I've kept on putting this series back, and for a good reason: because I really liked the first season, I expected the second season to be just as good. I have to say, my expectations... were met pretty strongly.
Artwork, character design, music... much of that I've already written for Memories (I think), so I'm not going to repeat the same thing here because its basically the same. What I want to write, again, is the symbolism in the show, one of the things that made me like Memories so much, and one of the things that I like about Melodies as well.
To start I want to talk about a character most people probably ended up not liking too much, or would pass by as a side character merely used for a motivation of plot: The teacher that lost his sister in the earthquake, the one that "says" he's the same as the main character (for this series, that is). I think what's most intriguing, and what may leave some people behind asking "why?", is what exactly he saw in Yuu-kun's portrait when he saw it. After all, we can probably safely assume that Yuu-kun's sister is not his sister, yet the teacher is convinced he sees his sister in that portrait. Why is it that way?
We can probably make some inferences from the back story of the main heroine, Yuuko. Yuuko was adopted to supposedly fill the gap where the teacher's sister has left, yet was insufficient in doing so. Why? Well besides the obvious answer "she's not actually his sister", we can sort of see where she started deviating from being the "sister replacement" in the teacher's mind. First off, the physical reasons: Yuuko started to grow up. In the teacher's mind, the sister most likely has remained young forever, so when Yuuko was actually growing up, he started realizing she wasn't his sister, thus got extremely angry. Since we are mentioning this we can say the same situation can be explained with the watch that Yuu-kun was carrying in memoirs of his sister: While his sister was alive, the watch was clean, working, and ticking. When her sister died, the watch was no longer working, no longer "alive", and most importantly, no longer ticking. Time has stopped for the deceased, and when Yuu-kun looks at the watch, he sees his sister, deceased and stopped in time.
However I digressed with another symbolic object, we're asking, why the portrait. One thing that can probably be concluded is, with the "mask" that Yuuko put up not just towards Yuu-kun but to everyone else (I won't go into the whole "mask" symbolism since that's everywhere and probably pretty obvious), its very likely that Yuuko never showed her true smile to her foster brother, the teacher. For this particular reason, the teacher probably could not see his sister in her, because when his sister was alive, its inevitable that he must have seen his sister's true, innocent smile. And this is exactly what he saw in Yuu's portrait: The true, innocent smile of-- not the sister, but-- Yuuko. And this is why, he saw his sister, because Yuuko drew the innocent smile of Yuuko. It could be said, now, that he mistaken Yuuko in the portrait as his sister, and this is true, but for that particular reason the teacher, having been tortured for the many years of his life after his sister has died, can finally relieve himself after the portrait was finished.
In short, many people I believe would find him to be a despicable character, yet I think he was more meant to be pitied. You can especially see this in his smoke, while he smokes: the artistic design always portrays his smoke hovering around him, "binding" him almost, trapped in his own delusions and unable to move.
There's another symbolism that's been passed down from the first series to the second: the symbolism of the key. I think this is a fairly straightforward symbolic act, as a key represents opening a door. Of course when the door is closed, you can't move past it, or forward, so you're stuck in one place, but if you have a key, you can open the door and move forward. That's why in all these love stories the symbol is the key, and when they have recieved the key, they are able to move forward. They then pass the key to someone else so they can move forward.
I also like to say how interesting and smooth they refer back to past events from the first season. I find that prety neat, and I always like the whole "glimpse of what happens afterwards" feel that the second season certainly provides.
SO anyway, symbolism put aside, what do I think about the characters. From a purely superficial view I like the characters in this season better than last season. Superficial in that I like their character designs better... For the blonde girl Misaki (I think? I just remember her child name, Miki), I was a bit turned off I think in the first episode when she had twintails + her tsundere attitude, although I found it that didn't last too long. After a while I kind of liked her character appearance because it seemed like a good combination of Misuzu and this one girl from "Akane-iro" that I really like in terms of character design. Not to mention, Misaki(?)'s personality was really bright and cute despite her past, which really makes her nice.
The other girl, Yuuko-chan, is very much what she represents: an angel. There's not too much to say about her, except that, I think that its really nice how they tie things together: Mainly that, ef's storylines are all reasonably "logical" in that what can happen can happen with reason in life, EXCEPT for the angel appearance (in the logical sense). Something akin to Clannad, possibly, where the accumulation of happiness can lead to miracles? Or being rewarded for all the suffering one has been through? Its a nice ideal thought, in any case.
...I think I could probably go on and on, such as the possible heaven/hell symbolism that might be present as well (I'm getting the feeling that when the teacher burned down his house, the flames are representative of burning in hell), but I don't think I'll try delving in deeper for the time being.
Unless I rewatch this show with my sister and have an urge to write again. V:
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