AnimeSuki Forums

Teletha · 2009-07-01, 15:03

Rushed, but good. I've read the VN, so I wasn't lost but I could see how some people who haven't will be.

Kinzo is hilarious. Eva sounds so evil.

The ED actually is better then the OP, which I didn't think possible when I heard the music. So far, so good. I hope they slow things down next week.

**Klashikari** · 2009-07-01, 15:09

As expected, this episode gave me some mixed feelings. Obviously an adaptation cannot be perfect, but the problem is rather the pace and execution instead of the skipped stuff: they went straight to the point, which wasn't a problem, except maybe the lack of "fake family" effect and the lack of "sinister catfight" between Eva and Natsuhi before the siblings attack Krauss.

At least, the whole 1 VS 3 was much less butchered than in the manga, keeping its most important details intact, though it still lacked the setup of that "evasive" atmosphere both parties had (why did they overdramatized Eva and Natsuhi with that "blur" effect anyway?).
I would however question the idea of using a ridiculous "horror" SFX when Eva, Hideyoshi and Rudolf are giving their conditions one by one.

The scene between Maria and Rosa was probably the only "pretty well" adapted and animated portion.

Kinzo's scene was... well geared on madness, though still lost his charisma I believe. But honestly, did they really had to focus that much on the mouth animation? It didn't fit the voice.

The designs were a bit inconsistent to be honest: proportions were a bit off, especially regarding Eva and Natsuhi when both were yelling to each other (not compared to the game, but within the anime design to be precise). Look at Natsuhi's proportions around 10:28: it is borderline scary.
Details of the background in the mansion were a bit underwhelming, but it was obviously better with the rose garden in general.

As you can see, I was rather unimpressed by this episode. To be fairly honest, it almost looked like it was 2 episodes worth and that the animators created a fresh episode like a "recap one": the transitions are bad and it was rather uninspiring.
The BGM are fine. We have 2 remix of original BGM and the original ones are fine, a far cry from the underwhelming ones from Higurashi.

It is a "fine" setup episode, earning a 6 but seriously, I hope they will improve the execution and transitions.

EDIT: Here is the blog article with pictures, summary and comments/opinions.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Episode 1-1

Freelii · 2009-07-01, 15:16

Oh HELL yes! Stupefaction made it in!!!

Sterling01 · 2009-07-01, 15:20

They made the "poor" rose look too healthy

milkypink · 2009-07-01, 15:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Klashikari

As you can see, I was rather unimpressed by this episode. To be fairly honest, it almost looked like it was 2 episodes worth and that the animators created a fresh episode like a "recap one": the transitions are bad and it was rather uninspiring

When I read this part of your post I thought "yes! this is exactly how it felt"... almost like a "last week, on Umineko..." type of episode XD Everything happened so fast!

Hopefully the pace will slow down just a little next ep? Otherwise there will be no time for suspense....

Freelii · 2009-07-01, 15:41

9/10, my only issue was that character development was largely rushed a bit more than it should have been. It didn't feel like it was badly produced though, they just wanted to get right into the mystery, similar to how Higurashi did it. That method worked for Higurashi though since you only truely met 3 characters in the 1st episode... as opposed to 18. As Klashikari mentioned, it definately felt like 2 episodes worth.

All in all, this episode was well within expectations and I don't see a solid reason yet to doubt how the rest of the show will pan out. Alas, another 7 days to wait for another ~23 minutes

Squirrellord · 2009-07-01, 15:42

I thought it was alright. Nothing spectacular yet, and as everyone said, rather rushed. However, I think that, as it goes on, it'll get better. It's hard getting used to a new cast of characters, and even harder when it's such a big cast, so they kinda had to force all these people on us.

Spoiler for Pro/Con:

Tian · 2009-07-01, 16:01

I thought it was pretty good for the first episode. Maria's voice was rather annoying though. And Battler's eyes were a bit too big.

