I was originally only going to write a few lines but you know me.
The titles of the new pieces roused interest from me. If not cranes, then Goethe and the themes I posit will persist; Faust and the desecration of the universe in fact spelling out intellectual and spiritual death in return for a gingerbread house (hollow, transient, decadent (or hedonistic)). I’ve already established these and will leave their justification to the appropriate post above.
Of the new pieces, we have the titles Rainbow of Nostalgia, Pink Justice, Utopia, The Star we Loved, Sky of Shunyata, Rebirth of Blue and At the end of a Wish. While some of these translations are not confirmed, they at worst contain the both the linguistic and contextual essences to make sense given the earlier quotes in the character teasers, Rainbow of Nostalgia not being precise yet vaguely so. Rainbow of Nostalgia, Pink Justice and Blue Rebirth are pertinent to Goethe: he wrote a book titled Theory of Colours, subject matter self-evident and, alongside the fact these are likely related to character who represent those colors, Goethe wrote on botany, most famously in his Metamorphosis of Plants, another subject I’ve proven to be relevant to the character naming scheme thus far. Parse his chromatic and photic investigation from the nouns to be left with nostalgia, justice and rebirth. These are undoubtedly relevant descriptors to a story regarding the damage of a mistaken Faustian bargain: that halcyon rainbow prior to the damning deal, justice as sought redemption for abandonment and then the required return to form as a verbose rebirth.
Blue rebirth, however, is more relevant to Sky of Shunyata then its chromatic brethren. Shunyata, as noted in another post, is usually known as a Buddhist (but not exclusively) concept describing at first emptiness, continues to put forth these three things most relevantly: “non-substantiality is neither negative nor world-negating but teaches the importance of perceiving the true nature of phenomena, which are on the surface transient,” “the common message is that the true nature of all phenomena is non-substantiality, and that it cannot be defined in terms of the concepts of existence and nonexistence” and “the practical purpose behind the teaching of non-substantiality lies in eliminating attachments to transient phenomena and to the ego, or the perception of self as an independent and fixed identity.” These would call out especially the sorts of sacrifices made in the bargain, or the soul of humanity, when it chose to be ravished by that gingerbread house, but they connect to the chromatic/photic theme. What’s important about the sky is that it is not only blue, like Blue Rebirth would describe, but that it thus becomes the subject to shunyata and rebirth, both titanic concepts in eastern philosophy. This timelessness espoused by the shunyata concept is undoubtedly reminiscent of reincarnation and reincarnation of shunyata. It would be no surprised for Ryukishi to once again write of and connect eastern philosophy to one of the western world’s best (Dante for Umineko and Goethe here).
Utopia, the Star we Loved and At the End of a Wish are, respectively, the illusory utopia from a wish-granting bargain (utopia even require soullessness to exist), the universe/soul that was once venerated by humanity now being the target of pure nostalgia alongside the fact that the character biographies refer to conceiving and nurturing those lost stars (more return to form) and, finally, the result of the bargain, which was promised to grant a wish but in fact disintegrated the core of humanity’s spirituality. Or, being cute about it, I can summarize it as humanity realizing that, at the end of the utopic wish it had finally granted, the star that composed its soul disappeared.
Then, return all the themes of the titles together and acknowledge Goethe’s chromatic/photic literature plus Faust, eastern philosophy will once again coming into play in synthesis, to find that whatever the crane, or something akin to it in representation, is likely going to be crying this time.