Friday 31 October 2008

ef - a tale of melodies - Episode 4

ef - a tale of melodies happily continues down its path of extreme (and slightly pretentious) gorgeousness, but can episode four actually add a little more in the way of a plot to the mix?

Well... kind of. My personal highlight of the episode was the return of Hiro and Miyako, albeit relatively briefly - I've already mentioned how I felt that their story was the strongest part of a tale of memories, so this gives me renewed hope that we may see a little more of them as this series progresses.


That aside, if there's one thing this episode does well it's tying everything together, linking Nagi in with Hiro and bringing the prior earthquake into the equation to finally properly show Yu's loss - Something he shares with Yuuko's brother, who seems to be hugely protective (to the point of being threatening) of his sister. Of course, there's also plenty of movement in the relationship between Kuze and Mizuki, with the pair sharing a kiss (well, two really), and Kuze accepting Mizuki's feelings but not the prospect of actually doing anything about it.

Even four episodes in, I'm still honestly not sure what to make of ef - a tale of melodies - I find myself coming to write these 'Blog entries with my mind a complete blank, and I just find myself unable to really interpret what I'm seeing in any tangible fashion. I think I'll simply have to openly admit that I don't understand the motivations of many of the main characters here, from Kuze's morbid fascination with his own death above all else (which is quite an interesting subject for discussion in its own right to be fair) through to Yu's almost schizophrenic relationships with Nagi and Yuuko in his flashback segments, all of which is before we even start tackling Mizuki's love for Kuze, which to be frank feels terrible false and unreal to me.

Still, despite all that I am perhaps warming to this series, increasingly enjoying its visuals even if I'm left rather baffled beyond that. I just hope I'll be able to wrap my head around this series eventually and laugh about what a fool I've been, rather than reaching the final episode and being forced to ask "So what the Hell was that all about?".

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