Freelii · 2009-07-01, 16:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tian

Maria's voice was rather annoying though.

I'm almost thankful for the beatdown

, though I do think it captured the annoyance I was feeling whilst reading that part in the VN

ClockWorkAngel · 2009-07-01, 16:11

I'm really broken on this really...

Spoiler for My View:

Kitsu · 2009-07-01, 16:13

well now I'm gonna post my reason for the perfect....

I was just overhelmed by the joy of seeing Umineko animated. If it weren't for Umineko this would have got a very good or good

Skyfall · 2009-07-01, 16:20

Well ... overall you can say i am largely disappointed with the episode. I don't think there is a single aspect i could praise the series about as of yet, and that should say something.

Wait, actually there is one thing i appreciated: the OP song. That is some rather epic music indeed, and a very much appreciated treat to my ears. The OP sequence is another matter though, as it has been a while since i was so disappointed with OP as a whole. If the music is usually tailored to support the image sequence (or vice versa, as it might be), the two felt really disjointed here. The image sequence doesn't match the tempo nor mood of the song, and frankly looks like something i would have expected in a promo material, not the actual OP of the series. The music dominates the scenes here, it felt like quite the mismatch, much as i love the song.

the animation is ... well, it is obvious they are working on a budget that is tight, and it hurts the atmosphere on occasions - lots of motionless shots or shots with camera focus on character parts that have no movement (like Shanon's breasts -__-;; ). Higurashi first season had some pretty abysmal budget as well, but i don't recall it being so "in your face" most of the time (Some notorious scenes aside). I also find many of the scenes quite overly exaggerated (Eva / Natsuhi motion blur, Kinzo in general), and it doesn't really help the anime had nonexistent buildup for everything that happened, so i must admit it almost felt hilarious (in a bad way) to me, much as i hate to admit it.

I suppose pacing is the real deal that hurts the overall presentation here - they are moving fast. So fast the episode felt like a summary of the core plot points up until a certain event. Unfortunately this has left character depth as simply not present, and the specific relationships in the group and between pairs - nonexistent. They lacked the time to establish proper mood or buildup, thus the anime overall feels quite superficial and jerky, as the plot events jump each through another, and the characters don't really have much depth nor attachment at this point. I have read the visual novels, thus i can easily fill said gap of lacking information with details already known to me, but i can easily imagine anime only watchers left somewhat confused, and wondering why they should care about the events on screen. I mean ... Rosa/Maria/ the rose scene seemed like almost forced hysterics, and while the scene was indeed among the few decently done ones, from anime only perspective i would imagine it coming across as quite forced, because both of the abrupt manner we arrived there, and both the non-established character depth.

Color me unimpressed, because this was a rather underwhelming experience. I hope things settle down once they reach the more "meat of the story" parts and the pacing becomes less frantic, because this really felt like a rush job, and depth and immersion paid the price for it. I remain enthusiastic as a whole towards the adaption, but that is no thanks to the anime's merits on its own. Suffice to say, if i wouldn't know already what to expect and priorly established appreciation for the title, i am not sure i would be willing to watch more of it, though i suppose newcomers will be the best judges of that. Looking towards what they do with the second episode, and hoping for some settling down in regards to the pacing.

Wafflemania · 2009-07-01, 16:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tian

I thought it was pretty good for the first episode. Maria's voice was rather annoying though.

yeah...when i heard her

Spoiler for rose garden:

It was super-rushed and im afraid that watchers un-familer with umineko would have a bit of a struggle understanding everything...

But, since it is umineko, i loved it! ^w^

Hearing bgm fromt he viual novel made me happy too...i hope stuff like rahu_goldenslaughterer makes it in

Celestial Kitsune · 2009-07-01, 16:23

Episode 1 Screenshots

Risa chan · 2009-07-01, 16:27

that was a good one. The opening is not better than the game one, but the music is breath-taking as exepted from Akiko.
About the episode:
Graphism :
Well that's not that bad , some moments are really awful like the pic-nic on the beach. But that's okay .

