Ef - a tale of memories

[paizuri]

This is the official ef - a tale of memories discussion thread.

Official website (japanese)

[OropherZero]

this anime has nice effects and animation which would make it the perfect source for AMVs but thats about it :/

[angelx03]

Ok, the overall format of the first may really discourage people since there is quite of bit of character juggling going on. And not to mention the first half dealt with Hiro's first encounter with a girl name Miyako, but then the second half concentrated solely on Renji and the girl with the eye-patch Chihiro. Even with the unorthodox pacing, there are some connections that can be concluded (I'm putting it in spoiler tags just in case):

Spoiler :

- Chihiro has a sister named Kei who's supposedly good friends with Hiro.

- Of course the guy with the camcorder Kyosuke is showing interest with Kei when he saw her run pass by.

- It makes you wonder if that church Hiro and Renji went to will become some sort of focal point later on in the series.

I also what significance does

Spoiler :

that diary Chihiro is holding holds in the future.

Though I think it's safe to say that this series will dealing with 3 romance stories with some sort of connecting point that holds them together. With that in mind, it's actually quite spiffy for something based on a visual novel, and we don't have to worry too much about any harem here, I think.

And the sequence at the end of episode 2 looked really, REALLY awesome! Emulating the effects and editing will prove to be a pretty daunting task!

[angelx03]

First I'll get this off my chest. I can't get enough of the OP sequence; it's just so cool looking! Heck, the OP song's full length is starting to become one of my favorite songs for this fall season (well, despite the bad Engrish ).

In episode 2......

Spoiler :

Chihiro admitted that she has a memory defect of which she can't remember what happened in the past 13 hours. That guy with the grey hair named Yuu pretty much warned Renji that he should prepare himself he he ever starts to get closer to Chihiro. Oooo, I can't wait what that'll lead to!

The first half mostly dealt with character interactions with the other characters mostly with Hiro and Miyako. Now whether you consider it engaging or boring is all up to you though we did get confirmation about Hiro being a shoujo manga artist and Kei and Chihiro are in fact twin sisters (or may that happened in the second half; oh well).

Now with episode 3, I think this will determine whether you'll continue to watch it or not because this introduce many intriguing plot events that can go either way! For instance,

Spoiler :

the first half of the series actually concentrated on Renji and Chihiro. It also expanded on Chihiro's memory lapse condition which was caused by a traffic accident long time ago. To help coup with the memory loss, Chihiro had to read and write in her diary everyday. The first half ended with Renji feeling bad for making a mistake of not meeting with Chihiro at the station as they promised. According to Yuu, Chihiro considers these promises a way to connect herself.

The second half introduce some potential romantic tension!

Spoiler :

Especially near the end when Kei found out that Hiro broke her promise in coming to meet her at Christmas Day and instead went out with Miyako. Seems like Miyako has a pretty bad reputation which Kei doesn't want Hiro to get involved in.

In addition

Spoiler :

more insight on Kyosuke are made especially on the part that he wants to make movies his own way and not to win prizes (creative freedom, FTW!!!). Because of that, he dropped out of the film club he was in.

I seriously can't wait for these events to start intertwining to one another. It's really fascinating stuff!

[duskull]

the anime has some really nice scenes in it that iam going to make pictures of ..

[Pas]

Hmm... the first episode was... how do I put it... almost like an AMV. Especially with all the masking and trippy effects.

Also, did the first episode even have an OP sequence? If that slow melody with B&W pictures was it well then... erm.

Also, the voice acting was kinda disappointing. There were noticeable times when it just fell completely outta sync, although I'll give them points because they actually bothered to shape the mouths with what they were saying (which is gonna make it damn hard when this gets dubbed lol)

Anyway, I'm not going to judge this by the first episode alone, as it seems like things will be picking up soon (since they pretty much introduced everyone in the first episode)

Getting ep 2 now.

[angelx03]

Episode 4....oh wow the drama was certainly running high in this episode! For Renji and Chihiro,

Spoiler :

Renji wanted her to assist him in creating a novel; he hoped that this will be a good way to help her since writing stories is her dream. Unfortunately, Chihiro shot down the idea very quickly and thought Renji was making fun of her. The real real reason she did that that is because she's afraid of losing everything like the experiences in writing a story. She's also frustrated about the fact that Renji knows a lot more about her memories than herself. This part of the episode ended with Chihiro rushing towards him and wanting him to hold her a little longer. He then asked her what kind of story she'll like to write.

Now as for Hiro, Miyako, and Kei,

Spoiler :

well this episode proves that Kei REALLY sucks at cooking!

Also the episode gave a glimpse of how Hiro decided to become a shoujo manga artist and it's all thanks to Kei's and Chihiro's suggestion. In addition Hiro has major financial issues so Miyako decided to cook him dinner. Coincidently Kei decided to cook him dinner, and as she opened the door at Hiro's place, she saw her feeding him. Then Kei ran off. After that new ending sequence, Kei started to cry in front of that church.

Hmmm,

Spoiler :

with Kei being devastated, I wonder this will start the coming events of Kyousuke entering in the stage. I can imagine him comforting her in the near future.

Oh god, I'm loving this series so far! I really hope the producers don't drop the ball on this fine gem!

[duskull]

ok know its starting said ....the girl can only remember things for only 13 hours .....

[angelx03]

Ooooo, interesting developments in episode 5! While this episode has been jumping back and forth with each couple, I decided to group each of them. For Renji and Chihiro,

Spoiler :

well, looks like they're going forth with writing the story. Few amusing moments with Renji's mom who's a......cute milf!

Though Chihiro has brought out an interesting metaphor about a sheep being tied to stake and its world is only that fixed area. She had a similar imagery of herself being chained to that statue with her world limited to the fixed stained-glass area (was anyone getting Kingdom Hearts vibes out of it?).

Second half pending!

[angelx03]

Now for the other peeps (and yes that even includes Kyousuke ),

Spoiler :

near the end, Hiro called up Kei to come to his place, and then she was caught completely off guard when Kyousuke actually asked her out! 8O

In addition, we got ourselves one heck of a "catfight" between Miyako and Kei on what's best for Hiro. Kei said he should stick to his studies while Miyako refuted that it's Hiro's own decision, and he should do what he likes with the opportunity at hand. Also we got to see the events on what really happened to Chihiro and the car accident. Obviously Kei felt guilty about it because she dragged Hiro to the beach when he supposed to meet up with Chihiro later.

It's a rather interesting development.

Spoiler :

Kei is the one that got Hiro into drawing manga, but at certain times Hiro spent more time with her sister in developing more of the manga. And now in the present time, Kei pretty much nags on Hiro that he should finish up his schooling or risk repeating a grade. It makes me wonder the reason Kei is doing this is for her own satisfaction that she's doing something good for Hiro's well-being. I can almost bet that what Miyako thinks about her at this point and thus attacks Kei's reasoning.