http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/umineko-no-naku-koro-ni.jpg
[[caption-width:283:Welcome to Rokkenjima]]
-->''[[center:When will you believe in me?]]''
-->''[[center:That is all that matters.]]''
-->''[[center:If you want to do some detective work, go ahead.]]''
-->''[[center:If you believe that there is an answer, go and continue to search.]]''
-->''[[center:This is torture that will not end until you can believe in witches.]]''

''UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'' (''When the Seagulls Cry'') is a sound novel that takes place in 1986, on the island of Rokkenjima. The rich Ushiromiya family is gathering in order to discuss what will happen to patriarch Kinzo's inheritance, since he has been ill in recent days. Unfortunately, he turns out to be an... interesting figure who practices black magic in his free time and decides to use it to summon the [[WitchSpecies Golden Witch]], [[ThemeNaming Beatrice]]. The dying Kinzo unleashes her among the eleven members of the Ushiromiya family and their [[{{Meido}} servants]]. Anyone who's familiar with the first series can [[KillEmAll probably guess what follows]].

The series follows Kinzo's grandson, Battler, as he tries to outwit Beatrice by [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane proving that she doesn't exist]]. Manga versions of some of the chapters have already been released, and an anime version is currently airing.

Part of the ''WhenTheyCry'' series, which also includes ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi''.

The series currently consists of a VisualNovel, a manga, and an anime. The Visual Novel is expected to be 8 Episodes. The manga consists of 4 volumes as of this writing and has yet to finish the first Episode of the Visual Novel. The anime will have 26 episodes but only cover the first 4 Visual Novels, so there will probably be a second season later on.

The visual novels are as follows. The first four form ''Umineko no Naku Koro ni'', while episodes after that form ''Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru'' (''When the Seagulls Cry Scattering'').
#Legend of the golden witch
#Turn of the golden witch
#Banquet of the golden witch
#Alliance of the golden witch
#End of the golden witch

[[{{Characters/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi}} Character Sheet]]

----

!!This game (and the anime based off it) contains examples of:
*ActorAllusion: The anime's next episode previews are filled to the brim with these. We've got [[TwentyFour Jack Bauer]], [[KikukoInoue a potentially millennia-old witch claiming she's 17]]...
*AdaptationDecay - The anime looks to be going through this. To be fair, it was kind of unavoidable, due in part to the shift in medium (for example, [[spoiler:the novels' confusing but seemingly innocuous shifts to third-person turn out to be important clues in rooting out [[UnreliableNarrator Unreliable Narration]]]]). And at least they're keeping [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome the music.]]
**In combination with CompressedAdaptation.
***A lot of important information is left out along with the side notes, and by major, that includes, say, [[spoiler:the introduction of the Anti-Magic Toxin in the third arc]].
*AdaptationDyeJob - Bernkastel's hair is depicted as blue in the visual novel itself, while in the anime and other illustrated material, such as the motion graphics, it's purple.
**Let's not forget Beatrice's dress (in the anime) and of course the eye colors of just about every character (Battler, Jessica, George, Shannon, Lambdadelta, Virgilia, etc...)
** Leviathan's hair is an odd shade of sandy blonde that ''occasionally'' looks green in the anime, but is [[GreenEyedMonster indisputably green]] in the novels.
*AnAesop - An original story by Aesop is discussed a lot in EP 3, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Wind_and_the_Sun The North Wind and the Sun]].
*AlasPoorVillain - In the third arc, [[spoiler:Rudolf mourns Belphegor, recognizing that he only won because [[XanatosGambit he deliberately staged their]] DuelToTheDeath so that Eva-Beatrice was in his line of fire, forcing her to take the bullet.]] Hell he even apologizes to her.
*AllJustADream - [[spoiler:Maria murdering Rosa]]. [[MindScrew Apparently.]]
*AlternateTimeline - Several of them.
*AndThenThereWereNone
*TheAnimeOfTheGame
*AntiMagic - [[spoiler:When Battler gets serious nothing magical can affect him]]. The same is true for [[spoiler:Ange Ushiromiya]] later on.
*ArcFatigue - The pacing of the Anime comes to a screeching halt at the start of the fourth arc, with three straight episodes of exposition on the characters of Maria and Ange. Especially egregious when some characters have no known backstory at all.
*ArcWords - "Without love, it cannot be seen."
*ArrangedMarriage - Kasumi was forced into this after Kyrie ran off with Rudolf. Eva also tries to set up George with someone to get Shannon away from him. Kinzo as well when he was chosen as the family Head.
*AsLongAsItSoundsForeign - If the letters on the blood runes in the original visual novel are actually supposed to be Hebrew, it is really sloppy Hebrew. The manga writes out the actual letters, evidently.
*AsTheGoodBookSays - Each of the blood runes has scrawled on it a Bible quote in Hebrew.
*AudienceMonologue - Kumasawa does a few of these in the first arc to explain various issues among the residents of the Ushiromiya mansion.
*AxCrazy - [[spoiler:Eva-Bea]] and [[spoiler:Eva herself]], at a bare minimum by the time she [[spoiler:shoots Battler]].
*BadassAdorable - Groups of cute young girls ''will'' mess you up; the Stakes, the Siesta Sisters, etc.
*BadassNormal - Most of the Ushiromiya family gets a BadassNormal moment or two, but special mention must go to Kyrie, who's usually the first to start firing off shotgun shells or beating demons and whatnot with chairs while everybody else is still panicking.
**Episode 4. Just Episode 4.
*BarrierWarrior - Both Shannon, George and Ronove, although different types.
*BattleButler - Kanon and Ronove. Also, Genji can apparently [[spoiler:nail a butterfly with a kitchen knife from twenty paces]].
*BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor - "The Witches' Tanabata" plays with this: [[spoiler:Beatrice [[PullTheThread pulls the thread]] on Maria's simple wish, gradually getting her to imagine her ideal world in greater and greater detail. Bernkastel, meanwhile, plays this horribly straight.]]
*BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame - What Battler is trying to do. All the weapons he has to defend the {{Muggle}} possibility are supplied to him by the beings he is trying to deny.
*BetterOnDVD - Bet you they'll remove the pixellating in the gorier parts on the DVD.
*BeyondTheImpossible - Kinzo's magic.
*BigDamnHeroes - Ange's entrance.
*BigFancyHouse - The Ushiromiya mansion, complete with servants and a secondary guest house, in case the main mansion wasn't big enough.
*BigScrewedUpFamily - The Ushiromiya family, of course.
*BloodFromTheMouth - In Episode 14 of the anime, [[spoiler:Beatrice doesn't so much cough up blood as she ''[[NauseaFuel foams red from the mouth]]''.]]
*BreakingTheFourthWall - The first tea party has the characters musing about how surprised they were about the "fact" that the story's a fantasy, rather than a mystery.
*BreakTheCutie
*ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth - If you see a gold butterfly, you're boned.
*TheCanKickedHim - In the first arc, [[spoiler:Hideyoshi's corpse is found in the shower with the water still running]].
*CainAndAbel - Eva's jealousy of Krauss, which frequently spills over to Natsuhi. Kyrie also has some issues with her [[GenderFlip sister]], [[EvilUncle Kasumi]].
