Umineko no Naku Koro ni starts with a scene that doesn’t make sense right off the bat. Kinzou Ushiromiya, the crazy man of the series, offers to return Beatrice (the one in the protrait), the crazy woman of the series, everything she has gave him so far in exchange for her smile. Why go so far? Guess what? Kinzou has only three days of life left! Probably he thought that no misfortunes would come after that…After the pre-announced scene a bunch of Ushiromiyas arrive at the island including the main protagonist, Battler (the male at the right of the picture above) who REALLY likes squeezing boobs, and Maria (the shortest in the image above~and the whole anime~), my personal favorite, who is cute girl but later proves to be a loli psycho. At that moment whenever a new character appears there is a *Flash* and there you have it: the name of each character is displayed! At their arriving at the Kinzou’s estate’s garden, Maria notices a “sick” rose. Then George (the male in the left of the picture above) ties it with a ribbon and marks the spot! After entering the estate Battler notices a portrait of a woman and the the image above passes through! Maria says that the woman is the witch Beatrice. Near the end of the first episode Maria goes for a beach-picnic with George, Battler and Jessica (the blond one on the image above) and gives Jessica and Battler a scorpion charm, saying that it will protect them against Beatrice. At thier return from the picnic Maria can’t find her rose and when her mother comes out she slaps her because of her typical “Ouuu ouuu”.

Dad ate my cookies!!!

The second episode marks the start of random murders taking place by an unknown culprit. At the beginning Mria enters the mansion and reads a letter from Beatrice. From that moment on Maria has a psycho look on her face for the rest of the episodes (my theory is that Maria is possessed by Beatrice but let’s leave that aside). The same night Jessica gives her mother her scorpion charm and Battler loses his one (however Battler’s losing his charm is revealed at the next episode). George gives a marriage ring to Shannon (the maid in the first picture) and…on to the next day! It’s 6:00 AM (what a drug) and Shannon,Gohda,Rudolf,Rosa,Jessica’s Father and someone else too (I don’t remember who) are missing and are later found dead in the garden’s shed which is marked with the seventh magic circle of the sun! After a lot of crying the episode ends!

You are dead cockroach!

The third episode is mostly about investigating the case, which I found amusing (watching it again, however, is the most boring thing I’ve done the last 7 years). After the broken mirror in the middle of the episode, Maria is in the kitchen with three servants and says Battler that Beatrice is in that room. All of the servants are killed later in the anime which led me to the conclusion that Maria is possessed by Beatrice. Battler then reveals that he lost his charm earlier the previous day (2nd paragraph, remember?) The only remarkable thing about the rest of the episode is that George’s parents (Eva and Hideyoshi) are killed as well.

Related posts:

• Umineko no Naku Koro ni -Episode 4-
• Umineko no Naku Koro ni -Episode 6-
• Umineko no Naku Koro ni -Episode 5-
• Umineko No Naku Koro Ni II-VI
• Eden of the East – 01 + 02 – wtf moments