Umineko WHEN THEY CRY Episode 3: Banquet of the Golden Witch

Banquet Of The Golden Witch . The 3rd installment of the Umineko series and an episode which is more enjoyable than the previous ones in many ways . Story - 8 WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON ?????????????????????????? That's probably what a completely new reader to this would ask on more than one occasion .Which is pretty understandable .Weird "furniture" being summoned with absolutely no explanations .No answers to the matter of what exactly "witches" are and no proper bearing of the situation as a whole being given by the author .It is fucking lovely . Okay so I might seem pretty biased since I've already finished it (the entire series) but I'm really not .Umineko is a weird story you see so when ,as a person who's finished it , read through and see the "extremely" subtle foreshadowing and clues I can't help but smile to myself as I read .The weirdness is not a bad thing though .Stuff like that gets revealed later so if you judge this chapter individually then you're being unfair .Umineko has to be seen as a collective series even though it's broken into parts . My lord the plot twists in this are amazing . So wonderful and so unexpected .If I want to teach someone how to troll I'd tell them to go read Umineko .The approach to solving mysteries is very intriguing as well .Various concepts like "Hempel's Raven" and "The Devil's Proof" being applied to the point of abuse (which isn't a bad thing at all) . If I were to have a problem with it it would be that the story is sort of hard to follow a times .There's a point near the middle where an explanation of the epitaph (you should be well acquainted with this by now) seems to be slightly hard to follow even as a rereader .I understood what was being said but it didn't seem to stick .As though understanding one part of the dialogue would mean that to understand the next one you'd lose the current understanding you have . Slightly hard to understand what I'm saying isn't it ?Well ,reading it would give you a better idea .It's hard to put into words . But it was okay and it was only for a few moments so I'll let it off for that . Art - 9 I've read other reviews on this series and to be honest I'm amazed when I see people rating Umineko's art so far a 6 or 7 I mean.... Is there any other manga that does panel arrangement as well as Umineko ? NO . Is there any manga that does troll expressions as well as Umineko ? NO . Is there any manga that can do shocking page transitions as well as Umineko ? NO . NO .No to all of those questions .The art itself even without all that is pretty damn decent .Too decent .How do you not clap for it ?It perfectly represents the emotions so well this thing should deserve an award ... Okay so let's talk about the bad stuff about the art .Sometimes it feels a bit over the top with it's expressions .Some panels (few if I might add) also seem to have less work put in them than others .There's also....................................................................................................................................................................................... Nope there isn't anything else .That's pretty much it .There aren't any other problems with the art .You all should be bowing down to the paperback that you bought or your computer screen . Character - 8 We have some cool moments for Kyrie and Rudolf who were killed off too early for any character expansion in the previous episodes .A bit of Kyrie's past is expanded upon as well .I must say that the Ushiromiya family has some badass members . The main focus of this episode though ,is Eva Ushiromiya ,eldest daughter of the family .She does her part quite well (especially at the end when she trolls someone) .Her background and reason's for disliking Klauss are all shown in this episode . "It's useless .It's all useless" Why is it that I find myself smiling whenever Battler says this line ?When you add this kind of powerful quote with an awesome panel/page transition and amazing art then you'll know that some shit is going down for real . Beatrice is as wonderful a troll as ever and we get a small glimpse of her true nature at the end (after one of her glorious moments though) .She takes an odd ,refreshing turn in character during the middle of the episode as well . Enjoyment - 8 Well this is pretty funny . I rated this an 8 before writing this review but now that I'm done writing so much cool stuff I have this urge to go back and rate it a 9 instead .Only the knowledge of the glory that is Episode 5 can hold me back . Also this review is spoiler free so don't worry about anything that seems like a spoiler .It isn't . Now that you've spent three minutes of your life reading my ode to Umineko if you don't upvote this review and immediately add it to your PTW I'll get mad......

Banquet of the Golden Witch is the part where Umineko truly expands, becoming more global in scope and, for many, more dynamic compared to the previous chapters. That said, if I’m being honest, I still like the first part more than the third. If the biggest issue with the second part was its slow pacing and heavy repetition of the first chapter’s plot, then the third entry is a major improvement in that regard. It stands out significantly, introducing new details, new characters, and further developing the existing ones. For example one of the strengths is how it explores the relationships between the parents, though ironically,this is also a weak point—but only in the manga version. I feel that the manga cut a lot of interesting and emotional moments from these interactions. That being said, the manga does have its advantages. The way it depicts horror elements is fantastic—the grotesque expressions and eerie atmosphere come across much stronger visually. But overall, like the previous parts, the manga still falls short of the visual novel. Yes, it's faster-paced, but come on—Umineko was always meant to be long. Its length was part of its identity. Unlike something like One Piece, where the slow pacing sometimes feels like unnecessary filler, Umineko’s lengthy dialogues made the story feel alive and immersive. Unfortunately, the manga loses this effect, and even the climax of the third chapter felt far more emotional in the visual novel. And here we return to the same issue that plagued the first two manga adaptations: some moments are too heavily cut, making them lose emotional weight. There’s also another problem, which is a bit tricky to explain, but I’ll try—this part of the manga somehow feels both slow-paced and rushed at the same time. By "rushed," I mean the excessive trimming of important scenes. But by "slow-paced," I mean that despite all these cuts, there’s still a lot of unnecessary fluff that drags on. It’s an odd balance—if they were going to cut down the VN’s slow, dialogues, then they should have gone all the way. Otherwise, it just feels uneven. For those who’ve already read the VN, the manga will still feel like a shortened version. And for those who started with the manga because they didn’t want to read the VN, leaving some moments long while cutting others doesn’t make much sense. Hopefully, you get what I mean. That said, I still enjoyed this part—it was fun to reread and notice things I missed the first time. The story became even more engaging, the characters were further developed, and their relationships deepened. Even though the atmosphere suffered a little because of these changes, overall, it was still an incredible experience. Final rating: 9/10.