The official culprit is Sayo Yasuda, who's also Shannon and Kanon. She has a variety of accomplices throughout the episodes, who help her due to trickery and bribery. This explanation is known as "Shkanontrice" for short. This was KNM's core argument against Shkanontrice:

The red truths should be taken literally, otherwise they would be useless for solving the mystery. In Shkanontrice, "person" (JP: 人間) is sometimes used metaphorically to refer to Sayo discarding her personalities. Thus, Shkanontrice must be false.

Just because some reds can be taken metaphorically doesn't mean they're useless. Not all interpretations are made equally. Umineko gives plenty of evidence to justify interpreting "person" metaphorically. As one example:

Hachijo: "Usually, we use the term 'person' to refer to a person, not their personality. However, since humans recognize a person by their personality, those two might as well be different people, from a human perspective..."

Meanwhile there's no basis for finding loopholes around, say, reds that limit the number of master keys. And some reds have to be interpreted metaphorically. For example, Beatrice's riddle in EP 4:

Beatrice: "Ushiromiya Battler. I will now...kill you. And right now, there is no one other than you on this island. The only one alive on this island is you. Nothing outside the island can interfere. You are all alone on this island. And of course, I am not you. Yet I am here, now, and am about to kill you."

If you took this literally, then this would be a contradiction. Beatrice can't be on the island while Battler is the only one alive. Obviously, the red is just using Beatrice as a metaphor for the bomb.

How did no one notice Sayo's personalities?

Genji, Nanjo, and Kumasawa helped, with Genji ensuring that Kanon and Shannon would rarely be scheduled on the same day. There were many servants coming in and out of the island, so Shkanon blended in. The Ushiromiyas were distracted by their own personal problems.

The only questionable case is Jessica, but EP 7 establishes she willfully ignores things that might make her uncomfortable:

True, it had been a strange experience for [Jessica], but it wasn't something completely impossible for humans to do. Even so, it really must have been more unnerving to imagine a large number of people planning so carefully just to scare Jessica. It's no surprise that Jessica found this scarier than Beatrice's curse.

Jessica: "I act tough, but I'm actually a real coward. That's why I let my imagination get ahold of me. I tried to use that as an excuse to help me forget everything that happened that night. People are actually pretty good at forgetting things if they try."

Her crush actually being her gay best friend who wants to two-time her cousin would probably qualify, yeah.

Ryukishi07 said the anime was supervised by him and "acceptable" for reasoning. The EP 2 adaptation makes it unlikely for Shannon to have killed herself, as it briefly shows the stake lodged into her head.

In comparison, the VN, manga, and light novel doesn't show the stake in her head. It's likely there was miscommunication between Ryukishi07 and the anime staff on how to depict certain details, like what happened with Higurashi Gou:

Ryukishi is shown all the storyboards for approval before they get animated. The "jail" is called an "individual study room". When he was shown the storyboards for that scene they were black and white, and he assumed Satoko was wearing a jersey. When he saw the finished episode is the first time it was colored and he realized it was a prison suit.

source: https://07th-expansion.fandom.com/wiki/Higurashi_Gou_SP_Live_Talk

And of course, Ryukishi07 also canonized the manga, which confirms Shkanontrice. Funnily enough, since the Rosatrice videos predated the manga canonizing Shkanontrice, it actually used the manga as evidence.

George brushed his arm against Shannon's boobs and didn't realize they were fake.

Bold to assume George would know what boobs feel like.

In EP 7, Clair tells us her story. Her story suggests Shannon is the culprit. However, Bernkastel says it was "done so that people who didn't understand wouldn't find the answers." Furthermore, it was shown as a fantasy. This is to encourage readers to search for a truth deeper than a Shannon culprit.

Here's the line in context:

Bernkastel: "...Even in Beato's game, you've tried to tear the guts out."

Hachijo: "I just wanted to check my answers. I did try to do it in a way that respected Beatrice, the weaver of this tale."

Bernkastel: "...Yeah. I think it was pretty well Read, all done so that people who didn't understand wouldn't find the answers."

Yasu hates their appearance, so the story respects that by disguising them with fantasy. While EP 7 is explicit about Shannon being the culprit, it left some of the answers vague for people to figure out themselves. For example, when EP 7 was first released, a common debate was if Sayo controlled Shannon and Kanon, or if they were involuntary split personalities like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

While KNM dismissed a lot of fantasy, he treated Will and Clair as trustworthy, since they have no purpose if they don't know the truth. They make it clear the baby from 19 years ago, Lion, Yasu, and Beatrice are connected:

The baby died when they fell off the cliff. Rosa learns this, deduces the baby belonged to Beatrice II, and blames herself for their death. After all, if she didn't "kill" Beatrice then the baby wouldn't have been given to Natsuhi. Rosa creates Yasu as a fantasy to cope with her guilt. Yasu ≠ Shannon ≠ Kanon.

