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Summary:
Renji finds Chihiro hard at work in the library and reads what she’s written so far. When he comments on how the main character is cute, Chihiro decides to rewrite it all because she wants the character to be a bit off and out of touch. The following day, Renji is again with Chihiro, and he tells her that he’s thinking about the future aspirations handout. She doesn’t know what he’s talking about, so he explains it to her, but he then remembers that he had already told her about it once in the past. Something similar happens in a later discussion about the ending of the novel where Renji re-experiences a conversation they already had, only with their roles reversed. All this only serves to remind Renji that Chihiro only knows what she’s written in her diary. That’s why when she asks if he wants to kiss her on the way back home, citing how they’ve been meeting for so long and how she trusts him, he privately questions why she doesn’t seem to be happy or shy and why she didn’t say she loved him. He disagrees with what she said, but he realizes too late that she’ll take this the wrong way. When Chihiro apologizes and runs off in tears, Renji can’t chase her and just hopes that she doesn’t write what just happened in the diary.
As for Miyako, prior to her date with Hiro, she had been feeling that she had found where she belonged. As she left her empty house, she was reminded of when both her parents were around when she was little. However, her parents stopped loving each other, and on one occasion Miyako saw her mother breaking dishes by throwing them onto the floor. She remembers that after that, sound disappeared from her house, color disappeared from her world, and before she knew it, she disappeared from her parents’ hearts. However, meeting Hiro changed all that. For their date, she had waited for Hiro at their rendezvous spot, but their meeting time came and went, so she called and left a message on his cell phone warning him not to be late. When he still didn’t show up, she left him more messages – some expressing anger and others wondering if he was still coming. Between calls, she considered deleting her message logs and remembered what Kei had said about making her disappear from Hiro’s heart.
Worried about that, Miyako continues calling Hiro’s phone. Her messages progress from wondering if he got their meeting place wrong to being concerned if he’s okay; from being angry to being nice; from begging him to come to desperately questioning why he broke their promise; from wondering if he hates her to tearfully apologizing. One of her final messages asks him to save her because she doesn’t want to disappear from his heart. Unfortunately for Miyako, Hiro never hears any of those messages because Kei comes home with him. As he goes back out to the store, she notices his cell phone is blinking and realizes that it’s full of messages from Miyako. Two quick button presses later, they’re all deleted.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「I’m here」 by 田口宏子 (Taguchi Hiroko)
Ummm, wow. I haven’t always liked the style in which this show has been presented (some parts feel way too abstract), but the second half of this episode was like a masterpiece. The Renji and Chihiro stuff in the first half just can’t compare to how incredibly intense the message scene was. I lost count of how many of Miyako’s 99 messages they actually played (over twenty), but it was like watching a mind unravel and break down. At some point, I think she should have just given up trying to call and camped outside his apartment instead if she was really that worried. Regardless, I can only imagine how fragile and messed up she is right now, and to screw things up even more, Hiro won’t find out about those messages because of what Kei did. I’d hate to run into Miyako at this point, especially if I were Kei and Miyako found out what she was responsible for.
I know people really don’t like the School Days comparisons, but dear lord, I can’t stop thinking of Kotonoha in this case because of the creepiness factor. I don’t think it’s completely out of the question that they’ll take a page from School Days, especially since they even threw in the Nice Boat reference in the first episode, but since Hiro’s not stupid, I suspect he’ll find a way to fix things once he figures out what’s going on. Whatever ends up happening though, I’m now really excited about this series and can’t wait for next week.
This was indeed one of the best single anime episodes I’ve seen in a very long time. The second half was an absolutely terrifying display of a mental breakdown; I was in a cold sweat by the time the ED started. The director himself did the storyboard and episode directing, and it’s surely the defining episode of the whole show. As you said, I’d dare call it a masterpiece.
oh damn !
………….wow so cool and awsome….u knw the 3 main girls have smthng in comon there meantaly
Did Miyako lose her dad or something?
I don’t remember having that much horror in the game.. Guess they give more than the game itself. First comment..?
Wow, I totally felt the same thing while I was watching the 2nd half of this episode. The text on the screen was like a depiction of Miyako’s state of mind, showing how めちゃくちゃ her thoughts were becoming. This presentation style had a total unsettling effect on me as well (in a good way), as you could literally see/hear Miyako breaking down in front of you. Wow indeed.
I can’t wait for the next episode! 🙂
Well I just saw the episode myself and the entire scene with listening to Miyako’s messages and hearing her slowly breaking down was pretty scary…..anyways what was up with the scene between Renji and Chihiro? I didn’t understand what was going on.
Oh man, this show is starting to get epic. From the screenshots, the cinematography looks great. I’m so going to watch this tonight once I go home.
Is a Nice Boat ending imminent? O_o
“Is a Nice Boat ending imminent? O_o ”
Personally, I really don’t think so. While all the characters have very serious issues, I think they’ll find a way out.
HOLY SHIT NICE BOATS INCOMING.
This preview is brought to you by Gatsby’s American Dream, which helped me rock out while I looked at screenshots and read the quick thoughts.
School Days comparison is apt IMO, if at least for the cellphone thing. Stop whining about the comparisons, please. It’s a harmless comparison after all.
Also, I always did love the unique direction SHAFT put the show through. One of the most unique romance anime in the way they’re doing it.
Two break downs in one episode! Jeez! The Miyako one at least we saw coming, but Renji was a real surprise. And here I was thinking that he and Chihiro might get a good ending, now I am not so sure. As for Miyako, I feel really sorry for her. I kinda wanted her to win before but after this episode I really hope she does.
yeah…watched this episode with a “o____o” face the entire time…
note to self…never leave cell phone at home >_>
WOW
holy crud
please, dont be like school days! ones already enough!
What is going on? o_o
Niconico is going nuts with this episode!!
This episode just screamed of “disaster unfolding!” (which can be a good thing xD).
And I have to really commend Shaft for how they handled the 20+ miyako phone calls…
(how they visually presented it was much more effective than the “conventional” method, that’s for sure!)
Ah! That was a horrible mistake from Kei! She basically lost right there for doing something like that. Sigh, there goes one of my candidates for pairing with a childhood friend. Hiro is going to find out that his messages were deleted somehow! It is now decided that Hiro ends with Miyako, bad move from Kei! She basically did a repeat of what she did with her sister. She should have learnt from the first time.
