Umineko: When They Cry/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alas, Poor Scrappy - Erika in EP 6.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Beatrice: a heartless and sadistic murderer, or the savior of the Ushiromiya family's dignity, allowing their memory to be unsullied by the crimes committed in their two days on Rokkenjima by taking them all upon herself?
      • Might be easier to figure out if she weren't voluntarily tripping through the Face Heel Revolving Door at every turn.
      • This is what happens when a Tsundere goes too far.
    • Bernkastel: a disgusting, Complete Monster who toys with humans for her own amusement, or a tragic Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds who had to go through thousands of years of Break the Cutie horror and now can only torment others in order to dull the pain?
    • Toya Hachijo/Featherine: It's never explicitly said that Toya is Featherine. One non-magical explanation of how the two could be different entities is that Toya's story that Ange reads is a description of a fictional Ange reading the story of Battler's sixth game to a fictional Featherine, so that Featherine is Toya's Author Avatar.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced - A Play Station 3 port by Alchemist in full HD, with beautifully rendered graphics, vivid animations, all the original BGM from the sound novels, and voice acting by the anime and drama CD seiyuu? HELL YES. In addition, Yen Press licensing the Umineko manga for a North American released caused much rejoicing. Why? They are releasing the volumes in omnibuses!
  • Arc Fatigue - The pacing of the anime comes to a screeching halt at the start of the fourth arc, with three straight episodes of exposition on the characters of Maria and Ange.
  • Author's Saving Throw - For the fighting game spinoff; and it's a meta one. One of the preview videos shows Virgilia continuously using a hard-to-dodge projectile. Looks like a Game Breaker, right? Then this video came along, showing every character countering it.
  • Better on DVD - Bet you they'll remove the pixellating in the gorier parts on the DVD.
    • But they certainly didn't seem to do anything about the QUALITY. DEEEEEEEEEN!
  • Broken Base - "So, what did you think of the anime?" ...Yeah, just do everyone a favor and don't ask.
  • Canon Sue - Bernkastel's furniture Erika Furudo is a Parody God Mode Sue with the personality of a Jerk Sue.
  • Cargo Ship: Fans have joked about this in regards to how often Battler uses a hat stand as an Improvised Weapon.
  • Cliché Storm - Episode 4's legendary fight between Krauss and a goatman has the antagonists invoke Nothing Can Stop Us Now, Retirony, and the typical Villain Ball move of 'promises are made to be broken' multiple times in quick succession, finishing it off with some Gretzky Has the Ball boxing gibberish. It's Lampshaded the whole way through.
    • That entire scene was basically a ruthless parody of Nasuverse-style numerical "power levels". Though it was likely a fun jab, because Ryukishi07 and Nasu have a good relationship (as per Ciel's Expy in Higurashi).
      • You think too hard. Dragonball. Scouters. Sudden Power-ups and downs depending on emotional state. Heck, they reference the Dragonball tournament. Nasu ranks are set in stone for everyone, rather than fluctuating.
      • Probably a reference to both, since the power levels don't change at all, but multiple things factor in as combat multipliers.
  • Complete Monster: Bernkastel is revealed to be one of these at the end of Arc 4. Her whole existence seems to be devoted to causing misery for her amusement. She says she's 'the cruelest witch in the world' FOR A REASON.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In the fighting game. The AI gets to forgo the directional sequence before a special move, allowing scenarios like AI!Battler invoking the Metaworld and blowing you to hell with three Meta supers in a row, which would be impossible for a human to fit in if you factor in the movements.
  • Counterpart Comparison: Once you learn Beatrice's story, it's very difficult not to notice the similarities with Shion from Ryukishi's previous work. Both would have had rights to the heirship of their families had it not been for extenuating circumstances around their birth. Both have serious identity issues stemming from those circumstances and subsequently spent their lives being made miserable by others, only to find one person they fell in love with and who looked to love her back and made her feel special before he went missing. Both vow to wait and are ultimately driven mad (though different types of mad) from the length of that wait.
  • Crack Pairing - The side story "The Stakes' Valentine's Day" is filled with these. Including Asmodeus/Juuza, Beelzebub/Gohda, Leviathan/Kyrie, Belphegor/Rudolf... and even teasing Beatrice/Battler and Battler/Lucifer!
