Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Ef: A Tale of Melodies - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Does the song remain the same in this second half of Ef?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 13, 2012

The old Carol Burnett Show was a veritable feast for classic movie lovers for a couple of reasons. First of all, Carol regularly had some of the biggest stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood as her guests. Perhaps even more memorably, her ace writing team used to regularly skewer the great classic films, both old and new, with legendary zing and verve. Probably the most famous of these parodies was the delicious take on Gone With the Wind, with one of the most iconic sight gags of all time, when “Scarlett” (Burnett) appeared at the top of a grand staircase in a gown she had supposedly fashioned from the drapes, replete with curtain rod still intact. Less remembered, but no less funny, was Burnett’s fantastic skit based on the then immensely popular Love Story. For those who have been living under a rock or who are too young to remember this iconic film, it concerned a young couple who fall in love only to be met with disaster when the woman contracts an incurable sickness. In the Burnett version, she is lying in bed moments from death and her husband (the always hilarious Harvey Korman) tells her she can have anything, that he’ll do whatever he can to make her fondest wish comes true. She coughs a little and says, “Well, I’d like a three minute egg.” Korman’s facial expression at the request—which is obviously about two minutes too long vis a vis the woman’s impending mortality—was priceless, and the audience devolved into helpless hysterical laughter.

I mentioned Love Story in its original, non-parody form in my review of Ef: A Tale of Memories - Complete Collection, the first season of a series based on a popular two part adult visual novel series called Ef A Fairy Tale of the Two. But as this second half unfolded, I started to wonder how those magnificent writers of The Carol Burnett Show would handle a series that doesn’t involve just terminal illness (an illness caused by neurosis, of all things) and recurrent short term memory loss, but a whole slew of other, supposedly "minor", horrible tragedies. Ef: A Tale of Melodies probably doesn’t entirely deserve that sort of wondering, but the show is so slight and gentle, and in this second season so relentlessly dour, that it leaves the door open for lots of rumination, some of which may lead to tangential sidebars like this.

As with Ef: A Tale of Memories, Ef: A Tale of Melodies deals with two sets of couples, though this particular outing stays away from outright romantic triangles which were a major plot point of the first half of the series. The interesting thing about this second half, and one which makes the Melodies title instead of Memories kind of ironic, is that half of the story plays out in the past, while the other section plays out in the present. The two timeframes don’t really inform each other from a purely content level, though emotionally, the various story strands do weave quite nicely at times, offering a counterpoint to the two sets of developing relationships. Ultimately some connections are revealed between the two timeframes, but it takes an awful lot of trauma and tragedy to get there.

Ef: A Tale of Melodies is perhaps a bit too convoluted for its own good, as if the writers wanted to draw attention away from the fact that not much actually happens in the series. We’re presented with two mirror cities, both named Otowa, each with its own story. The present day story concerns a gifted violinist named Kuze, whose brilliant playing attracts a visitng neighbor named Mizuki. Mizuki falls instantly head over heels in love with Kuze, but he pushes her away, finally revealing he is terminally ill and doesn’t want to be starting something he can’t finish (three minute egg joke, anyone?). The other story takes place largely in the past and concerns some of the characters from Ef: A Tale of Memories, Yu and Yuko. Their relationship unfolds through a series of flashbacks which sees both of them rejecting the other one at various times for a number of reasons which reveal tragedies in each of their pasts.

The tone here is considerably more dour than the first half of the series, which is saying something, all things considered. Aside from the series of past tragedies that are revealed in the Yu – Yuko arc are magnified by “new, improved” tragedies that strike them later in the series. And the impending demise of Kuze colors that plot arc with an inherent sadness that makes a lot of the other trauma depicted on this side of the equation seem kind of trivial after a while. Mix in a series of supporting characters, most of whom have their own “issues” (including ritual suicide), and you don’t exactly have the makings of a feel good series.

This second half of Ef balances the kind of depressive aspect of its general plot with some of the most gloriously beautiful animation in recent memory, something it shares with Ef: A Tale of Memories. This is a series that delights in purely graphical elements populating the screen, a sort of visual commentary that plays in opposition to what’s actually going on with the various storylines. Geometric designs, shadow box versions of characters, and other pure design elements dance across the screen and make Ef one of the most consistently gorgeous animes that Shaft, or anyone, has produced.

Ef: A Tale of Melodies - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Ef: A Tale of Melodies – Complete Collection is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. As with Ef: A Tale of Memories - Complete Collection, this is yet another gorgeous piece of anime art from Shart, one which near perfectly exploits the opportunities that high definition offers. Once again as in the first half of the series colors are incredibly vivid and widely variant, and there are a number of extremely cool looking graphical elements that look fantastic (see screencap 1 just for one example, where a character is almost swallowed by German words creeping up the screen). Both characters and background have had quite a bit of care lavished on them, and this Blu-ray presents it all in sumptuously clear and bold looking imagery.

Ef: A Tale of Melodies - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

My comments about Ef: A Tale of Memories hold true for this outing as well. As with the first half of the series, Ef: A Tale of Melodies has two lossless audio tracks, both DTS-HD Master 2.0 stereo mixes, one in the original Japanese and the other a quite good English dub. Purists will probably want to opt for the original Japanese track, as it evidently offers some of the original voice actors from the visual novel series, but those who prefer not to read subtitles won't have a lot to complain about with the English voice cast, as the styles and even timbres of the English language cast is really surprisingly similar to the original Japanese cast. Both tracks offer excellent fidelity, though a surround track could have opened up the nice underscore somewhat. There really isn't a wealth of LFE on either track. But what's here is clear, precise and elegantly presented and audiophiles should enjoy either of the excellent choices offered here.

Ef: A Tale of Melodies - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Clean Opening Animation (HD; 13:48). As with the first volume of Ef, this supplement is listed as singular on its menu, but it actually contains several opening animations.


• Clean Closing Animation (HD; 16:43). The same story repeats here, with several versions and themes of the closing animation.

Ef: A Tale of Melodies - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In a weird sort of way there's both more and less than what meets the eye with Ef: A Tale of Melodies. Visually this is a simply stunning looking show whose imagery can't be afforded enough kudos. But there's also not a lot of real story here, aside from a quartet of characters, each with their own back story and each with at least one secret they've kept from their significant other. The fact that the episode titles of both sections of this anime feature an acrostic when their first letters are considered separately gives some indication that the creative staff wanted the viewer to peek beneath the surface, and that's all fine and well, except for a couple of things: first, the surface is so alluring that it's hard to want to get beneath it, and second, what is beneath the surface doesn't rise to the sumptuous quality of that façade. While A Tale of Melodies is perhaps structurally more interesting than A Tale of Memories, it also suffers from some clunky writing, especially as the series wraps itself up. Taken as a whole, though, with a certain amount of patience and suitably set expectations, the series offers sufficient interest to come Recommended.