I know there’s at least one Moments post out there about ef – a tale of memories 7, and for good reason. Who among us will ever forget that phone scene? I’ve hardly been able to look at text messages the same way since. But, as far as I’m concerned, Miyako’s falling apart takes second place to a scene in the following episode. I’m more of a Chihiro fan — see, I told you I like girls with problems, and I mean real problems.

“But Pontifus!” you may be inclined to protest. “Only a bastard would say Miyako’s fear of abandonment isn’t a real problem.” Sure, I suppose it’s detrimental enough to her. But I’m not prepared to put it in the same class as severe anterograde amnesia and, well, lack of depth perception. Miyako’s a little messed up, sure, but Chihiro is well and truly broken. You might call into question the…sanity of my preferences, I suppose, but I never claimed to be sound of mind, and besides, we’re not talking about real women here.

Upon learning of Chihiro’s condition, it’s easy enough to guess that we’ll eventually see what she goes through when she wakes up in the morning sans the previous four years’ worth of memories. It all goes down at the end of episode eight, resulting in one of the most genuinely horrifying scenes I’ve ever seen: Chihiro awakens to discover that she has grown up and lost an eye “overnight,” and damn near loses it, all in the presence of her unfortunate would-be love interest. It bothered me to such a degree that I could not force myself to rewatch it until this post required it.

This, to me, is horror. I think gore for the sake of gore is stupid, and jump scenes just get on my nerves, but scenes like this, scenes that hit you with ten tons of emotional weight and blow the doors to implication off their hinges — we realize that, if Renji resolves to stay with Chihiro, he’ll eventually be the one who picks up the pieces every morning when Chihiro discovers her fate anew — chill me to the core. It’s difficult to see characters I’ve come to care about involved in such situations. Perhaps it’s ironic that the scene most potent to me is the very scene that gives me pause when I consider watching a tale of memories again.

Tags: ef

Thus spake Pontifus on Tuesday, 23 December 2008 at 2:49 am, and Anime expanded tenfold. Become privy to further discussion on the matter via RSS 2.0. You might grace us with a brilliant comment, or trackback from a distant podium.