It’s so hard to choose between them because they’re all so wonderfully complex and I have such a hard time deciding between Eva & Hideyoshi and Kyrie & Rudolf. But in the end I like Kyrie and Rudolf a bit more, probably because Hideyoshi got comparably little characterisation compared to Rudolf.
They’re both such fascinating characters with Rudolf as the sleazy cheater who still has a heart of gold and loves his family while Kyrie is an incredibly intelligent woman who’s darker side make it difficult for judge if she’s someone to admire or someone to fear.
1 Like
I love love love loooooove Natsuhi so much, I feel so sad for her sometimes just because of her situations and all her ailments - must protect Natsuhi. I don’t think Krauss is a bad guy and I definitely think his heart is in the right place but I sometimes get really mad/upset at his lack of comfort to Natsuhi, though I know the things going on make that a bit difficult, probably. But man, Natsuhi is suuuuch a wonderful character. I really do wish her the best. She tries to hard to protect the honor and the dignity of the family, even after Kinzo’s death. She seriously makes me so sad and happy at the same time, because she’s basically treated like shit by Eva and it makes me feel really bad because of how seriously Natushi takes the One-Winged Eagle and the honor of the family, even though she’s treated no better than a stray dog sometimes. She’s incredibly strong - I’ll always root for Natsuhi!!
Eva, too. I think she’s probably one of the happiest adults, and her marriage to Hideyoshi also seems to be the healthiest compared to the other members of the family. I think the way she raises George to be the best he can be and does everything she can do for his sake is really beautiful, too. I wish my parents had been like that with me, haha. The only thing I don’t particularly like is her trying to put a strain on George’s relationship with Shannon. Just because she thinks her and Hideyoshi finding George a spouse is the best thing for him stability wise doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best for him in terms of a happy resolution. But with that said, with the way Eva tends to everything else to raise George to be the best he can be, and to have the most rewarding life he can have, it doesn’t surprise me at all that she dislikes the idea of George being with Shannon. Hideyoshi is a wonderful guy, too. A model father, in my opinion. He seems very happy go lucky and because of the way his personality seems to change the atmosphere, I think he’s exactly the type of guy Eva needs in her life. So even if the two of them (mainly Eva) sorta try to do too much for George, I think they make a great couple and family overall.
I don’t know how I feel about Rudolf, though. I felt so bad for Kyrie upon knowing about her years of envy and suffering. I’ve admired some guys who were total players, and who gave me false hope, so I know how that shit stings. I think Kyrie is very admirable for wanting to be with Rudolf despite that and doing everything she can to achieve it. I can’t say any amount of effort or tests or trials would work if that situation were replicated outside of Umineko, though…
Rosa, oh god. I can’t even say for sure if I like her or not, based on the way she treats Maria. I know there’s some sort of stigma about single women with a child in Japan, or something, but I don’t think that’s an excuse at all for her actions. At the same time, I hope she does find a guy who treats her right and accepts Maria. I really don’t know if I like or dislike Rosa… but my god, I was completely destroyed over Maria still seeing Rosa in a good light despite everything, and just passing off abusive Rosa as the bad witch. It’s so heart breaking! Even if Maria made her days happier with magic, it’s still horrible that she had to use that magic to write over the bad events she was trying not to see. My heart goes out to Maria.
Kinzo… well, huh. I guess after reading EP5 and starting EP6, I can sort of understand where his insane devotion comes from. On one hand, I really do think he must have seriously, seriously loved Beatrice. But on the other, it doesn’t justify his actions. I don’t think Kinzo is a bad person at all, though. At least not in his younger days.
Nanjo seems like a grandpa kinda guy, really easy going. I don’t think the story delves deep enough into his life, but if I had to say anything about Nanjo, he seems like the kinda guy who would be great to have around for light hearted discussions.
I don’t think I can pick a favorite, honestly. This is too hard. I may have gotten carried away. Whoops.
7 Likes
Honestly i can’t decide between Eva and Natsuhi. Eva was always my favorite for her snark and independent attitude, but on a reread I’m finding Natsuhi to be an especially interesting character, given her relationship with Kinzo. She seems to depend on the approval of the head of the family so much for her daily activities, and in many ways is the leader of the household due to both Kinzo’s inactivity and Krauss’ preoccupation with his business ventures.