Story:
Well it's short indeed , but oh well , i guess they'll have to change the story a bit to give to the viewers some infos they passed.

Seiyuus: Well , i'm proud. I feared Daisuke ono , i have to admit it , but oh well i have to say that he's the best for me. George's voice really.. surprised me , i wasn't exepting this sort of voice for him. Maria really annoyed me in that episode, but that was the purpose i guess.

Spoiler for grr:

Oh yeah , takano is always so devil when she talks.

ending: .. I miss An.Nina ,_,

bigemperor · 2009-07-01, 16:37

Is funny because everyone said that 5 episodes were perfect for the first game and when i say that 5 episodes were too little everyone say that i’m wrong XD like you see the episode was TOO RUSHED they Left out a lot of charactert develelopment and skip a lot of scenes although i like the episode thanks to the music animation seiyus and the bgm from the game (THE BGM WITCH IN GOLD FROM ZTS IS BEATIFUL

) and in comparison to higurashi the adaptation was 10 times better.

Let’s hope they improve in the second episode.

Red Lupine · 2009-07-01, 16:39

Here's the OP and ED combined in one video
would've posted them separately but no one has uploaded the ED by itself

ThoHell · 2009-07-01, 16:39

Kana is EVERYWHERE!!!! Wait, I mean Inoue Marina. What an abusive mother that woman is and what a bunch of good for nothing for just walking away from that. Be it family matter or not, something that intense shouldn't be walked away from.

Akuryou · 2009-07-01, 16:48

I'm giving the first episode an 8. Certainly quite a biased rating, but still.

First of all, this was a rushed episode. Like many members have said before, I can see how people who haven't read the novel may get lost with so much happening. Still, what had to be done was done, so I can't really complain. I'm very satisfied with almost all seiyuus and the animation was decent, even if it had some flaws here and there.

If I had to really complain about something besides the rushness, it would be that Kinzo's door looks too simple. lol And I'm still not used to Koshimizu Ami voicing Rosa, but I can learn to like her voice. But of course, since all the 'introduction stuff' was rushed, it can only mean they'll be really cautious about the stuff that happens in the next episodes, which I'll be very satisfied if they do.

Good job overall on the first episode, Studio DEEN.

Oh! And the best news ever is that they mention not only dai in the credits, but -45, Silver Forest, sunny/cap/xaki and zts! Game players know how awesome this piece of news is!

Teapot · 2009-07-01, 16:49

I just noticed they forgot to introduce Dr.Nanjo

View Poll Results: Umineko - Episode 1 Rating
Perfect 10	42	15.73%
9 out of 10 : Excellent	50	18.73%
8 out of 10 : Very Good	67	25.09%
7 out of 10 : Good	57	21.35%
6 out of 10 : Average	28	10.49%
5 out of 10 : Below Average	10	3.75%
4 out of 10 : Poor	5	1.87%
3 out of 10 : Bad	6	2.25%
2 out of 10 : Very Bad	0	0%
1 out of 10 : Painful	2	0.75%
Voters: 267. You may not vote on this poll