*CassandraTruth - Maria keeps trying to warn everyone about Beatrice, but no one believes her.
*CatchPhrase - "It's useless, it's all useless!"
**Also "Turn the chessboard around."
***This Troper considers "Uuu~! Beatrice exists!" Maria's catchphrase, but, *YourMileageMayVary.
*[=~Chekhov's Gunman~=]: Ange and Gaap are mentioned in the first novel (Ange is specifically stated to be bedridden with flu and can't join the...festivities; Maria mentions Gaap's powers as one way for Beatrice to smuggle Kinzo out of his room without breaking the closed circle). The anime's {{Image Song}}s also have Maria mention Sakutaro once near the end of her song; the anime is still midway into its third arc, when Sakutaro only appears in the fourth.
*ChessMotifs
*ChessWithDeath - This series extends the metaphor from Higurashi into a [[ChessMotifs motif]].
*TheChessmaster - The repeated invocation of a chess board by, oh, everyone regarding this plot. As of this writing, the only ones who seem capable of applying for the trope are the witches, although Battler seems like something of a chessmaster-in-training.
**[[spoiler:As of EP5, Battler becomes the Endless Sorcerer, with approval by Lambdadelta. This means that he is now the game master, like Beatrice in the previous episodes. He also has the ability to use the Golden Truth, which is absolute, and allows no room for interpretations.]]
*TheClan
*ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve - Beatrice's magic, as evidenced in the first tea party.
*ClicheStorm - Episode 4's legendary [[spoiler:fight between Krauss and a goatman]] has the antagonists invoke NothingCanStopUsNow, Retirony, and the typical VillainBall move of 'promises are made to be broken' multiple times in quick succession, finishing it off with some GretzkyHasTheBall boxing gibberish. It's Lampshaded the whole way through.
**That entire scene was basically a [[TakeThat ruthless parody]] of {{Nasuverse}}-style numerical "power levels". Though it was likely a fun jab, because Ryukishi07 and Nasu have a good relationship (as per Ciel's {{Expy}} in {{Higurashi}}).
***You think too hard. Dragonball. Scouters. Sudden Power-ups and downs depending on emotional state. Heck, they reference the Dragonball tournament. Nasu ranks are set in stone for everyone, rather than fluctuating.
*ClosedCircle
*ClothingDamage - Lucifer. Nice big ole straight line, right across the [[{{Gainaxing}} chest]].
*ComesGreatInsanity, CompleteMonster - Ladies and gentlemen, I give you [[spoiler:Eva-Beatrice]].
*ConspicuousCG - The butterflies in the anime.
*CoolDownHug - Ange toward Battler in the fourth arc. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, its double purpose is to [[GoOutWithASmile keep him from seeing her as she's ripped apart]] for having said her name as Bernkastel's piece]].
*CrackPairing - The [[AllThereInTheManual side story]] "The Stakes' Valentine's Day" is ''filled'' with these. Including [[spoiler:Asmodeus/Juuza, Beelzebub/Gohda, Leviathan/Kyrie, Belphegor/Rudolf... and even [[ShipTease teasing]] Beatrice/Battler and Battler/Lucifer!]]
**Not to mention the recent couples poll on the official site, which has ''absolutely everything.''
*CrapsackWorld - Our Ange's version of 1998.
* {{Crossover}} - The ''Umineko No Naku Koro Ni X'' manga is a rather comical and energetic crossover with ''Higurashi'', plopping the Ushiromiya manor within spitting distance of Hinamizawa. So, if you ever want to see Rena mowing their lawn, Rudolf hanging out with the Stakes in Angel Mort, or Battler perplexed by the whole deal, this is it.
*CrowningMomentOfAwesome - At least one or more per story arc.
*CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming
*CrowningMusicOfAwesome - There's a reason it's called a sound novel.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath - The show makes a pretty good case for MostTriumphantExample.
*CurbStompBattle - Something like this: In Episode 5, [[spoiler:Bernkastel introduces CanonSue and new furniture to kill Beatrice, further her own plans, and royally screw with the status quo. Eventually, Battler and Beato's furniture decide that they are having none of this. [[RivalsTeamUp Epic smackdown ensues]].]]
*CuteLittleFangs - All over the place--Jessica, Battler, Maria, the list goes on. Beatrice too, [[FangsAreEvil but they're not nearly as cute]].
**[[spoiler:When she's not trolling Battler or putting on a SlasherSmile, Beatrice can be considered too.]]
* CutenessProximity - The Stakes. [[spoiler:Sakutaro]]. Result: [[TheGlomp glompage]] and a lot of {{Squee}}.
*CycleOfHatred - Too many to mention.
**To the point where there's even a character who exists as an incarnation of it.
*DangerouslyGenreSavvy - [[spoiler:Beatrice. See EasilyForgiven below.]]
*DealWithTheDevil - [[spoiler:George is apparently in love with Shannon because Beatrice made a deal with her]].
**And, of course, Kinzo's pact with Beatrice, which seems to be the reason behind '''everything'''.
*DeathByMaterialism - Kinzo doesn't seem to care about any of his children at least partly because he doesn't like them fighting over his inheritance.
*DeathOfTheHypotenuse - [[spoiler:Allowed Kyrie to get together with Rudolf after more than a decade]], but probably created more romantic loose ends than it [[CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds cleaned up]].
*DeathsHourglass - The clock that appears in the corner of the screen, of the spur-to-action variety.
*DecoyProtagonist - {{Subverted}} and maybe even {{deconstructed}} because [[spoiler:a villain is actually trying to ''[[InvokedTrope invoke]]'' this. Bernkastel took one of Rika's defining tropes in {{Higurashi}} and turned it into some kind of superpower]].
*DefeatByModesty - Kanon against Lucifer. He slashes a nice, clean, boob window onto her shirt. ''"I've never been this ashamed--!"''
** [[DontExplainTheJoke It's funny because]] Lucifer represents the [[SevenDeadlySins sin]] of {{Pride}}.
*DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment - "In Eva oba-san and Hideyoshi oji-san's case, it had been a little brutal, but since we had wanted to preserve the crime scene, we had left the weapons sticking into them. Though it had seemed brutal, we'd left the weapons that had been stuck into Eva oba-san and Hideyoshi oji-san to preserve the crime scene."
**"A lonely witch who no one would play with. Because no one would play with her, she was a lonely witch."
*DoingInTheWizard - Battler's victory condition.
*DuelToTheDeath - [[spoiler:Between Natsuhi and Beatrice]].
*EarWorm - Jessica's preposterously hyper, catchy ImageSong, "Dokkyun Heart".
*EasilyForgiven - [[spoiler:GenreSavvy Beatrice actively tries to cultivate this and then [[LampshadeHanging lampshades it]]]] in the third arc.
*EvenEvilHasStandards - The third arc has Beatrice trying to impress this on [[spoiler:Eva-Beatrice]]. [[spoiler:It fails, horribly.]]
*EveryoneIsASuspect - Almost every single character is a suspect for one murder or another.
*EvilIsNotAToy - Reviving a witch who requires your entire family to be sacrificed doesn't seem like a good idea to begin with, and sure enough, he's found as one of the sacrifices in most of the early arcs. [[spoiler:Subverted]].
*EvilIsStylish - Everything about Beatrice down to the whole idea of the chess game.
