eh about ef? (Episodes 4-7)

By all means, I should be entirely smitted with ef, like most of the otakusphere (to steal a term) seems to be.

It's got what seems to be it all: a unique animation style, characters ripped straight from a storyline I dreamed up, parallel plots that look to tie together smoothly, and personalities that are appealing without being overly moe. Not to mention, a green-haired meganekko.

I've spent a lot of my time with my hands plugged in my ears not just because I'm trying to get the earwax out, but to avoid the spoiler-tastic raving that everybody has been going on about for ef. It encouraged me to catch up with the show over the last few days of vacation as part of the "My God, it's Winter 2007/8 season already!?" watching panic.

So I was quite surprised when ef turned out not to be the gripping, awe-inspiring wonder that it's been made out to be, but merely a show that's good. Funnily enough, popular recommendations as to shows in off-center genres such as magical girl (Shugo Chara!) and GARmbling (Kaiji) have worked wonders for me, and I can't say enough superlatives about those, but for a visual novel show that's pretty much straight up my alley, it's not working out quite the same.

I could attest this to any number of things. First off would probably be that I've just seen too many of these damn shows. I love the visual-novel-slash-harem genre to death but in terms of bringing new concepts to the table it takes a lot to impress me. Perhaps because I'm an 'expert' in this genre I expect more, and it's quite easy for shows in this genre to fall into a cliche pattern.

It's a bit amusing, in that I try to avoid blatant escapism in my harem shows, which is kind of like trying to avoid the cream filling in an Oreo. It's there and it's going to be there, because that's a core part to a lot of shows in this genre.

ef has stayed out of this trap pretty well, but there are parts where it stumbles a bit; Chihiro's spontaneous lapsing into uber-dere-dere mode with the "you can kiss me if you want" for one, and the quick transitioning of the Kei - Hirono - Miyako plot into a sort of love triangle of the jealous regard.

This bugs me, probably the most because it was doing pretty well while giving the romance part a backseat, while making the story a tale of character discovery, and when the love-love part gets center stage it's just sort of flat and been-there compared to the rest.

It's a bit early to be refuting my argument but I suppose the counter is that this kind of stuff could just be working to develop the characters; yeah, Miyako's just working herself into either the lonely girl or yandere corner, where things will get interesting, and Chihiro's "kiss me nao plz" thing is kind of tacky but it sets Renji on a hardcore monologue.

Maybe this post as a whole is kind of ironic, in that it does mirror Renji's thoughts a lot. That feeling of "gee, I should be loving this, but something's wrong" is very prevalent in my viewing of ef so far.

The predictability factor is beginning to rise in the show as well, continuing on with the 'story is looking kind of weak' worry. Soon enough, if it hasn't already, it will hit Renji that Chihiro's story, like most, is a quite un-subtle narrative reflecting on her own tragic life, and their story will continue on their heartwarming if not kind of straightforward style of "someone reaching out to the lonely person". Eventually it will hit Kei that she's being a Class-A Jealous "Friend" and being entirely unfair to Miyako. At that point, they'll have a My Story Is Sadder Than Yours duel and Miyako will probably claim Hirono, while Kei either gives up on her feelings or puts out to that photographer guy.

It's all entirely speculation of course, and most of you who have actually already finished ef (which, I suppose, is all of you reading this) are laughing in that evil-villain-with-a-monocle way at my foolishness, but that's the way the story is feeling to me. It just seems like ef has played most of its cards already.

We have Chihiro's backstory, have most of her inner feelings exposed. We've seen Kei's light and dark side, seen her relation to her sister and her guilt, her true relation to "onii-chan" Hirono. Miyako, we now know her past, and her desperation to be recgonized, to be loved by someone again.

It's just sort of at a 'what now?' point. Maybe there's something good to be said about this, how ef is up-front with its characters and doesn't take the entire time beating around the bush saving up for a shock that should have been obvious. But I'm just kind of lost with what this show is planning to do; it was moving so solidly earlier and is now kind of bogging down a bit, with sequences which are moving, yes, but damn long.

You know what I mean, with Miyako's now-famous 99 Missed Calls (take that, American movies). It was a touching moment, one that isn't easily forgettable, but the little Mystery Science Theater voice in the back of the head spoiled everything. "They used like 4 frames over 15 minutes, you know," it says. "They didn't have to drag it on so long, we know that she's desperate." it says. "Why couldn't it have spent more time on her backstory instead of throwing it out there and going straight to the voice mails?"

This is my problem with ef as a whole, as as much good as it is on paper, it's just not clicking, not getting that connection with the viewer for me. I see Miyako rant on and on for 5 minutes to Hirono's phone, and I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to feel sorry for her or scared of her. I see Renji struggle with whether he should Just Kiss Her Already, and I'm not sure whether he's doing what any person would do or is just being a standard romantic coward.