Yasu's scenes imply Shannon is their imagination, as no one else but them acknowledges her. KNM took the opposite interpretation (Yasu is the imagination) and ran with it. The problem was, Rosa doesn't know about the baby:

[Natsuhi] My husband had been on a business trip. Rosa-san, who had still lived on the island at the time, had been traveling with her friends. Father and I were the only ones on Rokkenjima!! And before anyone except Father and I knew, a baby had appeared out of nowhere... and then disappeared again!!

As Rosa grew up around servants, she used their lives as creative inspiration for Yasu. Yasu reflects Rosa's life. As a couple of examples: Yasu's servitude symbolizes Rosa's inferiority complex, while Yasu's transformation into Clair-Beatrice symbolizes Rosa learning about magic from Kumasawa.

One of the strangest things about Rosatrice was it doesn't actually fit the titular character. While Rosa has an inferiority complex, it doesn't manifest as feelings of servitude, but rather as a thirst for vengeance that existed before the Beatrice II incident. The EP 2 Tea Party makes that disturbingly clear:

Beatrice: "That is a forked-tongued salad made from vegetables in season. ...On your ninth birthday, you wished you could bite it off someday --- so here is that salad you desired, made from Eva's tongue."

Another example of Yasu not fitting Rosa is their gender ambiguity. KNM didn't have anything to say about it, and seemed to completely miss that Lion's gender was ambiguous, as he kept referring to Lion with feminine pronouns.

Rosa would dress up as Beatrice and further the witch's illusion by pranking people. While doing so, she befriended Shannon. Rosa learns of Battler breaking Shannon's heart, and encourages her to hold onto her love for Battler.

But, when Shannon can't cope with her broken heart, Rosa helps her get over it by getting her with George and getting Kanon hired as a "little brother." Rosa promises to watch over Battler for Shannon, but Rosa's love for Battler is only platonic.

Some people hear about Rosatrice and think it entails a Battler x Rosa ship, which isn't what KNM argued. Still, Rosa role-playing a character based off her teenage nephew's porn fantasies is more than a little strange. In case you were wondering, there's no proof Rosa and Shannon are close, it's just working backwards from Rosa = Yasu.

Speaking of Rosa = Yasu, here's all the rest of the interpretations associated with that:

• Yasu's injury that prevents them from loving = Rosa's emotional trauma
  
• Yasu asking Genji and Nanjo why they were allowed to live = Rosa asking them why she wasn't held accountable for "killing" Beatrice II
  
• Furniture = Servant
  
• Shannon and Clair-Beatrice's tea parties in EP 7 = Rosa (as Beatrice) befriending Shannon
  
• The brooch = Rosa pairing Shannon with George
  
• Beatrice granting Shannon a little brother = Rosa getting Kanon hired
  
• Beatrice inheriting Shannon's bud of love = Rosa promising to (platonically) watch over Battler
  
• Love Trial = The rivalry between Rosa and George (see Co-Culprits & Accomplices)

Remember that during Shannon and Clair-Beatrice's tea parties, Clair-Beatrice doesn't know what love is, and is jealous that Shannon knows love. I doubt Rosa, a single mother in her mid-to-late 20s, would feel that way towards the 11-year old Shannon.

Rosa solves the epitaph and is granted headship from Kinzo. This leads to her being acknowledged as the new head (and Beatrice) by all the servants (except for Gohda who wasn't there). She keeps her headship secret from the family because she's already planning out her crime. She carries out the ritual to revive Beatrice II and usher everyone into the Golden Land.

The crime happens in 1986 because Battler's return ignites George's insecurities, allowing Rosa to recruit him as a co-culprit. Furthermore, magic requires risk, so she needs a "detective" who can challenge her. Battler is chosen for this.

I'll save the George co-culprit talking points for the next section. Rosa was basically just turned into Kinzo. But the motive is problematic:

Battler: "Beato wanted me to solve it, so she made the riddles of this game solvable."

The culprit wants to lose. Rosatrice's appeal is doing more with Rosa's Beatrice trauma, but making it her defining trait is missing the point. A reoccurring theme in When They Cry is how our environment changes us. Rosa's Beatrice trauma isn't emphasized because it's been overshadowed by the more immediate concerns of being a single mom and managing a failing business. Not to mention, she come to terms with it (as much as she can considering Umineko's structure) in EP 7.

