Manga Review: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Title: Umineko no Naku Koro Ni
Author: Natsumi Kei, Ryuukishi 07
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Seinen
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: A

Impression: This manga was adapted from the first chapter of Ryuukishi 07's second visual novel, Umineko no Naku Koro Ni. It's about a series of murders on an island in the middle of astorm owned by a prestigious family called the Ushiromiya clan. In total, there are 18 people on the island and according to an ominous epitaph in the family mansion, starting with six people everyone will be killed in order to revive a mythical witch that was supposed to have given the family head the gold he needed to make the clan what it is at present. While the first chapter of the visual novel is said to be of the mystery genre only, the sucessive chapters are meant to be fantasy as the main meat of the story is a duel between Beatrice the Golden Witch and Ushiromiya Battler about whether or not the murders were done by magic or not. This is only the set-up of the complete story but that doesn't make it a dull read. The art style is perfect in capturing the creepy nature of the plot and there are plenty of improvements over the anime to be found in the manga like extra details and more faithful scenes. Unfortunately, the pacing is painfully slow for such a good story and I've already spoiled myself with the anime. I am looking forward to seeing the end of the manga though as I've heard that the anime wasn't completely faithful at the end of its first chapter.