ef: A Tale of Melodies.

This anime really surprised me by way it was told and the characters relationships. It was a really good anime with a great plot and music that complimented the moments to create additional emotion. It was the first in this genre that I've ever watched and it blew me away easily becoming my favorite anime so far and I doubt that'll change. The show was really interesting and I wasn't bored as there was always something I was interested in. I loved this anime and think its one of the few masterpieces out there and would recommend it to anyone whether they watch anime or ... not. Be sure to watch the first series before this one called "ef a tale of memories" which is also just as good.

Story: The story in "melodies" is definitely better than in "memories". Once again, we have two storylines- One focusing on the past of Himura (the guy with white hair), and the the other on Mizuki (Kei's blonde friend). After watching "melodies", i realised that issues of characters from season one were rather... Shallow. For example, the whole problem of "love triangle" in "memories" is really weak in comparision with Yuuko and Himura relationship. The ending was much more convincing as well. If it is about the second story, it's very similar to Chichiro's issue from season one. The main difference lies in intensity of ... the story, though i can't write anything more, because it might spoil the fun.

Art: It was really solid. Character design haven't changed, but the animation got better, and much more artistic eksperiments were used. There are some memorable scenes, but no suprises- you are probably used to the unusual directing if you watched "memories"

Sound: Nice, but nothing out of ordinary. There are no tracks that you would remember after finishing whole series, but they match the scenes, and are quite enjoyable. The opening is very similar to the opening from the first season, but it has a nice feeling to it.

Character: The main characters in "melodies" are very well made, and i liked them much more than main characters in "memories". I felt that they are more mature and convincing, but their development was rather predictable. Still- better than in first season.

Enjoyment: I believe everybody will find something they will like in "ef - a tale of melodies". The story is quite intense (for a drama series), but short (12 episodes). Personally, i finished it in two days, so i didin't get too attached to the whole series, but i still find it very amusing, and i don't regret one minute spent in front of the screen.

Overall: Great piece of work. Everything is solid and well-made, so i gave the series 9. If you didin't liked the first season, i don't think you will like the second, because it basicly extends the ideas from the first one. However, it's worth a try, since it's a a little bit better.

A IMP Review of Ef: A Tale of Melodies (Dubbed edition)
(IMP stands for “In My Prospective”, meaning if someone attempts to correct the way i see the show i have no intention of reading any “corrections”)

2nd Season/second half review-

Story: I’d rate the story an 8/10 because of the way most of the events in the show were handled. It doesn’t get a higher rating because the beginning was confusing and uninteresting and there were smaller story arcs that didn’t need to be a part of the show to ... make everything work out. But overall I believe where the show shined was its symbolism and its middle arc. To not give spoilers let’s just say the middle is where truths are revealed, a coward are brought out to the light of day, and art is seen as a second chance to make a choice.

Characters: I’d rate the characters 9/10. Like I said in my story section there were smaller story arcs that weren’t needed which is why this isn’t 10/10. Ultimately some will say after watching the show that some characters were cringey, a few characters were assholes and so were just plain unneeded or bland but symbolism is where most of the main group shines. Yes they are not all angels with pure hearts ready to join a generic main characters harem. They have flaws, and flaws make them at least a little relatable to those who don’t think they are perfect the way they are. Putting on a brave face or a hateful face, running away from something to save you or to save something else, hating the world or god because life is unfair, these are all things people can relate which give these characters far more meaning then just someone to be “waifu’d or someone to be liked simply because they act the way you think you act.

Art: For the art I would say 7/10. This show came out in 2008 and it does show in its art style. But it doesn’t show in the same way as a show from 2000 would, its art style isn’t a terrible sight to the eyes and the art used in certain scenes really does a good job enhancing the symbolism of each characters story as the show progresses. The art style uses colors one would rarely see in today’s anime shows because it didn’t go for a flashy type of art style, but a dark fore lording art style that really adds to show as a whole. There were a few issues with what they choose to do with the art like minimal backgrounds, reused clips, mouth movements that didn’t match every word but once again, it was from 2008 so I can be let off the hook.

