Umineko When They Cry: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Umineko When They Cry: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

And then there were eighteen.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 7, 2012

Maybe it’s the fear of being isolated and helpless that causes so many writers to locate murder mysteries on islands. No less a legend than Agatha Christie placed one of her most iconic creations, And Then There Were None, on an isolated atoll (even if the mid-sixties remake, titled Ten Little Indians, placed it in a mountaintop ski chalet). More recent entries like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the flop CBS series Harper’s Island also utilized the gambit, as did the disturbing 2010 Korean film Bedevilled. So it probably shouldn’t come as any huge surprise that some enterprising creator would come up with a new franchise that could encompass everything from videogames to anime. Umineko When They Cry is a 2009 anime culled from a so-called “sound novel” series, i.e., a sort of sonically enhanced videogame. The basic set up of the anime is indeed centered around murders taking place on an isolated island, though there’s a supernatural element at play, as well as a patently weird twist of sorts that takes place part way into the series that may send some more literary types scrambling for the copies of Dante’s Divine Comedy. And lest anyone think this is simply a retread of something you’ve seen countless times before in works by the likes of Agatha Christie, Dama Agatha hardly ever had a teenaged boy hormonally driven to squeeze girls’ breasts (at least to my recollection).

The isolated island in this instance is called Rokkenjima, the ancestral home and current lavish estate of the Ushiromiya family. In the series’ nicely moody opening, we meet patriarch Kinzo, who is being informed he only has about three months to live. Suddenly during a violent thunderstorm (is there any other kind in murder mysteries?) he rises and calls out “Beatrice!” to a window brightly illuminated by some vicious lightning. We then segue to an October day in 1986 and are introduced to several members of the Ushiromiya family courtesy of narration provided by the anime’s focal character, Battler, a grandson of Kinzo who along with several other family members is arriving on Rokkenjima for an annual gathering. And just in case you were wondering, Battler is indeed the lusty young male who has a fetish for girls’ bosoms, something that is distinctly at odds with this series’ tendency to otherwise focus on mystery and supernatural elements.

In good and standard mystery fashion, we quickly become aware that there is some internecine strife in the Ushiromiya family, especially as they are beginning to machinate over who is going to inherit the bulk of Kinzo’s vast wealth. There are several characters quickly introduced in this segment, some with “freeze frames” that also offer quick textual elements that help to quickly identify their roles and relationships, but there are still a lot of people to keep track of in Umineko When They Cry, and one of the anime’s central problems is that it never develops the characters well enough that they’re properly differentiated, let alone becoming people that the viewer cares about in any meaningful way.

Almost immediately, characters start dropping like flies, and one of the family’s youngest members, a sweet little girl named Maria, keeps insisting that the murderous handiwork is courtesy of a witch named Beatrice. There is a legend about this witch which the family is aware of, including a mysterious epitaph that lore has it must be solved in order for the family fortunes to properly pass to the next generation, but in one of the anime’s most head scratching moments, no one seems to care about that and instead repeatedly focuses on which of the survivors could be the culprit. This simultaneous focus on the witch and her mysterious epitaph and the humans’ resolute refusal to believe in her existence becomes a recurring motif and indeed turns out the be the central conflict of Umineko When They Cry once the series gets into its middle arc, which is a bizarre turn into an alternate universe left field.

One gets the feeling that the adapters of Umineko When They Cry may have been gun shy about getting into what seem to be some thorny philosophical debates that may have been treated more in depth in the sound novel. We get passing references to all sorts of famous conundrums like Schrödinger’s Cat without enough context for it to make sense either within the confines of the anime itself or indeed as a standalone idea. The series does repeatedly exploit several fantastic tropes in the mystery genre, great things like “locked door” paradoxes (an element which in its own way might be seen as a microcosm of the whole “isolated island” thing). The show also evolves over what might be termed "mini-arcs", as evidenced by a different numbering system used for groups of episodes, and each of those typically feature their own "mini-mysteries", some of which are on their face quite intriguing, but which are typically used only as fodder for the dialectic approach that is in many ways this series' defining characteristic.

What the viewer is left with, then, is a fitfully interesting piece that seems to be one thing but which turns out to be quite another. The series would have been better without its kind of silly comedic elements (and that includes the passing fan service which is really an odd mix with a supposed mystery series like this one), and it might have been more compelling had the opening few episodes developed several of the characters more fully before they all start getting sliced and diced and discarded like yesterday’s trash. Once we get into the “debate” (for want of a better word) between Battler and Beatrice the series actually becomes significantly more interesting, though even here there’s a feeling that things are being merely referenced rather than fully explored.

Umineko When They Cry: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Umineko When They Cry is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of NIS America with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is an often incredibly beautiful anime, especially once the alternate realities start to intrude on the storyline. There are a number of gorgeous looking effects, including a great looking golden dissolve that occurs repeatedly, as well as some glowing golden butterflies that are a recurring visual motif. Some of the sequences in the family mansion are appropriately moody, with a darker palette and an emphasis on deep blues and grays. Character design is very well done and this high definition presentation offers superb line detail. The image is extremely clear and sharp and should delight any fans of the series.

Umineko When They Cry: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Umineko When They Cry features an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 mix in the original Japanese. (NIS America has started regularly offering optional subtitles, something their first few releases made mandatory.) This is a well rendered if awfully narrow track that features great voice work that has some rather surprising dynamic range at times, with everything from Kanzi's opening shrieks of "Beatrice" to some of Maria's quieter musings sounding equally clear and precise. Fidelity is top notch throughout the episodes on this first volume.

Umineko When They Cry: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This is another impressively handsome "Premium Edition" from NIS America, housed in a sturdy slipcase and containing a beautifully illustrated hardback book full of character designs and little breakdowns on various mysteries that populate the series. Unlike other NIS America Premium Edition releases, however, there are no on-disc supplements other than some trailers for other NIS America releases.

Umineko When They Cry: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm a little on the fence with regard to Umineko When They Cry, part of which may be due to the fact that I was in fact expecting more of a standard murder mystery and was thrown for a loop when the supernatural elements (not to mention the alternate universe) burst into the show. (Think of how you Lost fans felt when the "alternate timeline" suddenly showed up for a good example.) The show may be trying to do too much while at the same time ironically providing far too little information about either the characters or the philosophical quandaries in play to ever fully connect with the audience. This arc of episodes seemed to introduce what may be a time travel element right toward the end, and that will only further complicate matters. But there's enough here to have definitely piqued my interest, and there's no denying that this is one gorgeous looking anime. Recommended.