Umineko: When They Cry



""When will you believe in me? That is all that matters. If you want to do some detective work, go ahead. If you believe that there is an answer, go and continue to search. This is torture that will not end until you can believe in witches.""

Umineko no Naku Koro Ni (When the Seagulls Cry) is a kinetic sound novel that takes place in 1986, on the island of Rokkenjima. The rich Ushiromiya family is gathering in order to discuss what will happen to patriarch Kinzo's inheritance, since he has been ill in recent days.

While the arguments about the inheritance ensue, a typhoon traps all eighteen people on the island. The family then finds a mysterious letter from a person claiming to be Kinzo's alchemy councilor, the Golden Witch, Beatrice. Beatrice claims that she has been summoned by Kinzo to claim the inheritance, as the family has been deemed unworthy of it. Unless someone solves the riddle of the epitaph on her portrait before midnight on October 6th and becomes the family successor, Beatrice will claim everything that the family owns, including the ten tons of gold that Kinzo claims will be given to the successor.

Naturally, this sows chaos among the family members as each one of them argues about who will succeed the family. As the weekend continues, mysterious murders start picking off the family one by one. By the time the typhoon is over and the seagulls start crying, none of them will be left alive.

The protagonist, Battler, then gets challenged by the Golden Witch, who claims that she killed everyone on the island. Were the murders committed by magic, or were they done by a human?

Similar to its predecessor, Umineko no Naku Koro Ni consists of several arcs with the same scenario repeating for mysterious reasons. This time, the plot focuses on the murders that occur on the island and trying to figure out who kills everyone, how they all died, and why they were all killed. The first four arcs are the Question Arcs, where the puzzles are presented to the reader. Instead of outright Answer Arcs, the last four arcs are the Core Arcs, which provide the reader several hints on how to solve the murders, but without outright giving away the answer.

Part of the When They Cry series, which also includes Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.

The series currently consists of a sound novel, a manga, and an anime. The sound novel is 8 Episodes in length, along with two fandiscs, Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Tsubasa (When The Seagulls Cry: Wings) and Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Hane (When The Seagulls Cry: Feathers) containing extra short stories called TIPS that don't fit into the main story. Each Episode is adapted into a manga, with the first four Episodes completed so far and the last four (and Tsubasa) still ongoing publication. In addition, the anime adaptation by Studio DEEN spans 26 episodes, but only covers the first four arcs.

The entire novel has also been ported to the PlayStation 3 for a remake, complete with voice acting, remade sprites and CGs. The first four novels were released as Umineko no Naku Koro ni ~ Rondo of Witches and Reason, and the last four novels were released as Umineko no Naku Koro ni ~ Nocturne of Truth and Illusions.

In addition, a PC fighting game in the vein of Melty Blood has been released, entitled Ougon Musoukyoku (The Golden Fantasia), featuring ten of the characters from the novels. An Xbox 360 port, Ougon Musoukyoku X, has also been released, featuring the ten characters, plus three more added to the roster. And an expansion to the PC version, Ougon Musoukyoku CROSS, has also been released, featuring all the characters from the original and the Xbox port, plus three more characters, and three others set to be added as updates.

Summaries of each arc may be found at the When They Cry page. Please put character-related tropes on the Character Sheet. Also check out the Nightmare Fuel page and the massive WMG page. And if it doesn't go anywhere there, it probably goes on the Trivia Page.

Be wary of the terms used on the Umineko pages -- "Episode/EP" (with a capital "E") refers to a Story Arc of the novel, while "episode" refers to an episode of the DEEN anime.

A fan translation patch of the games may be found here, acknowledged by Ryukishi07 himself. The patches require an original copy of the game, which may be found on the links page of the translation site.

"Bernkastel - That Hebrew sure is crappy."
 * Actor Allusion - The anime's next episode previews are filled to the brim with these. We've got Jack Bauer, a potentially millennia-old witch claiming she's 17...
 * Adaptation Distillation - Just like its predecessor, the manga is generally more faithful and does a better job in some areas of capturing the mood.
 * With the exception of the Alliance of the Golden Witch manga, which takes Ange's bro con to near insane levels. Simply put, manga Ange only keeps moaning about "Battler Onii-chan" and didn't mention a single word about her parents (not to mention freaked out when her classmates touched the hair bobbles Onii-chan gave her). While in the VN, she always put her parents first while she still loved her brother.
 * It's definitely worth noting that the manga takes things Up to Eleven in almost aspect, from how pretty the costumes are to how sadistic Beatrice is, to Maria's creepiness. Even how Itsuki Ronove is for Battler.
 * Adaptation Dye Job - Beatrice's dress (in the anime) and of course the eye colors of just about every character (Battler, Jessica, George, Shannon, Lambdadelta, Virgilia, etc...)
 * Aerith and Bob - Most notably the witches: We've got Lady Bernkastel, Lady Lambdadelta and, of course, Lady Beatrice.
 * An Aesop - An original story by Aesop is discussed a lot in EP 1 and EP 3, The North Wind and the Sun.
 * All Just a Dream -, apparently.
 * All Hallow's Eve - Actually, it takes place on October 4 & 5, but Maria is obsessed with Halloween for the first part of the second arc, a fact that is played with very nastily during the first twilight.
 * All There in the Manual - A number of TIPS were not shown in the game itself but released as side materials; these were generally short stories. Often they were humorous and not meant to be taken seriously, but some were plot relevant. Tsubasa collects most these short stories and presents them in a Visual Novel format.
 * Altar the Speed - Part of Eva's plan to have George jump ahead in the succession was to rush a marriage to Hideyoshi. In spite of that, they're quite Happily Married.
 * Alternate Character Reading - Up the yin-yang in the anime's ending theme, "la divina tragedia". A few examples: "orgy" is read as "banquet", "demon" is read as "my beloved", and "tonight we'll sacrifice this fool" is read as "sacrifice sheep TO GAWD!"
 * Alternate Timeline - Several of them. A notable one is shown in EP7, where.
 * Always Save the Girl - in EP4.
 * And Then John Was a Zombie - as of Episode 5,.
 * The Anime of the Game
 * Anthropomorphic Personification - Most of the magical beings can be interpreted this way.
 * Arc Number - 19
 * 07151129
 * Arc Words - "Without love, it cannot be seen."
 * "On that day, what happened?"
 * Arranged Marriage - Kasumi was forced into this after Kyrie ran off with Rudolf, which is the reason she hates both Kyrie and Ange so much. Eva also tries to set up George with someone to get Shannon away from him. Also happened to Kinzo when he was chosen as the family head..
 * As Long as It Sounds Foreign - If the letters on the blood runes in the original visual novel are actually supposed to be Hebrew, it is really sloppy Hebrew. The manga writes out the actual letters, evidently.
 * Lampshaded in End of the Golden Witch
 * Lampshaded in End of the Golden Witch

