despite running for 23 mins, this episode felt extremely short. i guess this will be the last time we’ll get to see the 12 years after timeline. it still didn’t explain what the F*** was in the sack in the previous episodes. a pity since ange seemed to realize something from it but whatever it was that she realized, it all comes down to her realization of how love weaves a path of miracles and how the white witched maria was stronger than her evil counterpart. as for the talk with bernkastel, i believe she foresaw beato’s resignation of the game and planned to have ange drag her back by regaining her powers. that or maybe there are other motives lurking behind the scenes.

i should honestly be excited since the finale is coming up but after seeing this episode, i lost my will to be up and giddy. after all, it’s evident that ange will die (not only did wiki said so) but im curious if they will decide to have an anime original end. maybe the anime end of needless left me unsatisfied.

regardless, i’ll be looking forward to it. how the mysteries will add up and how the conclusion is drawn.

quite an unexpected development!

with 2 episodes left, they decided to drop a huge ass mothafucking bomb! im confused when i remember how beato compared battler to kinzo then decided to make him remember his sin 6 years ago. what did she realize back then that made her attitude sour? who/what is battler’s real identity if he’s not an ushiromiya?

these are only guesses but:

a) battler is adopted from some orphanage
b) battler was created (homonculi?)
c) asumu had a twin and she deceived everyone by acting as asumu and gave birth to battler
d) battler caused a tragedy in rokkenjima that caused him a traumatic experience, wiping away his memory and rudolf and asumu adopted him

ah fuck! i’m always left with speculations!

anyways if there are other guesses please do slap em in

oh and i won’t be doing uraneko unless it has something to do with the seiyu… or beato had a role in it

Despite the slow start, this episode had many revelations (including Gaap’s attire). for one, the mysteries of the letters sent to the family members of the servants that worked with the Ushiromiya. im beginning to think that Beatrice intends to pass on the curse to whoever will claim the money. after all, kinzo must’ve started that way, i guess. god thing none of them dared touch it. i was curious though as to what ange found at the captain’s house. she was so startled with whatever was inside that sack.

on the good side of things i never knew that jessica and george learned martial arts. i really liked how i was deceived by their answers. for one, the first answer they put off was the answer of an individual who things of nothing but their own wishes. the real answer they gave off was that of a head, planning to take on the responsibility had tons of sacrifices at stake. even though george realized such sacrifices, he knew how to take responsibility. if george showed off responsibility as a virtue, jessice must’ve represented courage. a leader need not only have responsibility. for people to follow you, one must have courage and effort, it’s interesting how, despite their difference in opinion, george and jessica manages to make their ends meet. they might be getting the upper hand in this episode but let’s not forget that these are demons they are facing. Ronove and Gaap won’t go down without spilling blood on their enemies. As for battler and maria, im curious as to what kind of test they would have. battler seems to be physically weak with such things so i doubt it would be a physical competition. maria’s a witch and i have a feeling that a showdown with ange is more appropriate for her.

despite not having any beato service today, i indulged myself on gaap. thinking back, i wonder which suited her more, her current voice or the loli one (nosebleed). well, the siestas made an appearance though i really can’t help but think that they lack appeal. compare them with the stakes who does some quirky remarks every now and then and there won’t even be a competition. i honestly hope the siestas would get to have a fanservice episode. if not in this season then on the next, if there will be one.

the story finally shifts back to the game world where 6 of them already got killed as sacrifices for the first twilight. aside from the introduction of siesta 00, one of the 72 demons, gaap came to the spotlight. i wonder what her relationship is with ronove since they seem to have come from the same race. the story also shifts to maria who began abusing her powers and killed rosa a lot. though i wonder how this would affect the maria in the game.

oddly enough, this episode resembled railgun’s episode 7. aside form rina satou being a cast on both episodes, ange had similarities with the deranged bomber (people may/may not agree with this) which i will enumerate:

1) they are both subject of oppression
2) they are powerless to fight back

and more importantly,

3) they have the ability to fight back but relies on other to do their dirty work

when ange ordered mammon to kill them because she couldn’t do it herself, didn’t she resemble the bomber from railgun? despite having the power to exact his revenge, the bomber relies on judgment to do it for him and when they arrive late at the scene, he blames them for their incompetence. and it pisses me off! it pisses me not because they act all emo but because they fail to see the potential they have on the table and that they fail to use it against the right targets. it might’ve been a different case for ange if she had the resolve to kill those bitches. i guess if she had that, the stakes would’ve obeyed her and did her dirty work but what ange truly wants if for others to carry her burden. there is a BIG difference between forcing your burden to your friends and letting your friends carry your burden and this makes this realization of existence in umineko different from shounen anime like one piece, bleach or naruto and even for annoying anime like haruhi. for starters, certain characters from umineko literally start as either weak characters who develop their personality with little help from their friends (ange, eva, maria) or strong characters who feeds their existence in a knuckle sandwich (battler, beatrice). compare this to the shounen setting where characters get stronger once they are acknowledged by others (even haruhi gets to abuse more of her authority the moment the SOS brigade acknowledged her).

now those reading this might ask the difference between shounen charas and the weak/strong charas of umineko. while they both share the desire to be acknowledged, the difference between shounen charas and umineko charas is the number of people who believe in them. shounen charas usually have hordes of friends for support while in umineko, they hardly need it. take eva-beatrice as an example. her magic is real as long as she believes in it. it doesn’t matter if battler doesn’t agree or if beato denies her, for eva-beatrice, she’s a witch because she acknowledges herself to be one. in maria’s case, her being witch of origins involved, she considers herself happy despite ange’s revelations about rosa. maria’s belief on rosa, as blind as it may be, is enough for her to shine as a strong character. of course, ange realized her identity in this episode not because she had support from friends, rather she realized her mistake, accepted her powerlessness and decided to believe again in what she wishes to believe in. of course, unlike haruhi who have minions because they fear her for something that is unknown, battler and beato are strong charas because they impose and make their existence clear to others. they make people realize their existence by showing what they can do. of course, unlike the shounen setting that can do the same, battler and beato won’t stop until someone falls on their knees. they don’t have to wait for people to acknowledge them. they simply have to see them break and in doing so, they realize that they exist.

life’s lessons learned indeed despite this being a fan service and character development episode. though i kinda miss beato’s laughter and her feud with battler. well, with ange’s soul-searching out of the way, im assuming the events next episode would focus back on battler vs beatrice or would introduce the conflict between ange vs kasumi.

despite not taking on the game itself, i enjoyed this episode. they summed up ange’s and maria’s background in one go and even slapped in the stakes fanservice. im feeling sorry for the siestas but i guess they’ll have their moment to shine. as for the back story itself, im quite curious as to how ange failed in her training despite her desire to bring them back. did she lose heart in the long run?

im particularly intrigued in this outcome since, being fed with shounen setting, most of the good guys never lose their guts over something they which to attain giving them IMBA powers that makes them overcome IMBA enemies. i wonder why ange lost hope or was there a different reason why she failed?

even though the game reset itself, making me have to endure a different starting plot, i kinda like this setup whereas, compared to the dreaded Endless Eight by Haruhi, at the very least, we notice something different in every iteration and we also get serviced by a ton of new characters popping up so suddenly and, of course, beato’s adorable laughter.

i was kinda surprised though that there were interaction between battler and a member of the steaks stakes. it’s quite rare for the stakes to pop up and goof around. maybe (and i hope) we get to see more of these moments though this makes me wonder as to how many of these service would we have considering how many episodes left til the season goes bye bye (unless there’s a season 2). they also added a third siesta (she’s siesta 00 i think) and a bodyguard, juza amakusa voiced by koji yusa (whoah! did that just rhyme?!) though i wonder what impact he’d have later on the story