ef: A Tale of Memories.

I can't even begin to fathom why people love this series so much. The story is incredibly, mind-blowingly generic, and the characters are so typical that I feel like I've seen them in dozens of other shows. On top of that, the "artistic" style of the anime was so distracting and ridiculous. I found myself laughing every time the scene became obnoxiously distorted or the colors changed, because it was so non-discrete and it never quit. Yes, this anime is pretty. But it's pretty in a way that makes it clear that it's trying way too hard to be beautiful and artistic. All in all, ... this anime was painful to watch. It was not deep nor creative like it tried so hard to be.

ef: A Tale of Memories. An anime that I had never heard of yet somehow made its way into my list.

In my abruptly deceased quest to find a show that could move me, I stumbled upon this gem. It was a coincidence really, I can't remember clearly but there it was, in the MAL top user recommendations for a certain drama anime that I enjoyed.

So I got curious, checked out the synopsis and art. Looked good. Checked some scores and they were even better. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, everything did.

Now with the uninteresting prologue finished, I'll move on to the actual review.

We are ... introduced to a fairly small cast of characters, split into two different and simultaneous story arcs that never connect between each other despite having characters of the same family in both.

The first arc, is about a love triangle between a manga artist, her newly found obsessed girl who is all over him, and a childhood friend. The second one is about a girl with a condition that prevents her from remembering anything at all for longer than 24 hours, and how she meets a guy named Mr. Plainy Plainster. There are a few other support characters who have a story of their own I guess... none of them are worth mentioning.

About the first arc, it's your overused love triangle. No, there are no special twists. The male main character is as plain as you can be, with his only defining trait being his talent for manga drawing. He lives in the house of a female childhood friend (who is sister of the girl with memory problems in the second arc) that is also in high school. He then meets an apparently popular and perfect-on-the-surface female, and chaos ensues.

And if you thought there were few characters in the first arc, allow me to introduce you to the second one. Two characters total. The girl that can't remember things for longer than 24 hours, and a male lead that makes Kirito from SAO look like an interesting man full of virtue.

The story (or, stories) had some potential, but sadly always failed to be anything more than a laughable attempt to be deep or metaphorical. It would be less embarrassing if a mediocre show didn't try so hard to be something it's not. What I'm trying to say is, that this was made by SHAFT, so expect flamboyant and unnecessary animation. The artsy environments and overused symbolism are present everywhere, and they can be amazing additions to amazing shows, however they can also be a double edged sword if the content it tries to enhance simply fails to meet any expectation. This was the case with ef: a Tale of Memories.

So little happens in the actual anime that trying to delve deeper into the story arcs would probably spoil the minimal plot points that ef has to offer, so I won't do that. Just know that this anime was based off an eroge, so needless and random sex themes are around just enough to break any possible immersion. Oh, I forgot that supernatural themes are also present for no damn reason too!

To conclude, the only things that you'll find in ef are: the worst kind of melodrama, unnecessary fanservice and suggestive themes, pointless supernatural elements, hilarious attempts to make this disappointing anime seem deep (through different means), and a very diverse cast of boring, bland and whiny characters.


Detailed analysis below:

General:
-Atmosphere 2/10 --- This is a lackluster tale about teenager love. The repetitive 'cute' backgrounds and symbolism are simply out of place.
-Characters 1/10 --- Completely unlikable cast of characters. I couldn't feel ANYTHING at all for any of them.
-Story development & ending 2/10 --- I laughed at the ending. And I don't have a heart of stone or anything, like I said at the beginning I started this because I wanted it to toy with my emotions, and the only thing it did was to toy with my laughter. Unexpected results.

Technical:
Art 7/10 --- The actual animation is nice when it isn't trying to be 2deep4me
Soundtrack -/10 --- I actually didn't pay any attention to the sound. And the version I watched lacked any opening sequence so I won't comment on this aspect.
Voice acting 3/10 --- Whoever did Chihiro, aka the girl with defective memory, needs to quit voice acting.