*EvilPhone - Hardly ever works, and then the one time it does during the first arc is when it starts ringing while everyone's holed up in Kinzo's room. Battler picks it up and hears... [[NightmareFuel a little girl singing.]]
*EvolvingCredits - The witch portrait changes each arc (default-Beatrice, ZettaiRyouiki[=-=]Beatrice, then [[spoiler:Eva-Beatrice]]); the fourth arc simply shows all three portraits in reverse order. Starting in the third arc they also added 15 new characters to the opening and changed the positioning of four others to reflect their relationship.
*{{Expy}} - Bernkastel for Rika Furude and Lambdadelta for Miyo Takano, both from ''Higurashi''. [[spoiler:It also comes with all the possible [[ArchEnemy implications]].]]
**More recently, Okonogi has also appeared, although thus far much less sinisterly than he was in ''Higurashi''.
**Their Expy status is questionable as, at least in the case of [[spoiler:Bernkastel, she may literally be the same person - part of her, at least. It is however uncertain who's part of who here.]]
***And now we have [[spoiler:Erika Furudo]]
** For a more typical example, [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Battler_Sprite.jpg Battler]] and [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BeatriceFormal.jpg Beatrice]] bear more than a passing resemblance to [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/adell_artwork.jpg Adell]] and [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Rozalin.jpg Rozalin]] of {{Disgaea 2}}.
*ExtremeDoormat - Kanon verges on this with his whole "furniture" ideology, but it's subverted-ish in the end of "Turn of the Golden Witch," [[spoiler:when he admits he's in love with Jessica]].
*FaceHeelTurn - (ish?) [[spoiler:Eva]] in "Banquet of the Golden Witch." A little bit different from general WhenTheyCry [[MadnessTropes insanity]] because [[spoiler:she actually becomes a witch]] and genuinely changes alignments.
*FacelessGoons - The goat-headed butlers.
*TheFairFolk - While they're called "witches" and have all the traditional trappings, their existence, playing with reality and fiction and following seemingly nonsensical rules, has many similarities.
*FanNickname - The series itself is sometimes referred to as Sea Cats/Kittens/Kitties, a pun in the Japanese word for black-tailed gull: Umi -> sea, neko -> cat.
*FanService - The game has the Stakes, the anime has...pretty much every other female. Yes, really.
*FashionableAsymmetry - The Ushiromiya crest is a one-winged eagle, so it's only to be expected.
*AFateWorseThanDeath - Spoilers for episodes 2-3 [[spoiler:When he loses, Battler is tormented by the stakes (who are having the time of their lives) until they accidentally kill him. Then Beatrice revives him and it starts again.]] Don't worry he takes it optimistically.
*FaustianRebellion - So...Battler is trying to prove that witches and magic don't exist....through accepting that he can argue with them and experience the same thing differently multiple times (including his own death). It's a miracle he hasn't disappeared in a PuffOfLogic [[spoiler:sooner.]]
** [[spoiler:Bernkastel: Yes, a miracle.]]
** [[spoiler:Battler himself makes a reference to the irony of the situation.]]
*FightingAShadow - Even if Beatrice (and Battler, for that matter) die on the chessboard, since their souls actually exist in the meta-world, they're fine to play another round.
*FoeYay - Beatrice x Battler.
**Played with in Episode 4.
***"The Stakes' Valentine's Day" takes this [[CrackPairing even further]] and plays it for laughs.
***Don't forget the sequel Beatrice's White Day.
**MindGameShip
***[[spoiler:''Very'' close to becoming canon as of EP5.]]
****[[spoiler:WordOfGod confirms it.]]
**** [[spoiler: Where is it confirmed? Not that I don't believe you, I just haven't heard of this before.]]
**As well as Bernkastel x Lambadadelta.
**And now we have people shipping [[spoiler:Erika x Battler.]]
*FourTemperamentEnsemble - At the very least, the aunts.
**As well as FourGirlEnsemble.
*FreudianExcuse - Rosa often uses this to rationalize her [[spoiler:cruel, often borderline-abusive treatment of Maria. Rosa's own parents and siblings showed little mercy towards her when she was growing up, so she believes holding back on Maria would be "spoiling" her.]]
*GagBoobs - Virtually every female over the (apparent) age of 13 is noticeably... "blessed". Especially true of the Ushiromiya clan, which leads to...
*{{Gainaxing}} - In the anime. This gets really, really awkward when it accompanies [[spoiler:Eva shooting at Jessica.]]
*{{Genre Savvy}} - [[spoiler:Erika/Bernkastel, to the point where ''they use the fact that they are in a mystery as the basis of most of their deductions'']]
**Don't forget the fact they [[spoiler:used the Knox commandments to kill Beatrice.]]
*GenreShift- It seems to start out as a story about the political machinations of a wealthy family, but this is thrown by the wayside after Maria receives an umbrella from an unaccounted-for party, and the story quickly settles into occult horror/mystery territory. Then suddenly in the second arc there's [[spoiler:meta-Battler and Kanon fighting demon girls with a magic sword.]] Wait, what?
*GeodesicCast - With the exception of Maria's branch, most of the cousins' families work kind of like this - one mother, one father, and one child. It gets more confusing later, with the introduction of Ange.
*GeometricMagic - The blood runes.
*GoodSmokingEvilSmoking - Beatrice often shows up with a very long pipe.
*GoodWitchVersusBadWitch
*GoKartingWithBowser - Battler and Beatrice have a dialogue (and applause contest) at [[spoiler:Eva's succession ceremony]].
*GoOutWithASmile - [[spoiler:Beato in EP5.]]
*GoldFever - All of the four siblings to some extent, but particularly strongly with Eva.
*TheGoodTheBadAndTheEvil - Battler is the good, [[spoiler:Beatrice and her furniture seem to be the bad, and Bern, Lambda, and their crew are apparently the evil]].
*GorgeousPeriodDress - Just about all of the witches in the series wear these
*{{Gorn}} - Read the description of the first murder of the first arc, and then try saying it's not.
*GothicPunk - The plot and style share many, many similarities in common with the Gothic novels of the 18th and 19th centuries.
*GratuitousEnglish
**HAPPY HALLOWEEN FOR MARIA and the second opening sequence of the game. Some of this is wordplay on the names of classic mystery writers (Van Dine and Knox) who proposed rules of fair play for mystery writers. No Dine, it is to starve. Starve while demanding the fair, and die...
**[[spoiler:Die the death! Sentence to death! Great Equalizer is the death!]]
**ITTS PAAFEKTO! ''AAAHAHAHAHAHA''
**Have a nice dream.
**See you again.
*GratuitousGreek - Lambdadelta (ΛΔ) as well as the firing sequence of the Siestas.
*GroundhogDayLoop [[spoiler:where apparently *nobody* in the loop is aware of the process. Battler and meta-Battler are not quite the same person, much like Rika and Bernkastel.]]
*HappilyMarried - Oddly enough, the most stable couple (the wife's problems come from elsewhere) is Eva and Hideyoshi.
*HeelFaceMole - [[spoiler:Bernkastel]], especially if you [[spoiler:watch a certain tea party in chapter three and four]].
**There is still some dispute about this, however.
***[[spoiler:Unless you read [[AllThereInTheManual The Witches' Tanabata]].]] She lost a lot of fans after that came out.
