Umineko no Naku Koro ni- (When Seagulls Cry) The Ushiromiya Family meet once a year at Kinzo’s home (head of the Ushiromiya family) in an island he owns named  Rokkenjima. Kinzo only has three months to live and his eight family members are there to discuss how to divide his inheritance when he dies. A typhoon stops the eight family members from leaving the island and they then start to see weird things and people start dying.

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Review:

   The first episode showed the eight family members (adults only) greedy side and some

hatred between some of them. The main character, Battler Ushiromiya, is cute and comical at times. He seems to be narrating the story in the beginning of the episode. The head of the family, Kinzo, seems to be obsessed with a witch named Beatrice he once met years ago with whom he made a deal to give him fortune in exchange for his soul. He wants to see her smile again before he dies. There is a large portrait of her in his house by the entrance, she doesn’t seem to be that intimidating nor pretty but i guess we wont know until she appears in later episodes. Here is a picture of the portrait:

The first episode did not show any thrill-suspense yet they mainly focused on presenting all family members and servants of the house and a little girl named Maria who believes the witch exist and starts to see her image. (By the way the little girl, Maria, starts to whine and cry a lot towards the end of the episode, it becomes irritating and annoying lol.lol.)

I will give it a couple of more episodes to see if the mystery and psychological thrill picks up to my taste but regardless the first episode seemed watchable. Although it seems the story revolves around Beatrice and her epitaph, Battler’s character seems to be solely depended on when solving the mysterious and tragic events.