Oh man, they found the perfect way to make everyone feel sorry for poor little Miyako didn’t they. WEll, it’s not going to work for me, sorry to say. I’m still with Kei all the way. Seriously, Miyako, what the hell did she expect? It’s been shown from the start that Hiro gets sidetracked and forgets stuff, keeping intune with the whole “memories” theme of the show. Add to that fact that Miyako just forced her way into the guys life. It’s not like he asked her over, or whatever. She just shows up whenever. And because the only thing she seems to be able to do is cook good food, she started to use that as an excuse to get close to him.
Now i’m not saying she’s bad or anything, I don’t hate her. But I’m not going to feel sorry for her either. Sure something bad probably happened to her parents and so on. But she starts off taking this thing like some sorta joke until Kei decided to put up a fight for Hiro. Her attitude was like, meh, who cares what happens. And now she’s just going to flip out? *sigh*
I definitely don’t get from the pics what’s going on this time O_o
I agree that Shafts direction is something special in this series, I like it.
Looking forward to the summary~
I hope that this is just a scare tactic they are using in the wake of the School Days uproar. I’m actually panicked a bit when I saw this Episode, yeah SD scared the sh*t out of me…
I pray to Kyon that this series can end without bloodshed.
Weeh ;_; Miyakooo~ She can’t break down like this…I love her xD Nooo, if Hiro meets her the next time, she’ll be like Kotonoha in episode 11.
@ AL – No, her dad’s not dead xP Her parents were fighting all the time and they weren’t giving Miyako any attention anymore. That’s why she’s so serious about this date, because she thinks she may disappear again from another person’s mind.
you know, if kei had left the messages, it would have been more effective in separating Hiro and Miyako. Those messages were scary! so she did Miyako a favor.
I doubt it, Hiro is too good for his own good. He’s so damn kind that he’d probably try to talk to her and help her after seeing those messages. And another thing, you think Miyako wouldn’t have done the same thing if Kei was the one who sent the messages? Get real here guys, we’re talking about two females firghting it out for the same guy. Anything goes in love and war, I just hope we don’t get any knife action. hehe, But seriouslly, we won’t. YOu can compare this to SD all you want, but no ones going to knife anyone. Screeming and bitching yes, killing no.
That said, what Miyako did in the last episode to ask for a date from Hiro, plus making him “promise” was a clear move on her part to get him from going to the game where Kei was. It’s around the same lines as Kei deleting those 99 text messages.
I doubt we are going to see another nice boat! But I have to say that those messages did scar me. Even though this is a love triangle like school days, ef a tale of memories is much different to me. Hiro is no Makoto for me. Any way excellent episode
Seems like the competition starts to get unhealthy/dirty from both side lol. Hiro is better not ended up with these 2 girls for his own sake:D.
ok first wow scary cant wait to watch the sub and second if anime has taught me anything its that the two lovers will always fix there problems and move on but not without some adversity ofcourse lol
I find it rather amusing that, when there’s a hint of drama or potential train wreck (just like ugh.. School Days, which was a giant train wreck as a whole), people get quick to label something as a masterpiece. Oh boy.
“I find it rather amusing that, when there’s a hint of drama or potential train wreck … people get quick to label something as a masterpiece. Oh boy.”
I could be wrong, but I’m inclined to believe that you didn’t actually watch the episode. I really don’t think that’s it at all. It’s not because of what they did, but the way they did it. You could literally feel the breakdown in progress simply by listening to Miyako’s voice, and the visuals and music complemented the scene perfectly. By the end of the episode, I was in a cold sweat. It’s pretty rare for an anime to have that profound an effect on one’s psyche. So that’s why I’d be ready to call it a masterpiece; the way it came together felt like a work of art. It wasn’t just because it was “drama”.
That being said, I firmly disagree that this is heading towards a “trainwreck”. If anything, they’re on the path to a resolution — they have to expose the wounds before they can treat them. And I think that treating them is the point of the show.
Whoa that’s real freaky for a ef episode.
i think that the real one who is fucked up is kei. you know, from her jelously made her sister to loose one eye and her memory.
and now, is taking another girl to the point of psychological brake down!
man, she’s really fucked up
oh snap!
Man, are you for real valthunder? How is Miyakos breakdown directly related to Kei? The thing about what happend to her sister is also indirectly because of her. Her sister even forgave her about that and told her so.
Think about it. Kei deleted the messages after Miyako already head her little psycho break down. The deleteing did not cause the break down. Also, Kei didn’t know about the date promise, and wasn’t the one who called Hiro to come over. It was the other guy who did. So the one who’s more at fault about it all is the guy, not Kei. And just to break it down fully, it’s even MORE Hiros fault for 1) forgoetting about the date right away. And 2) forgetting to even check his cellphone or call Miyako in the middle of what was going on.
Seriouslly guys, I know this episode made you feel sorry for Miyako or whatever, but you can’t just turn around a blame it all on Kei just like that.
GP you must have jealousy issues too. After all what Kei did and you still like her. Your clueless
I hope Kei isn’t the color Hiro is looking for. Man can anyone tell me where can I find and watch the 7th episode? Please?
Nice job there Kei! And I didn’t like her a whole lot to begin with, but she’s really working hard for me not to think any better of her. At least I thought she was smart, but looks like I was mistaken.
Miyako’s also not quite what I thought, and a bit too obsessive. I feel sorry for her, but really, she should get over it. Which I think she will in the end anyway.
Anyhow, great ep.
WTF are you talking about? Jealousy issues? It’s a show. I’m breaking it down and giving you solid points about why Kei isn’t as bad as you or other seem to think she is.
And what did she do? Did she push her sister infront of the car? No. Did she somehow stop Hiro from going on his date directly? No. Did she tell him never to see Miyako? No. All she did was come out and tell Miyako that she’s going to fight for Hiros love. And zomg, Miyako has a break down! That MUST be Kei’s fault also right? And yet I’m the clueless one? Please or PLEASE fill me in on wise one yahiko. Just what am I clueless about?
Miyako’s storyline was rather weak until this episode. The direction and voice acting is once again superb, and it also explains why Miyako walked away when Hiro couldn’t remember her name in the earlier episodes.