****[[spoiler:That, and in the beginning of Ep5, Battler sees her laughing right alongside Lambda.]]
*HeirClubForMen - Eva was almost pushed out of the line of succession because when she married, she should have lost her name. However, she convinced Kinzo to adopt Hideyoshi as an Ushiromiya, allowing herself to retain her position (Rosa retains hers because [[DisappearedDad no one even knows who she married]]). This is also a reason, along with George's older age, that Eva thinks he should be ahead on the succession.
*HellIsThatNoise - The strange, hammering-on-metal the Stakes emit in their...er, stake form. It's constantly present whether it makes sense (ricocheting off walls in rapid succession) or not (flying through empty air).
**There's also the ScareChord in the first novel when Maria claims Beatrice gave her that umbrella. Honestly, it's pretty boring up to that point then suddenly "Beatrice! :D" ''jaaaaaan''
*HeroicSacrifice - [[spoiler:Ange's]] last-ditch effort to snap Battler out of the funk caused by Beatrice's mind games.
**Another example comes earlier on in the series (Turn of the Golden Witch) when [[spoiler:Jessica throws herself in front of Kanon to take a fatal stab from one of the stakes.]]
* HeyItsThatVoice - [[HigurashiNoNakuKoriNi Takano]] is Eva, and Oishi's voice actor is a different cop in episode 21.
*HighOctaneNightmareFuel: By this series' standards, ''Higurashi'' looks like an anime that [[FourKidsEntertainment 4Kids Entertainment]] could leave unedited.
**CruelAndUnusualDeath
*[[spoiler:HijackedByGanon]] - Taken to BeyondTheImpossible levels as [[spoiler:Bernkastel and Lambdadelta successfully usurped the villain's role and are aiming for the role of the ''hero'' as well too by means of invoking DecoyProtagonist]].
** Fandom wise, it seems to be heading towards [[spoiler:Hijacked by Rika]].
*HopeSpot - Pretty much everyone who faces off with the killer gets one.
*HostileShowTakeover - Played for '''[[{{Deconstruction}} drama]]''' in EP 5.
** And for laughs in the preview for episode 17 of the anime where [[spoiler:Eva-Beatrice tries to rename the show to ''MagicalGirl Pretty [[FanNickname Evatrice]]'']].
*HotBlooded - Kinzo's legacy.
*HotShounenMom - Although all the aunts are noticeably attractive, Rosa probably fits the description best. But it's subverted pretty early on, when it's revealed what a facade it is.
*AHouseDivided - Particularly strong in the first arc.
*HumanChess
*HumanSacrifice
*IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming
*ICannotSelfTerminate - [[spoiler:Beatrice begging Battler to kill her at the end of episode 4 of the game.]]
*IGotBetter - What happens when [[spoiler:a new game begins]] after the last, in which [[spoiler:EverybodyDies. Or at least a majority of the cast.]]
*IKissYourFoot - Kanon does this to Beatrice so Shannon ''might'' not be chosen as a sacrifice in episode 2.
*ImaginaryFriend - Sakutaro is given this treatment, although he's actually a stuffed animal.
** Also, Eva has her teenaged younger self as an imaginary friend in the third Episode.
*ImAHumanitarian - Note: One way to ensure you die without your [[ObiWanMoment dignity]] - Try to say [[spoiler:"I give up"]].
** Also, what happened to Rosa at the end of the second arc. CrossesTheLineTwice in the anime when [[spoiler:Maria's severed head started talking.]]
*ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice - [[spoiler:Beatrice during the EP4 tea party.]] And [[spoiler:Battler during EP5.]]
*ImpossiblyCoolClothes - All of the Ushiromiyas have utterly impeccable fashion sense
** And of course the witches and demons do. Maaaagic.
*InadequateInheritor - Kinzo feels this way about his whole family
*InvisibleToNormals - Witches, although who qualifies as "normal" seems to shift between arcs.
*ItGetsBetter - The first novel is almost painfully monotonous with glimmers of hope when small horror elements show up...then somebody finally dies!
*JediTruth - Anything said in Red needs ''careful'' attention paid to its exact wording.
*JesusTaboo: Played straight, barely: in the anime, Beatrice makes reference to "a single man" who "appeared thanks to a star's guidance and finally explained the single element (love) that makes up the world." She then asks Shannon if she knows who the man is, but the question is rhetorical.
**[[spoiler:There's also the tip section in episode 4 about Grimoires which mentions a magical Grimoire that has "A history of over 2000 years, is currently still in circulation, and continues to acquire new alliance members even now.]]
*KansaiRegionalAccent - Hideyoshi, though it's stated in the first episode (of the game, anyway) that he's affecting it artificially, and drops it when around ''real'' people from Kansai.
* KarmaHoudini - [[spoiler:In the third arc Eva is the one responsible for most of the deaths, and shoots Battler when he confronts her over this. Then in the BadFuture we learn that the subsequent police investigation somehow cleared her of suspicion and that she came out of the whole ordeal filthy rich with only a cloud over her reputation.]]
**[[spoiler:Although she did die years later]].
***[[spoiler:[[OrIsIt OR DID SHE!?]]]]
** [[spoiler:Of course, aside from shooting Battler (and she was pretty insane by that point) we don't know if she even actually killed anyone.]]
*KickTheDog - When [[spoiler:Rosa tears up Sakutaro]].
** According to the Tanabata side story, [[spoiler:Eva was willing to love Ange as her own daughter, but Bernkastel poisoned their relationship for her own amusement.]]
**In the fifth arc, Bernkastel [[spoiler:and Erika]] manage to [[spoiler:frame Natsuhi as the murderer of the 7 victims that game, which included her husband and daughter. And just for kicks, Bernkastel also tells her in red that the Kinzo who treated her nicely was just a delusion.]]
*KidsAreCruel - Rosa's justification for her treatment of Maria. Basically, "All the children make fun of her! Don't you see?! ''Beating her will '''[[WhatAnIdiot obviously make her stop whining!"]]'''''
**[[spoiler:Bern and Lambda as well.]]
**Not to mention Ange's [[GirlPosse classmates]].
*KilledOffForReal - [[spoiler:This corpse belongs to Kinzo Ushiromiya!]]
*KillEmAll - "When the seagulls cried, no one had been left alive."
*KnightTemplarParent - Rosa in theory, although a few of her actions [[EvilMatriarch just don't seem to fall into that category]].
*LamarckWasRight - Being a descendent of Kinzo evidently allows you to be able to use magic. Made even more odd by Beatrice's admission that Kinzo himself was never very talented.
** Descendants of Kinzo almost universally inherit the key elements of his 'magic', pure blind determination and an idiot's understanding of chance and probability. This clan of human lemmings would be marked for mass extinction in the real world, and indeed are, in the world of Umineko.
*LampshadeHanging - In Episode 3 of the sound novels, Beatrice puts a massive lampshade on [[spoiler:her own {{Tsundere}} behavior in that arc, even mentioning anime and dating sims.]]