Isn't it weird that Maria has magic junk despite Rosa hating it? That's because Rosa is actually a witch and groomed Maria to also become one. Rosa hating magic is just an act to hide her identity. Likewise, Rosa is just pretending to be financially struggling, so no one knows she solved the epitaph.

At the start of EP 2, we see Rosa refusing to buy Maria halloween candy, only to change her mind after Maria throws a temper tantrum. There are other cases where Rosa relents to Maria's demands, so its not inexplicable for Rosa to get Maria magic junk.

I actually do think Umineko draws parallels between Rosa and Beatrice, mainly to show Rosa as a foil for Sayo. While Rosa is abusive towards Maria, their relationship is at least grounded in reality. Maria and Sayo's relationship is built on nothing but lies, as Maria just knows her as Beatrice. I think that's the significance of Ange destroying Beatrice's Golden Land in EP 4. Ange does so with Sakutaro, a symbol of the love between Rosa and Maria.

This isn't supposed to be praise for Maria and Rosa's abusive relationship, but moreso an example of how Sayo isn't able to truly connect with anyone.

KNM started off claiming his theory only had two culprits and one accomplice, touting it as an advantage over Shkanontrice's high number of accomplices. But as the videos progressed, he eventually went "well okay, maybe this character also helped" to address potential rebuttals.

And then you have characters that know Rosa = Beatrice and perpetuate the witch illusion, but don't willfully help with the murders. Considering how heavily the murders rely on the witch illusion, you could argue these characters are also accomplices, albeit unwitting ones. Besides Rosa, here's all the possible pieces on the witch's side of the chessboard.


Sometimes Rosatrice is strawmanned as a theory that ignores everything that isn't red. But that isn't true, as the main evidence it gave for George-accomplice was his role in the fantasy narratives, where he's shown to be willing to kill for Shannon. But those moments also has Shannon supporting him.

In fact, during EP 6's Love Trial, Shannon is more aggressive in her pursuit of victory than George, killing Kanon with zero remorse. As opposed to George, who feels bad about killing Eva-Beatrice. It doesn't line up with Rosatrice, where Shannon is ignorant and passive.

Rosa and George working together might seem strange, since even KNM admitted there's not much evidence. This pairing was born of necessity, as Rosatrice started out as a George culprit theory, back when Umineko was still being written. But after EP 8, the theory was re-written into Rosatrice. Even then, George still did most of the murders.

Rosa and George plan on betraying each other. She needs him dead for the ritual, while he doesn't trust her. She tells him about the bomb, but lies about when it'll go off. They obtain "Fake Death Drugs" from Nanjo which they use to play dead, but Rosa poisons George's drugs. The proof of these drugs being involved is Erika mentions them in EP 6.

This conflict is represented by the Love Trial. Jessica and Kanon represent an outcome where no one dies, as neither of them are murderers.

Here's Erika's line:

Erika: "This time, I don't have the detective's authority, so there's a chance I messed up when examining the corpses. S, so, if we suppose that a drug which mimics death was used to fool my examination, um... [...] It's not impossible for certain well-known drugs, such as insulin, to bring about a temporary state that mimics death."

This is about how overdosing on insulin can put you in a coma. It's not something actually feasible for a crime. Erika knew the "victims" were faking the entire time, she was just pretending to be stupid so Battler will pity her and give her tape.

Erika: "You totally fell for it and gave me the tape...! [...] With this, I can kill Battler perfectly...! I figured out those pathetic closed rooms long ago...! A perfect closed room!? Dumbaaaaaaaaaaaaass!!"

Even the saner idea of using sedatives still has problems, as you risk snoring or fidgeting in your sleep, or waking up past schedule. I've never read a murder mystery where the culprit takes drugs to fake their death, it just isn't practical.

According to Our Confession, Sayo's accomplices didn't think the murders were real, and thought they were paid to throw a murder mystery party for Battler. Why would they believe that, especially with Sayo threatening them at gunpoint?

To be fair, it's a bit confusing, since Our Confession shows Beatrice threatening Natsuhi and Krauss, which could be taken to mean that's how Sayo gets the support of all her accomplices. That's not the case in the manga, where Sayo mainly just bribes people. Krauss has the strongest financial position out of the siblings, so it makes sense Sayo would have to threaten him, which works out since he's rather naive. Genji also knows the murders are real, but is just that loyal.

