#edit: put in the card pics for original text (my translation is probably not very good so please feel free to re-check)

[heartvisor]

hachi's theatre distribution card mentions that she was an artificial child like ruriko. as well, it describes her feelings something like "towards ruriko, bears love and hate (愛憎) that she cannot fully express"

[aceyasu]

Ciel’s Umineko Merch Highlights: Case File 01 & 02

As you probably know by my blog, I love merch, and I have a lot of it. My special interest is very hungry for plastic and paper. Sometimes, I come across merch that I find really fun, interesting, or otherwise notable. Here’s some: the Case File books!

Looking good!

These books were included as supplements inside the premium edition of the anime (as licensed and published by NIS America) and were not for sale separately. The Case Files are a fun combination of artbook and supplementary material: featuring both a rather thorough overview of each mystery and a plethora of production sketches from Studio DEEN, as well as stills from the anime and full-page promotional illustrations. Both books are printed in full color on glossy paper and are in English.

Together, the books cover the entire anime (Case File 01 covers episodes 1-18; 02 takes the rest) and pull forward all the mysteries for the reader’s consideration. Something I really like about the Case Files is their presentation; styled as newspaper clippings, which is an aesthetic I just can NOT resist.

Each character also has their model sheet sketches and a brief profile (as well as this very difficult relationships chart). Peppered in between are production sketches of important locations and props.

--(it was very difficult to choose what images to include in this post; if you want to see more pages from the book, just let me know and I’ll post some more high-resolution pics...so you can actually see what’s going on. lol)

Case File 01 also features a rarely-seen interpretation of the epitaph—its wording is quite different than the Witch-Hunt variant we’re all used to. It’s less literal to the original text--but in sacrificing a literal translation to favor style, the word choice and atmosphere is probably closer to what Kinzo intended (lol). It’s very grandiose-sounding!

(transcript here)

I actually really like this epitaph. It’s got some pizazz. A certain je ne sais quoi. It’s very flowery and dramatic hahahah--you can tell it tries to stay true to the hints too (as much as it can, being a translation, anyway)!

All in all, these are fun books with a fun aesthetic—but since they’re all anime-based, probably won’t knock your socks off in the theorycrafting department if you’re a veteran of the series. Despite that, though, there’s something fun about being able to flip through all the EP1-4 mysteries in rapid succession… The amount of sketches is a huge bonus for these books too, I think!

It feels like the project of a team that really did like Umineko, and wanted to put it out--and thus put a lot of effort into making a cool release! With the books and the card game and just the overall design, their dedication made the premium release really worthwhile, I think.

This has been the merch highlight! I’m Ciel, and—...who am I..?

(Ask me anything about Umineko!)