The first new series I’ve watched so far this summer; Being a fan of Higurashi no Naku koro ni I just couldn’t pass this over. The first episode deals mostly with setting the plot and introducing us to an exhausting list of characters which hopefully will die soon enough that I don’t have to remember most of their names.

First of all, I was pretty imressed with the opening “One Winged Bird.” The song and the animation was decent (Though not nearly as memorable as the mesmorizing Higurashi opening <3~I really won’t try to compare these two series though!) I was informed by someone that the visual novel that this is based on as an interesting system where only text in red can be trusted. Tribute to this system is made apparent in both the opening and ending animation where characters are flashed in red.

The episode starts off with some old guy being told that he only has a few months left to live. He goes into some some sort of rage yelling the name “Beatrice.”  Shortly after many family members, whose names I have yet to remember, show up to his personally owned private island mansion … I believe the perverted protagonist below went by the name “Battler” though. He introduces his parents and cousins to the audience.

He’s trying to grope his cousin’s breasts… oh Japan… you and your incestxD

When I heard the plot description for this series the first thing I thought was “YES!!! No more Lolis!!!” But clearly I was wrong xD
(I have been informed that this Loli is named Maria and voiced by Zenical’s Hocchan xD)

This little girl kinda creeps me out.

As the family makes their way towards the mansion butlers and maids are introduced into the story as well. I only remember the pretty boy above is named Kanon because of the anime Kanon and the Caanon anime thats also being released this summer xD

 
Battler makes another attempt at womanizing

At this point the plot starts to develop. The adults go off together and start accusing each other of swindling money, failing businesses. Cat fighting and whore calling ensues. The adults of the party seemed more concerned about finding their father’s hidden treasure than a fun family get together.

The cousins explore the mansion and property. They come across this picture and begin to talk about this history of their family and the witch Beatrice. The earlier generations of their family had been rich, but in a great earth quake they lost all their assets over night. The current father of the family, then a young man ran into a witch by the name of Beatrice who gave him enough gold to make his own financial empire. Supposedly the gold is still hidden somewhere.

Back at the mansion garden the Loli searches for a rose they had marked earlier… but no one can seem to find it. The Loli is quite upset and starts to cry. The mother approaches and yells at her to stop making that aweful crying noise. She even slaps the girl wich makes her scream more. (The noise she makes reminds me of some sort of animal, not a child.)

The mother and cousins leave her be to find her rose by herself… in the middle of a thunder storm. At dinner time they realize she has gone missing and look back in the garden for her. They find her safe under an unbrella… she claims that “Beatrice” had given the umbrella to her.

 This is pretty much the end of the episode. The ending “la divina tragedia ~Makyoku~” was also very well done… maybe even better than the opening.

Hopefully the next episode is more suspenseful though xD