ef – a tale of memories – 07
Wow, this show sucks!
Summary:
Chihiro explains why the lone girl was god, as she was the only thing that existed in the desolate world. Renji meets Chihiro as she is writing, and he takes the chance to check on her work. After reading through her progress, Renji mentions that the girl is cute. This makes Chihiro wish to rewrite everything, as the character is not meant to be represented in that way. Renji is interrupted by his mother while preparing lunches for himself and Chihiro on another day, as she continues to insist that Chihiro is his girlfriend. Back to where they are working, Renji mentions his future hopes to Chihiro. However, he realizes that he has had the same conversation with her in the past. When Renji states that he has no idea what he wants to do, Chihiro suggests that he is good at cooking. When Renji speaks with his mother again, she asks if Chihiro is his girlfriend yet. Renji continues to deny this, but he takes the chance to ask his mother what she would think if they were going out. She tells him that she would be happy as long as Renji was, and goes on to tell him to make sure to take responsibility for love.
In Chihiro’s story, the girl has painted many paintings of a boy. She wonders if this boy is human, but soon realizes that it is just a painting of a boy. Finding that the story is close to its conclusion, Renji wonders how Chihiro will end it. Looking through her notes, Renji begins giving different kinds of ending suggestions to Chihiro. However, this again makes Renji realize that they have had the same conversation in the past. On the way home, Chihiro thanks Renji for what he’s done for her. Stopping at the beach, Chihiro asks if Renji would like to kiss her. She opens her diary to confirm why this would be fine, but Renji panics. Drawing similarities to her story, Renji wonders why Chihiro would not say that she loves him. As Renji lets off a misunderstood reply to Chihiro, she runs off away in tears. Unable to find the strength to chase her, Renji hopes that she will not write what has happened in her diary.
Miyako declares that she has found something that she needed. She had given up until she met Hiro. The house in which she lives alone in was once lively with both of her parents there. However, as the love ran out, the last sound Miyako heard was the sound of breaking plates. As the color from her world disappeared, Miyako lived on alone without any meaning. On the day of their date, Miyako leaves many messages for Hiro. However, after several failed attempts at contacting him, Miyako is reminded of Kei’s frightening words. Miyako’s calls become even more desperate afterwards, as she does not want to disappear from Hiro’s heart. Elsewhere, Hiro sets out to buy food for Kei. In his absence, Kei finds the numerous messages on his cellphone. As they are all from Miyako, she quickly deletes all of them.
ED: “I’m here” by Hiroko Taguchi – Spectacular. The song itself is the original, but the animation is a beautiful representation of Miyako’s story….right down to the falling feathers.
Impression:
……………….NOT! Haha, gotcha! First things first. Sorry this is so late. It’s even more so than usual, since the sub is already out by now. Real life got in the way as it always does, but hey, I like real life. I just went out with friends before writing this up, and it was great. None of my friends are anime fans, and my image is probably a lot different than you would expect. What’s the point of me telling you this? I’m not an otaku. I watch anime for various reasons, and have a different appreciation for them than the typical fan. This is the kind of mindset I go into with ef. I take it as art, and beautiful art at that. I don’t want a standard bishoujo show that has been done a million times. I want something new, something different. Shaft always does this for me, and that’s why they’re my favorite production team.
Blogging this late did give me a cool opportunity to read the big batch of posts that were made about ef this week though. Owen and co. have linked together to spread the joy, and a few others decided to play in the sandbox as well. We got the fellow fanboys’ opinions, the unbiased observations, the ones who decided to move forward despite their distastes, and even the ones who decided to flame the show after a single episode. Isn’t that everybody? While participating in this movement, I kind of started to realize why most episodic bloggers tend to keep to themselves. I’m not gonna lie. By the time I got done reading all of those editorials, I was efing ef-ed out! It was certainly fun though, and I’m still trying to pioneer a new approach to episodic blogging. I encourage everyone to participate in those conversations, as most sides of argument were expressed (there are way more posts than I linked to…just check the mentions in other posts).
As for the actual episode, it was amazing. At 12 episodes, development is coming quick. Composition was really taken into consideration during Chihiro and Renji’s scenes, with some beautifully surprising effects. The obvious connections between Chihiro’s story and herself are very clear now, and the effects her memory disorder have on Renji are finally revealed. The way his final scenes were displayed really helped to display how panicked he was, and I could practically feel it. The fact that Chihiro can only recall her memories through her diary was horrifying when shown to this effect, and her inner conflict was definitely present. The girl was alone in the world, therefore she was God.
I have finally come to accept Miyako’s story as well. I hated her typical bishoujo personality before, but her serious side has totally won me over. If you kept up with my School Days posts, you already know how much I love psycho girls. Every word she said in each message was powerful, and the way they were displayed helped tremendously. After finding out about her past, her fear of disappearing becomes much more meaningful. By the time the credits rolled around, I had Jigoku Shoujo vibes. The soundtrack probably helped too, since it was the strongest yet. I can’t wait to see the next episode, “clear colour”. Posts will probably be inconsistent until the semester is over, but I’ve already promised myself to blog everything on my own time. Until next time~!
