(L) ef - a tale of melodies

[Dop]

Oh... My.... GOD.

That was just... harrowing.

One of the things about ...memories that has always stuck in my head was the Miyako phone sequence as one of the two truly memorable moments of the series.

I think here they've trumped that. I think that in a year's time I think back to this series, Yuuko's sequence will be one of the things I remember most, if not the thing I remember most.

Memorable, and gripping, and horrifying. I was sitting there completely rooted to my seat.

[SkoolRumble4Ya]

Yeah I second that this definitely reminds me of the phone call but I felt this one is much more scarier.

[anime ronin]

watched ep 2 yesderday. it didnt really strike me like it should have, tho i must admit i was shocked when yuuko started talking about how she was abused. i had to watch that scene over twice just to get a good scoop of what i was watching. i found it really hard to take all that in because it was the first epic thing to happen so far, and so much came out at once. overall it was definately a good ep

[Aoie_Emesai]

It really was saddening, episode 6 that is. There's only a few anime can strike me with a sudden whim of hatred, regret, and sorrow at the same time. But the story has finally become interesting. Of course at first Yuuko is very mysterious, you get a few hints here and there but nothing of significant importance, but this episode was quite good.

[Lostdreams]

Still wondering when the kuze violin song is gonna come out. It's so good!!!

[Aoie_Emesai]

Originally Posted by Lostdreams

Still wondering when the kuze violin song is gonna come out. It's so good!!!

The sorrowful one? Possibly.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Lostdreams

Still wondering when the kuze violin song is gonna come out. It's so good!!!

It's 'a moon filled sky' without the piano piece, and i'm guessing it'll be on one of the two soundtracks that's being released for the series.

[golthin]

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

Episode 6 article is up:

[RIUVA] ef ~a tale of melodies~, Episode 6

The much-discussed Yuuko scene is good in its own right, but somehow to me, it falls just short when compared to the infamous Miyako scene.

It is really hard to beat Miyako's scene for two reasons, it came first and it was a powerful scene.
I bet if Yuuko's scene had been done first, Miyako's scene would not have been as powerful as it was.

[SuperKnuckles]

Miyako's one was great too, but ultimately, it was a delusion. What makes Yuuko's revelation even more harrowing is that basically it shattered her as a human being (well... Miyako was too actually) and there's that whole beast with the sexual abuse. In typical Asian soap-opera fashion, it just HAD to be her adoptive brother. Almost downright stereotypical in that 'worst case scenario' aspect, but still.

[destiny4everlove]

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

Episode 6 article is up:

[RIUVA] ef ~a tale of melodies~, Episode 6

The much-discussed Yuuko scene is good in its own right, but somehow to me, it falls just short when compared to the infamous Miyako scene.

Originally Posted by golthin

It is really hard to beat Miyako's scene for two reasons, it came first and it was a powerful scene.
I bet if Yuuko's scene had been done first, Miyako's scene would not have been as powerful as it was.

I think it all depends on the POV of the fan:

Originally Posted by destiny4everlove

I just finished rewatching ef-a tale of memories until episode 7. About episode 7, which is the mirror episode of ep 6 in ef- melo, I know Miyako's scene is supposed to be really touching and you’re supposed to feel really bad for Miyako and all that stuff. However, even though I felt sad for her because of her past, the main emotion that I felt while watching her monologue was uneasiness. You get the feeling that she is a “little” obsessed and crazy. I could not feel as heartbroken as when I watched Yuuko’s monologue in episode 6. I know I have said that I’m not very fond of Miyako, but to my surprise, after rewatching ef-memo, I found myself not disliking Miyako as much as before. She is still not one of my favs, but I don’t hate her or truly dislike her either. In fact, I’m glad she ended up with Hiro.


I guess it’s the fact that episode 6 was much darker than episode 7, and that it mainly focused on Yuuko and Yuu that it really emotionally touched me big time.

As I said in that post, for me Yuuko’s scene was a more powerful scene when compared to Miyako's scene.

We’ll never know which scene was in fact better or more powerful, because in the end it all depends of the POV of the person who watched those scenes.