Sound: This one is kind of hard to give a rating to because I wasn’t highly paying attention to the sound, but because of that very reason I’ll give it a 7/10. The show didn’t have a lot of standout background music to speak of which is part of sound as a whole so it factors in here, but the opening and sometimes the ending song because it changes somewhat throughout had an nice melody and the lyrics were highly relatable to me, when i feel like I want to find the intro song and download it, it at least earns a few point in my book. The only other noteworthy sound i clearly recall from the show is when a violin player plays his violin and when a 2 girls sing the same song from the intro or and hum it. But they are reused like this so often that it doesn’t add anything to make the sounds of the show stick out so my score won’t change.

Enjoyment: I’m not sure if enjoyed was the word to describe how I felt about this show, it’s more like the show made me think. When a show makes me think it deserves a 10/10 rating. There are many shows in the field of anime that I “enjoy”, but few that make me think. Other shows that make me think are things like Bojack Horseman, Jessica Jones, and perhaps 1 or 2 anime from time to time; this show didn’t make me contemplate the meaning of life like Bojack did but it make me question some choices I’ve made in life so that plus the ending of the show I can safely say made me enjoy my time watching beside the beginning of it.

Overall: I’m sure the scores don’t look like they add up to this and I would never tell anyone to give this show the same rating like others do about their favorite animes but I’m going to give it the rareish rating of 10/10-Buy it. Why buy it? Because it’s cheap honestly (most of the time). Why 10/10? Because a show that makes me think is rare and there wasn’t really anything to the show that I didn’t hugely like so why not? Let me tell others 2 things, 1: I will not tell you or encourage you to give the same rating, this is just my personal opinion on this show and 2: honestly I’m doing this review and other reviews as a hobby and for my own “anime records” so to speak, so if you see this and don’t like it just ignore it honestly because its more for me then to help others in the long run.

This is not simple to watch!
I am a grown man, but i have never in my life cried so much as trough this so called anime series. It is impossible to call this a simple anime. It touches your heart to the deepest level!

I recommend this to people that love sad romance stories. But i do not recommend it for people like me, which have high level of empathy. I cried at almost every serie.

A true master piece

I enjoyed the second EF much more than the first. Story lines were much deeper in this, characters seemed more realistic.And while I liked how they kept with the 2 main stories at a time deal as they did with the first, the flow between these two seemed almost seamless and really complimented eachother.

As for the story, like any anime I watch I can't tell how much I'd like the story fully until the ending. Far too many times do animes with great stories ruin it with the end. The end here was a bit anticlimactic for my tastes, it wasn't completely screwed up ... to the point of ruining the series for me but it seemed a bit meh for all the tension it was building.

If you watched the first EF you will notice that the main charaters in this one are the side characters from the first season. I loved this part. Usually I hate when an anime dives off its main story line into side characters excessively, but this being a new season with a whole new story line and the original being completed I loved it. Really original, while the main characters from the first season appear here as side ones. Great concept.

This one threw in 2 different plot twists than memories, the first being the time aspect, one of the stories occurs during the past and if you've watched memories your pretty much know where it's going to go. But the way they alluded to this story line durring memories was so interesting to me. They teased you with it and never told you, until melodies.

The other is the distant thing. I was completely unaware during memories that the two stories were occurring on different continents. This part really didn't come across well at all. The characters switch around what country they are in at the drop of the hat, they made many mistakes as to who was in what country when (Listing them would all be spoilers) While I liked how they tied the characters together some of it just seemed forced and trying to draw the line between how this character knew this character from where- when the lines were crossing constantly and across continents just made my head hurt.

As for the characters themselves, much, much better than memories. I'm really impressed with how much of an improvment they made with this one. You grew to genuinlly care for these people for the most part, I hate when a writer wants to have two characters fall in love and instead of taking the time to build a logical relationship, showing the cause of the love between to characters they basically just shove them together for a day and when they come out declare their love for one another for no apparent reason. (Or not a believable one at least) While memories was riddled with this problem, melodies mearlly featured it. A little more build up in the love story would have been good, but this wasnt horrible.

