Summer 2009 Anime Impressions – Umineko no Naku Koro ni (When Seagulls Cry)

Speaking of the darker shows of the season, it’s now time to look at Umineko no Naku Koro ni.

This show comes from the creators of the Higurashi and while I never got past the first season of that show (for various reasons), I was hoping for a similar experience from this show.

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Rating: episode 1 – 8/12 B+
Rating: episode 2 – 9/12 A-
Anticipation Level: 3/5 – Average to Medium

Umineko no Naku Koro ni is set in the year 1986 and takes place on an island that’s wholly owned by a very rich family. All the members of this family have been called there by the head of the family since he’s about to die. Once there, the viewers find out that the source for this family’s riches come from a contract the head guy signed with a witch. At this point the head guy seems a little unhinged (maybe impending death will do that) and he terminates the contract with the witch, known as Beatrice. The terms stipulate that upon termination, Beatrice gets everything that the gold allowed the family to have unless all her gold is returned to her. This doesn’t sound so bad until we realize that taking back involves Beatrice killing members of the rich family. From here, presumable, the remaining family members will attempt to decipher the riddle about the location of the gold before everyone dies.

So was it any good? That’s a bit tricky to answer. On one hand, the show displayed just about everything I liked about Higurashi. It had:

Those eyes

and violence

And blood

But it’s already showing (using Jason’s terminology from Blogsuki) that it’ll probably be a train wreck of a series. For some that’ll mean the show will be a failure but for others that’ll mean a success. I’m not sure which camp I fall into.

Outside of what I was expecting to like about the show, there’s been other things I’ve liked. There was the scenes from the first episode with the adults bickering over money and then the verbal cat fight that erupted. I also like the vocal cast of the show and I’ll even applaud how annoying the little girl’s voice is – it’s obvious that we’re supposed to hate it and we do. The opening and closing songs are excellent and the animation for both is cool. The animation for the show itself is clean and serviceable for the show, not nearly as bad I was fearing.

In the end, Umineko no Naku Koro ni intrigues me enough that I’ll gladly continue watching so I can see how the show unfolds but as of right now, I don’t think I could really recommend this title to others except for those people that are looking to see blood.

Early indication of trainwreck status - reconcile this imagine and the one above it. Hard to but it's the same series.