Umineko dojin pt2

part 1 here


Click me to view

Umineko motion graphic vol.1

the translated version of Umineko no Naku Koro Ni motion graphic volume 1. Overall this clip summarises the whole event occured in episode 1 of the visual novel, Legend of Golden Witch. From characters introduction, tiny bit of mindgames in the form of chessboard, to the twilights carried out. I must say that the song used was really nice.

unfortunately I can't find the translated version for Volume 2 and 3, which I believe are similar to volume 1, summarizing episode 2 (Turn) and 3 (Banquet) respectively.

Shikata Akiko - Katayoku no Tori [Umineko OP]

Title: Shikata Akiko - Umineko no Naku Koro ni OP Single - Katayoku no Tori
Release date: 17th Aug 2009

tracklist:

01 Katayoku no Tori
02 VII
03 Katayoku no Tori -instrumental-
04 VII -instrumental-

download: [mediafire]

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Finally it's out : D
She previously sang for Umineko no Naku Koro ni visual novel Opening song, and knowing she would also sing for the anime made me and many other fans excited. It's Shikata Akiko, you knew she's always have this eerie aura around her voice, but maybe that's why I love her songs :3

related: Umineko no Naku Koro ni VN compilation

Fall 2009 Anime List

TV SERIES

-Jungle Emperor -Yuuki ga Mirai wo Kaeru-
-Battle Spirits: Shounen Gekiha Dan
-Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra
-New Three Musketeers
-Kuuchuu Buranko
-Kimi ni Todoke
-Queen’s Blade: Gyokuza wo Tsugumono
-Asura Cryin' 2
-Fairy Tail
-Romance of the Three Kingdoms
-Tegami Bachi
-To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
-DARKER THAN BLACK Ryuusei no Gemini
-Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza♪
-Seitokai no Ichizon
-Shin Koihime†Musou
-Yumeiro Pâtissière
-Tamagotchi (2 eps)
-Sasameki Koto
-Sora no Otoshimono
-Natsu no Arashi! 2nd Season」
-Kobato.
-Inuyasha Kanketsu-hen
-Nyankoi!
-Kämpfer
-The Sacred Blacksmith
-White Album Second Season
-11eyes
-Stitch! Second Season
-Winter Sonata
-Tentai Senshi Sunred Second Season
-KIDDY GiRL-AND
-Miracle Train ~Ooedo-sen e Youkoso~

OVA/OAD

Tonari no 801-chan R (OAD)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Mouhitotsu no Sekai (OAD)
Utsurun Desu. (OVA)
Prince of Tennis: Another Story ~Kako to Mirai no Message~ (OVA)
TO (OVA)
Today In Class 5-2 (OVA)
ToHeart2 adplus (OVA)
Shakugan no Shana S (OVA)
Aika ZERO (OVA)
Kemono to Chat (OVA)
To Love-Ru (OVA) - vol3
kiss×sis (OAD) - ep2

FILM

Duel Masters: Lunatic God Saga & Penguin no Mondai: Shiawase no Aoi Tori de Go-Pen-nasai (Film)
Tales of Vesperia ~The First Strike~ (Film)
ATOM (film)
Toriko / Naruto 10th Special / Yu-Gi-Oh! 10th Special / Katekyo Hitman Reborn! 10th Special (Film Shorts)
Fresh Precure! Omocha no Kuni wa Himitsu ga Ippai!? (Film)
Macross Frontier ~Itsuwari no Utahime~ (Film)
Mai Mai Miracle (Film)
Eden of The East the Movie I: The King of Eden (Film)

...........................

almost that time of the year eh. It's exactly 2 years ago when I started watching animu extensively, with the likes of Myself; Yourself and Moyashimon being some of the most awesome animu I've ever watch. This season, however doesn't seem to have that much attraction factor to me. It's good to see many new shows though. I'm certainly looking forward to Tales of Vesperia the Film. And the rest (especially new shows) will be decided after watching, as usual. A few to be notes include Asura Cryin 2, Nogizaka 2, Darker&Black 2, Railgun and Shana S.

