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This article is about a character in Umineko When They Cry. |
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- "This level of reasoning is possible for Furudo Erika. What do you think, everyone?"
- — Erika's catchphrase
Erika Furudo (古戸 ヱリカ Furudo Werika) is a detective created by Bernkastel to crush the Illusion of the Witch and is a rival to Battler Ushiromiya. She first appears in End of the Golden Witch.
Profile[]
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Fell from the pleasure boat "Eternal Maid II" mid-cruise in the waters near Rokkenjima. On October 4, 1986, she drifted to Rokkenjima, and the Ushiromiya family welcomed her as a guest. She managed to drift to the island unharmed thanks to several miracles, including the fact that she was wearing a life jacket. |
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Bernkastel's double and servant. Also a piece who has manifested in the human world. Because she is human, she cannot use magic and the like. However, she can appeal to Bernkastel on a higher-level plane to obtain miracles and various authorities she can use, so it would probably be no exaggeration to call her a human capable of wielding the power of a witch. Through Bernkastel, she has been given the detective's authority while on the game board. Therefore, even though she is an outsider to the Ushiromiya family, she possesses the right to demand full attention from everyone when speaking, the right to advance proceedings, the right to investigate the crime scene before the police arrive, and many other special abilities. She gets pleasure from the process of solving riddles, but her greatest joy comes from using that victory to sneer at others. |
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The Witch of Truth (provisional). Is also the detective and one who calls herself an intellectual rapist. She participates in Battler's game as a player for the human side. She possesses several skills that qualify her to call herself a detective. These can be acknowledged by Bernkastel and elevated to the level of red truth. Whether she wins or loses, this will be the last game, and there will be no further use for her. |
Appearance[]
Erika has dark blue eyes and long hair styled into pigtails, She is estimated to be about Jessica's age, but she's more petite. She has a similar appearance to Bernkastel due to being created in her image.
She wears a fancy red-pink-white Lolita fashion dress with frills and a white and pink canotier[2] with red roses on it as her headpiece. She wears a pair of white buckle Mary Jane shoes. The dress she wears actually belongs to Jessica.
In the Twilight manga, console ports and pachinko sprite set, Erika wears a pirate hat during a part of her raid on Rokkenjima.
Personality[]
Initially, Erika comes off as a sweet, polite, and soft-spoken young lady who is immediately loved and trusted by most of the Ushiromiya family soon after washing up on Rokkenjima. But this is merely a facade, as Erika is truly an arrogant, sadistic, ruthless and cruel woman who cares little for anyone but herself and her master Bernkastel. She's highly intelligent and doesn't hesitate to use it to lord herself over others. When dropping her sickeningly sweet facade, Erika occasionally says, in English, <Good!> or <Very Good!> when excited or very pleased by something.
She revels in dismantling the theories of others and substituting what she believes is the one true truth. Yet she also goes into meltdown whenever her "truth" gets a hole punched through it. Erika even considers herself more powerful than Bernkastel and Lambdadelta in a way, because they'd rather distract themselves from their past miseries with other people's suffering than face those memories (and thus the truth) head-on.
Erika's confidence in her abilities leads her to often underestimate her opponents. She also demonstrates a rather vindictive side to her character during End of the Golden Witch when she informs Battler why she wanted to solve the epitaph in the first place: she wanted to not only sneer at whoever proposed the epitaph's riddle, but to get revenge on Jessica for interrupting her during her solving of the epitaph; she wanted to see the angry and pitiful expression Jessica would likely don upon realizing that Battler stole the headship from her father as well. Her hatred of Battler stems from losing to him later on. She clearly delights in the idea of raping Battler's helpless body after forcing him to marry her.
In spite of serving Bernkastel, she denies magic and love, saying that love is nothing but an illusion that distracts from the truth, though the events of Dawn of the Golden Witch would suggest that her denial of love stems from a past lover's infidelity.