I find it difficult to pick favourite characters, especially in a story like this where really everyone gets time in the spotlight some degree, and every one of them feels ‘human’ to me. With the way the narrative is structured too we get to see both the good and the bad of all of the characters depending on how the twilights play out. I think that’s why i like them though, I like villains even more than I like heroes, and villains doing wrong things for the right reasons always draws me in. The fact that we get to see all of the adults as both heroes and villains (sometimes flashing from one to the other in a matter of minutes) is why I find them so damn compelling.
5 Likes
Most of them are amazing characters, but the women here outshine men.
Personally, I couldn’t help but love and sympathize with Rosa despite her clear shortcomings. Her (and Maria’s) story was pretty damn heart-wrenching. She had nobody to lean on and her family were a bunch of selfish d**ks, not excluding the crappy husband-to-be whose existence served to torment her. Among the inheritors, she was the only person who desired her share of the inheritance for a noble purpose. Namely, paying the debt and starting over as a better mother.
Rosa’s been deteriorating and her relationship with Maria worsened as her inexcusable abuses increased, but she didn’t completely “choose” to be that way, and she had an awareness of her problems which she was intent on solving them. Finally, the word “godawful” doesn’t begin to describe how bad her luck is, having harbored a traumatic guilt for accidentally causing 2nd Beatrice’s death and keeping it secret when all she did was give Beatrice a sense of freedom. Then goes on to endure hearing her mad father and defiant daughter bring her name up over and over again? That’s all sorts of f***d up. Her kindness was answered by misfortune, used and often ridiculed and mocked by her partner and own family.
Morally speaking, I’d rank them as follows:
Hideyoshi > Rosa = Krauss > Natsuhi = Eva > Kyrie = Rudolf
Most interesting couples:
Rudolf/Kyrie > Hideyoshi/Eva = Krauss/Natsuhi > Rosa/A-hole-partner
Favorites:
Rosa > Eva > Kyrie > Rudolf = Natsuhi > Hideyoshi = Krauss
3 Likes
It’s so hard to choose between the adults! Honestly they’re all incredibly well written and dimensional, flaws and mistakes, charming points, and all.
I think if I were to choose a favourite, probably Eva. How Eva Beatrice, and Ange comes into her character makes her all the more interesting and well written. Ultimately I think what was impactful about her was her life with Ange and living with the Rokkenjima incident behind her - the last two physically living Ushiromiya family members (or so we think, well, it depends how one interprets Tohya -
if he is still Battler or if Battler died with the accident and Tohya is no longer truly Battler, especially given the name change this is heavily implied, and the quote that he himself thinks of Battler’s memories as those of another person than him. ) and, even how the sadness and difficulties carry on in the family.
The whole dynamic surrounding Eva and how she handles it, the manifestation of Eva Beatrice as well and why, are all contributors to why she’s my favourite of the adults. Hideyoshi is cool too, but pales in comparison to Eva’s character, in my opinion. I appreciate that he is a laid back and supportive Dad and Husband though.
Rosa comes a close second. There were times when I absolutely hated Rosa. But seeing the whole picture made me appreciate her character more. It didn’t mean I could forgive her for how she treated Maria, but I was deeply impressed with Ryukishi’s perspective and depth of Rosa, and her and Maria’s situation. Especially how her being the youngest, being the only one divorced in the family (single mother stigma in Japan adding to stress), her trauma with Kuwadorian Beatrice (which I loved how Will handled that with her in Ep7) and so on, there is a whole pile of hints and subtle events that add to her character than just being abusive for the sake of being abusive. And frankly, her going between abusive and then loving to Maria was surprisingly realistic to the actions of abusers who do so out of stress or trauma (Again, it doesn’t excuse her actions, but I was shocked at the knowledge of Ryukishi to write her as so).
Natsuhi, Krauss (Goat-kun battle remains forever in my heart) Kyrie, and Rudolph are all great too, but they were more straightforward to understand for me personally. (and also wonderfully written and handled). They come so so close to Eva and Rosa, but for me, Eva and Rosa had a lot of a more complex backstory and puzzle pieces that were interesting for me to go along with and learn about their stories.