"Battler: "Hey, everyone, good job finishing 'Umineko no Naku Koro ni'! Man, I still didn't have a clue what was going on when the story ended!" Jessica: "So just what happened? Was that basically the 'bad ending,' where time runs out before the culprit can be exposed?"
 * The blood pentacles (runes have nothing to do with this) actually are scanned straight from a copy of the Key of Solomon, and using the correct meanings to boot, so the inaccurate Hebrew is accurate occultism.
 * As the Good Book Says... - Each of the blood runes has scrawled on it a Bible quote in Hebrew.
 * Ascended Meme - One of the anime's episode preview gags uses Eva-Beatrice's Fan Nickname, "Evatrice".
 * Audience Monologue - Kumasawa does a few of these in the first arc to explain various issues among the residents of the Ushiromiya mansion.
 * Awesome Moment of Crowning - in the third arc. The epitaph is solved, the title of Golden Witch is passed on in a grandiose ceremony, and the murders can stop now, right? Like the letter said, right?  And then there was cake.
 * The Baby Trap -.
 * Back for the Finale - comes back in the 8th arc.
 * Backwards-Firing Gun - Battler suggests this to explain one crime.
 * Badass Adorable - Groups of cute young girls will mess you up: the Stakes, the Chiester Sisters, etc.
 * Badass Family - The Ushiromiyas, hands down.
 * Badass Normal - Most of the Ushiromiya family gets a Badass Normal moment or two, but special mention must go to Kyrie, who's usually the first to start firing off shotgun shells or beating demons and whatnot with chairs while everybody else is still panicking.
 * EP4, where practically everyone who hasn't been killed in the first twilight gets a Crowning Moment of Awesome,
 * Baleful Polymorph - In EP3, into one of the golden butterflies, which promptly gets blown into a spiderweb.
 * Batman Gambit - Episode 3:
 * Beat Still My Heart - EP 3 features.
 * The end of EP4 features what is probably one of the.
 * Be Careful What You Wish For - "The Witches' Tanabata" plays with this:
 * Beat Them At Their Own Game - What Battler is trying to do. All the weapons he has to defend the Muggle possibility are supplied to him by the beings he is trying to deny.
 * Begging the Question - Accepting the red text as only speaking the truth requires you believe that both that Beatrice is being honest and that the red text speaks only the truth when statements like The red text speaks only the truth! come up. That said, it does happen to be true: Anything said in red is at worst misleading.
 * Beyond the Impossible - Everything that happens in one game usually gets this treatment in the next; heck, it also happens in the middle of the games themselves, from the awesomely epic magic shows to the badass BGM to the number of characters per game to the ridiculous and outrageous theories for the murders to the amount of memes generated per game. Special mention goes to Episode 5, in which the HSQ reaches its peak, but YMMV.
 * Big Damn Heroes - Ange's entrance. Also, in EP6,.
 * EP5 has.
 * EP6 also has.
 * Will's entrance in Episode 7 shows him coming to the rescue of an innocent maid who's being interrogated by his own agency.
 * EP8 has multiple, surprisingly many pulled off by the . The main cast gets their share too fighting off hoards of goats.
 * Big Fancy House - The Ushiromiya mansion, complete with servants and a secondary guest house, in case the main mansion wasn't big enough.
 * Big Screwed-Up Family - The Ushiromiya family, of course.
 * The Sumadera family also qualifies.
 * Bittersweet Ending - The author intentionally gave you two ways to see this - either bittersweet or as a Downer Ending. Which one really depends on whether you take the mystery or fantasy explanations for what happened. Even with the fantasy stuff, though, it's pretty difficult to say it ends any better than bittersweetly. By the end, . It turns out that the series is about him, so in that way, the story ends happily, but in that way only.
 * Blood From the Mouth - In episode 14 of the anime, Beatrice doesn't so much cough up blood as she foams red from the mouth.
 * Also used during episode 26,.
 * Quite possibly this image as well. Looks a bit like the bottom row of teeth in someone's mouth bleeding profusely.
 * Bolivian Army Ending -.
 * Book Ends - In the sound novel, the OP for EP 1 plays in the credits of the Trick Ending in EP 8.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall - The first tea party has the characters musing about how surprised they were about the "fact" that the story's a fantasy, rather than a mystery.

Maria: "Uu-. Definitely a bad ending. Uu-."

George: "That's right. Beatrice's letter, which Maria-chan read on the first day, did tell us in advance to solve the riddle of the epitaph. We were all so busy trying to protect ourselves and look for the culprit that we didn't even take a shot at it."

Shannon:".........That's right. If we had actually tried to solve the riddle, I'm sure things would have ended differently.""

"Lucifer: "I've never been this ashamed--!""
 * Break the Haughty -
 * Break the Cutie -
 * The Butler Did It - Shannon and Kanon are usually suspects for many murders.
 * Butterfly of Death and Rebirth - If you see a gold butterfly, you're boned.
 * The Can Kicked Him - In the first arc,.
 * Cassandra Truth - Maria keeps trying to warn everyone about Beatrice, but no one believes her.
 * Casting Gag - Beatrice is played by Sayaka Ohara, who is said to be the successor to Kikuko Inoue's role as go-to-Yamato Nadeshiko actress--incidentally, Inoue plays Beatrice's mentor, Virgilia. (The PlayStation 3 port adds Inoue's predecessor, Sumi Shimamoto, but not in any way that could take the gag further, sadly, since she plays Kasumi Sumadera and not a witch.)
 * Cat Smile - Maria, when Rosa gives her Sakutaro for her birthday.
 * And about half of Dlanor's expressions.
 * Catch Phrase - Battler's: "It's useless, it's all useless!"
 * Both Kyrie's and Battler's: "Turn the chessboard around."
 * Erika Furudo: "Simply by X, this level of reasoning is possible for Furudo Erika. What do you think, everyone?" and ""
 * Eva-Beatrice's: "Why don't you just give up and die?!"
 * Gaap's: "But only if he's hot!"
 * Maria's: "Uu- Beatrice exists."
 * Ange's: "See you again, have a nice day."
 * Will's: "Don't think too hard about it. You'll get a headache."
 * Clair's: "Oh, I am one yet many."
 * Character Shilling - Played for dark humor in the fifth and sixth chapters. The narration itself is clearly bent so that the story will constantly gush about, as do the characters to a slightly lesser extent. However, she is clearly a complete bitch.
 * Chekhov's Gun - in EP3 is one. Beatrice mentioning the Knox's Decalogue in Episode 2 is another.
 * Chekhov's Gunman - Ange and Gaap are mentioned in the first novel (Ange is specifically stated to be bedridden with flu and can't join the...festivities; Maria mentions Gaap's powers as one way for Beatrice to smuggle Kinzo out of his room without breaking the closed circle). The anime's Image Songs also have Maria mention Sakutaro once near the end of her song; when the single was released, the anime was still midway into its third arc, when Sakutaro only appears in the fourth,.
 * Willard H. Wright was first mentioned off-handedly a TIPS from Episode 5, as the head of the SSVD, "Wizard-Hunting Wright".
 * Chess Motifs
 * Chess with Death - This series extends the metaphor from Higurashi into a motif.
 * The Chessmaster - The repeated invocation of a chess board by, oh, everyone regarding this plot. As of this writing, the only ones who seem capable of applying for the trope are the witches, although Battler seems like something of a chessmaster-in-training.
 * Childhood Marriage Promise - EP7 reveals that one took place between . It snowballed into a horrible tragedy.
 * The Clan
 * Clap Your Hands If You Believe - Beatrice's magic, as evidenced in the first tea party.
 * Closed Circle
 * Clothing Damage - Lucifer in the anime. Nice big ole straight line, right across the chest. Said chest jiggles heavily.
 * The Commandments - A variation of Knox's Decalogue -- see the trope page for the complete list.
 * Compressed Adaptation - The anime is a victim of this, but special mention goes to the fourth arc, which cuts out the entire fourth game after . This was the trade-off for what many saw as too much time given to the 1998 and metaworld sequences.
 * Conspicuous CG - The butterflies in the anime.
 * Contrived Coincidence - As stated on the character sheet, Erika is a detective prodigy who just happens to shipwreck on an island with a soon-to-be murder mystery.
 * Cooldown Hug - Ange toward Battler in the fourth arc..
 * Cosmic Chess Game
 * Creator Breakdown - After Ryukishi's dear friend BT died, Umineko took on a very different tone from EP 6 onwards.
 * Creepy Cathedral - Kinzo had a special chapel built near the mansion, where the first twilight of the second arc takes place. Happy Halloween for Maria indeed.
 * Creepy Child - Maria has these moments from time to time, kihihihihihihi! It was turned Up to Eleven in the anime.
 * Creepy Twins - Furfur and Zepar.
 * Crossover - The Umineko No Naku Koro Ni X manga is a rather comical and energetic crossover with Higurashi, plopping the Ushiromiya manor within spitting distance of Hinamizawa. So, if you ever want to see Rena mowing their lawn, Rudolf hanging out with the Stakes in Angel Mort, or Battler perplexed by the whole deal, this is it.
 * Cruel and Unusual Death - The first twilight of Episode 2. The bodies of  are found locked inside the chapel
 * Curb Stomp Battle - Something like this: In Episode 5,
 * An even bigger one in Episode 8:
 * Curtain Camouflage - Jessica in Banquet
 * Cuteness Proximity - The Stakes. . Result: glompage and a lot of Squee.
 * Cycle of Hatred - Too many to mention, to the point where there's even a character who exists as an incarnation of it.
 * Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy -
 * Dark Reprise - goldenslaughterer is already a pretty dark BGM to begin with, since it plays during the more cruel deaths, but it gets a darker and more intense remix as the_executioner in EP7, which plays during the fight between Will and.
 * Dark World - This is what the Meta-World mechanic of Ougon Musoukyoku does, turning the localitations into a more fantastic and macabre version of itself, enveloped in night.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy -
 * In EP5,
 * Death by Materialism - Kinzo doesn't seem to care about any of his children at least partly because he doesn't like them fighting over his inheritance.
 * Death Is Cheap - Because of the Groundhog Day Loop, the fact that furniture apparently can be recreated without much difficulty, and the powers of any with with the Endless title to kill and resurrect someone infinitely.
 * Death's Hourglass - The clock that appears in the corner of the screen, of the spur-to-action variety.
 * When the Clock Strikes Twelve - Twice. Usually, on the first day, there will be a time jump from around midnight to around six AM, implying that that's when the first murders occur, . By midnight of the second night, well...
 * Deconstruction - Blatantly one of the mystery genre.
 * Defeat by Modesty - Kanon against Lucifer in the anime. He slashes a nice, clean, boob window onto her shirt.
 * Defeat by Modesty - Kanon against Lucifer in the anime. He slashes a nice, clean, boob window onto her shirt.