With that cleared up, it's reasonable to see why people fall for Sayo's trick:

• Kumasawa & Nanjo - Trusts Sayo and loves murder mysteries.
  
• The Ushiromiyas - Desperate for money. That's often the best time to manipulate someone.
  
• Gohda - Goes along with it out of peer pressure.

I will say, it'd be more sensible if Nanjo was willfully involved with the murders, since he is a doctor, so Rosatrice has an advantage there.

KNM claimed to solve the mystery while taking the reds literally. He compared his solutions to what was commonly believed to be the Shkanontrice solutions. It makes sense to update these comparisons with the manga solutions, though generally KNM wasn't too far off from what the manga would go with.


Six corpses in the garden shed.


This encapsulates the three main problems with the Rosatrice howdunit:

1. Nonsensical characterization: George is cautious, and loves Shannon, but he involves her in the murders, and never checks on her when she's trapped in the shed and drugged out. Rosa is alleged to be Shannon's close friend and needs George as a co-culprit, but immediately kills Shannon and risks George's betrayal.

2. Breaks Knox's 8th: "It is forbidden for the case to be resolved with clues that are not presented." Battler sees Rosa's wounds and there's no sign they're fake. He's a little less detailed about describing her wounds, but he's also like that about Gohda's, so that's not much.

3. Doesn't fit Will's solution: KNM tries to make Will's solutions work with Rosatrice, but in most cases they're a reach. Like so:

Will's riddle is "The corpse that cannot return to earth returns to illusions." This refers to Rosa, as she didn't actually "return to earth" since she was still alive.

But what about the "returns to illusions" part? That implies this person came from illusions to begin with, which fits Shannon better than Rosa.


Two corpses are close in a closed room protected by a chain.


To KNM's credit, the crime scene fits George, and doesn't present us with the mental image of Sayo stripping Hideyoshi naked. But, Will's solution implies no one was locked inside the room:

Will: "Illusions to illusions. ...A chain of illusions can only trap illusions."

In KNM's defense, this was mistranslated back in the day as "can only hold back illusions", which is more vague. But the Japanese text (閉じ込めない) is clear.



The last moments of the sacrificed boy with a stake in his chest.


This twilight is a big clue that the reds have to be taken metaphorically. To paraphrase the reds: Kanon wasn't killed by a human, nor did he die of suicide or an accident. I think the Rosatrice loophole is a human doesn't kill Kanon, rather the bomb does. But that undermines Rosatrice's promise to take the reds literally. After all, a human had to have set up the bomb.

Beatrice refuses to call Kanon's death a homicide (JP: 他殺), so she evidentially takes that term literally. I guess because "homicide" is more of a legal and scientific term, and not one people often use metaphorically.

Also, KNM shrugged off the question of where Kanon gets the stakes.

The other murders are straightforward, just replace Sayo with Rosa.

The six with their stomachs split in the closed room chapel.

Kanon: "We tried to check, but..."

The two who are close cannot even be close as corpses.


This twilight happens in Jessica's room. Rosa, George, Nanjo, and Battler were all in the chapel at the time. There also isn't an opportunity to give the key to Nanjo and instruct him.



The two sliced to death by the red-eyed illusion.


The only chance for George to do these murders is when he accompanies Shannon, Gohda, and Genji after they're exiled. Why would they let George be alone when a killer is on the loose?

KNM mentioned this one red, which gets used by some people to attack the manga:

Lambdadelta: "For the next one, the murders of the three including Genji in the parlor, the thought that it was a simultaneous murder where they shot each other in a clockwise pattern at the same time is laughable. Genji, Kumasawa, and Nanjo were not killers!"

The 2008 Witch Hunt fantranslation, which KNM used because there wasn't anything else, had this as "are not killers", suggesting Genji can't kill in any game. All the modern translations use "were", suggesting it's only for EP 1. Both are valid readings of the Japanese text.


In Natsuhi's closed room, none are left alive.


While the room is messy, it's not in a way that suggests a fight happens:

[Battler] The inside of the room looked as though a robber had just broken in. Drawers were flung open, pulled out, with their contents thrown about, devastated so that it looked nothing like the room of the methodical Aunt Natsuhi.

Anyhow, the door and the windows were locked from the inside, so Rosa couldn't have done it. Fake death drugs don't exist either, so we're just left with simultaneous murders done with stakes. KNM treated the stakes as actual weapons, which is something the VN repeatedly states to be wrong:

Erika: "They [the stakes] still seriously believe that they were created by a great sorcerer over a thousand years ago. I'd like to confront them with perfect evidence and the truth right away and let them know that they're mere paperweights, worth less than 30 US dollars."

