The visual novel is known as ef ~a fairy tale of the two
Synopsis: The anime revolves around two main 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: ANN)
Genre: Drama, romance
Status: Anime – Completed, 12 episodes (Oct to Dec 2007)
Thoughts / Review: The OP is the English version of “Euphoric Field” by Tenmon featuring Elisa (from episode 3 onwards. It was also used as an ED for episode 2). The final episode had the Japanese version of this OP. With Shaft as the production company, expect a number of song changes for the OP/ED themes. It had 4 ED themes: The 1st ED is “I’m here” by Hiroko Taguchi (episodes 1, 3, 7, and 10), the 2nd ED is “Kizamu Kisetsu” by Junko Okada (episodes 4, 5, and 9), the 3rd ED is “Sora no Yume” by Natsumi Yanase (episodes 6, 8, and 11), the 4th ED is a remix of the visual novel’s theme song called “Yūkyū no Tsubasa” 07mix by Yumiko Nakajima (episode 12).
ON A SIDE NOTE… A short prologue episode for for the anime adaptation was released before the anime aired. The prologue was more of a teaser which introduced the characters and some conflict that would appear in the series. The anime series, under the title ef ~a tale of memories, aired from October to December 2007. The anime was produced by Shaft and directed by Shin Ōnuma who volunteered for the job when it was offered. Each episode ends with a still image drawn by Japanese illustrators of anime, manga, and visual novels. The first letter in each episode’s title, plus the “coda” title of the last episode, can be brought together to form “Euphoric Field”. (from: Wikipedia)
AND THE CHARACTERS ARE… HIRONO HIRO – one of the lead characters in the story. He is a high school student who is also a manga artist under the pen name “Shindo Nagi.” He is a childhood friend of Kei and Chihiro. SHINDO KEI – a childhood friend of Hiro and a year younger than him, they attend the same school. She is a member of the girls’ basketball team. She is the twin sister of Chihiro. MIYAMURA MIYAKO – she also attends the same school as Hiro and Kei, but usually skips classes. She meets Hiro on Christmas Eve when she took his bike from him in order to pursue the person who stole her purse. She and Hiro become close over time. TSUTSUMI KYOSUKE – he also attends the same school and is friends with Hiro. Filming is his passion. With his video camera, he accidentally took a shot of a “mystery girl” who caught his attention as she was running down the street on Christmas Eve. He eventually meets Kei and realizes she was this girl that he filmed that night, and wishes to get to know her. ASOU RENJI – the other main protagonist of the story. He goes to the same school as well. One day, he meets Chihiro in an abandoned train station where he often goes to and eventually becomes close to her. SHINDO CHIHIRO – She is Kei’s twin sister. She had an accident when she was younger which resulted to the loss of use of her left eye and a severe case of a form of anterograde amnesia (her recent memory can only last for 13 hours). She always keeps a diary with her to keep track of her experiences of the day so she can “remember” them when tomorrow comes. HIMURA YU – a mysterious gentleman who is sometimes seen in the church. He appears out of nowhere and gives advice to the characters. Chihiro is under his care. When asked why he’s at the church, he answers that he can’t really remember the reason and it seems like he is waiting for someone. AMAMIYA YUKO – a mysterious girl whom Hiro first meets in church on Christmas Eve. She appears out of nowhere, giving the characters some advice. It seems that she is the one Yu is waiting for.
MY IMPRESSION… I followed and watched this as it was airing during the Fall 2007 season, but only managed to write an overview now. Heh. Well, anyway, this series spanned 12 episodes. I kinda liked the story between Renji and Chihiro the most. I also liked Kyosuke, despite his limited screentime. ;P Generally speaking, this series made me feel quite emo, it even made me feel a bit torn at one point, particularly with Chihiro x Renji’s story. Holding on to something or letting it go… I was never good with being completely decisive with that kind of question. I knew from the start that certain situations might occur, especially with the memory loss aspect. But even if you’ve imagined it and how it might affect your feelings, the impact turns out differently when the moment is actually there. I guess that’s how it is generally in life. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s not a “bad end” sort of series. It actually has a pretty good and definitive ending.
