Umineko no Naku Koro ni episode 8 review; Beatrice’s and Battler’s test of wills.

 

        This episode begins with Kinzo waking up in the morning to find out that he’s still alive and wondering who Beatrice chose as her first six sacrifices. Meanwhile, we see some of the others gathered in front of the blood sealed chapel, and we find out that Krauss, Eva, Rudolf, and their spouses are missing. Later, we see Rosa inside the guest house going through Marie’s handbag, and inside the envelope that Beatrice gave her Eva finds the key to the chapel. Battler awakens to see Rosa with the key, and Rosa tells him and the kids to stay in the guest house.

 

        Once Rosa returns with the key they enter the chapel to find the missing people seated at a dining room table, murdered. But this time, instead of their faces being mutilated they have massive damage to their chest areas, and soon George, Battler, Jessica, and Maria wander into the slaughterhouse. As the kids are screaming in horror, the scene freezes and Battler and Beatrice (the ghost/real ones) appear, Battler calls Beatrice tasteless but Beatrice says that this time she left their faces alone reducing the number of possible suspects for Battler to consider. Beatrice dares Battler to explain these killings logically, they both disappear, and time moves again.

 

        Jessica yells that this is all Beatrice’s fault and runs out of the chapel to confront Beatrice, and Rosa sends Kanon and Gouda to follow her. Then George notices that there are some bars of gold inside the pumpkin located on the dining table, and Maria goes into her crazy girl mode saying that she wants Beatrice to take her to the golden land.

 

        Jessica makes it to Beatrice’s room to find it locked, and she uses Kanon’s pass key to open the door. Once inside, Jessica finds Beatrice missing but she left a note taunting Jessica and mocking her parents. Jessica experiences an asthma attack and Kanon has to help her to her room where her inhalator is located. After Jessica starts to feel better, Kanon gets ready to leave but it seems like Jessica wants him to stay with her, and at that very moment Beatrice appears and starts mocking Kanon about not understanding women because he’s furniture.

        Beatrice tells Kanon to show his power to her, and she materializes several monsters. Kanon then summons an energy blade that covers his right arm, and he tells Jessica that he’ll protect her. Kanon easily defeats Beatrice’s minions, and Kanon goes after her but she easily dodges him. Beatrice tells him that furniture should know its place, Jessica sticks up for Kanon and tells Beatrice that he’s not furniture, he’s human. Beatrice laughs at her and summons One of the Seven Stakes of Purgatory, a female creature called Lust. Beatrice tells Lust to carry out the second twilight and Lust goes to fight Kanon. It quickly become apparent that Lust is much too fast for Kanon and soon Lust transform into a dagger/stake saying she’ll pierce him. As the dagger flies all around Kanon, and is about to stab him, Jessica blocks the dagger with her back. As Jessica is dying in Kanon’s arms Beatrice mocks Kanon about not being able to protect his lady.

 

        Then Beatrice summons another Stake of Purgatory called Wrath. When Wrath appears, Beatrice tells her to kill Kanon, and Wrath turns into a dagger and flies towards Kanon striking him the chest. As both Jessica and Kanon lay dying, Jessica reaches out to Kanon, and Kanon reaches out to her. Jessica tells Kanon he’s not furniture and she asks him is real name, and Kanon tells Jessica, thanks to her he’s not furniture, but he dies before he can tell Jessica his real name. Beatrice mocks Kanon telling him that she can still humiliate him even in death, and she uses smoke from her cigarette holder/pipe to make his body disappear.

 

       Kinzo having been informed by Shannon and Genji about the six deaths tells Shannon to get the stuff ready for him to prepare his will. Back with Battler and the others they find out that they are unable to reach the police or authorities. As Battler and the others are trying to figure out how the murderer got into and out of the locked chapel while the key was in Marie’s purse, the scene freezes and Battler and Beatrice appear on the scene again. Battler says not another locked murder scene again, and Beatrice tells Battler to explain how the locked door was opened and closed with out the key. Battler tells her that’s there’s not enough information, there could be a extra key or a hidden door, and Beatrice makes a rule saying that every time she speaks the truth her words will appear in red letters. After Battler tries to make some additional arguments Beatrice amends the rule by saying if her words speak the truth Battler has to take them at face value and not ask for proof, he reluctantly agrees to this.