    • Not to mention the recent couples poll on the official site, which has absolutely everything.
    • There's Amakusa/Battler fanart around the Japanese fandom. Not only have they never met, it's a time paradox. On the other hand, Yaoi Fangirls in this fandom have to take what they can get. There aren't a lot of bishounen running around.
    • If Game Master Battler's TIP is to be believed, Virgilia is a crack shipper.

Virgilia: "...RudoBato, GohBato, AmaBato."

Ronove: "Pukuku! You mustn't forget RonoBato."

  • Crazy Awesome: Jumping from the third story of your mansion in order to go for a midnight stroll? "I wouldn't put it past grandfather."
    • Dlanor.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: Octopus Luka Maria. Ain't she just adorable?
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Has a whole page, of course.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Ironically, despite her definitive Scrappy status after EP5, Erika seems to becoming something of this after EP6, especially in Japanese fandom. Ryukishi certainly did intend for her to be a sympathetic character, but saying that she was the hero of the episode is a bit...
  • Ear Worm - Jessica's preposterously hyper, catchy Image Song, "Dokkyun Heart".
  • Easily Forgiven - Genre Savvy Beatrice actively tries to cultivate this and then lampshades it in the third arc.
    • Tellingly: The murders in the fourth arc are committed by Kinzo, despite being dead, and the fifth arc has Beatrice perish. After this, Beatrice is never the villain!
    • Yeah, because Beatrice never was the villain. She was a Stealth Mentor.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Genji is slowly, slowly becoming one.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Bernkastel. Well... Not her, completely, but in situations where she displays her cruel and playful antics coupled with her twisted personality, she certainly is!
  • Fanon - No one actually knows what the Gold Truth that showed up in EP5 is or how it's really that different from the red, aside from a few vague statements issued by Dlanor. Despite this, it somehow became accepted that the Gold Truth tells the absolute truth while the Red Truth can be used to spin lies or truths... until a scene in EP6 pointedly contradicted this.
    • Maybe it didn't contradict it - Ryukishi stated in an interview that anyone can use the Gold Truth if they completely understand the rules of the game. He even says pieces can use it, as well.
    • Yeah, there was no contradiction. It's actually pretty clear what the gold truth is for. People are easily thrown by the gold text in EP6 because they freak out over the mention of magic, but it's actually pretty simple. Beato the Elder understood the true form of magic, thus she was able to say in gold that Beato's sleight of hand was real magic. Gold text, like Ryukishi said, is simply for people who understand the rules, and can make statements based about those rules.
  • Foe Yay: Most obviously, Beatrice x Battler and Bernkastel x Lambdadelta, both of which are confirmed canon after EP5 and EP6. Erika/Battler. Complete with wedding dress. The side stories "The Stakes' Valentines Day" and "Beato's White Day" even play Beato x Battler for laughs.
  • Fridge Brilliance - Enough to warrant its own page.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment - Arc 4's Cliché Storm turns around to bite George and Jessica in the ass, due to a rather brutal Brick Joke involving the danger of a Hope Spot.
  • Genre Savvy - Erika/Bernkastel, to the point where they use the "fact" that they are in a mystery as the basis of most of their deductions.
  • Gorn - Read the description of the first murder of the first arc, and then try saying it's not.
    • The first arc? Try the second arc, what with the "Happy Halloween Maria" thing...
  • Harsher in Hindsight: An in-story version: In the second arc Beatrice tells Shannon that she won't feel that same way about George after he "looks at her with lust" and at the time it just sounds like taunting. Cue the reveal in the third arc that Kinzo trapped Beatrice in a human body and kept her as his mistress and that line takes on a whole new amount of significance and Squick when you realize Beatrice was speaking from personal experience and was not taunting Shannon, but giving her a warning about what may happen with her and George..
    • Not to mention that the truth behind it is a lot Squick-ier than it first appears.
    • Another in-story example also comes from the second arc, or rather, the ending to it. At Beatrice's banquet, she has her goats eat Battler alive after he loses against her. This ends up getting used against her in the fifth arc when she loses in proving Natsuhi's innocence, and Lambadelta and Bernkastel sentence her to the same fate because it's how she "punishes the losers in the game".