*LanguageOfTruth - [[color:red:Anything spoken in red text is true. If it isn't true, it can't be spoken in red text and may be subject to [[UnreliableNarrator Unreliable Narration]].]] For whatever reason, this doesn't stop people from throwing around red statements frivolously (Beatrice cackles on two separate occasions in red, and a few characters deliver death threats in red, as if there were doubt about it or something). [[spoiler:Episode 5 introduces ''Gold Text'' which [[MindScrew confusingly]] is explained as being sometimes 'truer' than Red Text, and sometimes not. But it's never LESS true, as Gold requires an additional check for absolute validity. For example, saying the first name of someone is dead could refer to ANY dead person with the same last name. Gold has to be said in such a way that there's no doubt who the person is. Anything in Gold can also be said in Red, but the reverse is not always true. And anything in Blue is true until countered with something in red that makes it false. But until then, it is essentually true, but only as true as any Red statement is. Granted, this means it can be shot down at the last minute, such as what Beatrice does after the first barrage and then Lambdadelta does after the tea party.]]
*LaserBlade - Kanon's and the Stakes' swords are very elaborate versions.
*LastKiss - Not quite a kiss, but to similar effect, in the second arc when Beatrice has broken through Shannon's shield, Shannon turns to George and asks him to tell her one last time how much he loves her. [[spoiler:He starts, but is cut off]].
*LawOfInverseFertility - Partially fed into issues between Natsuhi and Eva.
*LegionsOfHell - Beatrice's furniture.
*LesYay: Lambdadelta x Bernkastel: Pretty much canon, Lambda acts as a Tsundere around Bern, but she even said she loves her. (Like a supernatural StalkerWithACrush.)
*LethalChef - Beatrice, if the "Beatrice's White Day" side story is any indication.
**To quote from said side-story, "Half a day was spent in spectacular violence that would have shocked the culinary world."
*LemonyNarrator - The narration of the first tea party has an mild, very tongue-in-cheek example.
*LettingHerHairDown - Although she normally wears it pinned up, when Eva [[spoiler:becomes Eva-Beatrice]], she lets her hair down as a symbol of reverting to her younger self.
** Actually, [[spoiler:Eva-Beatrice is Eva's [[SplitPersonality younger inner self]], split away and given the Endless Witch powers. The younger self always has her hair down.]]
**[[spoiler:Beatrice too, in Episode 5.]]
*LightIsNotGood - The main antagonist, Beatrice, is nicknamed "The Golden Witch" and is said to appear as [[ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth a flock of golden butterflies]]. So what does she do the every arc? Oh, only sadistically kill off the entire cast. The witch who wants to help you [[spoiler:or so it seems]] is Bernkastel, a witch with [[DarkIsNotEvil dark hair and dull, emotionless eyes]].
**And then when [[spoiler:Bernkastel]] attempts to take over the plot, [[spoiler:she]] employs the Iron Maidens, heavenly girls whose leader is a tad obsessed with killing things.
*LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters - Starts off with the Ushiromiya family, their servants, and Kinzo's physician for a total of eighteen people [[ClosedCircle trapped on an island during a storm]], [[spoiler:and later episodes introduce a cast of witches, servants to the witches, and people living in a BadFuture that brings the cast up to about forty people.]]
*LockedRoomMystery - [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] many times and taken by some characters as evidence that murders were committed by the Golden Witch rather than by a human.
**[[spoiler:Hideyoshi]] seems to be in a lot of these.
*LongLostRelative - Although the moment was suitably surprising for Battler, the audience is set up to have already known "Gretel"'s true identity.
*[[TheLostWoods Lost Woods]]: The rest of Rokkenjima besides the main mansion is uncultivated forest, and Kinzo's favorite legend involves telling his children that the witch Beatrice lives within the woods, so it's a very dangerous place. [[spoiler:He isn't lying, since Rosa stumbles across her hidden mansion after running blindly into the forest.]]
*LotusEaterMachine - Beatrice creates her own perfect world with just her and Maria. Also, the Golden Land in the first arc functions this way.
*LoveMakesYouCrazy - Kinzo. And if trying to kill off your family isn't [[LoveMakesYouEvil evil]], I don't know what is. [[spoiler:Turns out that he was dead before everything started, though, so the idea that this was his idea becomes a little...]]
*LoveMartyr - Maria's relationship with Rosa is treated in this way [[spoiler:[[BewareTheNiceOnes until the fourth arc]]]].
*MagicVersusScience - Magic versus logic. Anti-mystery versus anti-fantasy.
*MamaBear - Rosa. Her last act in the second arc is [[spoiler:to mow down goat-headed butlers with a rifle and Maria at her side]]. Also Natsuhi. Kumasawa actually says in regard to her, "They always say that the most frightening bears are those that have children."
*ManBehindTheMan - The third tea party has [[spoiler:Lambdadelta state that she gave Beatrice her powers in order to create a board to beat Bernkastel in]]. Made even odder by the [[spoiler:apparent alliance of Bernkastel and Lamdadelta against Beatrice]] in the fourth tea party.
*MaybeMagicMaybeMundane - The point of the entire series.
*MeaningfulName - Several. Beatrice and Virgilia both derive their names from Dante's ''DivineComedy''. The "Stakes of Purgatory" have the names of demons corresponding to the SevenDeadlySins. The "Siesta" bunny girls are named after Winchester shotguns. Finally, Lambdadelta's name is Greek for "34", which may hold some significance for those who saw ''[[HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi Higurashi]]''.
**Also, Maria's name is one that is a common translation of Mary - a reference to the woman from the New Testament who immaculately conceives Jesus Christ. In the fourth arc, one of the TIPS speculates that [[spoiler:Maria is one of the Creator witches, who [[EquivalentExchange can create something where there was previously nothing]]]].
*MessageInABottle - The ending of "Legend of the Golden Witch."
*MemeticMutation - Tons.
**By tons we mean ''we've stopped listing them here.''
*MindScrew - Wait, what? [[spoiler:Everybody's alive again?]] What do you mean, "[[AnimatedActors wrap party]]"? So, what, [[spoiler:everybody dying]] was [[PostModernism some TV show we were all watching or something]]? [[spoiler:''Beatrice!?'' What are ''you'' doing here?!...'''Wait, ''none'' of this was some weird meta thing?!''']]
** This does double-duty as a MindScrew since ''{{Higurashi}}'' also had wrap parties[[hottip:*:Or at least Onikakushi did; I haven't played the other arcs]]. However, those were never explained and had the cast ending up both sides of the debate. Thus, when Umineko pulls out the first tea party, the results were a subversion of their use in the previous games.
**Pretty much all of the third episode is a Mind Screw.
*MissingMom - Battler's mother died, and it's stated outright that Kyrie is more of an older sister than a mom to him.
** [[spoiler:Turns out Asumu wasn't his real mother.]]
*MobileShrubbery: One of Battler's more ridiculous theories in Episode 2 involves Piece Beato [[MetalGear sneaking into Maria's bedroom and stealing the chapel key while hiding in a cardboard box.]]
*MoodWhiplash: Episode 4 of the anime has a scene of Maria [[NightmareFuel being creepy]] and taunting Battler interrupted by him bringing his hand down on her head with a cartoony sound effect.
**Second arc had a lot of this, and most significantly, [[spoiler:HAPPY HALLOWEEN FOR MARIA]]
**And then the third arc had [[spoiler:Rosa being killed over and over again...by being dropped into an ocean of jelly, cakes dropped on her, etc.]] This was all to the villain's happy theme song, by the way.