Miki was the one character that just got under my skin. And as her earlier story line progressed, got really confusing. The earlier parts gave her depth, but I really wish they had expanded on that because as she is now she just seems like the typical ditzy anime girl.

As for the visuals in this one I didnt find them as dynamic as I did in the first. This one was all about good characters and good deep story lines. Memories to me relied way more on its looks. The english in both series's OP and end were a funny listen, though with the amount of drama contained within the episodes probably not the time you want to here something funny. I dont think anyone would find it romantic if I walked up to them and told them I wanted to see their insides. They should have just done them in Japanese, it would have come across much better and taken the cheese factor down a notch for me.

Overall this was a pretty good anime. Some minor flaws keeping it from perfection but after memories I am pleasantly surprised with this one. Defnitley worth the watch.

I loved this anime. It has a little different style to it than memories though. I think that the drama is higher and the love stories much more heart wrenching. I suppose it isn't 100% necessary to watch memories first for the main story, but it certainly fills in some gaps as there are some random references to the prequel.

Story (10): The story lines can make you pause and think for a little bit. However, that is only because it switches between past and present. Don't get me wrong, ef switches between stories and times quite nicely in a way ... that flows wonderfully, but the simple nature that you are seeing the same characters in the past and present might be confusing for the first episode or so. That said, I loved the story in this. It is even better than in tale of memories. I don't want to give anything away, but the stories were just fantastic.

Art (9): Much like memories, the art can be pretty unique. The "regular stuff" won't blow you away. It's nice and pretty and at times beautiful, sure, but nothing that will make you pause the video just to look at a beautiful background. Basically it's is really well done (just not quite OMG enough for a 10). If you watched memories, you know what I mean when I say that at times the art is unique. You can tell the artists really tried to be artistic. And a lot of the times it works really well and to cool effect. However, sometimes the artists seem to go on these acid trips... it kinda works for the scene that they're in, but you may not like it too much. Overall, the art quite good, even unique at times, and in no way makes the viewing not enjoyable.

Sound (8): No complaints here. Everything was well done. There is a sub theme of music in the series (hence the name) and I would say the music was quite good and always did a great job of setting the mood or simply adding extra beauty.

Character (9): Some great characters in the series. The development was fantastic and the way they mered past and present was really good. You really got an idea for the characters and what they went through.

Enjoyment (10): I loved this anime. Kept me on the edge of my seat and I couldn't help but keep watching. Great stuff!

Overall (9): A fantastic series that I recommend to anyone who likes the romance, drama, slice of life style anime.

I actually found this anime 2 years ago but at that time i wasn't really interested in anime of this genre so i didnt watch past episode 1. When i found it again i had already decided that the most emotional and moving anime would be Clannad and Angel Beats! therefore i didn't expect much. Thinking back i feel like laughing at myself.

Before i begin my review i have to apologize if my review contains any form of spoilers although i will try to minimize them.

Story: I really liked this anime for its extremely deep and moving storyline. Besides this i also liked how it ... was able to swing back and forth from the past to the present and back to the past. Even more than that it seemed as if switching from the past and present times helped to fill up the missing parts. I also liked how this anime shows how tragic incidents can affect people and invokes a lot of thinking on various subjects such as " is it better to die with your loved ones or live knowing that you left them to die". Besides that, this anime also shows you a little on how harsh the world can be at times but at the same time it also shows you that there are people who will be there for you even if its just 1.

Art: I really liked the art as it made the whole anime feel so real, as if you were watching the events in the anime happen in reality. I also have to say that the designs were great and the background and other effects were really magnificent.

Sound: Here we find a slight flaw in the anime. While i have no complaints with the soundtracks i sort of prefer those in the previous ef series with the exception of the opening - Ebullient Future - which i liked alot. But either way the timing for every sound effects were well done and the music complimented each scene quite well.

