Sorry to add to the meme, but here are my conclusive thoughts on Umineko:

Umineko is very metaphorical by nature, with tons of vagueness and subtlety and evidence for multiple ways to interpret the story. And that can be frustrating for some who want traditional clarity, but in the end, Episode 8 hammers home that this really isn’t that type of story.

I started this with questions upon questions that built up like mad as I finished each episode, but around Episode 5/6 or so, it all started melting away. Not just because some major truths were divulged, but because I slowly realized that this search for truth wasn’t the point.

And that sounds like a cop-out, because stories leaning on that sort of thing can easily become flimsy and without structural foundation. But Umineko isn’t like that. Through a combination of the established rules and the ideas explored, it offers a gigantic body of substance.

And that substance is based in the characters, emotions, truths, lies, themes, etc.

It basically comes down to love, perspective and truth.

I’m basically stating the obvious here for anyone who’s read it, but that’s really the heart of it all. People have so many sides to them that we cannot hope to 100% understand anyone. But that doesn’t mean that what they’ve shown to us is a lie.

My final ranking of the episodes:

1) Episode 8 (10/10)
2) Episode 7 (10/10)
3) Episode 5 (9.5/10)
4) Episode 4 (9.5/10)
5) Episode 6 (9.5/10)
6) Episode 3 (9/10)
7) and 8) Episode 1 and Episode 2 (8.5/10)

Episode 1 is a great introduction that really hooked me through the murder mystery premise it was just right up my alley. Spooky atmosphere, isolation, stormy night. I loved the tone.

And even though the story sprawled outwards from here, there’s a charm to the simplicity here.

Ep 2 was on a similar level of quality but I initially enjoyed it slightly less due to the lack of novelty. However, it does some great character work (especially for Shannon and Kanon) and after learning certain truths later on, it’s much more impressive in retrospect.

Both 1 and 2 have some problems with redundancy and repetition, which got in the way of my enjoyment at times. But all in all they’re a great foundation to introduce the characters, rules, themes and setting, and they definitely grabbed me.

Episode 3 is a bit of a step up and does some fantastic work for Eva, this is where she really starts to become one of the best characters in the story. It deepens and broadens things very well, and the conclusion is totally awesome, ending with the brilliant Ange hook.

Episode 4 may be the most flawed one, being pretty uneven in pacing and kinda structured oddly in terms of timeframes and stuff. But centering the story around Maria and Ange for such a large portion was genius.

They’re two of the biggest victims and sweethearts in the story, and learning about them was so beautiful and sad. Discovering the origin of Maria’s “Uu-uu!” had me shocked and staring at the ceiling for 15 minutes, and basically anything to do with Ange engaged me so deeply.

And the additional hints about Battler’s sin and how it applies to Beatrice were just so compelling, I almost felt like looking up the answers.

Even though the flaws are pretty prevalent, the emotional highs shoot Episode 4 up to one of my favourite episodes.

Episode 5 is pristinely structured, might be the best one in that department. Erika is a phenomenal antagonist and her introduction here dovetails with the increased Lambda/Bern/Natsuhi focus beautifully to frontload the idea of the value and nuances of truth.

It’s this episode where I finally began to understand and solve the mystery, but it was so good and I was so into the climax, Battler’s loss, Beatrice’s death and Battler’s epiphany that it was almost an afterthought to me.

Episode 6 starts off pretty strong and basically straight up hands you a huge and emotional revelation, and then cools off a little. But the final third or so is among the best in the entire series and completely shot the episode up to being on par with 4 and 5.

7 is the third and final step up in quality, it’s just mindnumbingly good and one of my favourite arcs ever. Will and Lion are immediately likeable and engaging while also being fundamental to the themes and plot, and their dynamic is just so cute and enjoyable, which..

..was honestly needed given the extremely heavy subject matter.

Learning some of these truths was just harrowing, but it did not disappoint in terms of quality and this episode does wonders for so many of the characters. It’s poetry and theatre wrapped into a gorgeous package.

And words can’t really do justice to Episode 8. I can understand why some would dislike it, but it is slightly ahead of 7 as my favourite one and cemented the story as one that I’ll never stop coming back to & drawing inspiration from. The perfect conclusion. So sad and poignant.

My tier list of the characters:

Sorry that there isn’t anything new or interesting here, I loved it as much as everyone else lol. Umineko isn’t a video game, but if it was, it would probably be my favourite one.

It not only positively impacted my life through its brilliance, but I think it’s taught me to be a better and wiser person.

It’s changed my outlook on things for sure. I will try my best to incorporate some of the things it taught me to become more of the person I strive to be.