* MoralEventHorizon: When did you realize that [[spoiler:Eva-Beatrice]] was a CompleteMonster? [[spoiler:The repeated sadistic deaths of Maria and Rosa did it for a lot of people, especially when Beatrice of all people steps in to give them a MercyKill]].
**[[spoiler:Maria's diary. That is all.]]
** There's also Eva treating Shannon like absolute shit for no reason other than the latter being "furniture". Ignoring her would be par for the course, but outright abusing her simply because she has the hots for your kid is just leaping straight into the moral black hole.
* MostCommonSuperpower: Pretty much every female character who's of age.
* MultigenerationalHousehold - The main house.
* MythologyGag - 34 sympathizes with Eva's "unfortunate childhood a bit".
*{{Narm}} - From the anime: [[spoiler:What's the best way to mourn your mother's death? Crying and rubbing your face in her boobs.]]
** Not to mention the excessive Gainaxing in that episode in general
** And then there's the hilarious face switch Maria pulls in episode 3, when she [[spoiler:starts laughing maniacally]] and then suddenly switches to a serious face.
** And there's the doctor who looks like Colonel Sanders.
***And then you realise that, since he's a doctor, that essentially makes him Colonel Doctor from Scrubs.
***Really? I always thought he looked like Wilford Brimley. I'm really hoping that one of the games explains his cause of death to be a heart attack set off by diabeetus.
**And in anime episode 11, Maria's talking, dancing [[spoiler:''severed head on a platter'']].
***This troper disagrees and found it completely creepy.
***Or it can be a TearJerker, {{Narm}} and HighOctaneNightmareFuel at [[BeyondTheImpossible the same time]]
****Depends on how you view Deen's work/Maria's episodes, really. This troper couldn't stop laughing once Maria went into creepy mode.
*****Battler's comment and Maria's response to said comment did not help.
**From the novels: [[CMoF THEREFORE, MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, HE WANTED A LOT OF MONEY RIGHT NOW...!]]
**In a case of averted Narm, this troper had heard about it beforehand and fully expected the [[spoiler:scene of Eva-Beatrice repeatedly torturing and killing Maria and Rosa, includinng dropping a giant cake on them]] to be a gigantic Narm. Boy, was [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel she]] [[CompleteMonster wrong]] when it actually happened.
*NeverFoundTheBody - Anyone who survives until the end of the arc tends to die in this manner. However, even during the arcs, [[spoiler:Kanon]] seems to have these sorts of deaths a lot.
*NeverTrustATrailer - The anime's next-episode trailers are full of blatant lies and out-of-character behavior. They're hilarious.
*NoblewomansLaugh: Beatrice is prone to these, and Maria's giggling sometimes morphs into it as well.
*OffModel: Four episodes in and it's already showing here and there. Of course, with the way ''[[HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi Higurashi]]'' was, it shouldn't be too surprising.
**[[http://www.srsfkn.biz/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/niceanimation_t.jpg Want an example?]]
***Episode 9 is chock-filled with these.
**[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/I_have_no_mouth_and_I_must_grin.jpg Another example.]] [[FridgeLogic ''How can she grin/chuckle with no mouth?'']]
*[[OminousLatinChanting Ominous Italian Chanting]]: The anime's opening.
*OminousPipeOrgan: Odds are, if you're magical, your theme tune hits this trope. For some examples, we have "Organ Opusculum No. 600,000,000 in C Minor" (Beatrice), "happiness of marionette" ([[spoiler:Eva-Beatrice]]), and "Dance of the Moon Rabbit" (the Siestas).
*OnOneCondition: If you find the gold before midnight of the second night, you win! If not, "The witch shall be revived. None shall survive."
**And even when someone DID find it, [[spoiler:"When the seagulls cried, there was but [[AxCrazy one survivor]]."]]
**In EP5 [[spoiler:the gold was found and a murder occured anyway. It didn't continue for the 11 other twilights though.]]
*OnlyKnownByTheirNickname - Beatrice's name is treated as a title, and indeed, when [[spoiler:Eva-Beatrice]] becomes the new Endless Witch, Beatrice claims that she is now "nameless." Battler then gives her the nickname "Beato" to use, which has been used for her more often than not since.
*TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou - Lambdadelta toward Bernkastel. Beato toward Battler and vice versa.
*[[spoiler:OurHeroIsDead]] - Towards the end of EP5. CrowningMomentOfAwesome later ensues.
*PaintingTheFourthWall - The aforementioned [[color:red:red truth]] and Battler's [[color:blue:blue truth]]. Battler has to state his hypotheses for mysteries in blue text during Episode 4 of the VN. As if that wasn't enough, Episode 5 [[color:gold:introduces a new color]].
** Red text has appeared in the anime as the visual gaining a red tint with the significant sentence being both said aloud and zooming around the scene in white font with butterflies circling it.
*PaperThinDisguise - [[spoiler:Erika Furudo in EP5. I totally have no clue who [[HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi she]] is.]]
*ParentsAsPeople - A pretty sharp contrast to ''{{Higurashi}}'', where you [[TheFaceless don't even see the protagonist's parents' faces]].
*ParentWithNewParamour - Battler took very poorly to the fact that Rudolf remarried so quickly after Asumu's death.
*PastelChalkedFreezeFrame - Each member of the cast gets an introductory one in the first episode of the anime.
**The Anime's depiction of [[spoiler:the meta-world]] may qualify for this as well.
*PaterFamilicide - Essentially, Kinzo's plan is this plus spouses and grandkids. [[spoiler:Subverted]].
*PensieveFlashback - Ange with Maria's diary.
** The anime adaptation also uses this for the the meta-scenes.
*PlayerPunch - [[spoiler:Ange is built up into an incredibly sympathetic character.]] Prepare to shed many tears.
*PimpedOutDress
*{{Pixellation}} - In the eighth episode of the anime. It's only thanks to [[TakeOurWordForIt Battler announcing it]] that we know the sacrifices have been [[CruelAndUnusualDeath disemboweled and stuffed with candy]].
** That scene is left uncensored in all its, uh, glory, while Battler is trying to explain the murder to Beatrice, though it's still not very detailed, [[NauseaFuel thankfully]].
** Used again in episode 9 when [[spoiler:the fake Kanon jams his finger into his stab wound to prove that it's no big deal.]] Still disgusting because of the sound effects and everyone's reactions.
** In the 15th anime episode, it's used again when [[spoiler:Rosa ends up impaled on an spiky iron fence]].
*ThePowerOfLove: According to Episodes 3 and 4, magic was originally intended to bring about happiness and gained its powers through the efforts of love. [[ThePowerOfFriendship Knowing]] [[HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi Ryukishi]], this was completely intentional.
*PsychicPowers - [[spoiler:How some believe Ange is able to "talk" with pre-Rokkenjima Maria through Maria's diary.]]
*PsychologicalThriller
*QuirkyMinibossSquad - The Stakes of Purgatory.
*ReadingsAreOffTheScale - "H-His anti-magic resistance level is at Endless Nine!"
*ReallySevenHundredYearsOld - Both Bernkastel and Lambdadelta.
*RedEyesTakeWarning - Both the Stakes and Siestas, as well as [[spoiler:Lambdadelta]].