Character: Ahh the part i was looking forward to typing about the most. I really love the characters here from the naive young Himura and his kind but indirect older self, Kuze who seems like such a nice and easygoing person while harbouring a great burden and so on. The characters all have their own burdens to deal with although eventually they are finally able to resolve them. An interesting fact to point out is that with the exclusion of Akane, Nagi and Akira, the characters are all the same as the 1st season except this time the main characters of the 1st ef series now become supporting characters while supporting characters now become the main characters, with the exception of Emi.

Enjoyment: Hmm truth to be told. You probably wouldn't find yourself absorbed into it until you watched a few episodes. You may even need to rewatch the series to get attached to it. However, once you get pulled in you can't ever get out. A good tip for those who aren't patient is to watch this anime when you're bored or when you have alot of free time which you have no idea how to waste.

Overall: You would probably need a little patience with this anime but you would definitely love it if you give it a chance and watch every episode to the end. you would definitely find it worth your while.

Note: This is a review of both ef a tale of memories and melodies.

What makes an anime stand out? Could it be the studio which the anime is made? Could it be the source which the anime has come from? Could it just be because of the characters or plot? One of these anime that stand out for me is the Ef series, a fulfilling and beautifully executed romance visual novel adaptation done by studio Shaft, the same peeps who made Monogatari. And in this show, they do almost everything differently than other anime within those two genres.

What really makes the ef series stands ... out is that no one is talking about or hyping it up. It's a shining diamond that is so obvious to see yet no one notices or even makes the attempt to look at it. I mean, this anime has some of the most dazzling, creative and gorgeous animation tricks I've ever seen and they combine this with alluring and wonderful symbolism. An example from the show is when Kuze, a violin player had these maks on his wall. These masks were extensions of his personality but they weren't him, only a mask to hide his real pain that he went through. The symbolism here makes this anime appear so marvelous and vivid for its genre and source material. The themes here about love and passion were interesting and done in such a way that you felt what the characters were feeling instead of them just going to school and hanging around and randomly the girl starts falling for the dude.

The anime was also told in parallels, meaning that during the first season, half of the season is about Hiro in Otowa, Japan who is trying to become this manga artist who meets a girl by accident who he starts hanging around with. And the other half is about Renji who is this lonely guy from Otowa, Australia (yes, they have the same names, cool right?) who tries to become a writer and meets a girl by accident who he starts having around with. The way the pulled that off was something I've never seen before it sounds like a disaster on paper but it worked wonderfully.

This series didn't feel shallow like a lot of visual novel adaptations that are made as quickly and with as low of a budget as possible. And believe me, I've seen dozens of anime with that source material, most of them are extremely similar and are almost clones of each other. And to compare with other melodramatic anime like Air or Kanon, this anime didn't feel forced and did things differently with its symbolism, art tricks, having few cliches, the parallel storylines and also interesting characters, and with those anime having almost NONE of that (sorry kanon and air fans).

One of my favorites was Hiro, who was such an uncliched and interesting character. The way Hiro deals with this is also different than most boring and uninteresting romance/harem protagonists, they usually try to help almost everyone and give up on themselves. Hiro wants to become a manga artist more then he wants to breathe air so it's no surprise to see Hiro do things differently than other people.

I really felt a deep sense of connection and a bond within all the characters. Even if they live in different cities they all know each other and that was unique for a show like this. The mystery of this show was a bit tedious at first, like when a girl called Yuuko who appeared at random places and gave out random advice.

What I also find tedious was all the supporting cast in a tale of memories, who felt like they were there and didn't have a purpose. But they became main characters in Season 2 and got explained again.

Overall, this anime drowned me with emotions and even if I tell you that this show is worth watching, you probably won't actually watch it, will you? Because the anime industry has become such a hype machine with people just drooling over certain shows and not taking the chance and exploring underappreciated works like this. I recommend this to almost everyone, even if you don't like melodrama, this is a type of melodrama that is not like other anime with self-insert protagonists and bullshit endings.

