Hello everyone,
Let's continue on the notes of this morning and let's talk about another heavy talked series of the last years. This time we'll talk about the spiritual successor of Higurashi named "Umineko no Naku Koro ni", a game (still in progress I think) and an anime series.
Let's start with a synopsis :
Umineko no Naku Koro ni takes place in the year 1986, during the time frame of October 4 and October 5 on a secluded island named Rokkenjima. The head of a wealthy family named Kinzo Ushiromiya, who lives on and owns Rokkenjima, is near death, and eight of his family members arrive on the island to discuss how Kinzo's assets will be divided once he is dead. Also on the island are three family members who live there, five of Kinzo's servants, and his personal physician. After the eight family members arrive, a typhoon traps them on the island and shortly after people start to get mysteriously murdered.
If you ever thought Higurashi as "complex", this will make you mad as the story in this case is pretty much non-sense even at the ending of the first series. (even if some light is starting to shed out on the situation and we can hope for a second season if they do like with Higurashi)
The story by itself follow the classic clichè of the closed doors murder mistery, but derails adding supernatural events and a "words" battle between our hero and the witch Beatrice who want to make him give up and start to believe into witches.
The pace of the series is quite fast and there aren't many filler episode as most of the episodes describe one part of what happened in that famous day in a different way depending on what intereferences happened in the storyline.
I'll be honest, this isn't Higurashi level quality, but nevertheless it's a good story to watch and interesting enough to keep you watching one episode after another.
The best episode for me is likely the one where Beatrice fool Battler to think that he won the battle with her and try to make him sign a contract where he was to admit his own defeat. 
The characters are many and most of them like Higurashi looks and act creepy with very high frequency (especially Maria is plain creepy 95% of the time).
There isn't much growth in the characters as most of them are locked into a time-loop so let's ignore this as negative point.
My favourite character is Beatrice, I love her personality and her way to torture Battler even thought the real side I like is her vulnerable and sad personality that she shows only at the end of the series.
Nice second for Ange even thought she got too little screen time to fully appreciate her personality and her love for the family.
The graphical quality of the anime is pretty good and I loved the design of the characters and of the backgrounds. The animation is not the best out there, but it's not so bad, even with the problems that shows sometimes.
The sound quality is top notch with a great seiyuu cast like Daisuke Ono in Battler's role, Ami Koshimizu in Rosa's role, Marina Inoue in Jessica's role, Rie Kugimiya in Shannon's role, and many others.
Concluding, this is a very good series with a solid plot and funny moments. It does not reach the quality of Higurashi, but we shouldn't compare series, but judge them for what they are.
I suggest this series to anyone who like mistery/drama series!
See you soon,
feal87
P.S. Let's hope for a second season closing the story soon...