[sirn]

Watched episode 7…

Spoiler for episode 7 thoughts:

Feel like they overused the Yuuko's scene technique a bit since now it's two times in row... Perhaps they want to make it a reflection of the sixth episode? Since all episodes from now on seems to be prefixed with “re”...

Anyway, it was an overall good episode. I especially like the Yuuko’s part at the beginning, he hitting a concrete block perfectly linked with the C-part of the sixth episode. The way they portray “Kuze is going to die” in this episode is powerful, although Kuze questions’ before is kind of weak. He finally said “I want to live” at the end, which is interesting turn of events. I really wonder why Mizuki went quiet and walks back at the end... Maybe it has something to do with her trauma?

Keywords, for someone who cares:

004 - und
005 - Die
017 - Glaub'
033 - Gestalt
038 - Verfolge
053 - Berührung

001-005 now becomes "Mut zum Leben und Die" which means "Courage to live and die" (using Google Translate) which seems perfectly matches Kuze’s current situation... then again, 001-006 is "Mut zum Leben und Die Zukunft," which Google translated as "Courage to live and the future," ... it didn't make much sense, I think.

[serenade_beta]

Fuu... Wonder if it's strange to feel more emotionally involved with poor Amamiya-sensei than the rest of the cast... 。・゜・(つД｀)・゜・。
Wakame, kakkoii!

Spoiler for ep7:

Shaft... While they do amazing things visually at times, using the same technique over again for Kuze's super questioning time weakened the overall impact. Wonder if they ran out of ideas... Which shouldn't be true, since they are still playing with the OP, this time making it black&white.

Kuze's side... It's kind of a shame, but despite the previous preview making me think this would mainly be a Kuze/Mizuki episode, they barely got much time. Only having the development where Kuze finally decides to live on.
Though he sure was lucky not to get cut by the glass, huh


On the past side...

Yuuko... She definitely had a hard time, but within any range of logic, the one that should be blamed is most definitely not Yuu. Completely off. 逆恨み

Yuu... Spent his time dealing with the truth, even confronting Amamiya-sensei. However, just like Amamiya-sensei said, he came with no preparation, no guts, and just ended up chickening out. Gets a kick or ten. Seems like a flag for his to finally get the courage (or Yuuko) to kill off Amamiya-sensei. Wouldn't like such a tragedy...
Though thinking about it, Yuu might end up letting Yuuko live with him. She wants a place to live. Yuu has one. Better than being with Wakame. Would probably be how it goes?

Amamiya... orz... You really want to die? Maa, a huge siscon who went half-insane over the loss of his sister after all... I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to die for a long time.
It seems many fans are out for his blood... Tch, kusodomogaaa...

Knife... Yeah, I thought it was something like that, to be honest. Recently reminded me of School Days, after all, this anime, for little reason.
Strange shape though.

Preview: Yareyare...

WarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarum WarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarum WarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarum WarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarumWarum

[Shiroth]

Spoiler for Episode seven:

Black and white OP this week. I'm liking it.

I'm glad this episode wasn't just for the future story (Kuze and Mizuki), because after last weeks episode, i don't think i could haven handled with no past story after that.

I really liked the little scene between Nagi and Yu in the future. The scene after that between Yu and Yuuko (past), the slowed down rain made it look like bubbles, though that effect worked. As i thought, what Yuuko was carrying around is a knife.. a very strange looking one at that.

Yu confronting sensei was nicely done, with a style you'd expect. I'm gonna need subs for most of this episode, but ouch to the stomach.

Kuze scenes were just crazy this week. The scene with the pills near the start made me laugh a little because of the way it was done. Everything with Kuze this week was a nice build up to his "i want to live" right at the end. I can't say i expected this from him, though it's nothing i did expect for the story. It starts from here.

[Pappnase]

Originally Posted by sirn

Keywords, for someone who cares:

001-005 now becomes "Mut zum Leben und Die" which means "Courage to live and die" (using Google Translate) which seems perfectly matches Kuze’s current situation... then again, 001-006 is "Mut zum Leben und Die Zukunft," which Google translated as "Courage to live and the future," ... it didn't make much sense, I think.

I do care, so...

... "die" is just feminine or plural of "the", it's just that Google didn't translate it without any context. Unfortunately, "die" in English means something totally different...