EDIT: There are some visual novel adaptations that are great, like Steins Gate & Higurashi. In this review, I'm talking more about dating sims, not those two.

yea i just just watched this anime it is very sad but makes me cry like a boi.?.. I really enjoyed it it uses a unique animation techniques to express character emotions ( a very different approach an I really liked it) it has beautiful background music that also sets the mood of the scenes it has a lot of genres including romance, Drama, mystery and Seinen the anime is very well made it is a must watch, and if was to compare it to Clannad Air Kanon ect it would rank very high up in my personal list of anime i've ... seen bois rating? 10 ;) it's really worth watching! (make sure u watch memories 1st) lol.

ef- a tale of melodies comes to complete the "tale of memories".

I really love this anime because it combines the beauty of music, art and strong characters.
A violin, a sketch, a smile, a memory , a melody... "Death or life just something small to grab on".
Love, friendship, pain, the fear of being alone, the fear of hearting the one you love all mixed with a beautiful soundtrack makes you wonder of your own life, the melody of your life.
So let me ask you "Can you hear it? the true melody"?

You shouldn't be watching this unless you've completed season 1 or a lot of things simply will not make sense and I can say very safely, since by and large the shows are very similar, if you enjoyed season 1 you'll enjoy season 2 and if you didn't you won't. I didn't particularly care for season 1 and as such, while this show isn't horrible and I liked it slightly better than its predecessor, I didn't particularly care for this either.

Most of the praises and complaints from my season 1 review are still applicable here. Like the previous season, you could easily skip the first ... four or five episodes here and miss little to nothing- it's a very slow, boring start. The visual presentation scores high marks for originality and artistic beauty and it's even better this time around. The story, as a whole, is lacking. There just isn't a lot of meat on the bone. At the end of it all, while very pretty, you're more or less viewing a bare bones story presented in the most artistic way possible.

If you're someone who enjoys abstract art I don't see how you'd not love this, as this show goes deep into that territory. I'm not one of those people, so I found many of those scenes simply weird as opposed to deep and compelling.

The plot also has some serious problems and conveniences. Did you know dropping a lit cigarette can set an entire mansion ablaze? I didn't either, but it happens in this show. Did you also know that a person can hit another person with a car on a busy street with zero witnesses, no inclination to get out and help or call an ambulance and no one will pass by or notice the victim bleeding out until the main character does? Did you also know that two people can have a deeply close, father/daughter type relationship for a decade but the entire time the father has no clue what the daughter's last name is? Dumb things like that made it hard for me to take the show seriously and absolutely detracted from my overall enjoyment.

The music was passable but forgettable and the opening theme in particular felt lazy as it was more or less the same song from the first time around- same beat and all- but with different lyrics. Also, one of the characters is a "world renowned violinist" but until the second to last episode of the show he seems to know one, and only one, violin song.

All in all this might be a good watch for abstract art lovers or those who are easily touched by anything remotely in the realm of emotional but for me this was largely slow and boring and there just wasn't a whole heck of a lot of depth. Couple that with some plot problems and forced down your throat "moral of the story" moments and you're left with something mediocre that I'd not be interested in ever watching again.

OBJECTIVE RATING- 6.5-7
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 6.5

What can I say? I simply loved this anime.

The use of the artwork - especially the opening theme was just brilliant.

The use of symbolism was creative and lovely.

The music was awesome - the USE of the music was so appropriate.

The stories (I say stories because it's alot of stories combined as one story) was a very nice idea and well done.

... Watch it!

Character design were beautiful and fitting too.

I didn't enjoy watching it.

how do I put it....there are just way too many negative elements dumped on one person, and the emphasis is either way too focused or way too distracted. I understand that as a drama, there have to be some tragedy involved, either in the past or present. However, this doesn't mean an overemphasis of these tragedies will make the show more tear-jerking. I honestly cried a river in clannad after story but this didn't make me shed one tear.

