#jokrono

[jichanxo]

squishing my blorbos together into one entity [from july/2023]

[27thfirefly]

also how long did it take you to read that thang

WELL i did watch a playthrough that had like detailed discussion and analysis of the whole thing throughout so its been a good like. 4-5 months??? on and off. its jokronos on youtube... i think if id done it myself id have missed a lot of the Mystery stuff cos im not used to engaging with stories on that level so having someone who IS used to trying to figure out the puzzles was very nice. also its a 2 person playthrough with one new and one rereader so thats also very nice

[obfuscobble]

800 people have told you to read Umineko with no context and they're all correct. Peak Storytelling awaits you.

Yes the main character tries to cop a feel on boobs in chapter one but this is what we call a character flaw to be overcome by character development. Also I assure you that Maria's uwu speech tic is at first ignorable, and explained with tragedy later. There are very good translations available, and if you'd rather watch a playthrough: I convinced one friend to listen to the fully English voiced Jokrono playlist at work, and another is slowly watching the Japanese dialog with English subs plus commentary Rose Matter version.

Umineko is worth it. It comprises mystery, philosophy, extremely over the top anime battles, logic puzzles, human pathos, bunny girls and, most of all, love. All kinds of love: including straight, gay, parental, and platonic, and each one presented as kick-ass. Read Umineko.

[hidden-tea-party]

not sure if you’ve abandoned this blog yet, but i’ve just finished listening to your podcast! i had a lot of fun listening along to all the haterism (both the warranted and unwarranted) and i think it was very kind to read something so long just for your friend :-) in any case, i was surprised when courtney said that the epitaph was unsolvable in english, since quite a few people have figured it out as early as the answer arcs (i think of newt3012 and jokrono on youtube) in particular, if for any reason any of you would like to go back to umineko in like 10 years time, i’d recommend jokrono’s playthrough just to see the perspective of someone who found umineko to be exceedingly solvable in every regard. i shared some of the feelings of confusion you had at the end originally, and it was by going back and understanding that everything was purposeful (though whether i agree with the messages being sent is a bit of a different story) that umineko became one of my favorite works to date. in any case, i know it’s been a few months and you’ve all moved on, and i hope you’re all doing well in whatever you’re doing now! i plan to go through umineko with a friend of mine soon, hopefully she sees it with a bit more love than you did ❤️ (again, not shade, genuinely heartwarming that you stuck with it till the end)

the blog is only sporadically abandoned (oops) but thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed our feeble solving attempts and the big hater energy - I'm intrigued by an English solve but the sheer competence of those people might be too much for my poor brain to handle. definitely worth a look though if we ever return to scene of the crime. I hope your friend sees with love 💕

[nerves-nebula]

Umineko anon here, funny seeing another person recommend you umineko, but yeah, you are the type of person who would really enjoy it. Kinda regret spoiling as much as I did back then, however I have to say that I only spoiled about 10% of the story, a really important 10% but there is still a bunch of weird family dynamics to dig into, umineko is really good at getting you to be interested in all of the cast's lives.

I might have said this before, so forgive me if I did, but I really recommend Jokrono's playhtough, they read and voice act everything, and my first read was just me listening to jokrono's playhtrough like an audio book

its fine i don't remember much 'bout it anyway. tbh tho theres not much outside forces can do to make me interested in media. i'm either gonna watch it or not. but thanks for the playthrough suggestion

[evilautist]

What got you into Umineko?

interest in really long media mainly plus a passing familiarity with the higurashi anime lol

i first found it through red bards how long is umineko vid and then i got into it proper when i found jokrono's playthrough on youtube - i didnt finish that playthrough though and instead i managed to find umi with the voice acting and ps3 sprites uploaded on a hungarian anime forum site my mom told me about years ago and played it properly after a while

[noisytenant]

one thing about the jokrono playthru that's annoying is their general animanga illiteracy but it's really fucking funny that Ben thinks they're called "loli fang" and not "moe fang". Nobody tell him

[lizardrosen]

it's so interesting that my experience with umineko is the jokrono playthrough + my friend who got me into it playing the witch, and then seeing other people's liveblogs where their mental image of Jessica's voice is probably NOT an old russian man. so strange.

[fostersffff]

Not to rain on your parade, but a solely English speaker (one of the two guys at jokrono) in the fandom has managed to solve the epitaph on his own via Wikipedia and searching the Japanese names of places

So it's not impossible for English readers to solve, it just adds an extra layer of challenge (which might be impenetrable to some readers, I certainly didn't bother solving it)

That's super impressive, but the impenetrable part for me is the wordplay surrounding Japanese/Chinese characters. Like, even having the whole thing explained out to me, my eyes still kinda glazed over when they were talking about how the kanji for village was in another name and then there were two locations where the kanji had mouths.

Were they able to solve it before or after the part where Genji gave the initial clue about Taiwan?

[insanityizgood]

I FINALLY finished the Joker!Satoko I did for Jokrono's playthrough of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.

I just HAD to draw it because that bit was too fucking funny.

