Land of Confusion
October 31, 2007 | Television | ef a tale of memories
All in all, ef - a tale of memories is a fascinating show.
And it bores me to tears.
I’m exaggerating, yes, but I have to admit that, after four episodes, I don’t find the show the slightest bit engaging. While watching, I feel completely detached from what’s going on, a little voice in the back of my head whispering, “you could be watching something else right now, you know.”
Still, Shaft gave it the ol’ college try, for which I have to give them credit. And, for that matter, the show’s shortcomings are probably more a weakness of the original material than the result of Shaft’s direction. The writing is convoluted in the way a lot of bishoujo games (and anime series, for that matter) are when focused more on being groundbreaking than on weaving a good tale. Some people go for that sort of thing, but I’ve never much cared for it. I always feel like I’m being played for a fool.
I guess you could say the show is more flash than substance. I don’t think the production necessarily distracts from the story; in fact, it’s probably the one thing I really like about the show. A convoluted story in a generic package wouldn’t be any better than a convoluted story in a unique package. It’s a convoluted story, either way. However, my feeling that the production doesn’t distract from the story cuts both ways: it’s neither harmful nor helpful.
Of course, it’s not often we see this Shinbo style of surrealism paired with an actual story. And, yes, I know Shinbo isn’t directing this time around, but he’s involved in the production nonetheless, and it’s plainly obvious Director Oonuma Shin is aping his style. But if you look at shows directed by Shinbo in recent years - those directed in his now signature style - you’ll notice that they’re light on story and heavy on gags and vignettes. It’s appropriate material for that sort of direction, in my opinion.
But what about ef - a tale of memories? Well, it’s pretty clear that the story is steeped in surrealism all its own, so logic would dictate that Shinbo’s style of direction is a good fit. And I think I’d agree. So, I can’t to do the obvious and criticize the direction for being too weird for its own good. I can, however, criticize the story for being too weird for its own good.
And a little too dull for me, unfortunately.
The direction is what hurts ef the most for me, watching it I can’t shake the feeling that someone’s trying too hard to get an “A” in art class. Fortunately, there’s Kimikiss and Clannad, so don’t have to worry about getting my bishoujo fix this season.
I’m actually kind of sad to hear that though I can’t blame you in the slightest. I saw ef ~ A Tale Of Memories very mediocre story-wise at first, maybe even a rip-off of many other romance-ish shows. Regardless, I gave it a few more tries and now I’m starting to become intertwined in what is occurring. Maybe it’s because I have a fondness for lovey-dovey moments, or quite possibly I feel that my focus doesn’t lie on the story at all. I’m sure in all honesty I would have been bored if Shaft hadn’t been the one to plot out the bizarre nature of the animation. Instead, I find myself gazing at a bit of symbolism and feel locked within the anime. Then again, this could just be me though I do hope that the series will progress at a higher output than it’s giving, I’m very satisfied despite plot problems.
I think that is mostly due to shaft inserting stupid animation effects and filters which make you wonder what the hell you’re watching in the first place. This show COULD have potential with a sense of flow and less idiotic disruptions.
I really enjoyed the short demo of ef that I played a while back, and I was looking forward to the show. However, what I watched does not come close to resembling the visual novel I played.
My two cents on the animation: it worked for Hidamari Sketch because there was a purpose to the abstractness. With ef, it seems very arbitrary, and I don’t think Shinbo’s style fits the plot, surreal it may be. The story already has enough mystery to it, so the jumpy animation just ends up competing with the plot, making it hard to decide what to focus on.
And lastly, one thing I was looking forward to in this series was the Makoto Shinkai backgrounds. His high-production backgrounds and Shinbo’s low-budget-esque animation style definitely do not mix. It’s just too bad a good story like ef’s had to be sacrificed just to figure this out.
I’m glad that I’m not the only one who was getting bored with this show. And I really wanted to like. I guess I can only take abstract weirdness only so often.
Now I all I need to to do is to get Genesis’ “Land of Confusion” to stop playing in my head.
I find it somewhat lacking that the story with potential - nameless (?) dude’s film - isn’t really being explored yet. Miyako is, at the moment, the most interesting part of this show for me, simply because I have a thing for spunk.
Your position is that the visual tricks that keep you interested, right? i would agree with you for some of them, but others are just the equivalent of the director’s head popping up in the corner of the picture saying “did you get it? did you get it?”. One thing I’ll give it, though - it’s rare to get a show this visually quirky trying to deal with non-comedic material, so I’ll be watching the episodes again and again not because the story interests me, but because I want to figure out why the composed the shot they way they did, and why they chose the colors that they chose. Maybe someday I’ll figure out exactly what they were thinking when they chose to abuse type as texture in the OP video. : /
I think I agree with Chami. If the stories get a bit more engaging, this could be an interesting show to watch for the way the visual direction and the story interact.
On the plus side:
- Miyako
- Instead of a harem, it’s three different romantic stories told in parallel — I think more bishoujo adaptations should take this approach, it would allow an adaptation to explore the different routes of the game without the “girl of the week” phenomenon.
- They’re having fun with the visuals. It’s animation, creators should take advantage of the freedom that gives them.
- There are three stories being told, at least one of them might blossom into something that grabs you.
