Why You Should Read: Umineko - When They Cry 

Pinned comment question: what's _your_ favorite mystery story?

how i wish umineko would be more popular and recognized as the masterpiece i think it is. its my favorite story, and even now so many years later i still find new layers and connections i haven't thought before.

fun fact: Knox's 5th rule wasn't intended to be racist, but rather, in his hamfisted way, Knox was trying to call out the fact that the depictions of chinese people in the detective fiction of the time were mostly racist. To quote: "I see no reason in the nature of things why [a chinese person] should spoil a detective story. But as a matter of fact, if you are turning over the pages of an unknown romance in a bookstore, and come across some mention of the narrow, slit-like eyes of Chin Loo, avoid that story; it is bad.""

this was the video i've been dying to see someone make since 10 years ago. i did not have the most clean umineko experiences (got into it in the early 2010s, vn translations werent finished, manga scanlations were incomplete, i got spoiled through tahyllis' fanmade umineko parody of all things) but recently ive been trying to get a go at the most authentic experience i could manage to focus on (which was through lparchive of all things, it's similar to the Something Awful forums for DR which i think does a good job in archiving all of the vns while preserving the music that you can play optionally and links to videos w/ voice acting in crucial scenes). recently i watched someone who bashed umineko's length without even reading it just because of some hearsay (+ being a little upset over how people never seem to give this series a chance) and i absolutely needed this video as a way to reaffirm about what i like about this series. i hope this video becomes one of the many sparks the umineko fandom needs in order to truly become known (like ive been thinking abt making a video abt some of my favorite umineko fanworks once i finish the actual vns). thank you so much!!

Thank you for recommending this masterpiece to more people

i watched your video when it came out and finished the game few days ago and omg it was one of the best experience with a piece a fiction i ever had! it made me realize what i wanted to do with my own stories. so i wanted to thank you for making this video!! i remember watching the anime looong time ago and really liking the core (big fan of mystery stories and witches) and trying the VN back then but my english wasnt too great so it was pretty hard to read. Also im very glad you suggested taking notes, that made the whole experience even more immersive and trying to understand the mysteries so rewarding!!

“Longer than Harry Potter… AND ITS BETTER TOO” lmfaooooooo

*cackles in 19*

Don't totally disregard the anime... The opening was fire, at least.

You could even say that Umineko and Higurashi are basically the grandfather of Re:Zero

TL;DR: Because it's freaking amazing.

Umineko is that kind of story that everyone in the world must read before they die.

as an autistic person i find a lot to relate to in maria-- she was always my favorite and it frustrated seeing how many people in and outside of the series disliked her so strongly. she's very comforting to me in a way, like...i look at her and i see myself when i was a kid thank you so much for this video, i'm sure it was a massive undertaking! ryukishi is a fantastic writer and creator, everything he touches turns to...gold, you could say! 👀

Umineko Gold will surely come out, it's only been 2 years, we just need to wait 4 more years you see?

Not to sound dramatic but Umineko (and to a lesser extent Higurashi) broke something inside me when I was younger. I can’t tell if was for better or worse but damn I have yet to find anything to shake my perspective of it being the best thing in fiction

Really commendable effort condensing this mammoth Marcie! A super enjoyable video!

this video introduced me to umineko ~1 year ago, and after 10 months of reading whenever I had free time, I finally finished it an hour ago, and I sobbed my eyes out. I can confidently say that umineko is my favorite story that I've ever engaged with in any medium and I have established an emotional connection with it that I will carry with me forever so thank you and bless you for recommending it 🤧

I honestly think reading Umineko is kind of life changing. It'll make you look at the world at large in a different way.

This series actually came up in a conversation about game design with one of my friends. Namely, I said that Umineko had no interaction, but plenty of gameplay. Because of the mystery element. To be fair, this came about because I was trying to fully define what a Video Game was, had to define what a game was first, and came out with the definition that Umineko was not a Video Game(due to the lack of interactive elements), but it was A Game... and that by extension, all Mystery Novels were Game Books. It was a very strange conversation.

immediately sends this to my wife in a further attempt to bother her about reading it

HUGE MASSIVE FUCKING SERIES WIDE SPOILERS DOWN BELOW I genuinely thought the thumbnail was a spoiler. I thought it was Sayo, and I god so confused why SAYO was in the thumbnail of a video explaining why one should read Umineko. I realized that it was just your persona 😂 Great video, I hope more are indoctrinated into this wonderful series.

