Umineko No Naku Koro Ni - Television Tropes & Idioms

When will you believe in me?

That is all that matters.

If you want to do some detective work, go ahead.

If you believe that there is an answer, go and continue to search.

This is torture that will not end until you can believe in witches.

Umineko No Naku Koro Ni (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 Golden Witch, Beatrice. The dying Kinzo unleashes her among the eleven members of the Ushiromiya family and their servants. Anyone who's familiar with the first series can probably guess what follows.

The series follows Kinzo's grandson, Battler, as he tries to outwit Beatrice by 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 When They Cry series, which also includes Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni.

The series currently consists of a Visual Novel, 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

Character Sheet

This game (and the anime based off it) contains examples of:

Actor Allusion: The anime's next episode previews are filled to the brim with these. We've got Jack Bauer, a potentially millennia-old witch claiming she's 17...
Adaptation Decay - 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, the novels' confusing but seemingly innocuous shifts to third-person turn out to be important clues in rooting out Unreliable Narration). And at least they're keeping the music.
- In combination with Compressed Adaptation.
  - A lot of important information is left out along with the side notes, and by major, that includes, say, the introduction of the Anti-Magic Toxin in the third arc.
Adaptation Dye Job - 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...)
An Aesop - An original story by Aesop is discussed a lot in EP 3, The North Wind and the Sun.
Alas Poor Villain - In the third arc, Rudolf mourns Belphegor, recognizing that he only won because he deliberately staged their Duel To The Death so that Eva-Beatrice was in his line of fire, forcing her to take the bullet. Hell he even apologizes to her.
All Just A Dream - Maria murdering Rosa. Apparently.
And Then There Were None
The Anime Of The Game
Anti Magic - When Battler gets serious nothing magical can affect him. The same is true for Ange Ushiromiya later on.
Arc Words - "Without love, it cannot be seen."
Arranged Marriage - 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.
As Long As It Sounds Foreign - 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.
As The Good Book Says - Each of the blood runes has scrawled on it a Bible quote in Hebrew.
Ax Crazy - Eva-Bea and Eva herself, at a bare minimum by the time she shoots Battler.
Badass Adorable - Groups of cute young girls will mess you up; the Stakes, the Siesta Sisters, etc.
Badass Normal - Most of the Ushiromiya family gets a Badass Normal 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.
Barrier Warrior - Both Shannon, George and Ronove, although different types.
Battle Butler - Kanon and Ronove. Also, Genji can apparently nail a butterfly with a kitchen knife from twenty paces.
Be Careful What You Wish For - "The Witches' Tanabata" plays with this: Beatrice 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.
Beat Them At Their Own Game - 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.
Better On DVD - Bet you they'll remove the pixellating in the gorier parts on the DVD.
Beyond The Impossible - Kinzo's magic.
Big Damn Heroes - Ange's entrance.
Big Fancy House - The Ushiromiya mansion, complete with servants and a secondary guest house, in case the main mansion wasn't big enough.
Big Screwed Up Family - The Ushiromiya family, of course.
Blood From The Mouth - In Episode 14 of the anime, Beatrice doesn't so much cough up blood as she foams red from the mouth.
Breaking The Fourth Wall - 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.
Break The Cutie
Butterfly Of Death And Rebirth - If you see a gold butterfly, you're boned.
The Can Kicked Him - In the first arc, Hideyoshi's corpse is found in the shower with the water still running.
Cain And Abel - Eva's jealousy of Krauss, which frequently spills over to Natsuhi. Kyrie also has some issues with her sister, Kasumi.
Cassandra Truth - Maria keeps trying to warn everyone about Beatrice, but no one believes her.
Catch Phrase - "It's useless, it's all useless!"
- Also "Flip the chessboard over."
  - This Troper considers "Uuu~! Beatrice exists!" Maria's catchphrase, but, *Your Mileage May Vary.
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 Songs 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.
Chess Motifs
Chess With Death - This series extends the metaphor from Higurashi into a motif.
The Chessmaster - 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.
- As of EP 5, 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.
The Clan
Clap Your Hands If You Believe - Beatrice's magic, as evidenced in the first tea party.
