I guess this is going to be one of those rollercoaster series where I’ll hate it one week and then absolutely love it the next. This week was on the upside, as DEEN did a near perfect rendition of the final chapters of the Legend of the Golden Witch. The only complaint that I could find was the overemphasis of busts, but I could live with it. I’m guessing it’s the animator’s way of throwing in a bit of their own humour, although it is sorely out of place and is not at all necessary given the loyal following that Umineko has.

Anyways, like I said, the rendition of the final murders, the jump to Maria’s letter, and the Tea Party were all pretty much spot on. And the OH SHI- moment was one of the best I’ve seen in an anime so far.

A couple things I learned from this episode:

1. Battler has blue eyes.
2. The cousins all have distinctly colored hair (Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange).
3. Will need to play through VN Ep. I again, but don’t recall Battler actually shooting the portrait.
4. Beato’s room was depicted in white daylight, as opposed to dark night. Kinda like the negative of a film…
5. Beatrice: Mugen no Maho (Witch of Infinity, or Endless Witch)

And just to touch on the whole “VN players should stop expecting a 100% accurate adaptation” I will throw out there the claim that this episode was the best so far solely because it followed the VN to the letter. It wasn’t rushed, there were no random L5 faces or motion blurs. It simply depicted the events as described in the canon. Umineko’s biggest appeal to me was that it was not like any other VN out there, and not like any other mystery I’ve ever picked up. It had a soul and personality all to its own. The anime’s biggest flaw up until now was that it completely failed to grasp that core element that made Umineko so special, and instead settled for cheap, standard run-of-the mill animation.

With the second arc looming for next week, I can’t help but feel both very excited and very worried. Excited on the fact that DEEN has actually proven they can make a decent episode of Umineko, just in time for some of the more crucial parts of the story. But worried that they’ll just regress back to bouncing boobs and crazy Maria faces. And the worst part is, I’ll probably stick around to watch no matter which one it ends up being.

Onwards to the Turn of the Golden Witch!

I honestly believe that the staff working on this show really don’t care much about the original VN. Some of the things in this show are getting borderline ridiculous, such as Maria’s L5 FACE, and George’s “mourning” over Eva. All of these scenes come off extremely silly, and really just deflate the tension and drama of those scenes. And the BGMs really feel like they’re being wasted on poor timing and just overall not syncing with what’s happening on the screen.

But I guess DEEN has realized that the legions of 07th Expansion fans will continue to watch regardless of how badly they butcher the show. It’s not even about matching the VN anymore, the anime just plain fails at presenting the story in a viewable fashion.

Ultimately, what the show needs is a muuuch slower pace. There needs to be at least some buildup if we are to feel for what is happening to these characters.

Here’s hoping that will happen by the second arc, where all that stuff started to matter. Right now, the best I can hope for is more BGMs and .WAV files to make it onto the show.