How different was the community compared to now. What was the most popular culprit theory? Was the reaction to the Chiru arcs (especially episodes 7 and 8) as bad what people make it out to be?
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Chiru hate on the internet were dark times.
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90% of the fanbase became a hatedom until the manga came around with explicit exposition.
Took a while to 4chan to come back to be a “positive” (mostly) fandom again, more or less in 2015, but it happened pretty nicely (many anons started pointing out all of the explicit info were in the Visual Novel all along and people finally started to see Umineko the way it should be seen).
But there’s still hate (just a bit), since some people got offended with the Goat thing somehow.
Animesuki forum tab for Umineko went retired before that thing happened, but people already didn’t quite remember stuff when the final EP8 chapters were released, so they mostly dismissed it as a retcon and the thread is pretty much dead now.
You missed nothing, only a terrible time period…
Shkanon was increasingly becoming popular after EP3 and was accepted to be the answer by EP6 when it became just obvious you just can’t solve it without assuming that Kanon = Shannon (especially with the Red by the end of it).
“Fucking Moon-chan!” (Jessica) was more of a meme culprit, much like Magical Gohda Chef (but both of them had quite elaborated theories surrounding them… though by EP6, they kinda got discarted and became a legit meme status for good).
There were also tons and tons of joke theories, and one of them, hilariously, actually was correct in a way (The Pony Theory).
There was also the famous Rosatrice theory (contrary to popular belief, it only really became a thing after EP8 came by, it wasn’t quite an established idea before that, as people just hated George with an absolute passion and treated it most of the theories involving him as jokes (Fat Jooji, white cucknight, and so on)). As he is a big part of that theory, it only really got the attention of anyone at all when this crazy KnowNoMore user uploaded an 8-hours long Umineko theory to youtube trying to prove his point. After the manga release, he deleted the videos, but some people reuploaded them later, for history sake.
Besides that one, there were also many meta theories from EP2-EP7 (EP8 pretty much confirmed one of them by the end of it while denying all of the rest, or at least most of denominated correct theory was actually right, as Battler’s body was still alive and stuff, while in the suposition, it should have been blown up with the island).
Good and fun times, I could enter in details about some others, but they weren’t quite as relevant and/or elaborated as those from what I recall. I’ve been in the Seacats fanbase theorizing with everyone since Witch Hunt made their first release, and I must say:
Besides how toxic and completely chaotic every single Umineko related thing became (it was one of the biggest things in the whole japanese-related 4chan for YEARS, be in /jp/ or /a/), those times were absolutely one of the most entertaining times I’ve ever had debating about a work of fiction. I hope with all my heart this happens with WTC5 as well (and of course, also hope that it doesn’t end up like Umineko: being hated by everyone for quite a while and all that).
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Wait, people said the moon was the culprit?! FOR REAL?! 
How is it that Battler didn’t think about that?
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He is incompetent after all! ahaha.wav 
But I think even Battler pointed out Jessica as a suspect at some point… right?
Ok, maybe he didn’t, but to be fair most of the times he was trying to exclude his family from the list of suspects.
Btw, the “Moon-chan” thing came from Jessica’s tarot card in the BD releases being The Moon (also became a fountain of jokes about Krauss, of course, because MOON TOURISM!!).
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Wow I’m actually pretty surprised by that. My assumption was that it was a popular theory before ep 6/7/8 and then people just desperately tried to clutch at straws after that.
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… as far as I can remember Rosatrice became a thing due to a manga cover that drew Beatrice and Rosa in somewhat similar fashion.
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Both of you are right. What I meant by “become a thing” is to self-establish itself as a full theory (or at least to become fleshed-out enough). Before the video it wasn’t quite one of the biggest ones like it surely became after it, from what I can remember.
It already was an idea before EP8 (I would dare to say by the time of EP5 even, thanks to the EP4 “evil witch” plotline with Maria).
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Ah, this is such a fun thread! To people who have been around since the time when the VNs were still being released, I’m curious to hear more about the theories that were popular back then, I’m especially interested in the Rosatrice theory, so anyone care to elaborate to me on that and explain it to me in full? @danpmss @Usagi
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Better than explaining it, I would rather recommend watching the full thing for that one. I can point out the major flaws of it, especially in a certain portion of EP5 with Erika which was one of his biggest arguments in the videos.
I must say though, he did quite a job trying to piece it altogether, and he deserves props for it at least.
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Ah, I remember a lot of those mentioned above!
There was also a theory after ep 3 that Beatrice was actually a boiler explosion and everything on Rokkenjima got destroyed in the end, which while not true, did hint very closely at the bomb.
Some people figured out the existence of Rokkenjima Prime and the forgeries quite early on.
Shkannon and the Pony theory were regarded as jokes in the beginning, but slowly gained momentum and a lot of memes and fanarts associated with them, such as this:
The anime was highly anticipated and lots of us were disappointed by it, but it led to some insane memes like that Oh Desire! chipmunk video.
The weirdest events were the releases of new episodes at Comiket. Usually there was a big 4chan thread in which most fans (me included) didn’t know a thing about reading Japanese and only read what those who already acquired the novel posted. And those people would either run the novel through some automatic translator and show out of context screenshots or post spoilers (some of them misinterpreted). A lot of hatred appeared against Ryukishi, for example he was called lazy because of the Ep 7 sprites (the maid stakes, young Kinzo as Battler etc.) Many people complained against Chiru, saying Ryu’s quality as a writer dropped dramatically after the death of his friend.