2009-07-01, 15:09	Link #42
Klashikari 阿賀野型3番艦、矢矧 Lv180 Graphic Designer Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Belgium, Brussels Age: 37	As expected, this episode gave me some mixed feelings. Obviously an adaptation cannot be perfect, but the problem is rather the pace and execution instead of the skipped stuff: they went straight to the point, which wasn't a problem, except maybe the lack of "fake family" effect and the lack of "sinister catfight" between Eva and Natsuhi before the siblings attack Krauss. At least, the whole 1 VS 3 was much less butchered than in the manga, keeping its most important details intact, though it still lacked the setup of that "evasive" atmosphere both parties had (why did they overdramatized Eva and Natsuhi with that "blur" effect anyway?). I would however question the idea of using a ridiculous "horror" SFX when Eva, Hideyoshi and Rudolf are giving their conditions one by one. The scene between Maria and Rosa was probably the only "pretty well" adapted and animated portion. Kinzo's scene was... well geared on madness, though still lost his charisma I believe. But honestly, did they really had to focus that much on the mouth animation? It didn't fit the voice. The designs were a bit inconsistent to be honest: proportions were a bit off, especially regarding Eva and Natsuhi when both were yelling to each other (not compared to the game, but within the anime design to be precise). Look at Natsuhi's proportions around 10:28: it is borderline scary. Details of the background in the mansion were a bit underwhelming, but it was obviously better with the rose garden in general. As you can see, I was rather unimpressed by this episode. To be fairly honest, it almost looked like it was 2 episodes worth and that the animators created a fresh episode like a "recap one": the transitions are bad and it was rather uninspiring. The BGM are fine. We have 2 remix of original BGM and the original ones are fine, a far cry from the underwhelming ones from Higurashi. It is a "fine" setup episode, earning a 6 but seriously, I hope they will improve the execution and transitions. EDIT: Here is the blog article with pictures, summary and comments/opinions. Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Episode 1-1 __________________ [Sig art: Kagura Yuu, Nunukko, Maku Rako & Mishima Kurone] / [Twitter] Last edited by Klashikari; 2009-07-02 at 10:13. Reason: added the blog article link

2009-07-01, 15:20	Link #44
Sterling01 霊夢→デレ Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: NYC, NY Age: 46	They made the "poor" rose look too healthy __________________

2009-07-01, 15:42	Link #47
Squirrellord Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2006	I thought it was alright. Nothing spectacular yet, and as everyone said, rather rushed. However, I think that, as it goes on, it'll get better. It's hard getting used to a new cast of characters, and even harder when it's such a big cast, so they kinda had to force all these people on us. Spoiler for Pro/Con: Pro: IT'S FRICKIN' UMINEKO ANIMATED. cough I like Battler's voice a lot more than I expected to, even from the Drama CD They kept the boob jokes short The original game BMGs were good, and the new ones weren't bad either The OP is excellent I can now appreciate why Battler thought he was going to fall Cons: Rushed Little introduction of Uu-s, gloss over of the whole Killing aspect of the epitaph Rosa yelling at Krauss was hilarious. She looked at him calm, screamed, then went back to calm. It reminded me of Large Marge from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure Natushi's chest appears to be trying to grow larger than herself Some stiff movement's, and odd faces (Kinzo)

2009-07-01, 16:11	Link #50
ClockWorkAngel Aspiring Aspirer Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Canada Age: 32	I'm really broken on this really... Spoiler for My View: The OP was good. And I took some time to cheer on GARsmith. The Kinzo intro was done very well, I really applaud his performance and the accompanying animation. Animation quality was pretty consistent and so was the VA's performance. Kudos go to Natsuhi and Kinzo! I actually would have appreciated the airport scene for the majority of the introductions and background information rather than the odd photosnaps which were too brightish. If a person who didn't read the VNs saw this, they would be very confused, they only know the names of the character not much really. The parent's predictaments were only truly revealed when Krauss began his epic counter attack. They took out some scenes which I though established some of the character's traits; Battler's grope attempt on Shannon changed from a scene which established that Battler wasn't just a pervert, but it became another part of comic relief. Maria's rose scene was somewhat of a let down. In my mind Rosa isn't supposed to show remorse until she gone to find her (A scene that was also cut) and the butterfly and Beatrice appearing acts also sorta threw me off. The SFX that went with Beato's eye also sorta freaked me out , and her portrait and the epitaph was glossed over. But I gotta give the animators slack, after all they wanted to make the first episode end with the revealing of Beatrice. I can't blame them, but of course I'll see it as short (Too bad they couldn't make it a 1 hour intro special) The ED's animation rocked. The song was very nice. Conclusion: It was an alright episode, I had too high of an expectation. But it was good. Hoping it to get better though. __________________ Credit To Risa-chan!

