Perhaps the only thing “Endless” about Beatrice is the gallons and gallons of blood she gushes after being gashed by Battler’s truths. Otherwise, if anything, the last episode of the question arcs should be how limited Beatrice is, and how far under Lambdadelta’s (and Bernkastel’s) thumb she’s pinned.

The episode starts off with Ange confronting Beatrice and Maria in the “Golden Land.” While Beatrice admits her shortcomings in her inability to resurrect Sakutaro, Ange uses the opportunity to show the limits of Beato’s powers by resurrecting Sakutaro herself. Thankfully, Ange resurrects cute, stuffed Sakutaro, and not pimp, shota Sakutaro. Personally, I just think Sakutaro should stay in stuffed form. Having been reunited with her friend, Maria then leaves the Golden Land apparently having found peace. The anime leaves Maria’s state in limbo, but in the VN she’s found dead in the game world by game piece Battler. What struck me about this scene wasn’t how great the Golden Land was, but how it served as a refuge for both Maria and Beatrice. For Maria, a chance to be with a loving mother. For Beatrice, (ostensibly) a place to get away from the oppression of Lambdadelta and Bernkastel.

With Maria gone, Beatrice is sucked back into the game, along with Battler. Although Ange acknowledges that Battler isn’t the son of Asumu, she challenges Beatrice with the blue (welcome back, it’s been a while!) to prove that Battler isn’t Kinzo’s grandson and qualified to be Beatrice’s opponent. Beatrice, stuck by that bit of logic (which was pretty damn obvious to begin with) is left to accept Battler as her opponent. Although Battler himself is a shell of himself, still unsure of who he is. On a completely separate note, I never realized how short Bern and Lambda were. They’re like little kids.

With Battler’s fighting spirit in shambles, and an inadvertently amusing play-by-play of Battler’s shonen spirit provided by Bern and Lambda, Ange pulls her trump card by admitting to Battler that she’s his sister, and imploring him to fight for his family and come back to her. Unfortunately for Ange, she had to break the one rule applied to her, and it turns her into a gruesome pile of ground meat that we didn’t get to see (thus, the angeburger meme). I now understand Ange’s “sacrifice” I’d heard mentioned before, and to be honest, it didn’t have the impact I’d hoped. Maybe it was because of the way DEEN paced the last few episodes, but it lacked that OOMPH. It certainly didn’t feel like any of the sacrifices made during Higurashi.

With Battler’s fighting spirit back, the second half of the episode begins with basically a rapid fire exchange of blue and red truths. Battler declares that:

• Kinzo is already dead, meaning there was only 17 people on the island to begin with. Meaning an 18th person X could commit the murders.
• When questioned by Beatrice about the closed room deaths in arc 2, Battler proposes that Rosa was in cahoots with the real killer and may have swapped the key with them
• He then proposes that it was Aunt Eva who was in cahoots with the real killer during arc 3
• And finally, a crazy guy with a gun mowed down the initial 6, as well as those who escaped the jail
• Beatrice points out that the family had met Kinzo during the 4th arc, and accepted him, which results in Kinzo-zilla attacking Battler on the game board. But Battler brushes it aside by claiming that there was someone who assumed his name, and was recognized by everyone in the family. Thus, the existence of a nominal Kinzo (pretty sharp thinking, IMO)

Beatrice decides to accept all of the above without much of a fight, even though it would’ve been easy to cut those blue hypotheses down, and asks Battler to end the game by denying witches. But Battler shows off his shonen spirit by declaring that he won’t accept victory by submission, but he’ll take it from her by force. At which point Beatrice chides him for his stupidity and begins her counterattack.

Beatrice decimates Battler’s 18th person X theory by declaring in red that there were only 17 people on the island to begin with. Now if this were any of the other arcs, DEEN would’ve done a close-up of Battler’s shocked and broken face, while another couple episodes would’ve been spent on Ange or Virgilia or whomever building his fighting spirit back up, but since this is the last episode, Battler takes it pretty much in stride. Unfortunately, his rebuttals become even more outlandish at this point. To wit:

• In arc 1, he explains Nanjo, Kumasawa and Shannon’s deaths by claiming that someone who had been previously killed could’ve faked their death and gone back to kill these three
• He also explains the above deaths with Nanjo, Shannon and Kumasawa engaging in a mexican gunfight, killing each other simultaneously, while Maria hid the guns afterwards. For what possible reason these four would’ve acted this way, I don’t know. But Battler’s grasping at straws here, but Beatrice accepts the theories for their entertainment value and loses round 1
• In arc 2, Battler postulates that the 6 in the chapel ingested small bombs, which exploded in their stomachs. Sort of silly, but I suppose it’s a possibility. Not one that I would’ve thought of at least. Either way, Beatrice thinks it’s even more amusing than the last theories and declines to challenge it
• Finally, in arc 3, Battler explains Nanjo’s murder by suggesting that someone faked their death earlier to return to kill Nanjo, before dying themselves shortly after for whatever reason, allowing EvaBeatrice to tick off all the names of the dead in red without being incorrect.

Beatrice accept the final blue challenge without a fight, which causes a huge stake to drive through her. At this point, she’s lost more blood than the human body can hold. Perhaps a witch’s heart pumps more blood than a normal human’s heart. Perhaps this biological reason is why Beatrice then asks Battler to crush her heart and kill her. See, I can throw out ridiculous hypotheses too.

But Battler accepts, and Beatrice, with a final wistful look, and a sad smile, leaves Battle with one final riddle to solve: “Ushiromiya Battler. Right now on this island, no one exists except for you. You’re the only one alive on this island. However, I’m here right now and about to kill you. Who am I?”

Cut to the epilogue, and we see Lambda and Bern talking about the game, with Lambda lambasting Battler for his ridiculous blue truths, trap X’s, person X’s and whatnot (I’m glad she called that out). This suggests that everything can be explained rationally and logically, without resorting to trap X and person X. While Bern muses that she thought Battler was pretty spot on. I’d originally thought they had a much more antagonistic relationship, but that doesn’t appear to be the case, as the anime ends with both agreeing that Beatrice has no chance to win.

So, I posted my initial thoughts in my last post. I don’t know if the VN progressed the same way, but the Battler vs. Beatrice fight felt rushed to me. Maybe Beatrice was just tired of playing the game and wanted to finish it as soon as possible, but the way the anime was laid out, it felt more like she was giving a pass to Battler because she realized there was only about 10 minutes left in the show when they started trading barbs.

I knew we weren’t going to get satisfactory answers, since the VN is ongoing, but I think you could’ve felt a sense of completion with Higurashi even if there wasn’t a second season. Oh, you’d still have big question marks, but it had a stronger sense of endgame. However, here, it feels much more like the show’s just getting started. Almost none of the questions remain answered, and whereas you had that big Keiichi x Rena breakthrough in Higurahsi, there’s none of that here. Battler and Beato are still in limbo, and neither are closer to the truth than when the show began.

Finally, who would you consider the most sympathetic character? Is it Ange, who’s been waiting for her family to return from the dead? Is it Battler, who was unwittingly pulled into this sick game to help his family. Or is it Beatrice, who appears to be a puppet subject to Lambda and Bern’s whims? Maybe I’m bespelled by Moetrice, but I empathize with her the most. Battler can and will win one day. Ange will have her family returned to her and live a normal life. But Beatrice? Even if she beats Battler, she then faces Bern and Lambda. She has no hope, no future.

All in all, Umineko was pretty solid, but the great moments were few and far between. The mystery was good, and definitely made you think. But my original fears of the large cast resulting in paper-thin characters, were realized. Still, I look forward to a new Chiru season. One day, I hope.