Cliche Storm - Episode 4's legendary fight between Krauss and a goatman has the antagonists invoke Nothing Can Stop Us Now, Retirony, and the typical Villain Ball move of 'promises are made to be broken' multiple times in quick succession, finishing it off with some Gretzky Has The Ball boxing gibberish. It's Lampshaded the whole way through.
- That entire scene was basically a 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.
Closed Circle
Clothing Damage - Lucifer. Nice big ole straight line, right across the chest.
Comes Great Insanity, Complete Monster - Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Eva-Beatrice.
Conspicuous CG - The butterflies in the anime.
Cool Down Hug - Ange toward Battler in the fourth arc. Unfortunately, its double purpose is to keep him from seeing her as she's ripped apart for having said her name as Bernkastel's piece.
Crack Pairing - The side story "The Stakes' Valentine's Day" is filled with these. Including Asmodeus/Juuza, Beelzebub/Gohda, Leviathan/Kyrie, Belphegor/Rudolf... and even teasing Beatrice/Battler and Battler/Lucifer!
- Not to mention the recent couples poll on the official site, which has absolutely everything.
Crapsack World - 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.
Crowning Moment Of Awesome - At least one or more per story arc.
Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming
Crowning Music Of Awesome - There's a reason it's called a sound novel.
Curb Stomp Battle - Something like this: In Episode 5, Bernkastel introduces Canon Sue 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. Epic smackdown ensues.
Cute Little Fangs - All over the place—Jessica, Battler, Maria, the list goes on. Beatrice too, but they're not nearly as cute.
- When she's not trolling Battler or putting on a Slasher Smile, Beatrice can be considered too.
Cycle Of Hatred - Too many to mention.
- To the point where there's even a character who exists as an incarnation of it.
Dangerously Genre Savvy - Beatrice. See Easily Forgiven below.
Deal With The Devil - 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.
Death By Materialism - Kinzo doesn't seem to care about any of his children at least partly because he doesn't like them fighting over his inheritance.
Death Of The Hypotenuse - Allowed Kyrie to get together with Rudolf after more than a decade, but probably created more romantic loose ends than it cleaned up.
Deaths Hourglass - The clock that appears in the corner of the screen, of the spur-to-action variety.
Decoy Protagonist - Subverted and maybe even deconstructed because a villain is actually trying to invoke this. Bernkastel took one of Rika's defining tropes in Higurashi and turned it into some kind of superpower.
Defeat By Modesty - Kanon against Lucifer. He slashes a nice, clean, boob window onto her shirt. "I've never been this ashamed—!"
Department Of Redundancy Department - "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."
Doing In The Wizard - Battler's victory condition.
Duel To The Death - Between Natsuhi and Beatrice.
Ear Worm - Jessica's preposterously hyper, catchy Image Song, "Dokkyun Heart".
Easily Forgiven - Genre Savvy Beatrice actively tries to cultivate this and then lampshades it in the third arc.
Even Evil Has Standards - The third arc has Beatrice trying to impress this on Eva-Beatrice. It fails, horribly.
Everyone Is A Suspect - Almost every single character is a suspect for one murder or another.
Evil Is Not A Toy - 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. Subverted.
Evil Is Stylish - Everything about Beatrice down to the whole idea of the chess game.
Evil Phone - 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... a little girl singing.
Evolving Credits - The witch portrait changes each arc (default-Beatrice, Zettai Ryouiki-Beatrice, then 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. It also comes with all the possible 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 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 Erika Furudo
- For a more typical example, Battler◊ and Beatrice◊ bear more than a passing resemblance to Adell◊ and Rozalin◊ of Disgaea 2.
Extreme Doormat - Kanon verges on this with his whole "furniture" ideology, but it's subverted-ish in the end of "Turn of the Golden Witch," when he admits he's in love with Jessica.
Face Heel Turn - (ish?) Eva in "Banquet of the Golden Witch." A little bit different from general When They Cry insanity because she actually becomes a witch and genuinely changes alignments.
Faceless Goons - The goat-headed butlers.
The Fair Folk - 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.
