I guess I'll start my review about this series.
As personal opinion, this series is one of my favorite titles, prior to its prequel ef: Tale of Memories., an adaptation by Shaft from a visual title "ef: Tale of the Two."
First of all, watching this series before the prequel is not advised, it is better to watch the prequel then proceed to this one.
Lets proceed to review:
Story
The story has 2 different plot: Same as the prequel, with different pair of characters. If the prequel runs both plot at the same time, in this case, the other is just a reminisce, and the other is set in present.
The story clarifies most questions about the prequel's mystery, because most characters herein are present in the first series, but not explained much of them.
The story contains a mysterious fast-paced romantic suspense that has different conflicts, both plot has different conflict to solve, and it is parallel to each other.
Personally these plots are one of my favorite plots I ever encountered. It has a nice suspense and the pacing is nice. Though not the best plot prior to the first season, I still value it as very good. It still has flaws like The pacing is really fast, it lacked some development to prolong the romantic scenes, but as a suspense genre, it doesn't really matter.
Characters
The characters are quite familiar to you if you had watched the prequel. If in the prequel they are just supporting casts, in this series they are the main characters. The characters are quite abnormal in my opinion, being the conflict is themselves, and the plot revolves around them. The development is fine though, and the personality fits themselves.
Some characters are quite not developed though e.g. Nagi Hirono, has potential to has some nice story but not really happened. The characters are like a literal character in a story that the author forces them to be something to fit something.
Art
The art has left an impression to me. The art of this anime is masterpiece. The metaphorical art is very nice, and the characters are mediocre to fine in terms of my taste of character animation. The environment fits the plot of the story. Shaft is one of my favorite studios in animation.
Music
I really liked the Soundtracks of this series, though not perfect, but the music is really remarkable. There are two versions of the OP : the English version and The Japanese version, both are very nice.
Overall this is the one of the best romantic suspense I watched. Though the first series is better, this series serves as a clarification of the questions you will encounter watching the masterpiece of the prequel.
Story 9.5/10
Characters 9/10
Art 10/10
Music 9.5/10
Overall 9.5/10 |