Episode 1: The first game, the “normal” game. There’s not much I can say about it before learning additional knowledge from episodes 2-4, but episode 1 has the most “real” feeling to it. I read it as a mystery novel, and assumed that there was an outside killer AND was also prepared for the killer to be one of the 18 people on the island. All characters seem like one big family but you start to see cracks with the talks of the inheritance, sibling rivalry.

Here’s a couple of quotes I liked from this chapter (again, I wrote notes in a notebook so I might have worded the quotes a bit differently to ease up on my hand, haha) There seemed to be discussion about what it means to be a woman, and to be a woman in the Ushiromiya family:

“Women, whether in their past, present, or future, have no home.”
“Women [in the Ushiromiya family] are just borrowed stomachs.”
“I would become the worst kind of demon to protect you.” (Natsuhi to Jessica)

Beatrice is also a woman, so I wonder if I can apply these quotes to her. Just a thought.

Game 1 ends, tea party time. Lambda’s advice at the end (Beatrice is not just one individual, she is a personification of the rules of this world. Look at the board. Learn the movements of the pieces. Look for the conditions to win.) got me prepared for the next episodes, and I was determined to deny Beatrice, witches and magic, while keeping an eye out to see how characters (pieces) acted (moved) together through the games. Maybe some people would always die at certain spots, etc, that kind of thing.

“If everyone accepts this, the lie becomes the truth.” Maybe it is easier to accept that a witch killed everyone instead of suspecting your loved family and friends.

Episode 2:

The chapel closed room and the Jessica/Kanon closed room. By looking at all red truths spoken in Episode 2 and 4 concerning the chapel, I can’t figure out how it was done. First of all, I’m seriously doubting that what happened in the chapel ACTUALLY happened. By that, I mean the candy and ribbons tied to the guts/intestines. I think Beatrice is just jazzing the imagery up. Anyways, the chapel key was handed to Maria in an envelope from “Beatrice” and Rosa took the envelope and opened it, used to key to open the chapel. Among the red truths spoken, some stuff that Beatrice denied to answer in red were:

“The key was always under Maria’s supervision”
“No one touched Maria’s bag before Rosa”
“The key wasn’t used once before Rosa”
However, in Episode 4, Beatrice says in red “Maria’s key passed through no one’s hands, from the time she received it to the time Rosa unsealed the envelope”

The only thing I can think of is that Rosa is the culprit, and therefore could have opened Maria’s letter, used the key, lured the 6 and killed them, locked the chapel back up, put the key back into the envelope and put it back in Maria’s bag, and THEN took the envelope from Maria’s bag “for the first time”, leading to a situation where the red truth can still be valid. But I think she had an alibi for her whereabouts so I’m sure that theory doesn’t work.

Some quotes from Episode 2 that stood out to me:

“You cannot love, it’s only lust.” (Beatrice to Shannon)
“I will never let you escape a SECOND time” (Kinzo)
“Sometimes you have to open the wound up one more time to heal it.” (Beatrice to Rosa)

Game ends, tea party. It was interesting how Lambda (paper), Beato (Rock) and Bern (scissors) are put into a rock, paper, scissors metaphor. Lambda can kill without fail, and Beato can kill endlessly (a kill is a finish, and ending, so paper beats rock). Bern can cause success without fail, even if it takes a long time (but Beato is endless, so that time can just keep being extended, rock beats scissors… sort of… I think this analogy is starting to be lost on me).

Lambda also apparently chooses the best possible move every time, where as Beato doesn’t. This is curious, but I get the feeling Beato is holding back information on purpose so crucial pieces don’t get taken right away. After finishing episode 4, it seems like this is because she either wants to keep the game going forever OR get Battler to figure it out ON HIS OWN to remember his “sin” that he forgot.

Episode 3:

I liked and hated and loved this Episode. Even though I had already read this episode once before and know what’s coming, I still got that “argh I was tricked!!” feeling. The writing in this episode is really, really good at bringing out emotions from the reader.

Quotes:

“Magic can change the form, but the fate is still destined.”
“Are you using this 19th person as a spear… or a shield?” (Ronove)
“I shall grant you that human body that you wanted so badly you cried yourself to sleep” (Beatrice to Kanon)
“So, without knowing, you can make two conflicting truths exist at the same time.”
“All magic exists to bring happiness to the human world”

There’s some back story in this episode about a human Beatrice. Apparently original human Beatrice committed suicide and then turned into “vessel” Beatrice, a girl who grew up at the Kuwadorian not knowing who she was or her purpose. The scene of Kinzo and vessel-Beatrice talking happened in 1976 (red truth) which is 19 years prior to the (now) game. After falling off a cliff at some point, Ronove declares vessel-Beatrice as “it’s definitely dead” (intentional use of the word “it’s”?). Whether or not any of this actually happened is up for debate, in my opinion, at this point in my read through.

Kinzo always dies by being burnt. Is he even alive to begin with? The Kumasawa-Predecessor reveal was just as awesome as it was in the manga.

I like Battler’s answer in Episode 4 concerning Episode 3’s 6-linked-closed rooms puzzle. However, when Battler suggests in Episode 3 that the murderer killed and then accidentally died themselves, Beatrice red truths “An accidental death among the 6 was…” and then gets interrupted by Ronove. I can only assume this is super important.