"Battler: Crap, I wasn't planning on this! P-please, hit me right now! At this rate, I'm seriously gonna-''*thwack*' Guaah...oww. Thank you, Jessica. Jessica: Why the hell are you thanking me?"
 * It's funny because Lucifer represents the sin of Pride.
 * Department of Redundancy Department - Rather common in the sound novels.
 * Deus Ex Machina -
 * Did You Actually Believe? - End of the 3rd arc
 * She's that kind of girl.
 * Distant Finale: Episode 8's Hidden Tea Party. Decades later,
 * Doing in the Wizard - A plot point. If Battler can Do In The Wizard, he wins his and Beatrice's game. Beatrice would, presumably, disappear in a puff of logic.
 * Doorstopper - The entire novel (all eight episodes) clocks at around 6 MB as a text file. Compare War and Peace, which is around 3 MB.
 * Double Entendre - The entire in EP6, particularly when
 * Or Asmodeus and Satan's...er, choice words when confronting Kanon.
 * "Are you scared? How cute!" "Where do you want it? Where do you want me to pierce you?" "...piercing it feels so good," "Come on, let me have another taste. Pleasure me all you can with that warm chest of yours!"
 * Drink Order - Tea. Tea tea tea tea tea tea tea. Everyone drinks tea. Especially Beato, Lambda, and Bern (They are called "tea parties," after all, right?) But Bern usually specifies that she wants umeboshi (sour, pickled plum) tea.
 * Drunk with Power - Leading to a rampage of perversion in this spoilery sidestory (which takes place after Episode 5).
 * Duct Tape for Everything
 * Duel to the Death - In EP1, . In EP3, . In EP6,
 * Epiphanic Prison - The meta-world, at least in theory.
 * Even Evil Has Standards - The third arc has Beatrice trying to impress this on.
 * Everyone Is a Suspect - Almost every single character is a suspect for one murder or another.
 * Everyone Is Related - Because it takes place at a family conference.
 * Evil Is Stylish - Everything about Beatrice down to the whole idea of the chess game.
 * Evil Phone - Hardly ever works; the one time it does during the first arc is when it starts ringing while everyone's holed up in Kinzo's room. Natsuhi picks it up and hears...a little girl singing.
 * Evolving Credits - The witch portrait changes each arc (default-Beatrice, then Zettai Ryouiki-Beatrice, then ); the fourth arc simply shows all three portraits in reverse order. Starting in the third arc they also added 15 new characters to the opening and changed the positioning of four others to reflect their relationship. By the fifth arc, now has a portrait in the opening, and by the seventh, all of the previous portraits  are seen.
 * Expy - [[media:Battler_Sprite.jpg|Battler]] and [[media:BeatriceFormal.jpg|Beatrice]] bear more than a passing resemblance to [[media:adell_artwork.jpg|Adell]] and [[media:Rozalin.jpg|Rozalin]] of Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories.
 * Bernkastel and Rika, though this is intentional, given.
 * Extreme Doormat - Kanon verges on this with his whole "furniture" ideology, but it's subverted-ish in the end of "Turn of the Golden Witch,".
 * Played straight with Genji, who barely shows any emotions.
 * Faceless Goons - The goat-headed butlers.
 * Played in multiple episodes where it is shown that the goat heads are actually wearing "masks.".
 * Failed a Spot Check - One or two of the riddles, most notably the Kanon-in-the-closet one from EP 6 seriously relies on this.
 * The Fair Folk - While they're called "witches" and have all the traditional trappings, their existence, playing with reality and fiction and following seemingly nonsensical rules, has many similarities.
 * Fair Play Whodunnit - This work is somewhat bipolar towards this trope. The very first trailer started with the words "No Knox. No Dine. No Fair". Then it begins with a fairly normal mystery plot which flies out of the window as witches and other magical beings keep appearing. But upon rereading earlier episodes it becomes obvious that all revelations were hinted at.
 * In Episode 5 a new character is introduced . Beatrice herself actually states that as early as EP2 when she and Battler are arguing over hidden doors; most people don't notice this the first time around.
 * Episode 7
 * The anime drops this entirely, in favor of best visual presentation probably. The first arc doesn't even provide enough evidence to solve it as a mystery, and later arcs are reboots in which circumstances change, previous pasts are revealed in ways that couldn't be known to most the characters, and even characters differ without demonstrating development. Also, the on-screen deaths become more and more ostentatious in the use of magic.
 * Fan Nickname:
 * Trollkastel: A rather infamous name for Bernkastel.
 * Trolls Trolling Trolls Trolling Trolls. Nickname for the series due to the huge amount of Trolls in the cast
 * Fan Service - The game has the Stakes, the anime has...pretty much every other female.
 * Fan Translation - Witch Hunt, which actually got an acknowledgment from the author and a Shout-Out in EP4. And it is most certainly well-deserved.
 * Fashionable Asymmetry - The Ushiromiya crest is a one-winged eagle, so it's only to be expected.
 * A Fate Worse Than Death - Thanks to Endless magic, people can be killed over and over again in new and interesting ways. This pales in comparison to in EP6.
 * In that same episode, it's shown even Lambdadelta
 * Faustian Rebellion - Battler is trying to prove that witches and magic don't exist, while at the same time arguing with them and watching the period of time played out over and over. It's a miracle he doesn't just disappear in a Puff of Logic. Battler himself notes the irony.
 * Fighting a Shadow - Even if Beatrice (and Battler, for that matter) die on the chessboard, since their souls actually exist in the meta-world, they're fine to play another round.
 * Flat Earth Atheist/Nay Theist - Battler can be interpreted as being either of these at the beginning of the story, what with all the witches running around. However, as the story progresses, Battler's arguments and reasoning change as well, as he realizes that he doesn't need to disprove witches, just that witches commited the murders and mysteries. By EP6, . Let's just say it's complicated and leave it at that.
 * Foreshadowing - This being a murder mystery, there's bound to be loads of them. One plot related one, having nothing to do with the mystery aspect, occurs in EP 4  In EP 6,
 * Beatrice actually states the story is supposed to follow the Knox rules in EP2, although it comes off as pretty offhand.
 * The first scene of the novels (the airport scene) has gems such as "George has absolutely none of these love stories" and "How is Ange-chan?"
 * "This sort of thoughtfulness was just like Rosa Oba-san. She wasn't the kind of person who would forget or break a promise."
 * For Want of a Nail - EP7 presents an alternate 1986:
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble - At the very least, the aunts.
 * As well as Four-Girl Ensemble.
 * Freudian Excuse - Rosa often uses this to rationalize her Mother of the Year harsh treatment towards Maria. Her's own parents and siblings showed little mercy towards her when she was growing up, so she believes holding back on Maria would be "spoiling" her.
 * From a Certain Point of View - Anything said in Red needs careful attention paid to its Exact Words.
 * Even that might not always help - if the Fanon theory about EP6 is true, EP2's Red Truth that can only be true metaphorically.
 * Gag Boobs - Virtually every female over the (apparent) age of 13 is noticeably... "blessed". Especially true of the Ushiromiya clan, which leads to...
 * Gainaxing - In the anime with anyone with developed breasts.
 * Boobs in this series come in two sizes; almost non-existent (Bernkastel, Lambdadelta, Maria) and DD (every other female).
 * It also appears in the game Ougon Musoukyoku. Shannon's boobs jiggle every time she performs a special attack.
 * Gambit Pileup - Most non-magical explanations for the murders in any given arc require multiple murderers, often working at cross-purposes, and different ones for each arc.
 * Game Between Heirs: The successor to the Ushiromiya family's headship and fortune (which includes ten tons of solid gold) seemed to be locked and set in stone and then a letter from the resident witch arrived, announcing that the spoils have been made fair game to anyone who can solve the Witch's Epitaph, a long riddle which incidentally, details a ritual requiring human sacrifice. Mind games (and lots and lots of murder) ensue.
 * Genre Busting - Fantasy? Mystery? One with elements of the other?
 * Genre Shift - Or so Beatrice would like you to think as she piles more and more fantastic elements into the murder mystery.
 * Geodesic Cast - With the exception of Maria's branch, most of the cousins' families work kind of like this - one mother, one father, and one child. It gets more confusing later, with the introduction of Ange.
 * Geometric Magic - The blood runes.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar - In EP 3 of the sound novel, while trying to explain playing with letters and anagrams, Rudolf says "...It's like 'Sucker Merry Barrels'. What do you get when you take out the e's and r's?"
 * Gilded Cage - Kuwadorian.
 * Glove Slap - In EP6,, challenging her to a duel. Refusing would forever mark her a coward in the eyes of the entire magical community.
 * Go Mad From the Isolation - What happens to people who get trapped in a logic error. Specifically, Doesn't make up for the horrible things she's done, but you still sympathize with her, considering
 * Go-Karting with Bowser - Battler and Beatrice have a dialogue (and applause contest) at.
 * Gold Fever - All four siblings to some extent, but particularly strongly with Eva. EP7 shows how.
 * Good Witch Versus Bad Witch
 * Gorgeous Period Dress - Just about all of the witches in the series wear these.
 * Gothic Punk - The plot and style share many, many similarities in common with the Gothic novels of the 18th and 19th centuries.
 * Gratuitous English - There are a bunch of cases. Please don't list them here, or this will get too long.
 * Gratuitous French - The upcoming fighting game's opening is full of it, it is a translation of the witch's epitaph in French. Also, every sentence under the health bar is also displayed in bad french: for example, you can see under the message counter hit "sens inverse coup" whereas a more fitting translation would be "contre".
 * Gratuitous Greek - Lambdadelta (ΛΔ) as well as the firing sequence of the Chiesters.
 * Gratuitous Italian - The opening song. Averted in the case of Virgilia and BEATORRICHEE'S names, which are often mistaken for horrible Gratuitous English.
 * Greek Chorus - If the meta-world didn't turn into its own subplot, it would be a very developed one of these. However, a more straightforward example occurs in the sixth arc, with Featherine and Ange taking up this role.
 * Gretzky Has the Ball- Ep 6
 * Groundhog Day Loop - Only magical/meta-characters are aware of this, though, and each arc is actually a different world.
 * Happily Married - Oddly enough, the most stable couple (the wife's problems come from elsewhere) is Eva and Hideyoshi.  In EP6,.
 * Harsh Word Impact - Colored text can be utilized in such a way that declarations of truth, theories and things of the like behave as this trope, done for drama and gone far beyond any scale of Meta-awareness. Justified because the characters who are affected by this trope reside in a place commonly referred to as the Meta-World.
 * In Episode 4,
 * In Episode 5, we have Dlanor manifesting the power of Knox's Decalogue in red swords, culminating in
 * Haunted House - The Ushiromiya mansion, in theory.
 * Heel Face Revolving Door - Some of the witches enjoy going through this, notably Beatrice and arguably
 * Heir Club for Men - Eva was almost pushed out of the line of succession because when she married Hideyoshi, she should have lost her name. However, she convinced Kinzo to adopt Hideyoshi as an Ushiromiya, allowing herself to retain her position (Rosa retains hers because no one even knows who she married). This is also a reason, along with George's older age, that Eva thinks he should be ahead on the succession.
 * Heroic BSOD: Hilariously subverted. Ronove says that Battler was so shocked by  that he refused to talk or eat, but then he shows up fighting with one of the Seven Sisters of Purgatory for a basket of bread rolls. Ronove was just teasing her.
 * Later played straight and brought Up to Eleven when  He subsequently
 * Heroic Sacrifice - Several. For example, in EP2,  in EP4, and  in EP6.
 * - Taken to Beyond the Impossible levels as.
 * Hit Me, Dammit! - Battler's reaction when Shannon almost does let her feel him up on the basis that she's not supposed to refuse any request from a guest.
 * Heroic Sacrifice - Several. For example, in EP2,  in EP4, and  in EP6.
 * - Taken to Beyond the Impossible levels as.
 * Hit Me, Dammit! - Battler's reaction when Shannon almost does let her feel him up on the basis that she's not supposed to refuse any request from a guest.
 * Hit Me, Dammit! - Battler's reaction when Shannon almost does let her feel him up on the basis that she's not supposed to refuse any request from a guest.