The Renji and Chichiro story arc has also reached a turning point. My conclusion is that most bloggers do not understand the direction. Renji’s face looks like THAT because he finally realize what he has gotten himself into.
Solid points? You prefer her to Miyako, others prefer Miyako to her.
Let people think what they want. I’m not talking about the latter part of your post since it’s perfectly fine to defend yourself from a personal attack, but it’s pretty clear that both characters are flawed, and some people mind one character’s flaws less than others.
Of course it’s fine for her to confront Miyako. Much like Miyako’s speech was quite good when she told her what she did two episodes ago (even if Miyako was far less aggressive and more honest). But what bugged me was her deleting those messages.
I personally don’t like people like Kei, always thinking that she can get her way. They say Miyako is psyched, I think Kei is the one psyched. You right Kei did’t push her sister in front of the car, but she only thinks of herself and felt like Hiro like her sister more, she tried to do something dirty and ask him to the beach knowing her sister and Hiro made a promise. And than got mad because she saw her running towards them. Blood is thicker than water, she showed now kind of respect towards her sister than. She need to grow up and be more of a lady instead of a child.
I don’t like Kei because she gives me Nemu vibes: dishonest, selfish and possessive. And that is an auto eww for me.
Miyako may not be perfect, but for me she’s a better person than Kei.
Ale
I never said kei was perfect, and i’m not trying to make others like Kei more than Miyako. I’m simply point out known points in the show that back up what i’m trying to say about kei. People want to blame this all on her, and that’s just not the case at all. She’s Jealous, ok, but that’s a normal thing. Both guys arne girls get like that at times, it’s natural for this show to have that in there. It’s part of the formula. If part of that comes off as obsessive than maybe, but it’s not really the case. She’s not forcing him to do anything, or stopping him from doing anything. And when you’re in love with someone, yet get a bit selfish also. This is all natural to me.
I don’t hate Miyako, i’ve said it often already. But she’s got her own faults and I just don’t feel sorry for her. She doesn’t want to be forgoten, who does? But do we all go about it in the same way? And that aside, she didn’t make her position clear from the start. So he forgot her name, and she just runs off? How is he suppose to know what she’s thinking about? Hiro isn’t that big on social stuff, it’s said so. And he’s pretty one tracked and forgets stuff often. Those are his faults in all of this. He has just as much to blame for Miyako going “psycho” which is what she does, those messages are all over the place. How else would you explain it than her losing it?
yahiko
If you don’t like people who like Kei, then that’s your own problem, don’t turn that into some sorta attack on me or others just because we don’t share your personal hate for some character.
You’re right, Kei is selfish, but that’s part of love and the whole love triangle drama story. Miyako is selfish also, she doesn’t want to lose Hiro, saying she doesn’t want to be forgotten etc. Making Hiro promise to go on a date with her so he doesn’t go to the game on that day. How is that NOT being selfish like Kei?
And her having respect for her sister? She does, and she had guilt about what happend, that’s why she didn’t try to get Hiro’s love all this time. Did everyone miss that part of the story? Chihiro forgives her for it and tells her to go for it, and that’s the final green light she needs to start making a move for Hiro. Look at the text messages they share between each other.
The fact is some people seem to think Kei’s a cold harted bitch because of what she said to Miyako or how she deleted the messages. Maybe the message thing wasn’t her best move, but what she said to Miyako at the traintracks was all fair. Miyako was treating her like she was nothing and it was a game. And Kei tells her to keep acting like that if she wants, but kei’s not playing around and so on. You notice how Miyako finally started to take her serious now.
@relentlessflame
Oh don’t worry, I know this is not School Days (thankfully) and so far I am really enjoying this show Studio SHAFT is doing a great job with their style. I also liked how they depicted that scene which perfectly portrayed Miyako’s mental situation. My comment was pointed at the reactions of people who suddenly rate this as interesting only because they smell some potential drama or trainwreck (which I highly doubt is going to happen), hence their rediculous comparison with School Days.
GP sure has a lot to say and I like that. You are right that’s natural when it comes to love. Kei felt like she can’t tell Hiro how she feels because of her sister than that’s her problem and hers alone. If her sister forgave her than she should of been told Hiro how she felt. Hiro never made a promise to go to the basketball game and yes Miyako had every right to ask him out. Like you said that’s natural when you are in love. Some people that are in love would do anything to get that persons attention. I’m not blaming Kei for Hiro not making the date. It was Hiro’s choice to stand her up, and of course she was happy about it, it’s natural when your in love, right? No I didn’t think that was right for Kei to confront Miyako like that. Not at all. You can’t expect to tink that Hiro will stay single until your ready to make a confession. No it doesn’t work like that.
This all indicates that there is nothing scarier than jealously between women.
Even though Kei loves Hiro, I doubt Hiro will return the love. He probably views her as a sister, and the childhood accident (Chihiro losing the eye) will be yet another impediment to the (love) relationship. Come on, think about it- can you love a person where every time you look at her, you are reminded of her idential twin losing an eye because you broke a promise with the said twin? I also think this is why Hiro is so intent on drawing manga despite the tendinitis and low income- as a sort of “punishment” for breaking the promise with Chihiro (which thusly led to the accident).
As for Miyako, I believe her carefree attitude is a facade to hide her insecurity/sadness. Her air of indifference is just to compensate for her mental instability. Unfortunately, her peers perceive it differently, and hence, conflict ensues.
I think Hiro with either end up alone or with Miyako. Unless something terrible happens. He is also a buffoon for not understanding Miyako’s feelings.
Kei made a poor choice in deleting the messages. In addition, it’s a poor choice, in my opinion, to call the person you love your brother even though he’s not.
Questions for everyone: Why doesn’t Kei visit Chihiro?
@everyone
Watch the Ef- A Tale of Memories prologue you will find out that Miyako and Hiro’s relationship there and some hints of Miyako and Kei’s battle for Hiro’s heart.
Some general comments:
School Days comparisons – I believe these are mostly unwarranted. The H game it derived from had the violence as some of its endings, and the main character is completely different from Hiro. It’s a tad annoying that the massive hype surrounding School Days affects people’s perspectives to such a widespread extent.
