Umineko: When They Cry

This one here is a real tragedy.

Umineko no Naku Koro is a sound novel and the third installment of the popular When They Cry series. It was written by Ryukishi07 and published by 07th Expansion. In 2009 Studio Deen adapted this novel (ah shit, here we go again). It is one of the worst adaptations I have seen to date. It is an example of almost everything done wrong. So let's start this review.

Let's start by talking about the source material. Umineko is the combination of two visual novels, Umineko and Umineko Chiru. The novels combined are a tremendous read. It takes 140 to 200 hours to read, depending on one's reading speed. Spanning approximately a massive 1.5 million words. The first novel takes about 60-80 hours to read. Now the anime was tasked with compressing that 60-80 hours' worth of reading material into 26 episodes. It was very devastating for a dialogue-heavy story like Umineko. So it was impossible to fit all that content within just 26 episodes. So how do you make the impossible possible? Simple, by cutting off a lot of content. Even the parts that are absolutely vital to the story. Forget the subtle details and nuanced characterization; the anime skips over entire hour-long sequences. It even goes into the story skipping the hour-long character introduction sequence the VN had. Characters are the most vital aspect of Umineko, but the anime manages to completely butcher them at every level. Due to the shortage of screen time, characters only receive surface-level characterization to the point that they feel like different people compared to those we have seen in the VN. Characters aren't even developed because of how little screen time they receive. Even the protagonist, Battler Ushiromiya, appears only as an annoying, stubborn, and childlike individual. Beatrice seems to be just a sadistic individual that tortures and kills people for sport. Also, the Visual Novel was to be finished when the anime was adapted. Due to certain revelations later in the story, the anime now contradicts the source material because they ignored the wording used in that context and assumed something that wasn't mentioned.

Now comes the story. The novel is a character-based psychological drama with supernatural and mystery elements. It's a deconstruction of the mystery genre. Honestly, they completely destroyed the story beyond redemption. As I said, they skipped over entire segments of the novel. Even details and clues that were necessary to solve the mystery itself. "Without love, the truth cannot be seen" is one of the series' recurring themes. But the anime fails to make you love (or at least like) any of the characters, leaving one of the series's most significant themes absent. Umineko, initially, is an over-the-top fantasy that explains itself more as the series progresses. But the anime doesn't. And even when it tries to, it's massively condensed.

The character and background designs of the original Sound Novel could definitely have been better. They used the same sprite for every character, changed the costumes, and replaced the heads. But even with that, the sprites were more expressive than their anime counterparts. Visual detail might have been one of the aspects that the anime initially did better than the VN. But now, with the updated PS3 sprites and backgrounds, the VN completely outshines the anime visually to the point it's irrelevant. Also, for some reason, the characters were drawn in a way that made them seem older than they were.

The music in the novel was masterfully crafted and was an integral part of creating the atmosphere. The music that is used in the anime is the part I have little to no complaints about. Because the anime used original soundtracks from the visual novel. They did use some anime original soundtracks, but they were less memorable than the one from the novel. But more than just having good music is required. You have to properly use them. This is where the series failed. It has poor sound direction. The OSTs needed to be appropriately utilized. This destroys some moments. As different kinds of music induce various types of emotions. A good example is that at the end of the series, the anime uses an OST called Toitsume. But the novel uses a soundtrack called Dir. Now, these two soundtracks are nothing alike. But the soundtrack in the novel perfectly matches the emotions that are supposed to be induced by the text on the screen. The one in the anime just......... doesn't. But one of the redeeming qualities of the anime was probably the OP. The anime has an unskippable and fantastic OP.

Now Umineko is broken into two parts, like how Higurashi was. The first 4 chapters, aka question arcs, create a mystery, and the last 4 chapters, aka answer arcs, solve them. But the anime never adapted the answer arcs. The first season had poor reception from fans and the general public alike. I don't see Umineko getting a complete adaptation as things stand. It's an incomplete and unsolvable mystery.

Look, I am a massive fan of the When they cry series. Higurashi is one of my favorite anime of all time. I consider the Umineko novels to be a masterpiece. If it was good, I would be the last person to call the anime terrible. But the anime is awful and fails on almost all levels. If you wanna properly experience the series, read the sound novel. Heck, you can even read the manga or the light novel. Both of them are a lot better adaptations than the anime. You'll miss out on the visual novel's music and voice acting. However, they'll still be a much better experience compared to watching the anime.

Verdict: It's a surface-level adaptation that needs to catch up to the source material in every aspect. An abomination of an adaptation that should never have existed.