Hi, I’m Jordan. I’m 21 and I live in the United States. I am studying political science. (That…sure is a combination right now.)
I have read the first half of Umineko and some of Higurashi. Of the two Umineko has me more invested although I have been enjoying Higurashi.
I honestly don’t remember how I found out about this website.
I enjoy a number of things but these days I enjoy anime and video games.
Hello and welcome to Rokkenjima!
Hope you’ll enjoy your stay here, sadly it’s a bit quiet right now while we’re inbetween releases but hopefully it’ll become livelier again soon.
Also please join the discussion and put in your theories about both Higurashi and Umineko, we veterans always enjoy reading them whenever something new pops up 
Hi. Thank you for responding to me.
I actually don’t think I have any theories at the moment for Umineko, and I’m only in part 2 of Higurashi.
I guess I can say one thing though: at the moment, the argument for the supernatural element’s existence seems much more convincing than the one in Higurashi, but again, I’m not terribly far in Higurashi, and since supernatural presence in Umineko escalated every part, I don’t think I can can call it either way.
Do you happen to enjoy Exalted, or is the name unrelated to it?
I am afraid I do not know what you are talking about.
Sorry if that is a disappointment.
Hi, I’m 19 years old and I’m from Romania.
I don’t usually get engaged in communities or fandoms, but maybe I should visit this one from time to time.
It’s a little bit lonely to read Umineko alone, and its fanbase is not very numerous, so I’m not acquainted with any other Umineko fan.
My first and only 07th Expansion series I read is Umineko. I would say that… Umineko is one of the best if not the best piece of literature I ever read, or I would start to describe what this ‘game’ means to me, but this is not the right place to do so.
Kind of funny since I don’t have any other place where I can post.
I found about this site from a comment on Youtube.
Some other interests would be traveling, otaku culture, games, learning, fitness, and some others…
Welcome to Rokkenjima 
I’m exactly the same way as I also don’t really get involved in communities, forums or fandoms and I never really engaged with any other Umineko fans before finding Rokkenjima. But I’ve really enjoyed my stay here and I hope you will as well.
As I said earlier it’s a bit quiet at the moment but hopefully it’ll start up again when MangaGamer announces Higurashi Kai and Umineko Chiru.
Have you read all episodes of Umineko or have you only read the ones released on Steam?
Is there a reason why you haven’t read Higurashi or are you just not interested in it?
Thank you
I’m currently reading episode 8 at a slower pace, and I’m enjoying it so far. My favorite is still episode 7, though.
I’m new to the 07th Expansion, and I chose Umineko instead of Higurashi because it felt more interesting. Though I do plan on reading Higurashi in the future.
I see, I don’t mind if it’s quiet.
Greetings! I’m currently 19 years old from Pennsylvania in the US. I discovered 07th Expansion a few years ago after stumbling upon “Lavender Town Higurashi Remix” on YouTube and deciding to investigate the context.
I quickly discovered something that could be described as dark in two different figurative senses of the word. First, Higurashi concerned itself with making the reader uncomfortable using various forms of suffering. Second, it kept the depths of its meaning hidden in shadow, creating a mystery.
Over the last few months, I’ve returned to When They Cry with the Steam releases. Currently, I’ve read the four Higurashi question arcs and I’m currently playing through the Banquet arc of Umineko. I’ve come here mainly to find discussion and interaction related to the series.
Edit: I didn’t even see a full half of the prompts at first. I believe I first saw Rokkenjima linked from Reddit in either /r/visualnovels or one of the When They Cry subreddits. As far as interests go aside from 07th Expansion, Pokémon would have to be the main one in the entertainment category. I’m mainly interested in the games, and I’ve been playing since late 2009, with Platinum as my first version. I’m also interested in computers (I’ve learned the basics of a couple of programming languages) and in the Japanese language (though I should probably start studying it more).
When the skies darken, everyday life comes to an end.
Yeah, the ability of Higurashi to make the reader uncomfortable is something I’ve been noticing. It does it very well.
You’re actually the first person on here I’ve seen from America besides myself, but I haven’t read this whole thread yet. I’m from Virginia.
Glad you’re enjoying it, Ep 8 is a bit of a base breaker so not everyone likes it.
While Umineko is my favourite of the two series I really enjoy Higurashi, especially the suspence horror elements that Umineko dropped after Ep 1 (for understandable reasons but still). The one downside with it is that the soundtrack is noticably lacking compared to Umineko, especially in the early episodes which were made before Dai joined 07th Expansion, but it’s gets better after chapter 4.
@CounterShadowform
Welcome to Rokkenjima! Hope you’ll enjoy your stay here with us and join in on the discussions.
Since you’re reading both Higurashi and Umineko I thought I would ask what you think of them so far? And which of those two series do you like the most?
And that’s from a western perspective, imagine how it is for the Japanese considering how some of the reveals goes against the importance of purity in Shintoism. This means that some things that are just uncomfortable or disgusting here are downright Religious horror there.