*RedHeadedHero - Battler and Ange later on.
*RelationshipVoiceActor - Anime: If you hear [[TomokazuSugita Ronove]] and [[DaisukeOno Battler]] talking, you may be reminded on [[SuzumiyaHaruhiNoYuutsu another well-known story about a quite eccentric "heroine", who can reset the world.]] Better yet, their roles are more or less reversed.
*RetCon - An integral part of the plot. If I mention quantum post-selection paradoxes, would you understand..?
*RoomFullOfCrazy - Kinzo's room.
*RivalsTeamUp - [[spoiler:Battler, Ronove, Virgillia, Gaap, and the Seven Sisters of Purgatory all band together to give Erika and the Eiserne Jungefrauen (particularly Dlanor) [[CurbStompBattle a serious beatdown]].]]
*[[spoiler:RogueProtagonist]] - Actually, it's more of a [[spoiler:Rogue ''Narrator'']].
*SacrificialLamb - Subverted in the same way as ''[[HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi Higurashi]]'', but slightly more ironic, as those who die first do so as sacrifices to summon Beatrice.
*SadisticChoice - Episode 4. [[spoiler:In order to gain two, sacrifice one: Your life. Your loved one's life. Everyone else's lives.]] Amusingly, everyone shown indicates one of the choices, then goes on to TakeAThirdOption anyways.
**The entire plot is a sort of variation. Battler must accept magic's existence or blame one of his close relatives. As Beatrice gleefully points out ''several'' times. He has big qualms with both.
*[[SawedOffShotgun Sawed Off Rifle]] - The WeaponOfChoice for most of the adults.
*ScareChord - A [[HellIsThatNoise rather]] [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel terrifying]] one.
*SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong - Ange's goal in going back to 1986.
*ShoutOut - A character calls himself a "Witch Hunter" at one point, after the group "The Witch Hunt" which is translating the game into English.
**Also, there are a few different mentions of Higurashi by title including one odd instance of Bern trying to spoil for Lambda who the BigBad of that series is.
**There is an entire ''scene'' in episode 2 in which [[spoiler:Jessica dresses up as Marisa and plays a [[TouhouProject Touhou]] fan song at a concert]]. It's also a bit of an AnachronismStew as the Touhou franchise didn't exist in the year the series takes place (1986).
***Jessica no longer sings Tsurupettan in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK5lQMTL4Kc&fmt=18 the anime version]] (it's instead her upcoming ImageSong [[EarWorm "Dokkyun Heart"]]), but in return, we get to see cosplays of [[BlackMagicianGirl Marisa]], [[AmateurPhotographer Aya]], [[{{Meido}} Sakuya]], [[MarionetteMaster Alice]], and [[{{Miko}} Reimu]]!
****Said song also contains various {{Catch Phrase}}s from ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi''.
**In Episode 2 of the anime, Maria is watching TV. More specifically, Higurashi is on.
**The same episode has Kanon wielding a cleaver that looks exactly like Rena's.
**Not to mention George's "Tomitake Flash" t-shirt in episode 6 as another reference to Higurashi.
**In EP5, Rudolf sings a line of the Jack Bauer song from the Japanese 24 commercials. Guess who's VA in the anime dubbed Kiether Sutherland's line too?
**In the fourth arc, [[HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets 1993!Ange communicates with 1986!Maria through a diary that held a dormant piece of Maria's soul]].
**In EP 4, the ship Ange and Amakusa take to Rokkenjima is called the Hanyuu-Maru.
*SlasherSmile - Everyone who is involved with the murders of family ([[spoiler:Eva, Eva-Beatrice, Kinzo/"Goldsmith"]] come to mind) has one.
*SocialServicesDoesNotExist - Averted. It ''does'' exist... [[spoiler:Rosa just doesn't care.]]
** Just about everyone could have used some therapy as well, but apparently, ThereAreNoTherapists.
*SoundtrackDissonance - Episode 3. People getting killed with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1r6OniHVww this music in the background.]]
**Somewhat justified in that this is the theme of the ones doing the killing. [[spoiler:The title translates as "Dance of the Moon Rabbit," [[SoYeah so]]...]]
**That's nothing comepared to [[spoiler:Eva-Beatrice's]] theme song: It's even called [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J5LF2Udf20 Happiness of Marionette]]. So when does this play? Whenever the villain of this arc is contemplating how she'll torture people, of course!
*SplitPersonality - [[spoiler:Eva and Eva-Beatrice]].
**Also something of a LiteralSplitPersonality and possibly an EnemyWithout.
*SpoilerOpening - In each arc the opening animations change, most notably the portrait. The second animation set shows [[spoiler:Beatrice's Human Form]], and the third set shows [[spoiler:Eva-Beatrice, Virgilia, and the Siestas]]. The fourth one shows all three portraits, [[spoiler:another Siesta, and Maria's witch outfit.]]
*SpookyPainting - Beatrice's portrait.
*StayInTheKitchen - [[spoiler:While growing up, Eva was repeatedly told by her family that she fails as a woman because she didn't know how to do feminine things]].
*SuccessionCrisis - There were all sorts of tensions laid about. Then Beatrice's letter shows up (effectively forcing the current heir, Krauss, to fight for his position), and all hell breaks loose.
*SummonMagic - Just about all furniture requires this.
*SwitchedAtBirth - [[spoiler:Battler is implied to be Kyrie's son]].
*TakeUpMySword - In EP5, Battler [[spoiler:becomes the Endless Sorcerer after Beatrice is killed by Erika]]
*TakingTheBullet - In the third arc, [[spoiler:Belphegor does this to protect Eva-Beatrice]].
** In the second arc, [[spoiler:Jessica takes a Stake for Kanon. It doesn't really accomplish much, since Beato has 6 more.]]
*TalkingIsAFreeAction - Gleefully averted. In the first arc, Kanon [[spoiler:has a long rant about how he's going to kill himself and ruin Beatrice's plans, but she sics a Stake on him before he gets around to acting on it]]. There's also an awful lot of people [[KilledMidSentence dying in the middle of trying to say something important]].
**Anime on the other hand, fell a victim to this trope with a Jessica falling to the ground in a bullet time and talking at the same time. And we still have about 20 episodes to go...
*TearJerker - A bunch of moments. [[spoiler:Shannon's death]] in the first novel and [[spoiler:Kanon and Jessica's desperate reaching out to each other as they're dying]], [[spoiler:George and Shannon's final moments]], and [[spoiler:Rosa asking Maria to stay with her even though she's been a bad mother as they fight the goat headed butlers]] in the second arc are particularly heartwrenching.
**Particularly whenever one of the more significant deaths is played, this ends up happening. [[spoiler:Hideyoshi scolding Eva-Beatrice before dying, Ange getting turned into a pile of meat after revealing who she was in Episode 4...and Beato's death in the first part of Chiru. It's called "End of the Golden Witch" for a good reason.]]
***This Troper sobs like a baby whenever Rosa starts slapping Maria around. The worst one? [[spoiler:Rosa smashing Maria's Halloween candy under her foot, after slapping her several times, and almost ripping her hair out. All Maria does is lie there and whimper "Please come back, Mama.."..]]
