Another

“Have you ever heard of Misaki…?“

In the quiet, rural small-town of Yomiyama there exists an urban legend about a dead girl who continued to haunt her class after she died. 26 years ago from 1998 this legend was supposedly born and now middle schooler Sakakibara Kôichi is drawn into a vortex of mistrust, deception and revenge beyond his comprehension.
When he moved to Yomiyama he expected to get some peace in order to heal his pneumothorax after having been diagnosed with it a second time. His grandparents greet him warmly and his aunt gives him friendly advice how to behave in school. But something seems off when he meets his class. They seem intent to keep certain things from him and to his own surprise he seems to be the only one who can see a classmate who he first met in the hospital. Though it was only a chance meeting in an elevator he felt oddly drawn to her, but the only thing he knows is her name … …

Misaki … …

Misaki Mei …

最終考察 うみねこのなく頃に Answer to the Golden Witch – Special Discussion

This is an excerpt from a publication on the famous Mystery Visual Novel Umineko no naku koro ni. As it left many questions open, there is probably a good reason to post something like this, especially in translation. As the translation of EP8 is still in progress I would advise you not to read this unless you have already at least partially read the plot of EP8.
This is no commercial translation and I’m only doing that so some English-speaking fans get some insight to, as this interview really was highly informative. The author KEIYA is really bright and brings up some brilliant ideas, but I won’t translate any further of the book, as it would lead to people not buying it if they could. I am always kinda hesitant about releasing translations, but I hope this will be enjoyed by fans who already enjoyed the VN.

And after I read through this myself, I thought about releasing an Umineko post, with my own theory sometime in the future. So stay tuned for that as well.
So here it goes, some answers by the author himself:

This is a record of a discussion between KEIYA and original author Ryûkishi07 spanning about 4 hours, which happened approximately one month after the finalization of Umineko, on the 10th of February 2011. Because this contains a high amount of spoilers for Umineko, I’d like you to first play through Umineko and think of your own solution.

ＯＺの迷宮 ～ The Labyrinth of “OZ”

Being a private detective is not a job but a way of life.
Being a master detective is not a way of life but destiny.

One victim is found shot by an arrow in a sealed locked room, another drowns in a painting of a river he had drawn himself…
A culprit commits a murder while being confined in a locked room and one walks through the thickest snow without leaving footprints at all…
Such unearthly mysteries pile up in front of the master detectives who challenge their destiny. But will they be able to solve them in the end?

In this short story collection by Tsukatô Hajime it is all about impossible and grotesque crimes. It is a fabulous collection of tricks inspired by the great works of the Golden Age, but with some neat new twists and a connection that only few will be able to foresee.

The Burning Court

When Edward Stevens picked up a new novel by famous recluse author Gauden Cross, he did not imagine the impact it would have on his life. He also did not imagine it would have any connection to the death of his associate Mark Despard’s uncle by gastroenteritis.
Attached to the manuscript he finds a photography that will set wheels into motion that should have stopped centuries ago. The spectre of the Marquise de Brinvilliers is haunting the old man’s locked room and vanishes through a wall, corpses leave their lairs and haunt the night. A long forgotten curse on the house of Despard seems to come to life.
Or might their be a reasonable explanation to this ghastly case? Can this case be solved by human reason before it vanishes in the mist of the supernatural? Witness, as those involved try to reason their way out of this bewitched tragedy and how reason clashes with the spirit world…

Harper’s Island ~ A Little Like A Whodunnit

– 13 weeks –
– 25 suspects –
– 1 killer –

Henry Dunn and his girlfriend Patricia ‘Trish’ Wellington decided to get married. It is the story of a workers class boy getting the princess, which is now being fulfilled against the backdrop of the island where he spent his youth. Among the guests is Henry’s childhood friend Abby Mills, who fled from the island after her mother was murdered 7 years ago by a killer who claimed 6 victims. Though the murderer, John Wakefield, was shot by Abby’s father after that incident, strange occurences start to haunt Harper’s island and it seems the nightmare is not yet over…