So I’ll eventually get around to the real post, most likely after Christmas. But here’s my initial stream of consciousness.

I couldn’t help but think that was it? Although I suppose it’s as good an ending for a story that’s still only half told, but I’m going to be pissed if we don’t get the Chiru arc eventually. DVD sales be damned (maybe another studio will want it).

More to the point, I couldn’t help but feel like the whole rapid-fire blue/red text scene was rushed so they could fit in 4 arcs worth of revelations and mystery mongering in about 10 minutes. Those feelings were exacerbated by Beatrice choosing to not cut down Battler’s hypotheses, when clearly many of them were totally ridiculous (although I was impressed by his hypothesis for the Kinzo name change, and the Nanjo death in arc 3). Thankfully Lambda called that ridiculousness out. So I guess we’ll see Beatrice become a more sympathetic character – maybe even a protagonist – should we ever see the Chiru arcs animated. Anyway, more thoughts later. Merry Christmas!

Remember when Umineko was about the battle between logic and magic, between Battler and Beatrice? No? Well, that’s alright, because it’s been a while. The latest episode wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t a fan. It feels like we’re straying further and further from the core battle. Maybe they’ll tie it back together in the last episode, but I kinda doubt it. And with the second season in doubt, I can’t help but wonder if Umineko is going to feel like a lonely orphan.

So a couple interesting pieces of information. One is Beatrice was likely alive until 1968, according to the captain’s testimony. Either that or Kinzo had a weird fetish. This is stuff we were shown before, but had to doubt. However, the captain’s testimony seems like a good corroboration of its truth. We also learned that there’s a second, secret harbor to go straight to the Kuwadorian. Except that it’s not so secret, because apparently Kinzo, the servants and their mothers all knew about it. But it was likely a secret to many of the Ushiromiyas. However, it’s possible that Rosa and Eva may be two of the family members that have known of it. Rosa, because she supposedly visited the secret mansion, was best friends with Beatrice, before killing her. And Eva, I assume just because Rosa may have confided that info to her – not to mention, that’s where she ended up at the end of the third arc.

Meanwhile, we see that Ange has come to pay her respects to her family and Maria. Seeing Maria’s magic turn darker and more evil answers some questions I had regarding, Maria’s turn towards to the dark side, and whether that was truth or fiction.

However, the memorial is short-lived, because Kasumi and her men have been lying in ambush, waiting to beat down on Ange. I have to say, I had little empathy for Kasumi’s situation. Oh, she had to undergo some tough training. Yeah, she had to lose a man she loved. And her sister got to skate free. So she decides to continue the cycle of abuse by attempting to murder Ange? Somewhere there is a break in logic. Seeing Ange get beat up was pretty awful. Partly because it was pretty brutal, and partly because the animation was pretty brutal too.

Meanwhile, we see the return of EvaBeatrice, or rather the Black Witch, who seems to be feeding Kasumi’s rage and driving her to insanity. My understanding is that the Black Witch takes the form of the person you hate most, so in Ange’s case, Eva. So it’s not that EvaBeatrice returned from oblivion, but just took her image. So if Kasumi was switched places with Ange, it’s likely the Black Witch would’ve taken the form of Kyrie, for example. However, it’s here Ange recognizes the Maria’s true power in that, through white magic, she was able to break the cycle of hate. From Eva to Rosa, from Rosa to Maria, from Krauss to Eva, from Eva to Ange, from Kyrie to Kasumi, from Kasumi to Ange.

After ripping the pages out of Maria’s grimoire, Ange strikes back by vowing to show Kasumi the true power of magic. When Kasumi’s men take shots at Ange, they instead find the bullets ripping through and killing them (ostensibly thanks to the Seven Stakes of Purgatory). There’s a couple thoughts on how this could’ve happened, non-magically. Shounen A speculates that Ange’s bodyguard, Amakusa, disobeyed her instructions to stay behind and followed her, sniping from a distance, while zilch thinks that they all just shot each other. I on the other hand, think Lee Harvey Oswald’s magic bullet traveled through time to kill everyone. Actually, both zilch and Shounen A are probably right. All of the assassins seemed to take head on shots. However, there’s no good vantage point from behind them, since they’re at the edge of the cliff. However, it’s possible for Amakusa to have taken out three of the side shooters, causing them to fire errant shots that hit the assassins on the other side. Lot of luck required there. But what’s the difference between magic and luck? If I hit a game winning grand slam, was it because I was lucky and hit a 99mph fastball, or because magic enabled me to hit that fastball? Two sides of the same coin. Meanwhile, I think Ange likely killed Kasumi herself, because she also seems to take a straight on headshot, and I don’t know that Amakusa could’ve done that from behind without hitting Ange on the follow through. Also, Ange talks of being willing to take action herself this time. So I took it as her accepting that portion of responsibility.

Meanwhile, EvaBeatrice appears to then take physical form as Eva to finish off Ange, but fate again intervenes, when Eva’s shotgun backfires on her, giving Ange the chance to kill her once and for all. In reality, you’re not going to find Eva’s body there. My guess is that Ange is somewhat delusional, and the “battle” between her and Kasumi and Eva, was really just a battle between her and Kasumi, with Ange projecting Eva’s likeness on Kasumi.

Now, I was a little confused with the timing of the next scene between Ange and Bernkastel. Did Ange return back home? Or is this a continuation of her discussion with Bernkastel that began this whole mystifying chain of events? Or is this an alternate reality we’re looking at? I’m also still a little confused by Ange’s logic. If the Ange of 1986 is saved, the current Ange of 1998 should no longer exist. So in that sense, if preventing a life of abuse is considered saving, saving the Ange of 1986 would save Ange of 1998. I guess her hope was that she would be able to resurrect her family and instantly teleport them to meet her in 1998, but that conflicts with my Back to the Future paradoxes understanding.

Well, one episode to go. I’m really thinking that we’re not going to get satisfactory answers to all the questions we have in the next episode. So I can only hope DEEN can end this season in a way that doesn’t leave us completely borked if there is no second season.

I’ve gotta say, it’s nice to type in regular English. Just when I get the hang of explaining the murders (pretty easy this time around), they go and change the game up completely. But does this potentially final checkmate get us closer to the truth?

With Gaap having stolen Virgilia’s goat butlers, the imprisoned make a break for it, with Kanon’s di-sword paving the way. It was interesting to see Virgilia losing her cool for a moment. That’s not a scene I would’ve expect to have seen. But she decides to take her anger at Gaap out on the escapees, and sends the Siestas to finish the job.

Meanwhile, George and Jessica’s short-lived upper hand comes to a disastrous end when Gaap creates a couple portals that sends them hurdling each other at full force with disastrous results for both. However- don’t believe your eyes here. Besides the obviously out of place portals, the injuries Jessica suffered (getting half her head blown off) and George suffered (getting a hole blasted through his stomach), are much more likely results from a shot from a Winchester than any sort of maximum power karate moves. Is there anything from this scene that we can believe? I do believe George was engaged in a confrontation. Fists and feet may have flown. But black holes? Not likely. Rather, a much more pedestrian thuggish shooting seems likely.

The above Battler image comes from his conversation with Kyrie, but it fits just as well here. Because both his conversations with Jessica and Kyrie take a similar turn – both of them imploring him to take the demons for what they are. It’s the sort of underhanded tactic like we saw in the last arc. While I don’t doubt the conversation occurred, I am dubious about Jessica and Kyrie’s states of mind while on death’s doorstep. It’s interesting that this is perhaps the first time, at least that I can remember, that anyone has told Battler that demons were involved. Now whether they were referring to real demons or metaphorical demons is up to interpretation. I took that as Jessica and Kyrie telling Battler not to reason with Kinzo (or the killer) like they were a rational human. Instead, recognize them for the monsters they are.

