A second, closer look at ef - a tale of memories
Posted by JRoxas on Sun, 18 Nov 2007. View the original post at A Stone and a Small Ripple
So after hearing that this show later manages to stray away from the first episode’s density of repulsive graphical crimes, I decided to give this show another chance. These people seem to have been right; while the episodes at the first do still contain some annoying, distracting, and meaningless visual effects, they come up sparingly enough to be tolerable, and past that issue, I have found the series to be quite solid.
It’s interesting to think about whether or not the visuals used here actually “belong.” JP’s suggestion that such visual effects should contribute to other aspects of the show unless the surface is the focus of the work (neither seeming to be the case in the first episode) is certainly valid. After the first episode, though, it becomes pretty clear that there is meaning behind many of the unusual visual tricks, helping build upon the “memories” theme. (And even the apparently meaningless effects in the first episode might still turn out to be meaningful after all as the series progresses.)
Let’s go over some of the shots in episode– some good ones, and some that in all likelihood don’t have any actual substance to them at all. It’s going to be roughly in chronological order spanning the six episodes that have aired at the time of this writing, and I guess I’ll also have to touch upon many of the major events and symbols in the story. I’ll do my best to keep it from turning from a commentary into a summary. (note: I’m going to be making extensive use of images, and most are only linked to because inserting them would be far too disruptive to my writing; therefore, I suggest making extensive use of your browser’s open in new window/tab feature.)
This kind of shot is used a number of times in this episode and later, and the fact that in these shots the eye is drawn to the scattered wooden boards irritates me to no end. Actually, though, it bothered me every time after this one and the next time it comes up; in these cases, it does a good job of showing the distance (both literal and symbolic) between the two people who do not yet know each other well. Normally I’d say that this kind of claim is a stretch, but in the scene Renji seems to be deliberately keeping his distance from her, and rather than going closer and introducing himself, he just smiles, waves, and leaves. In the similar scene later in which they do finally introduce themselves, they are still standing this fairly long distance apart. This symbolism is reinforced later on, too: for the duration of their first “real” conversation, Chihiro is walking towards Renji until she gets here– a much closer distance, to be sure, now that the two have made acquaintances, but still some distance that Renji seemingly will spend the next few episodes trying to close. This is a similar shot used later that does not work well at all; it would have been much better as a close-up shot with the characters as the focus of the image, and I’m sure they used this only because it’s easier and/or cheaper to just use a shot that is 95% the same as a previous one, instead of having to draw the character details of this scene. Later uses of this scene share the similar fault. Does it really cost that much to draw tears, moving mouths, and other bodily expressions? KyoAni manages to do it in Clannad, and when such animation is included here it’s likewise pretty well-done.
One of the biggest complaints about the series early on was the excessive use of sky shots, but the sky is actually one of the most important recurring symbols in the story while also visually playing an immense role in setting the mood in many of the show’s major scenes. Most such scenes take place in a location in which the sky is the predominant object in the scenery, without any objects on the ground to dominate the view. And, as is common in every visual medium, sunsets are very often the scene of major romantic developments. Most of the important conversations between Chihiro and Kenji will have a sunset as the backdrop, as does the one major Kei x Hiro bonding scene down the road.
This part was initially just distracting and dumb in my mind, but it turned out to be a somewhat clever method of foreshadowing– emphasizing the image of the bicycle in the viewer’s mind shortly before it gets stolen and destroyed, which is significant because it is the event responsible for the establishment of Miyako’s and Hiro’s relationship.
Now for some of the really stupid stuff. I can only come up with two explanations of this shot in episode one: either they were trying to be clever and failed miserably, or they were too lazy to animate him pushing the button on his phone and moving it to his ear. Minus points either way for a totally unnecessary and distracting image. This, this, and this were likewise seemingly just there as an attempt to “artistically” find ways to need to draw less stuff.
lol she’s playing touhou.
This black-and-white stuff didn’t make sense at first, but it is explained down the road when he mentions that there is color missing from the way he views the world. When he gets to the top of the stairs, he gains some color, but it is incomplete; he only gains the full spectrum of color when he is outside. Is this supposed to be significant because he is now outside of the school, or because it is here that he will once again meet Miyako? I don’t know, but I like to think it’s the latter. This rooftop location will turn out to be one of the recurring locations for Hiro and Miyako– and, of course, it is a location with plenty of sky.
I don’t get why Kyosuke and Chihiro get random black-and-white shots when it isn’t at all pertinent to “their” themes, though, and the fact that they exist largely weakens the impact of the effect being used on Hiro.
Then there’s poor Kyosuke, who takes good pictures and wants them to be included as-is for their festival movie/presentation, but the other club members criticize him for not catering enough to the wider audience in order to win the contest. The image of his face fizzling into static, just like his pride probably was at that moment, was a nice touch.