It's this unease about the story that gets to me, that it's very ambiguous in terms of characters and morality. This is probably what a lot of people love about this show, in that it's different from every moe-fest visual novel; like Chihiro says, "if the characters are thought to be cute, that means they aren't described properly."

And don't get me wrong; I don't hate anything more than a story that is very black and white, good vs. evil. But the characters of ef just aren't hitting any special shade of grey; they don't really inspire, at least not yet, a lot of discussion about their actions and thoughts. They're just, there, to me. And that hurts.

Undoubtedly, the judgment is not final yet. I've still got five episodes to go and that could make all the difference for this show; even though I cannot see how yet, ef might pull an ace out of its sleeves. There might be an intriguing twist, or more revelations on a character's train of thought. But right now, it's just kind of a dissapointment.

Like Chihiro's "you can kiss me" scene, what it says and how it looks are two different things. It's on paper, visual novel gold, a show with the dual plotlines of a KimiKiss, the balanced characters of a sola, the character discovery of a Myself;Yourself, but in reality, it just doesn't have the feel that it should. It's just not lining up, and that's something that worries me.

Clearly, the intent to like ef is there, by the tone of those words and the references to the show itself. In the end, although it really sounds like I dislike the show, maybe the underlying meanings of this rant tell more - I try to hate the show so that when it turns out good, it's all the better. We shall see.

-CCY

Any show with Cardcaptor Sakura, Touhou, and Lucky Star has to be good, right?

(Incidentally, I don't have much to say about the SHAFT-itude of it all.)
(One more random thought: all the red-flash-heart-beating parts of episode 7 were a real throwback to Tsukihime the visual novel. Hehehe.)
(Finally, Chihiro's analogizing of her own problems to the sheep math problem, with the "if the chain is 13 years long" and all, was much more chill-inducing than Miyako's 99 Missed Calls.)

2007 Season of Romance - And the Rest...

And you always thought that was spring...

Adaptation season may be closer to the truth, as pretty much every show I've followed so far is based on an eroge or ren'ai.

This probably says something about the creativity of harem shows nowadays, with probably one completely new romance (Code-E) and one completely new visual novel adaptation (sola) in recent memory, but the content is all fresh to me anyway.

Not to mention, the logistical challenges of adapting premade content still are fairly high, especially with the branching nature of harem-types.

The point still remains that there are a lot of the same shows out there this fall season, and while the moe-bishoujo-hater is probably off cursing somewhere, lovers of either harem, romance, or just general fanservice/moe are having a busy time.

As such it's time for another triple take, taking looks at three more first episodes, bringing the total to six fall anime so far...

ef - a tale of memories is perhaps the most and least traditional of the harem shows so far. The concept is almost blindingly average; there may not be many ways to introduce the male and female "leads" to each other other than a chance meeting, but when you get two pairs of utter strangers united in the first episode, one starts to wonder just how many times you've seen this before, and the mind instead turns to wondering just how are they going to make the established (i.e. osananajimi) characters lose this time.

On the flip side, being a Shaft show the art style of ef was spectacularly nonstandard, with plenty of innovative camera angles, cut-out shots (i.e. black background with the sky background filling in a girl's profile), and more. It was refreshing as always, and yet was sane enough that it didn't really kill the mood of the show at all.

The show features what appears to be a parallel story as well, with two male leads (which took a long time for me to figure out with their similar designs, I must admit) befriending two different girls, with the connection seeming to be through a six-degrees-type relation between some sisters. It certainly seems promising, as more and more shows are moving away from the one-strong (or weak)-male-lead syndrome that gets a bit ridiculous at times.

Overall, ef does a great job at proving that the first episode really doesn't tell much about the series, as it could really go either way at the moment.

The two lead female characters are adorable, especially the eyepatch-girl, but they tread the line between believable and just overly weak, whether it be being ridiculously friendly or emotional around their respective "partners." The male leads don't seem too bad, and I enjoyed their little speech about "wanting to be the knight in shining armor," but really, they're just so nondescript at this point I can't say much about them.

This seems to sum up my opinion of the whole show so far, in that it feels awfully...done before and forgettable. I remember watching this episode, liking it a lot - and forgetting about it. Maybe it's the fault of watching so many shows, maybe it's the passage of time - but ef hasn't made an imprint yet. This isn't to be confused though with a lack of promise; I hope that the second episode will bring back the good memories of...3 days ago, and prove that Shaft can do romance as well as they did despair.

On a final note, any show that features a combined Lucky Star / Touhou reference (and, yes, a Nice Boat) deserves at least a double eyebrow raise.