Story-wise, it goes back and forth from present to past not really in the form of flashbacks, which is nice for a ... thriller, but I think this strategy totally backfired on the drama aspect of the show. By the end, neither what happened in the past nor what's happening in the present can be thoroughly enjoyed. Even the complicated ties among all the characters in the past and present cannot make up for the lack of real bond among all the characters. Why? Because there was never one to start with. The story is badly told to be convincing, not to say the characters are too unreal to be unbelievable. Who on earth get to be adopted, beaten, raped, and then die in a car accident? Even if such persons exist (which I suppose is more believable during war times), the ties are too convenient to be even called fate. Fate would laugh at such ties.
A drama as unreal as this doesn't even deserve to called one. And, this isn't a melodrama either. The psychological sections scattered throughout the story aren't very convincing either because the overall setting and atmosphere aren't powerful enough. Even the dialogues, which I admit have some depth, are too unnatural to even make an impact.

What I think is, the creators tried too hard. I feel like they want to make a show that breaks the drama genre without going into horror or action (I'm guessing it from the opening and some excerpts), but I think their effort backfired.I even prefer a good old melodrama to this.

In comparison to its prequel, which I gave a score of 5, this series is stale and basically inferior in all aspects.

Another two love stories featuring characters struggling with undeserved burdens are presented in parallel in the same minimalistic surrealism-tending way, but keeping to the format is forced and botched: it appears disjointed and will bewilder some people given how loosely connected the stories are and that one of them largely occurs chronologically earlier. The themes of the stories are heavier—both deal with mortality with one extending to spirituality—but because the standard of writing is still slackly simplistic their deliveries are farcical: one quickly becomes ... grossly predictable and concludes preposterously with what the male protagonist achieves while the other abruptly backs down from its tension building when the main character for that makes a belated reveal. It’s all elementary and the frequent internal conflicts and monologuing in the plot becomes pretentious and tiresome; this show actually has little entertainment or practical value.

I personally love the series ef, the characters are all well planned out. All of them are different in their own ways, they all have good hearts something you don't find common anymore. Ef. really plays a number on your emotions and feeling. They give you this cold hearted story that seems so tragic that you start to doubt there really is no god on this earth. They repeat a certain line through the series "Miracles don't exist in this world. There are only inevitabilities and accidents" which is true in a way, they also speak about there is no god for life won't be ... the way it is if there was. But as they climax the characters are forced to deal with their problem before escaping their own nightmare. The series has a really great drama effect to it, you get to see them dealing with their own problem their ways just proving, that everyone has their own nightmare and struggle. That makes them who they are today, even those the character face a different individual problem they are all learning that they need to stop worrying, stop letting their fear control them. Like Chiro explains in order to make your dreams come true you have to do try. The shows are trying to make their message visible for everyone to see. That giving up isn't your only option. Life still a lot scarier yet that's what makes it beautiful to have someone you love to stand by you isn't that just bittersweet.

Story- The story was nothing special but the show stayed on track. I really liked how each episode would add on to the storyline and make sure to develop the characters.
Art- Simply amazing. Ef kept amazing me at the artwork it gave and how the mood touched each scene. It kept an original taste in every frame and the colors always knew how to blend in the perfect way.
Sound- Nothing special. It didn't take away from the show and that's all that matters. It went well and everything seemed okay. Nothing shot out as WOAH.
Character- It was great to see how characters developed from season ... one and from the beginning of season two to the end. The characters, for the most part, do a great job of seeming realistic in personality.
Enjoyment- I couldn't help but smile when the anime turned from regular to artistic. When it wants to impress you, it will. Most of the episode were great.
Overall- I recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind barely above average across the board until it comes to the art. If you want to see a show with amazing scenes, great color, and balancing perfection, this show is for you.

I laughed. I smiled. I cried. I rejoiced. I haven't felt like this before since Clannad.

Ef - A tale of melodies is the perfect example of what happens you combine masterful artistic visuals to great storytelling. I felt like I was within the story instead of just watching it, that the character's pains were my pains, and their happiness, my happiness.

