I feel Chiru is more of an exploration of the themes and characters of Umineko, and a subtle one at that, moreso in the VN. What Ryukishi wanted to emphasise here is the themes and the ‘why’ of the mystery, maybe you can even say ‘the heart’ of it and wanted to give a look into the characters’ psychological states and why some of them are how they are or did what they did. For some reason, he wanted the motives of the characters to be explained much more than the ‘how’. Now, if you compare this with Higurashi, which probably a lot of people who read it before Umineko did, Higurashi is more… well-balanced, I guess, or, more precisely, it seems so. The answers are given to the reader directly in it and it also spends time exploring the characters’ stories, but since most were focused on the mystery and after being given the answers directly in the Answer arcs, the story was much more understandable, I think. Meanwhile, Umineko wants to make the reader think with the characters and whilst it gives subtle answers, in the end, it leaves the reader having to make everything completely clear by themselves. The new characters it introduces are also meant to give new perspectives and takes on the mystery, I think and thus give the reader more clues. I mean, Umineko, the meta world itself is about analysing and figuring the story, which is apt for what Ryukishi wanted to do with the story. It’s about the process of figuring it out rather than being given the answers directly. Even though it headed into a different direction than Higurashi, I do enjoy Chiru and I feel the character additions were pretty good. I didn’t expect it to go into the direction the Answer arcs of Higurashi did, like some people might have and I definitely enjoyed the new take on the mystery.
3 Likes