Next up on the list is KimiKiss Pure Rouge, which gives off the feel that it's more of a romance aimed at girls, or at least at both genders. I say this because of the impressive gender-neutral feel of the show. Again, there are two equally balanced male leads, and the female cast is varied without pandering to any particular stereotype.

It's a different type of show than the other ones airing so far which certainly seem more fantasy-based in either setting or characters; KimiKiss gives off the feel that you're entering a show that has been going for quite a while now. The characters are established, whether it be the three guys, the quiet girl that Kouichi likes, or even the returning childhood friend, Mao. Even the chance encounters between Mao and Rebel Guy, or Kazuki and Delinquent Genius, don't feel overly forced.

As such, KimiKiss is an anime that's a bit harder to grasp onto, especially with a slow opening like the first episode provided. Mao's return and the first half as a whole was admittedly on the bread and butter side but once the school day started the episode picked up in pace, introducing many of the characters above, and probably some more. The sheer complexity of the possible relationships certainly has a girls'-show feel to it (a la Marmalade Boy) compared to most harem show "triangles", where you take all the girls and draw lines to one guy in the center.

All this means though is that KimiKiss will be a noteworthy show if only because it will sort out those who like more 'real' romance than those who just enjoy the simplistic harem romances. I can't claim to swear allegiance to either side yet but KimiKiss will be a test as to how much concentrated relationship-spaghetti one can handle.

It certainly leaves a lot of interesting ends open at the first episode anyway, with the "secondary" male Kazuki getting his first kiss already, the issue of the relationship between Kouichi and that quiet girl he always blushes at, and the reason for Mao's return among others being interesting discussion topics. At which point though this ceases to be interesting and instead becomes confusing, though, is an excellent question.

Shakugan no Shana II is the odd one out here, being of the supernatural action-romance crossbreed variety. The Shana series is a strong one with a wide fanbase and something along the line of 17 light novels, a couple games, a manga, a movie, and two anime series, and I'm beginning to see why.

As mentioned extensively in my review of the movie, Shana isn't a series that's designed to randomly mindrape you, and instead is more of a show that surprises you with the path from point A to point B. It lays out most of the cornerstones for you - time loop enemy, increasingly-complex Shana/Yuuji/Kazumi/Ike love square-type, action happens, but how everything is going to get resolved is the interesting point.

Time loops or repetition in general are always a somewhat controversial topic for me in anime; on one side, it's kind of cool to see what you've seen before; on the other, you're seeing what you're seen before. Still, the logical fallacies and the inner desires/conflicts of characters which can be seen in the dream-like sequences in Shana can still generate some interest (case 1: Yuuji jumping off the ladder yet still floating to the top), although, as in the case of the Torch theory, I may be giving Shana more credit than it desires.

A lot of my enjoyment from Shana, and confusion as well, may stem from my relative newness to the series as well; what's old to some people is still new to me. This applies to both canned-ish footage from the first series, and, more crucially, to terminology and characters as well. As such, anyone outside of the core love triangle and (the soon-to-be-defunct, I imagine) Friange are completely new.

Hopefully figuring out just what role the obscurely named villians, Maid De Arimasu and Minami Nagato Green-Hair Girl play in the scheme of things won't be a huge trial by fire. It seems that they're trying to keep things relatively straightforward so far, at least in the romance section, with the apparent recap of Shana's non-confession, Kazumi's obsession, and Ike's challenger entry.

Shana seems like the series that could work relatively well, at least with me, as long as it doesn't devolve too hard into a monster-of-the-week show; there seems to be an overarching plot or conspiracy at least, but we'll find out. It certainly can occupy the status of 'light watching' for now, anyway, compared to all the budding drama/tear-fests that we know visual novel adaptations are. The best way to put it is; I like what I see so far, but I don't know how much of it I've seen.

And, with one more off-hand comment, the Shana OP rocks almost as hard as the M;Y OP. Literally.

So far the fall season has been quite pleasant so far on the adaptation side as a whole. A lot of series have shown a lot of possibility to become great shows; instead of being a huge, breakout show, there's a bunch of solid shows. Clannad and Myself;Yourself are top picks from the old school of harem shows with strong and way moe characters. KimiKiss looks good for the more traditional romance crowd. ef's the Shaft title which could go any way. Shana II is Shana, which I understand means a lot.

D.C. II is the one show that's really dissapointed me so far; the second episode failed to continue with any of the interesting "progress" from episode 1, and the characters aren't anything spectacular. But even with this show, I expect to make it to the end, if only to prove myself that there was nothing there.

With any luck though, this could be a very thrilling fall season...if you can keep your characters straight.

-CCY