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First: Sorry for my moderate English, I'm not a native speaker ;-)

Short subjective evaluation and interpretation of "Ef - A Tale of Melodies"

As the recipient, you find yourself in a complex story building made of a huge network of relationships in which every single detail is elaborated in a way of perfection I've only seen in Clannad - that is "Ef - A Tale of Melodies". The story revolves around two main protagonists, Kuze and Yuu, who already appeared in the prequel "Ef - A Tale of Memories" and set the fundament to the really great experience of the second season.

Story: 9/10

The story is not far away from being a masterpiece in my opinion. It was a lot times better than the story of the prequel "Ef - A Tale of Memories" due to the mysteric way of presenting real circumstances in everyday's life. A person who is condemned to die early and his desperate struggle to find a 'conclusion' for his life in order to experience a kind of fulfillment; and another person who has to reflect on his actions he made out of desperation and fear, which finally led to something even worse.. that is the kind of story I would definitely call a true drama. From the beginning up until the end there's no time to release one's mind. Just like in the prequel the recipient get bombed with extremely well reasoned dialogues, creating a thick and heavy atmosphere and encourage the viewer to reflect on the behavior and actions of the protagonists.
The ending was pretty good as well, but it might have been a bit more realistic if it turned out sadder. I don't want to spoil at this point.

The only thing that prevents me from giving 10 points to the story is just about the dialogues (especially those about the love scenes), which at some parts should have been less intense in my opinion (for instance the part with Mizuki on the roof answering Kuze's questions).

Art: 9/10

This anime is indeed a really great work of art. With some simple means it creates a terrific atmosphere which is absolutely necessary for this kind of story. The drawing is well-done, the animation authentic (especially the wind flowing through the hair and partially the movements), and the character design also really good. But the fact that makes this anime to something very special regarding the arts is the style of blending the images, using many different colors and shapes, implementing words and sentences from romanian languages and telling a parallel story besides the animation's story by using just these technical means. At this point it's pretty sad that some of those screens fade too fast so that the viewer has to pause the video in order to read what's written on the screen (and especially to think about the relation to the story).

Sound 8/10

As it can be assumed when looking at the title, in "Ef - A Tale of Melodies" the sound/music plays a very important role. In my subjective interpretation, those "Melodies" are first based only on music, later the whole story building (including the end) gives this "Tale of Melodies" a new meaning, some kind of "life melody" with images as well as music. But this doesn't concern at this point.

The melancholic music of this anime, primarily composed by Tenmon is perfectly fitting into the story and underlines the atmosphere created by the plot. The fact that Kuze is musician and plays his violine makes me feel of the music as a firmly integrated part within the story - and that makes it even more fitting.

The opening is not one of my favorites, but that's not important at all. The ending music changes from episode to episode making the anime appear more dynamic. Something I've rarely seen before.

Character 9/10

Well, what do I have to say? The protagonists both totally convinced me in their train of thought, in their actions and behavior - you can mean that the author himself experienced these cruel situations - and especially in their appearance. Kuze and Yuu are two very different human beings, both struggeling.. Yuu with his dreadful past, Kuze with his fearsome future. Both try to find a way out of desperation, but they have to learn that it's not possible to solve one's problems that easily. While Kuze slowly abandons everything around him, Yuu seems absent from the world itself unless he meets Yuuko. Remember, those two storylines take place in different times - Yuu's story in the past, Kuze's story in the present of the prequel "Ef - A Tale of Memories".

The development of those two characters influenced by feelings from other people and its outcome of finding strength and courage is the thing that makes me consider this anime as something 'real'.
"Miracles don't exist in this world. There are only coincidences, inevitabilities, and actions that people take. I'll just have to make this miracle into an inevitability."
Well, it's not something new at all, but it's just perfectly shown in this anime.

The side characters also play a very good role and round the whole thing up.

Enjoyment 9/10

I enjoyed this series from the very beginning to the end. There's no boring dialogue, some funny scenes, a lot of tearful scenes, fitting music, authentic characters, an original style, romance, slice of life, changing timelines and plots.. the composition of those things absolutely fulfilled my requirements of enjoying an anime, contrary to the prequel "Ef - A Tale of Memories" which was too far away from reality and was kind of boring at the beginning (due to the fact that the viewer feels lost in such a dark atmosphere with no characters to stick to). I know, most people prefer the first part, but when it comes to my view of things, I prefer those animes which contain more valuable information about the real life, like for instance "how does someone behave if he knew he would die soon". Well, it's a subjective thing..

Overall 10/10

..due to the epicness I longed for a certain time now. The package of all those aspects make this anime an incredible experience. Its fancy style of presenting the story is the most interesting I've seen so far. The feelings don't reach those I had when I saw Clannad but the atmosphere in "Ef - A Tale of Melodies" compensates for this. Truly an amazing work.

Btw. if you have any recommendations regarding my English I would gladly appreciate your help, just write me a message with my mistakes or something XD read more

Well, Ichigo 100% was the first manga I've ever read. That was just because the anime ends at episode 13 and I was very curious to see what would happen next. Before I started reading, I kind of disliked manga because there are missing important emotional aspects like music, color and such.. but Ichigo 100% totally convinced me of the fact that it's even possible to carry a lot of emotions through this art without any music.

I cannot really compare with other manga so I will keep it short. There are some things very special in Ichigo 100% and I will try to explain them.

- First, there is this great character design. I totally liked the different style of those girls, the different way of acting, the visual aspects etc. The fact that Junpei tries to decide for one of them and cannot come to a final conclusion involves the reader the same way. I am pretty sure that there are a lot of readers out there who wouldn't be able to decide which girl they would prefer.

- Second, there is this "magical" relationship between Junpei and Nishino, which first started by accident but got more serious throughout the whole story. I, for myself, noticed directly after beginning to read the manga that Nishino acts differently than the other girls around Junpei. A girl like her is actually hard to find in real life, while it's easier to find girls of the other character types shown in the manga.

- Third, there is this absolutely brilliant interplay of comedy and romantic scenes. I was really touched by the key scenes with Junpei and Nishino.

I enjoyed the whole manga and loved the ending. The emotional part, which is very important to me, doesn't lose weight up until the end. All in all, a great manga to read for all fans of harem/ecchi comedy and romance which involves primarily the male readers in a kind of "I hope he will end up with ***"-feeling. read more