Kei vs. Miyako – Kei is quite jealous/selfish compared to Miyako. A breakdown of the facts in order:
Kei lies to Hiro in order to get him to break his promise with Chihiro as kids.
Miyako meets Hiro.
Miyako hangs around Hiro a bit too much for Kei’s liking.
Kei becomes jealous, and confronts Miyako, citing that Hiro is busy, and Miyako shouldn’t be distracting him essentially.
Second confrontation with Miyako – Kei says that she will erase Miyako from Hiro’s heart. This affects Miyako noticeably, and prompts her to ask Hiro out on a date.
Miyako has a mental breakdown.
Kei erases her messages from Hiro’s phone.
Unless I’m mistaken, Miyako never tries to tear Hiro away from anyone, except during her last encounter with Hiro, and this is mostly due to Kei’s words. You may argue that Miyako was pretty cold in her first confrontation with Kei, but please recall that Kei was the one who initiated the confrontation in the first place, under false pretense. Also, Kei has at every step of the way tried to tear Hiro away from someone. In the past, it was her sister, now it’s Miyako. Furthermore, Miyako’s selfishness (if even that) with regard to Hiro comes from her traumatic past; Hiro is the first person that has brought her hope. Kei on the other hand, has known/”had” Hiro for several years now, and has an ambiguous motive for being so selfish. In the worst case, her motive can be construed as a sheer over-possessiveness of Hiro, and in the best, feelings of love which are masked by her calling Hiro “brother” all the time. Either way though, Miyako’s motive for being selfish comes off to me as being better than or at least as good as that of Kei’s. Even ignoring motives part which is more of my subjective musing, I don’t think it is objectively fair to put Miyako on the same level as Kei in terms of jealousy or selfishness.
SVM I agree with your every last word. I just hope that the ending will not be a disapointment.
@Yahiko
Of course you’d like his every word, he’s helping backup the girl you like to win. duh!
@svm
“Kei lies to Hiro in order to get him to break his promise with Chihiro as kids” When did she lie exactly? Maybe i’m remembering it wrong, but she didn’t lie about anything, just said to go with him to the beach and to leave a note for her so she knows.
And as for Kei being jealous, i’ve said it also, so what? That’s what happens! It’s a love triangle. Kei calling Hiro “brother” doesn’t really matter, it’s been done in other shows and has turned into something common since they know each other so long. It’s not her trying to hide her love by using it, it just stuck after all these years.
And she’s not trying to tear anyone apart, now you’re just making it sound like she’s physically forcing him to do everything she says, and that’s NOT the case. Making him go to the beach in the past was the first and last time. She doesn’t force him to go to school, she just wakes him up, something she stopped doing after the first Miyako talk she had. It’s not over-possesive really, she’s not telling him who he can and can’t talk to or anything like that. Miyako shows up, and Kei gets jealous so now she’s going to try and win his love. That’s all to it really. Kei even asks him if she’s being a pain and annoying or bothering him, Hiro doesn’t care about it at all, so it’s not even a issue really. You can try to use her interactions with Hiro every day as some sorta sign of her being controlling and possesive and so on, but it’s just not the case. The guy isn’t bothered by it at all, so that puts it all to rest.
I never tried to put Kei and Miyakos selfishness on the same level. I’m simply trying to point out that Kei isn’t the cold hearted bitch people seem to think. She’s not over Hiro 24/7 telling him what to do. And she’s not forcing him to not see Miyako. Deleting the messages was the first thing she ever did to break her away from him. And i’ve said that it wasn’t the best thing to do, but that’s what happens when girls fight it out for love. Wrapping up everything Miyako does as due to her trauma isn’t really fair either. You can use that as some sorta excuse, but then I can also turn around and use the trauma of your little sister getting her indirectly because of something you did as childhood trauma keeping Kei from confessing all this time. Or maybe the level of the trauma isn’t the same so Kei’s somehow doesn’t count or something.
It’s what happens but I don’t think Miyako would’ve done that. She’s more honest than Kei, as shown in the first confrontation and her reaction to the second.
Of course, that’s just speculation.
Ah, now to think of it I believe you’re right GP about the lying part I wrote being incorrect (I haven’t actually verified). I will agree with you on your major point–I don’t think that Kei’s element of jealousy stems from inherent cold heartedness. In fact, it seems much more likely to be a symptom of some psychological insecurity.
I’m also not saying that Kei is trying to force Hiro to do anything. I’ll agree that she is not physically or even directly trying to change Hiro. In fact, that’s what I find most disturbing, that Kei is indirectly trying to alter his life by directly confronting Miyako, someone he interacts with, and trying to get rid of her completely on her own terms without Hiro’s knowledge. The interpretation of this depends on your stance on whether trying to “erase” a competitor completely is still in the realm of typical love-jealousy practices (how many people will tell someone else in all seriousness that they will erase them from a friend’s heart out of jealousy alone!?). Of course this is all just speaking from my own experience.
To me there’s much more complexity to Kei’s actions than just plain jealousy out of love, and rather something closer to obsessive love or over-possessiveness. I don’t think that over-possessiveness requires one to actually interfere with the object being obsessed over. For instance, you can be completely over-possessive of a friend if you desire to know where the person is at every moment in time, or desire that the person have fewer friends who take attention away, etc. This “desire” is what to me marks over-possessiveness, and it does not really require interaction with the person. If this sounds a lot like jealousy, it’s because over-possessiveness can be a cause, or symptom, of jealousy.
As a side note, regarding the deleting of phone messages. This is purely speculation, but I am going to guess that this sort of behavior from Kei will be a trend for the future. We’ll see~
Well SVM at least you got the point I was trying to make forever. Kei isn’t cold-hearted and or a bitch and so on. Having thought of it more today when you break it down, Kei and Miyako are the same. I mean, the root cause of their faults is the same when you get right down to it.
What I mean is, and this fits with the main theme of the show, memories. It’s played different between the two main stories though. On Chihiros side it’s taking to the extreme literal sence of her not being able to remember what happens the next day.
In the 2nd story between Kei and Miyako the theme is used in a different way. They take the idea of memories, from an external or third persons perspective of you. I.E. Other people remembering you. We see it play out in Miyakos past, her parents where too busy to think about her, thus ignoring her. Ignoring someone means your more or less forgetting them. And in time if the person being ignored is left alone by everyone then they’re also forgotten. See where I’m going with it?