I wanted to gift umineko to my little cousin since she's a weeb and has the same name of the golden witch, then I remembered the stuff that happens to a bunch of characters named Beatrice, and decided that MAYBE it was a bad idea

i JUST finished reading the whole thing just under a month ago this is PERFECT timing ^^ i know its unrealistic to expect it but ill be keeping my fingers crossed for a rose guns days or ciconia video lol

Saw this video, tried to emulate it for free and got frustrated lol, ended up buying it on Steam out of resignation. Absolutely do not regret it at alllllll. As someone who’s just in the first episode, it’s already apparent how masterful this work is; the writing alone is better than most books I’ve read recently, and the visuals and esp the soundscape take it to the next level. Also very freaked out that the first day just apparently takes place on my birthday 😳. But yah Umineko lives up to the hype, this is the greatest thing I never knew I needed in my life until now

This game has genuinely ruined other visual novels for me it’s so good, and I was a big fan of visual novels before this. This is the kind of thing I hope to achieve as a Game creator (Currently a student)

I'm at the beginning of II chapter, when Kanon kiss Beatrice boots. I'm at the start, so I don't know well all characters, but even so I feel really really sad for Kanon and Shanon, their condition as basically slaves/objects is worse than any gorish, painful, sorrowful death, they deserve all the love that they never had (this is my weird opinion). I'm very enjoying this series, It's my first visual novel and mybe but not sure the last, I think that there is something of really deep in this novel. I'm felling a little dumb for reading it only now (I knew the anime becouse its Made from the same man that wrote higurashi), I knew about it when I was littler. Ps sorry for my bad English

A fellow Eva stan? I salute you, pal!

After I finished Umineko I no longer cared anymore for romance stories, because this thing reached me to so many levels I don't think anything will ever top it. I feel it perfected the protag-villain dynamic.

It's been a few months since I first happened across this video, and I can finally say that I've finished reading Umineko. And now that I have, I want to say thank you, because truly it was an amazing experience and I'll probably continuing thinking about it for a long time after this. Before I saw this video I had only ever heard of the title, and because of the title I assumed it was a part of Higurashi (which I plan on reading next, even if that might be considered a little out of order). So I'm glad that this video existed, and made me interested enough to go check it out

27:00 THAT is the main reason of why I don't recommend the manga The OST makes SO MUCH to enhance the entire umineko experience that, reading the manga, you will totally miss. They should do something like an interactive kindle only for umineko manga where VN OST start playing at given moments to make the experience almost like the novel Even the straightforward answers of umineko manga may still alter too much the total enjoyment of the novel and kill the "magic" *winkwink* inside it

Since they weren't mentioned in the video I would also like to bring attention to a few side stories to Umineko, Tsubasa (A compilation of 15 short stories), Hane (2 short stories released with Golden Fantasia), and Saku (A rerelease of all previous content along with 2 new arcs, Our Confession gives a small glimpse into how Beatrice plans out the murders, and Last Note Of The Golden Witch is a final game between Battler, Beatrice, Ange, and a new witch)

"truth be told, I was unnecessarily elaborate in telling the same thing again and again" Nonsense, I've never heard Ryukishi repeat himself! /j

honestly planning to use this video for the "please read umineko" campaing i have been leading for twelve years now. i 100% agree on everything, though i must say it was a bit of a crime to not add ohara sayaka's perfect beatrice voice inside the voice acting section

yo Sonic and Umineko? peak media discussions all around... Wonderful foray into the greatness that is Umineko and all its factoids and appeal. Love ya

The video had me sold about this, so I was going to look into it, and then it went on to the adaptations, and STUDIO DEEN MASSACRED THIS TOO??!?!! I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST FATE/STAY NIGHT!

Haven't watched this channel in a while. Hyped to catch up!

great spoiler-free video to introduce Umineko to newcomers (the part where you discuss basically all the themes in Umineko (finding humanity in very imperfect people, public response and entitlement to grand tragedies, etc.) in a spoiler-free manner, but will ring very true to those who have played it, especially!) though I gotta say, where's the respect for my man Ryukishi07's art 😭 OGs love his raw and expressive spritework, and there's a certain strength to be reading Umineko in a true novel-like sense with no voices, with only the music to amplify the experience! not only is this an experience a lot of early fans latch onto, I also think that's also an experience worth marketing to first-timers! Also, you're totally right lol, everyone except Kinzo deserves at least one iota of sympathy (and EVEN then he manages to be portrayed with humanity in the text, much to my chagrin, smh). all the same, great video! thank you very much!

I love your video on umineko! I read this for the first time in January, and honestly it’s one of my favorite visual novels that impacted my life in a significant way by helping me come to terms with my gender transition and know I deserve better. I hope more people get into this VN from your video!!

Dear lord-the content warning makes me speechless 😶

The only good thing about the anime, was it's intro. Still one of my fav anime intros of all time. The outro is alright, but intro is badass.

I recently convinced someone to watch Higurashi using another RU-vid vid. This is the one I will present to them after they finish Higurashi to convince them that 120 hours reading Umineko is one of the best ways to spend 120 hours of your life. This story touched me in a way few others could ever hope to(especially as someone who has a fair share of sins to live with) and I thank you for summarizing this monstrosity with no spoilers.