It’s convenient that Jessica’s death was delayed for three minutes, allowing her to be found in a bedroom, instead of by George. What I wonder is how far Jessica’s final location was from George’s final location. The distance, and the time in between them going missing and Battler receiving the call from Kinzo/Beatrice could help us figure out whether there was 1 or more culprits.

Meanwhile, the escapees are all taken down one by one, until only Kyrie remains. There’s no indication of the time that passed during their escape, but I’m skeptical that they were in the Kumadorian, because a two kilometer sprint is a pretty arduous run, and the escapees didn’t look terribly winded when they came from the exit. Something you’d expect at least from Nanjo who barely made it 50 feet before breaking out in a sweat. Kyrie’s final conversation with Battler takes a similar turn as his conversation with Jessica as I’d mentioned. However, Kyrie also apologizes for being cold to Battler for being Asumu’s son. I didn’t think much of that at the moment, but it gets a life of its own later.

With the Twilight deaths complete, Kinzo and Beatrice continue their tests to find out who will be the Ushiromiya Idol. Beatrice decides to be the one to test Battler, conveniently.

Meanwhile Battler goes to check in on Kumasawa and Gohda, but finds that both have been killed. Judging by how their feet are brushing the floor, they were likely shot dead then hung for effect. Whoever killed them would have needed a key… but with the keys no longer at a premium, it means that there should be at least a few keys floating around. But I think it’s very possible for one person to have killed both of them, and then still have time to kill George and Jessica. I don’t see anything that would suggest that multiple parties were necessary yet.

Meanwhile, Battler proceeds to his testing ground where he vows to pound the floor with Kinzo and Beatrice and whoever else was involved. Actually, Battler’s reaction and his suggesting putting Beatrice’s name as one of the sacrifices was perfect. I probably would’ve handled that the exact same way. And I bet Beatrice left that line blank just waiting to hear Battler offer to put her name in there. Sort of a passive aggressive deredere Moetrice moment there.

But since Battler can’t take that test with much credibility, she asks him to remember and atone for his sin from six years ago. Battler wonders if it was him renouncing the Ushiromiya name after a fight with his parents, but apparently wasn’t it. Meanwhile, game board Beatrice gets increasingly angered, while meta Beatrice seems to be saddened by Battler’s forgetfulness.

Well, that’s one way to go. Immolation from the inside out. Ouch. With Battler unable to remember his sin, Beatrice’s frustration (anger?) is at a fever pitch now, and she takes it out on Kinzo by turning him into a roast cow. Interestingly enough, once again Battler has not seen Kinzo in person. And once again, Kinzo is a burned, unrecognizable corpse, except for the fact that this corpse probably has 6 fingers. What exactly is the significance of this method of death? I would suggest that it’s further fuel for the fire that Kinzo is either already dead or not on the island. But I don’t know that I can discount the testimonies of Kumasawa, Gohda, Krauss and Kyrie.

So the posts on the MAL forums are all aflame, because of the apparent pacing and adaptation issues with this episode. I didn’t think the episode was bad, but I also don’t know what I’m missing. One thing I should point out that I came across is that when Beatrice accuses Battler of having a sin that caused people on the island to die, it’s said in red in the VN, but not in red in the anime. So for our purposes, we should just assume that point is truth.

The sin I am now demanding that you remember is not between Ushiromiya Battler and Beatrice.
Ushiromiya Battler has a sin.
Because of your sin, people die.
Due to your sin, a great many humans on this island die.
No one escapes, all die.

With Beatrice threatening to quit the game, leaving it in stalemate for eternity, Bernkastel, Lambda and Ange all appear to intervene. However, Beatrice claims that Battler is not qualified to play the game, and to prove it, she allows Battler the chance to say two statements in red:

1. Battler Ushiromiya’s mother is Asumu Ushiromiya
2. Battler Ushiromiya was born of Asumu Ushiromiya.

Battler easily says the first. But to his shock and dismay is repeatedly unable to say the second.

Claiming that she wanted to play the game with Kinzo’s grandson, she declares checkmate and either sends Battler off, or Battler leaves on his own. Unclear. Beatrice then escapes to another world (the Golden Land?) where she and Maria share a sad moment together.

So geez, where to begin. Figuring out the murders is the easy part. Figuring out how much of the strange turn of events with Battler’s bloodline is a lot more difficult. The most obvious, and probably least likely possibility is that Asumu isn’t actually dead, and this is her revenge on a family that jilted her. But… probably not. Kyrie also becomes suspect though. We don’t see her die. And it would make some sense as to why Battler is always the last to die.

It makes sense that Battler wasn’t Asumu’s son. I’d originally thought that Ange was Asumu’s child as well, what with the fire red hair, but when I learned that she was actually Kyrie’s child, I thought the coincidental matching hair color was interesting. But this wasn’t about what happened 18 years ago. This was about a sin that happened on the island of Rokkenjima six years ago. A sin that didn’t involve Battler renouncing the family name, because of his dad’s remarriage, but a sin that’s apparently related to who his real mother is. Whether or not Asumu or Kyrie is his mother doesn’t change the fact that he’s still Kinzo’s grandson, which was what Beatrice specifically mentioned for what she wanted. But if he was born out of wedlock as Kyrie’s son, it may mean that he doesn’t have any birthrights to the Ushiromiya headship. But still, what that has to do with what happened six years ago is a big question mark.

With two episodes to go, I feel like they’ve changed the game on us. The original game was to prove that the murders were not the work of magic or witches. Whether this is a red herring or not, I’m not sure. Perhaps this is part of the strategy. However, with so little time left, I’m afraid that they’re going to end on a cliffhanger. Battler realizing his sin and how he’s the centerpiece of all these murders.

It’s weird, this arc feels like it’s being paced at a fairly leisurely level, especially any Ange or Maria background scene, but then the whole George & Jessica "Head of the Ushiromiyas" game felt a little rushed and compressed. Which is which? Also, this was the first episode without Beatrice throughout the whole episode. And we only got a couple lines from Battler too. George and Jessica are all well and fine, and George especially surprised me in this episode, but the game is a lot less interesting without the Battler vs. Beatrice back and forth. They’re the two main characters, why is the final arc of the season minimizing them so much?

Again, the chronology of the scenes with Ange are a little hard to grasp at first. If you remember, a couple episodes ago Ange was heading to Rokkenjima, ostensibly with a bounty on her head. We haven’t moved forward since then. The initial scene appears to take place sometime after her meeting with the Rokkenjima otaku, and before her boat trip to Death Island. Correction: These scenes take place after Ange’s magical boat ride to Niijima, not Rokkenjima as I first thought. Ange meets with Nanjo’s son and learns of the mysterious letter that was intentionally sent back to the sender (Nanjo’s son). Apparently the contents of that letter contained items that led Nanjo’s son to a briefcase full of money locked away in a highly secure area of a bank. Nanjo’s son decides leave the money, not wanting to be associated with it. Probably a smart decision. Ange then compares the writing on the envelope with the writing on the Grimoire and appears to notice something interesting. I can’t tell if she reacted because the writing on the envelope was similar or dissimilar to the writing in the grimoire. In my eyes, they looked like different handwriting, although it’s hard to say since the envelope had only Kanji characters and numbers, while the writing in the grimoire was cursive English.