This same idea of being ignored and “forgotten” is also the root problem in Keis past. Hiro and Chihiro started to spend more and more time writing manga and stories and ignored Kei more and more. Add in the fact that they’re like, what, 8? at the time. You know how kids are, we were all that age. We want attention from family and friends. You get the jealousy vide from Keis side because it’s not her parents that are ignoring and forgetting her, but her sister and the boy she likes. But I’m not saying she didn’t feel it at the time, she did, but it’s not the type of jealousy in the sense that she wants to totally control and have that person with them and no one else.
Kei using turm “erase” when talking to Miyako just fits with the whole idea and theme of the show that I just talked about. So when the writers used it in that line and context it fit perfectly. Making that scene great imo. It upped the effect more than just her saying something common like, I’ll win his heart and he’ll forget about you. While the main idea is the same in the end, saying erase just gave it that extra bit of pow needed.
Well, you guys are having such a nice discussion here. The way I see it, Kei is the more stable of the two. Miyako might have the advantage because she seems to be the one that need hiro the most and that might help her win. Kei lost her chance because of the regret she had all those years and Chihiro giving her her blessing might have come too late for her. I want a KeiXHiro pairing just because I want sometime the childhood friend to get the guy, damn it. In my eyes Kei and Miyako are the same, Kei just get my support for my weakness for the underdog (childhood friend is always the underdog in anime)
So what if they were kids. She did it again to Miyako but in my opinion that worked out fine, not letting Hiro listen to those messages. oh and have you forgotten yes Kei did lie, she said Chihiro had something to do and she didn’t. Anyway, im not saying Kei is a bad person, I just don’t like her actions, that’s all. I know it will not be like school days.
No, I think Kei is being a little desperate here, because even as a kid she’s always tried to push others away from Hiro. What she did with Chihiro back then that caused the accident (I’m not blaming her at all mind you, she WAS a kid after all, let’s not forget that please for the people who do blame her) is similar to what she’s doing with Miyako now: she tries to push people away from Hiro, but as stated previously, without Hiro knowing.
That’s why I think things won’t turn out well for her in the end…because she’s not being honest, and if Hiro goes with her I think he’d do it out of pity…which is a possibility of course, but I can’t see it happening. We’d see I suppose.
I don’t think Kei’s a bad person either, just that Miyako is a better person than her. All’s fair in love and war is a quote I have a strong dislike of; I am optimistic, I personally have more faith in humanity than that. Though of course Kei’s jealously and posessiveness is part of the formula…you’re not gonna have much drama with mature, well composed characters. They need to have significant flaws.
And I very much prefer Miyako’s flaws to Kei’s. They’re more tolerable. This changes depending on the people.
Excuse me for the poor English if this post wasn’t too easy to understand, it’s not my first tongue.
I sure hate waiting on what’s going to happen next. They should bring out all the episodes at once. Eventually someone will be hurt in the end. I forgot about Kyosuke he did fall in love with Kei.I wonder if she will turn him down? Probably so. At least someone loves Kei, as for Miyako i really don’t know of anyone in love with her. I pray that she will find happiness in the end with the man she will fall for.It’s fun listening to everyone opinions about this particular anime, especially GP and SVM. Hope to hear more from you. Hiro x Miyako.(smile)
@arigatou
I watched the prologue; it implies the relationship between Hiro with Miyako as you stated.
quasi-spoiler:
Show Spoiler ▼
I don’t have anything to add at this point. I said all I can about it, now we just wait and see what happens.
But about the prologue, I wouldn’t really put much weight on it. I haven’t seen it, but I don’t see how they’d give out the prologue with scenes that show or imply how the show could end. That’s like a massive spoiler before the show even starts. I just don’t see a studio doing that.
Oh and the prologue is like 5mins. It’s like a trailer etc, you get some teaser shots but nothing solid as to how it will all end. But w/e, it’s just a show, if the girl you like wins or not it’s not the end of the world. heh.
about the prologue spoiler:
just because someone sleeps with someone doesn’t mean they are going to end with her.
Damn you Kei, no one can take away a person’s sense of belonging.
golthin
It looks like me and you are the only Kei supporters so to speak heh, I also want the childhood friend/underdog to win. I’ve always backed the underdog unless there is a better girl in the mix personality wise. Just to give you an example, in Shuffle, I was behind Asa-sempai 100% from episode 2. And she was the biggest outsider/underdog in the show. And you all know how that turned out. heh
I started only recently with ef yet I already feel like this is potentially the best thing we’re able to see this season. Right now I love about everything about this anime. I’m already way too excited to see how the plot is going to further develop, guess I’ll have a hard time trying to catch some sleep while waiting on the next eps during the next weeks.
By the way, can’t say now that Kei has kind of interfered with Miyako and Hiro’s relationship I’d dislike her. Can’t say tho I’d dislike Miyako either. If I could chose just depending on who I prefer, I’d say Kei should make it. I don’t even know why, I actually like them both :/ I could imagine Hiro ending up without either one of the two girls tho.
I route for Miyako to the end. No matter what. They just need to hurry up with the rest of the episodes, im tired of waiting.
Just saw this ep.
While the part with Miyako was pretty creepy and sad, it was also pretty straightforward to me. Kid sees mom and dad stop loving each other, life goes from pretty colourful to empty and loveless. She finally meets someone she feels can bring colour back in her life. Queue competition for the guy between Kei and Miyako. Miyako getting horibly scared at the colour being taken away again.
The first part between Renji and Chihiro had me blink quite a few times with a “what the hell is going on” feeling. The flashbacks with tv style white noise, the scene on the beach, the girl is god mention. It gives you a “Vanilla sky” feeling, like Renji is stuck in the story/movie Chihiro is trying to write in some way. It all makes you go wonder what the deal is and to me that’s the best part about good anime’s.
Rhagnor
It is pretty streight forward like you said. But that’s why I never talked about Miyako though. There really isn’t anything more to her aside from this attachment she now has to Hiro. But likewise Kei has the same attachment. And I dived into this whole debate because of Kei and people seeing her as some sorta cold hearted bitch.