"Cornelia: Let it be known that this fight has no point..."
 * Homage - To Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Many occurrences. For instance, Maria is shown watching clips from the show, and Kanon uses Rena's cleaver.
 * Hope Spot - Pretty much everyone who faces off with the killer gets one.
 * is a big one for . Did you really think will give everyone a happy ending?
 * Hostile Show Takeover - Played for drama in EP 5.
 * And for laughs in the preview for episode 17 of the anime where.
 * Hot-Blooded - Kinzo's legacy.
 * Hot Shounen Mom - Although all the aunts are noticeably attractive, Rosa probably fits the description best. But it's subverted pretty early on, when it's revealed what a facade it is.
 * As standard Ryu07. All young moms have to be hot.
 * A House Divided - Particularly strong in the first arc.
 * How Dare You Die on Me! -.
 * How We Got Here - The very first scene in EP5 is the last scene on that world's gameboard. EP6 does this as well, starting with  that is revisited multiple times before it finally makes sense.
 * Human Chess - Deliberately invoked by pretty much the whole plot.
 * Human Sacrifice
 * I Cannot Self-Terminate - in EP4.
 * If I Wanted You Dead... - How Rosa argues her innocence in EP2: She's been carrying around a loaded rifle since the first Twilight. If she wanted anyone dead, they would be dead.
 * I Have You Now, My Pretty - A rare Gender Flipped version of this occurs in EP6 when
 * I Kiss Your Foot - Kanon does this to Beatrice so Shannon might not be chosen as a sacrifice in episode 2.
 * Identification by Dental Records - At the end of EP1 is identified this way.
 * Idiosyncratic Episode Naming - All the anime episode titles are taken from chess terminology.
 * Also, all of the episodes of the visual novel are named "_____ of the Golden Witch".
 * I'm a Humanitarian - Characters occasionally get ripped to shreds and eaten by the goat people. at the end of the second arc; Crosses the Line Twice in the anime when.
 * Imaginary Friend - Sakutaro is given this treatment, although he's actually a stuffed animal.
 * Also, Eva has her teenaged younger self as an imaginary friend in the third Episode.
 * In EP5,
 * A recurring theme in the story is how the creation of one or more of these is actually a perfectly healthy way of coping with psychological stress. Maria's case especially is discussed in detail by Ange in EP4, and aside from Eva and, this is eventually revealed to be how.
 * In EP 6 when  It gets even sadder when you realize that
 * Impaled with Extreme Prejudice - during the EP4 tea party. And
 * Impossibly Cool Clothes - All of the Ushiromiyas have utterly impeccable fashion sense, as do the witches and demons. Justified in that the former are all fabulously wealthy, while the latter have magic.
 * This looks rather strange in some flashbacks. Victorian dresses of the Ushiromiyas next to the T-shirts of pedestrians?
 * The creator can't be bothered with drawing new sprites every time someone changes an outfit. It's also shown that some characters have street clothes (George's alternate sprite has him wearing jeans and a "Tomitake Flash" t-shirt, along with a dogtag), while others seem to only have 2 outfits. Maria is seen in either pajamas or her white dress before going crazy. The anime, manga, and PS3 remake all give characters casual clothes when needed, however.
 * Inadequate Inheritor - Kinzo feels this way about his whole family. The "real" successor, Krauss, seems to show this as well.
 * Incest Is Relative - In EP7 it is implicitly revealed that
 * Also, in the end of the second arc, when Battler tells Maria to "It's ten years too early for you to tell someone to . But make sure you tell me that ten years from now, okay? It's a promise."
 * Incredible Shrinking Man - in Umineko no Naku Koro ni X. See also Baleful Polymorph, above.
 * Indecisive Medium - The anime keeps the use of colored text so vital to the original Visual Novel, despite the fact that the dialogue in the anime is audio-based rather than text-based.
 * In some instances for the final episode of the anime, the text does not appear in the form of text, though the sound effects (a slashing noise for red and a booming noise for blue) remain to imply that what they say is "colored."
 * Inter Class Romance - George, a member of the obscenely wealthy Ushiromiya family falls in love with Shannon, one of the servants at the main house.
 * Invisible to Normals - Witches, although who qualifies as "normal" seems to shift between arcs.
 * Ironic Echo - If you hear echoes in your head of Beato's and Virgilia's exchange when you start reading exchanges between Beato and Eva-Beatrice later on in that arc, you aren't the first.
 * Bernkastel's spin on the Arc Words "Without love, it cannot be seen".
 * Innocent Inaccurate - As Ange points out, the "happy memories" in Maria's diary are a lot less happy when one reads between the lines.
 * Jesus Taboo - Played straight, barely: in the anime, Beatrice makes reference to "a single man" who "appeared thanks to a star's guidance and finally explained the single element (love) that makes up the world." She then asks Shannon if she knows who the man is, but the question is rhetorical. The TIPS section for EP4 mentions a magical grimoire that has "a history of over 2000 years, is currently still in circulation, and continues to acquire new alliance members even now."
 * Averted in EP7 when Maria tells Will about her belief that she was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, since Rosa kept telling her that she didn't have a father. To back this up, she quotes from the Book of Matthew (1:23) and states that since Jesus was born from the virgin Mary, she may have been born the same way.
 * Kangaroo Court - The scene has more than a few elements of this, especially in the visual novel. Also played terribly straight with  at the end of EP5.
 * Kansas City Shuffle - Right from the first arc, Battler deconstructs exactly why the chessboard thinking he tries to use isn't going to work - because he doesn't know the rules of the game. Because he doesn't know the rules of the game, he has no idea which moves will result in which pieces being taken.
 * Karma Houdini - The third arc casts . Then in the Bad Future we learn that the subsequent police investigation
 * According to the Tanabata side story,
 * Then the seventh and eight arcs pretty much confirm that
 * Kick the Dog - When.
 * has a lot of them. In the VN, there are multiple troll sprites for this character.
 * Kids Are Cruel - Rosa's justification for her treatment of Maria (or the one she tells people anyway; in Maria's backstory we find out that ). Basically, "All the children make fun of her! Don't you see?! Beating her will obviously make her stop whining!"
 * Not to mention Ange's classmates.
 * Killed Off for Real - The following is said in gold text:
 * Kill'Em All - "When the seagulls cried, no one had been left alive."
 * Lamarck Was Right - Being a descendent of Kinzo evidently allows you to be able to use magic. Made even more odd by Beatrice's admission that Kinzo himself was never very talented.
 * Descendants of Kinzo almost universally inherit the key elements of his 'magic', pure blind determination and an idiot's understanding of chance and probability. This clan of human lemmings would be marked for mass extinction in the real world, and indeed are, in the world of Umineko.
 * This goes even further. Apparently, Kinzo(and thus, Battler) are not only untalented in magic, but have a supernatural resistance to it. And yet....
 * Lampshade Hanging - In Episode 3 of the sound novels, Beatrice puts a massive lampshade on
 * Language of Truth - Anything spoken in red text is true. If it isn't true, it can't be spoken in red text and may be subject to Unreliable Narration. (.) For whatever reason, this doesn't stop people from throwing around red statements frivolously (Beatrice cackles on two separate occasions in red, and a few characters deliver death threats in red, as if there were doubt about it or something). In EP5,.
 * Large Ham: A special one goes out to Jimang, the guy who sang the show's ending theme. It's so over-the-top that it's nearly impossible to see something involving the show without "OH DESIRE." See the character sheet for in-show examples.
 * In-story, there's Beatrice, Erika and Kinzo.
 * Laser Blade - Kanon's and the Stakes' swords are very elaborate versions.
 * Last Kiss - Not quite a kiss, but to similar effect, in the second arc when Beatrice has broken through Shannon's shield, Shannon turns to George and asks him to tell her one last time how much he loves her..
 * - EP8.
 * Law of Inverse Fertility - Partially fed into issues between Natsuhi (unable to conceive for 12 years) and Eva (who gives birth earlier and thinks her son should be the heir).
 * Left the Background Music On - Two scenes in EP 4 in the novel open with an upbeat jazzy soundtrack, but Ange complains and has Amakusa turn it off.
 * Legacy Immortality - Battler's hypothesis as to how the figure known as Kinzo Ushiromiya could take so much hands-on action in the fourth game is that.
 * Legions of Hell - Beatrice's furniture.
 * Lethal Chef - Beatrice, if the "Beatrice's White Day" side story is any indication.
 * Lethal Harmless Powers
 * Lemony Narrator - The narration of the first tea party has an mild, very tongue-in-cheek example.
 * Letting Her Hair Down - Beatrice in EP5.
 * Library of Babel - "The City of Books" in Episode 8, owned by Featherine, where most of the Episode's climax occurs.
 * Light Is Not Good - The main antagonist, Beatrice, is nicknamed "The Golden Witch" and is said to appear as a flock of golden butterflies. So what does she do the every arc? Oh, only sadistically kill off the entire cast.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters - Starts off with the Ushiromiya family, their servants, and Kinzo's physician for a total of eighteen people trapped on an island during a storm and goes up from there as Beatrice starts bringing in more of her associates (justifying it as the magical world gaining influence over the game). All the new witches, demons, servants, and Bad Future characters bring the count to about 40.
 * Lampshaded to hell and back in this Fourth-wall shattering TIP from EP6.
 * Locked Room Mystery - Invoked many times and taken by some characters as evidence that murders were committed by the Golden Witch rather than by a human.
 * Limited Wardrobe - With Kanon and Shannon exempted, most of the characters in the VN are only ever seen in one outfit, even in flashbacks, when it is also noted that these are their formal clothes that they're wearing for the family conference. The anime largely averts this trope in the flashbacks, but it still keeps them in the same outfits through multiple days, even though, logically, everyone should have known that they would be staying more than one day and packed a change of clothes.
 * Logical Fallacies - When Battler accuses Eva of lying in red her response is to say "The red only tells the truth." and to accuse Battler of insulting Beato's honor. This is intentional given that "Anti-Mystery vs. Anti-Fantasy" points out that the red truth relies on you trusting Beato. Furthermore, actual evidence supporting the validity of the red truth is presented later on.
 * Lonely Piano Piece - "Fortitude" is the most common one, although "Wingless" and "Umarete Kite Kurete Arigatou" ("Thank you for being born") also deserve a mention.
 * A good part of the music could be considered for this. Dai is really fond of using pianos.
 * Long-Lost Relative - Although the moment was suitably surprising for Battler, the audience is set up to have already known "Gretel"'s true identity.
 * The Lost Woods - The rest of Rokkenjima besides the main mansion is uncultivated forest, and Kinzo's favorite legend involves telling his children that the witch Beatrice lives within the woods, so it's a very dangerous place.
 * Lotus Eater Machine - Beatrice creates her own perfect world with just her and Maria. Also, the Golden Land in the first arc functions this way.
 * Love Epiphany - in EP6.
 * Love Imbues Life
 * Love Makes You Crazy - Kinzo, who became obsessed with the occult as a way to revive Beatrice and happily watches over the start of a ceremony to sacrifice his children.
 * In EP6,.
 * Love Martyr - Maria's relationship with Rosa is treated in this way.
 * Love Triangle - To elaborate, the cousin-servant couples are Jessica/Kanon, and George/Shannon. However,
 * Lyrical Dissonance - The character songs for Beatrice and Maria. Beatrice's character song starts out as an upbeat rock/pop song, but the lyrics are about Beatrice wondering who she lives for and beginning to doubt if she will ever find true happiness; after the first couple verses establish this, the melody gradually becomes more fitting for the song in a case of partially averted Lyrical Dissonance. The case with Maria's character song is not immediately obvious because it has an upbeat tune with upbeat lyrics...until you stop to think about what the lyrics really mean, which is when this trope kicks in full force and turns the song into a Tear Jerker. The comments made by vidread, XanthsAMV, and littlexscreamer explain perfectly why this is a case of Lyrical Dissonance.
 * The Stakes' image song definitely qualifies. The song contains a cutesy, energetic and upbeat music about how the stakes want to gouge and kill your body.
 * Magic Versus Science - Magic versus logic. Anti-mystery versus anti-fantasy.
 * As time goes on, things get more complicated. The game continues to go on, but considering that they're by then well-developed characters, are the witches so easy to brush off as non-existent? One could argue that the witches being real or not doesn't change whether the murders are magic or mundane--and if they are mundane, would that really cast doubt on the existence of ageless, extradimensional beings like witches?
 * Mama Bear - Rosa. Her last act in the second arc is.
 * Also Natsuhi. Kumasawa actually says in regard to her, "They always say that the most frightening bears are those that have children."
 * Man Behind the Man - The third tea party has . Made even odder by the in the fourth tea party.
 * Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane - The point of the entire series.
 * Meaningful Funeral - Of course,  finds a way to ruin it...
 * Meaningful Name - Several. Beatrice and Virgilia both derive their names from Dante's Divine Comedy. The "Stakes of Purgatory" have the names of demons corresponding to the Seven Deadly Sins. The "Chiester" bunny girls are named after Winchester shotguns. Finally, Lambdadelta's name is Greek for "34", which may hold some significance for those who saw Higurashi.
 * Also, Maria's name is one that is a common translation of Mary - a reference to the woman from the New Testament who gave birth to Jesus Christ. In the fourth arc, one of the TIPS speculates that.
 * The significance of Maria's name is further explored in EP7, and Maria even says that if she had been born a boy, she would have been named Emmanuel, one of the names for Jesus, meaning "God is with us" in Hebrew.
 * Mental Story: Combined with in Episode 8 -- most of the plot is.
 * Mercy Kill - near the end of the fourth arc. Also,  in the third arc.
 * Message in a Bottle - The ending of "Legend of the Golden Witch."
 * Mind Control Eyes - In EP6,.
 * Mind Screw - Ryuukishi07 is a master of this.
 * Wait, what? What do you mean, "wrap party"? So, what, everybody dying was some TV show we were all watching or something?
 * Of course, if you played Higurashi, it's a double-whammy of a Mind Screw, since Higurashi had wrap parties too..
 * This goes to new levels in EP5, where depending on how you look at it, there can be 3 or 4 levels of Meta-Worlds.
 * Episode 6 has another massive one:  MY BRAIN CANNOT FULLY PROCESS THIS.
 * Missing Mom - Battler's mother Asumu died, and it's stated outright that Kyrie is more of an older sister than a mom to him. In fact, Battler is distanced from Rudolf because he married Kyrie Too Soon for Battler's taste.
 * Mobile Shrubbery - One of Battler's more ridiculous theories in Episode 2 involves Piece Beato sneaking into Maria's bedroom and stealing the chapel key while hiding in a cardboard box.
 * Mood Whiplash - A pretty strong element all throughout the series.
 * Mooks - All the goats, who are also Faceless Goons
 * Subverted in one scene of the EP4 visual novel where one of the goats reflects upon its life before triggering too many loser flags and dying at the hands of one of the heroes.
 * Multigenerational Household - The main house.
 * Multiple Endings - There's the usual When They Cry stuff with the multiple endings playing into a larger ending, but the last arc itself can also end multiple ways.
 * Mundane Made Awesome - It's kinda hard to remember with all of the sound effects and shiny slashes that when characters use red text, blue text, and gold text, they're really only rebutting each other's arguments. It's like the most shiny debate club competition EVAR.
 * Remove the color tints and special effects at the end of EP4 and you get
 * Dawn has a particularly interesting case and even lampshades it. Erika picks a fight with Maria over the fact that Maria claims Beatrice made candy appear from an empty cup. It escalates to the point where  It's a Wizard Duel meets.
 * Mundane Made Awesome - It's kinda hard to remember with all of the sound effects and shiny slashes that when characters use red text, blue text, and gold text, they're really only rebutting each other's arguments. It's like the most shiny debate club competition EVAR.
 * Remove the color tints and special effects at the end of EP4 and you get
 * Dawn has a particularly interesting case and even lampshades it. Erika picks a fight with Maria over the fact that Maria claims Beatrice made candy appear from an empty cup. It escalates to the point where  It's a Wizard Duel meets.