6 Likes
Personally, my favorite adult would have to be Natsuhi. To me, she seems to be the only adult who is less focused on the inheritance and more focused on how to preserve the family title. She’s especially passionate on that, even without having the one-winged crest. To me, she just feels like the most determined out of everyone, especially with everything she had to endure in episode 5.
3 Likes
Natsuhi is probably my favorite. So much development from her and she is such a strong character. Flawed and complex at the same time.
2 Likes
My favorite adults are Eva, Natsuhi, and Rosa.
Eva- Eva’s easily one of my favorite characters in Umineko. She’s like a hardcore soccer mom with 10 tons of gold and presumably a kick ass body. She’s also mean as shit. Honestly, she probably showed up to the 1986 conference just to stir the pot.
Natsuhi- I love how much time is spent on Natsuhi’s struggles as a house wife. It’s not something typically seen in stories. I also think she’s the sleeping wolf of the pack. Natsuhi constructed her own cat box fantasy which is a huge deal in Umineko. With all her talk about wanting to wear the one winged eagle and her excessive pride, I could see her as a potential direct accomplice to Sayo if she was pushed far enough. (Natsutrice…)
Rosa- I hate her from a personal standpoint but she’s tragically interesting. Rosa needs a lot of help. She’s clearly the most neurotic of her siblings and was abused by them on the daily. By 1986, she was running her life into the ground. Rosa definitely has one of the saddest stories. It’s upsetting.
2 Likes
I think here, Krauss and Natsuhi easily win when compared to the other characters.
Eva and Hideyoshi are good, but that mostly on Eva. Eva herself is an amazing character and one of my personal favorites, so I have no problem with her. Hideyoshi on the other hand isn’t nearly as fleshed out of a character as Eva or most of the characters in the series. All we know about Hideyoshi is about his financial situation and that he doesn’t appear to have any family outside of the Ushiromiyas. There’s not that much we can infer from there other than his lack of a family lets him treasure his current one. He’s certainly a likable character, I won’t deny that, but that only takes you so far in a story with characters as fleshed out as Eva.
Rudolf and Kyrie aren’t bad, but neither of them are close to being among my favorites. I consider their writing to be rather decent, but they got really shafted on screentime throughout the series. Kyrie has an entire backstory, but it’s not as interesting as it should have been, since I could never buy her love for Rudolf as much as other romantic pairings in Umineko. I like Kyrie for being one of the more intelligent ones on the island, but it’s not put to use as much as it probably should have, since she isn’t present in the meta world where most of the intellectual back and forth takes place. Rudolf is a fine enough character, even if he is kind of a scumbag. He does display a good deal of human moments, especially more than Kyrie, but he doesn’t have enough time dedicated to him to be as good as I feel he should have been. I think it’s a shame, because if they expanded a lot more on his relationship with Battler, like I expected, then I would have thought a lot better of him. As is, a lot of his thoughts are mostly left to implication from the audience, but I think we needed just a little more out of him.
Rosa is actually a very good character. Among all the adults individually, she’s probably my third favorite. Rosa despite her outbursts towards Maria, ends up feeling like a very human character. You can see all the reasons why she acts the way she does, and it’s hard not to feel at least a little sympathy for her. Umineko never portrays her as being right for anything she does, but it does do a great job at letting us understand her. The only thing really holding her back in comparison to the others is probably just that she doesn’t have a spouse to help contribute to her score. She’s merely going at it alone.
Now we get to Krauss and Natsuhi. I really like these two. Krauss less than Natsuhi, but I really like how they made him into more than the typical mean oldest sibling that he seemed like in the beginning. He has a lot of pressure put on him to succeed his father and suffers from an inferiority complex as a result. He also has a lot of regret for the way he’s treated his siblings growing up and is prepared to take responsibility for it. He seems like the one among the siblings that has matured the most. He has realized his own mistakes and shortcomings, but is still suffering the consequences of them, and he is prepared to take them head-on. And then there’s Natsuhi, who I consider the most well written character in the series. She has so many layers to her character, from her struggles to communicate to Jessica, to her feelings of inadequacy in the family, as well as her backstory. They all work extremely well to make a character that you can’t help but want to succeed despite all the hardships she faces in her life.
4 Likes