Ange then continues her investigation meeting with Kumasawa’s son, and finds that he received the same thing that Nanjo’s son did as well. Kumasawa’s son didn’t even bother to follow the trail, because of its creepiness. Ange becomes sure that the envelope she had received as a child and lost during the move in with Eva, contained the same keys and info the security deposit box. More interestingly, she finds a picture amidst Kumasawa’s returned belongings that is very similar to the witch’s epitaph, but with completely different words. "This door is opened at a probability of a quadrillion to one. You will be blessed only at a probability of a quadrillion to one." Kumasawa’s son suggests that it might’ve been used to try to solve the Witch’s epitaph, something Kumasawa was apparently fond of doing.

Finally, Ange’s investigation take her to the man who captained the ship to sail the Ushiromiya family members over to the island. He agrees to take her as well, but not before she notices what looks like Sakutaro stuffed in a bag. At least that’s my best guess based on what I saw. The image seems to put the fear of magic back in Ange – perhaps it was a spark that led to her magic forgiveness of sorts while on the boat.

Now cut to the second part of the episode where Kinzo apparently is testing all of the kids to see who’s worthy of succeeding his mantle. His first two choices? George and Jessica. Even though Kinzo is a wacky man, apparently even he subscribes to traditional lineal thinking.

The game for George and Jessica are the same. Three choices: themselves, their most loved one, and everyone else. Kill one to save the other two. Gaap takes the role of moderator for George, while Ronove moderates Jessica’s game. The moment where Jessica encounters Ronove in the dark room is the moment I started thinking that the Ushiromiya family members may be seeing different things from what the servants see. When Jessica asks Ronove who he is, she asks because he’s enshrouded in darkness. When Ronove replies with his name, Jessica responds to Genji – since Ronove is his middle name. Ronove’s answer doesn’t deny that he is Genji, and when Jessica gets a better look at him, there’s nothing in her reactions or the way she talks to him that suggests that she sees him as anyone else besides Genji. But if Jessica sees Ronove as Genji, who does George see Gaap as? A 19th person? Rosa perhaps? I’ll come back to this thought later.

Both Jessica and George make their decisions quickly. I expected Jessica to answer that she would choose to kill herself, in order to give Kanon a chance to live his life out as a real person. George surprised me by choosing to kill everyone else, rationalizing it by saying that by choosing to marry Shannon, he chose to take the road that placed him and her above others.

Now this is where things get interesting from George’s standpoint. His first decision as executioner was to kill Gaap, since the order of the deaths was up to him. I was really impressed by George’s cool and calculating demeanor throughout this whole game. He doesn’t get flustered and he doesn’t hesitate. Gaap commends his decision-making as being Kinzo-esque, even crowning him the Demon King. I was less impressed by the fight scene, but mostly because it looked like Gaap was just twirling her leg in circles. When she realizes she doesn’t have the strength to defeat George, she calls forth Virgilia’s demon goat butlers. However, when George decides to get srsfknbiz, Gaap notices a magical shield forming around George and asks how he’s able to do that. George dismisses her as trying to trick him, at which point Gaap realizes that it’s not magic, but strength of will that has created this barrier. If it wasn’t clear from the previous arcs that we shouldn’t believe what we see, simply because there’s a fancy light effect, this should seal the deal.

Meanwhile, Jessica pulls a bait and switch on Ronove, claiming that her self-sacrifice was her answer as a girl. Her answer as the head of the Ushiromiya family is to fight back… An answer which is all well and good, but not exactly one of the available choices. But that’s fine, my guess is that had Battler been tested he would’ve chosen that non-existent option as well. So with her magical strength of will brass knuckles, she pounds on Genji’s shield until she finally breaks through. Exeunt.

But going back to my previous thought, I wonder if the furniture are see things differently from what the Ushiromiyas see – specifically the full-time furniture, Genji, Shannon and Kanon. It’s clear they have a different level of understanding compared to the Ushiromiyas, or even Gohda, Nanjo or Kumasawa. If I were to go back and question the details of every major event these three experienced, how would that change the timbre of this game?

So as I mentioned above, based on the conversation between Jessica and Ronove, I started to think that perhaps Genji wasn’t dead. We saw six people die – but we’ve learned that we can’t trust our eyes. Can we believe that 6 actually died? Could it be 5? 4? Some other number? And can we believe that the people who are believed to have died: Genji, Rosa, Eva, Rudolf, Hideyoshi, Natsuhi are really dead? Without the red text confirming it, I have to consider the possibility that any one of them may still be alive.

Which brings me to my other thought, could Rosa be alive too? If Kinzo ever believed that Battler or Maria would have a chance to play the game, it seems like she should be. Who would Maria’s most loved person be? I can’t imagine it’s anyone besides Rosa. Would Kinzo give her a trick question, knowing that Rosa is already dead? I know he’s a nut, but I think he’s playing this game straight and true. Besides, if Rosa’s dead, that would make Maria’s decision for her. The question is difficult for George and Jessica, because Shannon and Kanon are still alive. It’s meaningless, if they’d been asked that, knowing that they were dead. So I’m thinking there’s a good chance Rosa is not dead.

At this point with no red text to set any boundaries, anything I think of would simply be wild guesses. But at the very least, I think this episode served as concrete evidence that magic is not the explanation (I believed this before, but didn’t feel like I had solid, non-hearsay evidence). And now I’m questioning every event that Shannon, Kanon and Genji have been part of, every special ability they have, and every claim they make. I don’t believe they’re the culprits, or even willing pawns in Kinzo’s and Beatrice’s game. But as Okonogi said, "without love, it cannot be seen." I think their views of the events have been tainted by their loyalty to Kinzo, and faith in Beatrice, and thus, can’t be trusted.

Finally, if I don’t see a healthy dose of Beatrice, Battler and Ange in the meta world next week, throwing tons of colored words around, I’m going to start getting pissy.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Or at least an exciting Thursday if you’re in one of those places that doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving. This Umineko post notwithstanding, I’m basically taking a weeklong break from writing to spend some quality family time. I’m also looking forward to the winter season kicking off soon. There’s a handful of possibly excellent shows that I’m looking forward to following.

Kinzo agrees to show himself to his children, who are aghast at actually seeing him alive. I don’t know if that’s more because they doubted Krauss specifically, or because they hadn’t seen Kinzo in so long, they couldn’t believe he was still a pretty spry guy. Kinzo takes the decidedly more cynical route.

So Kinzo has two reasons for coming of hiding – and it’s not to make Krauss seem like an upstanding guy. Firstly, he berates his kids, completely disgusted that none of them have been able to solve the riddle of the Epitaph and that all of them have failed at building their own miniature empires of wealth. At first he plans to not leave a successor and have the Ushiromiya legacy die with him, but Nanjo gets Kinzo to consider otherwise, explaining that his kids have been able to create things beyond material wealth… like families. Which may be true and heartwarming in a Disney sort of way, but even that’s a bit shaky. Rosa has a child she doesn’t want. Rudolf is a philanderer and has two kids with two different wives (who knows how many other kids he may have in hiding). And George is a good child but continually makes his momma not very happy by shacking up with the maid. Jessica, Krauss and Natsuhi may be the most traditionally nuclear family… but Krauss has already screwed things up with Kinzo. Plus, Jessica has poor physical health and an unhealthy fetish towards well-dressed furniture. Regardless, Kinzo buys the argument and decides to possibly leave it up to his grandchildren, if they can prove themselves. The second reason for his appearance is to get the killing started. Yep, he’s staying true to Beatrice and her revival.