Fan Nickname - The series itself is sometimes referred to as Sea Cats or Sea Kittens, a pun in the Japanese word for seagull: Umi -> sea, neko -> cat.
Fan Service - The game has the Stakes, the anime has...pretty much every other female. Yes, really.
Fashionable Asymmetry - The Ushiromiya crest is a one-winged eagle, so it's only to be expected.
A Fate Worse Than Death - Spoilers for episodes 2-3 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.
Faustian Rebellion - 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 Puff Of Logic sooner.
- Bernkastel: Yes, a miracle.
- Battler himself makes a reference to the irony of the situation.
Fighting A Shadow - 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.
Foe Yay - Beatrice x Battler.
- Played with in Episode 4.
  - "The Stakes' Valentine's Day" takes this even further and plays it for laughs.
  - Don't forget the sequel Beatrice's White Day.
- Mind Game Ship
  - Very close to becoming canon as of EP 5.
  - Word Of God confirms it.
  - 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 Erika x Battler.
Four Temperament Ensemble - At the very least, the aunts.
- As well as Four Girl Ensemble.
Freudian Excuse - Rosa often uses this to rationalize her 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.
Gag Boobs - 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 Eva shooting at Jessica.
Genre Savvy - 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 used the Knox commandments to kill Beatrice.
Genre Shift- 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 meta-Battler and Kanon fighting demon girls with a magic sword. Wait, what?
Geodesic Cast - 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.
Geometric Magic - The blood runes.
Good Smoking Evil Smoking - Beatrice often shows up with a very long pipe.
Good Witch Versus Bad Witch
Go Karting With Bowser - Battler and Beatrice have a dialogue (and applause contest) at Eva's succession ceremony.
Go Out With A Smile - Beato in EP 5.
Gold Fever - All of the four siblings to some extent, but particularly strongly with Eva.
The Good The Bad And The Evil - Battler is the good, Beatrice and her furniture seem to be the bad, and Bern, Lambda, and their crew are apparently the evil.
Gorgeous Period Dress - 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.
Gothic Punk - The plot and style share many, many similarities in common with the Gothic novels of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Gratuitous English - 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...
  - Die the death! Sentence to death! Great Equalizer is the death!
  - ITTS PAAFEKTO! AAAHAHAHAHAHA
  - Have a nice dream.
  - See you again.
Gratuitous Greek - Lambdadelta (ΛΔ) as well as the firing sequence of the Siestas.
Groundhog Day Loop 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.
Happily Married - Oddly enough, the most stable couple (the wife's problems come from elsewhere) is Eva and Hideyoshi.
Heel Face Mole - Bernkastel, especially if you watch a certain tea party in chapter three and four.
- There is still some dispute about this, however.
  - Unless you read The Witches' Tanabata. She lost a lot of fans after that came out.
  - That, and in the beginning of Ep5, Battler sees her laughing right alongside Lambda.
Heir Club For Men - 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 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.
Hell Is That Noise - 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 Scare Chord 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
Heroic Sacrifice - Ange's last-ditch effort to snap Battler out of the funk caused by Beatrice's mind games.
High Octane Nightmare Fuel: By this series' standards, Higurashi looks like an anime that 4Kids Entertainment could leave unedited.
- Cruel And Unusual Death
Hijacked By Ganon - Taken to Beyond The Impossible levels as 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 Decoy Protagonist.
- Fandom wise, it seems to be heading towards Hijacked by Rika.
Hope Spot - Pretty much everyone who faces off with the killer gets one.
Hostile Show Takeover - Played for drama in EP 5.
- And for laughs in the preview for episode 17 of the anime where Eva-Beatrice tries to rename the show to Magical Girl Pretty Evatrice.
Hot Blooded - Kinzo's legacy.
Hot Shounen Mom - 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.
A House Divided - Particularly strong in the first arc.
Human Chess
Human Sacrifice
Idiosyncratic Episode Naming
I Cannot Self Terminate - Beatrice begging Battler to kill her at the end of episode 4 of the game.
I Got Better - What happens when a new game begins after the last, in which Everybody Dies. Or at least a majority of the cast.