"The enjoyment comes from sorting and thinking to reach the truth, and not demanding it."
 * Mythology Gag - 34 sympathizes with Eva's "unfortunate childhood a bit".
 * Maria's letter to whoever discovers the bodies at the end of EP1 is nearly identical to the one Keiichi wrote in Higurashi's Onikakushi-hen.
 * Unimpressed by his hypotheses at the end of EP4, Lambdadelta suggest that Battler's next crazy theory should be that everyone on the island is infected with Hinamizawa Rokkenjima Syndrome.
 * Nearly 90% of the attacks in Ougon Musou Kyoku are these, in fact, the game itself is full of this.
 * Nested Story Reveal - Episode 8 reveals that the entire plot is.
 * Never Found the Body - Anyone who survives until the end of the arc tends to die in this manner. However, even during the arcs, seems to have these sorts of deaths a lot.
 * Never Trust a Trailer - The anime's next-episode trailers are full of blatant lies and out-of-character behavior. They're hilarious.
 * The trailer before the release of the first game opened with the words "No Knox, No Dine, No Fair".
 * A website version. Alchemist announced a Umineko project, but used different characters drawn in the Umineko portrait style. This all turned out to be a joke and the characters were for their new game Galgun, but at the same time they announced Rondo of the Witch and Reasoning
 * Nightmare Face: Really gets ramped up in the PlayStation 3 remake; they generally involve shadowy brows, extremely wide grins and bugged-out eyes. [[media:beatrice_grin_330.gif|Beatrice provides a comparison the PC and [[PlayStation 3]] sprites.]]
 * Noblewoman's Laugh - Beatrice is prone to these, and Maria's giggling sometimes morphs into it as well. Lambda has her "O-ho-ho-ho-ho!" in the Visual Novel as well.
 * No Body Left Behind - The Stakes are some of the few characters NOT to leave gruesome corpses. Unless they're the ones doing the killing, but that's another matter...
 * Not with the Safety On, You Won't: Amakusa tries to pull this on.
 * Occult Detective - The Witch Hunters in Episode 4.
 * Of Corpse He's Alive -.
 * Official Couple - Tons. George/Shannon, Jessica/Kanon, Rudolf/Kyrie, Eva/Hideyoshi, Krauss/Natsuhi,
 * Off-Model - There's a bit of a joke among the fandom that the animation is so bad because they blew the budget on the voice actors.
 * Ominous Italian Chanting - The anime's opening.
 * The openings as well. It's gotten to the point where Akiko Shikata created a new version of the VN's original opening entirely in Italian.
 * Ominous Pipe Organ - Odds are, if you're magical, your theme tune hits this trope. For some examples, we have "Organ Opusculum No. 600,000,000 in C Minor" (Beatrice), "happiness of marionette", and "Dance of the Moon Rabbit" (the Chiester).
 * On One Condition - If you find the gold before midnight of the second night, you win! If not, "The witch shall be revived. None shall survive."
 * And even when someone DID find it,
 * In EP5
 * Not to mention EP7:
 * Only Known by Their Nickname - Beatrice's name is treated as a title, and indeed, when becomes the new Endless Witch, Beatrice claims that she is now "nameless." Battler then gives her the nickname "Beato" to use, which has been used for her more often than not since.
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You - Lambdadelta toward Bernkastel. Beato toward Battler and vice versa.
 * Ontological Mystery -
 * Otaku O'Clock
 * - Towards the end of EP5. Crowning Moment of Awesome later ensues.
 * Our Homunculi Are Different - Beato's explanation of 1967 Beatrice's existence is that Kinzo created a homunculus of her and trapped her soul in it.
 * Painting the Fourth Wall - The aforementioned red truth and Battler's blue truth. Battler has to state his hypotheses for mysteries in blue text during Episode 4 of the VN. As if that wasn't enough, Episode 5 introduces a new color.
 * Red text has appeared in the anime as the visual gaining a red tint with the significant sentence being both said aloud and zooming around the scene in white font with butterflies circling it.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise -
 * Parents as People - A pretty sharp contrast to Higurashi, where you don't even see the protagonist's parents' faces.
 * Parent with New Paramour - Battler took very poorly to the fact that Rudolf remarried so quickly after Asumu's death.
 * Pastel-Chalked Freeze-Frame - Each member of the cast gets an introductory one in the first episode of the anime.
 * The Anime's depiction of may qualify for this as well.
 * Pater Familicide - Essentially, Kinzo's plan is this plus spouses and grandkids..
 * Pensieve Flashback - Ange with Maria's diary.
 * The anime adaptation also uses this for the the meta-scenes.
 * Pimped-Out Dress
 * Pixellation - It's used a few different times in the anime, although it's removed on the DVDs.
 * Posthumous Character - Asumu . On the magical side, we have Chiester 556.
 * Post Modernism - And how. The series uses so many tropes from the Metafiction Index that the truth loops around itself and reality becomes unstable. Between deep discussions of what consists mysteries, implications that some of the narrative is untrustable, lampshades of Invoked Tropes, and the entirety of the Meta-World, the viewer is left to guess wildly about what is going on.
 * The Power of Legacy - An ongoing theme throughout the series and is pretty much the point of the ending theme "Ricordando il Pasato" ("Remembering the Past")
 * The Power of Love - According to Episodes 3 and 4, magic was originally intended to bring about happiness and gained its powers through the efforts of love. Knowing Ryukishi, this was completely intentional.
 * Psychic Powers -
 * Psychological Thriller
 * Quirky Miniboss Squad - The Stakes of Purgatory.
 * Readings Are Off the Scale - "H-His anti-magic resistance level is at Endless Nine!"
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old - Both Bernkastel and Lambdadelta, as well as Beatrice.
 * Recurring Riff - The major composers each have a prominent one:
 * zts has goldenslaughterer
 * dai has hope
 * Luck Ganriki has Organ Short #600 Million in C Minor
 * Recursive Canon -
 * Also parodied, in episodes 2 and 3 Maria watches an episode of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning - Both the Stakes and Chiesters, as well as Lambdadelta (but only in the anime and PlayStation 3 remake).
 * Redheaded Hero - Battler and Ange later on.
 * Relationship Upgrade - in EP6.
 * Retcon - An integral part of the plot. If I mention quantum post-selection paradoxes, would you understand..?
 * In EP6 this concept is weaponized to
 * Rivals Team Up - In VN Episode 5,
 * In EP 6,
 * In EP 8,
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship - in EP6 most likely qualify for this.
 * Room Full of Crazy - Kinzo's room.
 * - Actually, it's more of a.
 * Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts - A few of the Battler's theories to solve the murders involve this trope.
 * Sacrificial Lamb - Subverted in the same way as Higurashi, but slightly more ironic, as those who die first do so as sacrifices to summon Beatrice.
 * Sadistic Choice - Episode 4. Amusingly, everyone shown indicates one of the choices, then goes on to Take a Fourth Option anyways.
 * The entire plot is a sort of variation. Battler must accept magic's existence or blame one of his close relatives. As Beatrice gleefully points out several times. He has big qualms with both.
 * Sawed Off Rifle - The Weapon of Choice for most of the adults.
 * Say My Name - All the time. (Beeeeeeeeeeaaatriiiiiiiiiiice!)
 * Scare Chord - A rather terrifying one.
 * Scenery Porn - Ougon Musou Kyoku has most possibly the most detailed and beautiful battle backgrounds EVER, especially the Meta World ones.
 * Schrodingers Cat - A recurring motif. Used by Virgilia and Battler to explain why the fantasy scenes happen: as long as the detective can't see them, there's a possibility that it either happened, or it didn't happen. And that in a Closed Circle, two theories (or more) have the same weight of truth until the closed circle is broken.
 * Catbox is also used as a metaphor for
 * Science Destroys Magic - This is the witch's defense for why they don't use magic openly: People don't believe in it anymore which undermines its effectiveness. The validity of the argument is intentionally ambiguous.
 * Set Right What Once Went Wrong - Ange's goal in going back to 1986.
 * Shameful Strip - After in the second arc, he is stripped completely except for a chain around his neck that Beatrice uses as a leash.
 * Shout-Out - Once again, too many to list, so please don't try here.
 * Simple Score of Sadness - "Moon" and "Fortitude".
 * Slasher Smile - Everyone who is involved with the murders of family ( come to mind) has one.
 * In the manga, Dlanor "GREAT EQUALIZER IS THE DEATH" Knox gains a Slasher Smile here.
 * Social Services Does Not Exist - Averted. It does exist...
 * Just about everyone could have used some therapy as well, but apparently, There Are No Therapists.
 * So Happy Together - In the first arc, George proposes to Shannon in a gazebo with all sorts of pretty music playing in the background. ?
 * The Soulless - From an anti-mystery perspective, furniture.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance - Episode 3. People getting killed with this music in the background.
 * That's nothing compared to theme song: It's even called Happiness of Marionette. So when does this play? Whenever the villain of this arc is contemplating how she'll torture people, of course!
 * Note: if, when playing Umineko, a piece of music is played containing either a pipe organ or a harpsichord (unless it is in the beginning, setting up the Rokenjima family gathering), NOTHING positive is going to happen in that scene. No matter how happy, fun, pleasant, or uplifting it my sound, some serious shit is going down. Someone is either going to: A) Die horribly, B) Have their perception of reality shattered, C), D) Have their argument torn to shreds, E) THINK that they are going to win, then get completely and utterly beaten, or F) All of the above!
 * Split Personality -.
 * Also something of a Literal Split Personality and possibly an Enemy Without.
 * It's implied that.
 * Spoiler Opening - In each arc the opening animations change, most notably the portrait. The second animation set shows, and the third set shows . The fourth one shows all three portraits,
 * The opening of the PlayStation 3 port is very bad with it. Showing quickly important scenes without context may not be bad enough, but showing characters whose very existence are a big surprise for first time players make sure a good part of the mood of the first few episodes are completely changed.
 * Spoiler Title - End and Requiem.
 * Spooky Painting - Beatrice's portrait.
 * Star-Crossed Lovers
 * Stay in the Kitchen - While growing up, Eva was repeatedly told by her family that she fails as a woman because she didn't know how to do feminine things. The creation of largely stems from her resentment of this.
 * Also, Krauss repeatedly shuts Natsuhi up. Unfortunately this isn't to his benefit, since she basically runs the house and has much more common sense than he does while he squanders their money on poorly thought-out business ventures.
 * Stealth Pun - Why is Leviathan's hair an odd shade of green? She's green with Envy.
 * Succession Crisis - There were all sorts of tensions laid about. Then Beatrice's letter shows up (effectively forcing the current heir, Krauss, to fight for his position), and all hell breaks loose.
 * According to Battler's final game,
 * Summon Magic - Just about all furniture requires this.
 * Switched At Birth -.
 * Take That, Audience! - A rather unsubtle one in EP8 towards the readers. Some even took this quite offensive. Lampshaded in-story.
 * Summon Magic - Just about all furniture requires this.
 * Switched At Birth -.
 * Take That, Audience! - A rather unsubtle one in EP8 towards the readers. Some even took this quite offensive. Lampshaded in-story.

