[jjblue1]

Originally Posted by haguruma

Well, I wouldn't give too much on it right now, since the chapters 20-22 were called Hachijo Toya and so far there's no sign of any actual Toya or his accident...unless of course the whole Erika/Battler Golden Land/Goats battle is supposed to show Toya's situation.
I would wait regarding that one, personally.

Well, I assumed the Toya Hachijo title didn't refer to Toya but to the writer Tohya Hachijo, who showed up in chap 20 both as Featherine and as... well Ikuko, although Toya got mentioned and who's about to celebrate the party in which Eva's diary will be opened.

Toya, the real one, showed up in chap 24 where his history from his incident to the moment he recovered part of his memory by hearing the name Rokkenjima was told.

Originally Posted by haguruma

I can't really agree with Renall here, who claims that he should have made his message more accessible and more clear towards the masses. I see the narrative being critical of almost everybody's behavior, but not shoving that into our face. I do think that Ryukishi should probably have spent less time writing cool fights between his kyara and invest a little more time into their interaction...on the other hand this runs counter-productive to the framework of the series.

I don't know, I didn't exactly want to have it spelled out in capital letters but... well, I would have apprecciated if they underlined it a little more as sometimes I got the feeling they were justifying it a bit too much without however giving us proper basis to accept the justification.

Originally Posted by Captain Bluebeard

I'm also not very familiar with the Japanese culture, but one thing I can say for sure is that nobody would just laugh off a man trying to grab a girl's breast in public (and without her wanting to) without finding it at least a little disturbing in any culture.

I think the laughing part isn't in his grabbing attempt but in the fact he fails it and gets slapped away... which is something many found funny in Dragonball as well, to mention a famous manga of a famous mangaka.

And, to be honest, that's exactly the effect Battler wants to get as he does it knowing he'll be slapped away and when Shannon doesn't try to push him away he'll thanks Jessica for stopping him and will insist for Shannon to hit him as well.

Meaning although he'd like to touch her breasts he wasn't really trying to molest her.

Not that I like this sort of jokes, but really, that seems to be the running humour in Japan and the gag Battler is trying to re-create with his grabbing attempts.

Originally Posted by goldendust

It wouldn't surprise me if Shannon was given a wig by Genji. Although the other panels may indicate that Shannon may have considered getting a blond wig since Battler's ideal woman is a blond/busty model.

The more and more I learn about Genji the less I like him.

Originally Posted by goldendust

I admit after numerous rereads that the motive was more understandable but during the first read it was hard to understand let alone empathize with.

Furthermore I think many of us in mystery stories are too accustomed with motives that either the culprit was wronged by many of the victims or the culprit was a bastard. While Ryukishi does play with those expectations as shown that he had Beatrice play the "evil" witch in the fantasy scenes but Beatrice's actual mindset was conveyed in such roundabout way that it results in disappointment or confusion.

Well, technically Yasu was wronged in many ways but the situation is too over the top to be easy to deal with it. Honestly I was hoping Ep 7 would sort of semplify things, not introduce us to such a complex story it seems more improbable and hard to believe than a witch existing on Rokkenjima.
Although Jessica, George and Battler all failed to understand her... well, picturing she's their illegittimate cousin/aunt/uncle that Natsuhi tried to toss off a cliff and that she actually had her sex switched is... well, a bit hard to picture.

Originally Posted by goldendust

How would that even work from a cliff fall? I mean a female infant losing her ability to properly produce hormones by falling off a cliff. Speaking of hormones, on a reread I did wonder if Kanon's slim figure and inability to lift bags of manure was suppose to indicate a lack of testosterone compared to a healthy male young adult like Battler.

Not to mention that a lot of other indications point towards Yasu being male. Kinzo's treatment of Lion. Natsuhi's lack of surprise about the child's gender. Kanon's existence and why being furniture seems to hit him the hardest.

Yasu is undoubtely male but some types of brain damage or uterus damage can cause a woman to not hormonally develop so technically that alone isn't proof.

Originally Posted by goldendust

Besides it is one of things I always wondered about in Umineko. If Yasu never solved the epitaph, would Genji have come clean during the time Yasu goes through puberty? Or given how Genji told Yasu the hint, would Genji have kept helping Yasu until he figured everything out? Or would he have told a modified version of the story on his body got mutilated?

I don't know but really, I found disgusting how they let the issue on hold for so long. It wasn't like they permanently planned to hide it and it wasn't like growing up would make simpler for Yasu to deal with it since she was building up expectations over expectations and even trying to get into love relations.

What they did to her was worse than keeping the truth hidden from Ange.