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 in-depth explanation blog.

Supporters and Opponents

Supporters:

Neutral:

Elizhaa

Opponents:

Character Profiles

Almighty Beings

Almighty Beings

God	The Witch of Theatergoing, Drama, and Spectating
The Creator	Featherine Augustus Aurora

Voyagers

Voyagers

The Witch of Miracles	The Witch of Certainty	The Witch of Pieces	Lord Christmas
Bernkastel	Lambdadelta	Piece	Santa Claus

Witches

Witches

The Golden Witch	The Golden Sorcerer	The Witch of Truth	The Witch of the Future
Beatrice	Battler Ushiromiya	Erika Furudo	Eva-Beatrice

The Witch of Resurrection	The Finite Witch	The Witch of Origins
Ange Ushiromiya	Virgilia	Maria Ushiromiya

Angels

Eiserne Jungfrau

Chief Inquisitor of Eiserne Jungfrau	Third-Class Priest	First-Class Priest
Dlanor A. Knox	Cornelia	Gertrude

SSVD

Chief Inquisitor of the SSVD	Heavenly Cat
Willard H. Wright	Diana

Furniture

Furniture

Bernkastel's Familiars	Low-Level Furniture	27th Ranked Great Demon	33rd Ranked Great Demon
Wild Cats	Theory Goats	Ronove	Gaap

Purgatory Sisters	Kinzo's Furniture	Kinzo's Furniture	64th Ranked Great Demon
The Seven Stakes of Purgatory	Shannon	Kanon	Flauros

16th Ranked Great Demon	34th Ranked Great Demon
Zepar	Furfur

Humans

Ushiromiya Family

Head of the Ushiromiya Family	2nd Ranked of Ushiromiya Family	3rd Ranked of Ushiromiya Family	4th Ranked of Ushiromiya Family
Kinzo Ushiromiya	Krauss Ushiromiya	Eva Ushiromiya	Rudolf Ushiromiya

5th Ranked of Ushiromiya Family	6th Ranked of Ushiromiya Family	7th Ranked of Ushiromiya Family	Forgery
Rosa Ushiromiya	Jessica Ushiromiya	George Ushiromiya	Black Battler

10th Ranked of Ushiromiya Family	11th Ranked of Ushiromiya Family	12th Ranked of Ushiromiya Family	The Successor of the Ushiromiya Family
Natsuhi Ushiromiya	Hideyoshi Ushiromiya	Kyrie Ushiromiya	Lion Ushiromiya