[nbmahoushoujo]

i’ve officially found the best original higurashi sprite

akasaka combat pose

[jichanxo]

been a while since i've drawn flex ❤

[rokkenjimaorg]

Community Spotlight: Jokrono & MagusVerborum's Umineko Playthrough

Today I’d like to draw the spotlight on our very own MagusVerborum’s playthrough of Umineko When They Cry with his good friend Jokrono. Magus, an Umineko veteran is guiding his blind friend and sherlock-in-training Jokrono through Umineko while they comment on the story as they read, and narrate each and every line with silly voices. This kind of content won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but this playthrough has gained a small loyal following on the forum.

I’ve personally found it noteworthy for being one of the few Umineko playthroughs on Youtube to make a serious attempt to analyse and speculate on the story as they read, with some fun commentary along the way. If you enjoy watching the reactions of someone completely new to Umineko (who doesn’t have much interest in Japanese media), with the guidance of a veteran to keep them from focusing on the wrong aspects, then this playthrough should be sweet to the taste. You can check it out above! They have currently just finished Episode 1, but have more recorded so stay tuned!

If you know any other fan projects that you’d like to see mentioned in a community spotlight, feel free to contact me and we may be able to organise something!

[klug]

Writing up a longer thing to post later/use as a guideline for a video I want to make, but the short summary of my thoughts on the mysteries and murders Umineko ep1. This has spoilers for all of Legend of the Golden Witch (obviously) (and also Higurashi because I reference it but like it’s kind of minor/jokey).

The missing torii: No idea, this doesn’t seem to be very important at the moment, but I do know that torii symbolize a transition from the physical world to the spirit world. The fact that it’s missing might mean that we have never left the physical world, and all the murders/mysteries on Rokkenjima can be explained without magic.

The epitaph: I need to look at the Japanese for this, but my gut instinct is that someone on the island already has the key. Honestly, one stupid theory I have is that Shannon’s engagement ring is the key. Also, it doesn’t seem necessary to carry out the twilights in the order they’re listed? Considering Eva/Hideyoshi, Kinzo, and Kanon’s death, they all occur in a different order from the epitaph. None of the twilights seem to correspond to a specific time in the game either.

My Neighbor Beatrice The Umbrella and Beatrice: I basically think Kanon is lying, lol. I think he was the one who gave the umbrella to Maria. Also he could easily pass as a young woman just, imo.

The First Twilight: I think Shannon/Kanon carried out these murders...? I’m kind of suspicious of Shannon going back to the mansion even though she knew that her shift was moved to the guesthouse. I think Kanon egging her on was also just suspicious in retrospect... If it’s not them though, I guess my money is on Rosa >_>. I think at least one person in the shed faked their death.

Kinzo’s disappearance: I agree with Battler’s theory lol I don’t have much to say on this one

The Second Twilight: I think Battler’s theory kind of foreshadowed this and there was someone in the room already that killed them... I lowkey stole this theory from Jokrono on YouTube since I like listening to his analysis of the story. The servants are all suspicious here unfortunately lol. Genji couldve easily picked up the black magic circles from Kinzo yknow :p

The Fourth/Fifth Twilight: I think since Kanon mightve been an accomplice or was forced to kill Shannon, he was trying to take revenge on who he was working with? Kinzo...uh...IDK. the chance that it’s a body double (Shoutout To Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni) or actually Kinzo both seem plausible, but they wouldve needed to put they in the incinerator at a specific time for it to smell like that + lure everyone to the boiler room

The Letter in the Study: I think Maria or one of the servants set it down. I don’t have much else to say on this one because I think it’s straightforward and continues aligning with my feeling that the servants are kind of suspicious...

Sixth, Seventh, Eighth Twilight: yeah that shit’s crazy. I don’t think the murderer was Maria, but the person who faked their death in the first twilight >_>

Natsuhi’s “Suicide”: I think her suicide can be kind of easily explained away with it just being grief at the murders, or being threatened by the person who’s orchestrating everything...

[nerves-nebula]

Final thoughts

You may note that I didn't reveal Clair's "true" identity/ the identity the servant gave her once they faked her death as a baby, nor have I told you the truth of the massacre.

This is because I wanted to leave some things secret if you ever become interested in checking it out, also keep in mind that this story is stupid long with many characters so I honestly only scratched the surface.

Jokrono has a wonderful playthrough available on YouTube if you're interested

(also if you check play it instead of watching a playthrough, play using the old Original sprites, cause in the OG sprites all the human characters (except 1st/italian beatrice) have black eyes while the magic characters have blue eyes, and Battler has more tan skin to resemble his father. But in the new "improved" sprites Battler is pasty and blue-eyed. They ruined my boy.)

yEAH i was curious about the massacre. its always a sad day when a character is given blue eyes.

[sunlitmcgee]

And if you don't wanna play the game yourself (which fair and understandable) there's many cool playthroughs of it! It's umineko no naku koro ni/when the seagulls cry, my fav playlist has to be the jokrono one, it's a guy who's played through it all and a newbie who's not even into anime

will put this in drafts for whenever i get around to it :)