 

       After a little question and answer between Beatrice and Battler, he comes to the conclusion that during the night the murderer took the key from Marie’s purse and put the bodies inside the chapel and then returned the key to Maria’s purse, so he refuses to affirm that magic exists. Beatrice laughs at him saying if it wasn’t magic then he’s fingering one of the remaining living people, prove it. Time flows again, and we see the group continuing to discuss Beatrice’s letter, and George wonders if she wants them to find the gold. Maria goes creepy again saying Beatrice wants them to solve the riddle, Battler asks her if she can solve it, and Maria says who cares, she just wants to go to the golden land. Soon, Rosa, Genji, and Shannon enter the room with Rosa carrying the gun saying she’ll protect everyone. Well, that’s all for this episode.

      Well, I found the format where Battler and Beatrice watch events unfold as invisible observers and then argue back and forth about whether or not these crimes could have occurred with or without the use of magic very interesting. But, I wonder if anything will ever be settled since Beatrice has the ability to rewind events and replay them in a different order so I wonder if it would be possible of Battler to catch her in a mistake? I also found the fight between Kanon and Beatrice’s minions pretty strange, I never would have thought that Kanon would have been able to materialise a energy blade, so what the hell was Kanon supposed to be, a magical butler? I found Beatrice’s stealing of Kanon’s body to be a great move, now the suspicion will probably fall of Kanon since he’s missing. Oh-well, all I know is that I’m really engrossed with this tale and can’t wait for the next episode.

 

Umineko no Naku Koro ni episode 7 review; I won’t believe in witches!

      This episode begins with us seeing Maria and Rosa together before they head to the island, Maria acts quite bratty and Rosa overreacts by slapping the crap out of her. Then we see that servants getting ready for all the visitors that will be showing up and we see most of the family gathered together waiting to head off to the island. Later, we see everyone walking up the path to the house when time freezes and Beatrice and Battler appear off to the side, Beatrice says that this is a game that we can repeat over and over again until Battler admits defeat and accepts the fact that witches do exist. Battler tells Beatrice that he’ll never give in, so Beatrice tells Battler let the pain begin.

      The scene picks up with everyone walking towards the house and Maria mentions the witch again, Rosa stops her, and starts beating the crap out of her, Maria cries out for her mother to return and defeat the witch. Later, Kanon goes out to check on Maria asking her if she’s alright, Maria goes into crazy Maria mode and babbles about knowing Beatrice and that she’ll even play with her later. After a few minutes, Rosa realizes what she did to Maria and rushes outside to get her, she apologizes to her and Maria says it’s not her fault because she was possessed by the evil witch.

 

      A few seconds later, Beatrice appears before Maria and Rosa looking different from how she appeared in past episodes? Beatrice fixes Maria’s broken candy and hands Maria a letter and tells her it contains her invitation to the golden land. Then Beatrice hands Rosa a letter and tells her to open it and read it to everyone once they’re all gathered together.

 

       Inside the house, we see Beatrice messing with Kanon by making him kiss her boots or she’ll kill Shannon. Then we see Beatrice messing with Shannon telling her that she only sparked the love between her and George so she could twist it. Shannon tells Beatrice that she’s not going to let Beatrice control her fate any longer, she controls her own future. After Shannon leaves the room Beatrice says that she’ll kill both Shannon and her lover.

       As the family is enjoying dinner Gouda gets asked if the special guest will be joining them, and he tells them that she wishes to eat alone. When someone demands to know who the guest is Gouda tells them that it’s Beatrice. This answer causes quite a commotion between the family members and they demand that Genji comes and answers some questions. The adults excuse the children and the doctor to retire to the guest house where the doctor tells them that Beatrice was once Kinzo’s mistress but he’d never met her, and he’s sure she died long ago. Then we switch to the garden where George gives Shannon the ring and proposes to her and this time she immediately accepts his proposal.