- The guys in the story aren’t just stand-ins for the audience, they have things they’re doing with their lives (well, not so much Renji). Those struggles have potential, too.
On the minus side:
- There’s maybe a little learning on the job going on here. This is Shinbo apprentices at work, not Shinbo himself. Not all the experiments are working.
- For me, the Hirono/Kei/Miyako story seems utterly predictable — I hope that Kousuke (the film guy) disrupts the disappointed-childhood-friend dynamic that’s developing with Kei. The Chihiro/Renji story is, as well. The wild-card is Kousuke.
- Chihiro’s voice, though by episode four she no longer sounds like she’s constantly fighting back tears.
It will also be interesting to see if they weave the theme of memory into the stories other than Chihiro’s. They’ve started to work on that with Kei. It remains to be seen if they have anything interesting to say about that.
It’s not exactly that bad.
The “photoshop filters” are definitely annoying at times, but in terms of the story, I feel it’s being done okay, as long as you make sure to separately follow each of the three main couples story.
I like the damned photoshop filters hinano! XD
To save Chami some time, the OP is pretty straightforward playing to the concept of “a tale of memories.”
1. The three girls (we all like girls, amirite?) disappearing into ink blots symbolizes forgetting
2. people opening their eyes, waking
3. a tale of engrish for texture - cheap, “illustrates” that it’s a, lol, tale.
4. also to show the role of writing things down in the ef story–memories are reconstructed through words as background for what we know how things are today. it’s in that context, at least for chihiro, that some people perceive what’s going on.
5. And that seeing WxY “bure bure”ing along with some nice violin x guitar riffs is cool in itself, amirite?
Don’t make me explain why there are 3 strands that untangles in the opening title scene ;_;
Yeah, I think the OP is actually kind of clever. Shame about the engrishy vocals, though.
If there’s any universal truth at this point, it’s that there are lot of varying opinions about what makes this show work or not work. It’s clearly a conversation piece in that regard.
Text as art has become something of a SHAFT OP staple.
Omo:
I’m not talking about the rather obvious images, I’m talking about more basic things like color. For example, when the male protagonists are first shown in the OP, there’s pink with cyan, then purple and red, then red and green. Why choose those colors? Why yellow, green, and magenta during the “girl on creative tool” intro following the title (which is exquisite use of the f’s crossbar, IMO).
Why the need for SO MUCH TO BE GOING ON especially in the scene with the falling diamond thing and the cell phone? The text going from black to white, while moving, is just distracting. Maybe because the imagery is weak? Or is it because the Japanese won’t look at it as more than texture or black shapes, given how it’s not even their language anyway? If they wanted the credits to stand out, why orange on red? The drop shadow helps, but it would be better off a more contrasting color. While these may seem to be just little nitpicks, I think that because these choices are made deliberately (I would hope) that at least some form of meaning would be given to them.
dm:
Text IS art. :p
I see this show completely differently. I look forward to it every week almost as much as I do Blue Drop. I understand what people are referring to when they say the art is too complex and gets in the way of the story, or the story is too convoluted. I just disagree completely. For me, the art in general intensifies the feelings in the show, and doesn’t at all interfere with the plot. Maybe the art works by sheer beauty, maybe by being disorienting enough to make me vulnerable to emotion. All I know is that it works for me.
Far from this being “learning on the job,” I think it is the best thing done yet by Shinbou or his school. Ef and Blue Drop give me the strongest emotional hit of any shows now being broadcast. And the OP impresses me more and more each time I see it. “Abusing type as texture” is a great phrase, chami, but if that’s abuse, let’s have more of it. It’s a big world, and rules were made to be broken. “Dull” is the last thing I personally would call this show.
Of course, it needs to be said that the music is extremely effective. Not as effective as in Byousoku, but getting there.
While the direction might be a tad gimmicky, I for one, am much rather watching this version of Ef than the prospective alternative of Yet Another Vanilla Adapation.
Sure, it is sort of searching for the right groove while tagging down the road with what we got thus far, but for me at least it does spice up things a bit, and makes an otherwise so far mundane show a bit more interesting.
The fact that they’re doing something slighlty different in a genre where vanilla icecream is the reigning standard deserves a cookie, and already interesting in itself - The path has been wobbly and the end result is still in the air, but the potential, and the interest in seeing on just how they’re coping with the challange of adapting the unorthodox style with the genre and story and what it’ll result in, will probably keep me watching this, where as I’ve probably otherwise have dropped the series sooner rather than later.
If the actual show finds it’s groove later on, Great! But even if it doesn’t, at least it was an interesting experiment to follow. Sor far I’ve found each consecutive episode to be a slight step better than the last in this regard, so I’m still staying relatively hopeful.
Otherwise, dm pretty much summed up my thoughts on the series with his points. Except I don’t particulary care about Miyako - I like obnoxious characters as much as the next guy (har), but she’s starting to annoy me for some reason. Chihiro OTOH, is dangerously close to wearing down my counter-artifical-moe-defences. arghhhhh
Yes. As far as I’m concerned, Chihiro took a big step forward in episode four.
I think this just about wraps up about 95% of anime. As far as eye-opening sentences go, this one takes the freakin cake.
Just noticed Hinano quoted the same line above, lol.. keep em coming Lawson!