Final thoughts on ef-a Tale of Melodies
I caught up on ef-Melo belatedly (as usual) but with a curious and interesting sense of closure. I don’t think it’s on par with the first season but that I think isn’t the point: I can see where Omo was coming from in thinking about how the two seasons were pretty much complimentary as opposed to be being simply series and sequel and judged on those terms alone. While a sequel can rarely stand alone separate from its predecessor, this one seemed to add more weight and significance to what went before and giving it fresh meaning restrospectively, in addition to merely continuing the story chronologically. It worked better for me because I marathoned the last few episodes in one sitting too.
Listen to his song!
I’m guessing the title refers to Kuze’s occupation and how his work brought certain characters together but it’s as much of a tale of memories as the first season was when you think about how much time it spent in flashback mode, connecting events of the past with those of the present. In both story threads the male lead is stuck in a no-man’s-land with memories holding him back from appreciating what the present holds; the idea of music being a muse or redemption is of secondary importance next to the importance of memories one cannot, or does not wish to, forget. Because of this I think arguing that ef-Melo is somehow inferior to its predecessor is purely academic when they are two parts of the same damn thing.
I didn’t feel the characterisation clicked as well as it did last time; in terms of visuals and soundtrack it wasn’t all that different though. Whether the imagery spoke to me or not I still loved the way the whole thing looked – I guess I’m just a sucker for pretty pictures, but then I doubt I’d be an anime/movie nerd if I wasn’t. Like in the subject of my previous post it looks so pretty in fact that the usually arduous task of getting screenies felt less of a drag and more of an opportunity to relive the experience: it’s a pleasure, not a task, as blogging should be.
At the end of the day ‘ef’ still means ‘exquisite filters’ to me
There isn’t much I can say about the music that I haven’t already. Kuze’s violin piece forms the same pivotal role that the central violin theme in The Place Promised… did, although I don’t know if Tenmon worked as closely with Oonuma in marrying the score and storyboard as he does with Makoto Shinkai. Certainly in this case the BGM sat alongside the visuals in a more conventional way but it still had that plaintive, evocative Temnon feel to it. I’m sure I’d enjoy the soundtrack album if I get hold of a copy.
If both seasons are the same in terms of visuals and music I suppose the storylines were the only variable. I was never too convinced by the pairing of Mizuki and Kuze I guess because it never really conveyed the sense of devotion that it needed for the dramatic conclusion. That said, Mizuki’s conversation on the roof was really quite brilliant. After that ‘warum’ monologue she rebutted all of Kuze’s doubts, fears and paranoia with a single declaration, which neatly took care of pretty much everything he’d thrown at her.
Another thing I’m a sucker for is shameless sentimentality; needless to say it has to be handled carefully to be effective. In this case a whole trailerload of emotional baggage is swept away by the simplest of things: nothing he’s worried about is worth the worry because she loves him. That’s it. I don’t know why that came across as utterly wonderful but maybe it’s that eloquence in simplicity that makes it the most effective and, indeed, most sincere reply.
Couldn’t say it better myself
Yuu and Yuuko were the more interesting half of the story this time, touching on some pretty hard-hitting issues along the way. It’s tough for TV shows to tackle things like self-harm and sexual abuse without being tasteless and exploitative, or dumbed-down and patronising but in this case it was difficult and uncomfortable viewing in a very positive and constructive sense. It was handled very well in my opinion, and made use of the trademark imagery and narrative techniques to make its points without bludgeoning the viewer over the head with them. The script felt stilted and melodramatic in places but when it really mattered, as in this aspect, it shone.
Yuuko’s role ultimately turned out to be quite central to everything else, which makes the two seasons feel even more closely intertwined than the premise of one particular item tagged onto the tail end of another. Supernatural elements are another species of plot device that are a bit hit-and-miss but in addition to the question of context it’s a good rule of thumb to use them sparingly – I knew from the first season that her presence was metaphysical but perhaps because of her back-story it worked somehow.
ef can also do dark, and do it very well
for every plot twist that had me rolling my eyes at seeing something so hackneyed and over-used being thrown at the viewer again, there was a moment that had me sitting up thinking “Holy shit!” and, indeed, gasping out loud at the unusual approaches taken. ef was always an exercise at rendering a well-used concept in an innovative way, after all. Some browsing on Wiki revealed that the VN uses striking artwork and a lot of animated sequences during gamelplay, which must have left the planner of the TV show with a bit of a dilemma. If the game is more visually impressive and more extensively animated than most of its rivals to begin with, what can a mere animated adaptation bring to the table?