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I really liked this episode….especially Chihiro’s story, without it I might not watch this anime…lol that’s a lie. I feel sorry 4 renji though it would suck 2 like some1 who can’t remember everything. As for Miyako…well i still love her..and I still dislike Kei. I also like crazy girls..hee hee
Ef is art, and thank you so much for approaching it and other shows (Touka Gettan) in that way. Every episode of this series cements the fact that it is something beautiful and unique.
The part of Chihiro’s story which discussed how the girl hung pictures of the boy everywhere was the moment that her separation from him truly hit me. I know that earlier in the show, she had discussed that issue a little bit, but it never sank in. Miya was vastly more sympathetic and realistic than she’s ever been, and Kei was in the wrong for deleting her messages, but I’m still siding with the latter.
Your first sentence scares me. lol. Another great episode, but this time I like Chihiro/Renji story more than the other one. In the beginning of the series, I never thought Chihiro’s simple story can turn into something very complex. Shaft definitely earn my trust in this episode.
They didn’t go into detail about Miyako’s family problem. At the end of this episode, her 5 minute and 33 second speech was disturbed(yeah, I got bored when I have no other series to watch for today). It’s like she is talking to herself, but now we know what cause her to being this way. Many people may like tsudere, but there is nothing wrong liking yandere, right Totali?
As for Kei, she did another foul thing again. No wonder most people don’t like her. Then again, she doesn’t know Miyako’s problem and she has her own problem as well. No jealousy = no drama = no excitment ,remember that people !!
I wonder which ending Chihiro would choose for her story. I think her choice will be affected by Renji’s reaction to the kiss. The impact of Chihiro’s condition in Renji is just starting to sink in hard, and it’s definitely not an easy thing to deal with. Hesitation is setting in. I hope they can cope with it, I’d really like a happy ending for them.
After empathizing with Kei last time, I think it just shifted to Miyako on this one. It was really mean to delete them all. I don’t think I would have done that even in that situation. But if I were Miyako, I don’t think I would’ve left that much messages either. =D
This episode was intense. And Damn good.
“helped to display how panicked he was, and I could practically feel it.”
Me too. I think I was confuse at first about he was panicked about. But I understood and the way the color kept on getting darker when Chihiro was talking….damn scary but powerful.
Miyamura’s family scene was sad….and the long message scene was even sadder. It hurt me to see Miyamura be in that state.
Originally I was hoping for a “Hirono finds the messages and has to reconcile his own problems” episode but this makes the entire relationship between the two much more powerful.
I think I was originally more sympathetic to Miyamura at the beginning but I understood Kei’s drama.
But overall I find deleting those messages to be cruel despite the fact that she has no idea of Miyako’s ordeal.
I LOVE THIS SHOW AND THE FACT THAT PEOPLE ARE BLOGGING POSITIVELY ON IT……*whew* I needed to let that out.
I agree with you with the way you see anime (like art), im not an otaku or anything like that and its not a taste that I share with my friends also. and yes…this show is purely art. really…you can truly feel the way the characters are feeling. Now I feel awfull for renji… and for miyako too (actually this episode really makes me suffer it was so intense!! hehe). the messages thing was a great way to demostrate her mental breakdown and the effects on chihiro´s voice really makes you fell the panic renji felt from hearing the words she said to him. I think it was good to see why miyako is how she is, because at first I was like: What the hell is wrong with this girl? but little by little I realized that there was more behind her behaviour. I think this is the best episode so far. I cant wait for the next episode!!!
Oh. My. God.
That was so painful to watch, to hear Miya go through the stages of grief so rapidly, hearing her break down like that. And to top it all off, it’s all in vain as Kei deletes all 99 messages!
With that, I’ve shifted favored arcs, I’m now far more curious about Hiro’s arc than Chihiro’s.
What an awesome show ;_; I wish I had chosen to blog it instead of Da Crapo.
by the way…where can I find the subs? if posible online because I hate to download…
Efing YEAAAH! *stopping this for it is silly*
This episode was indeed excellent. It had me biting my nails at the sheer emotion that was displayed, Chihiro and Reijis story is a nice love story about a first love gone berserk and completely absurd. While i do feel that the story is incredible with Chihiro and Reiji, the way they tell the far less appealing Miyako X Kei story(Hiro can watch, because i don´t like him). This show is so twisted for using the normal way to tell a story on the absurd one and the fantastic way to tell the story for the stupid one. That being said ef is still better than any other romance anime this season.(not that thats a big achievement)
PS: what do you mean by a new style of episodic blogging?
( x
Orihime: psychos <3
Erin: Yes! I love finding other Touka Gettan fans….I know I’m not crazy for loving that show!
kenshin514: I hope everyone realizes that the first sentence was a joke xDD
hazy: lol she just did it in like 2 seconds too….beep beep, gone.
Avisch: Positive ef bloggers, here to make the world a better place.
vale: hands down the most intense episode yet. Also, I have nothing against otaku. I just don’t live the culture personally.
Shirukii: and I wish I had picked up Shugo Chara…..ah, the regret of bloggers~ XD
Dularc: Totali called….he wants his bad jokes back!
Uh, I probably worded that a bit off….but I just want to make people realize that there are more anime blogs out there besides episodic summary types. I remember when I thought that RC and Memento were like the only 2 blogs around back in my ancient days. The community is huge, and everyone should enjoy participating in it!