Umineko dojin pt1

I've been lurking around the internet these few weeks in search for some Umineko random arts. And stumbled upon some in danbooru which are quite funny :3

Click me to view

[sauce]

[sauce]

[sauce]

more to come, later

Saimoe is srs bsns

Group B08, 08/08/09 -

1st 563 votes | Minami Kana @ Minami-ke Okaeri
2nd 526 votes | Akiyama Mio @ K-ON!
3rd 188 votes | Hiro @ Hidamri Sketch x365
4th 33 votes | Sekiutsu Maria Tarou @ Goku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Saimoe has left me in despair D :
Voting for the sake of knocking out the big guns has left me in despair!

pfft this is like Barcelona lending out all their players to FC Twente in their CL qualifying so that they can knock out Arsenal @.@

short rant - summer animu part 2

Spice&Wolf II
MAL/official

comments: Spice&Wolf has always been on top of my list, and the coming of 2nd season made it obvious that this is going to be a must watch for me. The 2nd season's OP song is sweet, and while the ED song is nice, I still like season 1's ED Ringo Hiyori better. The animation and music used seems unchanged. Horo is lovely as usual, but at some point this time the show revealed an unexpected side of her, different than any other rants of hers we've seen in season 1. The story is, well...it seems like there's going to be even more business/economic/profit talks in this 2nd season. Which something that my brain isn't best at :P

verdict: ***** (definitely must watch)



Taishou Baseball Girls
MAL/official

comments: A bunch of girls trying to play baseball in an era where even seeing girls running on the corridor is considered as indecent. The animation is nice, easy to the eyes. I'm not fancy the story too much, but the humors and jokes they put in this show surely made up for that. Good for some laugh, at least.

verdict: *** (watch but not priority)



Tokyo magnitude 8.0
MAL/official

comments: Emulation of real disaster in Japan. Ok not much I can comment on this though. Below average animation/character art for my standard. One great thing about this show is the way they describe the after effect of the earthquake, with building and roads fall apart (albeit I expect the effect is much worse tbh), and how the victims cope with the earthquake. And since the animu focused on the two siblings who were trapped in the middle of the earthquake, this give the viewer a bit more understanding of the problems arises due to the disaster.

verdict: *** (watch but not priority)



Umineko no Naku Koro Ni
MAL/official

comments: ｷﾀ━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━!!!!! Having played all 4 Episodes of the visual novel, I am one of the folks who were really looking forward to the animu adaptation. So after watching up to 5 episodes, the anime really give me a mixed bag of feeling. The way they reanimated the characters with new design is definitely a plus, although sometimes I feel that the focus on boobs and hips are a bit excessive. The OP was awesome, just what the VN player would expect from Shikata Akiko. And the ED, while it was a little unexpected, I still enjoyed it (Jimang/Sound Horizon is one of my fav circle after all). The BGM used are great too, since they also used various musics from the game (and my favorite would be "goldenslaughter" bgm).
Then to the story. This is what made me dissatisfied with Umineko. Sometimes I feel that the pace of the plot is too fast. For episode 1 (Legend of Golden Witch) alone, so many scenes and (what I feel are) important dialogues were missing. I'm not trying to be critical, but I feel that without those missing things, the feeling of the VN can't be properly conveyed to the viewer. For example, how Battler is not just a mere pervert when he try to grab Shannon's boob in episode 1. And how Natsuhi really feel toward Krauss when he showed the golden ingot to her. And her true feeling when she chase out Genji and others out of Kinzo's room in episode 4 . And many more.. I understand DEEN want to cover all 4 Arcs in 26 episodes, so I hope some missing scenes or others will be covered later.

verdict:***** (definitely must watch)



