Umineko no Naku Koro ni - Anime - AniDB (2025)

Disclaimer: I have not played any games, read any visual novels or manga related to this work. For me this is just an anime on its own.
Disclaimer 2: In retrospective, this review might sound a little bit harsh. There is, however, a reason for it. I'm judging Umineko as I would judge the better series, including it's excellent predecessor Higurashi. It is by no means rubbish. Thus without further ado,

Mostly good. There are some nice CG effects and the surroundings are generally well drawn out, but none of them are likely to cause your jaw to drop. However, some of the character models, in particular the protagonist, look rather modest, while others seem to be directly cut out from an "Drawing Anime Characters 101" book and thus rather uninspired. On a flip side, the opening and closing cinematics look very nice.

The one thing that might strike you as a little odd, especially if you've seen the completely unrelated prequel Higurashi, is the super-sexualised character design. Most costumes look like they were taken straight from 18+ animation with particular emphasis on breast-physics. It's not unusual for characters to look rather promiscuous in anime, but we are talking about almost every character here, which makes it seem that the producers decided to substitute the lack of depth by fan-service. Oh and while we're talking about all things popular, the buckets of blood and heaps of intestines aren't missing either.

The ambient sound and BGM are fitting and well placed, deepening the feeling of country mansion mystery. The intro and outro clips are accompanied by appropriate songs, both in terms of style and lyrics. The voice acting, too, is solid (Japanese version).

The story is where things start getting a little shaky. If you are familiar with Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and its sequel (both of which you should watch before Umineko, which is the third, but completely unrelated, part in the series), the "repeating nature" of the series won't be much of a surprise to you. Basically you're dealing with classic country mansion murders, witches and the Groundhog's Day. It starts off very well, a little too well maybe, but loses momentum in the middle of the season. The intensity picks up later on, but the means by which it happens are somewhat questionable. (More in next section.)

What you should know is that this is the first season of something that is absolutely and utterly incomplete without season two. The series end with a blatant cliffhanger without even attempting to stick with the principles of modesty and wrap things up a little. You might just as well do yourself a favour and put this anime back into the drawer until the release of the sequel. None of the important questions are answered. Full stop.

To be perfectly clear, it is not bad and has potential to be great, but before season two comes out it's just an uncooked meal.

This is where Umineko no Naku Koro ni tries running too fast, trips over a branch and never manages to stand up again. Right in the first minutes of the series you are introduced to 18 "victims". You're told (and shown) their names, who they are and how they are related to each other. Memorised all eighteen? Good, because you won't need it. As the series progresses the focus will shift from character to character, telling you more about them, but, unfortunately, you probably won't care. The vastest majority of them are incredibly shallow, possessing one distinctive attribute at best and being completely irrelevant to the rest of the plot. For instance, during the first act you'll be following the actions of woman married into the house and, by the time the act ends, you might just start liking her. One episode later, she is a completely irrelevant side character. Rinse and repeat this four to five times and you've got Uminego.

While having eighteen mediocre characters was already diminishing the overall quality, the authors skillfully chose to introduce quite a few more as the series went along. They, too, quickly became obsolete and were moved into the background or disappeared completely.

Of course, one could excuse the legion of poor secondary roles by focusing on a good lead. Unfortunately, it seems that he missed the bus and was replaced by his brother two minutes before the filming started, who happens to be just as awful, if not worse, then the rest of the cast. Boring, unemotional and incredibly superficial.

Now, to be fair, there are two or three likable characters: the villian, her protege and a different character introduced much later in the series. So if you always wanted to cheer for the bad guys, Umineko is definitely the show for you.

It's hard to tell at this point, but chances are I won't watch it again unless the, as of time of this writing, yet unreleased sequel completely turns things around. The series clearly lack an ending of any sort, being its biggest drawback.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni is a good example of a "it would have been so great, if ..." work with a tendency to become very odd at times. The start of the season is absolutely majestic, the end a catastrophe. Personally, I'm holding up for season two to finally figure out what I've watched and what I should think about it. It's not completely awful, just very unfinished. Watch it, but only after the release of the sequel.