Comments on: As the End Nears: ef–What Are We Supposed To Be Feeling? (Part 2)

By: dm

dm — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:25:32 +0000

I was pleasantly surprised by episode 11 — while I thought Mizuki’s voice acting was perhaps a bit too “genki”, I thought her reply to Kuze’s questions had a great deal of charm, and made what seemed like a weakness in the series a bit more tolerable.

I haven’t seen episode twelve yet, but I’m now looking forward to it with more eagerness than before.

By: Josh

Josh — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 08:34:08 +0000

I’ll agree that this technique didn’t work as well with Kuze, though I think the situation of the scene is also a major factor in the reason why.

For example, in Kuze’s scene, I don’t think it worked as well because, at least personally, I don’t find Kuze a very sympathetic character in the first place. In his scene, the sympathetic character is Mizuki – the one being piled on, not the one doing the piling. Kuze, on the other hand, is just being, frankly, an ass. And really, how long do you really want to hear an ass being an ass? Not all that long.

Meanwhile, in Yuuko’s scene, sher story makes her an incredibly sympathetic figure, and just how shocking her story ends up being and all the emotional trauma that she just lays out in front of Himura makes that scene all that more impactful.

Yes, it’s very similar to how they revealed Miyako in the first series, but then again, we see reuse of plot devices all the time in various shows, and the reason we do is because, well, they work. And I think this is the same way. If they execute it effectively, it will work the 1st time, and the 2nd time, and the 10th time. It just didn’t work with Kuze because he wasn’t the right character to do it with to begin with. His scene probably would have worked just as well if he started screaming at Mizuki and was throwing everything and their brother at her until she left or something. In a sense, I think that would have displayed his crazed nature more than smothering Mizuki with “why?s”

By: dm

dm — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:03:30 +0000

Omo does have a bit of a point — I wrote the above after watching episode eight. Now that I’ve watched nine and ten, I’m happier with the series than I was after episode eight. I’m even willing to defend the monochrome in episode ten as a frame for the sudden burst of color when Mizuki hears the music. I do think watching nine and ten together is probably helpful.

And, yes, the episode six wall-of-text was okay, only going into over-use in episode seven.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 07:11:28 +0000

@dm: well, a little bell did go off in my head when I watched episode 6, but I figured–hey, they’re entitled to do it again once, right? It’s the second season and it’s one of the show’s hallmarks. And, as you point out, it was done in an alliterative way which added to its appeal. Seeing it in episode 7 triggered something of a reverse cascade for me, though.

@omo: I don’t think I’m being unfair here–I didn’t really pass judgment on the entire show so much as its use of this one particular technique. And four times total use in both seasons does constitute a pattern, and shows something that seeing it only a couple of times in season 1 didn’t. There will be time later to assess the series as a whole (I’m increasingly seeing both seasons as really a single work). And it doesn’t take away from the uniqueness and effectiveness of the rest of the series, which is still rare in today’s anime.

By: omo

omo — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:49:12 +0000

the fat lady has not yet sing! what is with all this gun jumping??

season 1 was not an even experience, just like season 2. perhaps most of us was preoccupied with learning how to understand season 1 when it was going up and down, but so quick to judge! man.

By: dm

dm — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:19:55 +0000

I agree. Indeed, when I saw the “Miyako-breakdown-technique” being applied to Yuuko, I’m afraid I was already thinking “this has been done”, though the rhythm of Yuuko’s litany was a nice elaboration. When it happened again with Kuze, I was a little disappointed.

Last season, they were applying new techniques inventively (by the way, I think you’ll find Anno’s use of text in Evangelion, in turn, derives from similar techniques used by Jean-Luc Godard in several of his films from Anno’s formative years). This season, I feel like they’re just recycling the things that worked before, and maybe being a bit ham-fisted at it.

For the nicely colorful and evocative phrase “reaction porn”, I’ve just used “manipulative” or “manipulation”. And, yes, I feel like I’m being manipulated by the overwrought emotional situations of ef – a tale of melodies.