ef - a tale of memories

[Skywalker]

Length: 12 episodes
Original Airdates: 10/07 - 12/07
Demographic: Seinen
Genres: Drama, Romance, Slice of Life

Plot Synopsis
The anime revolves around two protagonists, Hirono Hiro and Asou Renji. On Christmas Eve, Hirono Hiro meets a girl named Miyamura Miyako who was chasing a purse snatcher. Hiro later finds out that Miyako also goes to the same school as he does and they start hanging out together. This made Hiro's childhood friend, Shindou Kei, feel left out. Kei then tries to compete with Miyako for Hiro's affection and a love triangle ensues. The anime also tells the story of Asou Renji. Renji meets a girl named Shindou Chihiro at an abandoned train station. He soon learns that Chihiro suffers from a type of amnesia where her memory span only lasts for 13 hours. He also discovers Chihiro's dream of writing a novel, but she has never been able to fulfill that dream due to her condition. Renji then decides to help her fulfill that dream.
(From Anime News Network)

Personal Opinion
Every once in a while a show comes along that restores your faith in a certain genre. "ef ~a tale of memories~" did that for me. It single-handidly restore my faith and reminded me of why I like romance animes sooo much.
So upon first glance of the images, it looked to be another slow moving romance harem drama. So, i was expecting something like Love Hina, or Da Capo which spent more time concentrating on irrelevant material rather then the main romance.
BOY was i wrong.
First and foremost... ef is INCREDIBLY stylistic. One glance at the sky in the show and you get goosebumps. This was probably the most unique aspect of the show and one of the most appealing.
2nd... the romances in ef are absolutely amazing. There's no way that you can be upset over the final pairings.
Finally... all the characters are all really well developed and you really care about them.. when they're happy, you're happy. When they're in pain... you're in pain.

I really can't find one bad thing about this anime. I mean it's blown out all the other animes i've seen (yes, including Eureka Seven and Gurren Lagann).

I'm stopping myself from giving anything over the max rating... but i totally would if i could.
4/4 (and it's pushing the limit)

Similar to...
- Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
I haven't reviewed this one yet... but the stylistic approaches are quite similar and they're both made by the same production company

- Neon Genesis Evangelion
You know those mind-rape moments in NGE? when text would randomly appear on the screen w/ no real relevance. Well there are moments like that in ef... albeit... they're a lot friendlier w/ your brain and you can actually comprehend what's going on.

- This Ugly Yet Beautiful World
Both are quite beautiful w/ multiple lead girls. Though in ef the girls are less connected

- Kanon/Clannad
Music, style, mystery elements are shared in all of them

[Eric T. Jones]

Saw the first episode, and I'll go further with it just to get a better consensus on the series so far; while I have taken a recent pro-native-language stance regarding foreign films, I think "ef" is ideal to view with subtitles since some of the more over-the-top visuals don't risk distracting you, allowing viewers therefore be able to better absorb the story content. As well, it appears this was a much lower budget, even, than when "EVA" had its finances cut due to censorship reasons; a later church scene is a prime example when all the angles are panning across backgrounds and framed at low angles that place the character's mouth just off the frame.

I DO like the EVA-style intertitles, though, and obviously the allusions to writing and filmmaking (both of which have a lot of live-action movies devoted to them, but not a lot of anime). The love story thus far, I'm still undecided on. Liked everything else but the train station scene towards the end, where it got just a tad unbelievable. The great thing about anime is that it flies by so fast, and in such short increments- I can see why it's so easy to watch such massive amounts in mere weeks.

[Eric T. Jones]

Watched five episodes thus far, and it's likely I'll finish it if only to further clarify things. Things are taking an interesting turn with our apparently bipolar heroine.

[Eric T. Jones]

Finished the series. I think once it gets to the tenth episode is when "ef" transforms into an excellent story, and it's in this last section of the series when the ridiculous dialogue finally disappears. That being said, I do rank the ending as yet another disappointment (probably would have left it at right before the CODA), but I'm rarely, if ever, satisfied with endings.

Highlights:
-The intertitles, definitely
-Honest, sincere love stories which have just the right wrap-up before the last 12 minutes of the finale
-The music, especially that addictive opening theme

Flaws:
-Obviously extremely low-budget animation with the strangest choice of camera angles to obscure mouths or eyes, and even with that lots of recycled animation throughout (the sketch-filled second half of Episode 7 as well as the piling up of phone messages was a sign of a severe budget and/or time shortage which pretty much makes the final two episodes of "Evangelion" look un-problematic in that regard, but I DID love the phone scene at the end of episode 10)
-Part of this being a lack of crowds; at times it felt desolate.
-Distracting style. This is one where you'll be happy with reading subtitles the whole time; I imagine if I saw this dubbed in English I might have turned it off early on
-Oftentimes ridiculous dialogue, especially in the Chihiro storyline, though it did improve later on.

Oddly enough, there's still plenty of stuff in this I can relate to, but in the most unexpected ways; the meetings with Chihiro early on reminded me of some friends on AIM who would confide in me at times, and with drastically-shifting moods. The filmmaking storyline is also obvious.

Overall, "ef" narrowly gets *** from me.