Yokuwakaru Gendaimahou
MAL/official

comments: Hm... modern magic which utilises computational codes to conjure magic rather than chanting spells in ancient, conventional magic. Something new I'd say. Well not that it matter to me. I just watching this for the lulz. One magician with nothing except absolute talent in summoning pans in Koyomi. And another magician with fluffy hairs and boobs in Yumiko ♥♥♥

verdict: **** (will watch)



Zan Sayonara Zetsubou sensei
MAL/official
comments: Zetsubou sensei, do I need to say more?
verdict: **** (will watch)


others:


Element Hunters
MAL/official

comments: can't comment much since i only watched episode 1, so my view is limited. Some people claimed this to be educational, I can see where this is coming, with all the real elements we've learnt from periodic tables coming into the show. Unfortunately it's still not enough to convince me to continue watching..

verdict: ** (dropped)



GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class
MAL/official

comments: This show remind me a lot to Hidamari Sketch. Various random things about drawing, an elementary drawing lesson you could say. Still no sub other than episode 1, so I can't comment much. I just hope that it won't be as plain/boring as HS (to me, at least).

verdict: *** (will try a few more)



Umi Monogatari
MAL/official

comments: I was kinda interested with episode 1, particularly because of the unique theme of the sea creatures coming to the human world, topped with funny scenes here and there. But after watching episode 2, my interest in this series totally gone...

verdict: ** (dropped)


Summer series summaries:

rating 5/5: 3 (Needless, Spice&Wolf, Umineko no Naku Koro ni)
rating 4/5: 5 (Bakemonogatari, Fight Ippatsu Juuden-chan, Princess Lover, Yokuwakaru gendaimahou, Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei)
rating 3/5: 6 (Canaan, Kanamemo, Sora no Manimani, Taisho Baseball Girls, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, GA Art Design Class
rating 2/5: 2 (Element Hunters, Umi Monogatari)

Hayate no Gotoku!! 2nd Season Character CD

Title: Hayate no Gotoku!! 2nd Season Character CD 01 - Sanzenin Nagi
Artist: Kugimiya Rie
Street Release Date: June 24, 2009
[Download]

Title: Hayate no Gotoku!! 2nd Season Character CD 02 - Katsura Hinagiku
Artist: Itou Shizuka
Street Release Date: June 24, 2009
[Download]

Title: Hayate no Gotoku!! 2nd Season Character CD 03 - Maria
Artist: Tanaka Rie
Street Release Date: July 22, 2009
[Download]

Title: Hayate no Gotoku!! 2nd Season Character CD 04 - Ayazaki Hayate
Artist: Shiraishi Ryouko
Street Release Date: July 22, 2009
[Download]


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Unlike the Character CDs for the first season, this time they have considerably less tracks (meaning, less random dialogues), 16 tracks compared to... almost100 tracks in season 1 O_o. So this might be a bit disappointment for me since I'm looking forward to those random voices which can be used for my ringtones :3
Overall the songs are nice, although overall I still love the first season's song better (Zo, Dame and Power of Flower for example). Save for Maria's theme, since I love her sing this time around.

another selected replays

2 more recommended replays. Since manually generating the heroes bans/picks/lineup is such a pain in the ass, I decided to screenshot game information from Gosugamers.

Game 1 (IDEC Captain Mode)

Patch version: 1.23
Map: DotA Allstars 6.61b
Game mode: -cm
Game length: 85:51
Players: 5v5

Replay Download / Alternative Link

match comment: A team of well-known players on scourge against the lesser known on sentinel. in fact I didn't recognize a single player on sentinel, except maybe naix which I vaguely remember seeing him in one of the old replay I've watched. About 160+ kills in over 80 minutes game, you're not going to get bored watching this. In term of overall entertainment, it probably can't match the previous replay of Jolie vs Demon I've posted before, but it's still worth watching especially naix, the morphling player who utilizes Replicate to its full potential. And also watch the Shadow Fiend and Chaos King on the scourge sides too. The only thing that lowered my rating for this replay is the high amount of buyouts late in the game.

