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Forum - View topicREVIEW: Umineko When They Cry Episode 4: Alliance of the Golden Witch Volume 1 GN 7
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here-and-faraway
 Posts: 1528 Location: Sunny California |
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I didn't read the review because of the spoiler warnings. Thank you for those.
This is sort of off-topic, but would a kind soul mind helping me out? Has anyone seen the anime? I bought the first volume of the manga and it was basically the same plot as the anime. Does this volume and go further with the story? The anime ended on a cliffhanger and I'd love to know what happens next. There have been so many great releases this year that my anime/manga budget is very tight. If the manga story continues from the anime, then I'll buy the manga, but if it's basically a recap, I'll use my money on another title. Thanks! |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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PS3 version (if you understand Japanese fluently), Original visual novel (thank you Witch hunt for the translation), Manga, then a big step back is the Anime experience.
If it is worth throwing money at is always at the buyers discretion, but I would buy the Manga over the anime in this particular case. |
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SamTheNayru
Posts: 60 |
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The manga isn't a recap of the anime, it's the anime that's a recap of the manga. I definitely recommend to read the manga, it's the perfect replacement for the original visual novel. The anime lets out a lot of hints and information, while the manga does not. |
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JR-1
Posts: 70 Location: Southeast Asia |
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IMHO, Ep 4 is where Umineko finally hit its stride. It's where one of its larger themes, the double interpretation of magic, becomes apparent.
Sure, it was touched in Ep 3, but in that circumstances we are led to believe to deny magic and to reveal the "reality". Ep 4 is much more ambiguous in that it makes us think that maybe the magic "truth" is true, and even if it isn't true, it's a better interpretation to the circumstances. (Though that last part is not a moral I endorse personally. See also: Life of Pi) This theme also directly ties to another theme, the multiple interpretation of mystery, which will only becomes apparent in later episodes. Now that I think about it, its larger focus in these themes is what makes it one of my favorite thing from the anime/manga/VN scene, since most of them hinges in character appeal rather than tackling a particular theme (not to say that approach is inherently worse, but it's definitely less fullfilling assuming both are done well). On a side note, Ange is probably my favorite character in the little sister archetype. She actually has a personality (not just a semblance of it) and has a very legitimate reason to obsess about her family, in particular her brother, as he's the only one with a chance ro return. Though the way some people interpret that obsession left a sour note with me, but not surprising. |
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2868 |
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the novels have an awfully slow pace, which is normal for VNs, that would make the manga the superior version but the music in umineko is so [expletive] great, that it kinda makes it a bad point for the manga not having it. the anime is way too rushed but it has the music and voice acting, if you plan to buy something buy the manga or the vn, if you already have teh anime the manga is stilla sound inversion as it has far more material than the anime covers. to explain it in more detail, the anime only covers the first 4 arcs, the manga covers the 8 arcs (actually more but that's nto very relevant to the discussion); but the manga is still being released in english and it is barely in the 4th arc, so you might want to wait until the 5th arc to buy it. The kicker here is that the anime is very barebones and the manga goes deeper into what happens in what you hav alreayd watched; so : a) if you liked umineko a lot, buy the manga from the start, so that you get a better understanding of what happens and on the character development. b) if you only liked it a bit, buy the manga until the 5th arc starts getting released, it is very likely there will be a few things that you won't understand because the anime skimped over them, but it's otherwse ok. c) see how much the vns cost and buy those, they are the best way to experience umineko if you don't mind slow pacing, another way to think about it is that slow pacing = more bang for your buck.
lol
as a person who follows a japanese vlogger whom makes a lot of street takes, believe me, the skirts are not unrealistically short, if anything japanese women wear really short skirts. |
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here-and-faraway
Posts: 1528 Location: Sunny California |
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Thank you everyone for your help! I appreciate it!
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Tanteikingdomkey
 Posts: 2346 |
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episode 4 is possibly my favorite of the whole series. The series really does fully hit it's stride during episode 4, It got it in the second half of 3 and it keeps on trucking with the momentum of a runaway train.