On the other hand, the Animesuki forums were much better. There were either lurkers like me who never really posted any theory, but stalked all of them, then there were a few people who went in depth and came up with really crazy and creative interpretations of events, then there were occasional visitors who didn’t really bother reading the already discussed theories and got upset when their own hypothesis were destroyed.
I really hope WTC5 will bring that back, I’ve never really encountered any other community this dedicated to analyzing their favorite series. Fingers crossed that someone will translate the novels soon after they are released.
Edit: I didn’t even stumble upon Rosatrice until a couple of years or so after I had finished reading the entire series and it seemed to have come out of nowhere.
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Yes, a very fun thread indeed. (Definitely not posting just for the sake of trying get it the witch rank.)
Eh, I don’t even know where to find that video and considering it’s old, it may even be tougher to find and besides, I can’t be bothered to watch a lengthy video just to learn of the theory. But, if you don’t feel like explaining it to me, it’s totally fine and if anybody else cares to explain it to me, they’d be welcome to.
@ColdKakeraDrifter Post around as much as you want, but please don’t make my posts the basis of such random posts.
@sii_kei Um, I don’t think it’s necessary to spoiler tag that image, unless I’m missing something here…
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To be completely honest, is not that I don’t wanna explain it, it’s just that it’s a theory so big I would need to watch those 8 hours all over again to properly point out its stuff.
If you want a short version, it’s pretty much that Rosa is a problematic person who wants the gold, hates the family and solved the epitaph by herself, and with the help of George, who wanted to marry Shannon, started some kind of conspiracy to take down the whole family.
I’ve watched it some years ago, so I don’t quite remember all of the things, but I did made a document with many arguments against the things composing most of the logic and reasonment behind the whole thing (at some point he even ignores any metafictional plot points related to the storytelling and narrative traps as well, EP6 is a complete nitpicking mess in a sense too).
In any case, I wouldn’t be able to detail every single thing without a rewatch, that’s the thing. The videos were very, very well made besides their sometimes blatant mistakes.
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Gosh reading this thread brings back all the memories of animesuki and /jp/~
Rosatrice, Moon, Pony… just gosh.
Anyone remember the Moon MAD?
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To be honest I haven’t bothered to watch the whole theory myself. Too much time.
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It’s really exactly as @sii_kei and @danpmss said …also that’s strange to think we were all probably on the same boards talking about Umineko so long ago.
The memes back then were really fun and wild too, though nowadays I wouldn’t find all of them in good taste as a 15-16 year old me might, haha. (The Oh Desire! vid is still perfect. Yami wo Kirisaku load this dryer)
ahem
The only thing I can remember really strongly in regard to theories was Shkanontrice being really popular and at odds with Rosatrice. As danpmss said, by EP6 Shkanontrice was pretty much strongly implied canon and then EP7 confirmed it, and left a lot of people with either team Rosatrice or other theories with a bitter taste in their mouth; but that being said as the story progressed it was really more clear who was right - I think they just didn’t want to accept that.
Also alot of people hated Erika and there was probably “Erika is a Mary Sue” thread everyday or was continuing everyday, until EP6 came out. Also, Bernkastel actually expressing a range of emotions was like a huge hype and reveal, and everyone was having fun looking at her new expressive sprites. 
The usage of Ryukishi’s original sprites for reaction faces and memes was what made it super popular I think. Because Beatrice’s original “troll smile” was so similar to the troll face meme at the time, it just took off. Battler crying was the perfect seasoning to go along with Beatrice’s troll smile. And also it was a meme that his hand never left his pocket despite sobbing and screaming, haha.
I can’t remember but using red and blue, and eventually gold text was a thing for a while on /jp/ I believe, but I might honestly be imagining that - but I could have sworn something like that was implemented for a short while.
Mostly it was the same as how it is when we get new readers here, but a lot more wild and no one around to know how it ends or know there is even a set ending, giving an air of a lot more freedom/wildness to explore. Some people definitely had the skills to solve the epitaph and the story before EP4 looking back, but they had no way to confirm if it was true or not.
I agree that they really were the most fun times I’ve ever had with a fandom and even it’s extending to now on Rokkenjima! I also hope this happens with WTC5, at least the good parts overall as it was with Umineko. The fire never really came back with Higanbana or Rose Guns Days, or even Trianthology.
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Eh, thanks for finding it, but like I said, I can’t be bothered to watch such a lengthy video.
Same here.
whistles Past me doesn’t admit a thing… nu-uh.
I know what you mean. Some of them still hold the test of time, though.
There was marten on Deviantart (I think back then she was called Shroedinger) who had an entire Umineko gallery full of funny fanarts and memes such as this one:
Then there was the uminekolol livejournal which made fun of trashy anime, the USO DA! 4-panel comic, and the following classic:
Back on MyAnimeList we also had quite the community (only the novel readers, I am afraid; the anime-only viewers had quite the hatred against the series) and we created a club called Umineko Popularity Contests (I was one of the admins). The group used to hold all sorts of contests (Best character, best BGM, best episode etc.), but we gave up sometime before Chiru was released.
Edit: I forgot, but way before Rosatrice, Rosa used to be called BEST MOM EVER.
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