originally posted at https://canmom.tumblr.com/post/163225...
There sure is a lot of Umineko.
@fates0end let me know about another video:
Oh, I forgot about this. There’s something called Umineko Motion Graphic, a fan… semi-animation, I suppose? An animatic, maybe? Of various scenes from the series, which was made as the game was released. This is the first, which is based only on the first game, and so isn’t spoilery
Cheers, that was interesting.
So, resurrection. Battler’s hanging about in the dining room, no longer caring if the murderer or witch gets him. Someone arrives.
So uh remember in the first episode when Battler was a sexually-harassing creep obsessed with boobs? He says a line like that now - mocking defiance of Beatrice but still not ok. [Note from the future: why was I so obsessed with judging the sexual morality of fictional people?]
It’s just Genji though. Battler’s like “so are you here to murder me” and Genji’s like “no? why are you lazing around?” Battler’s like, well what’s left? I’m going to be murdered soon. Genji says he’s acting just like Kinzo, and it’s clearly not a compliment. He says after ‘a number of sad incidents’, Kinzo’s life was ‘completely reduced to atonement’.
Battler’s like, hold on what?
Genji goes on: now the ritual is done up to the eighth twilight, he can tell Battler ‘everything’. But in fact, he’s taking Battler to Kinzo’s study to hear it ‘directly from them’.
What?
Genji gives a strange warning. Oh, I’m ready.
He tells Battler not to ask questions like ‘what?’ or ‘why?’, and it’s up to him if he believes it. Battler says he’s ready.
Genji says something more cryptic. Implication: Battler is not about to die, and somehow he’s going to be following Kinzo’s footsteps.
They go into the study. It is, predictably, full of Beatrice’s butterflies. A new, kind of Harry-Potter-reminiscent piece of music plays.
Battler immediately fails the “don’t say ‘what?’“ instruction.
Sure enough, Beatrice is here, playing chess with Kinzo.
This time, Beatrice is being altogether more lenient with Battler. She invites him to ask as much as he wants.
Battler wastes no time in dropping a lot of questions.
- what actually happened on Rokkenjima, and why?
- how were the locked rooms pulled off?
- is Beatrice really a witch?
- what is her true purpose?
- what did she want to make the humans do?
- why did she call Battler up at the end?
Kinzo tells him to stfu, but Beatrice says there are no useless questions. She says she’ll answer on the condition that, if Battler is satisfied of her existence, he’ll kneel and kiss her shoes. To answer q6, she summoned him because she wanted to make him submit.
jfc. [Wow, past me... it's like you couldn't see the appeal of getting dommed by a witch.]
Of course, that rubs up against Battler’s pride. He’s like, come at me bro.
And the closing crawl hits. AND THEY DON’T TELL US ANYTHING.
What a fucking cop-out!
Most of the closing crawl is similar to the one before, naming who was killed by which stake on which twilght. This time, there’s nothing about the kids’ bodies being found or the aftermath, or Maria’s notebook washing up in a bottle.
Notably, Rosa did not “accept the witch, prostrate herself, and receive an invitation ot the Golden Land”.
Interestingly, despite his supposed satisfaction at Beatrice’s answers, it doesn’t state whether Battler accepted Beatrice and got invited into the Golden Land.
This is as before:
And I didn’t pick up on it before, but only the people who get to the Golden Land get to resurrect people, and then only some people. This time, there are only a couple of resurrections.
Contrast episode 1:
So, most of the dead people stay dead.
This time, the ending scroll is not the end of the narrative. We have a final scene with Rosa.
For some reason, she’s in the chapel.
She takes a gold bar from the table and carries it away in a sling, saying she’ll take just one. Wait… what? Is she assuming she’ll be framed as the culprit, and trying to leave before the cops arrive? Did she really have a deal with Beatrice, who now seems - beyond doubt - to be a witch?
Maria is with her. She laughs and tells Rosa the door to the Golden Land will soon open, and she can meet Beatrice there. Rosa hits her again.
Despite that, Rosa declares it really was a witch, not a human calling herself a witch.
And also a final scene with Kinzo. Maybe we’ll hear some of Beatrice’s answers to Battler after all.
Maybe not. Genji declares it’s time for the ‘banquet’. Beatrice tells Battler to come along.
CW abuse including sexual abuse below
He has been enslaved. In fact, Beatrice is literally using him as a footrest.
Kinzo complains that Sayo isn’t around when he needs her, calling her useless. Fucking hell, dude. Your girlfriend here literally murdered her!?