2009-07-01, 15:03	Link #41
Teletha Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Texas	Rushed, but good. I've read the VN, so I wasn't lost but I could see how some people who haven't will be. Kinzo is hilarious. Eva sounds so evil. The ED actually is better then the OP, which I didn't think possible when I heard the music. So far, so good. I hope they slow things down next week.

2009-07-01, 15:16	Link #43
Freelii (￣▽￣)ノ Join Date: May 2009 Location: Dodging spoilers...	Oh HELL yes! Stupefaction made it in!!!

2009-07-01, 15:41	Link #46
Freelii (￣▽￣)ノ Join Date: May 2009 Location: Dodging spoilers...	9/10, my only issue was that character development was largely rushed a bit more than it should have been. It didn't feel like it was badly produced though, they just wanted to get right into the mystery, similar to how Higurashi did it. That method worked for Higurashi though since you only truely met 3 characters in the 1st episode... as opposed to 18. As Klashikari mentioned, it definately felt like 2 episodes worth. All in all, this episode was well within expectations and I don't see a solid reason yet to doubt how the rest of the show will pan out. Alas, another 7 days to wait for another ~23 minutes

2009-07-01, 16:01	Link #48
Tian Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Under the bridge Age: 30	I thought it was pretty good for the first episode. Maria's voice was rather annoying though. And Battler's eyes were a bit too big.

2009-07-01, 16:13	Link #51
Kitsu The unlucky one Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Hiding	well now I'm gonna post my reason for the perfect.... I was just overhelmed by the joy of seeing Umineko animated. If it weren't for Umineko this would have got a very good or good __________________ Thanks for the Signature, Vandakiara

2009-07-01, 16:20	Link #52
Skyfall Lost in my dreams... Join Date: Jun 2006 Age: 37	Well ... overall you can say i am largely disappointed with the episode. I don't think there is a single aspect i could praise the series about as of yet, and that should say something. Wait, actually there is one thing i appreciated: the OP song. That is some rather epic music indeed, and a very much appreciated treat to my ears. The OP sequence is another matter though, as it has been a while since i was so disappointed with OP as a whole. If the music is usually tailored to support the image sequence (or vice versa, as it might be), the two felt really disjointed here. The image sequence doesn't match the tempo nor mood of the song, and frankly looks like something i would have expected in a promo material, not the actual OP of the series. The music dominates the scenes here, it felt like quite the mismatch, much as i love the song. the animation is ... well, it is obvious they are working on a budget that is tight, and it hurts the atmosphere on occasions - lots of motionless shots or shots with camera focus on character parts that have no movement (like Shanon's breasts -__-;; ). Higurashi first season had some pretty abysmal budget as well, but i don't recall it being so "in your face" most of the time (Some notorious scenes aside). I also find many of the scenes quite overly exaggerated (Eva / Natsuhi motion blur, Kinzo in general), and it doesn't really help the anime had nonexistent buildup for everything that happened, so i must admit it almost felt hilarious (in a bad way) to me, much as i hate to admit it. I suppose pacing is the real deal that hurts the overall presentation here - they are moving fast. So fast the episode felt like a summary of the core plot points up until a certain event. Unfortunately this has left character depth as simply not present, and the specific relationships in the group and between pairs - nonexistent. They lacked the time to establish proper mood or buildup, thus the anime overall feels quite superficial and jerky, as the plot events jump each through another, and the characters don't really have much depth nor attachment at this point. I have read the visual novels, thus i can easily fill said gap of lacking information with details already known to me, but i can easily imagine anime only watchers left somewhat confused, and wondering why they should care about the events on screen. I mean ... Rosa/Maria/ the rose scene seemed like almost forced hysterics, and while the scene was indeed among the few decently done ones, from anime only perspective i would imagine it coming across as quite forced, because both of the abrupt manner we arrived there, and both the non-established character depth. Color me unimpressed, because this was a rather underwhelming experience. I hope things settle down once they reach the more "meat of the story" parts and the pacing becomes less frantic, because this really felt like a rush job, and depth and immersion paid the price for it. I remain enthusiastic as a whole towards the adaption, but that is no thanks to the anime's merits on its own. Suffice to say, if i wouldn't know already what to expect and priorly established appreciation for the title, i am not sure i would be willing to watch more of it, though i suppose newcomers will be the best judges of that. Looking towards what they do with the second episode, and hoping for some settling down in regards to the pacing. __________________

