Comments on: Final thoughts on ef-a Tale of Melodies

By: ETERNAL

ETERNAL — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:57:42 +0000

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!

By: CupY

CupY — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:48:27 +0000

I haven’t seen this anime yet but i hope i will.. soon .

Thanks and maybe we can even have a link exchange :)

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:50:03 +0000

@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.

By: Hanners

Hanners — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:12:56 +0000

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.

By: gaguri

gaguri — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:12:29 +0000

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 :(

By: animekritik

animekritik — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:50:24 +0000

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.

By: omo

omo — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:49:05 +0000

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.

By: moritheil

moritheil — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:29:28 +0000

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?