The fact is that they’re both the same in a few ways. Both have felt times when they’ve been cut out and forgotten by those around them. They both have this childhood trauma happen, but in kei’s case it gives her guilt for what happened to Chihiro. Which is why she feels she doesn’t have the right to be happy because her sister can’t be happy and have what she wants also. Miyako isn’t the first kid to fall into that sorta situatioin with parents who breakup and ignore their kid(s). The fact she mentally breaks down at the thought of Hiro foregtting her is what makes the show more interesting than if she just had a normal reaction of being studup like other shows have used.
Many people will feel sorry for Miyako now and decide to go with her more. But I just don’t get that sorta feeling. She never made her case clear from the start with Hiro. He never thought about her more than just another friend, he’s nice to everyone though so it’s natural to his character. Either way, it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next episode. Will she pull it back together and go find him at school? Or will she keep falling down into her little mental rabbit hole.
Kei didn’t have to delete the messages either, but that’s just how girls act at times when it comes to love. You could argue that if the situation was flipped, Miyako would do the same or something similure to keep Hiros attention on her and away from Kei. Getting him to promise to go on a date the day of Keis game so he wouldn’t go there (not that he was going to go anyways) is really the same thing when you get right down to it.
Scare tactic indeed. I found the whole text message thing incredibly amusing, while being ingenious at the same time. For a while I thought,”Are they just being cheap with animation?” After watching it to where the ending is played, I thought, “Wow. This text message layout works pretty well in conveying how messed up Miyako is.” After seeing Kei delete the messages though, there was the feel of the Nice Boat ending becoming imminent, even if things most likely won’t turn out that way (It’d be too unoriginal otherwise, and this anime so far has been beaming with originality).
On a side note, does anyone else think that more than ever, after hearing Miyako’s narration of the text messages, that the voicing in this anime is done superbly? Also, how many of you would like to see the nice boat ending in ef? I mean, watchers of school days probably rejoiced seeing Makoto die, but I don’t think Hirono deserves the nice boat, since he isn’t a stupid asshole who uses his *bleep* to think.
Two words come to mind: Holy shit, nuff said. I’m agreeing I don’t like the SD ref but man oh man the phone bit scared me so much…the poor girl. Such a masterpiece indeed…
This show started off weak for me, but I’m pretty hooked by it now. The Kei vs Miyako thread is far more interesting to me. I still like Kei a lot but what she did at the end was pretty messed up. Can’t wait for the train wreck to begin… or should I say nice boat wreck.
While there are lots of SD comparisons one could draw, I find this anime to be far more beautiful with much more sympathetic characters than an anime with a lying jackass with his psychotic harem.
Also LOLZ, I totally agree with you that the voice cast are doing an incredibly superb job right now; Perhaps the best I’ve ever heard I dare say. The piggy-back scene last episode with Kei gave me a warm feeling. This episode really shows how strong the cast truly is with practically half the episode with just dialog and text yet being the most memorable scene so far.
Shaft needs to do more serious animes… because this is truly one of the best shows I’ve seen so far.
Haven’t commented here in a while.
Hedric: DAMN RIGHT. This show makes me love SHAFT. And man this episode was intense.
This episode hurt me to see Miyako become like that. And that was really scary to see Kei do something malicious I know she’s been saying “I’ll wipe you away” and such. But I think that action can be considered cruel even if she doesn’t know Miyako’s present state.
I agree with most that we’ll get a train wreck, but not a nice boat thing. It’s simple to see that we don’t have a Makoto like character in Hiro. The only problem Hiro has is that he doesn’t think about either of the girls around him as more than just friends. But that’s like the trademark of any romance/love drama anime. That and he’s pretty kind.
I don’t like to guess, cuz it’s hard to tell at this point, but I think if anything we won’t have a clear cut winner until the last episode at this rate. It really just depends on if Miyako pulls herself together or not after this break down. I agree that Kei deleteing the messages was a bad move, and it’ll probably hurt her standing with Hiro. But at the sametime, when that comes up, if she just opens up and explains her feelings fully, i’m sure Hiro being the kind of guy he is will forgive her. The key here is that he’s also to blame for the whole cellphone thing. He knows he forgot about the date and never once tried to call Miyako, using a payphone maybe? Or hell right when he found out Kei got hurt he could’ve told Miyako right there, but it seems he just rushed out without thinking.
So yeah, while the Miyako fans want to blame it all on Kei, you can’t overlook the faults Hiro has, which are greater in this case. At least in my opinion anyway.
I’d take a stab at this point and guess that, if Miyako doesn’t get it together, she might get close to suicide. I don’t expect any death, but just the way she acted, if she can’t get it going again then that’s the direction we could see her going. And we’ll probably have Hiro stopping her after finding out about the messages from Kei. Does that mean he’ll pick Miyako though? I dunno, cuz even if you don’t love someone, speically for Hiro, I don’t think you can just sit around and not at least try to help them as a friend.
But this is just my guess, we’ll have to wait and see.
And on that matter, Renji needs to pull it together also. I really don’t see what his problem is. Yes she forgets, duh, it’s like he’s starting to second guess himself and his motives now. *sigh*
All this episode confirms is that Miyako is obviously a severely troubled girl and Kei is a bitch. Can’t really argue around either of those.
Kei didn’t have to delete the messages either, but that’s just how girls act at times when it comes to love. You could argue that if the situation was flipped, Miyako would do the same or something similure to keep Hiros attention on her and away from Kei.
Actually I’d argue that she wouldn’t. Different people react differently.
I think Miyako may’ve broken down, but when she has a problem she takes it to Hiro, not to her competition. That’s where Kei is failing. Miyako’s acting more honestly and maturely.
Is everyone totally forgetting about the first part of the show, or are we stuck in Kei vs Miyako land?:P
Some more thoughts about the first part would be nice, since that part has me more curious (as stated before).
OCD! obsessive compulsive disorder – this time around boyfriends! Miyako is beginning to look like Sekai – it’s like School Days in a parallel universe. Both Miyako and Kei are irrational, self-centered bitches – Hiro should just kill them both and live the life he wants, while chosing a girlfriend that’s actually not suicidal.
Renji needs a haircut, btw.