I just finished Umineko chapter 3 earlier, so I’ll reply to this before continuing any further in case any of the ideas on which my opinions are based get disproved or complicated in chapter 4.
I like Higurashi and Umineko for somewhat different reasons, so I find it hard to directly compare them. Higurashi is partly something I admire for being creatively cruel with its characters while maintaining a story and mystery intricately linked to their suffering. I’ve been spoiled before on part of Higurashi, and while I do regret encountering it at the wrong time and it definitely isn’t something I’d want to be the one to reveal to someone, that spoiler doesn’t actually dissolve the whole mystery. As a result, I respect Higurashi even more for being deep enough in secrets to stand up to such a blow.
While Umineko does also have its share of brutality, it doesn’t seem to focus on using that to disturb readers. It instead seems to be trying to ask philosophical questions about truth, logic, narrative, and maybe also experience.
I suppose that if I had to choose, I’d say I like Higurashi a bit better at least for now, for its style of creating mystery and for introducing me to the series; however, Umineko is still rich, from my current vantage point at the end of Ep. 3, in mysteries and meta-mysteries, and I feel like I could easily encounter something that changes my preference.
I personally believe at this point, based on what I’ve seen of it, that all of When They Cry can be thought of as a single “unit” in some way, but I have extremely little idea at this point of just what way that is. I suppose that my main “goal” in experiencing these works is to eventually work out not only the meanings of the mysteries, but also the connections between them, and see what kind of beauty the series as a whole presents.
oh oh! @CounterShadowform please share your thoughts in the Tatarigoroshi topic! We need more perspectives so we can continue the Tea Party Podcasts.
Hello fellow witch hunters! I’m Hippo, I’m 16 and from the United States. I’ve watched both seasons of the Higurashi anime and read the question arcs of the Umineko sound novel. I found Rokkenjima when the buzz about When They Cry 5 was going about Twitter. Outside of 07th Expansion stuff I guess I’m just a fairly average anime fan. When Chiru comes to steam I look forward to theorizing with everyone here!
First of, welcome!
I’d say don’t just wait for Chiru to start theorizing, but jump into the fray with the Episode 4 Spoiler-Free Discussion Topic. While the amount of replies in that topic particular may seem daunting, we certainly haven’t answered every lingering question yet, so there’s a good chance that you can bring something new to the table. Besides, it’ll probably still take a few months until Chiru comes out. Either way, I’m also looking forward to theorizing with you, and I wish you a nice stay here.
Hello, everyone. I’m a 24 years old person from Finland who decided to refer to himself as midsummer on a whim. I found this site by chance when googling “rokkenjima massacre” for whatever reason, and had a look. ghagler’s first gameboard was underway, and I followed the progression of the game, making my own theories and enjoying the back-and-forth between the witch and the challengers. Since then, I checked this place out occasionally, but I didn’t feel like making an account until I found out that ghagler had posted a second gameboard. Since I felt like participating, and it seemed like the trust level limit on participating in that particular subforum had been lifted, I decided to make an account and give ghagler’s mystery a shot.
I’ve read through the entriety of Umineko, and I liked it a lot. Now that the first four Episodes are in Steam, I plan on rereading them eventually with the new translation, but I’m not in a particular hurry since I have too many other things in my backlog already. My familiarity with Higurashi is limited to the anime, which I rather enjoyed.
I have to admit that my primary interest when it comes to this site is the gameboards people have posted - I even have some interested in preparing one of my own. I am very intrigued about the idea of discussing a new When They Cry VN as it is released, however. Until then, I might not be an amazingly active member, but I hope I can contribute something of value every now and then, perhaps.
Glad to hear it @midsummer! While I expect things to be quiet around here for a while, I hope the Gameboards give our community a bit of activity in the meantime. Hope you have lots of fun participating in and hosting your own gameboards! I’m hoping to see some more ambitious ones posted soon.
Hi, I’m 21 years old and from Canada. So far I’ve read the visual novels for Umineko and Higurashi chapters 1-5 (reading chapter 6 now). I read the Higanabana manga and plan to read the visual novel after Higurashi. Umineko is one of if not my all time favourite piece of fiction. I found this site just looking for somewhere to find fans of 07th Expansion. Other things about me uh I really love different mediums of fiction, and want to find more amazing mystery stories. I look forward to hopefully talking with some of you.
We have a lot of people that go by ‘bern’ or similar here, this may get confusing quick ^^;;
Nonetheless, welcome to the community! It’s pretty quiet at the moment but we hope you enjoy it. Make use of the forum, post in some of our topics, and be sure to join our Discord! In no time you’ll have the Witch rank and the community will open up to you.
Good point, I’ve noticed that even among the small groups of friends I could find on other sites Bernkastel seems to be a popular name choice. Changed mine slightly to make myself stand out a little more and have it a little less confusing. Been enjoying the forum so far, a lot to read and get used to though. I’ll check out the discord too! Thanks.