Personal:
Priority (How eager I was to watch the next episode) 4/10 --- To be honest I was expecting for something to happen...
Memorability 7/10 --- I'll never forget the worst show I blindly ventured myself into.

Final score:
2/10 --- Horrible

I wouldn't recommend this piece of anime to anyone... maybe to some enemies? It was the first and last time that I actually take MAL's user recommendations seriously.

The themes in here can be quite inappropriate even though this show seems like an innocent tale about teen romance. Out of place scenes and dialogues that do not fit with some of the characters' traits are included just to be faithful to the source material, I suppose, which added to the overall hilarity. Not recommended for 14 y/o or younger.

There's also a second season or rather, a spin-off called ef: a Tale of Melodies. Based on the minor characters of this one. Needless to say I didn't bother to watch it, nor will I ever do it.

This has been my second review, which was more in the verge of becoming a rant, but it had to be said. Don't watch this.

Ef- A Tale of Memories is a twelve episode anime based on an adult visual novel. Of course, there have been some decent anime based off of H games, not many mind you, but maybe this'll be one of them. Let's take a look and find out.

There are really three loosely connected stories in this. The first is a love triangle with a moron, an idiot and a brainless twit. The second is about a naive moron who meets a girl with a memory defect and the third is about an imbecile trying to make an art film. The only one that had the potential ... to be interesting is the second and that potential is squandered both by the time wasted on the other two stories and by a major problem with the entire anime, melodrama. This anime is melodramatic to the point of ridiculous. Every minor thing that happens in loose relation to the plot gets needlessly exaggerated in an attempt to make you empathize with the cast which is a futile exercise but more on that later. What isn't absurdly melodramatic is just dull and drags on. It's not like there wasn't room for interesting story in this, the execution just fails.

Now, let's talk about why empathizing with the characters just isn't going to happen. The biggest issue is that they're overly dramatic, dull-witted teenagers. They're like the people that no one wanted to be around in High School because they turned everything into a huge issue from a teacher chastising them to another girl wearing the same shirt as them. It's not charming or endearing, it's annoying. If I wanted to watch high school students being overly dramatic and stupid, I'd be a teacher. Really, the characters needed to be older in this, not to mention more three-dimensional, for the concept to work and that simply isn't the case.

Talking about the art in this is going to be a bit longer than usual. They try to be artsy with such stunning visual effects as randomly going black and white or cropping out almost everything on the screen to focus on one small thing, but that kind of style doesn't work unless there's a coherent reasoning behind it. That isn't the case with this, the anime isn't that intelligent. It's simply trying to appear intelligent through superficial means without actually having intelligent content as such it's just annoying. It's the equivalent of that one idiot who tries to look smart by wearing glasses that they don't need. No one falls for that either. Take away the effects you get art that's pretty mediocre with uninspired character designs and scant backgrounds.

The voice acting isn't particularly interesting or memorable. I don't blame the voice actors for it since they're working with a script that fluctuates between melodramatic and dull. Honestly, it's a bit impressive that they manage to not be completely obnoxious during the melodramatic scenes. The music is so utterly dull that I really can't remember anything about it even though I just finished the series a couple hours ago as of the moment I'm writing this.

The yuri factor is a 2/10. There's a minor character who mentions having a crush on her female upperclassman once, but it's a throwaway scene that goes nowhere and is never mentioned or alluded to again. Ef- A Tale of Memories: where scenes don't have to connect to the plot in a meaningful way.

My final rating for Ef- A Tale of Memories is a 4/10. I honestly don't hate it. It's a mostly dull and mediocre series with a few annoying factors that make me consider it sub-par overall. I can't really recommend it to anyone unless you really enjoy high school melodrama.

I'm kind of angry to be honest. How can a drama/mystery/romance with an >8 score be this bad? I was really looking forward to it being one of my next favourite romances, and this is what I get.