Abilities[]
With the Detective's Authority, Erika has a photographic memory and practically unlimited stamina. She has incredibly heightened senses and is on-par with a tape recorder. In End, she uses these powers to climb all over the guesthouse in the rain to stick tape on the windows and listens in to Battler's room all night. Erika is also able to call people to attention and force them to listen to her as an extension of her powers. Additionally, Erika can summon Eiserne Jungfrau to enforce the rules of the mystery genre.
In the meta-world, Erika wields a purple scythe with which she can create red and blue truths, similarly to her master Bern who uses a dark blue scythe to separate miracles from reality. Erika can also summon Chiester Sisters and Goats, such as in Golden Fantasia, with her move "Fire, Goats!", in which she summons goats to fire cannons upon her opponent.
Background[]
Erika was a piece created by Bernkastel to act as her self-insert. In the past, Erika had a boyfriend of whom she accused of cheating, later breaking up with him after collecting enough evidence. Erika later goes on a cruise with her family on the Eternal Maid II and falls overboard, washing up on Rokkenjima on October 4th and is taken in by the Ushiromiya family.
Relationships[]
Overview[]
- Bernkastel (creator, master, double/self-insert of)
- Eiserne Jungfrau (furniture)
- Dlanor A. Knox (friend, enemy)
- Battler Ushiromiya (rival, opponent, enemy)
- Black Battler (ally in the manga)
- Beatrice (enemy, opponent, rival)
- EVA-Beatrice (ally)
- ANGE-Beatrice (ally, enemy)
Bernkastel[]
Erika is the creation and piece of Bernkastel to act as her self-insert and double. Erika adores her creator and master more than anything, sometimes getting jealous of Lambdadelta's relationship with Bern. Erika is desperate for her master's approval and tries her best to live up to her expectations. However, Bernkastel cares little for Erika, as after Dawn, Bern banished her to oblivion due to losing to Beatrice. No matter how much she is abused, ignored or thrown into oblivion by her master, Erika will continue to admire and serve Bern.
Battler Ushiromiya[]
Battler and Erika are rivals, both given the task of denying the witch, but they differ in their methodology: Battler takes an anti-fantasy stance and will use any ridiculous theory so long as it's not magical, but Erika is strictly mystery-focused and provides theories with logic and evidence. Because of Erika's pride, she hates it when Battler disproves her theories and always tries to get the last word in. By Twilight, Erika sees Battler as a worthy opponent.
Role in the Story[]
End of the Golden Witch[]
Coincidentally drifting ashore during the family conference of 1986, she is able to break through the limits imposed on the first four games and became the island's 18th person. She claims to be a detective and manages to solve the epitaph with her excellent reasoning skills, along with the help of Battler.
After the events of the first twilight, she makes use of her rights as the game's detective to lead a full-blown investigation, which eventually pins Natsuhi as the culprit. By tackling Fantasy with Mystery instead of Anti-Fantasy, Erika manages to completely deny the existence of Beatrice and end the game. As a result, Beatrice is killed, much to Battler's dismay.
In the Tea Party, Bernkastel rewards her by making her the Witch of Truth and Game Master, but the latter of the titles is soon stolen from her by Battler, who has now become the Endless Sorcerer in ????. Battler posits his own theory to counter her Natsuhi culprit theory, and since there are now two possible truths to the game, it ends in a tie. A vengeful Erika swears to expose the truth and kill Battler in the sixth game.
Dawn of the Golden Witch[]
Erika willingly gives up her Detective's Authority so she can fight Battler on even ground. After the first twilight, she rushes to confirm the deaths of the victims but only gets vague information.
Not only did Erika lose her authority, but she loses the ability to use duct tape to seal rooms. Despite this, she tricks Battler into granting her some pieces of tape and retroactively seals the survivors into the guesthouse. She then takes a knife and decapitates the first twilight victims, who were playing dead as a prank, and then seals Battler in his room, who was also a victim. Battler claimed that he escaped the room in red, but is unable to explain it due to the tape and becomes trapped, creating a Logic Error.