Umineko is an amazing story with fantastic characters all around and a genuine heartfelt story that honestly if an anime adapted correctly could be up there with Steins;Gate in terms of amazing visuals and character development. (Still will always love Higurashi the most but Umi's VN is a masterpiece) Although I've never liked Battler as the MC and I kinda wish he didn't get forced down my throat.

One of the most surprising moments to me was so simple: the first time we see Battler cry. Seeing a boy cry and openly wear his emotions on his sleeve like Battler does is just so refreshing. I see so many shows/pieces of media that just refuse to let their male characters emote strongly like Battler does. Especially in something like a mystery novel!

Yen press really needs to reprint the manga. I'm missing only one book. It really bothers me. -thank god it's my least favorite episode and volume-

5/10 review. Would've been 10/10 if you read with the original sprites. Jokes aside, this is a great review of the greatest visual novel ever.

I was thrilled to find that my library has all volumes of the Umineko manga. Read through about half of them so far and I love the story. I did play the first two episodes beforehand, but had a hard time getting through them, even with the music and voice acting. As a person with ADHD, it is really hard for me to stay focused while reading VNs or books in general, even though character development and storytelling are especially interesting to me. Reading through long conversations was really a struggle but then, I would get to an intriguing or shocking scene and felt drawn into the story like I hadn't quite experienced before while reading. The manga is more accessible to me but, as shown in the video, the music is too good to miss out on. I may just have to give the VN another shot. Great video!

you always make me so so excited to continue my reading of umineko for the first time, and this video has even more so! ✨ incredible work on this one, marcie!!

Amazing video! Can't wait to send this to my friends as part of the never ending "read Umineko" grind, also really appreciate the sections about Eva and Ange. Such fantastic characters even among an already stellar cast.

Come for the mansion murder whodunnit, stay for the amazingly in depth exploration of the metaphysical nature of truth

The best part about reading Umineko is noticing all the songs you use in your videos. Based OST tbh. (I finished it a month ago and it really was peak, thanks for the recommendation Marcie!

Heya! Recently found your DR Analysis and now found that you're an Umineko Fan?! Holy fuck this alone earned a sub from me. My question I'll hope you'll answer: Will you do a retrospective on Gou and Sotsu and how it was one of the most vomit-inducing burning trashfires to ever exist? It fucked up the entire WHC franchise even more DR3 did with it's series.

When I tell you I had to step away from my computer after the train scene with Maria and Rosa because I was bawling my eyes out… it was the way Maria rationalized it by calling out to her mom to “save her from the bad witch” when it was her mom who was hurting her…

Umineko's soundtrack and aesthetic is powerful, this fusion of neo-classical music with modern EDM not to mention the opulent and wealthy design of the characters and the setting.

10:22 Jesus! When was this? This is what I get for watching a pc playthrough with the old sprites ig

I'm biting the bullet. I've got the mod and I'm an hour in. This game better be the greatest vn I've ever played dude cuz this is gonna be a LONG while.

I remember that there was supposed to be a Kickstarter to dub the game into English. Never happened...

Wonderful video that made me cry a couple of times just watching it and reliving bits of the story and hearing certain songs. I do feel like I need to say that, for me, 07th Mod is preferable to Umineko Project because Umineko Project doesn't let you use the OG sprites, which are my favorite by far. I know Ryukishi07's art gets criticized by some people, but I really think it's full of so much charm.

I hope the vn industry becomes mainstream like anime

This video is why I read Umineko and I just want to give you my thanks for introducing me to one of my favourite stories

I got the PS3 version thinking it was going to be the fighting game, (it's a street fighter type game) and got the V.N.

after the voice acting section i am CONVINCED

1:18 it just makes me laugh lol

So, I went and checked some dates just for fun, and well: Watched this video for the first time: November 6, 2022 Bought and played Umineko for the first time: November 7, 2022 Thank you for bringing me into this wonderful, unhinged fandom, Nezumi!!

You mention how the philosophy is to give all the keys to the player without giving the answer outright, does that mean an idiot like me will miss the point and interest of the mystery of I try playing it? The game sounds great but that sounds super frustrating for someone who's really bad at understanding mystery stories without their hand being held :(

I actually finished umineko today I got into it because of your danganronpa video when I hear the song "Thanks for being born" so thank you

This is a really good primer! I think people often get too cagey about spoiling what sort of story Umineko *is* to really make a persuasive case for actually reading it ("don't look up anything about this time-consuming piece of fiction, just trust me"), which inevitably ends up sounding kind of patronizing to a newcomer, which sucks! So I appreciate something that goes a bit further into it and *why* it's worthwhile. (I also think maybe the more relevant obstacle to getting people into it is how much just straight up describing events in it feels a little like lying just because of the sheer metafictional nature of the story. "What happens in this story" is a tough question to answer because so much of it is sort of allegorical *in-universe* and also the factuality of the story being told is a big sticking point both plotwise and thematically. Whew!)