I found Renji’s part more interesting this time around. Although I agree that the text-message scene was fairly well done, to me the RenjixChihiro half of the story just got much more interesting. For one thing, at least both parties have at least accepted the possibility of a romantic relationship; now all they have to do is work around their issues. With Hiro’s ark, rather than bothering myself with the legitimacy of either of the girls’ positions, I am more concerned that Hiro doesn’t seem to be particularly interested/attached to either of them.
I agree with those people who say both Miyako and Kei are too obsessive and possessive. The way they are acting, it seems like the mere presence of Hiro is enough to make them happy. Not only is this kind of behaviour unattractive to the viewer, but it also makes it impossible for Hiro to actually develop his relationship with them. He can’t develop any feelings beyond what are already there because to him, Miyako and Kei are merely sympathetic, not interesting, people. I think Kei has some grasp of this concept, since she has stated that she is also pushing herself to the limit in basketball so that he can respect her–however, the resulting lack of contact between her and Hiro makes her even more desperate when they do meet.
I’m also a bit lost on the whole Miyako liking Hiro thing. She spent Christmas with him because he was “kind”. It seems like all he did was pay her a bit of attention. If that’s really it, then wow, Miyako is more messed up than I thought.
Didn’t really catch what happened in the first half. Anyway, I thought that about how Chihiro each day really is a different person like was said in the last episode. The ‘memories’ on her diary is really part of her experience. But, since she did not have any recollection of it, it was not a real memories for her. It just a ‘story’. And yet she try to treat it like ‘real memories’ eventhough it is not feel like that for her. So, when she offered to Renji to kiss her, said that she trust him, it based on what happened few days ago beetween him and her ‘past self’, what was written on her diary, what she supposed to feel and do, as according to the ‘story’, rather that what she really feel. Renji, realized this, came into shock. That as much as I can understand about it.
@Rhagnor
There you go.
Vanilla sky eh. Ahh , that was a good movie. And it match, since it was about escaping from reality into dream if my memory doesn’t fail me, and there was some mentioning about that here. Speaking about sky, it remind me (again) about sola. There was also some line
about dream and illusion too in of its episode. Something about how it will eventually lost from our memory, no matter what.
i love this show…and the whole love triangle thing between hiro, miyako and kei…the only thing that prevents this show from getting the “anime of the season award” (which imo goes to clannad) is the fact that the story of the relationship between the (pathetic) renji and chihiro (poor girl…) takes up more than half the show and is lackluster compared to the love-triangle bit.
on the kei vs miyako bit, i think it’s safe to say that both of them are victims of memories and their actions are really not their faults, but rather due to events that have shaped their personalities and decisions (a bit marxist). you can’t really blame either of them, but i am support miyako just cuz she’s a cooler person ^^
Hey hey, I agree that Clannad is an awesome show, my favorite show so far, but aren’t you jumping to conclusions a bit to soon?
The cell phone scene was indeed very well done, you could really feel the mental breakdown occuring. As for Miyako vs Kei, I personally prefer Miyako. From the way I interperted it, it seems like Kei just hangs out with Hirono and doesn’t confess her true feelings because of guilt, but then when Miyako comes shes all “OMFG ANOTHER GIRL?! THERE CAN’T BE ANY GURLZ I DON’T KNOW IN ONII-CHANS LIFE MUST ERAASSEE.” It seem to me like Miyako didn’t really want Hirono to be her boyfriend at first, just hanging with him was good enough. However Kei misinterperts her interaction with Hiro and sets out on her holy mission to wipe out the “bad influence” on Hiro’s life without asking him. That’s another thing I don’t like about Kei, instead of just working to win Hiro’s heart she sets out to erase the oposition underground without him knowing. I mean what if Hiro just wants to be Miyako’s friend? It’s not like he can’t hang with her. After Kei drops the “erase” threat I think that’s when Miyako strated getting worried and trying to get Hiro not to come to the game was because she was afraid Kei might do something to make him forget about her. Well, I’m probely a bit baised because I don’t like Kei or over-possesive people in general.
Chihiro and Renji’s part is great too. Renji’s realization of how Chihiro can only act out her memories according to the story was x.x; How Chihiro said that it was “The secene they were souposed to kiss” was a nice touch. I kind of feel sorry for him but he had warnings…
The cell phone scene was indeed very well done, you could really feel the mental breakdown occuring. As for Miyako vs Kei, I personally prefer Miyako. From the way I interperted it, it seems like Kei just hangs out with Hirono and doesn’t confess her true feelings because of guilt, but then when Miyako comes shes all “OMFG ANOTHER GIRL?! THERE CAN’T BE ANY GURLZ I DON’T KNOW IN ONII-CHANS LIFE MUST ERAASSEE.”
Bingo. She’s being dishonest and therefore doing bad things, “playing dirty”. Unlike Miyako who goes to Hirono, she just wants to eradicate the competition so that she’s the only girl around Hirono; there’s also the fact that he’s not naturally drawn to her. She already did this with Chihiro when she was a kid, and instead of learning, because of her guilt, it’s become worse. The deleting of messages is not quite as simple as “that’s a girl in love”, I believe.
And I dislike her for that reason. She’s too possessive and dishonest at the same time.
Finally Flamestrike understand where i am coming from. Like I said before ” THAT IS NO ONE’S PROBLEM” If you feel like you don’t have the right to confess your feeling to Hiro because of what happened to your sister. I finally got a chance to watch the recent episode and it was great. To be honest Im not a big fan on the Chihiro/Renji story, it’s just boring to me. And would you people please stop talking about School days. Whenever I hear it’s discussion, it gives me the chills. This anime EF has no kind of comparison to School days, none what so ever. I was wrong to say Kei is not a b***th. How can you come up to a stranger that don’t know nothing about them and threatened them? She must be asking for a punch in the face. From this whole anime so far, I will say that Kei does not want no woman in Hiro”s life. I say that because you approach a female and threatened her because you assume that she like Hiro, but the fact is that your afraid that Hiro might fall for Miyako because she is pretty and popular among the guys that talk about her. Like I said before I don’t care for people that try to fight over a guy in a immature way. You have to be smart and prepared when your in competition when fighting for the one you love. If you do it half hardley, immature and childish not only you will hurt the one that your inlove with and destroying your life long friendship , but you will be hurting yourself in the long run.
Oh and you too Ale, thank you for understanding me.
There you go again yahiko, it’s pretty easy to make you happy isn’t it?
