Umineko WHEN THEY CRY Episode 5: End of the Golden Witch, Vol. 2 - manga

Umineko When They Cry (Manga English Numbering ) #11

by Ryukishi07, Akitaka (Artist)

As the storm outside darkens, the truth of Natsuhi's past comes to light--the barrenness that prevented her from producing an heir and thus earning the respect of her father-in-law and recognition as an Ushiromiya. But the infant heir who was thought to have died eighteen years ago has apparently returned to torment Natsuhi, toying with her and forcing her to play into a grander scheme of murder. For, even though Battler has solved the riddle of the epitaph, the sacrifices have already been chosen...

Genres: Manga, Mystery, Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural, Graphic Novels, Comics

484 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 2015

About the author

Ryukishi07 (竜騎士07, Ryūkishi Zero Nana?, born November 19, 1973) is the pen name of a Japanese man originally from Chiba Prefecture who is well-known as the original creator for the idea of the visual novel series Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Umineko no Naku Koro ni. He is the representative member of the group 07th Expansion. His pen name originated from the Final Fantasy series, "Ryūkishi" being the Japanese term for "Dragoon", and "07" goroawase for the name "Lenna". His illustration style is recognizable from the large hands he draws on people.

Reviews

[✨Rebel Fairy Hiatus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: torture, bullying, graphic murders and occult.

The witches who have taken over Beato's game board are ruthless. Who knows what their true intentions are?

Erika, the worst pawn presented, she is just as ruthless as her master and with the detective privilege, she is more dangerous than ever.

She intruduces a new furniture Knox who upholds the classic structure of mysteries and executioner of witches.

Battler is angry that Beato's game has fallen into their hand, yet a small flicker and sympathy lies in his heart... Is love blooming?

Will he be able to save their lives and the mystery game between him and Beato?

This volume refers to two of my favourite mystery authors, Agatha and Yukito. My favourite is a small wit between Battler and Erika. I was grinning the whole time.

Now we will reach the end of game 5, but we have a few snipets of truth.

What will be the conclusion?

[Ray Flores · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, I don’t really like this episode due to Erika, Bern’s puppet. The game was supposed to have Battler against the Golden Witch Beatrice, but along the way, I think we lost sight of it.

In this game Beato is trying to help Natsuhi so they don’t find out that Kinzo’s been dead for years now. And she’s also been stalked by a 19 y/o forgotten son, her husband is missing and well, everybody is searching for answers for the killings though the epitaph was solved by Battler.

I don’t really have much to say ‘cause this has been my least favorite of the series and I just feel like it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Rather than having answers, I find myself being annoyed by Erika 24/7.

Anyway, I hope the last volume is not so boring and tedious as this one.

PREVIOUS REVIEWS:
EP 1: Legend of the Golden Witch
Volume 1 | Volume 2

EP 2: Turn of the Golden Witch
Volume 1 | Volume 2

EP 3: Banquet of the Golden Witch
Volume 1 | Volume 2

EP 4: Alliance of the Golden Witch
Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3

EP 5: End of the Golden Witch
Volume 1

[Renan Fontes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume has one of my favorite logic battles in the series (Battler vs Dlanor), amazing tension with Natushi's arc, and gives us even more insight into the magical side of things. Like Ange, Erika is a much better character when you already understand her role in the story and what she's supposed to represent. She makes an excellent foil to Battler and having such a cold-hearted detective in the story makes things so much tenser. You just love to hate her.

[Nicole Mello · Rating 3 out of 5]

we're really getting into it and all of this is absolutely lots of fun but i really just want to get back to the game between battler and beatrice at this point. so much is going on and more just keeps being added and it's starting to become overwhelming for my personal preferences. excited to solve the mystery!

[Kamen Rider Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

La parte más débil de toda la historia aún así es un 4.5 dios que bueno es Umineko

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume had a refreshing jump back into fantasy, but still far more tethered than either the third or fourth arcs were. The translation was very good for the most part. I really appreciated the adjustments they made to Dlanor's very Japanglishy episode. The fantastic elements were covered almost pitch-perfectly, while the real-world parts were not as memorable as they were in the last volume (of course, they took a way reduced portion of the scenes as well, so that could have easily contributed). Two issues I'm noting, both largely issues of the format. First, the strain of not being able to use colored text and blades is really starting to show. In previous volumes, as a general rule, Beatrice used red text, and Battler used blue. However, in this volume, characters often alternate between the red and blue. Although the publishers tried to use font adjustments to compensate in the text, the difference between bold font and hollow bold font just isn't as clear as red and blue text. And as for the blades, forget it, there is no attempt to differentiate. Although it may not be a problem for a lot of people, I try to sort through this stuff a lot in order to play around with the puzzles, and the extra second or two it takes me to differentiate between the two font types is still distracting. Not to mention, I'm not sure how they're going to distinguish gold text from the other two when the time comes. To perfectly fix this problem would have cost a lot of money - to be able to use the colors in the entire manga - so I understand why they didn't. I just wish a better fix could have been found. The second one is that I'm really starting to miss the presence of the clock that was in the visual novel. A couple of the puzzles in this volume rely really strongly on when exactly certain things were said, so being able to orient myself more fully on what time it is in a given scene would've been really helpful. Both of these are nitpicky complaints though. Overall, I really enjoyed this volume.

[Libbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

✨Writing a grouped review for the entirety of the manga and copy/pasting. I started reading this 6 months ago at the time of writing and read over a few months and don't remember specifics about every single volume except what I rated them ✨

Umineko has an intriguing premise and good execution which does a lot right. The author manages to create such eerie and scary atmospheres and have the reader on edge wondering what is going to happen next. I particularly enjoyed a lot of the locked room scenarios and discussions and explanations.

Where this manga fails is it's extreme repetitiveness. It wears down on the reader very quickly. As a result I'm not sure this is a manga I would recommend to many people.

I will eventually watch the anime, whilst a short run this may be something I'd be inclined to recommend more as the premise itself is well done.

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bern agregó a Erika Furudo a la historia como la detective y ahora este juego sigue las reglas de un misterio propiamente dicho. Como Erika no me cae bien sólo diré eso.

El Battler de este juego resuelve el epitafio y es declarado el sucesor de los Ushiromiya aunque a él no le agrada la historia. Por otro lado, Natsuhi revela quién es la persona que le llama: alguien de hace 19 años a quien creyó muerto.

Erika me cae mal, tiene demasiada autoridad en este juego y se mueve de forma omnipresente casi casi, sin embargo, me parece interesante el decálogo del señor Ronald Knox.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Further proof that Japan can and will make a mascot for anything, this book is basically a philosophical debate about golden age mysteries (as determined by Knox's Commandments) versus more modern iterations of the genre, complete with loli mascots.

Full review to eventually appear on The Anime News Network.