Umineko no Naku Koro ni Tsubasa Review

Title: Umineko no Naku Koro ni Tsubasa (うみねこのなく頃に翼)
Alias: When the Seagulls Cry: Wing
Release date: 2010-12-31 (2011-01-30 in English)
Developer: 07th Expansion
English publisher: various translators (as a partial fan-patch)

Just days ago I reviewed one of the fandiscs for "Umineko", known as "Hane". "Hane" was a disappointing release and included only two short stories that weren't even enough to whet my appetite. The second fandisc - "Tsubasa" contains whooping fifteen stories. Let's rip their guts and see the insides.

In reality, the currently available English patch for this collection of stories only partially translates them - stories 5, 11, 15 and the Postscript are not translated and 13th is only partially translated. Still, that puts the translation at about 80% finished. Let's dive in and feast on the guts of those juicy tidbits.

Letter of Bernkastel

The first story letter in the collection written by our favourite cat. The addressee is never mentioned, but I imagine that it is Featherine. Frankly, I didn't find the letter very interesting, as Bernkastel just musses about rules X, Y and Z of Beatrice's world and doesn't reach any conclusions. The most entertainment I got was from spotting a translation inconsistency where the word "absolutely" instead of "certainly" was attributed to Lady 34. It only proves that Witch Hunt guys had nothing to do with translating this stuff. The letter ends with a Higurashi style poem from Frederica Bernkastel which is a sort of mindfuck as the relation between Frederica Bernkastel and Lady Bernkastel is still not very clear.

The Witches' Tanabata is Sweet

A much longer piece starring Bern, Lambda, Beatrice, Maria and Ange. During Tanabata Maria asked for her wish to be granted and Beatrice decided to grant it as Maria had a strong desire for it to come true. After that, story evolves into the witches discussing about wishes and human desires. Fed up with her comrades Bern decides to also grant a wish, but twists everything around and creates a tragedy.

You are so mean, Lambda-chan.

It's interesting to note, that during this story the views of Hinamizawa are shown and it is strongly implied that there is a connection between 34s of both stories. You really had a strong desire for your wish to come true, Miyoko-san...

Game Master Battler!

Pukuku... The power corrupts - that is an undeniable truth. GMB is a short comedic story set after chapter 5th. Battler is preparing for the upcoming EP6 and all the characters are trying to bribe or otherwise placate Battler to give them big roles in the game, which results in him presenting perverted and just plainly unreasonable demands to them. The highlight here is probably EVA, who agrees to various humiliating requests in order to get a role. I won't spoil what those requests were. :-D

Badmouthing Erica.

The tale ends on a hilarious note. Payback's a bitch, ain't it, Battler? Your scream for help was exhilarating.

Jessica's Mother's Day Present

Another humorous short starring Jessie. She proves that Kinzo's blood runs through her veins by almost accidentally calling two demons - already familiar to us Zepar and Furfur - forth. She asks for some sort of present to give to her mother and receives a magic carnation. As all the demon gifts it comes with some strings attached... heh heh heh.

Jessica and the Love Charm

This is the last of the three stories starring Jessie in the lead role, with "Mother's Day Present" and "Killer Electric Fan" (available in "Hane") being the other two. It's also one of the untranslated titles and thus I can't really say what is happening with any degree of accuracy. From what I understand Jessica summons Furfur and Zepar again. In the previous tale those two fiends suggested a charm that will destroy all obstacles to get Kanon's love and that I recon is the main theme this time. It probably doesn't end well as the last scene is reeeally disturbing... LOL

Memoirs of the ΛΔ

Not unlike the "Letter of Bernkastel", this is an excerpt from Lady Lambdadelta's diary. it's quite an interesting piece shedding some light on the older events. First of all it strongly implies the meeting between ΛΔ and a young Miyoko (which was already hinted at in the Tanabata story) and later the meeting with Yasu, who has already assumed the identity of Beatrice. In that way, during this episode we witness the birth of two new witches (or rather a witch and a god wannabe).

The negative aspect here is quite a poor translation with many spelling mistakes, but Umineko Wiki provides a much better translation in a text form. I suggest reading it after finishing the version within the patch.