Battler even says KNM's solution for Shannon's death is unlikely:

[Battler] However, a human skull is very firm. No matter how much someone mustered their strength, could it really have been pierced so neatly...? No. By my reasoning, this stake wasn't the cause of death, but had just been used to damage the corpse after death.

Afterwards, Rosa (or Maria) places the letter to get away from Battler.

Why did Battler see Beatrice and other magical stuff in the last 30 minutes? Because he was drunk and depressed, losing his objectivity. He actually saw Rosa.

Being drunk doesn't make you hallucinate. Though I wouldn't put it past Kinzo to put hallucinogens in his booze, so this one is valid.

Six corpses connected by the linked closed rooms.


I think like Kanon's death in EP 1, this is another twilight written to show how some reds have to be taken metaphorically.

The 2008 Witch Hunt fantranslation mistranslated one of the reds, which led Rosatrice astray. The proper translation is "all of them had fatal wounds that appeared to be gunshot wounds." I guess Shannon and Kanon's fake wounds are "fatal" because they represent Sayo discarding those personalities. Regardless, poison can't be the murder weapon.

Rosa shooting Shannon after her closed room was broken doesn't work either, as the individual keys were found inside envelopes alongside the corpses. Meaning, Shannon was already a corpse when she was discovered.

But Shkanontrice also has a problem. Sayo locking the chapel from the inside should be impossible as the key would be in the boiler room, and no device exists which can lock [the linked closed rooms] without a key. However, EP 2 shows the chapel (and the parlor, another one of the linked closed rooms) can be locked from the inside:

Rosa: "It's simple. George-kun, when you return home, you lock the door, right? You twist the knob, *click*, right?"

Bern's game states it is possible to lock or unlock [all] doors from inside the room even without a master key. So I guess the reds in this twilight are only about locking from the outside.


The corpses of mother and child lay together in the rose garden.


You may notice KNM downplayed Eva's culpability. Unfortunately, the EP 3 game board ends with this:

Battler: "Y-...you are the culprit... Aunt Eva...!!!"

Eva: "*cackle*cackle*cackle* ...ahhahahahaha!! Took you long enough to notice, Battler-kun!!"

Without any hesitation or mercy, Eva raised her gun and pulled the trigger.

Three corpses lying in the mansion.


George's alibi seems pretty tight in EP 3, as he spends most of it cooped up in the cousins' room. The Rosatrice response is basically "well, maybe he had alone time off-screen, who can say?" This trick is used for other murders as well.



The corpses of husband and wife lay exposed under the arbor.


Eva suspecting Jessica's parents is strange, since she knows they have alibis for the 2nd Twilight:

Kyrie: "This is just for peace of mind, but... at the time we think Rosa-san was attacked outside, where was everyone...?"

Krauss: "Natsuhi and I were here, along with Rudolf and Kyrie-san. I can guarantee their alibis."

KNM used the anime when crafting solutions. In the anime, Battler's death happens close to midnight, meaning it happens several hours after Nanjo's death. But in the VN, it seems like Battler's death happens shortly after Nanjo's, giving far less time for this convoluted scenario to happen.

That aside, Battler looks George in the eyes and judges him to be dead:

[Battler] George-aniki lay there crumpled alongside Shannon-chan's corpse. His chest was stained bright red. And judging by his still-opened eyes, I'd hate to say it to Aunt Eva, but I couldn't pick up any signs of life.

To be fair, Shkanontrice is a bit weak here as Shannon is also there, but at least no details about her are given.

After Rosa destroys Sakutaro, Maria sees Beatrice. This is evidence that Rosa is Beatrice. In these scenes, Beatrice represents Rosa's good side while Rosa represents her bad side.

Meanwhile in EP 2, it's Rosa who's defending Maria from getting killed by Beatrice, so clearly this metaphor is inconsistent.


A massacring storm sweeps through the dining hall.


If you think of it as Sayo role-playing Kinzo as part of the murder mystery game, then the "acknowledged the existence of Kinzo" stuff makes more sense. "Kinzo" isn't an inheritable title, or else Eva would've inherited it when she became head.


The two youths face their trials and pass away together.


Remember how in the EP 7 Tea Party, Jessica swats away a gun pointed right at her face and throws hands? Apparently KNM forgot.


None of the runaways are left alive.


The well can't be opened:

[Battler] But the cover was extremely firm and rigid, and no matter how much I pushed or pulled, I couldn't even get close to opening it. I couldn't find any obvious lock. It might be sealed by some mechanism. But no matter how much I investigated it, I couldn't find anything to release it.