    • Second arc again. Beatrice tells Kanon that the three worst ways to hurt a girl are physically, emotionally, and by betraying their hopes. She calls the last the most difficult, the most effective, and the one most often committed by accident. And poor Beato would know more about that than anybody else.
    • Again, in-story example:

Battler (to Ange): It's not like you'll get struck by lightning if you tell me your name.

  • Hell Is That Noise - The strange, hammering-on-metal the Stakes emit in their...er, stake form. It's constantly present whether it makes sense (ricocheting off walls in rapid succession) or not (flying through empty air).
    • There's also the Scare Chord in the first novel when Maria claims Beatrice gave her that umbrella.
  • Hey, It's That Voice! - A lot of Higurashi voice actors were used in Umineko as well.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: One fan made comic (NSFW), located after EP 5 features battler creating the 6th game but instead of the typical visual novel he creates a fighting game. It even says Magic fighting game Battle of the Golden Witch coming soon...
  • Ho Yay - Between Lion and Wright from EP7. Some fans have now taken to re-naming EP7 "Homolust of the Golden Witch". If you believe Lion is a guy, that is. His/her gender hasn't been officially confirmed, although the fandom seems to be 99.99% sure he/she's a guy.
    • The English fandom, you mean. Most of the Japanese fandom seems to be 99% sure that Lion is a girl. Which is ironic because most of the yaoi fandom comes from Japan...
  • Iron Woobie: Battler.
    • Eva moreso. It may have worked only once but she gives Kyrie a hell of a fight after she loses her family.
  • It Gets Better - The first novel is almost painfully monotonous with glimmers of hope when small horror elements show up...then somebody finally dies!
  • Jerkass Woobie: Eva may be a dog kicking Rich Bitch, but when you get down to it, as this (spoilerrific) fancomic shows, her life kind of... sucked.
    • It's pretty hard to deny just how screwed up Rosa's life is, and, at least as far as we know at this point, how relatively little of it is her fault. Of course, it doesn't change the fact that she treats Maria miserably.
    • Beatrice may qualify as one.
    • Erika is probably one straw short of being a mentally insane, jerkass murderer, but she earns a least a few woobie points on account of her bring Bern's piece.
  • Les Yay - Lambdadelta x Bernkastel, which is actually canon. Lambda acts like a supernatural Stalker with a Crush, they like to talk about giving each other candy bath massages, and they've even both said they love each other.
  • Like You Would Really Do It: In EP5 Natsuhi is set up to be incredibly suspicious in every way. Of course she can't be the culprit!
  • Magnificent Bitch: Beatrice as well as Bernkastel and Lambdadelta.
    • If one doesn't consider Battler the Guile Hero that he became in EP6, then they can consider him a good heroic example of a Magnificent Bastard as well.
  • Mary Sue: Erika has elements of the Black Hole Sue, Jerk Sue, Fixer Sue and Parody Sue stirred up into one instantly hated package. And that's the point.
  • Memetic Badass: Rosa's actions in the end of EP2 got her many fans.
  • Memetic Mutation - Enough to warrant its own page.
  • Memetic Sex God: Endless Sorcerer Battler, to the point that people want to do his cape.
  • Mind Game Ship - Beato x Battler
  • Moe: Beatrice shows flashes of cuteness when she isn't cheerfully orchestrating murders and walking all over Battler. This starts happening more and more frequently from Episode 3 onwards.
  • Mondegreen: Happy Maria! has quite a lot. And the official lyrics are all in horribly-rendered GratuitousEnglish
  • Moral Event Horizon: For Eva-Beatrice, the repeated sadistic deaths of Maria and Rosa did it for a lot of people, especially when Beatrice of all people steps in to give them a Mercy Kill.
    • Even Evil Has Standards: Ronove actually notes in response to Beatrice trying to figure out why everyone is suddenly so repulsed by this display that "even he, a demon, can understand Battler's feelings somewhat." It is worth noting that whenever the murders were shown to be done by Beatrice, Maria was usually left until the end and could rarely be shown to have actually been hurt by her.
    • Kinzo was always close to this trope because of his treatment of his family and the subverted Pater Familicide, but the revelations about Beatrice Ushiromiya, his daughter and the fact that this was Parental Incest seems have been the end of the road for some fans.