I Kiss Your Foot - Kanon does this to Beatrice so Shannon might not be chosen as a sacrifice in episode 2.
Imaginary Friend - 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.
Im A Humanitarian - Note: One way to ensure you die without your dignity - Try to say "I give up".
- Also, what happened to Rosa at the end of the second arc. Crosses The Line Twice in the anime when Maria's severed head started talking.
Impaled With Extreme Prejudice - Beatrice during the EP 4 tea party. And Battler during EP 5.
Impossibly Cool Clothes - All of the Ushiromiyas have utterly impeccable fashion sense
- And of course the witches and demons do. Maaaagic.
Inadequate Inheritor - Kinzo feels this way about his whole family
Invisible To Normals - Witches, although who qualifies as "normal" seems to shift between arcs.
It Gets Better - The first novel is almost painfully monotonous with glimmers of hope when small horror elements show up...then somebody finally dies!
Jedi Truth - Anything said in Red needs careful attention paid to its exact wording.
Jesus Taboo: 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.
- 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.
Kansai Regional Accent - 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.
Karma Houdini - 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 Bad Future 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.
- Although she did die years later.
  - OR DID SHE!?
- Of course, aside from shooting Battler (and she was pretty insane by that point) we don't know if she even actually killed anyone.
Kick The Dog - When Rosa tears up Sakutaro.
- According to the Tanabata side story, Eva was willing to love Ange as her own daughter, but Bernkastel poisoned their relationship for her own amusement.
- In the fifth arc, Bernkastel and Erika manage to 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.
Kids Are Cruel - Rosa's justification for her treatment of Maria. Basically, "All the children make fun of her! Don't you see?! Beating her will obviously make her stop whining!"
- Bern and Lambda as well.
- Not to mention Ange's classmates.
Killed Off For Real - This corpse belongs to Kinzo Ushiromiya!
Kill Em All - "When the seagulls cried, no one had been left alive."
Knight Templar Parent - Rosa in theory, although a few of her actions just don't seem to fall into that category.
Lamarck Was Right - 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.
Lampshade Hanging - In Episode 3 of the sound novels, Beatrice puts a massive lampshade on her own Tsundere behavior in that arc, even mentioning anime and dating sims.
Language Of Truth - 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 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). Episode 5 introduces Gold Text which 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.
Laser Blade - Kanon's and the Stakes' swords are very elaborate versions.
Last Kiss - 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. He starts, but is cut off.
Law Of Inverse Fertility - Partially fed into issues between Natsuhi and Eva.
Legions Of Hell - Beatrice's furniture.
Les Yay: Lambdadelta x Bernkastel: Pretty much canon, Lambda acts as a Tsundere around Bern, but she even said she loves her. (Like a supernatural Stalker With A Crush.)
Lethal Chef - 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."
Lemony Narrator - The narration of the first tea party has an mild, very tongue-in-cheek example.
Letting Her Hair Down - Although she normally wears it pinned up, when Eva becomes Eva-Beatrice, she lets her hair down as a symbol of reverting to her younger self.
- Actually, Eva-Beatrice is Eva's younger inner self, split away and given the Endless Witch powers. The younger self always has her hair down.
- Beatrice too, in Episode 5.
Light Is Not Good - The main antagonist, Beatrice, is nicknamed "The Golden Witch" and is said to appear as 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 or so it seems is Bernkastel, a witch with dark hair and dull, emotionless eyes.
- And then when Bernkastel attempts to take over the plot, she employs the Iron Maidens, heavenly girls whose leader is a tad obsessed with killing things.
Loads And Loads Of Characters - Starts off with the Ushiromiya family, their servants, and Kinzo's physician for a total of eighteen people trapped on an island during a storm, and later episodes introduce a cast of witches, servants to the witches, and people living in a Bad Future that brings the cast up to about forty people.
Locked Room Mystery - Invoked many times and taken by some characters as evidence that murders were committed by the Golden Witch rather than by a human.
- Hideyoshi seems to be in a lot of these.
Long Lost Relative - Although the moment was suitably surprising for Battler, the audience is set up to have already known "Gretel"'s true identity.