I have no idea how to solve the epitaph. Apparently it is not hard, as witch/young Eva says to think of it as a childish riddle aka play on words. 黄金郷 (おうごんきょう) is six syllables/sounds but the last time the word appears it changes to 黄金の郷 making it seven. The sweetfish is apparently a clue but is not necessary to solve the puzzle? (Witch Eva said this I think?) and you need an atlas. Go down a river 川 to a village 里 and look for a shore 岸. I tried taking the various readings of these kanji and rearranging them, looking for 6 syllable words, but I couldn’t get any. Also, Eva needed an atlas from an old archive. The place could be literally anywhere near an ocean or a stream leading from the ocean? I have absolutely no idea where the place is, but for some reason my gut just thinks that it’s the chapel. I dunno if it’s just the imagery or that it feels like it’s within walking distance, or that a dungeon hidden underneath a chapel just sounds so cool, but I feel like that’s where the gold is. Which of course makes no sense at all when paired with the epitaph riddle lol.

Before finding out about the cigarette butt, I originally thought that the reason why Kirie changed her mind to go outside to get food was because she herself had figured out the epitaph and wanted to go get the gold. They say a couple of times how “heavy” the cart loaded up with food is, so I thought maybe they’ve got gold ingots loaded up on it. Kirie is fascinating by the way. The whole story between her, Rudolph, Asumu, the miscarriage, hating Battler but also taking him on as a son, I just think she is such a strong, complex, interesting character. She’s probably more deserving of the family crest than some of the other characters (LOOKING AT YOU ROSA, MS. MOTHER OF THE YEAR)
A lot of deaths by the Siesta Sisters golden arrow. I’m just going to assume the golden arrow is synonymous with “gunshot” at this point.

ALSO can I just say that when Beatrice says in red “Nanjo was killed by a human” that it kind of hurt her case about there being a witch? Oh well, small complaint.

Tea Party time and this quote intrigued me: “It is because of Lambda that Beato is a witch. If it wasn’t for her, Beato would return to being human.” (I don’t think this is an actual quote, it’s a note I made in my notebook with a couple ???s surround it.

Episode 4: Jesus Christ this episode I soooo looooonnnngggggg. I felt like it could have been two episodes easily.

First of all, I have decided to believe that nothing magical at ALL happened at any time during 1998 Ange’s world. I even want to say that she jumped off the building and just died (the end of Episode 4’s credits says that Ange is dead) but I feel like that might be too strong of a statement. I was first very lukewarm on Ange as a character, but within just one (super effing long) episode, her character COMPLETELY grows and changes and it’s just amazing how genuine it felt. Seriously, good writing (again).

Completely gutted by Maria’s entries in her diary. I want to feel for them both. Yes, having a kid like Maria would be extremely trying. She can’t grow up, she can’t understand the nuances of words/situations (like, mommy is getting angry so maybe I should just refrain from talking about thing X for a couple of minutes) and her loneliness translates into childish behavior that embarrasses Rosa and reflects badly on her as a mother. ON TOP of all that, there’s a husband who ran away, and Rosa works at a not so successful job with probably low pay. She has literally no chance to find love again with a boyfriend/husband and Maria is a big factor in that. HOWEVER, Jesus Christ woman this is your daughter, and maybe you could treat her a bit more love, rather than a punching bag.

In this Episode I hated three people: Rosa, (deathbed) Eva, and Kasumi. In the end I was able to learn and accept, as Ange did, that these three had their flaws but also reasons for them, damage and trauma from severed ties. Because of severe emotion, each of these three were able to see/harness magic. Eva’s hatred and Evatrice, Rosa’s black witch, Kasumi pushing her burden onto a victim to make herself feel better. I don’t believe magic or witches actually exist for these three, but their unhealthy emotions are manifesting into something that could be seen as magic.

Quotes:

“Depending on whether you have love, you see things completely different.”
“Please don’t take this happy truth and paint over it with a new, different truth.” (Maria)
“Die you brainless moron” (Mother of the year award, part two)
“The ultimate self-fulfillment is acknowledging yourself” (Ange)
“It’s very rare for both of us to survive the first twilight… the whole thing about [sacrifices] being chosen at random is a lie” (Kanon)
“Mom” (Battler to Kirie, the feels!!)

This post is getting long so I’ll address some of the MOUNTAINS of red truths near the end of episode 4 and then some final thoughts. Battler is Battler, is Ushiromiya Kinzo’s grandson, but is NOT Asumu’s son. I don’t get it. Battler’s sin causes a lot of people to die. Either he had some part in killing people (which I think there was a red truth saying he was not a murdered) or he somehow sparked some change in someone that caused them to start killing people themselves. Or maybe, his birth was a factor in some family dispute that got escalated into people killing people. It seems like the triggering event is connected to him NOT coming to Rokkenjima for six years and then finally coming again.

Kinzo is dead and Battler defeats all of Beatrice’s rooms with blue truth (Even though he doesn’t because, wtf people ate microscopic bombs? Come on.) I feel more than ever now that Beatrice is holding back on purpose, and self sacrificing herself to the blue truths because she wants Battler to come to the truth/remember his sin on HIS OWN. But at the same time, she keeps wanting to run away/leave the game so that’s in contradiction to wanting Battler to finish the game and kill her, which she told him to do in the first place. Jesus. Talk about confusing.