For a while I desired to see a good dramatic anime. Ever since I finished Kanon, Clannad and 5 Centimeters Per Second, other dramatic animes didn't affect me as much. That is until I stumbled upon "ef", a tale of memories indeed. From the Synopsis I had thought it was going to be one simple arc between one boy and other women connected with him; A harem as everyone says. I believe that ef is one of the most heart felt animes there is, especially in Chihiro's arc.
Story: At first I was rather confused about who the main character was, watching on I finally understood what was going on. The story itself is quite magical in its own sense. It makes you ask yourself: "Would I do that for that person?" and the consequences for either decision would be grave and painful. In short, the story is just so moving, amazing and well thought out.
Art: It was ef’s art that attracted me to the anime first. It looked cute yet given a sense of mystery. I can say with confidence that the art in this anime is absolutely breath taking. The scenery and the types of animation used were simply stupendous. It makes this one of the most unique animes every created. This was a big influence as to why watching one part makes everything so magical, beautiful landscape and abstract and the next part it intentionally makes you shiver in fear as to what’s going on in the plot. This section was a necessity to create such an amazing anime. It widens your eyes and with its beauty, it paints its canvas into your soul and so shall it remain.
Sound: The opening songs and ending songs were one of the many highlights to this anime. This must be the 60th time I’ve listened to the intro song because it’s such a nice song. Most of the music played within the anime as well was breath taking. With violins and pianos playing, there’s no way one cannot feel emotions for most of the scenes. I’m a big fan of violins and piano so maybe that’s just bias on my part, either way. The music is just wonderful and I’m going to listen to this song again another billion times.
Character: The characters touched my soul, especially one of the main heroines, Chihiro. I also found Renji to be a great character as well, I like his personality. Most of the characters have their own traits and that's what makes this anime so great. From one point you see something funny from a character, and the next point you couldn't believe what they were doing, but that's life. That's reality. On other parts you ask yourself if you would be strong enough to live through the events to come if you realized you lost something that defines you as you, the main thing that makes you unique. Obviously I can't reveal it due to spoilers but this anime makes you think a lot if it happened for real.
Enjoyment: Of course if you read my review you should know what I think about this anime. In short, I loved it. One of the greatest animes made in my personal opinion. If you're looking for a good dramatic anime, this one is good for it. Even though I wrote this review, even words cannot fully express the strong sense of feelings I felt towards this anime. I know it seems like I'm treating this anime like a god but still.. I loved it.
Overall: Perfect 10. Sure in reality there were maybe a few odd points, but in the majority it was simply brilliant. I'm so watching it again later. I hope you all enjoy it too as much as I did.
