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There are some character developments that are so severe that I think even Ryukishi was not able to redeem them. There are a ridiculous amount of characters. This is a lot of mental burden while keeping track of the cast of characters. The story is heavily metaphorical and at points has something like 4 layers of abstraction to figure out what story was actually being told. Maybe the optimal way to read this would be with a notebook and pen to take notes as you go, but that's not what I like to do to relax. If you are not well versed in mystery tropes and stories, you will be lost.
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You really need to know what you're getting yourself into by reading it. A lot of the repetitions in the writing, and about half of chapter 8, feel masturbatory. If I hear the phrase "turn the chessboard around" one more time, I think I'll lose my mind (just like how if I hear the phrase "holding up the walls of peace" again, I'll go crazy). But these are all mostly giant patches of circular reasoning that provide almost no substance, and even littler help. There is a ridiculous amount of repetition, and a lot of the repetition is due to the inner monologues of the characters trying to figure what's going on. I think it could be condensed by about 25% and not lose anything important relating to plot, theme, atmosphere, or development. Despite everything I'm about to say, it's one of my favorite visual novel series.īut dear god Ryukishi's writing style does not gel with me: I feel like there are some profound messages therein, and the themes of each chapter are powerful. I guess that is the benefit of having something like 2 million words - you can be very detailed. And it has some of the deepest and three-dimensional character building that I've read (mostly). There were some times when I actually cheered at a "crowing moment of awesome". actually, I guess this really is just an issue with the translation lol.ĭisclaimer: I have read Higurashi, Umineko, and the first chapter of Ciconia.
Maybe it's okay when writing Japanese, but in English it's not really acceptable. For example, jumping between verb tenses or POVs in one paragraph. This point might actually be more of a translation thing. Fortunately, there are parts with different character POV, but. I just find Battler to be totally insufferable. I know I just said he's good at making sympathetic characters that I initially hate, but. I don't find his humour the least bit amusing, and for the beginning bits of both Higurashi and Umineko I generally have to spam click to prevent myself from falling asleep and/or rolling my eyes so hard they fall out of my skull (this is hyperbole). the humour and "filler" wasn't super boring. There are lots of unnecessarily long, drawn out parts that add nothing to the story. Stories will generally take a while to "pick up" and get to the mystery. kinda learn more about them, and you start to empathise with them. They don't get some grand redemption arc. And the great thing is they're still pretty much the same character. He is also incredibly good at making characters I initially hate, only to flip them around and make them sympathetic later in the story. If nothing else, he is wildly creative and imaginative. R07 can write some really great, inspiring stories. So, yeah, sorry if any of it is inaccurate. these are just vague faults I remember having. So it's been a while since I've read Umineko (or any of his works), so I can't really give any concrete examples.