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. He isn't lying, since Rosa stumbles across her hidden mansion after running blindly into the forest.
Lotus Eater Machine - Beatrice creates her own perfect world with just her and Maria. Also, the Golden Land in the first arc functions this way.
Love Makes You Crazy - Kinzo. And if trying to kill off your family isn't evil, I don't know what is. Turns out that he was dead before everything started, though, so the idea that this was his idea becomes a little...
Love Martyr - Maria's relationship with Rosa is treated in this way until the fourth arc.
Magic Versus Science - Magic versus logic. Anti-mystery versus anti-fantasy.
Mama Bear - Rosa. Her last act in the second arc is 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."
Man Behind The Man - The third tea party has Lambdadelta state that she gave Beatrice her powers in order to create a board to beat Bernkastel in. Made even odder by the apparent alliance of Bernkastel and Lamdadelta against Beatrice in the fourth tea party.
Maybe Magic Maybe Mundane - The point of the entire series.
Meaningful Name - Several. Beatrice and Virgilia both derive their names from Dante's Divine Comedy. The "Stakes of Purgatory" have the names of demons corresponding to the Seven Deadly Sins. 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 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 Maria is one of the Creator witches, who can create something where there was previously nothing.
Message In A Bottle - The ending of "Legend of the Golden Witch."
Memetic Mutation - Tons.
- By tons we mean we've stopped listing them here.
Mind Screw - Wait, what? Everybody's alive again? What do you mean, "wrap party"? So, what, everybody dying was some TV show we were all watching or something? Beatrice!? What are you doing here?!...Wait, none of this was some weird meta thing?!
- This does double-duty as a Mind Screw since Higurashi also had wrap parties^*
  ^{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.
Missing Mom - Battler's mother died, and it's stated outright that Kyrie is more of an older sister than a mom to him.
- Turns out Asumu wasn't his real mother.
Mobile Shrubbery: One of Battler's more ridiculous theories in Episode 2 involves Piece Beato sneaking into Maria's bedroom and stealing the chapel key while hiding in a cardboard box.
Mood Whiplash: Episode 4 of the anime has a scene of Maria 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, HAPPY HALLOWEEN FOR MARIA
- And then the third arc had 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.
Moral Event Horizon: When did you realize that Eva-Beatrice was a Complete Monster? 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 Mercy Kill.
Most Common Superpower: Pretty much every female character who's of age.
Multigenerational Household - The main house.
Mythology Gag - 34 sympathizes with Eva's "unfortunate childhood a bit".
Narm - From the anime: 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 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 severed head on a platter.
  - This troper disagrees and found it completely creepy.
  - Or it can be a Tear Jerker, Narm and High Octane Nightmare Fuel at 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: 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 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 she wrong when it actually happened.
Never Found The Body - Anyone who survives until the end of the arc tends to die in this manner. However, even during the arcs, Kanon seems to have these sorts of deaths a lot.
Never Trust A Trailer - The anime's next-episode trailers are full of blatant lies and out-of-character behavior. They're hilarious.
Noblewomans Laugh: Beatrice is prone to these, and Maria's giggling sometimes morphs into it as well.
Off Model: Four episodes in and it's already showing here and there. Of course, with the way Higurashi was, it shouldn't be too surprising.
- Want an example?◊
  - Episode 9 is chock-filled with these.
- Another example.◊ ''How can she grin/chuckle with no mouth?''
Ominous Italian Chanting: The anime's opening.
Ominous Pipe Organ: 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" (Eva-Beatrice), and "Dance of the Moon Rabbit" (the Siestas).
On One Condition: 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, "When the seagulls cried, there was but one survivor."
- In EP 5 the gold was found and a murder occured anyway. It didn't continue for the 11 other twilights though.
Only Known By Their Nickname - Beatrice's name is treated as a title, and indeed, when 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.
The Only One Allowed To Defeat You - Lambdadelta toward Bernkastel. Beato toward Battler and vice versa.
Our Hero Is Dead - Towards the end of EP 5. Crowning Moment Of Awesome later ensues.
Painting The Fourth Wall - The aforementioned red truth and Battler's 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 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.
