eight and I already want to escape to the Golden Land. Take me, Beatrice! To be continued.

[EPISODE 3]

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀‿̩͙⊱༻☂︎༺⊰‿̩͙

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