Like with Jessica, Kyrie being intimidated into lying is strange, since she's ex-yakuza and presumably used to danger.

At some point, George kills Kumasawa and Gohda, using one of three tricks to create a closed room in the shed:

1. Entered through the window
   
2. Used a wire through the window to swap the keys
   
3. Swapped the tags on the keys

KNM didn't clarify when, but I assume this happens before Rosa kills Kanon, as otherwise he wouldn't be the 9th victim, which the red says he was. This raises the question of why Gohda and Kumasawa's deaths aren't mentioned by Jessica and Kyrie. With Shkanontrice, it's possible for their deaths to happen after Jessica and Kyrie give their testimony, so it's not a problem there.

Rosa kills George. She confronts Battler as Beatrice, trying to get him to acknowledge breaking Shannon's heart. After this fails, Rosa poisons Maria and then kills herself, using one of three tricks to posthumously hide the gun:

1. Shot herself in a way where she'd land on the gun
   
2. Like Sayo, she did the "weight tied to a gun" trick
   
3. Poisons Maria, then tells her to get ready to pick up the gun and hide it, and kills herself right in front of Maria

It's not explained why Rosa acknowledges Battler's headship in such a roundabout fashion. She wants him to understand her and acknowledge breaking Shannon's heart, right?

The clocks being wrong means many reds about the letter aren't actually timed at 24:00, which hypothetically lets George place the letter. However, when Natsuhi hears the clock go off, she's with Genji and Krauss in the corridor on the second floor. A red corroborates this moment as truly being at 24:00:

Bernkastel: "At 24:00, Natsuhi, Krauss, and Genji were in the corridor on the second floor of the mansion. The rest of them were in the dining hall on the first floor. "

Not to mention:

Lambdadelta: "No one in the mansion placed the letter in the hallway. This includes doing so by all concepts, such as directly, indirectly, intentionally, coincidentally, and unintentionally."

This has no qualification about the time, implying no one in the mansion ever placed the letter.


Fun fact: The 4 cards trick was actually acknowledged by the manga.

There's no red saying the mansion nor Natsuhi's room was locked. Still, if you need to resolve this: Rosa could've had Genji unlock the doors for George.

While there's no red, there's a lot of white text saying these places were locked. It's unlikely Natsuhi would leave the place unsecured, since she got threatening phone calls about the conference. The alternative of Rosa helping George through Genji raises another problem, as you'd think Rosa would raise questions about George breaking into Natsuhi's room.

To be fair, the manga solution doesn't quite fit the VN either. When Natsuhi got called in the morning, Kanon was at her door. I'll explain the (probable) trick to this later, but the manga side-steps this by just not having Kanon in that scene.



These wounds can't be faked:

[Battler] I had been... forced to see all the way... into the depths of those gashes in everyone's throats... At worst, the wound might have been deep enough to stretch halfway through their necks. If you tried to open it up, you'd probably be able to see that the gash reached all the way to the bone.

[1st Twilight profiles] The wound was deep enough that anyone could easily confirm his/her death with absolute certainty.

Why is Nanjo even helping George? Battler just found the gold, and KNM portrayed Nanjo as having morals, only helping with the murders for his family. So surely, Nanjo would try to work something out with Battler?

Again, the absurdity of this solution speaks for itself, but I like the implication that George is trying to make people think Natsuhi is a real witch. Later on, we have these reds:

Virgilia: "So, anyone looking at George, Jessica, Maria, Rosa, or Genji's corpses could confirm at a glance that they are dead."

Beatrice: "Hmm? Red? Well, there's no point in me holding out against you. That's right, at a glance, anyone could confirm that these corpses are dead, so it is absolutely impossible that they are just playing dead."

George is dead by this point. Since this is before Hideyoshi's murder, we have a logic error, right? Here's KNM's solution:

We experience EP 5 through a replay for Battler. So we have no proof those reds were given when the game was actually played. It's possible they were added in for the replay, thus being timed after the game's conclusion. In other words, what we see of the EP 5 game board is an embellishment.

Funnily enough, that's similar to the manga explanation for Erika apparently seeing both Shannon and Kanon in the same room: she actually didn't, it was an embellishment for the replay. Only the detective's narration is reliable, not necessarily the scenes they're in, and Erika didn't narrate any of EP 5. This is also probably why Kanon was shown to be at Natsuhi's door while Sayo was calling her. It was an embellishment, Kanon wasn't ever actually there.