Paper Thin Disguise - Erika Furudo in EP 5. I totally have no clue who she is.
Parents As People - A pretty sharp contrast to Higurashi, where you don't even see the protagonist's parents' faces.
Parent With New Paramour - Battler took very poorly to the fact that Rudolf remarried so quickly after Asumu's death.
Pastel Chalked Freeze Frame - Each member of the cast gets an introductory one in the first episode of the anime.
- The Anime's depiction of the meta-world may qualify for this as well.
Pater Familicide - Essentially, Kinzo's plan is this plus spouses and grandkids. Subverted.
Pensieve Flashback - Ange with Maria's diary.
- The anime adaptation also uses this for the the meta-scenes.
Player Punch - Ange is built up into an incredibly sympathetic character. Prepare to shed many tears.
Pimped Out Dress
Pixellation - In the eighth episode of the anime. It's only thanks to Battler announcing it that we know the sacrifices have been 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, thankfully.
- Used again in episode 9 when 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 Rosa ends up impaled on an spiky iron fence.
The Power Of Love: According to Episodes 3 and 4, magic was originally intended to bring about happiness and gained its powers through the efforts of love. Knowing Ryukishi, this was completely intentional.
Psychic Powers - How some believe Ange is able to "talk" with pre-Rokkenjima Maria through Maria's diary.
Psychological Thriller
Quirky Miniboss Squad - The Stakes of Purgatory.
Readings Are Off The Scale - "H-His anti-magic resistance level is at Endless Nine!"
Really Seven Hundred Years Old - Both Bernkastel and Lambdadelta.
Red Eyes Take Warning - Both the Stakes and Siestas, as well as Lambdadelta.
Red Headed Hero - Battler and Ange later on.
Relationship Voice Actor - Anime: If you hear Ronove and Battler talking, you may be reminded on another well-known story about a quite eccentric "heroine", who can reset the world. Better yet, their roles are more or less reversed.
Ret Con - An integral part of the plot. If I mention quantum post-selection paradoxes, would you understand..?
Room Full Of Crazy - Kinzo's room.
Rivals Team Up - Battler, Ronove, Virgillia, Gaap, and the Seven Sisters of Purgatory all band together to give Erika and the Eiserne Jungefrauen (particularly Dlanor) a serious beatdown.
Rogue Protagonist - Actually, it's more of a Rogue Narrator.
Sacrificial Lamb - Subverted in the same way as Higurashi, but slightly more ironic, as those who die first do so as sacrifices to summon Beatrice.
Sadistic Choice - Episode 4. In order to gain two, sacrifice one: Your life. Your lover's life. Everyone else's lives. Amusingly, everyone shown indicates one of the choices, then goes on to Take A Third Option 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.
Sawed Off Rifle - The Weapon Of Choice for most of the adults.
Set Right What Once Went Wrong - Ange's goal in going back to 1986.
Shout Out - 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 Big Bad of that series is.
- There is an entire scene in episode 2 in which Jessica dresses up as Marisa and plays a Touhou fan song at a concert. It's also a bit of an Anachronism Stew as the Touhou franchise didn't exist in the year the series takes place (1986).
  - Jessica no longer sings Tsurupettan in the anime version (it's instead her upcoming Image Song "Dokkyun Heart"), but in return, we get to see cosplays of Marisa, Aya, Sakuya, Alice, and Reimu!
  - Said song also contains various Catch Phrases from Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni.
- 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 EP 5, 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, 1993!Ange communicates with 1986!Maria through a diary that held a dormant piece of Maria's soul.
Slasher Smile - Everyone who is involved with the murders of family (Eva, Eva-Beatrice, Kinzo/"Goldsmith" come to mind) has one.
Soundtrack Dissonance - Episode 3. People getting killed with this music in the background.
- Somewhat justified in that this is the theme of the ones doing the killing. The title translates as "Dance of the Moon Rabbit," so...
- That's nothing comepared to Eva-Beatrice's theme song: It's even called Happiness of Marionette. So when does this play? Whenever the villain of this arc is contemplating how she'll torture people, of course!
Split Personality - Eva and Eva-Beatrice.
