Ef - A Tale of Memories
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 11:20 amBurned through this short series (13 eps) and I have to say its another very well done show.
I'm not going to go over to much plot/characters because after reading many reviews there is nothing I can add. It seems that this series is quite well received. Although I do disagree when reviewers say 'for similar anime watch klannad'... no. Just no. Klannad is a big mess of magic orb time traveling bullshit with characters that can literally be forgotten about (I'm looking at you klannad season one).
I do have two nits to pick.. the openings were 1 minute recaps followed by a 3 minute opening and the end credits are like 4 minutes and when I watched it on crunchyroll the ads were rage inducing... I will never buy a car based on a web advert. So fuck you Nissan.
My personal favorites were the arc concerning Renji Aso and Chihiro Shindo. Due to a car accident Chihiro has a type of amnesia that limits here new memory retention to 13 hours. So she has a diary to remind herself of events that happen as the rolling 13 hour window goes on. She falls ill and sleeps over the 13 hour window, effectively erasing all new memories and reverting her mind back 4 years (yes, Adam shitbag Sandler made a movie *JUST* like this... 50 first dates). So you get to experience what Chihiro's 'reset' would be like and when given the opportunity to simply disappear, Renji stay with her. Pretty good stuff... dude gets mad props for sticking by his girl. I think it was a very good thing that they included this part of Chihiro's character.
The second parallel arc is about Hiro Hirono, Miyako Miyamura, and Kei Shindo's story... while well done, it didn't standup to the story of Renji and Chihiro's. It was a pretty much straight up drama.
One good thing about the character development is that BOTH Renji and Hiro get laid. This is when Hiro's life really get complicated (Kei walks in on Hiro and Mikako sleeping in bed) so yeah... that's a shitstorm and set up the final 'showdown' of who Hiro stays with. Renji's plot is not complicated per se.. but it does start the arc of Chihiro wanting to make a clean break (aka let the memories of Renji 'roll off' the 13 hour period) where she throws away the part of her diary where she reminds herself daily of her relationship with him. That, to me, was THE best 15 minutes of the series.
The ending was superb. Save ONE point. The imagery of Chihiro being chained to the face of a clock (representing her world is finite) is used many times in the series to represent that exact point. Yet at the end when Renji says 'fuck it' and decides to stay by her, they show the chains being broken and Chihiro having a visible reaction to his being with her... yet in reality nothing has changed.. her amnesia is still in place and the 13 hour window is still in effect. So while its a great metaphor, in the reality of the anime the breaking chains meant nothing. Now if she was magically cured, or could at least remember him past the 13 hours then that would have been the satisfying cherry on top of their relationship.
Watch this series. Fuck klannad.
Time to play fuck, marry, kill (left to right)
Chihiro Shindo: fuck. You could wreck her and 13 hours later its like nothing happened.
Kei Shindo: marry. Chick has talent and is all around the least unstable female of the series.
Miyako Miyamura: kill. Needy bitch is needy.
I'm not going to go over to much plot/characters because after reading many reviews there is nothing I can add. It seems that this series is quite well received. Although I do disagree when reviewers say 'for similar anime watch klannad'... no. Just no. Klannad is a big mess of magic orb time traveling bullshit with characters that can literally be forgotten about (I'm looking at you klannad season one).
I do have two nits to pick.. the openings were 1 minute recaps followed by a 3 minute opening and the end credits are like 4 minutes and when I watched it on crunchyroll the ads were rage inducing... I will never buy a car based on a web advert. So fuck you Nissan.
My personal favorites were the arc concerning Renji Aso and Chihiro Shindo. Due to a car accident Chihiro has a type of amnesia that limits here new memory retention to 13 hours. So she has a diary to remind herself of events that happen as the rolling 13 hour window goes on. She falls ill and sleeps over the 13 hour window, effectively erasing all new memories and reverting her mind back 4 years (yes, Adam shitbag Sandler made a movie *JUST* like this... 50 first dates). So you get to experience what Chihiro's 'reset' would be like and when given the opportunity to simply disappear, Renji stay with her. Pretty good stuff... dude gets mad props for sticking by his girl. I think it was a very good thing that they included this part of Chihiro's character.
The second parallel arc is about Hiro Hirono, Miyako Miyamura, and Kei Shindo's story... while well done, it didn't standup to the story of Renji and Chihiro's. It was a pretty much straight up drama.
One good thing about the character development is that BOTH Renji and Hiro get laid. This is when Hiro's life really get complicated (Kei walks in on Hiro and Mikako sleeping in bed) so yeah... that's a shitstorm and set up the final 'showdown' of who Hiro stays with. Renji's plot is not complicated per se.. but it does start the arc of Chihiro wanting to make a clean break (aka let the memories of Renji 'roll off' the 13 hour period) where she throws away the part of her diary where she reminds herself daily of her relationship with him. That, to me, was THE best 15 minutes of the series.
The ending was superb. Save ONE point. The imagery of Chihiro being chained to the face of a clock (representing her world is finite) is used many times in the series to represent that exact point. Yet at the end when Renji says 'fuck it' and decides to stay by her, they show the chains being broken and Chihiro having a visible reaction to his being with her... yet in reality nothing has changed.. her amnesia is still in place and the 13 hour window is still in effect. So while its a great metaphor, in the reality of the anime the breaking chains meant nothing. Now if she was magically cured, or could at least remember him past the 13 hours then that would have been the satisfying cherry on top of their relationship.
Watch this series. Fuck klannad.
Time to play fuck, marry, kill (left to right)
Chihiro Shindo: fuck. You could wreck her and 13 hours later its like nothing happened.
Kei Shindo: marry. Chick has talent and is all around the least unstable female of the series.
Miyako Miyamura: kill. Needy bitch is needy.
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