match rating: 8.5/10
mvp: naix4o/MiSeRy/Azen

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Game 2 (DVG Semi Final Round, Kingsurf vs Razer)


Map: DotA Allstars 6.61b
Game mode: -cm
Game length: 88:53
Players: 5v5

Replay Download / Alternative Link

match comment: This match is significant for 2 things. First: it's a team vs former team, where Kingsurf who was now lead by Yamateh facing his former Kingsurf teammate (now as Razer), papaxiong, tofu etc. Second: how backdooring strategy affect the flow of game.

Watch the impressive shadow fiend play by Yamateh, and how Bristleback is still worth an option for a pick in 6.61b. Sentinel started strongly with a few kills advantages, and Yamateh's SF dominating the bottom lane thanks to NA and ES's ganks. But with some prefect ultimate by Enigma and Bristleback's radiance/hood/vanguard's quick fart, they managed to bounce back and push. This is where the shadow fiend become a deciding factor for the game, whether they lose or win. I would question PL's build though, getting perseverance/radiance against such a beefed up Bristleback and AOE from Leshrac.

match rating: 8/10
mvp: Yamateh/Kingsurf-DaM|29

Episode 4: Allies of Golden Witch

Here it comes, the final question arc of Umineko no Naku Koro ni. It took me unbeliavebly more than 1 week to finish this (unlike previous episodes which took me around 4 to 5 days at most) because me and my friends had some gaming every night since 2 weeks ago, and thus I only had around 2 to 3 hours daily for Umineko. The fact that the story is a bit more complicated doesn't help it either.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni Episode 4: Allies of Golden Witch

The end of question arc, with a lot of mysteries have yet to be unfolded

*may contain spoiler*

Hm...where should I start. This episode seems significantly longer than any previous episodes, probably due to the fact that this is the final question arc. It is heavily related to episode 3 as the events that episode is happened as the consequence of the game in episode 3 - yes, finally a "certain someone" made it out alive from the endless night on Rokkenjima and inherit the wealth of Kinzo's. But this dos not mean the game of Battler-Beatrice will end though, as it could be said that they're in parallel world and didn't seem to affect the current world where the survivor live in. This episode is heavily focused on Battler's imouto, Ushiromiya Ange who is the only other survivors of Ushiromiya family (the 2nd person after the Rokkenjima's survivor mentioned before) and her miserable life she lead due to losing everything she had. For that reason, the timeline of this episode can be divided into 2 main years - the day of the accident on Rokkenjima on 1986, and the future days on 1998 where Ange live and how she desire to unveil the mystery behind Rokkenjima's tragedy which took everything from her life. There's also story about Maria world and how she get her first "friend", Sakutarou, her daily lives with Rosa. A lot of new characters were introduced in this episode, especially on the day of 1998. On a side note, Maria is 3 years older than Ange, hence Ange always call her Onee-chan.

Due to this, episode 4 can be confusing at times since it kept on switching settings from one to another timeline. From Ange's time in 1998, then back briefly to Rokkenjima in 1986, then back again to the future with more of Ange's past, and in between are stories about Maria and her magic, and Ange's miserable life in high school due. It all interconnected, but for some reason I still couldn't grasp the exact sequence of event's in this episode. For example - Maria get Sakutarou as her birthday present and made him a living furniture. Then come the mess which made Rosa to destroy Sakutaro. I believe it all happened before Rokkenjima tragedy. So how come the lamenting Maria at that time hate Rosa AND Ange, since Ange practically only notice the existence of magic when she live in an all girl school AFTER the tragedy in Rokkenjima in 1986? At that time Maria is dead and only her grimoire left as the remnant of her magic. And one more confusing fact from this episode is Ange's claim, which says how hurting Onee-chan (Maria) would connect with a mysterious incident "several years" later (ie the rokkenjima's).

