Summary:

The episode starts off with the discovery of the corpses of Hideyoshi and Eva. George was truly saddened by this experience and cries deeply while hugging her mother one last time. Meanwhile, Natsuhi found a strange letter at the room which was again supposed to be one of Beatrice’s letters.

Maria meanwhile notices a foul smell outside the room therefore the two servants Kanon and Oba-san were ordered to check the cause of this problem. At the boiler room, Kanon found golden butterflies flying throughout, he then started talking to someone named Beatrice and attempted to kill her. Unfortunately, this attempt has failed miserably since he could not sight her presence and he was killed instead.
Battler and the others followed to the boiling room and found Kanon lying on the floor and was stabbed by a stake. Battler decided to follow the culprit and noiced that he was too late. At the boiling room, they found another burned corpse which was then confirmed by Doctor Nanjo and Genji to be the one of their Grandfather’s.

After the incident, they decided to hide to their Grandfather’s room since they concluded it was the safest place in the mansion. In the room, Battler noticed a writing on the epitaph near the witches portrait which contents was similar to the murders that have been happening throughout the mansion.

After reading the epitaph, Maria noticed there was a letter at the table that was not there moments ago. Natsuhi then suspected the culprit has done this therefore she concluded the person that put the letter was related to the culprit. There were four people that was not close to the epitaph and they were all threatened by Natsuhi to leave the room immidiately. Before leaving, Battler decided to give Maria one of the scorpion charms.

While the four people left inside the room were trying to figure out one of the magic symbols, they recieved a call from someone. Natsuhi answered and she only hears Maria’s singing, they realized that she was in danger. When they found her, she was singing alone in the room facing the wall and behind her they found the corpses of Doctor Ganjo, Kumasawa, and Genji.

Preview: Episode I-V – Fool’s mate

Thoughts:

As a visual novel reader, I am again very satisfied by how well they handled this episode mainly because of the pacing they’ve used. They managed to include in all the important details without making it seem too rushed. Most of the scenes were really well handled especially on the last part of the episode. It really sets the mysterious mood very well and its also a great set-up for the next episode.

There were also some moments in this episode where I got a good laugh at, and that includes Battler knocking Maria’s head (Well, it’s about time..), the Mackerel can (<3 mackerels), and the Rena cameo (I guess Rena forgot her weapon at Rokkenjima.). I guess its fun to have these kinds of things once in a while. ^^

Judging from the preview, I can’t wait to see Beato’s appearance and hear her voice. But at the same time, I am also curious on how they will adapt this since there are only few contents left within the first arc. I hope they include the tea party next episode. I really can’t wait for the next one!

OP Sequence
“片翼の鳥 (One-Winged Bird)” by Shikata Akiko

I liked this OP. Just like Higurashi, the song choice and the addition of Italian lyrics were good enough and fits with the dark and mysterious mood of the series.

Episode I-I – “Opening“

Summary:

On October 4th, 1986, members of the Ushiromiya Family arrive at Rokkenjima Island, a private island owned by the family, for their annual gathering. On their arrival, George and Maria noticed something different compared to the last time they went to Rokkenjima. The noisy seagulls and the small shrine that used to be on a large rock near the coast are now gone. When they were about to enter the house, Maria noticed a weird rose in front of the garden. George marks the rose with a candy wrapper to let Maria watch over it when they go back. Meanwhile, Klaus Uroshimiya tries to talk with his father Kinzo, but it seems that he was not in the mood.

While heading for lunch, Battler noticed a painting that was not there when they last visited. Shannon, the servant, explained that it was painted on April the year before last. Maria claimed she knew the woman in the painting, and her name was Beatrice, a witch that has been said to live on the island.

Meanwhile, Battler noticed a passage that was written under Beatrice’s painting. Jessica told him that it was an epitaph that his Grandfather wanted to write. Maria said that she claims to know the meaning of the passage and the location of the hidden gold. Battler remembered the strange story his grandfather had told him about the contract he made to the witch Beatrice, that he traded his soul for money and fame.

After going to the beach, they went back to the garden to search for the rose that George had marked earlier. Maria called her mother Rosa to help search for the rose however the rain was starting to pour. Rosa was irritated at the repetitive loud sounds Maria was trying to make which results into slapping her in an attempt to stop it. Rosa then leaves her child Maria because she was fed up on her because she was still insisting on finding her rose. After some while, Battler, George and Rosa searched for the missing Maria and when they found her, she had an umbrella with her. Battler asked Maria where did she borrow the umbrella and she said that she borrowed it from Beatrice.

Thoughts:

Having have read some of the first parts of the Visual Novel, I think the pacing for this adaptation was pretty fast. They skipped proper introductions to the already huge amount of characters in this show. I think first time viewers will have difficulty connecting between these characters. Despite this concern, I still found the rest of the episode to be entertaining. From Maria’s irritating phrase and child abuse to the appearance of Beatrice, I thought they did a good job setting up the dark and mysterious mood of the story.

As for the production values, The animation was good, seeing as they brought back some of the character designs and expressions from Higurashi. There are some voice actors that I liked, but there are some I did not. Maria’s voice actor was fitting while Battler’s one looks uninspired and does not fit well with his character.

Episode I-II – First Move

Summary:

The episode starts off at the family dinner where they discussed from whom did Maria borrow the umbrella from. No one believed Maria as she claimed that it came from Beatrice. After eating, Maria takes out a letter from her bag which supposedly came from Beatrice. Maria said she was ordered by her to read out the letter to everyone after they have all finished eating. The letter explains that Kinzou had terminated the contract with Beatrice. With the termination of the contract, Beatrice wants to regain all of the gold Kinzo had took but Kinzo added a special agreement that if the family finds the hidden gold of Beatrice, she will return everything including the ones she took.

At the living room, Kyrie talked to Battler speculating that Beatrice is one of the 18 persons in the Rokkenjima household. Meanwhile at another room, Krauss showed her wife Rosa one of the gold bars that thier father supposedly received from Beatrice. At the garden, George gave a silver ring to Shannon and then proposed to her.

The next day, Genji waked up Rosa to tell her that Gohda went missing. They noticed a door along the corridor was covered with blood-tainted hand marks. Kanon also told her that the other family members went missing including her husband. Rosa looked around and checked if they were in Kinzo’s room. Genji gave her his fathers room key so that she could enter it. Once inside, his father told her that even though she is not directly related by blood, she has still part of the family and the one who will inherit the glory of the Ushiromiyas.

After the conversation, Genji one again called Rosa to tell her that they found something unusual in the shed. Once there, they found the dead bodies of the missing people. Jessica, Battler, and George rushed to see what was happening in the shed only to find out the brutal murder of their loved ones.

ED Sequence – “la divina tragedia ~Makyoku~” by Jimang

I liked the visuals for this ED but the music just didn’t connect with me. It sounded more of a rock song to me rather than a mystery one. I still prefer the OP more than this. Maybe i’ll appreciate it more if a female sings this instead of a male. =P

Thoughts:

Definitely a step up from the previous episode, The mysteries and suspense were greater this time around. We are just on the second episode and there were huge amounts of casualties already. Now, I really have no idea where this will all head into. I guess by now I have more reasons to catch up to the visual novel. I guess I did not feel any sympathy to the deceased ones (except for Shannon), given their small amount of screentime. That’s the only concern I have with this solid episode. I’m really looking forward to the next one to see the aftermath as well as the cause of these murders and mysteries.