"Battler: When she comes back again, I'm going to tell her "You're such a tsundora.""
 * Take Up My Sword - In EP5, Battler
 * Taking the Bullet - In the third arc,.
 * In the second arc,
 * Talking Is a Free Action - Gleefully averted. In the first arc, Kanon . There's also an awful lot of people dying in the middle of trying to say something important. The anime, on the other hand, fell a victim to this trope with a Jessica falling to the ground in a bullet time and talking at the same time.
 * Played straight later in the novels, Battler's debate with Beato at the end of the fourth arc and the trial at the end of the fifth arc last a minute each.
 * / - It takes more than half the series for the readers to realize that these tropes are in effect whenever, but in Episode 7 this fact becomes obvious. Also, no matter how you look at it
 * Tangled Family Tree - And how. It's revealed in EP7 that
 * Tempting Fate - "Unless messing up sets off, of course." You just had to say it,
 * Ten Little Murder Victims- The Trope Namer is even named in End of the Golden Witch and parallels are drawn.
 * The Game Come to Life - Jessica and the Killer Electric Fan
 * Theme Naming - With the exception of Kinzo, the blood members of the Ushiromiya family all have Western(-ish... "Battler"?) names transliterated as kanji. A few others follow this trend as well, like Shannon the maid. All the women related to Battler also are named from Christian mythos (Kyrie Eleison = The Kyrie Prayer, Assum = Assumption into heaven, and Ange = Angel).
 * Not to mention a number of magical beings are named after characters appearing in Dante's Divine Comedy (Beatrice, Virgil (Virgilia), and Bernard of Clairvaux (Clair Vaux Bernand) are all Dante's guides).
 * The Summation - repeatedly subverted to leave it up to the viewer to solve the mystery.
 * They Killed Kenny - Every. Single. Character.
 * Time Travel - Ange is an interesting case. It is not clear when or where the Meta-World is, but Battler and Beatrice's fight takes place in 1986; Ange lives in 1998 and with Bernkastel's assistance reaches the Meta-World. One way of explaining this is that since.
 * Title Drop - Over and over again by Battler. "When the seagulls cry" refers to when the typhoon is over and everything's safe. It's also used at the very end to give the body count. Er... perhaps "survivor count" might be a better description.
 * Took a Level In Badass - In EP 4,
 * In EP 2, there's
 * Battler, who was level grinding throughout the entire series so far, and boy does it show in the later ones.
 * The Tragic Rose - The rose garden in front of the Ushiromiya mansion, and Maria's search for her marked rose.
 * The Treachery of Images - A plot point actually. Battler is nearly won over in the third arc when Beatrice starts showing him visually spectacular witch battles, but Virgilia reminds him that this is still a narrative being told by Beatrice, so he should take the visuals with a few cellars of salt. By the time the 7th arc rolls around . Those who want to solve the mystery by then should take to heart the fact that the story is basically lying to the readers as much as it can without distorting the truth.
 * Troll: The witches in general. Special nod goes to Bernkastel. She ain't called Trollkastel for nothing you know.
 * Trope Overdosed - Ain't it just.
 * Tsundere - Jessica and