Ugh, just when I thought things were getting better, there are several consecutive shots that pissed me off. All of these were out-of-place and unnecessary, and definitely seem like they were just there to waste time and/or substitute for having to actually animate something. The last one in particular, shown below, touches back upon what I mentioned above. This scene is about the conversation between the two characters, not a tree and piles of wood. I might have been able to buy an explanation like “trying to distract the viewer from what is otherwise a boring conversation” like Owen proposed, but that requires the alternative to watching the characters talk to be more interesting than that, which is absolutely not the case here. Even if there was nothing here other than shots of the characters with their mouths moving, it would’ve been an improvement because this show is about the characters.
You’re exactly right, Chihiro. I definitely had a really unpleasant reaction after I saw this.
This shot during their long walk on the beach shares the same problem, except it’s even worse because much of this conversation would have had greater impact had it been accompanied by appropriate character expressions. I could be wrong, but I can’t help but think that this is yet another case of animation laziness. The scene in which Chihiro explains her mental defect was much better; while I still would have preferred seeing her facial expressions, it’s a beautiful and well-composed shot that at the same time emphasizes the solitude and loneliness caused by her illness. Note the role that the sky plays in this shot: if you equate the sky with her memories, the way the sky is shown here seems intended to emphasize its vast emptiness. There’s also the whole “sunset = memory loss” thing too, because as a day ends, so does that particular instance of Chihiro’s existence.
Episode three and forward, thankfully, seem to cut back on the kinds of retarded stuff found in the first couple of episodes (though they do sneak in some of these once in a while). However, they introduce a new, equally irritating graphical gimmick: GODDAMN GLOWING. It’s just totally unnecessary, distracting, and annoying. Ugh.
The next couple minutes go by without any such shenanigans. Hooray. Oops, I guess I spoke too soon; surely enough, they just randomly cut away parts of the shot again. Why can’t they just have stuck to making shots with unusual and interesting composition like this instead of constantly doing awful things like this? Thankfully, the episode manages to redeem itself a few minutes later. The sequence of this scene, followed by another scene in which this shot leads into this shot does a good job of restating Hiro’s “missing color” world and how presence of one of the two girls introduces color into it.
“HAY GUYZ, WE DIDN’T REALLY FEEL LIKE DRAWING THEM ACTUALLY WALKING DOWN THE STREET, SO WE JUST SUPERIMPOSED SOME TINTED PHOTOS OVER THE SHAPES OF THEIR CHARACTERS WHILE MONOCHROMATIC WINDOWS SCROLL PAST. ENJOY.”
And then we are again treated to something kind of clever. This shot emphasizes the emptiness present within Hiro after Miyako ditches him. Oh, and also the emptiness of his wallet. The following scene depicting the breakup between Kyosuke and his girlfriend was well-done too, despite the fact that they pulled this crap again. The breakup taking place in the midst of a bunch of ruins made it feel meaningful to the viewer despite the couple not having been given a whole lot of screentime and relationship development beforehand.
Ugh. More glowing.
Episode four starts off with the “black & white vs. color” thing again, but doesn’t do anything that stuck out as especially clever to me; at least there weren’t any distracting effects there for their own sake. The same could be said of following scene with Chihiro and Renji (with the exception of this stuff again), but as a bonus we’re giving *drumroll* FACIAL EXPRESSIONS FROM CHIHIRO!
Once again we are shown the black and white -> color thing involving Hiro and Miyamura. The fact that she forgave him so easily gives me the impression that she had just ditched him the previous day in order to avoid having to pay. Anyway, they soon go to their house, where nothing especially important happens.
It was probably evident earlier, but this is when I first noticed that much of the architecture doesn’t look very Japanese. Hmm.
And here, Shaft shows off their ability to pull off comedic despair like they did in Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei. I was highly amused by this conversation: “Is it good?” “That’s quite an arrogant question. This isn’t about deliciousness. It’s about whether eating it will be harmful or not.”
Then after a developmental flashback, we get yet more of the Miyako introducing color into Hiro’s black and white world thing. This is followed by some standard-fare bishoujo stuff: one girl trying to help her friend do something to impress the guy he’s after, followed by a cute scene and amusing involving Miyako helping Hiro get over his (quite understandable, from what we’re shown about Kei’s cooking ability) fear of female home cooking. Despite the oh-so-predictable “walk while my man is having a cute moment with another girl” part, I found this scene to be quite enjoyable. Shaft not throwing in any silly unnecessary effects may or may not have had something to do with this.
Next we get another scene with Kenji and Chihiro walking down the beach. They seem to finally be willing to actually animate the character interactions instead of “shooting” the scenes from a long distance away, and we’re treated to several nice shots ranging from emotional (backed up by the sunset imagery) to “uh oh, yandere time.” I, and possibly a number of those who had previously been turned off by this series, would have enjoyed it much more had the scenes between these two consisted of a number of interestingly-composed shots like these from the beginning, rather than all of the stupid and distracting stuff. Chihiro’s struggling out of Kenji’s arms while screaming this powerful line was especially well-done, and is quite likely my favorite scene of the series up to this point. It’s also worth noting that, by the end, Kenji has finally manages to close the distance. Yes, they have certainly embraced each other before, but this was the first time that there was emotional substance behind it. Also, again note the major romantic advancement in the presence of a sunset.