***[[spoiler:If you want to be a good kid for Rosa, don't forget the key to your house, and never EVER go to the police for a place to stay. You do not want to see what happens when Rosa has to deal with Child Services.]]
*** "Ma...ri...a"
*TheissTitillationTheory - Gaap is the embodiment of this trope GoneHorriblyWrong.
*ThemeNaming - With the exception of Kinzo, the blood members of the Ushiromiya family all have Western(-ish..."Battler"?) names transliterated as kanji. A few others follow this trend as well, like Shannon the maid. All the women related to Battler also seem to be named after Priest skills from ''RagnarokOnline'' (''Kyrie'' Eleison, ''Assum''ptio, and ''Ange''lus).
*TheyKilledKenny - Every. Single. Character.
*ThirtyXanatosPileup - Most non-magical explanations for the murders in any given arc require multiple murderers, often working at cross-purposes, and different ones for each arc.
*TimeTravel - Ange.
*TitleDrop - Over and over again by Battler. "When the seagulls cry" refers to when the typhoon is over and everything's safe. It's also used at the very end to give the body count. Er... perhaps "survivor count" might be a better description.
*TookALevelInBadass - In between the second and fourth arcs, both Jessica and George - formerly [[DamselInDistress damsels in distress]] give Ronove and Gaap a run for their money.
** Battler, who was level grinding throughout the entire series so far, and boy does it show in the later ones.
*TheTreacheryOfImages - Battler is nearly won over in the third arc when Beatrice starts showing him [[BeyondTheImpossible visually spectacular witch battles]], but Virgilia reminds him that this is still a narrative being told by Beatrice, so he should take the visuals with a few cellars of salt.
*{{Tsundere}} - Jessica and [[spoiler:Beato towards Battler.]]
** [[spoiler:In Beato and Battler's case, this is subverted massively in Episode 3, but appears to be true in Episode 4 anyway.]].
*UnexpectedSuccessor - Kinzo, actually. The Ushiromiya family used to be very powerful, and Kinzo was a member of "a branch of the branch family." Then, an earthquake took out just about everything, and it was up to Kinzo to restore the family to its former glory.
*UnFunnyAneurysmMoment: In the second arc Beatrice tells Shannon that she won't feel that same way about George after he "looks at her with lust" and at the time it just sounds like taunting. [[spoiler:Cue the reveal in the third arc that Kinzo trapped Beatrice in a human body and kept her as his mistress and that line takes on a whole new amount of significance and {{squick}} when you realize Beatrice was speaking from personal experience.]]
*UnreliableNarrator - It's explicitly stated that anything not in red text is liable to be false. What is in red text? [[MindScrew ...Not very much...]]. [[spoiler:Episode 5 spells out what can and can't be taken as reliable - For episodes 1-4, only scenes that piece Battler narrates, For episode 5, only scenes that Erika narrates (which are very few)]]
*UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans - Battler speculates that the reason Maria is so calm about everyone dying is the promise at the tenth twilight that she'll reach the [[LotusEaterMachine Golden Land]] and everything will be restored - and her mother will be nicer to her to boot.
*VerbalTic - U~~. [[spoiler:This is later shown to be not just a random noise]].
*[[spoiler:VillainBasedFranchise]] - Subverted in that [[spoiler:Bernkastel wasn't a villain in {{Higurashi}}]].
*WeirdnessCensor - In the anime, almost no attention is drawn to Maria's [[CreepyChild cackling, odd foreknowledge, and general sociopathy]] by other characters (the biggest example is probably the MoodWhiplash above). In the manga, Battler reacts with proper dread at her mysterious statements most of the time, and while he tries to laugh it off in the visual novels, he ''does'' find it troubling.
*WhamEpisode - The anime's episode 18.　[[spoiler:This is party due to CompressedAdaptation.]]
*WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome - It's kinda hard to remember with all of the sound effects and shiny slashes that when characters use red text, blue text, and gold text, they're really only rebutting each other's arguments. It's like the most [[PowerGlows shiny]] debate club competition EVAR.
*WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Rosa's daughter, Maria. One of the kanji in her name is essentially a cross, [[spoiler:she's known as the Witch of Origins (who, according to the visual novel, "[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything holds the motherly magical power to give birth to 1 from the sea of zero]]"), ]]and is usually the first one to know exactly what's going to happen before everybody else.
*WhodunnitToMe - [[color:red:"Battler Ushiromiya, at this time, I will kill you. And right now, there is no one on the island other than you. The only one alive on this island is you. Nothing outside the island can interfere in any way. And of course, I am not you. However, I am here now and will kill you."]]
*WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent - Rosa toward Maria.
*WitchSpecies - The fourth arc's TIPS describes three different types described in ascending power: Witches, who can possess immense power in one world that is considered to be its dominion; Voyagers, who can travel freely in between the different fragments; and Creators, who can "create a one in a world of nothingness."
**TheFairFolk - The concept of witches used here actually has more in common with a lot of the older stereotypes of fairies than witches.
*WorthyOpponent - Battler and Beatrice refer to each other as this constantly.
*WrongGenreSavvy - Battler doesn't believe in the supernatural and tries to find mundane explanations for everything bizarre happening on the island. Oddly enough, Beatrice seems amused by his denial and traps him in a time loop, challenging him to find a mundane explanation each time. [[MindScrew Or something]].
*XanatosGambit - Episode 3: [[spoiler:Beatrice coming out on top from her duel with Virgilia hinged on Virgilia healing Beatrice before realizing she was fatally wounded herself. [[HeelFaceMole Of course, they were actually working together the whole time,]] so not really.]]
*XanatosRoulette - Episode 3, where Beatrice's strategy hinges upon [[spoiler:Eva-Beatrice]], Battler, and Eva all taking a very specific set of actions.
** Bernkastel was probably TheManBehindTheMan on this very one, adding yet another layer to the entire thing: Beatrice had to take a very specific action at the end for Bern's own plans to work out.
*YouAreTheDemons - as of Episode 5, [[spoiler:Battler is the new Endless Sorceror]].
*YouBastard - In the Tanabata side story, [[spoiler:Bern addresses the reader several times during her section, repeatedly asking, implying, and outright stating that they prefer seeing the sort of twisted 'wish-granting' she indulges in.]]
*YouCantFightFate - Ange helps even knowing that going back in time to help Battler won't fix her own timeline - just the one that Battler will now go to which makes her a FutureBadass.
*YouShouldKnowThisAlready - Maria's ImageSong contains a reference to Sakutaro, a character from the fourth novel, despite the fact that the image songs are more closely linked to the ''anime'', which is still well in the middle of its adaptation of the third novel.
*YourMindMakesItReal - Pretty strongly implied in every arc after the first as a sort of extension of the LiteraryAgentHypothesis with a touch of TheTreacheryOfImages tossed in for good measure. Did you notice that this is labelled "MindScrew"?
*ZettaiRyouiki - Beatrice in her suit.
**Don't forget Ange, Jessica, Maria, and I might be forgetting a few, but you get the picture.
**Judging from the artstyle, Bernkastel and Lambdadelta too.
**And the Stakes, too.
**The Siestas and Eiserne Jungfrau. Pretty much every magical being that's a female is subject to this, excluding Gaap.
***More like, excluding Virgilia.
**Don't you think Shannon's skirt takes this to a whole new level?
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