Beatrice tells Battler - who doesn’t answer - that she’s happy to get changed in front of him because he’s merely furniture.
Beatrice makes Battler - described never by his name, always as ‘the furniture’ - help her change, while kicking him over.
She abuses, cajoles and threatens Battler in various ways, which I’m not going to describe in detail.
Beatrice has a bunch of people with goat heads attending the ball. Apparently they’re all important goat dignitaries. Genji is continuing to work as a loyal servant to Beatrice and Kinzo.
The humiliation of the enslaved Battler continues to be described in detail. They’re really heavily underlining this. Not just using furniture, but also ‘it’ pronouns. He’s being dragged around naked on a chain on all fours.
Bernkastel is present; she takes off her goat mask to observe Battler.
There’s a CGI here, but I’m going to crop out the naked Battler.
She merely says ‘good taste’ when Beatrice tries to show her Battler. Once she’s away from Beatrice, the goat women (other witches?) laugh and says she’s an irritated sore loser.
Beatrice says the gathered are old friends from ‘past and present, east and west’. Time travel? Speaking of time, we learn the banquet takes place exactly at midnight.
It’s still not clear exactly what they’re going to be eating, but I have a worrying feeling it will be the people murdered in this ‘game’.
When the banquet starts, Beatrice opens some kind of gate into Hell to let more guests in. The description says it’s time to do lots of bad things.
CW gore below
At this point Kinzo interjects to demand to be taken to the Golden Land.
So… all the witches in goat masks swarm him and eat him alive.
This goes on for several screens. So that’s what happens to the survivors. I suppose being a sacrifice is a mercy.
Beatrice tries to make Battler humiliate himself some more, but he’s too afraid. So Beatrice presents him to the guests to eat. There’s a line about how he looks to her for protection now he’s submitted, but she scornfully ignores him. The ‘goat dignitaries’ are waiting for what the narration analogises to a cork to be removed before they can eat him. This ‘cork’ turns out to be a scream.
Battler’s voice actor lets out a really long groan-scream-thing combined with a bunch of sound effects, narrated with elaborate onomatopoeia. Ahaha.wav is spammed several times as he gets eaten.
Narration moves to the garden. Rosa and Maria are there, fleeing pursued by golden butterflies and goat people. Rosa still has her gun and gold bar. FFS, drop the gold and carry Maria.
Maria trips. A goat demon tries to eat her.
Rosa shows off her kung-fu skills. I recall someone had kung-fu skills, but I thought it was Eva. Anyway, then she sticks the gun in its mouth and blows its brains out.
A very precise part of its brain.
Rosa prepares to take a last stand with her gun, and tells Maria if she dies, Maria will have a better chance in the ocean.
Sadly, goat demons aren’t all that vulnerable to bullets.
She leaves Maria reloading, and charges the goat to hit it with the gold bar. It’s interesting that Rosa, who’s come across incredibly poorly throughout so far, is getting something of a heroic ‘mama bear’ last stand here.
She uses a fountain pen as a punching dagger to finish it off. The narrator is really describing the action blow by blow. It’s a huge change from episode 1, and from all of Battler’s arguments about mystery solving, and even the magical fight scenes earlier on.
As Maria returns the gun to Rosa, the narration abruptly becomes first person for a little bit, and then back to third person. They leg it down the hill. I don’t know how Rosa plans to swim away with a ten kilogram gold bar.
Then she falls and twists breaks her ankle, losing the gold, so that’s a moot point.
Rosa laments how shitty she feels her life was (bc her siblings bullied her), but she snaps out of it because Maria is there. She tells Maria to go on ahead, there’s ‘something she has to do’. What? Make a last stand to protect Maria? Kill herself to avoid getting torn apart?
Of course, Maria won’t leave her.
Rosa starts making a confession.
Judging by the background, the sky is lightening at last? Surely it’s not been that long since midnight?
Maria says to Rosa that, essentially, she forgives her. She rejects the narrative that there’s a difference between ‘bad’ and ‘good’ versions of Rosa.
Rosa says she and Maria will ‘go together’, always together. She readies her gun as the goats close in.
Can I just mention since it’s annoying me that goats aren’t carnivores and don’t have teeth that’s very suitable for eating meat. I mean, I know they’re demon goats, but still.
Rosa promises to play with Maria in the Golden Land. And the goats close in.
The story ends with gunshots, a flash of teeth, and the familiar phrase…
(Of course, it’s not over. We have, if it’s like the first episode, two tea parties to go, which might well have considerable plot developments.)
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