Umineko no Naku Koro ni

Overview

Umineko: When They Cry (When the Seagulls Cry) is a Japanese murder mystery dōjin soft visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion. The first game in the series, Legend of the Golden Witch, was first released at Comiket 72 on August 17, 2007 playable on the PC; the game sold out in thirty minutes. It's somewhat of a spiritual successor to Higurashi: When They Cry, and even has a few characters cross over in new forms.

Square Enix, Ichijinsha, Kadokawa Shoten, and ASCII Media Works all published various manga adaptations of the series. It was also turned into a 26-episode anime by Studio Deen, which aired in Japan between July and December 2009. A series of novels written by Ryukishi07 are published by Kodansha Box. A fighting game based on the franchise named Ōgon Musōkyoku was released by 07th Expansion on December 31, 2010.

Plot

The story focuses on a group of eighteen people on a secluded island for a period of two days, and the mysterious murders that befall most of the people. The goal of the game is to discern whether the murderer is human or of some other supernatural source. Umineko is the third title in the When They Cry series, preceded by Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, and followed by Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru.

Power of the Verse

Umineko is one of the most powerful franchises out there. Especially Featherine Augustus Aurora, the creator of the whole Umineko story. Umineko's characters also have many abilities like reality warping, time manipulation, regeneration, resurrection, etc.

Explanation

The cosmic hierarchy of the When They Cry series (including Umineko and Higurashi) is based on perspective. The strength of an individual depends on the height of the realm/world/layer that it exists on. Anything (even infinity and violation of logic) within a lower layer is limited when comparing it with a higher layer.

Characters can have multiversal abilities (like Battler's Endless Nine) within their own layer of existence, but in the higher layer they are just characters or chess pieces from stories/books or chessboards. Stories of lower worlds (including all characters, universes, physical and spiritual realities, afterlives, mirror realms, pocket worlds, higher dimensions and all fates in linear time and even timeless events) are visualized as tiny crystals (called Kakeras/Fragments/Pieces). And even ordinary people (such as Rika) within a higher layer can literally move, merge and change these small kakeras with just their hands.

To higher layer beings these lower worlds are simply records of information. Some kakera may contain countless worlds, or endless worlds/kakeras can exists as a limited amount of regular matter of a higher layer (it is not actually physical matter, just visualized concepts, much like everything else in the higher worlds).

However, even higher beings and realms where they exist are just characters and stories to creatures from even higher layers. But these creatures are also limited compared to beings that are even higher. The upper world is an infinite hierarchical ladder. Outside of that ladder is the boundlessness that is the lack of even perspective, the status of the Creator (the identity of a being that reaches this status disappears completely, because it is not limited to even its own life, death, or anything else).

Here are a few relevant scans that explain some of the Umineko concepts for you.

We also have a more indepth explanation blog.

If you want more information, please read this page in Google Chrome, with the translation function activated.

Supporters and Opponents

Supporters:

• SpiralMaster
• Scarletmoon56
• Promestein
• Azathoth the Abyssal Idiot
• DeezNuts1102
• Hyper Anon
• TheMightyRegulator
• Drellix
• The real cal howard
• Metafragmentation
• Mugenf

Neutral:

Opponents:

Character Profiles

God Tier

• The Creator
• Featherine Augustus Aurora

Top Tier:

• Ange Ushiromiya

High Tier

• Battler Ushiromiya
• Lambdadelta
• Bernkastel
• Wild Cats

Mid Tier:

• Beatrice
• Eva-Beatrice
• Ushiromiya Maria
• Erika Furudo
• Willard H. Wright
• Dlanor A. Knox
• Virgilia
• Theory Goats
• Kinzo Ushiromiya
• Rudolf Ushiromiya
• Kyrie Ushiromiya
• The Seven Stakes of Purgatory
• Ushiromiya Rosa
• Shannon
• Kanon
• Jessica Ushiromiya
• Ronove
• Gaap