Story [7/10] The story itself is relatively simple; it’s not what makes this anime what it is. Basically there are two parallel romance stories. One is a love triangle of Hirano Hiro, the first male protagonist, his childhood friend Shindou Kei, and the clichéd “new girl who is there just to stir up drama between the two childhood friends” Miyamura Miyako. The story proceeds just as any other average love triangle anime, but once again, it’s not the story that made me love this anime. The second plotline is that of a dramatic romance between Asou Renji and Shindou Chihiro (the sister of Kei). Although there is no “outside interference” between these two’s relationship, it is the more dramatic story of the two. Chihiro had an accident when she was a child and because of this, she has a limited memory of thirteen hours (she remembers things before the accident). As such, she must always write down important events in her diary and read them every morning to retain, hopefully, a sense of herself.
Artwork [10/10] One of the very first things that captured me was definitely the artwork. The first few episodes are somewhat slow moving and have a lack of the “bang” that most first episodes have (where the anime then proceeds to slow down and you regret ever watching it just because episode one was good). However, the artwork was so amazing that part of me was watching it just for the sheer beauty of it. The backgrounds are done fantastically, and the characters are drawn better than any other anime that was ongoing at the time.
Music [9/10] The music was quite beautiful in this anime, fitting the setting and themes, but I can't say there were many amazing songs. However, although any anime with decent music that can fit the scene correctly would earn a 7 in my rankings, what gave this such a high marking would have to be ELISA. As her debut into the musician world, her “Euphoric Field” was breathtakingly beautiful. Not only did I feel that every word in both English and Japanese (there are two different sets of lyrics) fit the feel and themes of the anime perfectly, but her singing ability really emphasized certain parts of the lyrics (and the OP scenes). She’s not well known at the moment, but I’m sure she’ll become increasingly popular in years to come.
Character Development [10/10] The way the characters are revealed is not only simply amazing, but there are things shown that requires the viewer to actually interpret things for his/herself as opposed to either the anime explicitly telling the story or having such a clichéd event that anyone who has seen more than a few romance animes could tell what is happening. The male leads are not as great as the females; nonetheless, there are things about them that are necessary to complement the female roles and fears as individuals. Hiro is an established mangaka who is attempting to balance work with school. This leads to a very stressful lifestyle as well as habitual pains in his precious drawing hand. Renji, on the other hand, is at a loss of what to do with his life. Although, as the story plays through, he finds what it is he wishes for. Neither male is all that interesting or dramatic, but there sure was an amazing job pairing their personalities with the females’.
Miyako is what appears to be a cheerful, careless young girl who habitually cuts class. She is viewed by Kei as someone who is an unnecessary temptation as he is already on the verge of failing to graduate. However, beneath the happy smiles and carefree expressions lies a dark secret of pain and suffering. While I will attempt to refrain from spoiling just what it is, it is shown that Hiro is the only person she has to rely on. Her love for him is not only that of lovers but also that of need, a requirement to maintain her own existence and what little happiness she has left, if any at all. It is because of this that she tries so hard to keep Kei away from him. She understands her own predicament and is willing to do whatever it takes to get what she wants (Hiro).
Kei is not such an interesting character as Miyako or Chihiro. She is, as stated above, Hiro’s childhood friend who wants him all to herself and tries to keep Miyako away from him. In a sentence, she is as predictable as any other female childhood friends in any other romance anime (Da Capo comes to mind). However, her character development is actually far better done than those. While she starts as the selfish “oniichan” crying girl, she makes her feelings clear to Hiro, and in the end, I found her much more likeable than any of the other girls that somehow end up with the guy she wants just because she cried 14/13 of the episodes.
Chihiro, as stated before, also has a traumatic present in which she is unable to maintain a sense of herself. Every day, she is “another” Chihiro who must read all of the events and react to it in what is hopefully the same way as “yesterday’s” Chihiro would. Every day she meets Renji at an abandoned train station, but each time, she is meeting a new Renji, one she has never met before. Only “yesterday’s” Chihiro had met him, and this is the start of the burden she must carry throughout their relationship. Furthermore, it is revealed that Chihiro had always wanted to write a novel, but she is unable to finish due to her condition. Renji offers to help her complete it, but what starts out as an innocent act of care spirals into a complex vortex of emotions, fears, and desires that is hidden beneath the story and world that Chihiro will create, or rather, what she is only re-creating from how she sees the world. For this plot development, it is truly boring, uninteresting, and most of all, seemingly completely random if the viewer is unable to interpret the story and images that Chihiro creates.
Enjoyment [10/10] Although I found nearly every moment of this anime enjoyable and entertaining, I also realize the complexity of said enjoyment. This is an anime that requires a lot of interpretation on the viewer’s part. It isn’t something you can watch and be spoon-fed every concern, fear, and issue of the characters as well as every meaning, theme, and lesson of the story. Also, this anime has a habit of throwing in a lot of seemingly random, unnecessary and apparently useless stuff. These unique storytelling techniques include a frequent showing of a couple sentences of text shown in a black background and a very annoying but hardly forgettable countdown sequence of a full minute. In my opinion, these things add to greatness of the show, but I know for certain that others find them annoying, random, and above all, meaningless. If you don’t think you can handle these things that require you actually do your own thinking, I suggest you look elsewhere for your romantic dramas. Otherwise, try the first episode to get a feel of what I am talking about and if, at the very least, you are not bothered by them, continue on, and I’m sure you’ll at least be able to enjoy the art, music, and drama of ef ~ A Tale of Memories.
Overall [9/10] I rarely give out 9’s or 10’s, but this anime was fantastic. The best parts would have to be the careful telling of the somewhat hidden themes of the anime. It is truly an anime that teaches life lessons in a most amazing and thoughtful way. If there was one reason why it did not earn a 10 it would have to be because of the ridiculous amount of plot holes. Why do Chihiro and Kei never meet, despite being in the same city? Who is this Yuuko who appears to be some kind of angelic character who gives advice to nearly all the characters? What is the relationship between Himura and Yuuko? Luckily, all these questions and more are answered in the sequel, a tale of melodies.
