[jjblue1]

Originally Posted by haguruma

I think we can safely say that Ryûkishi merely overestimated what his readers would (like to) do. He didn't write a novel, he was more or less writing a challenge without selecting a proper circle of receivers.

I generally think that's an error.
As author he's supposed to know who will receive his work and, if he's aiming at changing his target, he should find a way to warn his usual readers and his wanted readers beforehand.
He's writing Umineko in order to sell it. It seems it didn't become a financial flop and didn't damage his career but not everybody is so lucky.
It's sort of unfair toward the readers also as they paid to get Umineko and then discovered it was something that didn't fit their tastes.

Maybe with Umineko he wanted to change his fanbase or expand it... and maybe fans in Japan had a fair warning and just failed to listen it so maybe I'm being unfair toward him just because I didn't have access to all the info they had still I get the feeling something went wrong in the comunication matter.

Originally Posted by haguruma

In the latest interview he stated what I assumed for quite some time. He wanted to write for people who read mystery fiction in order to solve them themselves, people who want to beat the detective to the solution, not wait for him to solve the case.

Add his ideal readers were people who like "logic mystery fiction" and therefore wouldn't be upset if realism were to fail as long as the logic puzzle could still work and that weren't interested to check if the answer they got was right and I'll agree with you.