Maybe this is where the Shinbo-isms and little wordplays came from – taking the concept beyond both VN and animated TV show using little touches when the source material was already closer to a cinematic or televisual experience than its peers. Needless to say I’d love to play the ef VNs, although I’m all too aware of how many titles I’ve already been recommended and how time-consuming they can be, even taking my fast reading speed into account. Narcissu sounds tempting, although there’s only so much romantic tragedy I can handle in a short space of time.
I think that’s an interesting point which you could split off into another discussion: namely, how do series distinguish themselves, and what ways are there to put yourself ahead of the pack, aside from visual/aural superiority?
Sometimes I think the ultimate problem with both ef-memo and ef-melo is the broadcast constraint. The two would have made lovely double feature films. They are indeed best watched all at once, back to back. And maybe repeatedly.
The complexity of the second series bore down on it, and lacking something compelling and simple like Chihiro’s story it becomes hard to dig into our second set of main characters and explore their features, while keeping the fancy of the audience. Invariably the second season is less entertaining, but at some point, I think, to be entertained with ef-melo, it is necessary to be able to recognize and play along with the visual and scripting tricks. There are many. But that’s not something so intuitive and probably something better done in a short, compact dose.
With that said, seeing our season one heroines get together to cheer on Mizuki was a reward in of itself.
I agree with the general tenor of the post. And I agree with Omo, my favorite bit in melodies was the sisters and mizuki on a bench. cute and very well done. ultimately, melo is just a sacrifice on the altar of memo.
Hmm. I can’t remember the exact details but there were certain problems I had with melodies. The first is that, to my eyes, melodies was progressively losing its touch with art direction. Mizuki’s arc was very tense at first, but started to really drag. And the way they handled Yuuko’s arc was just too painful to watch, the way she saved Mizuki in particular. Could’ve been so much better :(
I really felt that A Tale of Melodies was a series of two halves, not so much in terms of the two stories which ran through it but rather in terms of actual quality. The show managed to pull out two or three absolutely fantastic episodes, with episode six proving to be a peak for me with it’s all out-assault of visuals and imagery which did an incredible job of hitting home with the required emotions for that coverage of difficult subjects you mentioned.
Away from those spectacular moments that I couldn’t compliment enough, a lot of the rest of the series felt like style over substance, which probably wasn’t helped by my feeling uncomfortable with the Kuze/Mizuki relationship from the very start – Never mind the age difference, their on-screen dynamic simply wasn’t built up properly, which left their feelings for one another seeming very shallow to me from then on.
Still, if there were to be an award for 2008’s most visually striking anime, this would probably win it hands-down, and there’s nothing wrong with a little artistic pretension every now and then.
@Moritheil: it’s something I’d like to revisit, but after more experience with visual novels and their adaptations. I have a feeling that there are new ways of telling a story, but in truth there are no new stories per se. What’s the difference between rehashing tired ideas and reinventing them? Hmm…
@Omo: I couldn’t believe what good advice Jeff Lawson’s advice was to marathon numerous episodes at once. Both the TV show and (from what I’ve read on Wiki) the VN are more ‘cinematic’ than their rivals so yeah, I can see the feature film format working well in ef’s favour.
@animekritik: prequels and sequels often depend on one another for their own meaning, but in ef’s case I mean that in more than the usual sense. I’d go as far to say as I’d like to see it broadcast/released on DVD as one entity, not two separate ones.
@gaguri: the series teetered on the brink of failure from start to finish – it took more risks than most. While that wasn’t without its cost in terms of entertainment, I’ll always respect it for that. Much like I respect Hideaki Anno’s work, even when it goes off on a tangent.
@Hanners: yeah, it somehow made artistic pretention a good thing, didn’t it? *laughs* maybe there were pacing issues here…I think I’ll second Omo’s suggestion that it would’ve worked better as one or two feature-length efforts instead of a TV series.
I haven’t seen this anime yet but i hope i will.. soon .
Thanks and maybe we can even have a link exchange :)
Well said. That’s about all I can think of saying, because really, you said it better than I could have: it was a pleasing show, to say the least, and it compliments memo rather than contradicting it.
Oh, and for what it’s worth, I don’t think the ef VNs have been translated. Assuming that you can’t read Japanese, Narcissu would be great, but if you can understand the language, I’m sure many of us English speakers would love a review of the source material!