Story - 9 The story's this good simply because nothing's rushed. Sure, maybe some of the romance between Mizuki and Kuze were a bit quick paced (and that's the only reason why this didn't get a 10!), but my gosh, every event unfolded ... at the perfect time, almost like a fairytale. What's more, is the way the series portrays the ties between each character's philosophical perspectives, and the events that occurred to them to cause them to think in such a way. And finally, how each perspective changes, and ultimately, how they triumph over their individual troubles. It's a rewarding experience, watching them from start to finish, and you'll find yourself undoubtedly growing alongside them. This is an anime that will make you question, and think.

Art & Sound - 10 Art and sound were both wonderful. Melodies like "A moon filled night" will definitely be going onto my top list alongside others like "Tabi no Tochuu" and "Palm of a tiny hand"

Character - 9 Although character development was sometimes a bit rushed, given the fact that this was a 12 episode series, and the way that it all came together in the end really made these little hiccups hard to notice in the grand scheme of things.

Overall, Ef - A tale of melodies is one of those rare animes that will leave you awestruck with its brilliant storytelling and its inspiring messages. It's definitely inspired me to new heights, and I bet it'll inspire you too.

If you haven't watched it yet, don't sleep tonight until you have :)

Ef- A tale of melodies -first impression- 6/10
It's a sequel to Memories, or a prequel, depending.

Story-
Half of this story takes place in the past, which helps explain things from the first season that made everyone say "Wait, what was that?!". You see a semi-new story, well a side story really, but it's still nice.

Art-
Carries the same style from the first season. It's still nice.

Sound-
... Where this anime really shines. The OP and ED are just awesome. In show music is very mood-setting. It's both relevant and well-done.

Character-
He's an ass! (You know who) Aside from that, most of the other 3 characters are likeable, although Mizuki is super-needy, it fits her char. well.

Enjoyment-
You may or may not enjoy this as much as the first season. It's iffy. I really only watched it because of the first season, and it didn't add too much. It's also a breeding ground for melodrama.

Overall-
If you liked Memories, watch melodies.

PSA: There are two versions of episode 10, they are the same except one has color and other is sepia. I recommend watching the colored version.

I felt second season stayed true to the themes and ideas from first season, while expanding upon them and examining some new ones. Plot logic around the time of ending could potentially be annoying, but I figured it's something that can be taken symbolically, and in that case it works as an artistic expression. There is some non chronological storytelling, and even though it's confusing, it's confusing in a cool Inception kinda way.

The emotional impact even goes beyond ... the first season, though it's a bit different, as expected. The writing, at least to me, seems to be so good that until the very end I couldn't really predict in which way the story would go. It's one of my favourite things about this title, other being those couple of particularly artistic scenes, as well as visuals and music and their direction. Did I just say that pretty much everything was my favourite thing about this? Yeah, I guess that's one way of putting it.

ef - a tale of melodies carries on from the prequal ef - a tale of memories, this time focusing on the stories of Yuu and Yuuko, the two older mystic characters from the first series and Renji's neighbour Shuichi andhis cousin Mizuki. If you thought the first series was difficult to understand this series is even more difficult. Before I wirte anymore a quick warning that the end titles have a nasty habit of apearing half way through the second half, if like me you don't normally watch the ed then make sure you don't miss out any parts of the story which ... fall after the ed (I had to rewatch 4 episodes).

The storyline takes a similar stance to the first series with multiple story lines going on at the same time, this can lead to confusion in setting out what is going on in which story line. I put watching this series off for a while before I watched it because on watching the single episodes I couldn't get into it, it was only when I could watch a few epsiodes in a row that I found it easier to see what was happening.

The artwork in ef is one of my favourite parts of this show, it has an almost unique way of blending colours and different images, that work really well in provoking afinity for the characters and their situations. The music also plays a similar role but not to as great an extent in melodies, but is not as unique and interesting as the artwork.

Overall its a very good anime, and is up there with Clannad: after stories as one of the best romance/drama animes out in the past few years. If you like this genre or if your looking for something a bit different then this comes highly recommended.