    • Maria's diary. For those who don't know: The "spells" drastically change when Sakutaro is killed. "Raining candy" and "making sure that tomorrow's dessert is cream croquette" turns into "I wish that the bullies would die in a car crash".
    • In EP6, Erika beheads five people to make sure that they're actually dead (which, it turns out, they weren't). And all in order to get revenge on Battler by trapping him in a logic error.
    • Bernkastel crossed it in the side story "The Witches' Tanabata", which is where her You Bastard moment comes from.
  • Narm - Surprisingly little, but the "Uuuuu WW Waaah" yell in the original V Ns might count. There is also that little scene with Maria's head rolling on Rosa's plate.
  • Player Punch - Ange is built up into an incredibly sympathetic character. Prepare to shed many tears.
    • Game 5, end of the tea party, Promise. No one will blame you for demolishing a few tissue boxes over this one either.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: A lot of the fans really disliked Maria until the fourth arc, when she revealed one hell of a Freudian Excuse and got around to Calling The Old Woman Out in true When They Cry fashion.
  • So Bad It's Good - How a lot of people feel about the visual novel's art.
  • Squick: Beatrice Ushiromiya, daughter of Beatrice Castiglione is his daughter. And he had a child with her.
  • Stoic Woobie: Not only does Ange lose her parents and brother, but supplementary materials reveal that a certain witch manipulated her into not only hating the only relative she had left that doesn't want to kill her, but also locking away any form of happiness
    • I guess we can take out the "Stoic" after she learned from Bernkastel how her mother (who she loved more than anyone) never truly loved her and how Eva (who she hated more than anyone) wanted to protect her from the "truth."
  • Theiss Titillation Theory - Gaap is the embodiment of this trope Gone Horribly Wrong.
  • They Just Didn't Care - Most of the new sprites for EP7, particularly Young Kinzo and Claire. Hooray for copy and paste!
    • Justified Trope though in Kinzo's case, since it was mentioned in the earlier novels that Battler looked just like Kinzo when he was young.
      • It's justified for Clair, as well. Bern specifically states that her appearance was created as a stand-in for Beatrice.
      • And it may be a Fridge Brilliance for the new servants. One could assume Beatrice decided to base her minions on the other servants that caused her so much annoyance.
      • It is, remember Ange first time she go Rokkenjima?. Remember who was the servant who was working at that time?. And remember Ange´s best friend from 1998? Fridge Brilliance everywhere in EP 7.
  • Toy Ship: Sakutaro's mutually-adoring relationship with Maria hints at this.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: Kanon. With good reason, mind you.
  • Wangst: Kanon.
  • What an Idiot!: In EP6 Battler gave Erika duct tape. And it's three rooms' worth. When in the previous game, the duct tape she used allowed her to use the red truth.
    • After EP7, with a certain interpretation, one could argue that most of Battler's behavior in EP6 is him betting on a miracle so that Beato regains her memories. Battler acts as an obvious comparison to Kinzo, chick!Beatrice is quite like Beatrice II, the love duel acts as a metaphor of "Yasu's" internal conflict, etc.
    • Krauss. Oh, Krauss. The true extent of his idiocy is revealed in EP5. He's quite possibly the stupidest character in Umineko. The poor idiot would have been penniless on the street some five or six years ago if Natsuhi weren't hypercompetent to the point of neurosis.
  • The Woobie: Oh god, Natsuhi. Especially after EP5.
    • To verify, she starts to lose her sanity after Kinzo dies, is forced to confront a less than pleasant aspect of her past (one that she's already repented for), Jessica is murdered, Krauss is kidnapped, forcing her to obey the mysterious man claiming to be her son. Not only does Krauss die anyway, but she is framed for all the murders, and gets beaten up by a very pissed off Eva and Battler is the only one who even tries to intervene.
      • It Got Worse. She gets accused of cheating on her husband and having a sexual relationship with Kinzo. Then Bernkastel brutally tells her in her that everything that's been basically keeping her sane until that moment... was all a delusion on her part. They basically make her life hell in that arc. And even that's an understatement.
    • EP7 reveals that Beatrice, of all people, can definitely be considered to be this.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Maria, so very much so in EP4. Not just her repeated slaughter of her own mother, but her diary suggested Maria was getting increasingly more and more destructive with her abilities.
  1. ↑ Nothing to see, sadly.
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