The first half really wasn't all that bad. Things progressed decently, I loved the OP and music in general, animation was good and I appreciated the art shifts to an extent. That Renji character looked ridiculous, but other than that all of the girls were decent, even if I don't usually like character designs of this kind. The whole memories thing seemed a little contrived but I ... figured it'd get emotional by the end. Nope.

I consider it a bad thing when I find myself laughing at supposedly dramatic and heart-wrenching moments. This was also around the time the art shifts started to get on my nerves.

After a certain point, the balance between the various stories was lost, and every time we were immersed in one story al I wanted to do was watch the one they weren't focusing on. It seems neither could keep my interest because the personalities of all the characters had undergone a dramatic shift into annoying territory. Almost all motivations come from somewhere in the distant past, as if everybody is suffering from the same illness. (Tale of memories, yeah I know, but that doesn't make it any better). Really there almost no characters that stayed likable for very long. Well, except the guy with the film camera, I thought his character and little story line was interesting.

Also, this was a talky-one. But not couples talking, no the guy characters usually talk to someone else about what they should do about their girl. And when they do, expect a lot of melodramatic one liners and art shifts that don't really fit anything. They try to be profound, but it really falls flat.

My idea to make this a much better anime: Get rid of all the other characters and story lines and focus on the film maker trying to capture the beauty of the enigmatic girl through his camera lens (And the subsequent romance that arises from finding her and enrolling her in his film project). That little story line (for me) was more captivating and interesting than all of the others combined.

All around, what we have here is a very disappointing romance that misses every target it tries to hit. Undeniably, a below average release. I honestly don't see what the others are seeing.

Ef: A Tale of Memories. I’m baffled by this anime score of an eight and above. It’s cliché, generic, unoriginal, it doesn’t do anything to differentiate itself from other romance anime. It does the exact opposite while trying to be more profound and deep, I’m all for that, but it was in my opinion horribly executed. It’s if half of Myanimelist was watching this during their teenager years or was one their first few romance anime. It was a hardship to get through and I love romance anime.

Story: 3

There are two main stories ongoing at the same time while correlating with one another. An angel ... appears, well not exactly a mysterious girl known Yuuko, narrating our stories. The more favorable story beginning with Renji Asou and Chihiro Shindou. It starts off with Renji always catching a glimpse of girl with an eye-patch sitting everyday by herself at an old abandon train station with book in her hand. Eventually, he musters up the courage to introduce himself to her thus begins their friendship. There’s a reason with Chihiro is always by herself and doesn’t at the time attend school. However, that’s for Renji to find out why.

The next story involves an upcoming manga creator Hiro Hirono and his childhood friend Kei Shindou along with Miyakomo Miyamura. Hiro is always doing things half-effetely never committing to them with or giving it his all. Hiro ditches school to follow his true passion creating and writing manga, even though Kei always insist on him to attend school. When Hiro meets Miyakomo, he finds her very odd and friendly, at times even annoying seeing how she wants to be around him for no real apparent reason.

Art & Sound: 4 | 6

I’m all for symbolic meaningful imagery, but it felt really out place in this anime. The weird transitions cuts made during a conversation, sometimes it close and personal into the character face or they were out frame or out of placed. The questionable locations it showed at times. It was as if it was trying to be deep to the audience, even though at times the show itself wasn’t that. The opening was mediocre at best, nothing to great. The music though was pleasant and went along with the more emotional scenes. Looked and feel like an older anime, with an exaggerated enormous eyes and wacky hair nothing wrong with that felt a bit outdated or more of moe look.

Characters: 3

None are really worth mentioning nor do they stick out, each one has his/her own problems. Although some of their actions are questionable. At times I found them to be annoying and cringe worthy. They’re portrayed as high school student so without a doubt some characters can extremely selfish for their own motives, even if it causes pain to others. If I had to nitpick there being a worst girl it was Miyamoko due to being increasingly needy and irritating at times. Yuuko was most interesting character even if only she was in the anime for a handful of a few minutes.