Anyway, does someone have the keywords of episode 4 and 6 at hand? Those up to episode 3 and those for 5 and 7 have been posted... Though I don't think it will be possible to make something out of it yet.

There are also some tiny translation errors for the keywords in a certain groups' translation - "ferner" means "further", not "father", and "Himmels" is genetive (and not plural) of "Himmel", so it would be "sky's" and not "skies".

[Lostdreams]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

It's 'a moon filled sky' without the piano piece, and i'm guessing it'll be on one of the two soundtracks that's being released for the series.

awww shucks, I can't find that song anywhere.

[Azure_Peregrine]

Like so many others, I need subtitles to fully understand the content of this episode, but I think I got enough to BEGIN my analysis.

Spoiler:

Goddamnit. There was some FANTASTIC music in this episode, but it got CUT OFF. Seriously, that drove me nuts. But at least... They had good reason to cut off the music.

Even without speaking Japanese, I can get this much: this entire episode dealt with the unfinished, and they even portrayed that in their music. Here's what I got:
Yuu set out to finish Amamiya's life. He didn't.
Amamiya can't finish the drawings of his sister/Yuuko.
Yuuko seemed to try and finish her life with Amamiya by having Yuu kill him. She's still with him.
After Amamiya threatens to kill Yuu (I think that's what he's saying, anyway), the music cuts off again.
The scene with Yuu at the end cuts off VERY abruptly, as does the music in that scene.
Kuze asks a lot of questions. And then Mizuki just walks out. Questions without answers are unfinished in this sense, I think.
When Mizuki walks out, the music cuts off there also. That's what drove me up a wall, that was BEAUTIFUL music playing there. Luckily, there's still some of that in the background of Kuze's little rant.
Perhaps most important of all: Kuze isn't finished living.

Kuze not being done living is the hopeful part of the unfinished. Normally, we think of an incomplete work as bad, but this scene, I think, illustrates the beauty of that which is still ongoing.

My favorite topic remains the colors, and there were certainly some uses for those colors in this episode that don't fit my initial thoughts on what each represents. For instance, red is clearly used for pain in this episode, and not exclusively for memories, while blue seems to be the absence of pain, or possibly even the absence of feeling, for Kuze.

I still think that red is representative of memories and blue is representative of being frozen... I need to think.... Those weren't violated in this episode... They were just twisted to include a little bit more. The scene where Kuze was in pain, he remembered Mizuki, and then felt like living again... So memories were involved there...

Yellow still goes for impotency, even though Mizuki is colored yellow in this episode. She's unable to answer Kuze's questions, and inability is part of metaphorical impotency.

I love this series. Seriously, each week, it gives me so much to think about. And finally it's given us some really good music. Ironic for a show that has "melodies" in the title.

Don't get me wrong. There's been good music elsewhere in the series. I think the best before this episode was in episode 3. But this episode... I think this is seriously the beginning of the series, these two episodes. Everything else can just be thought of as a precursor. This is where the show gets good, and this is where the melodies become memorable.

[Kaoru Chujo]

If I produced a work of art like ep7, I think I could die happy. Not so much the words/story, since like others, I'm going to have to wait for a sub to get all the details (although what I did understand was great). But just the images and music were thrilling.

Spoiler for ep7:

The Kuze's questions scene was well done, with the slashes across the space between them. But it seemed to go on too long....then it went on long enough to be great again. He was asking things like why she appeared before him again, and why he was to blame, and why she caused him pain. I liked the flatness of his voice, then it building up to some emotion. Kuze breaking the bottle was good. Then I doubted he would get to any pills. Then his tongue among the shards of glass. Then him laughing because he still wanted to live.

I still am wondering just who Amamiya is, whether he's the monster people are thinking. Yuuko is a powerful character. And I am gradually coming to understand why the adult Yu is as he is.

[Azure_Peregrine]

I can't believe I'm posting twice in the same night about the analysis for this episode... But I thought about it more, and decided I wanted to call this one.

Spoiler:

Gestalt is the title in the scene with all the questions. Gestalt literally means shape or figure in German. That would have little to do with this scene. However, it also refers to a theory in psychology that states that the whole of oneself is different than just the sum of the parts that make up oneself. It is holistic, and in that sense, very similar to Freud's build of the self as having the id, ego, and superego. Each is a separate entity, but together, they form something different: a human psyche. The self is more than simply the sum of the parts, it is is the conflict between them.