Episode five introduces shackles as a symbol for Chihiro’s memory limit, and it is quite a fitting one– a limit on a person’s memories is very close to a limit on a person’s humanity. After that, we are shown Kei shooting hoops in black-and-white, which didn’t really make any sense to me since that’s supposed to be Hiro’s thing. *shrug* We are given another distant introduction - we’ll have to see if this distance ends up being closed like the one between Chihiro and Kenji.
After that, we get UGH THE DAMN STUPID WOOD AGAIN GRRR.
Next, we get to a direct confrontation between Kei and Miyako, interrupted briefly by a fairly typical “meet the parent(s)” scene featuring Chihiro and Kenji (though the girl coming and meeting the guy’s parent was a little unusual, it tends to be the other way around). When we return to Miyako vs. Kei, it is interestingly the case that Miyako is shown in color while Kei is once again shown in black and white. I am now starting to wonder whether they plan to actually do something with Kei + black & white after all. Despite her carefree appearance, Miyako demonstrates possession of great insight and a deep understanding of what motivates people.
We then return to Kenji’s residence, where they finish their meal and then begin working on the novel, with the most notable part of the scene obviously being the analogy of the sheep tied to a pole that surely will become more relevant down the road. Then we are given what is perhaps the most crucial flashback of the story so far: that Chihiro’s accident was in a sense caused by Kei’s jealousy. Then we see Kuze walking Chihiro home, and he teachers her a song– again, something that probably will have some sort of greater purpose later on. Then there’s Kyosuke’s “confession” - an interesting way to convince her to participate in his film, to be sure - followed by Kenji reading Chihiro’s story draft. And through all of this, no jarring out-of-the blue visual effects! Yay!
Episode six begins with a tense staredown, but then after the OP we are shown a somewhat comical scene involving Kyosuke trying to get into Hiro’s room in order to set up a plan to set up sex filming with Kei. The “artists’ debate” later in the scene was quite interesting to me, because it covered issues that all artists have to deal with and consider while creating their works. Also, this has come up a couple times before, but after recurring this many times I just have to mention it: there sure are a lot of shots focused on street lights.
In the following scene with Hiro and Kei walking down a street on the water’s edge, the streak of successful omission of unnecessary effects is broken by another damn glow. Is playing with Photoshop/Premiere really that much fun, Shaft?
Afterwards, Kenji is given more elaboration on Chihiro’s condition, and then we are returned to the confrontation between Kei and Miyako. The most notable part of this scene is the “silent words” given by Kei as the train whizzed by, followed by a direct challenge: “I will wipe you out from Onii-chan’s heart.” Serious business. I wonder whether the train is going to mean anything; we already have Chihiro and Kenji meeting at an abandoned train station and often walking down the nearby tracks, and now this.
The next scene is more of the kind of thing you’d expect to see from this genre: the transformation of what would normally be a fairly innocent scene to something stuffed with innuendo. I found it rather amusing. In the greater scheme of things, scenes like this, the others like it that came before, and those that will undoubtedly be present in the future all show that the writers are still quite aware of the kind of show they are making and the conventions of its genre - much like the ending of My-HiME or Nanoha charging up Starlight Breaker.
This question, along with Kuze’s answer to it, were not only funny, but noteworthy to me because it was the first instance of the “your mom” thing I’ve seen in an anime.
Then we have the beginnings of “the battle.” Kei is working her hardest to maximize her performance at her basketball game, while Miyako tries to get him to ditch the basketball game (with the setting appropriately being her own “home court,” the school rooftop) and go out with her that Sunday instead, and apparently succeeds.
Sunday arrives, and while Miyako applies her makeup, Kei is busy winning her basketball game (complete with “discerning” camera work by Kyosuke). She gets injured, but this works out in her favor as it inspires Hiro to ditch his date with Miyako to check up on her and give her a piggy-back-ride home.
And, finally, we have Chihiro excitedly running into a school library for the first time. The scene and episode concludes with some excellent imagery of a shackled Chihiro reaching from inside the bounds of her stained-glass circle to Kenji, waiting outside to release her from that confinement.
Phew, finally done. While I definitely had issues with many of the graphical elements of these six episodes, they were quite worth enduring. Beneath them is what looks to be the beginnings of a touching, heart-rending tale that will hopefully provide as much entertainment and food for thought as these first six episodes have. If you dropped this show in disgust of the first episode (which it 100% deserves, at least from what is known at this point in time), I highly advise you to give it another chance.