The Hollow Man

A phantom is haunting the town, there cannot be another solution.
Dr. Grimaud is found murdered in his study and an unknown man vanished from this room. The snow is unbroken, just the same as with a case not far away, where a circus artist is shot in the middle of a street, surrounded only by the innocent snow. Who was this ghostlike presence who snuck up to those two and murdered them, only to vanish into thin air. Was it a magician or maybe a horrible ghost from the past, who has come to exact his vengeance on those two?
Dr. Gideon Fell accepts the challenge of this most perplexing locked room puzzle. He assumes there is nothing in this world that cannot be explained, but will he fail in the face of a culprit who leaves no tracks? Can he solve the mystery before another innocent falls victim to this horrible creature?

The Emperor’s Snuff-Box

Eve Neill is a young, well-situated woman, living in a sweet, urban area of La Bandelette. A villa quarter of 1930’s France, with no reason at all to worry about life. Wouldn’t it be for the worries caused by her former husband Ned Atwood, who seems to be disturbing the peace and quiet she had built with her new family, the Lawes, and her fiancé Toby.
When a grisly murder is committed, policemen come flocking to the world of the wealthy and their suspect is none other than the angelic Madame Neill herself. Everything seems to point against her, yet she is certain of her innocence because of a circumstance she can’t reveal. Will she be dragged to prison while the true culprit roams free? What really happened that fateful night, when she was visited by an unwanted guest? Can she trust anyone of those around her?
Those questions will be unveiled when the startling truth behind a gruesome murder and a little trinket comes to light.

There Was An Old Woman

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do.
She gave them some broth without any bread;
And whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

It started like a normal day in court for Inspector Queen and his son Ellery. They were to witness a normal case of misdemeanor, when they are drawn to a public scene caused by an old woman, looking like an evil, little version  of Queen Victoria, Cornelia Potts. She reigns over her empire of shoe factories from her Palace, where she lives with her six children. Her rule is strict, as this is her only way to control her strange offspring, but nobody would have suspected that a duel over honour would end the order and call for an investigation for the truth. But the truth is shrouded in darkness in the elegant mansion at the Drive and is guarded by children living in towers, sugar-coated houses or illusions of grandeur. Can Ellery Queen reveal the sordid truth in this macabre tale of greed, madness and illusion before the unknown culprit drags another innocent victim to an early grave?

ロートレック荘事件 ~ The Lautrec Manor Case

It’s the end of summer and in an elegant western mansion in the suburbs, young men with a promising future and beautiful young women gather. It seemed to become a stay filled with days of grace, coloured by the works of Lautrec…
The sound of two shots were to become the beginning of a tragedy. One after another, the beautiful girls are killed. Was it a crime committed by one within the mansion? Is there one without an alibi? What is the motive? Shigeki and his friend Shû become drawn into a nightmarish investigation, when  the inspector finds evidence after evidence pointing towards the murder still being within the mansion. Are they really forced to suspect somebody among them? The parents? The servants? Themself? Will it be too late once the horrible truth is unveiled?

シャングリ・ラ ~ Shangri La

In the middle of the 21st century, the United Nations enforced a renewal of the former Kyôto protocol to counter the unstoppable global warming and severely cut each countries CO2 emission shares. Due to that crisis the international stock-market changed it’s currency to carbon and thus changed the world’s order. At the same time the 2nd Great Kantô Earthquake occurred and threw the countries capital into a crisis.
This saw the birth of the Atlas Project. The whole country was turned into a toxic forest, harmful for human life, used to turn the CO2 emission around and the flying city Atlas was launched. But Atlas only saw room for 3.5 million residents and social hierarchy dictated who was left within the forest, leaving a lottery as the only chance for the ordinary people to survive.
Enraged by this a rebel-organization was born, fighting for survival in the forest and against the unfair treatment by the rulers of Atlas. The leader of that organization called Metal Age,  Hôjô Kuniko rises up and plans to destroy the terrible order of rich and poor, dictated by the Atlas rank.
But there is something behind the system of the Atlas rank and it’s true meaning remains hidden in the shadow of Atlas itself. In the depth of the flying city a mad prophet tells of a coming successor…