       Back inside the main house we see all the adults meeting with Beatrice, they all accept and acknowledge that Beatrice does exist and she is a witch. Well, that’s all for this episode.

 

 

       Well, this was quite an amusing episode, it looks like Battler’s and Beatrice’s test of wills has begun in earnest. After, a few moments of back story showing Maria and Rosa before the island, and seeing George preparing to ask Shannon to marry him, it seems that Beatrice has hit the reset button and changed how things progressed from pretty much the moment everyone left the boat. If this is truly a battle of wills between Battler and Beatrice, with Beatrice trying to convince Battler that she and witches do exist, I don’t know how this method of attack will settle anything. I think that if Battler truly doesn’t believe/or refuses to believe in witches it really won’t matter how many times Beatrice forces Battler to relive the events of the past couple of days. I think that in the end Battler may win this fight because no matter how many thousands of times Beatrice replays the past you can’t convince someone to believe in something they refuse to believe in.

In closing I’ll offer Battler a little wisdom from one of my all time favorite novels, Dune.

I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.

—Bene Gesserit Litany against Fear, Dune

 

Umineko no Naku Koro ni episode 6 review; Shannon’s deal with Beatrice: love for freedom.

 

      This episode begins with a flashback of George and Shannon enjoying their first date together, George asks Shannon of he can call her by her real name, Sayo, and he tells he that magic must have brought them together. Then we jump back a little bit in time and we see Shannon walking up to the island’s shrine in the middle of a storm, she opens the inner door and removes a mirror and smashes on the ground, and she says now that she’s kept her promise it’s time for Beatrice to keep hers. Then in little further in the past, we see George briefing the family on what he’s been studying and who’s he’s been studying with. After hearing this, Jessica’s mother tells her that she needs to be more like George, and she storms out of the room.

 

       After Jessica leaves the room Shannon begins to serve tea and makes a mistake, Natsuhi jumps all over her, and George makes small talk to cover for her. Outside the house Shannon talks with Jessica about George, and since she can tell that Shannon likes him she teases her a bit. Eva sees George talking with Shannon and Jessica and goes out and tells him that Grandfather wants to talk with him about a marriage meeting. As Eva walks past Shannon she whispers to her to not forget her place.

 

       Later, we see Shannon standing in front of Beatrice’s painting saying that before, she wasn’t human, she was a piece of furniture, but why was she given a heart that loves. Then Beatrice appears before Shannon and tells her that before she had a heart or knew love she wasn’t human, but now that she has a heart, she’s human. Beatrice compares Shannon’s situation to Adam and Eve inside the garden of Eden, they tasted of the fruit and left the garden because they knew they desired more than the garden, and she tells Shannon that if she smashes the mirror inside the shrine she’ll regain her powers and help her out. At first, Shannon refuses, saying she wants the peaceful days on the island to continue. Yes, things will stay like this forever, but if you change your mind I always keep my promises, Beatrice tells her. Kanon walks in on the scene and yells at Beatrice, and when Beatrice threatens to hurt him, Shannon begs Beatrice not to hurt him because he’s still a child. Before Beatrice leaves she gives Shannon a butterfly hairpin/broach and tells her the pin represents her wish, and if she smashes the mirror her dreams will come true, but if she does nothing everything will stay the same.

 

       Then we jump forward about two years where we see Shannon telling Jessica about her date with George, and Jessica teases her a bit then she tells Shannon that she wants her own boyfriend. Shannon asks her, doesn’t she already have someone she likes? Then we see Shannon having lunch with Beatrice, Shannon thanks her for her help and tries to return the pin to her, Beatrice refuses saying that it’s very seldom that someone thanks her for her help, and Beatrice tells Shannon that only her and Kanon see her. They go on to discuss how she was summoned by Kinzo for the gold, and how Beatrice’s power was blocked by the mirror.

