When the Seagulls Cry #07 — Motherhood

August 12th, 2009

 

Smack that brat.

Impressions:

Like much of this overall episode/runthrough, a very Rosa heavy episode, which works out decently enough because watching Maria getting the snot slapped out of her never gets old. I think they could have done a bit more with Battler and Beatrice’s side of things, especially with Beatrice’s little candy parlor trick. Cutting that was by no means terrible, but addressing the first sign of actual magic that Battler was seeing from his interdimensional tea room would have at least set down the general concept for how his game is going to play out. I guess it’s also not quite obvious yet that events will play out different in each run through, so that could have also been made a little more obvious. It’ll be clear early next episode when the first twilight hits with a different pile of corpses at any rate.

Honestly though, until the murders actually get underway, I’m of the opinion that all of these are a tad dull. While fleshing out the characters adds more to the background of the murders, until you actually know who’s dying and the circumstances, it’s impossible to try to slot anything together yet. Assuming you’re on Battler’s side… and you should be or else the narrative doesn’t make a damn lick of sense… there’s not much to try to explain until something actually happens, and all that we’ve got from this episode is the continued reveal that Beatrice is a real person wandering around Rokken. Although that does raise the question of whether or not Battler would accept it if Beatrice just clubbed people to death with a stick instead of using magic. Witches may not exist… but sticks… now that’s another story.

Well, that and making fun of Deen’s continued stellar attention to detail.

Preview text goes here

Posted in Umineko | 14 Comments »

14 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Anonymous says:
    August 12, 2009 at 7:48 pm

    Looks like the murders will start next episode. I guess each story arc will have about 2 anime episodes of backstory before the twilights start, except for maybe the 4th arc.

  • Cross says:
    August 12, 2009 at 8:27 pm

    Still okay, I guess. I mean, it’s not that bad.

  • thatguy says:
    August 12, 2009 at 11:00 pm

    I completely agree about the boredom. But it was the same way in the games. The build up to the murders are always a bit boring. And I have to say, the meta-world cut-in was kinda disappointing. I was hoping for something a bit more interesting than them just standing around.

  • TJ says:
    August 13, 2009 at 1:04 am

    I have no idea what’s going on now…

  • rev says:
    August 13, 2009 at 1:29 am

    Urgh, the murder next episode is diabolic.

  • Digdri says:
    August 13, 2009 at 5:07 am

    @rev: Right… 1st twilights are a “nice” surprise in every arc in different ways but next one will be particularly gruesome if the adapt it the right way.

    @Anonymous: Guess for the 4th arc half of the story kind of revolve around back story if they don’t cut much about it.

    @thatguy: I don’t get how everybody shouts boring if the series provides more character development before the incidents start . Thats a mystery story providing a mind game after all. Whats the point in brutal murders if you don’t even know whats the meaning of it. To find answers about the whos, whys, hows is part of every story like this. Well its to early for a how this arc but you get more glimpse why Maria mighty be so strange and now we have a person walking this island who shouldn’t be there (nobody seems to know who invited her and how did she get on the island) and using magic which shouldn’t exist in front of other people.
    Well perhaps the slower paced but continuous VN-style of the games is more forgivable for lengthly parts because you don’t think in good 20 mins / bad 20 mins blocks and have more motivation to “play” that mind game in between.

    @TJ: If you’re confused about this episode watch the preview for the next: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfCOmrUt6zg :P

  • MuzikalNotes says:
    August 13, 2009 at 10:25 am

    … Sigh. Seriously, was Maria ever supposed to make those creepy faces this episode? If I remember correctly, of course not. Ok, maybe one scene, but this is just overkill.

    Eh, to be honest, the meta-world scene was pretty much what I imagined it to be. Even if it isn’t the manga’s Meta-World, this is good enough for me. I mean, they could have made it worse. A lot worse.

    @digdri: Very well done reply to thatguy’s comment. A mystery without motives and explanations is not a very well done mystery (to me, at least, I’m not an expert in any way).

  • Digdri says:
    August 13, 2009 at 5:50 pm

    @MuzikalNotes: Well I just see this again and again every episode. The mystery loving, VN-reading fans discussion how the cut far to many of the details they had analyzed again and again for vital clues or give positive comments how DEEN really managed to condense a big part of the story in one episode without losing much of the novels flair. Meanwhile the anime-only watchers comment: “Boooooring, no action, no blood, nothing happens”… its just strange to see such a large difference in perception.

    There were only a few faces in the VN for Marias scary faces so its kind of difficult to tell if Maria was intended to look so crazy but IMO they reduced it to tolerable amounts compared to the first arc.
    I also thought it was quite fitting to see her switch from cute to freaky after the abuse of her mother suggesting she also has some kind of personality issues.
    But many also don’t seem to care for the finer nuances after DEEN presented her so annoyingly in the 1st arc.

    The meta world interpretation was appropriate to differentiate the normal from the meta characters. Still lacking the elegance of the chessboard parlor idea but I guess they will return to this place. The ending shows something similar and after all there is someone waiting to serve delicious tea and cookies later on. Would be really awkward if he tried to while they argue in some random hallway in the mansion during time freeze, right? ;-)

  • thatguy says:
    August 13, 2009 at 10:55 pm

    @digdri: I get what you’re saying about character developement. After all, character development made Maria actually likeable in the game. Guess I’m just so anxious to see the massacres and the logic battles animated, I don’t want to be bothered to go through the prologue stuff again. I’d better curb my anxiety, it ruins mysteries like Umineko. It should be easy though. I mean, it’s not like Umineko has any Super Paper. Or stakes. Or awesome mythic battles.

    • Digdri says:
      August 14, 2009 at 7:27 am

      One more week and the weirdness will start… the preview already show the new pieces put into play (see link above) :P

      I’m also curious how they will adapt all the epic stuff later on but I also always enjoyed the many facets of character interaction and small pieces of background infos which may give you more then some trivial talk. So this never bored me…. not even the really long-winded arc 4 background-story.
      (The talk between the old lady an Jessica for example look quite uninteresting but perhaps there is more to the story about the shrine and the evil spirits.)

      Well ok, I read all 4 games so its much easier to read more into stuff then first-time watchers would but I think so get the point.

      • thatguy says:
        August 14, 2009 at 10:51 am

        In regards to the preview, I just wanna say HELL YEAH! WE’RE GETTING SOME ASS NEECHANS NEXT WEEK! The wait for this and Episode 5 is gonna kill me. And does anyone else find something off about Dread of the Graves in that preview?

  • chad001 says:
    August 14, 2009 at 12:55 am

    Wow… it just doesn’t seem right for a 1000 year-old woman, in a grown-up body, to be in a miniskirt that looks like a cheap copy of Jessica’s… Beato just looks weird in it, like a big head, and big breasts on the body/uniform of 14 year-old…

  • MADAO says:
    August 15, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    ROSAAAAAAA !!!! I LOVE YOU !!! WILL YOU MARRY ME ?! Shit, older married women never look this hot before !!! My body’s fluid keep flowing out throughout this ep due to her AWESOMENESS. So far, she was the only likeable charac in this GDOdamn cast IMFHO.

    • Digdri says:
      August 17, 2009 at 2:18 pm

      Believe me you don’t imagine what it looks like when Rosa IS really awesome… but still not much to like about this character with all her character flaws and uncontrolled RAGE… the “BEST MOTHER EVAR” meme has it reasons ^^

      Oh and BTW don’t know anything about Rosa being married. Even the name of Marias father is unknown to the VN readers…. must have run away from her RAAAGING :P