Hiro not being naturally drawn to kei is subjective all the way. He’s not natural drawn to Miyako either, she just pops into his life whenever she wants or needs to and that’s it. I don’t see how this is any different from how Kei hangs around Hiro also. Like I’ve said, they’re both very similure, but you guys are stuck on only Kei’s faults in this and call her possesive. She’s not possesive really, confronting Miyako the 2nd time at the train tracks was fine. I didn’t see anything wrong with it at all, she laid down the facts and said she’s going to go for Hiro.
And not confessing because of her guilt is the truth, and depending on how the person sees it in their mind it can hold them back from doing anything. You’re taking the fact that Kei finally decided (with Chihiro helping her letgo of her guilt and giving her the OK) as her being somehow dishonest and possesive. I mean come on, she was going to get over her guilt at some point, and this being a damn romance show it’ll happen now so we get drama. If Kei was as possesive as you people make it sound she’d be with him 24/7, and would do way more than just delete cellphone messages. Because she doesn’t connfess to him yet doesn’t make her dishonest either.
And Miyako going to Hiro for her problems shows how attached and obsessed she is, yet you people side step that all together. It’s show that she’s got no one else in the show, and just gets obsessed with Hiro after his first episode kindness. Now she needs him to the point where it’s life or death for her. How is that not more messedup than Kei at this point?
YOu all have to understand that both have problems, and both stem from the same problem of being ignored and forgoten. Now to that extent Miyako is obsessed with Hiro that the smallest hint he forgets/ignores her starts to tare away at her mind just like that.
Kei is in love and jealous, possessive? Not really, dishonest? Maybe a bit to herself for thinking she can’t confess to Hiro and be happy. But in no way is she the way a few of you think she is. The first “playing dirty” thing she did was the cellphone delete, and I’ve already said it was the wrong thing to do. But at the time, with love+jealousy you don’t think it out all the way. Other than that she hasen’t done ANYTHING else to directly stop Hiro from seeing Miyako, he would’ve went on the date if she didn’t get hurt, and when she was hurt SHE WASEN’T THE ONE WHO CALLED HIM. She didn’t know about the date and thus didn’t directly mess it up. Hiro forgot about Miyako, Hiro didn’t try to contact her before or after going to see Kei. The way Hiro acts about missing the date just shows that he doesn’t think about Miyako as a girlfriend either. He’s got a “oh right, I forgot, that’s ok, i’ll say i’m sorry to her tomorrow” reaction like it’s nothing.
Looking at it more and more you can’t really sit there and say Kei is trying to “eradicate the competition “. She hasen’t done any of the “possesive” things you guys keep taking about. She has yet to even bring up Miyako and Hiros relationship to Hiro at all. You’d figure a possesive person would do at least that by now. Yet nothing. All you have is the cellphone incident to blame her for, nothing more nothing less.
GP You keep saying the same thing. They are not similar. Well the only similar thing is that they both care for the same guy. The only reason why you got something to say for those who go against Kei is because you are routing for Kei to be with Hiro, even though you really don’t spit bad things out about Miyako, which is “A” okay to me. but you are entitled to your own opinion, and that goes for me too. I can say the same thing about me too. I have somethimng to say for those who don’t like Miyako. I take back what I said before about saying that Kei don’t want no woman in Hiro’s life. Kei’s friend I think her name is Mizuki she knows Hiro too, but Kei doesn’t fear that Hiro might get feelings for her because she is Kei’s friend and she know her.Kei approach Miyako because she feared that Hiro will start to have feelings for her because she’s pretty and popular. Anyway regardless of what happens later on the series, someone or maybe more will eventually get their feelings hurt in the end. It might just be me to say that Chihiro/ Renji are boring. They really are boring. When I watch them, I want to just fast forward. I like love triangles, but that is just me though. Does anybody else think they are boring?
duude i have no idea what went wrong in Renji’s mind but that was totally awsome. the second half was exciting too i really liked how the messages kept on going until she went really crazy but i feel so sorry for her now..T_T best episode yet ^^
You know, I keep saying it and point out how they are similure but you just don’t pick up on it. I’m not going to keep banging it around, but they both do like Hiro, yes, but they also share a similure childhood experience in being ignored and slowlly forgoten by people close to them. Miyako with her parents and Kei with Hiro and her sister. I can’t see how I can make it any clearer than that really. After that the reason why each “want” Hiro seems different at the core of it. Kei is in love, and that makes her jealous, which is clear cut and I agree with. I don’t agree with this fixation on her being possessive of him though. Miyako on the other hands seems to need Hiro out of something more than just “love”, it’s like a mental life or death thing.
It makes me beleave that because we don’t see Miyako around with others, and she doesn’t really go to class/school much anyways, she doesn’t have any real friends. Hiro is the first person to actually listen and be nice and so on with her, this suddenlly gives her a new attachment to him that is something she can’t live without now. That, and the way she handles the date with her mental instability shows that she’s got way more deeper issues than anything Kei does. And Miyako is bordering on obsession or is already reached it. I think if Hiro doesn’t get to talk to her anytime soon, she’ll get close to losing herself and maybe giving up on life. Or she could lose it in the other direction and try to take it out on Hiro, aka “nice boat” ending. But I really doubt we’d get that.
Either way, lots of episodes left to go in this.
Damn School Days.
I believe Kei is digging herself a hole so deep that one day she won’t be able to crawl out of it. The last thing we need is Miyako committing suicide, which judging by her mental breakdown doesn’t seem so farfetched. I’m surprised that even after the accident she caused with Chihiro, she’s still playing the same game.
Exactly Miso and Soup. They say Hiro does not need to be with Miyako because she has problems. If that’s the case then you can just say that Miyako will just be alone for the rest of her life. When people have breakdowns like that, that’s when you definitely need some one to ease that pain. Miyako felt that she found what she was looking for which is Hiro and so maybe Hiro is the one that she needs in her life. She deserves that much. She no trying to be dirty or anything, she just want someone to notice her existence. Hiro has no clue about her life and what she’s going through, but eventually down the line he will find out, and hopefully something good would happen between the two. Just like what Hiro said, there is something missing in my life, a color is missing. Miyako lost that color. Try putting that together. We will see on the next episode what happens. What will Hiro do?