A riddle laid bare and the self-made witch.
Creative Staff
Story: Ryukishi07
Art: Eita Mizuno
Translation/Adaptation: Stephen Paul
What They Say
Umineko WHEN THEY CRY Episode 7: Requiem of the Golden Witch Vol. #02
Ten Years before the disastrous family reunion on Rokkenjima, a young servant named Yasu started working at the Ushiromiya mansion, where she first encounters the witch Beatrice. Their tenuous friendship utterly transforms the timid, clumsy Yasu and sets her on a path of cunning, deception, and murder…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Where does Yasu’s story stop and Shannon’s begin? That’s the question I’m left wondering in this volume of Umineko.
Watching Yasu overcome her fears and faults in the Ushiromiya mansion is both heartbreaking and hopeful. Yasu is identified early on as the child of Beatrice, who was herself the child of Beatrice. A child born of incest and sin who survived a fall from a cliff. An unwanted child hid from her destiny by house servants, but destiny comes calling anyway.
Yasu finds solace in Shannon, the older servant in the household. She’s kind, considerate, and something doesn’t add up. Shannon should be that old at this point in the story. When she is shown later in the same volume she is younger, yet when Yasu knew her she appeared as a teenager. I wondered if Shannon and Yasu are the same person, and if Shannon was just an idealized imaginary friend. Things don’t become clearer when Yasu decides to become a witch and leave Shannon behind. Magic becomes entwined so deeply with Yasu’s story that soon it’s no longer a clear-cut case.
What we do learn is that the promise that Battler made was not with Beatrice, but Shannon. When Yasu hides away from the world Shannon takes center stage. She makes friends with the young masters of the household and strikes up a friendship with Battler. That friendship is bonding over mysteries, and young Battler makes her a promise to take her away someday. Now that we finally know what the promise is, it’s interesting to note that Battler promptly forgets it all in the face of his father’s feud. Shannon’s sadness is taken up by Yasu, who carries that burden in her place.
The other great mystery answered in this volume is the answer to the epitaph riddle. The horribly obtuse mystery requires a deep understanding of Kinzo’s past, the island itself, and English. Expecting any of them to solve the wordplay and figure it out is crazy, and the old man admits so much. He designed it so that the puzzle could only be solved by his beloved Beatrice.
Yasu takes it upon herself to solve the puzzle and does so, although it takes some time. When she succeeds she discovers the servants have been waiting for her to do so, and for her to accept her destiny as the third Beatrice. Yasu cannot escape who the family wants her to be.
While plenty of the previous arcs have reframed the relationships between characters, this volume confuses just as much as it clarifies. Implying that Kanon was an invention of Yasu, that Shannon is perhaps a combination of wish and split-personality, it’s all madness. I’m very pleased with the settlement of the promise and riddle, but that just leaves the real question of what all of this means for the whole Battler/Beatrice competition which was left behind volumes ago.
In Summary
This arc of Umineko continues to provide much needed and long-awaited explanations for the more mundane background of the mystery. Even though the riddle of the epitaph may be solved, the mystery continues. How can logic and magic walk hand in hand? Is Yasu a very real and present player, or a figment of collective imagination? Or perhaps she is just an element of Shannon’s self, her doubts and fears made manifest? Or maybe it’s the opposite? The arc continues to rise above the others with its reliance on actual mystery and suspense over bloodshed and skimpy clothing. I still wonder if there is any redemption for this family.
Content Grade: B +
Art Grade: A –
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Teen +
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: April 10th, 2018
MSRP: $30.00 US / $39.00 CAN