Kinzo, or Lord Goldsmith, or master villain #2 – whatever you want to call him – apparently has summoning powers that go above and beyond what I expected of him. Not only does he have the Siestas with him (with a new Siesta sister, Siesta 00), he’s apparently got Ronove and Virgilia on his side too. I remember seeing something like this done by someone else before… their true masters… Beatrice. Is this Kinzo truely Kinzo? Or a creation like EvaBeatrice?

Not only does he have Ronove and Virgilia on his side, apparently, he’s got the ability to introduce new characters too. A demon named Gaap, who despite her gothic loli attire, has a surprisingly sultry voice. It wasn’t bad, but surprised me at first. Gaap has a thing for curls, bows, and black holes. It’s quite possible she’s been playing a bit too much portal. But after the Siestas kill Rosa, Hideyoshi, Eva, Rudolf, Genji and Natsuhi in bloody fashion, Gaap sends the rest of them (sans Kumasawa and Gohda), hurdling into the ether.

Cut to the meta world, were Battler again notices Beatrice’s distasteful choice of killing methods. Sadly, this is the only game related meta scene we see. And there’s nothing revealed. And only a brief moment with Ange. I don’t know how the game went, but I can’t help but wonder if the pacing was compromised in this episode, because of all the setup in the last three episodes.

Now flashback to Maria’s memories. Sort of an abrupt transition here. I assume they’re picking up the story from the last episode, but I wonder if there was any significant to its placement here. I’ll get to that a little later. As Rosa raises her hand for a wicked slapfest, she’s shocked to suddenly find her hand shatter like a dropped piece of porcelain. Next thing she knows, she’s in another meta world of sorts with Maria dressed as a witch and with Beatrice next to her.

Maria hysterically asks why Rosa never treated her well, and Rosa hysterically replies that Maria had was an obstacle to her happiness, and that she hated her even before she was born. It’s interesting that Beatrice references the ugliness of Rosa’s lust. I hadn’t given much thought to it before, but considering her Hokkaido dalliances, the baby born out of wedlock, it’s seems highly likely that Rosa is a raging whore, and Maria was a huge mistake that was never meant to be. Where does Rosa’s true happiness lie? It’s does not appear to be in her “family.” Perhaps it’s in her lustful desires.

Sadly, the Maria deformed faces are back, and again, I’m not sure they’re terribly fitting here. Like EvaBeatrice, Maria kills Rosa over and over, punishing her (or the bad witch controlling her) until Maria can feel better about herself and ready to forgive. But it’s clear that this wasn’t what she wanted either. I think Beatrice realizes that as well. Because unlike EvaBeatrice’s repeated killing scenes, Beatrice seems to be getting no pleasure out of this scene and keeps a much more solemn look. It’s a pitiable scene for all involved: the unhappy child, and the unhappy mother, and the Endless Witch that appears to want to make her colleague feel better.

Now cut back to the game board. And this is interesting, because the transition between the last meta world and the game world was Maria waking up from her sleep. Clearly, Rosa was alive when she entered the island. The Maria torture scene would have taken place before the game began. I suppose it’s possible that she had Beatrice resurrect Rosa, and made her forget the details, but that seems a little too convenient. Coupled with my thoughts from last episode that Maria has always been optimistic about her situation in the notes she left in the grimoire and in the conversations she had with Ange, it’s hard for me to reconcile that with the scenes above. Was that meta world a dream? Or a fear that just manifested itself in her thoughts? I think it’s more than a dream, but I’m skeptical that the incident actually occurred. While Rosa was shocked at her broken hand, she seemed unperturbed by the change of scenery into the meta world. And the way she was verbally attacking Maria, I thought was too in-sync with Maria’s fears (the Maria who asked “was I useful?” while her head rolled around on a serving plate) to be more than coincidence.

Apparently, Gaap’s portals are a one-way ticket to a dungeon. Heh, the joke’s on Krauss though. Who in their right mind would stick a phone in a dungeon and not remember doing something that inane? Krauss calls Jessica, who along with the rest of the kids has basically learned everything from Gohda and Kumasawa. Unsurprisingly (or maybe surprisingly) none of the kids seemed too torn up about their deceased parents. Maybe they’re just getting used to this. I thought Krauss’ warning to Jessica about not avenging her mom, was an implicit challenge to do so, but apparently, she decides to follow the law of the letter, barricading the kids inside the room with them.

Eventually, Kinzo meets with the prisoners informing them that they’re locked up in the dungeon below the hidden mansion where Beatrice used to live. And then sets the stage for a possible battle royale amongst the grandchildren next week.

Couple interesting points to mention – again, Krass does not mention how the victims were killed. Presumably, either Gohda or Kumasawa mention it either. You would figure that if Kinzo is able to summon demons who can shoot portals at you, that recommending a barricade would be folly. There’s not many good options, but I think the most obvious one would be to tell them to run and hide somewhere. Those omissions make me pretty confident that we shouldn’t believe what we saw happen in the dining room. Not to mention, at this point, I’m skeptical of everything that happens on the game board that Battler doesn’t see directly. Could Kinzo have just been on a one-man Winchester rifle rampage? I guess it’s possible.

Another interesting thing was Shannon telling Kanon that the Golden Land is indeed a very nice place. Is it that Shannon remembers things from previous arcs, as zilch supposes? If so, does this make her a potential ally for game piece Battler? Or did she get a sneak preview from Beatrice after breaking the magic mirror for her (assuming that applies in this arc as well)?

No Battler, no Beatrice, and smashed rabbits makes me a sad blogger. The background on Ange and Maria was helpful, but I do miss the stars of the show.

Aw man, I’m not sure if I’m jealous of or if I feel sorry for Shotataru. Mmm, let’s go with jealousy for now. But the way the Seven Stakes moved in unison was more creepy than anything. And then when Ange joins in the orgy of fun, it results in her skimping on her studies and getting picked on by her classmates due to her horrendously low test score.

Eventually the prodding goes too far and Ange summons the seven stakes and orders them to kill her classmates. But a strange thing happens on the way to a mass murder. The Seven Stakes don’t do it. They don’t necessarily refuse. But instead they try to talk Ange down from the ledge. Ange though will have none of it and begins killing off each of the seven stakes by denying them and the existence of magic. Mammon leaves with some stinging words though, accusing Ange of relying on her delusions to do the dirty work that she refuses to do herself. But what exactly does that mean? Does Ange need to pick up an axe and go Ryugu Rena on her classmates? Does she need to start the bloodletting? Or was Mammon questioning whether Ange really, truly wanted to go through with it? But once

Once the Stakes are destroyed, Ange turns her anger towards Shotataro. I thought Maria’s reaction to Shotataro’s imminent destruction was particularly well animated. Then for a second I wondered how good this show would look if Bones or Gainax produced it. But anyway, as she’s about to kill Shotataro, Ange has a flashback to an earlier time when she called Maria an idiot for believing in walking, talking stuffed animals (not quite, but more or less). Interestingly, 6 year old Ange had a lot more sense and seemed much more mature than 9 year old Maria (or maybe they were even younger). I wonder how much of Maria’s stunted growth was due to Rosa’s stellar parenting skills. Snap back to reality, and Ange collapses in tears.

Next, cut to a Maria memory. The transition here was very abrupt and totally discombobulated me. Where are we now? Last thing I remember was Lambda trolling Ange. Did Lambda then leave before the start of this episode allowing Ange and Maria to start talking again? I am going to assume yes. Because now we see the continuation of Maria’s story, except it shows another instance where Maria was left alone while Rosa went off to shack up with her boyfriend. This time Maria’s got some new rabbit poet musician friends in addition to Sakutaro. But a late night trip to the convenience store goes awry when she ends up losing her house key.