Enjoyment: 2

I did not enjoy it for majority of the time. It did have a few heart-warming scenes her and there, nothing to more to that.

Final Thoughts/Overall: 3

The score for this anime was deceitful. I was just waiting for the episode to end and it seemed to drag along longer than expected. It’s really generic following lots of character traits I don’t particularly enjoy but if done right can be pleasant to watch, which it was not in this case. It’s imagery and out of place segment scenes, left me scratching my head wondering why they were chosen. They were nice to look at but it felt like those scenes interrupted the flow of the anime at times. It just wasn’t my cup of tea, but I am in small percentage of a community that thinks otherwise.

Alright, here goes- but before you sit at your computer (or phone, whatever) and angrily glare at this post, hear me out first; I'm not judging this anime from a professional's perspective, nor am I putting deep thought into this review. Rather, this is simply the initial impressions that I received from this anime; I completely understand that some people like it, but I however do not.

Story-
The story of this... how to put it. It was... dreadful, absolutely horrific. Alright, although I may say that, and although you may be getting all aggravated just reading through this reply, allow me to justify.

(trying ... to give as minimal spoilers as possible, although will include some)
The story opens with our 6 main characters, in which half of I forget the name of. Only one of them is really interesting, as they seem to be hiding somewhat of a darkness lurking underneath them. That's Chihiro I'm talking about, perhaps the only truly memorable character of this series; and barely even memorable at that (I'm sorry I didn't even realize). We get our two pairs of characters that are undeniably gonna end up lovers; but as we see the story follow them, it's just... ugh. Constantly flipping from one to the other in a predictable manner; I feel as if I'm just watching a documentary on different couples.

But that's not the truly bad part; this story, this "work of art" is so utterly plain. I just cannot stand how awfully, how tragically plain it is. Did you want a satisfying moment? Nope, you don't get any. Did you want something shocking to suddenly happen? Nope, you don't get any of those moments. I am nowhere near to being as close in talent as the creators of this series, but even I saw several moments where they could've made the viewer go "wtf" in a good way. Here are some examples of what I mean, and caution, there will be minor spoilers.

First, remember that one episode where it showed Kei looking up at the sky, you know, looking all treacherous and utterly envious? It showed the train tracks, and then later we see a scene with here talking to Miyako rather confrontationally. Threatening her and all that jazz, so I thought "holy fuck she's gonna push her on the railroad." Did she? No. No, she merely stalked away like a little bitch. So, in counter you may say, "but that would be too predictable." But in that, you're wrong, for I only made that assumption a couple moments prior to the actual event. If it had happened, perhaps my opinion would be changed a fair bit on the series. But alas, it didn't, and this utterly plain vibe continued throughout 10 (not even 12) episodes of mere suffering.

Second, how about when Chihiro kinda got all glitchy when she was asking Shinji (or whatever his name is) to kiss her? Did we ever see anything else regarding that later? No, and that was arguably the only cool and actually interesting scene in this anime. Not to mention, I'd automatically assume "hey, she's some sort of demon or something, she's not as innocent as she seems." Is she? Nope. Which is actually fine, but it angers me how many places they could've gone with that; they could've completely twisted her character into a very unique and intricate one that could be described as an antagonistic protagonist. But they didn't. She just remained Chihiro, and that was it.

Third, lets take a look at the scene where Miyako was rapidly texting that manga guy (I forget his name) when he wouldn't meet at their spot. The pacing and visuals of this scene are done well, although the rest is absolute garbage. I expected that he was gonna be dead, and perhaps Kei (whatever her name is) would appear and threaten her. Did that happen? No, turns out that manga guy is perfectly fine, and Kei doesn't do anything except bitch about it. Again, they could've gone tons of places with this scene, but instead they stick to the very basics. Garbage.