This is a trick unique to EP 5, since the previous games aren't replays, which have a different GM anyway. Battler even learns the truth using EP 1-4 to assure readers they're not getting punked that hard.

How Erika "saw" Shkanon was unclear until the manga, so there were a lot of theories, to the point where KNM even made a bonus video analyzing some of them. Despite this, he didn't predict the actual explanation. This is probably Shkanontrice's most obtuse moment.

Only fitting to talk about the Meta-World in the most meta episode.

The Meta-World isn't metafictional. All the murder scenarios (except for Bern's game which is a forgery) are actually "what-if" timelines branching off from the prime timeline, aka the Single Truth. The Meta-World is a framing device for this information.

Higurashi leaked into Rosatrice. It's not explained why Bern's game is the only forgery. KNM said elsewhere it had a different GM with different rules, but you could say the same for EP 5-6, so it can't be that. Oddly enough, KNM designated the EP 7 Tea Party as a what-if timeline, even though Rosa clearly isn't Beatrice there.

There's one last thing to the Meta-World, but I'll save that for the True Ending section.

EP 6 is a prank that the entire family (including Rosa and George) is in on. Erika decapitates the Ushiromiyas because she's just crazy, she doesn't know anything about witches or the Meta-World. The Shkanontrice explanation makes no sense, because why would Kanon change into Shannon?

The point of the EP 6 game board is that it doesn't make sense as a story, it's just a tool for the Meta-World conflict. KNM missed this, and his own explanation had a lot of unanswered questions. eg why are Rosa and George in on the prank, why does Kanon lock himself in the room with Erika, why is Erika much more evil in EP 6, etc.



Clever way of working around the reds. But solving the logic error is supposed to "expose a part of Beatrice's heart." Not sure how that works for Rosatrice since Rosa isn't even involved here.



Here's Battler's red:

Battler: "...Sorry, but...Even if you do join us-"
Battler & Beatrice: "That makes 17 humans."

To summarize: the counts are different because Erika and Battler are actually describing two different scenarios: [Erika is alive] vs [Erika is dead]. It's a creative workaround, and that's the problem, as this certainly isn't taking the red literally. The whole point of this scene is to demonstrate the flexibility of the reds, there's just no way around it.

Umineko is a video game. Like most video games, Umineko has different endings, depending on which difficulty you play:

Easy Difficulty Ending: A Witch Did It, Beatrice's Blue Truth
Medium Difficulty Ending: Shkanontrice's Gold Truth
Hardest Difficulty, and the True Ending: Rosatrice's Red Truth

This amuses me since Umineko actually does have multiple endings, even if no one ever picks the Trick ending. It probably wouldn't surprise you to know KNM is now a gaming youtuber.

In Our Confession, Dlanor says Beatrice wrote three stories and hid one of them. These stories are the three different endings.

This implies Shkanontrice is also a product of Rosa's imagination. I guess Natsuhi was too obvious a scapegoat. Here's what Our Confession actually says:

[Dlanor] But if you can,
try to reach her feelings, buried in the deepest part of the story.
She said that she wrote two stories and revealed one.
However, that was also wrong.
She wrote three stories and revealed one.
By reading this incomplete manuscript, you will know two of those stories.

Beatrice doesn't actually write a third story, that's just a figure of speech. The "third story" is likely just why Sayo would create multiple identities.

Anyway, what is the "ending" to Rosatrice?

The Single Truth is likely EP 2. Battler surrenders to Rosatrice, and she reveals all her plans. After this, she lets Battler go. While escaping, Battler either gets grazed by the explosion, or tries sailing away on a boat but capsizes, washing up on a beach severely brain-damaged. The Meta-World isn't just a framing device, but also a dream of Battler's before he dies. Tohya and Ikuko are just part of the red herring.

KNM capped things off with a "Ash Ketchum is in a coma!" type of theory.[creepypasta.fandom.com] It's self-contradictory, as Shannon and George win the Love Trial in EP 6, which should imply George kills Rosa in the Single Truth. Not to mention, Will says Beatrice always dies without someone understanding her.

EP 2 being the Single Truth means Eva dies on Rokkenjima, so what does that mean for 1998?

The 1998 scenes takes place in a what-if timeline where EP 3 happens. Eva hides the truth because her son is a killer and wants to protect his honor. Ange commits suicide after reading Eva's diary.

I'm not sure if this means Ange commits suicide in the Single Truth too, or if this is just about Ange in the EP 3 timeline. Without Eva's survival, Ange would have a very different life.