       Later, that night, Shannon tries to give the pin to Kanon but he refuses. Then Shannon tells Kanon that she wants to talk with him about Jessica, and this catches him off guard. Then we seen that the scene switch to Jessica’s high school where we see Kanon meeting her there during cultural festival, and some of Jessica’s girlfriends go all gaga over him. Jessica thanks him for pretending to be her boyfriend, and she tells him that she’ll be busy but will try to make time for him, so enjoy yourself. We see Kanon watching Jessica while she’s doing her cultural festival activities, Kanon wonders what the hell he’s doing here, I hate crowds, then he notices that Jessica is much different from how she acts at the mansion.

        Back on the island Kanon tells Jessica that she sings very well, and he can’t sing at all. He calls himself furniture, and Jessica tells him to give it a rest, they’re both human after all. Jessica tells him she doesn’t even like living on this island, let alone being a heir to this family, it’s a pain, so she created another self, one in which she can be the person she wants to be and do the things she wants to do. She tells Kanon that even you can create another you, one in which you like yourself. Basically, Kanon tells her thanks for thinking of him as human, but there can be no love between humans and furniture, so they could never work, and even George and Shannon will fail.

        On his way back to the house, Beatrice appears before Kanon and tells him that she thought her magic brought another pair of lovers together. Kanon takes the pin out of his pocket (it looks like he took it after all) and smashes it to the ground and tells Beatrice to stop messing with people, and begone from here. Beatrice just laughs at him, and says that nothing can stop her revival, she’s the true ruler of this island. After Beatrice vanishes we hear her say that now that she’s planted these seeds she wants to see how they grow, and it’ll soon be time of the banquet. Well, that’s all for this episode.

        This was quite an interesting episode because we did a little time travel and got to see how Beatrice got semi-released from bondage, and I never would have thought that it would have been Shannon that did it. My, my, Eva seemed quite worried that her son might consider slumming with a servant girl, and Eva was really a little bitch for going after Shannon instead of talking with her son. It was very enlightening to find out that Beatrice’s spirit was still hanging around the island for who knows how many years just waiting for the right time to appear. So, it was to Shannon that Beatrice first chose to appear to, Shannon was offered a deal with the devil, I’ll help you with love if you help me with freedom. I found it very interesting that Beatrice never threatened Shannon, she just offered her a straight forward deal, help me and you’ll get your love or do nothing and every stays the same forever.

       It was also quite interesting to find out that at one point Shannon was just like Kanon, she felt she was furniture, not human, and didn’t deserve to love or be loved. I think that Beatrice knew she had her once poor Shannon’s heart felt the slight warmth of love, she knew that once Shannon had a taste of that warmth she couldn’t go back to being a piece of furniture, and she knew that Shannon would have to risk leaving the unchanging but not satisfying safety of her island garden, game over. I also found it very interesting to find out that Kanon’s heart was much harder than Shannon’s heart, he was offered the chance of becoming human and tasting love, but he refused. I kind of thought that Beatrice was playing the role of the snake by getting Shannon/Eve to taste the fruit then she gets Kanon/Adam to also eat of the fruit, but it seems like he refuses. I really feel sorry for Jessica it seems like her love for Kanon was pretty one sided and unrequited, unless more information is forth coming in future episodes.

       Beatrice; my reaction to her in this episode was all over the place, at times I really liked her, and at other times I despised her. At the point when Shannon and Beatrice where sharing tea and snacks it seemed to me that Beatrice almost liked having someone to talk to, and might I say even having a friend. Shannon expresses gratitude towards Beatrice even though they made a fair exchange, and Beatrice seemed to appreciate her gratitude. But, at the point when Beatrice raves about getting ready to sow the benefits of the seeds she carefully planted I found myself hating her. I would like to think that even though we supposedly have seen both Kanon’s and Shannon’s dead bodies that they’re in one of Beatrice’s rooms having tea and enjoying the show  hoping for a good end to the game that Beatrice is playing with everyone.