I could go on about this, but I don't got all day to write about such a shitty anime. The one last topic I will mention however is episode 10. Episode 10, the horrendous episode 10. It made me go "wtf" in a really bad way. I mean, the manga guy's best friend or whatever just tells him how he's indecisive and can't make up his mind about anything leading others to get hurt. So you know, he's gotta do something honourable about it, right? Thus he goes up to Kei, and after she confesses her love for him, he practically does the same for her. You'd think they're good with each other now and that she's the one for him, right? No, then he goes up to Miyako and professes his love for her. I mean, which way do you swing? Pick one or the other, because unfortunately due to the plain nature of this anime I can assume he's not just polyamorous.

Story Rating: Absolute shit, a 2

Art-
Now the art was pretty good, I do say; of course, it isn't entirely my style (Danganronpa is an example of said style) but it's good. The anime features many unique scenes and often pretty visuals that could perhaps spark some emotion; if everything else wasn't such shit. The art in the opening is also quite fantastic; but my score does not go above 6 as I just simply cannot single out this quality from the horrible rest.

Art Rating: Pretty damn good, but since the other, dreadful aspects far overshadow it, a 6

Sound-
The sound is nothing special; the only thing I like is the opening, really. The opening is quite good and does quite a good job at attempted portrayal of the story; in fact, it actually tells the story better than the actual anime does itself. And while it actually does a good job in representing it, this is only because the anime fails to represent it at all. It truly seems to have wasted potential.

Sound Rating: Good, but only the opening

Character-
...
I won't even talk too much about how utterly horrendous, how utterly plain the characters were. Name me one defining trait of that manga guy, other than the fact he writes manga; how about one defining trait of bigger characters like Miyako. The only character that can be defined is Chihiro; and the only words I can think of is "timid, cowardly". All of the characters are horribly predictable in what they do, and all tend to fall in sappy, cliche love drama.

Enjoyment-
I found myself struggling to get through this anime. You know that anime that you just want to finish so that you can see the ending and move on to another one? You know the anime that you think has some potential to finally tell a good story, but fails to do so? Yeah, that's this anime for me; eventually I just got tired of it and dropped it, even though I was only two episodes away from finishing. The whole anime is filled with sappy, cliche romance (as mentioned above) that is too utterly plain and predictable; wow, they have secrets? Dark pasts that trouble their relationships? Wow, what a shocker. While I am not a big fan of the romance genre, it can be executed in an absolutely fantastic way; this typically involves chemistry between the two but not entirely blatant chemistry, that slowly builds up rather than "love at first sight" or whatever. It also may involve surprising twists and turns that change the story and effect the characters. Not to mention the characters are good and definable, not entirely revolving around one another; examples of this include Spice and Wolf, Akatsuki no Yona, any ship in Danganronpa, Fullmetal Alchemist, Naruto (although it does not focus too much on the couples), and even Tokyo Ghoul being the shit anime that it is. But this is just... ugh. It's bad.

Overall-
Horrible, would not recommend. Again, this is my personal opinion, so I would kindly ask you don't get all fired up if you are in favour of this anime. The only good thing in it is the art, and otherwise it's utterly painful and cliche. Do yourself a favour if you're not a fan of cliche romance dramas and stay far, far away from this anime.

ef - a tale of memories gets a 3/10 compared to its mess of a sequel with 2/10 because it doesn't include the explicit physical abuse of it's female cast but it was even more boring to watch (which is very hard).

The series basically consists of 'atmospheric' scenes with long, empty dialogues. the pseudo deep, artsy symbolism is never once explained. This concept would work if the cast wasn't so incredibly generic and boring (then it would might be something like Bakemonogatari). I read a lot of comments how people found the characters unlikable but I wouldn't even say this. The cast is so ... boring and blatantly portraying stereotypes (the girl next door, the childhood friend, the blonde best friend guy) without even commenting on those tropes that you don't care about their interactions at all.

Love yourself, don't watch this