I think we can be fairly certain that when "gestalt" is used in this scene, it is used in the psychological sense. I bring Freud into this for the sake of my own ego (ha ha, bad pun). I've made it somewhat into a personal project to find every bit of Freud in this anime possible, for those who haven't noticed.

If we were to look at the characters as parts of the mind, as I've been doing... Well, let's go with Kei, Hiro and Miyako. Miyako would represent the Id, wild and free. Kei would represent the superego, the one putting societal restraints upon Hiro, making him go to school and the like. And Hiro would be the Ego, of course, just because that seems to be the default position for all the main characters. Alone, they are individual characters. But together, they form something different: a story. The individuals are the parts - their interaction is what makes the whole of this story. That's gestalt enough for me, at least.

Gestalt theory was thought up around the same time that Freud was alive, by the way. It was also thought up by people who spoke German... Not surprising, given the fact that it IS a German word. And I can not believe I didn't notice this before, but Freud speaking German... German being used so much in this anime... Damn, that can't be a coincidence at the rate this is going.

It's worth noting that Gestalt theory also has references to how we perceive the world around us. According to gestalt theory, for instance, we see a dog, and then our minds go through a complex process through which we identify it as a dog. Gestalt theory, as I understand it, delves into why we recognize things the way we do. It'll be interesting to see if this plays into the show anymore... Or if other people can come up with ways it influenced this episode that I haven't caught yet.

By the way: Anyone notice how the term "ero" kept getting used in this episode? I might be COMPLETELY off, and that might not be what they're saying. But I know that Mizuki used that word (or something that translates to "erotic") to describe Kuze's music. Again "eros" is the sex drive in Freudian psychology - the drive to live. That makes A LOT of sense for Kuze in this episode.

So then. Again, my apologies for posting twice so close together. But I hope that the people who read that will agree with me... It was worth posting all on it's own.

[gaguri]

Episode 7

I wouldn't say this episode was bad, because there were scenes I really liked and some really interesting conversations about missing colour/reluctance. But few things REALLY grated on my nerves.

Spoiler:

My opinion on the TELEPHONE BOOTH scene between Miyamiya and Hirohiro in memories was that it was interesting, daring take on new presentation, but ultimately ineffective. Problem is with first the sheer length and its monotonous tone of progression, with basically two scenes constantly interrupting each other in a very annoying manner. Text message scene/Yuuko scene were essentially better because there was no annoying interchange between frames so it allows you to really start building up and getting you wired into that madness (although I personally thought they took it bit too long). WARUMWARUMWARUM scene had the same problem with me. And it wasn't even original this time. I liked how he struggled so desperately to grasp the pills though. He's been trying to so hard to keep on his mask of defeat, renouncing everything, but he just can't give up on life. Really makes you want to support him to the end.

Nothing much to say about Yuuko's story. I understand her pain but her wanting to take "revenge" on Yuu doesn't win anything from me. Amamiya is still a creepy fag, not the sympathetic grey character I was hoping for.

[sirn]

Originally Posted by Pappnase

... "die" is just feminine or plural of "the", it's just that Google didn't translate it without any context. Unfortunately, "die" in English means something totally different...

Ah, thank you. So we have to wait for 007~ first for that sentence to make sense...

Originally Posted by Pappnase

Anyway, does someone have the keywords of episode 4 and 6 at hand? Those up to episode 3 and those for 5 and 7 have been posted... Though I don't think it will be possible to make something out of it yet.

Episode 6 is using memories-like keywords, a two Japanese words that contradicting each others and episode 4 is already posted previously.

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Shaft... While they do amazing things visually at times, using the same technique over again for Kuze's super questioning time weakened the overall impact. Wonder if they ran out of ideas... Which shouldn't be true, since they are still playing with the OP, this time making it black&white.

It's possible that they intended to make WARUM scene to be weak, in order the emphasis the Kuze scene at the end. I believe Kuze's scene would looked funny and not as strong as it were without this.

I laughed at the knife, though. It looked like a basic Knife from certain RPG series. Oh, at least it isn't a yet-another-Yandere-with-a-box-cutter.