ef - a tale of melodies.

[Board of Command]

1080p is ideal since I can just shrink it to something like 1600x900 and re-encode it at a lower bitrate. Theoretically, this gives a sharper image than a 720p source (i.e. a half-assed method of supersampling).

[Board of Command]

THORA released 720p and 1080p versions of the first two episodes.

http://www.thoranime.org/?p=685

I downloaded the 1080p version, and re-encoding it to 720p gives a stunningly sharp image. Super-sampling FTW!

A word of caution for those who like to use Warpsharp when watching these HD videos: Warpsharp and 1080p don't mix nicely.

[Buffalobiian]

How does that compare with simply downloading their 720p version?

[Board of Command]

To be perfectly honest, the difference is almost undetectable by the naked eye.

[Buffalobiian]

[Nipponsei] ef - a tale of melodies. Original Soundtrack 2 ~felice~.zip

[Buffalobiian]

Complete series in 720p is out by THORA (subs my menclave).

Torrent here

THORA's torrents tend to get unhealthy real quick, so jump to it.

Otherwise, you can just visit their irc channel. For some reason or other, they've taken off their xdcc list from the site though. Up now, downtime was probably for a host changeover.

[Buffalobiian]

Ef - a Tale of Melodies [1080p,BluRay,x264] - THORA

Lossless Soundtrack Collection

So after years of waiting, I finally watched this.

I can't rate this any lower than Memories. Not when it makes me cry twice. (Yuuko's death and post-Memories reunion-parting)

Not red-eye cried. Not teary-eye cried. Not wet-around-the-corner-of-the-eye cried.

Tears-down-my-face cried. (Okay, not river-cry or sobbing cry, but you get the message)

Bias was definitely present, I should say. Yuuko's always been of great interest (and my favourite girl) to me ever since Memories, while Mizuki's a very refreshing counterbalance keeps me from falling too deep. I find both Kuze and Yu very cool.

In contrast (from memory), I didn't really care much for Kei, Kyosuke. Chihiro's appeal needed warming up to but still reached there in the end.

Regarding Ryll's previous comments about Yuuko coming off as rather dark and her fate being self-caused, it's something I can completely relate with. I am especially talking about her treatment towards Yu. It resonates with me very personally - the desire to enact revenge on someone who resulted in your suffering, only to see them suffer.. and the increased suffering you go through yourself in response to seeing them like that. It's a melting pot of love, hate, wanting to be understood and not understanding yourself.

The two shows show how it's generally hard to live up to good S1s. The approach is usually to take the good parts of the forerunner and expand on them. The issues that come into play is whether too much can have a negative effect (and what constitutes as too much), along with the problem of applying the same aspects to a fundamentally different storyline/direction.

S1s start by building a story and making sure they move in a good direction and pace without having to worry about too much else. Everything is built from the ground up. Sequels that want to tie into the original have a lot of hole-plugging to do (as in filling in details or mysteries that were left unanswered or unexpanded upon from S1) as well as maintaining continuity. The former aspect especially contributes to a lot of "fragmentation" that can be found in many sequels.

While I didn't find Melodies fragmented despite its flashback/present approach, it did overdo some of those "intense, rapid-fire" scenes that Memories was applauded for (overdo = too many [even if only 1 too many] times, not too long in duration). Kuze's slump could have been fastracked a little (as BoC mentioned).

That's... actually the only complaint I had a problem with. The story wrapped up in a way that perfectly deserves the fine at the end. Everything came full-circle. Everything was complete.