Notes From  a Certain Chef

The narrator of this tale is Gohda-san - the chef of the Ushiromiya family. We learn the circumstances of his retirement from the hotel he had worked in and his employment by the Ushiromiyas. Gohda is a self-proclaimed doubter in Beatrice's existence and it doesn't take long for the witch to prank him. The story provides some useful information about the magic circles that were drawn during the murder sprees. In short, they existed previously on the island to scare disrespectful servants.

Labor Thanksgiving Day Gifts

What a fun story this is... The cousins decide to pay respect to their parents and give them presents for Labor Day (November 23rd). They choose the most appropriate things and receive heartfelt thanks from the adults... not.

Beatrice has the attention span of a goldfish :-D

The Golden Witch Beatrice decides to stir thing up and switches the presents around. Hilarity ensues and everything ends with a huge battle.

The Seven Sisters' Valentine

A story illustrating that lying will not lead to good end. A demon cooks the dark and terrible meal in a witches cauldron, or maybe that is just a Valentine's Chocolate. The said chocolate will grand a happy Valentine's day for the Seven Sisters, who can be really cute when they are not being cold-blooded killers. Just don't say that you made the chocolate yourself as the person who got two chocolates will be able to tell that they are identical. Pukuku...

Caught you!

Beatrice's White Day

A direct continuation of the previous tale that is reminiscent of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". The Wicked Witch gets no chocolate for the White Day and decides to ruin the day for everyone by destroying the presents. At least that is an outer shell of the story, but inside it's a really heartwarming romantic episode showing that even Beatrice the Golden wants to feel closeness to another person.

Cornelia the New Priest

The second of as of yet untranslated stories. It centers on the Heavenly Inquisitors, but I really couldn't tell what exactly is happening there. It's also really long and that might be one of the reasons that no one translated it.

Whose Tea Party?

A very short piece describing Bernkastel's journey to a tea party organised by Lambda and Featherine. Pretty funny and it accents Bern's independent nature even more.

Valentine Paper

So, Ronove is also serving as a postman, as he brings Battler Valentine Letters from many of the game characters. This is a partially translated chapter as some of the letters are not translated, namely: Mammon's, Siesta556's (a real shame as she is the least represented character of the game), Cornelia's, Zepar's and Furfur's. There is nothing important written in these letters, so this whole chapter is a sort of gimmick.

How did I know this would happen?...

Sakutarou, to Mount Purgatory

Sakutarou died. He has fallen in a battle with a Black Witch and was cast to Purgatory. Here he will be guided by Virgilia towards the summit, where he will be able to choose either to ascent to Heaven or to be resurrected by the new Beatrice. There were "Divine Comedy" allusions aplenty in the main game series, but this one is the most direct. The chapter also partially answers the question how ANGE resurrected Sakutarou in "Alliance".

Arigato to 556

A real shame that this last story is not translated as it deals with Siesta Troops and specifically with unit 556, whom we have only ever seen in the character screen after pressing the "Resurrect" button. We know that she was killed by the Black Witch a.k.a. Rosa, but I would have liked to see her from the fantasy perspective as her Rabbit Sisters see her. It's also the first time that we see her sprite (not counting the Letters above).

After finishing all fifteen tales, a "Postscript" by Ryuukishi07 appears, but it's also in Japanese.

Conclusion

"Tsubasa" is a collection befitting its fandisc name. Unlike in "Hane", there is enough side material to satisfy readers craving for some additional foray into "Umineko" universe. The stories range from humorous to fairly serious and also vary in length considerably. Sadly, all the tales are not very substantial as many of them are not worthy of the name "TIPS". Majority of them do not reveal anything new about "Umineko" universe and are basically candy for fans.

In addition, the presentation suffers due to multiple translators and the lack of proofreading. There are tons of grammatical and stylistic mistakes that just glare at you. Due to those reasons it's also hard to rate "Tsubasa" fairly, but it's definitely not a bad fandisc if you want to have all the "Umineko" related material.

Links of Interest

Visual Novel Database
Official Japanese site
Purchase the fandisc at Mandarake or Rakuten.
Buy a download version from Gameliner.
Animesuki thread for English translation

Final Verdict: 62%