It's not explained why there's so much focus on a what-if timeline. It's implied its all part of the red herring: Ange's rejection of the red truth is just manipulating the readers to do the same. But, a common point in Umineko is how the future's truth overwrites the past. That point goes nowhere if we don't actually see anything past 1986.

Higurashi has an EP 9, so there will probably one day be a Umineko EP 9 that'll confirm Shkanontrice to be false.

We actually did get a EP 9 in 2019, with Last Note of the Golden Witch. I won't spoil much, but it explicitly identifies Shannon as Kinzo's illegitimate daughter.

Higurashi is interesting to bring up, because Ryukishi07 once used Higurashi to mock a proposal very similar to KNM's:[07th-expansion.fandom.com]

引用自 Ryukishi07：

As an outrageous example, let say in the future, I decide to release a truth exposing arc called "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Shin", claiming that "the truth in Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen are both disguises, and the real culprit is the unexpected character XX!", in addition to adding new information to the story. The new truth would obviously take over the old ones, and the truth in Meakashi-hen becomes false.

Ryukishi actually knows about Rosatrice:[07th-expansion.fandom.com]

"I then would go on to ask about the fan theory that the character of Rosa Ushiromiya and Beatrice in Umineko are, in fact, the same person. Ryukishi explained that he was aware of this particular theory, and would go on to admit that he sometimes showed references to false theories, such as this one, to throw off and trick his readers."

And there's even a reference to Rosatrice in Umineko: Golden Fantasia, during Rosa x Eva-Beatrice's story mode:

Eva-Beatrice: "You want to become Rosa-Beatrice? I didn't think you were such a maiden at heart."

KNM ended up denouncing Rosatrice in 2018. He deleted his Internet presence soon afterwards as part of a rebrand, so there's no record of this denouncing left beyond responses
on 4chan's /jp/ board,[warosu.org] which have been slightly censored due to Steam's swear filter:

引用自 Anonymous：

KnownNoMore, arrogant and kekworthy, the legend is back denouncing his own theory! Eat that Rosatrice advocates!

引用自 Anonymous：

"If you liked this, then I'm glad I did something for you. It got people to rethink, examine, and discuss things in depth that they may not have even considered before. And that was the story was all about, right? Not just accepting how things were presented to you but really thinking everything through to the bitter end. And if you didn't, well, I would just regard it as 9 hours of trolling."

lol

引用自 Anonymous：

made me see him as a very reasonable guy nowadays

he seemed very full of himself at first

I can't even hate him after watching this video desu, I'll just leave it at that. Rosatrice theory finally dies, and I'll stop getting triggered about it, just considering it to be 9 hours long trolling much like the creator suggested me to.

seems like a heavy weight was lifted from the fanbase now, we shouldn't have treated so seriously, it WAS more or less a hit-or-miss game theory thing.

引用自 Anonymous：

About time. What took him soo long?

That might seem harsh, but even putting aside the quality of the arguments, KNM had a "debate bro" tone, which when combined with his long-winded script, didn't leave a good first-impression. The Rosatrice videos got re-uploaded by third-parties anyway, so the only real loss are KNM's comments, where he elaborated more on his points.

I read Umineko after all this played out, so for me, Rosatrice is practically just a weird, old fan fic. Speaking of fan fics, it specifically reminds me of that one popular Harry Potter fan fic which added New Atheist and sci-fi themes. [en.wikipedia.org]

Fan interpretations that tried to make things more "logical" and "scientific", without any concern for the themes, were part of the 2010s zeitgeist. Which is what I think KNM was inspired by. Religious Terrorist (Rosa) and Incel (George) are more digestible than Sayo, I'll say that much. In that regard, Rosatrice is kind of a time capsule.

Rosatrice was most popular in the interim between the VN's conclusion and the manga's. The manga has basically replaced Rosatrice as a "guide" to Umineko. But Rosatrice is still one of the more popular Umineko videos on YouTube, being the second result for stuff like "Umineko explained" or "Umineko solution", so new Rosatricers still emerge every so often.

And that's okay: no matter how shabby this truth is, no one has the right to trample on it.

Playlist containing all the parts of Rosatrice. And some random anime stuff at the end.

Transcript of most of Rosatrice.[www.tumblr.com] Chapters 10-12 aren't included, only summarized.

Not related to Umineko, but here's some mirrors of KNM's other videos. Before his rebrand, he was a New Atheist who debated Christians.

A link to KNM's rebrand channel won't be listed, since I don't wanna risk someone harassing him over stuff he made over a decade ago.