In the Meta-World, Erika tries to get married to the comatose Battler so she can become the Territory Lord, but the newly revived Beatrice arrives to challenge her. They exchange blows, and in the end Battler is saved from his logic error and Erika ceases to exist.
Executing Erika in the TIPS reveals her to be missing in the real world.
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Fell from a pleasure boat and is currently missing. Due to the Rokkenjima Explosion Incident that occurred shortly after, her accident went completely forgotten... Her family says that she might have drifted to Rokkenjima and gotten involved in the accident, but no evidence suggesting that she was ever on the island could be found. Forgers who know of this accident often theorize that she drifted onto Rokkenjima and include her in the Illusion of the Witch... |
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Twilight of the Golden Witch[]
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The Witch of Truth, who has successfully revived from the depths of oblivion. She is an enigma, a witch who is also a detective and a human. Once again, she will serve her master Bernkastel in her scheming. |
Erika is pulled from oblivion and makes her first appearance in the game when she saves Ange Ushiromiya from harm in Bernkastel's game between her and Battler. She later reappears at Bern's bidding, as she arrives at the Golden Land with Goats to make a deal with Beatrice: surrender the game board over to The Library, or be executed. Erika is fooled into believing that the relatives are arguing, when they are actually stalling her as Battler and Lambdadelta search The Library for the key. Erika eventually figures this out, due to an error made by Gohda, and engages in a brawl with the residents there. She eventually retreats, much to her own anger and embarrassment.
She later comes back to the Golden Land to continue the battle, engaging in fights with Krauss, Rosa, Rudolf and Kyrie, and her former friend Dlanor. She then fought against Beatrice, engaging her in a swordfight aboard her ship. She emerges victorious and takes the Golden Witch's heart to Bernkastel afterwards.
In the "Trick" ending, she appears before Ange on the ship to Rokkenjima and applauds her for her own detective work.
In the "Magic" ending, she and Battler have a small chat on how Ange was able to become a better witch than her, even though they're both similar in many ways in regards to the truth. Battler later tells her that she is not a witch but a detective, and they finally bid farewell to one another.
In the final Tea Party, she comes to the room where Bernkastel and Lambdadelta were and delivers letters on how Willard, Lion, Gertrude, Cornelia and Dlanor were doing. Because Erika is still contact with Dlanor despite their fight earlier, it can be assumed that both of them have made up and renewed their friendship.
Trivia[]
- Erika is a homage to Rika Furude from Higurashi When They Cry like her creator and master Bernkastel (herself named after Frederica Bernkastel, whose first name is pronounced similarly to "Furude Rika"), as they all have long blue hair and, in Erika's case, similar names.
- In End of the Golden Witch, Erika says "My little gray cells are itching to get started." This could be a reference to Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie's famous Belgian detective) who also says "little gray cells" on numerous occasions. Similarly, Erika often throwing in English in Japanese language conversations may be a reference to Poirot throwing in French in English language conversations (particularly Poirot's "en bien" and "tres bien" translating to "good" and "very good"), however it's hard to say that for certain considering that a lot of Umineko's characters have a tendency to randomly use English in otherwise Japanese language conversations.
- Erika's alternate color palette in Golden Fantasia is based on the vocaloid, Hatsune Miku.
Virgilius, the original design for Erika
- Erika was originally supposed to appear in Land of the Golden Witch as a man named Virgilius. Once Land of the Golden Witch was scrapped, the name was given to Virgilia and his personality was given to Erika. Virgilius would later become a fully-realized character in Last note of the Golden Witch.
- According to Ryukishi07's Twitter posts:
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 07th Expansion All Character Settings Collection
- ↑ Umineko Episode 6 Shinsou Kaimei Dokuhon page 84
- ↑ @07th_official: "Erika is a character I really like too! At first I intended to make her a cool-headed character as Bern's alter-ego, but she went wild! No, no...The characters are really alive..."
- ↑ @07th_official: "The truth is in the catbox...Erika and Amakusa are the type to always have comebacks, so I think they'd surely be a lively, strained, and unique couple."
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