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grooven
Posts: 1424 Location: Canada |
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JR-1
Posts: 70 Location: Southeast Asia |
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Not incidentally, almost all VN, even the ones I have read and liked, would improve a lot with the help of an editor. Most of them has at least one of these problems or something similar: tendency to purple prose, a lot of needless scenes, a lot of needless descriptions. The example I usually use is 999 (an excellent VN puzzle game for the DS). In the beginning of the game, the narrative spends two full paragraph to describe 'the door is locked' (describing the door, sound, the shape of the handle, etc) even though most of them is redundant due to it's being a VISUAL novel. VNs also seems to love describing any uncommon concept/thing. I remember things like: What, you don't know what's an anagram/the phases of the moon? Well, LET ME EXPLAIN IT FOR YOU. It's especially egregious if it's an interesting but very uncommon concept, like: What's the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle ypu ask? Perfect, LET ME EXPLAIN IT FOR YOU IN FULL DETAIL. This is a big pitfall to this medium, I think. Unlike a novel, there's practically no limit to its length, and due to it's somewhat viewed as a 'game' and its higher price, length is also often perceived as value. Umineko is actually IMO one of the less egregious example of the medium. And the manga adaptation actually does a good job in compressing the events while retaining most relevant informations. |
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casualfan
Posts: 333 |
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I kind of wonder what this unrealistically short skirt means. Plenty of girls wear really short and tight skirt if you go to the clubs or just into party life in general.
As for the series itself, I still can't get around how crazy magical the entire story is and yet it's supposed to prove that magic doesn't exist. Well a unique and interesting premise I guess. |
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Etrien
 Posts: 525 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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Wow, is it that time again already? As always, it's an absolute delight to read your interpretations. You've got a good eye for themes, which makes me all the more interested to read your future deductions. I think you'll be one of the readers who "gets" it.
Hahaha. Hey, you leave Ramblekishi07 alone.
He certainly does repeat himself a lot and can drone on at times, but I kind of understand why (even if it is a tad unprofessional). He's really trying to get certain points across and will repeat said point three, four, five times. But even with that, there's more than a small number of people I've seen online that completely missed the point or didn't understand major things in the story. Likewise, I've seen people who had trouble understanding, but it finally clicked for them BECAUSE he was so repetitive about drilling the points in. As a side note, I'm not as big on EP3 and 4 as many fans are. I'm especially partial to EP5 and (of course) EP7, myself.
That discrepancy might just have meaning.
It really is, and I might not have ever played it if not for Umineko. The finale holds an especially fond place in my heart. spoiler[SUDOKU GAME OF DOOOOOOM!] I really hope we get Part 3 in some format someday. 
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grooven
Posts: 1424 Location: Canada |
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Yeah, I just found he repeated himself so many times to the point where I was like I GET IT.
lol! Perfect name. Yes he goes on sometimes a bit too much where I feel I'm reading in a circle at times. I do see how that can work, but I found it too repetitive I found I got lost in it. I'd love to read the manga all the way through and see if I can get everything much easier. I've read some and the death scenes are boss. Oh crap I meant 7 not 6 I thought spoiler[submarine events] happened in 6. |
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2868 |
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afaik, vn writers get paid by word, so you do the math. |
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Bernkastel
 Posts: 12 |
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While the anime is very well done, it often falls short of the nuances and intrigue of the VNs and manga. The anime is fantastic when it comes to voice acting, animation, fight scenes and 'red truth', but in turn, its pacing sometimes suffers when the other parts of the franchise are sturdy in their own right. Also of note, the anime does NOT cover all of the arcs, like the VNs have done and like the manga is planning on doing. If you're only looking to see what happens, I would invest more money in the manga, rather than the anime. However, it is still one of my favorite titles, and is well worth the watch. Hoped this helped! |
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Tanteikingdomkey
Posts: 2346 |
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And Ryu work on these games with his family so remind me how he gets paid again |
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