Me during 90% of Umineko: "This will turn out to be the therapy session of this very fucked up family and everyone will be redeemed in the end. They will certainly walk away from the gold and accept each others flaws. It's from the writer of Higurashi after all!" Me after actually finishing it: "Uuuuuuaaaaaarrrrgllll!!!" 😵‍💫😰😭🤬

Umineko is so life changing, it's crazy

This video is wonderful! It really makes me happy that I, for god knows what reason, read that whole beast. And it’s still my favorite story to this day

I’m certain her name is just Beatrice, it’s just how they pronounce it in Japanese that makes it sound off. (I didn’t read it only watched it so idk if they spell it differently)

Wonderful analysis, maybe many spoilers in it so better to watch for veterans than newcomers

Let's all just enjoy the fact that Beatrice didn't write allof umineko as if it were a dream

I have deeply love Umineko for so long, that I always wanted to make a video like this. And knowing and watching some one doing this, doesn't even make me mad, because it is so good!

god, i was on a forum that had a forum game inspired by this show/game (at least i assume it was inspired by umineko), where the gm described mysterious deaths occurring and the players asked questions and had to come up with logical explanations for how the deaths couldve occurred.

Oh a new Umineko video in my recommended! Comment for engagement!

34:13 so... did u like. spoil the 'answer'

Read it at the time Chiru was released, with the Witch Hunt translations :) I'd love to re-read it, but it takes so much time. I suppose I'm going to have a look at the steam release and the modern patches, though :D

Honestly I've never been too big on the PS3 sprites and backgrounds. They always felt just a little too polished to me. I honestly prefer the original backgrounds especially, even if they are almost all just filtered photographs. Something about them just feels kinda right to me, and combined with the original sprites which are... Not the strongest artistically but do have strong expression and are still well-designed characters, I like the sort of scrappy, indie vibe both the OG format gives off. I appreciate the Mangagamer release lets you switch back to the OG sprites since for me that is the most authentic way of experiencing Umineko. Not to say that experiencing it with all the bells and whistles is inauthentic, just that the original formatting feels to me like the most clear depiction of Ryukishi's vision.

I´m so sad that Umineko gold isn´t released yet and I fear it will never release :(

Beatoriche!!!

I really REALLY want to show this video to my friend, because it is very well put together, but you left in some VERY important spoiler cgs around the 14 minute mark that I can't overlook.

Ok…I’m gonna trust you on this one. I just consumed the entirety of your danganronpa retrospectives, it’s only fair I return the favor and try this puppy out

I see they have Umineko and Higurashi on Steam but they seem incomplete?? So o wondered where is the best place to get both visual novels?

y fav piece of fiction also dw about people complaining bout spoilers

My wish is that you made a retrospective but I KNOW is VERY LONG, bc goddammit the game is on my veins and I'm always curious of your opinion tbh ♡ I know you work very hard to do your videos

10:05 when following her transformation from cackling madwoman to a strangely vulnerable and very human cackling madwoman

wasn't expecting an Umineko video from you, very pleased to see! with everything going on in higurashi gou, Umineko has been on my mind a lot again lately

I'm pretty much done with Umineko after taking more than a month to get through it, and I feel empty now. I need something similar, or I feel like I'll get depressed that there's no more Umineko to read.

31:15 *Angry OG purist noises😡* But nice video! Even though Higu is still my favorite of the two, Umineko is also outstandingly good and totally worth the week I took to speed read it somehow. Now I have to go listen to the soundtrack again after you spotlight it, because it’s too damn catchy to just stop now.

Interesting watch , though I was traumatized by one particular scene , but it seems well made .

then... it was magic or trick?

Thank you for this: I'm currently on Matsuribayashi of Higurashi and I really can't wait to dive into another mystery masterpiece in the When They Cry series. This video makes me hype as hellll (and also I no longer think I spoiled myself when I accidentally saw sprites of Beatrice smiling evilly, so that's a plus)

"No, NOT Homestuck for weeaboo, probably." Oh no... But now that you mention it...

Wow that is a Landry list

Great video really interesting watch awesome job!!

Read Umineko, it's

The soundtrack is also the ONLY redeeming quality of the anime. That and Beatrices laughter. Cackle. Bird noises, let's call it Bird noises

the dancing part was genuinely funny, love that xD

I need help installing the umineko project mod for chiru. It's say "Unable to initialize Font System" when I try to start it. I'm not even too sure I downloaded all the files.

Guys read umineko VN or manga