“No matter how much you treasure them, both people and things will die someday. The bonds, the feelings, the memories, the hearts, and the lives. There's nothing in this world that won't die. That's why we should treasure them. Because it'll break, it is precious. Let's make it precious."
Ef: A Tale of Memories is an romance, drama, and mystery anime originally released in October 2007 by Shaft with 12 episodes. The series has two specials and an after story with new characters called Ef: A Tale of Melodies.
General Rating: 8/10
My Rating: 11/10
Ef: A Tale of Memories is the story of three different couples who all live in what appears to be the same town... but there is a town on the other side of the world that is identical. Each of the couples has their own story and reasons as to why they come together and how they fall in love, but they are each unique and special. For an anime with only 12 episodes, it doesn't waste any time in developing our couples. Ef: A Tale of Memories successfully pulls of the love stories of three complete couples in just 12 episodes while most romance anime can't even pull off a confession in 24. This is because Ef does not waste any time. It is 100% story. Shocking, right?
Kei and Kyosuke are the first couple, and my least favorite of the three - but saying that, they aren't bad and I do enjoy them, they just lack the emotional development of the other two. This feeling is purely personal, and you may relate to them more than one of the other couples I more enjoyed. Kei is a very athletic girl who is the star of the girl's basketball team. She has been in love with her childhood friend, Hiro, and becomes jealous of how much time he spends with Miyako. However Kyosuke, who has a passion for filming and is constantly carrying his digital video recorder around with him, sees Kei and realizes she has some sort of special aura he wants to capture, and follows her around.
The second pair, Miyako and Hiro, are possibly one of my favorite couples of all time. They express romantic feelings for eachother and share in curing eachother of their pain of loneliness and unfulfillment. I love these two and their development so much. Miyako is an energetic and slightly eccentric girl who has a dark past, but hides it underneath her happy exterior. Hiro is a high school student who is also a mangaka, and cares about little else. He is very focused on his career and making an income, but being with Miyako lets him ease up a bit.
But it is Chihiro and Renji that are truly my favorite couple of this anime. I often wonder how they were able to tell the story of these two's complex relationship AND also perfectly execute every other element this anime had to offer in just 12 episodes and it bewilders me every time. Chihiro is a girl who was in an accident as a child and all her memories after the accident only last for 13 hours. She is always writing about her memories in her diary for her future self. She also has a dream that she has deemed impossible due to her condition. However as she and Renji grow closer throughout the anime, Chihiro becomes close to realizing her dream and discovering romance for the first time. In an emotional turn for these two, Chihiro discovers feelings so powerful they can't contain themselves on just a page.
The art is beautiful, colorful, and has a bright, upbeat late 2000s vibe, which I love. The unique art style to Ef generally stays on the realistic, more subdued sides of anime, although we do have the purple-haired sisters. The soundtrack is very emotional, mysterious at times, and fits the anime well. I am very big on my music, especially in romance animes, and this soundtrack from Ef is one I could listen to for hours.
Ef: A Tale of Melodies is the "after story," which takes place in a timeline after Memories, but it follows the lives of characters that had been side characters or nonexistent in Memories, while our mains from Memories become the sides/nonexistent. It does not qualify as a sequel. but does take place later in the timeline. I recommend Memories is watched first due to this. Several comments in Melodies could spoil many plot points of Memories, and it is just more realistic to watch them in timeline order. Also, Memories was released first in addition. Ef: A Tale of Melodies is also an emotional anime (10/10), but emotional in a different way than Memories. Memories spoke to me personally, but I believe most fans would call Melodies the more emotional series.
This is one of my favorite romance animes as well as my third favorite anime ever. It is an emotional masterpiece and a must watch overall. Especially for fans of animes like Clannad, True Tears, Rumbling Hearts, Isshuukan Friends, Tsuki ga Kirei, Da Capo I, Sola, Kobato, Chobits, Kanon 2006, or Air, this anime will give you a whole new dose of emotions and feels you didn't know you needed.
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