One thing leads to another and the next thing we see is Detective Oishii’s reincarnate trying to get in contact with Rosa, who gets outed by her workers for having gone on vacation. Maria wonders if she’s a poor little girl? Sakutaro disagrees, but based on the beating she’s going to get when her mom returns, I’d say yes. Maria is a very sympathetic, poor, little girl.

And yeah, cue the child abuse. Right in front of the social worker. I wonder if Ryukishi07 has a relatively low opinion of social workers or the child welfare system. They’re always so ineffective in his stories. I’m glad the social worker tried to stop Rosa’s abuse, but there’s only so much you can do when you get kicked out of the house.

Noooo! Rabbit Musician! With the pesky social worker out of the way. Rosa goes on a rampage that would make Satoko’s uncle proud. Throwing Maria down to the floor. Smashing her rabbit mariachi band. And then the coup de grace – brutally decapitating Sakutaro – to Maria’s horrid dismay. Again, I thought DEEN did a nice job animating Maria’s expression during this scene. It was the perfect mix of horror, anguish, helplessness and anger. Also kudos to Yui Horie and Ami Koshimizu during this scene, because they did a great job pulling all the emotion through this scene. I don’t condone Rosa and I certainly won’t justify her, but to some degree I could understand her anger. It’s frustration, it’s exasperation, and I think more than anything Rosa was taking the anger at herself out on Maria, unfortunately. Poor girl.

Still too bright with the tint DEEN. With Sakutaro dead, Maria turns to Beatrice and asks her to revive Sakutaro. But Beatrice just informs her that it isn’t possible, because the one who created Sakutaro – Rosa – has denied him. This is a recurring theme during this episode. If one believes in something, it exist. Once one does not believe in that thing, it ceases to exist. The Seven Stakes. Sakutaro. In response, Maria asks Beatrice to teach her the magic to kill her mom – nay, the bad witch possessing her mom (harkens back to arc 1). Beatrice, who seems very concerned about Maria throughout, agrees to do so.

Now, what I wonder is whether this version of the story is what’s actually written in the grimoire (assuming it came from there), or whether it’s Ange’s negatively interpreted version. Because Maria goes to lengths in the previous episode to communicate her optimistic view of what’s written. This seems more in line with how Ange would interpret events written in the grimoire.

Ok, back to reality again. This time in 1998. Ange and her bodyguard are riding the Hanyuu Maru ship to Rokkenjima. And Ange comes to the realization of what i mentioned above. (Magic’s) existence is dependent not on other’s beliefs, but what one believes. And with this new revelation, she calls back the Seven Stakes and Shotataro, vowing to take on Beatrice to learn the truth.

Meanwhile, we meet Kyrie’s younger sister, Kasumi, the one who’s out for Ange’s head. First Ange had to live with Eva, who was miserable. Now she gets pawned off to Kasumi, who immediately tries to kill her. If Battler was looking for a good luck charm, I don’t think Ange’s the one. Also, is the fact that both Kyrie and Kasumi are voiced by the same seiyuu important? I’d be very disappointed if Kyrie somehow turned out to be a villain.

So what’s next? Ostensibly there’s going to be three "games" going on once the action starts. The game between Battler, Ange and Beatrice in the meta-world. The 1986 murder mystery. And then the ensuing game of cat and mouse between Ange and Kasumi. I’m glad. Because I’m getting antsy. Five episodes to go. Let the games begin.

Holy cow, did DEEN even look at this episode before airing it? The white highlights and soft glows were unbearably bright. Half the time you couldn’t even make out the lines on the characters’ faces. Budget saving tactic by skimping on details? Whatever the thought, this episode looked awful.

There was very little progress in the game, in fact it hasn’t even begun. However, we got a little more background on Maria’s newfound magical powers, her formerly stuffed, now surprisingly shota buddy, Sakutaro, and Ange’s history with magic. As the game is about to begin, Ange takes off on her own, perhaps into her own meta world to have a talk with Maria. It certainly was a very odd time for Ange to split, and start talking to Maria about her unhappiness. I mean, she’s right in the middle of a game. Where is she going off to? If Battler didn’t completely trust her before, he doesn’t have much reason to trust her any more now. Maria’s story, though, and by extension her explanations for her story should be helpful for Ange when she returns to the game.

Wow, I thought Rosa was a below average mom before, but I underestimated her. Unfortunately, we don’t have much info on Rosa’s troubles, or what happened to Maria’s dad, but leaving your 9 year old daughter for a weekend, while you go off doing "moms gone wild?" Damn, Rosa is a terrible mom. Maria talking to Sakutaro about her mom’s forgotten promise felt like one of the more "adult" conversations I’ve heard her engage in so far. It also helps give her character some depth. It doesn’t explain the crazy, occult-obsessed freak Maria from earlier in the show. But it makes her into a much more sympathetic character.

Sakutaro was much cooler (and cuter), before Beatrice inexplicably transformed him into a shota. I mean look at him. Mixing cocktails, getting drunk and getting gifts like it’s nobody’s business. Stuffed Sakutaro is pimp.

While Maria focuses on telling Ange about how happy she was. Ange continues to take the more "realistic" view. Calling Rosa abandonment for what it was. Meanwhile, Maria chides Ange for reading things in between the lines that don’t exist, and then selectively picking up the unhappy pieces to deduce her truths. Maria explains that she’s able to do this, because she has a power that Ange doesn’t: the power of magic. The talk between the two was particularly interesting, simply because it’s an allegory for the larger game at play, and started making me think about what possible things I was reading in between the lines from previous games that didn’t exist.

The transition to Maria hanging with Beatrice and Virgilia felt a bit abrupt. Apparently, Maria developed a power that goes beyond the powers of even Beatrice and Virgilia: the power of Geass Zero. The ability to create something out of nothing. How exactly did she develop this power? Something that was just passed down the Ushiromiya bloodline? But they congratulate Maria by shotafying Sakutaro, then giving Maria the title of the Apprentice Witch of Origins.

Maria then tells Ange that she was once an apprentice witch as well. Something Ange remembered only after being told. At one point in time, Maria gave Ange the ability to summon the Seven Stakes of Purgatory, specifically Mammon at Ange’s current power level. That is after Mammon and co. went all shotakon on Sakutaro. However, after a particular incident at school she appears to have lost the ability.

Cut next to the "present day" and we see Ange consulting with an occultist and an expert on the Ushiromiya murder mystery. He informs Ange that two bottles were indeed found explaining the murders at Rokkenjima. Both with the same handwriting, but both telling completely differently stories. Although they’re signed by Maria, when compared to Maria’s handwriting the styles don’t match. However, Ange then shows him Maria’s grimoire, at which he’s glaring tell gives away that the handwriting in the grimoire is indeed the same as the handwriting of the notes in the bottles.

A few things to think about here. One is that there seems to be a multitude of realities existing simultaneously:

• 1986, the multiple realities on Rokkenjima, with 6 year old Angie living on her own.
• 1998, following the path of the 3rd game, in which Ange grows up with Eva, meets Bernkastel, at which point her existence seems to split:
  • One version is whisked away by Bernkastel and now exists in the meta-world, and is battling Beatrice with Battler
  • The other version jumped from the roof for kicks, but is now on the run from the Sumadara family. This Ange seems to be taking a more conventional route at figuring out what happened.

However, we only meet the Ange that was a result of the 3rd game. But what about the versions of Ange that would have resulted in the 1st and 2nd games?

Meanwhile, we see two versions of the bottles, explaining the accounts from 2 different games – game 1 and game 2. Has the bottle from game 3 not been found yet? Or was the note never written because it was the one game in which Maria was killed early?