2009-07-01, 16:23	Link #54
Celestial Kitsune Myobu Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: US	Episode 1 Screenshots

2009-07-01, 16:27	Link #55
Risa chan Watcher Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: who knows.. where you're thinking	that was a good one. The opening is not better than the game one, but the music is breath-taking as exepted from Akiko. About the episode: Graphism : Well that's not that bad , some moments are really awful like the pic-nic on the beach. But that's okay . Story: Well it's short indeed , but oh well , i guess they'll have to change the story a bit to give to the viewers some infos they passed. Seiyuus: Well , i'm proud. I feared Daisuke ono , i have to admit it , but oh well i have to say that he's the best for me. George's voice really.. surprised me , i wasn't exepting this sort of voice for him. Maria really annoyed me in that episode, but that was the purpose i guess. Spoiler for grr: Oh yeah i noticed.. WHO THE HELL PUT THIS F**ING Censure When Eva talk ?! Oh yeah , takano is always so devil when she talks. ending: .. I miss An.Nina ,_, __________________ Last edited by Klashikari; 2009-07-01 at 16:46. Reason: spoiler removed.*

2009-07-01, 16:37	Link #56
bigemperor Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008	Is funny because everyone said that 5 episodes were perfect for the first game and when i say that 5 episodes were too little everyone say that i’m wrong XD like you see the episode was TOO RUSHED they Left out a lot of charactert develelopment and skip a lot of scenes although i like the episode thanks to the music animation seiyus and the bgm from the game (THE BGM WITCH IN GOLD FROM ZTS IS BEATIFUL ) and in comparison to higurashi the adaptation was 10 times better. Let’s hope they improve in the second episode.

2009-07-01, 16:39	Link #57
Red Lupine Bulzome High Priest Join Date: Oct 2007	Here's the OP and ED combined in one video would've posted them separately but no one has uploaded the ED by itself <p>No iframe support, please <a href="http://youtu.be/dGWOSuU9qx8">watch on YouTube</a>.</p>

2009-07-01, 16:39	Link #58
ThoHell Senior Member Join Date: May 2006	Kana is EVERYWHERE!!!! Wait, I mean Inoue Marina. What an abusive mother that woman is and what a bunch of good for nothing for just walking away from that. Be it family matter or not, something that intense shouldn't be walked away from.

2009-07-01, 16:48	Link #59
Akuryou cackle cackle Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Porto Alegre, Brazil	I'm giving the first episode an 8. Certainly quite a biased rating, but still. First of all, this was a rushed episode. Like many members have said before, I can see how people who haven't read the novel may get lost with so much happening. Still, what had to be done was done, so I can't really complain. I'm very satisfied with almost all seiyuus and the animation was decent, even if it had some flaws here and there. If I had to really complain about something besides the rushness, it would be that Kinzo's door looks too simple. lol And I'm still not used to Koshimizu Ami voicing Rosa, but I can learn to like her voice. But of course, since all the 'introduction stuff' was rushed, it can only mean they'll be really cautious about the stuff that happens in the next episodes, which I'll be very satisfied if they do. Good job overall on the first episode, Studio DEEN. Oh! And the best news ever is that they mention not only dai in the credits, but -45, Silver Forest, sunny/cap/xaki and zts! Game players know how awesome this piece of news is!

2009-07-01, 16:49	Link #60
Teapot Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: The peoples' car Age: 29	I just noticed they forgot to introduce Dr.Nanjo