Most people got put off by the unusual animation/technical style, but I loved it and found it rather remarkable. The way of storytelling is also different, jumping from one set of characters to the next, but I liked that too. Sometimes, different is also good and refreshing to see. I liked the use of parallelism, symbolism and metaphor, which made the story more engaging coupled with the art. I also liked the eventual realizations they all had.
Considering the fact that it was based on an eroge visual novel and the short episode count, SHAFT actually managed to make a decent story out of it and ended it quite well. The symbolism, parallelism, art, style… everything blended well together resulting in a pretty remarkable series filled with different emotions. SHAFT did a good job with it, managing to do so much and finishing it off properly in just 12 episodes. Very nicely done. =)
In addition, its second season is called ef – a tale of melodies.
I loved ef – a tale of memories, but only the anime, not that boring title. I’d say the anime is as good as the title is bad.
@ Baka-Raptor: Haha, yes. I agree that the title could have been better.
Fantastic, really. Waiting desperately for the second season to come out.
Yeah, ef was really good stuff. Definitely agree that it’s a very unique show, in terms of the way it told its story (visuals and the dual plot lines), and that’s what made it really special.
I’ve found that it doesn’t have good mass appeal, though, because a lot of people I’ve screened this too find it confusing, pretentious, or too emo. It’s not an anime for everyone but I think if someone is into this kind of show, they’ll really enjoy this.
Don’t know if SHAFT really finished everything properly though – the side characters such as Yuko and Yu, for example – but hey, second season.
I like this anime and yes Renji and Chihiro’s story is more interesting for me. I’d love to see the second season. ^^
@ Chumara & shinji: I’m looking forward to season 2 as well. Hopefully, it’d be as good or even better than the first. ^^
@ CCY: Yeah, it didn’t pull much people in, it wasn’t the generic type so I guess that was kind of expected. By properly, I mostly meant about the main characters getting a pretty good ending. I kinda forgot about Yuko and Yu. xD It’d be nice if we’d get to learn more about those two in melodies.
i actually didn’t get to watch this because i opted for true tears ~_~ and never got around picking this up. after that, i made an executive decision never to watch harem again. but maybe i’ll pick up someday just because it’s SHAFT.
@ biankita: It was the opposite for me, I never got around to picking up True Tears. xD Ef’s pretty good. I don’t think of it as a harem… There’s a triangle, but that’s about it (is that a spoiler?)
I have watched both True Tears and ef – a tale of memories, and in my opinion, ef was so much better, well i loved it. True Tears was good as well, but ef was just something different and definitely unique.
@ Eungus: Thanks for the feedback! I basically liked ef because it was, like you said, something different and unique which I found refreshing to watch. True Tears initially caught my attention because it somehow reminded me of ef, although I didn’t get past ep 2 of TT =_=; But yeah, they’re both good in their own right.
When I saw the preview for the ef ~ tale of memories, I thought it will focus majority of the love triangle between Hino x Kei x Miyako. However, Renji x Chihiro pretty much steal the whole show after I saw the whole thing. I can’t believe how only two characters present so much for 12 episodes and they all very entertained. However, I’m pretty biased person XD. I know since in the beginning that Miyako will end up with Hino and I was rooting for Kei T__T. So I pretty much give the Kei x Hino x Miyako story like 8/10 and Chichiro x Renji story as 10/10. So overall for me is 9/10 for this series XD. Hope you can watch ef~tale of melodies that will come out in Fall 2008, hazy.
@ kenshin514: Haha, yeah. Chihiro x Renji’s story caught my attention from day 1 because of the unique situation rather than the typical triangle. Honestly, I didn’t like Miyako. I initially wanted Kei x Hiro too, but it was too obvious that it won’t happen. I liked Kei x Kyosuke, unfortunately they weren’t able to tackle their story more. Yep, I’d definitely be watching melodies, it’s on top of my list along with the Nodame Cantabile sequel this Fall ’08. ^^
[…] – a tale of melodies [Fall 08] ef – a tale of melodies When: 10/2008 Season 2 of ef – a tale of memories. I think it would pick up from where the first series left off. Based on the visual novels plot, […]