Also, if the handwriting wasn’t Maria’s, whose could it have been? Beatrice seems like the most likely suspect, considering she was writing in the book before transforming Sakutaro, but it doesn’t make much sense for her to be sending out notes in bottles.

I keep thinking back to Higurashi, trying to think if there are any parallels between the multiple realities in that show, and the multiple realities in this show. But I haven’t come to any conclusions yet. Opening up the mystery to the outside world though has really put an interesting twist on the Rokkenjima murders.

Finally, Beatrice calls Ange back to the game. But before returning, Lambdadelta shows up to troll with Ange, explaining that Bernkastel merely made Ange a pawn in the game. If she wins, Battler returns to her in 1986 not in 1998 (presumably erasing the existence of 1998 and meta-world Anges). But Lambda offers a deal. Play the game forever, so that she can stay with Battler forever.

Zugzwang is a term in chess that basically means "damned if you do and damned if you don’t." Whatever move you make will weaken your position. If Ange decides to "win" the game, current Ange loses herself. If Ange decides to "lose" the game, current Ange gets to play forever with Battler. To be honest, it doesn’t seem like a particularly difficult decision to me. I’d guess it’s not easy to have to erase your current self, no matter how screwed up it is. But considering Ange’s awful childhood, perhaps re-doing her childhood wouldn’t hurt. And the other option of playing the game forever seems like a terrible idea. I hope Ange realizes her goal was to save Battler, not be stuck in a psychotic game with him through eternity (a.k.a. hell).

I don’t know how long this arc was in the VN, but with 6 more episodes it seems like they should be able to take their time… hopefully next episode won’t be as blinding.

I knew she wasn’t gone. I knew I saw a fleeting moment of hesitation before her complete destruction of Battler in the third game. Hope lives for Moetrice’s true resurrection!

~Pu ku ku, Ronove that mischievous kidder. His description of a despondent, nearly comatose Battler perks the concerns of Moetrice, who turns out to be better at dishing it out than being on the receiving end.

Unfortunately for Moetrice, Battler has moved onto his rebound relationship, fondling Beelzebub, right in front of Moetrice, to grab some delicious biscuits. This leads to Moetrice going back into hiding, with the Beatrice personality taking front row center for the rest of the episode. It also probably didn’t help that Ange has now come to play the game along with Battler – ostensibly without the ulterior motives that his former partner, Virgilia had. Anyway, with the relationship fun out of the way, onto the episode.

Seeing Bern in cat form seemed too fitting. I like the purple eyes and little tail ribbon, just to make sure we knew it was her. Whether you’re a witch or a cat, make sure you always travel in style. On the game board, Battler runs into Ange and apologizes, but shows no signs of recognizing who she is. However, Ange tells Bernkastel how happy she is to see her family happy again. Rather than Hanyuu, I wonder if Ange will play more the Maebara role – the X factor that allows change to occur.

Battler recognizes Ange from the last game, but there’s no guarantee that she isn’t another trap set by Beatrice. Battler recognizes this, but Ange (or Gretel, as she introduces herself to Battler) seems to strike a chord, when she reminds him that there’s someone outside waiting for him to return.

Elsewhere, we see a bit of Ange’s life growing up with Eva, who may or may not have had some enhancement surgeries to keep up her looks (although her sickness causes her to take a drastic dive in looks and health). Eva is still distraught over the loss of George, and she takes her resentment out on Ange. We also see that Ange’s life at school (Saint Lucia, the same school that Shion went to in Higurashi) is probably just as disfunctional as her life at home. She’s isolated from her classmates, as jealousy and envy seems to reek from them. It also doesn’t help that Ange herself isn’t the most affable person.

Ange shuffles off on her own to read a diary that Maria had left behind talking about magic and witches. We then see a flashback with Maria pulling off a pretty mean Kobato, talking stuffed animal and all. The ~uryu is much more cuter sounding than the seagull-esque ~uu. Rosa meanwhile shows off her super mom skills by creating that said talking stuffed animal for Maria, then leaving the little 9 year old girl alone while she goes on overnight rendezvous work trips. It’s a good thing this story didn’t take place in the US, because child services would’ve been all over Rosa and Maria. Who knows whether Maria’s diary would’ve ever reached Ange, if Maria ended up being deported to some foster home.

Ange meanwhile doesn’t seem to quite understand what power the magic holds, beyond creating talking stuffed animals, but a short conversation with ghost Maria helps her realize that if she had more magical power, she could talk with Maria at any time. Now, is ghost Maria an apparition from the dead, a magical projection, or simply Ange’s insanity?

Apparently, Okonogi started working for the Ushiromiyas after running the Yamainu for a while. I’m guessing there’s not a whole lot of significance behind his presence, and it’s one of those random meaningless crossovers you see CLAMP do all the time. However, he appears to be serving as some sort of caretaker (and executioner) for Ange. The discussion between him and Ange about people viewing things differently, because of love, was a good one though. Okonogi believes that Eva wasn’t the culprit, because he feels her tears for George and Hideyoshi couldn’t have been fake, while Ange believes the opposite. Both come to separate conclusions with the same evidence, because of their feelings towards Eva. Both may be right and wrong here. I do think Eva cares for her family, I don’t know that it extends beyond her immediate family – Hideyoshi and George. Although I believe she’s still the most likely culprit based on the evidence to date, I feel like it’s too obvious for me to believe that she’s the true culprit in the end though.

I’m not exactly sure what happened next, but apparently, Ange’s aunt from the Sumadara family wants Ange iced. But Okonogi, who’s taken a shine to Ange’s boldness, gives her a head start, and later provides her a bodyguard and driver to get her out of the pinch. For a second, I thought Tomitake might show up as her driver, but alas we get some bishonen.

Flashback over, we return to the gameboard, where we see that the adults are not getting along as well as they did in the previous arc. Kraus refuses to let the others see Kinzo (or more accurately, tells them Kinzo doesn’t want to see him), at which point, Kyrie theorizes that Kinzo’s already dead and proposes a deal to Krauss, forcing him to clarify whether Kinzo is still alive and whether Krauss is worthy of the inheritance.

Kinzo being dead or not present on the island when the murders begin is something I’ve postulated for a while now. There’s something a bit odd about him either being completely missing or showing up as an unidentifiable charred corpse in each game. Rather than him being dead though, I’m more apt to believe that he leaves the island when the family arrives and before the twilight murders begin, opening up a spot for that 18th person being the culprit. When Battler tells Beatrice to verify that Kinzo is among the 18 in red, she refuses and introduces another rule change.

So now Battler has to make a hypothesis in blue, to warrant Beatrice’s response in red. The catch is that the blue text has to deny witches as a possible explanation. Meanwhile Gretel instructs Battler to stop using a pistol and start using a shotgun with his explanations. And while Battler claims he’s figured how to fight, I really doubt that, considering he doesn’t seem to have remembered any of the instructions Virgilia gave him previously. But Battler asks the question that I’ve wanted to ask, although the way he asks it, still seems too restricted. I wouldn’t have said that Kinzo was dead, and instead would’ve said that he wasn’t on the island when the murders began, as I mentioned above. Still, it’s a step in the right direction. I’m looking forward to seeing how Beatrice shatters that text.

Back on the game board, Krauss agrees to try to convince Kinzo to meet the family. Kinzo meanwhile apparently has been working out, because he tosses Krauss like a rag doll, while bemoaning Krauss’ weakness. Kinzo vows to clear up the family quarrel himself. Now this seems like clear evidence that Kinzo is alive (and I actually do think he’s alive), but if we go back to the third game, we’ve already learned that we can’t trust anything we see on the game board. Is this Kinzo really Kinzo? Or is it a Beatrice/Lambdadelta creation like EvaBeatrice? Simply seeing him doesn’t prove that he’s alive or still on the island. Hopefully, Battler asks some good follow up questions in the next episode.

