ef - a tale of melodies - Episode 6

I mentioned in my appraisal of the last episode of ef - a tale of melodies that something dark and disturbing was clearly in the pipeline regarding Yuuko and her "brother", and I felt I'd at least somewhat guessed what that something was, but having watching this instalment of the series... Bloody Hell.

With the focus of episode six almost entirely on Yu and Yuuko, things begin normally enough (well, if you count Yuuko getting naked in a church as normal), with a build-up to Kuze's farewell party, Yu's feelings for Yuuko moving on apace, and Nagi's rather broken emotions towards Yuuko becoming clear as a result as we see that particular love triangle all but break down.

However, after Kuze's farewell "party" (to which only Yu, Yuuko and Nagi are invited), Yuuko goes running up to the roof in tears, and Yu chases after her, finally confessing his feelings to her, but begging her to share her secrets with him.


It's at this point that the episode takes a turn that I don't think I've seen since some of the more disturbing or insane moments of Neon Genesis Evangelion - An unravelling tale of Yuuko's adopted brother's attitude towards her, from love to hatred to anger, and then onwards towards physical and sexual abuse. This is all delivered in an increasingly hurried and almost schizophrenic monologue by Yuuko herself, illustrated in the kind of elusive yet striking way that you'd expect from this series. The longer it goes on, the more both Yuuko and the imagery we see begins to break down, with the audio track distorting and pitching upwards in tune with the girl's distress. By the end of it all, we're left with little more than scruffily hand-drawn cells and a scream from Yu as everything goes quite simply insane. It's deeply disturbing, yet as a work of animated art it's also deeply brilliant.

I think the second half of this episode definitely has to be classed as a "Don't have nightmares" viewing - While it eschews any kind of actual gore, physical or sexual violence, it assembles its audio-visual artistry in such an unnerving and uncomfortable way that you're left almost begging for it to stop, while equally finding yourself unable to look away, before it finally ends, leaving you shaken and upset. To be quite honest, this was the last thing I was expecting from ef - a tale of melodies - Sure, a tale of memories had some dark stories to relate and dark moments to show us, but nothing on this scale of absolute disgust and horror. It's a big... no, impossible... subject to tackle, but this series has done it, and I have to say that it's something I don't think I'll forget for a long time. It's the kind of thing that makes you want to meet the minds capable of such an incredibly harrowing and twisted display, because from the outside looking in it honestly had the look and feel of someone having a complete mental breakdown - Watching it has left me exhausted, yet hugely impressed. While the episode hasn't assuaged all my allegations of pretention on the behalf of this series' artwork, on this occasion any hubris on the artists part was well justified.