"Dlanor: Kyrie Ushiromiya cannot save you."
 * Umbrella of Togetherness - George and Shannon do this in the first arc when the typhoon hits.
 * Understatement - Episode 22's title in the anime, "Problem Child". In regards to Maria. For some context, that's the one where she
 * Unexpected Successor - Kinzo, actually. The Ushiromiya family used to be very powerful, and Kinzo was a member of "a branch of the branch family." Then, an earthquake took out just about everything, and it was up to Kinzo to restore the family to its former glory.
 * Not even that. The elders of the family were still alive and intended to use Kinzo as a figurehead, and he even knew that they were going to make a puppet out of him. Somewhere along the lines, he decided to take matters into his own hands, presumably with the help.
 * Unexplained Recovery - What happens when after the last, in which
 * Updated Rerelease - Like Higurashi, it has a remake on a Sony console.
 * Unreliable Narrator - A key part of the plot. It's explicitly stated that anything not in red text is liable to be false. What is in red text? ...Not very much...
 * Episode 5.
 * The Ending Changes Everything - It's fair to say that at least a few arcs end this way.
 * Utopia Justifies the Means - Battler speculates that the reason Maria is so calm about everyone dying is the promise at the tenth twilight that she'll reach the Golden Land and everything will be restored - and her mother will be nicer to her to boot.
 * Verbal Tic - U..
 * - Subverted in that.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential - The original V Ns allow you to "execute" characters to see how they died.
 * Viewers Are Geniuses - In order to understand what the show really is about, you need to pay attention to a lot of small details such as where the characters get hurt, where do they die, who talked about fantasy, etc.
 * Wasted Song - Ougon Musoukyoku uses songs directly taken out of the game, like goldenslaughterer or haze and worldend dominator, which usually last for about at least five minutes, on a game where the average match doesn't lasts more that 3 minutes, which means you won't hear all of the song unless you deliberately pause the game.
 * Weirdness Censor - In the anime, almost no attention is drawn to Maria's cackling, odd foreknowledge, and general sociopathy by other characters (the biggest example is probably the Mood Whiplash above). In the manga, Battler reacts with proper dread at her mysterious statements most of the time, and while he tries to laugh it off in the visual novels, he does find it troubling.
 * Well Done Daughter Girl - Natsuhi has this to Kinzo, her father-in-law, as she loves him very much and desperately wants his approval.
 * Wham! Episode - The anime's episode 18. This is partly due to Compressed Adaptation.
 * Wham! Line:
 * Episode 6:
 * Wham! Line:
 * Episode 6:

"Bernkastel: This game."
 * Episode 7:


 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic - Rosa's daughter, Maria. One of the kanji in her name is essentially a cross, and is usually the first one to know exactly what's going to happen before everybody else.
 * Which Me? - There are about twelve different versions and variations of the Beatrices. Eleven if, but that's still one hell of a lot. Some of them have their own names (-Beatrice is usually known simply as , unless some distinction between 1998 and meta-1986 needs to be made), some have last names that are applicable (Beatrice Castiglioni), and some of them simply have fan-created names, because otherwise, you wouldn't be able to figure out who someone was referring to (Moetrice, suit![or sometimes, piece!]Beatrice, Beatroll, etc.).
 * White Magic - According to Virgilia, this was initially the purpose of Endless Magic. However, the magic itself can be used for either this or Black Magic depending upon the intentions of the user.
 * Who Dunnit to Me? - "Battler Ushiromiya, at this time, I will kill you. And right now, there is no one on the island other than you. The only one alive on this island is you. Nothing outside the island can interfere in any way. And of course, I am not you. However, I am here now and will kill you."
 * Why Couldn't You Be Different? - Rosa toward Maria.
 * Wife Husbandry -
 * Wimpification - Good lord, Battler gets this a lot in both fandoms on either side of the ocean.
 * Witch Species - The fourth arc's TIPS describes three different types described in ascending power: Witches, who can possess immense power in one world that is considered to be its dominion; Voyagers, who can travel freely in between the different fragments; and Creators, who can "create a one in a world of nothingness."
 * The Fair Folk - The concept of witches used here actually has more in common with a lot of the older stereotypes of fairies than witches.
 * World of Ham - Virtually every single argument in the series, even the most mundane ones, is undeniable Ham-to-Ham Combat. Then the colored texts and magic weapons come into play, and the scenery is literally torn to pieces.
 * Worthy Opponent - Battler and Beatrice refer to each other as this constantly.
 * Wrestler in All of Us - In the fighting game, Ange with her DABURU JAAMAN
 * Wrong Genre Savvy - Battler doesn't believe in the supernatural and tries to find mundane explanations for everything bizarre happening on the island. Oddly enough, Beatrice seems amused by his denial and traps him in a time loop, challenging him to find a mundane explanation each time. Or something..
 * Also, it may be in EP5.
 * Xanatos Gambit
 * Xanatos Roulette - Episode 3, where Beatrice's strategy hinges upon, Battler, and Eva all taking a very specific set of actions.
 * Bernkastel was probably The Man Behind the Man on this very one, adding yet another layer to the entire thing: Beatrice had to take a very specific action at the end for Bern's own plans to work out.
 * If Episode 8 is to be trusted,
 * Yellow Brick Road - Jessica and the Killer Electric Fan
 * You Are Worth Hell -.
 * You Bastard - In the Tanabata side story,
 * You Can't Fight Fate - Ange helps even knowing that going back in time to help Battler won't fix her own timeline: just the one that Battler will now go to which makes her a Future Badass.
 * Your Mind Makes It Real - Pretty strongly implied in every arc after the first as a sort of extension of the Literary Agent Hypothesis with a touch of The Treachery of Images tossed in for good measure. Did you notice that this is labelled "Mind Screw"?
 * Zettai Ryouiki - Beatrice in her suit and Ange in particular.

When the seagulls cry, none are left alive.