Ok so let's talk about the year 1986 and the tragedy of Rokkenjima. At this point the involvement of magic is not an issue anymore in an island as isolated as Rokkenjima. It started normally as previous episodes, but everything started to get really interesting after the first twilight is reached. To make it even more unique is the fact that unlike previous episodes, ALL twilight of the epitaph occurred before the 2nd day (October 5th is reached). The 13th sacrifice (8th twilight) happened just a few minute before 12:00am, and when the clock ticks 12:01 am Sunday the 5th October, only 1 survivor left on the island to endure a whole day before the rescue bot could come on Monday. Compared to previous episodes, the sacrifices were selected in a more random way, and they were more specifically killed so that it easy to identify their face, yet easy to know that they're definitely dead. How? Maybe something like smashing half of the head, or crush the abdomen/chest.

The best part of the night, for me is the battles between human and demon that is happening in this episode. George vs the new character Gaap is just epic, Jessica vs Ronove is also nice with all determination converted into magic. Then comes Shannon and Kanon linked together just like Siesta 56 and 210 to counter the golden missile flying toward them. And finally Krauss vs Virgilia's goat servant. I somehow chuckled at this part, because Krauss's power level is OVER 9000!!! No I'm not joking, it's true. His power level start off at mere 6, then increased multiple times due to various factors (critical hit rofl) to 11k+ power level. And I also somehow laugh my ass off the goat servant, seeing how moronic actually they are. I can only laugh seeing how they stuck several times when Virgilia gave her orders.

On the outside parallel world, Battler and Beatrice as usual were observing the game for the 4th time. Overcoming his dejection due to Beatrice's MASSIVE troll from last episode, Battler toughen his resolution and not taking this game easy anymore, especially since the her imouto Ange has come all the way from 1998 (thanks to Bern) to save her from Beato's grip. Ange had a rule that she cannot reveal her true identity to Battler, hence using the nickname Gretel. For this reason, Battler who didn't recognize her (because Ange was only 6 when he left the island for Rokkenjima) did not wholeheartedly believe Ange as his true Allies. After all he does not want the same thing from episode 3 to repeat (Virgilia). In this episode, a new rule is introduced for battler's convenience, that is the Blue Text of truth (as oppose of Beato's red text). This allow him to attack Beato with his argument, and unless Beato didn't strike back with red truth, then the victory is Battler's to take. By the end of the episode, Beato become disheartened and refuse to continue the game. She denied Battler's existence and qualification as Beato's opponent, sending him to the abyss of darkness. Without thinking, Ange sacrifices by revealing her real identity to bring Battler back... kinda touching ending : (

And the best part of the whole episode come - the episode 4 Tea Party which was unlocked upon completing the game. This time, once and for all, Battler decide to end the game for real after watching the sacrifice of his sister. Battler and Beato started exchanging blue and red truth, explaining each and every murder cases from way back in episode 1 to episode 4. Battler's reasoning has significantly improved this time, as he is no longer intimidated by Beato's difficult red truth. Although sometimes his argument is kinda laughable. Come on, trace of bomb in the food that explode once it's inside the stomach??? ROFL I know it's all devil's proof, but how ridiculous can this argument be?
Anyway for some reason it looks like after being recalled back to the game board to face Battler, Beato seems willingly accept defeat, looking for Battle to end the game for her sake since she didn't really counter most of the blue texts flying toward her. In the end of the day, we still don't know who's the real victor..

A hell lot of question still remains in my mind after finishing this episode, and I hope all these can be answered in the answer Arc later. Who "exactly" is the Battler who played against the witch beatrice in her board? What is the significance of showing the "07151129" code to the four survivors by the end of episode 3? Siesta 00 have once mentioned about Siesta 556, who is she exactly (Wiki have mentioned her name, but I can't remember seeing her in the VN so far). And this might seem trivial, but what is the "ping pong" sound that Virgilia heard when she face off Krauss?

dang I wrote too much.