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preparing for my first read of Umineko by doing the most logical thing, which is of course first reading And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and actually I've already finished it because I read the entire thing in a single sitting, I could not put it down, holy poo poo it was fantastic! I read a lot of stuff but mystery is one of those genres I don't really pay attention to (thus why I wanted to brush up before Umineko) and was really blown away turns out of the best selling and most beloved books of all time is pretty good
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Sep 9, 2023 01:33
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fez_machine posted:If you want further reading to fully appreciate the murder mystery aspects of Umineko. I highly recommend reading up on the New Orthodox movement in Japanese mystery writing and its break from the Social School (Shakai-ha) Thank you so much for this. I'm about a 1/3 through Decagon House Murders and it's really good. The prose is not what I usually like, but there was a lengthy forward written by Soji Shimada (the author of the latter book you recommended) that explained the reason for it and actually repeated or clarified a lot of the same things in the article It really is very similar to the feeling of playing mystery game or VN. the Decagon House itself has a very Zero Escape feel to it lol WarpDogs fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Sep 10, 2023 |
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Sep 10, 2023 18:42
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fez_machine posted:Of the formative works of the New Orthodox movement, The Decagon House Murders and The Tokyo Zodiac Mysteries are the ones to read in terms of Umineko. Finished both of these, and I'm really glad I took this little detour. I feel like I have a much deeper appreciation of mysteries and shin honkaku now I really liked The Decagon House Murders (and actually solved it) despite its unusual character writing and idiosyncrasies. I liked Tokyo Zodiac Mysteries a lot less. The former always had its eye on the prize, something important was happening constantly and every observation was worth considering. Tokyo Zodiac meanwhile dumps name after name on you, and that's on top of really specific detours that go on for far too long. As in, 20 pages worth of longitudes and latitudes, 30 pages worth of astrology, and none of it mattered lol. which I get was the *point*, people's imaginations ran wild which helped the killer get away with it and they used the same trick on the reader. but the misdirection loses its fun when it becomes tedious. you can just trick me with things that are interesting instead of things that are boring!! I also didn't find the killer nearly as interesting or as like... comprehensible lol definitely worth reading both, though, if only for the history and understanding. anyway, onto Umineko
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Sep 15, 2023 05:07
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Probably too early to start posting CIA documents but I'm choosing to  anywayChapter 1, first crime Starts with a bang by offing 6 people at once, many of who seemed like they'd be major players. Such a large amount (plus the "chosen by the key" hint from the epitaph) definitely invites speculation as to what the pattern or commonalities are - 75% of the adult children are killed. Eva benefits the most - Half the victims are male, the other female. On purpose? - Every survivor is impacted in a surprisingly even way, except perhaps Battler and Maria who got it the worst. Eva / Hideyoshi are less impacted but would also be chief suspects - Main house only. Shannon only killed by bad luck (?) of her being there - Despite so many victims, only Krauss and Shannon are truly exonerated, can't rule out body doubles for the remaining 4 due to smashed heads Seems unlikely one person could do this all. Were they all lured to the shed? How? What's with the smashed heads? You'd do that to conceal identities, but it is much harder to pull that swap off on an isolated island where everyone knows each other and everyone has very different body types. There could be two murderers here. The first is the "basic" murderer, motivated by family drama. Krauss and Gohda team up to kill the adult kids (and Kyrie) then used their big muscles to bring them to the tool shed. Shannon was in wrong place, wrong time. Then the 2nd murderer, the "ritual" (now main) murderer, realizes Krauss and Gohda make 6 to match the epitaph and finishes the job and makes it all part of their ritual. they then smash the faces to conceal part of the crime and make it appear everyone was killed by one person and in the same way. Advanced artificial intelligence recreates possible crime scene tampering:  Current Suspects for Main Murderer Natushi - Has motive for wanting to kill the family + to do so in a way that pleases Kinzo / makes her a true part of the family - Headaches could be a mask for some kind of willful memory loss or blackout crazy stuff - Could have painted the evil symbol with her hands and then went back to her bedroom, thus getting the goop on her own door handle. The charm is just a reader misdirect - She's gotta snap one day, holy poo poo these people are awful to her Kanon - Seems to harbor a lot of resentment - Would have easy access to Kinzo and his derangement / plans - The whole "furniture" thing must have a deeper or more nuanced meaning than the obvious. Implies he's a tool of some kind? Unwilling, maybe? - He's always involved somehow. Discovered people were missing, discovered the places where the bodies were, is one of the few people who could have given Maria the umbrella and note unnoticed, and he may have witnessed Kinzo chucking the ring - This is meta and maybe off base, but feels like there may be a gender reveal that he is actually a she. His voice, stature, some hints in his personality are similar to others in anime / VN in which it's revealed the somewhat feminine boy who isn't as strong or manly is in fact a girl!! Maybe Kanon is Beatrice reincarnated, or Beatrice's granddaughter? The whole orphanage thing is super suspicious
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Sep 22, 2023 19:38
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