The introduction of the blue text at first glance seems like it should help Battler, because if he’s able to ask the questions the right way, he can force Beatrice to reveal truths with red. But it’s doubtful Beatrice introduced the blue text as a way to help Battler. And the title of the next episode "Zugzwang" (one of my favorite chess terms actually), suggests that she may be painting Battler into a corner again.

The most important part of getting to this episode was trying to avoid even the slightest semblance of any spoilers – be it the post title, or the preview sentence you see in Google Reader. But I knew some shit had hit the fan when even Divine over at Random Curiosity was posting about it. Needless to say, I’m very glad I was able to stay out of spoilers way. So this is a warning, because the spoilers start here.

The newly reformed Moetrice helps Jessica, by reviving a phantom version of Kanon, who acts as Jessica’s eyes to lead her to "safety" (or another closed room actually), and then gives them time to speak together. However, EvaBeatrice strikes immediately, having the Siestas shoot Moetrice through the heart.

Repeated shots and Siesta bazookas turn Moetrice into a husk of a heart, but fail to kill her. This freaks out the Siestas, who most likely didn’t get the irony in them calling Moetrice a "monster" and then running away. Ronove appears to tell EvaBeatrice that she lacks the power to kill Moetrice… even if she is nothing but a beating heart now.

Before EvaBeatrice tries to step on Moetrice’s heart though, Battler cuts in and gives Moeto a backhanded compliment before bringing EvaBeatrice into the metaworld to do battle.

EvaBeatrice, who seems startled by the change of scenery, takes the thug route and tries to off Battler. However, his endless nine power (Haruhi to thank?) easily wards off the Siestas attack and he scares them away. Battler then sticks up for Moetrice and vows to show EvaBeatrice the true meaning of being a Golden Witch. In turn, Moetrice graces us with a knee jellifyingly moe blush and tears. And thus begins the more mental battle between Battler and EvaBeatrice.

I wonder if it’s even worth recounting the events, because the story gets so messed up (in a good way), but I’ll recount it briefly. Essentially, Battler tries to use Maria and Rosa’s deaths in the second twilight to trap EvaBeatrice, telling her to repeat in red: Aunt Eva never took a step out of the room while the crime was going on. EvaBeatrice doesn’t. In fact, she doesn’t even counter this, and instead conjures up the events in the 4th to 6th twilight. Battler was sloppy here, letting her slide. I don’t know if the VN goes into it more, but he let her skate free on the 2nd twilight. But him and Moetrice are able to corner EvaBeatrice again in her scenario. She claims that the reason why Kyrie suggested that she, Rudolf and Hideyoshi leave to get food, when before she said it was safer in the guesthouse was because EvaBeatrice controlled her with magic. While Battler’s getting flustered (still much too easily, he should be getting better at this), Moetrice asks Virgilia to reconstruct the death scenes of Hideyoshi, Kyrie and Rudolf. Although, she’s unable to figure out a solution, she finds a smoked cigarette amongst Kyrie’s belongings. Battler recognizes this as a message from Kyrie, and that the reason she brought Hideyoshi out there was to ask him about the truth. He tells EvaBeatrice to repeat in red that Eva was in the room where the cigarette butt was crushed. EvaBeatrice refuses again. And again Battler lets her slide as she takes the offensive again. This is getting embarrassing for Battler.

EvaBeatrice goes on the offensive by firing some rapid-fire red text about how Battler was with Eva the whole time Nanjo got killed. And how none of the three survivors killed Nanjo, although he was indeed killed. At this point Battler becomes unhinged and accuses EvaBeatrice of lying with the red text. Failing to come up with a good answer, Battler collapses into a despondent heap. I like Battler. But I want to like him a lot. I want to give him a chance to make my top 10 list of characters. But every time he gets a chance, he fails. Why didn’t he continue to press EvaBeatrice on the prior twilights? Solve the 2nd and 4th-6th twilights, before thinking about Nanjo’s death. Maybe answers will arise from figuring them out. And if your first guess to the Nanjo murder is wrong, step back and think about it. But Battler is so easy to fall into mess of despair, that it’s a wonder that he hasn’t been blown off the game board already. Thankfully, Moetrice is going to come to Battler’s rescue.

By sacrificing herself. She vows to use the red text to deny that witches exist, eliminating everyone but Battler on the game board. Battler asks Moeto not to sacrifice herself, but eventually relents. In return, she asks Battler to cover his ears.

The sacrifice occurs. Eva reveals herself as the killer, kills Battler, and then… Battler and Moetrice find themselves invited to come to the Golden Land (Battler and Moetrice sure look like a nice couple in that screenshot). But wait. Hmm… this seems like a strange thing to be happening if witches don’t exist.

I thought you said no prenuptials? Wa-wait a second. This contract seems a little off. This is totally different from what we talked about.

Wait. W-w-what the heck is up with these strong-arm tactics?!?! Yo, don’t touch me demon goat!

Moetrice? Virgilia? What are you guys doing? Strange red haired girl kicking demon goat ass? What the heck?

A trick? No. No way. You lie! Moetrice, she’s lying isn’t she? You wouldn’t do that, would you? Right? RIGHT?

…no… not the tsundere trojan horse… no… how could you? I thought we had something special… no…

I won’t blame Battler for falling for Moetrice’s tricks. Since I fell for it hook, line and sinker too. In retrospect, there were signs. It was too easy. I knew I shouldn’t believe my eyes. If Moetrice could fake the fight between her and Virgilia, she could fake Virgilia’s and EvaBeatrice’s existences as well. But I wanted to believe. Like Battler, I wanted to believe in Moetrice’s redemption. Were we too gullible? In retrospect, obviously yes. But in the same way we wanted to believe in the innocence of the Ushiromiya servants and family members, we wanted to believe in the goodness of Moetrice. And she completely exploited our weakness.

Moetrice. Her name was Moetrice. Her name was Moetrice. Her name was Moetrice.

Battler and I both fell for her. But sadly, it seems she is no more. All hail the return of the Golden Witch, the Endless Witch, the one and only, Beatrice.

What a great scene. What a freaking great scene. I was stunned. This was the first time during this show where I felt a twist and turn was perfectly setup, and where I felt there was a more grandiose plan in mind versus nitpicking about the feasibility of a closed room.

I suppose the chances of Beatrice having a soft spot is probably zero, but I continue to hold on hope. Maybe that’s why I noticed her hesitate in answering Lambdadelta’s question about whether she was even trying. Sometimes, you become deredere, no matter how hard you try not too. Regardless, Beatrice is back. And Moetrice is gone. Interestingly, Lambda seems to hold some sort of power over Beatrice. I had thought they were on equal ground, but perhaps not?

Twelve years later. Battler’s sister Ange has grown up. And Eva still holds onto her hate, even as her shockingly quick decline into sickness and hate lead to her death. With the last connection to her family gone, Ange seems ready to throw her life away. That is until she meets Bernkastel, who informs her that she has a chance to break her family out of the cycle of death she’s been stuck in. The few quick minutes that Ange had screen time gives me a lot of hope that she’ll be able to provide the necessary cool focus necessary to help Battler solve the mystery. Meanwhile, I’m glomming completely to Bernkastel. Maybe because it was because I was hurt by Moetrice. Maybe it’s a rebound thing. But I think it’s more than that. I know I can trust Bernkastel. We have history. We have Yukari Tamura. I knew Bern was working somewhere behind the shadows. She will deliver.