- Also something of a Literal Split Personality and possibly an Enemy Without.
Spoiler Opening - In each arc the opening animations change, most notably the portrait. The second animation set shows Beatrice's Human Form, and the third set shows Eva-Beatrice, Virgilia, and the Siestas. The fourth one shows all three portraits, another Siesta, and Maria's witch outfit.
Spooky Painting - Beatrice's portrait.
Stay In The Kitchen - 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.
Succession Crisis - 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.
Summon Magic - Just about all furniture requires this.
Switched At Birth - Battler is implied to be Kyrie's son.
Take Up My Sword - In EP 5, Battler becomes the Endless Sorcerer after Beatrice is killed by Erika
Taking The Bullet - In the third arc, Belphegor does this to protect Eva-Beatrice.
Talking Is A Free Action - Gleefully averted. In the first arc, Kanon 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 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...
Tear Jerker - A bunch of moments. Shannon's death in the first novel and Kanon and Jessica's desperate reaching out to each other as they're dying, George and Shannon's final moments, and 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. 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? 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.."..
  - 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.
Theiss Titillation Theory - Gaap is the embodiment of this trope Gone Horribly Wrong.
Theme Naming - 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.
They Killed Kenny - Every. Single. Character.
Thirty Xanatos Pileup - 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.
Time Travel - Ange.
Title Drop - 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.
Took A Level In Badass - In between the second and fourth arcs, both Jessica and George - formerly 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.
The Treachery Of Images - Battler is nearly won over in the third arc when Beatrice starts showing him 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 Beato towards Battler.
- In Beato and Battler's case, this is subverted massively in Episode 3, but appears to be true in Episode 4 anyway..
Unexpected Successor - 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.
Un Funny Aneurysm Moment: 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. 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.
Unreliable Narrator - It's explicitly stated that anything not in red text is liable to be false. What is in red text? ...Not very much.... 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)
Utopia Justifies The Means - Battler speculates that the reason Maria is so calm about everyone dying is the promise at the tenth twilight that she'll reach the Golden Land and everything will be restored - and her mother will be nicer to her to boot.
Verbal Tic - U~~. This is later shown to be not just a random noise.
Villain Based Franchise - Subverted in that Bernkastel wasn't a villain in Higurashi.
Weirdness Censor - In the anime, almost no attention is drawn to Maria's cackling, odd foreknowledge, and general sociopathy by other characters (the biggest example is probably the Mood Whiplash above). In the manga at least, this is not the case; Battler reacts with proper dread at her mysterious statements most of the time.
Wham Episode - The anime's episode 18.　This is party due to Compressed Adaptation.
What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome - 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 shiny debate club competition EVAR.
What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Rosa's daughter, Maria. One of the kanji in her name is essentially a cross, she's known as the Witch of Origins (who, according to the visual novel, "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.
Whodunnit To Me - "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."
Why Couldnt You Be Different - Rosa toward Maria.
Witch Species - 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."
- The Fair Folk - The concept of witches used here actually has more in common with a lot of the older stereotypes of fairies than witches.
Worthy Opponent - Battler and Beatrice refer to each other as this constantly.
Wrong Genre Savvy - 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. Or something.
Xanatos Gambit - Episode 3: Beatrice coming out on top from her duel with Virgilia hinged on Virgilia healing Beatrice before realizing she was fatally wounded herself. Of course, they were actually working together the whole time, so not really.
Xanatos Roulette - Episode 3, where Beatrice's strategy hinges upon Eva-Beatrice, Battler, and Eva all taking a very specific set of actions.
- Bernkastel was probably The Man Behind The Man 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.
You Are The Demons - as of Episode 5, Battler is the new Endless Sorceror.
You Bastard - In the Tanabata side story, 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.
You Cant Fight Fate - 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 Future Badass.
You Should Know This Already - Maria's Image Song 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.
Your Mind Makes It Real - Pretty strongly implied in every arc after the first as a sort of extension of the Literary Agent Hypothesis with a touch of The Treachery Of Images tossed in for good measure. Did you notice that this is labelled "Mind Screw"?
Zettai Ryouiki - 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?