Twilight of the Golden Witch Vol. 9 is the ninth volume of Kei Natsumi's manga adaptation of Twilight of the Golden Witch and the 50th overall volume of the manga adaptation of Umineko When They Cry. The volume was released in English by Yen Press in an omnibus format with Volume 7 and Volume 8.
Publisher's Summary[]
Japanese[]
長き戦いは終わり、戦人たちは縁寿に２つの未来を示す。ベアトが出した問題の答えは、「手品」か「魔法」か。真実の意味、そして魔法の意味を理解した縁寿はどちらの扉を開くのか。そして描かれる1986年のあの日の真実と1998年以降の世界。「愛がなければ視えない」「愛があるから視える」最後の真実を夏海ケイが描く、「うみねこ」シリーズ完結巻。
English[]
Ange reconciles with the rest of the Urishomiya Family. The tragedy of the Ushiromiya bloodline...who exactly wished for it? Discover the truth and more in the final volume of Umineko: When They Cry Episode 8: Twilight of the Golden Witch!
Chapters[]
Chapter 35: Beyond the Door ―Sleight of Hand, and Then...[]
Chapter 36: Beyond the Door ―Magic―[]
Chapter 37: When the Seagulls Cry[]
Final Chapter: Golden Land[]
Afterword[]
Ryukishi07[]
Hello, I am Ryukishi07.
Have you reached the Golden Land at last, everyone? Congratulations on finishing your long journey. And welcome home.
Given that the Umineko spin-off series has already concluded, this might be the final bit of writing I do for the manga adaptation of Umineko... Perhaps there won't be anything else for quite a while... In that sense, I find this a rather poignant moment here, just sitting at my computer.
I received a wonderful message the other day. It was the news that two people who met through my work were getting married. It's happened several times now. That's a beautiful thing. As for you, dear reader, what kind of story was Umineko to you? From the announcement of the visual novel to the completion of the manga, it's been an entire eight years. If this story happened to draw you together with another person, that would be a very good thing.
Now, as I'm sure you all know if you've read this far, I had the manga adaptation depict some things that the original visual novel did not touch upon. Umineko is the story of the cat box that doesn't open. But I came to the thought that eventually that box would need to be opened. After all, a box that never opens is not actually a box.
Before this eighth episode was serialized, I had much discussion with the 07th Expansion team. Because the visual novel is a text-centric medium, you can describe certain things in an abstract way, but because the manga would be drawn with art, we needed to decide upon the appropriate borderline for how much to keep in an abstract form.
The simplest option would be to maintain the same level of abstraction as the original work and leave it as a cat box. That opinion was certainly raised. But the conclusion of the manga would be happening several years after the conclusion of the visual novel. It would quite possibly be the last piece of media that depicts the ending of Umineko. And that was when I realized that everyone who had been chasing after the contents of the cat box would end up at the conclusion of the Episode 8 manga.
So I came to a thought. Why not give the people who'd been following our cat box, here at the very very end, a peek at its contents? I made my decision. Why not depict the cat box in full, as far as we possibly could, here in Episode 8 of the manga?
We decided upon Natsumi-sensei, the artist of Episode 1, to draw Episode 8 for us. She sent a storyboard of several dozen pages in before we even had a full meeting about the series. It was a scene of the interactions between Battler and Beato on the third day, after the explosion. (She was able to do this on her own because I told her the truth of the story before she began drawing Episode 1.) From all of the drafts she sent along despite her busy schedule, I could feel Natsumi-sensei's love and determination to put this story to rest herself. So I decided to leave the contents of the cat box up to Natsumi-sensei.
There were three things that I told her at this point.
"Visual novels and manga tell and show you completely different things. There's no need to fixate on how it plays out on the computer screen. Show off the content in a way that only a comic adaptation can do."
I also said, "Episode 8 is a story about making Ange happy. It was written to bring her salvation and closure, so please make sure she is happy at the end."
And lastly, "This is all up to you, Natsumi-sensei, so depict the cat box as much as you possibly can."
And she answered my demands on all counts, with all of her spirit. As she drew, we had much correspondence over details and things that were not explicitly revealed in the visual novel. It was like carving open the cat box to open it up—or as Bernkastel might say, cutting open the stomach of the cat box and pulling out all of its contents. Ultimately, I believe that I expressed everything that the cat-box was to Natsumi-sensei. So I think that it is reasonable to state that the only living person who understands what happened on that island that day as much as I, Ryukishi07, is Natsumi-sensei. She opened the cat-box up in her manga, and drew it brilliantly to the end.
To Natsumi-sensei, all of her art assistants, and the people in the editorial department, thank you so, so much!
I am so delighted that I was able to wed off the precious daughter that is Episode 8 to Natsumi-sensei. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I am filled with gratitude and appreciation for all of you who read this far.
This long, long story will end here, but I hope that I will meet you again somewhere, somewhen. Let's do that, shell we?
Whenever something else cries next...
Kei Natsumi[]
Umineko When They Cry is over. Congratulations to everyone!
The last seven and a half years have been so rich and lively and fast-paced that it hardly feels like so much time has gone by.. The journey has been a blindingly bright one.
It's been a delightful and valuable experience having the opportunity to travel with Ryukishi-san's wonderful characters, crying and laughing and battling and mutilating them all the way.
I'm both proud of having been a person in charge of adaptation, and grateful for the opportunity to work on such a fantastic story. Thank you so much!
It was incredible getting to draw Battler's time int he spotlight(?) in Episode 1, all the different facets of my adorable Eva and EVA in Episode 3, and the truth behind the heart of this entire story in Episode 8!
I have all the love and appreciation int he world for the assistants who helped me along the way, the editors Nozaki-san, Yumoto-san, Koizumi-san, and the creators from 07th Expansion, for all of the care and assistance they gave me, and of course, to all you readers who came along for every step of the journey.
Thank you so much!
Special Thanks
Mai Horiuchi, Rin "Tomisho" Kuroki, Hiracchi, Riuna Mizuzaki, Chiyo Koizumi, Kurita, Yamamoto, Waon Peko, Miharu Arita,
& you
Gallery[]
