(L) ef - a tale of memories.

[suguru]

Originally Posted by toxic_trance

Hmm..I really dont know whether I was pissed or happy at the end of watchin the second episode. I think Ef has a vvery interesting plot going on..and I really want to follow this series..But SHAFT themselves are screwin it up. No doubt that their animation is pretty high quality..but their presentation is pretty painful. THe amount of effects they put was actually really irritatiing..and u never even get to look at the characters decently.

How do I put it..SHAFT knows how to get attention..but dont know how to maintain it. This style of presentation was fine with Negima!? or Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. But they really need to approach another way of presenting Ef. This is a romance drama..and I frankly wanna get a good look at the characters. The only reason I m sticking to this series is because the plot seems nice...but i dont know how long that will keep me hooked on to this since the presentation gives me a headache

After watching ep 2 I feel the same way...I've liked a lot of SHAFT's other work, but the constant cutting from shot to shot, the 100-yards-away from whoever's talking perspective, and not being able to see the facial expression of the person talking 90% of the time is getting in the way of the story rather than telling it. It's a unique style, sure, but maybe I've seen enough of it now that I'm past initially being impressed by the uniqueness and now the cynic in me is counting all the frames they're saving by cutting actual animation to a minimum. The plot definitely has me hooked, I just wish the direction was a little less frenetic...

[Deathkillz]

True i think they are tying too hard to "stand out"...I would actually preferred it if they used the seemingly "normal" style they used to make "nekomimimodo" but here you have it - must take what you can get

Other than that i still think the story can be class A material. If only SHAFT doesnt decide to "negima-tize?!" it ;____;

[Messerschmitt_Bf-109]

What the....this is definantly an odd one. I am confused. Is there like two main guys and girls?

The trains atation guy, eye patch girl with memory loss(50 First Dates anyone?), the church guy, and bike stealer? Are they four different people or am I missing something?

[holyman282]

Yeah I'm a bit confused with the story as well.... It seems like the writers are trying to squeeze in several romantic encounters each with a different couple into this anime... So far I'm having trouble seeing how they are going to connect it all together, or perhaps they won't even try...

Considering how many ep there are, I can't see them going into each of their relationships in detail.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Messerschmitt_Bf-109

What the....this is definantly an odd one. I am confused. Is there like two main guys and girls?

The trains atation guy, eye patch girl with memory loss(50 First Dates anyone?), the church guy, and bike stealer? Are they four different people or am I missing something?

There are 8 important characters, 4 guys and 4 girls, and you get introduced to all of them in the first episode. You can see them all on the official homepage. To line them up with your descriptions:

- The mangaka (Hiro)
- His sporty "sister" (Kei)
- The "bike stealer" (Miyako)
- The womenizing filmmaker (Kyosuke)
- The "eyepath girl" (Chihiro)
- The guy who likes her (Renji)
- The guy and girl at the church (Yu and Yuko)

All of the characters and their stories are seperate, but connected to each other through various factors (Kei and Chihiro are twin sisters, Kei and Miyako have a common love interest, Hiro and Kyosuke know each other, etc.) In the anime, all these stories are happening in parallel, so you need to keep track of them all to understand the whole story.

[holyman282]

wait Kei is Hiro's sister? I thought she was his childhood friend.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by holyman282

wait Kei is Hiro's sister? I thought she was his childhood friend.

Yeah, that's why I put "sister" in quotes -- she calls him "onii-chan", but they're not related.

[Messerschmitt_Bf-109]

And she likes him? So there is a love triangle going? Betwen Kei and Miyako?

[MagicaLideaL]

Yup , it's a triangle love between Hiro , Kei and Miyako

You knew it after you watched the prologue

[toxic_trance]

The point is..why does Kei need to call him Onii-chan. Is it only for the sake of putting he imouto character??? She doesnt even seem to be a neighbor. Neway..hope they explain that part well, because it feels weird that any girl u knew for long will call u Onii-chan just for the hech of it.

The other strange thing was between Chihiro and Renji..if this is a Romance couple..why the f**k do they see each other as brother and a sister.

I have seen other romance shows like Da Capo and Gift..even that had the girl calling Nii-san paired with the guy..but i felt that they gave a good explanation..which actually made me like these shows. But this one seems pretty forced...and I really hope they give a good reason..

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by toxic_trance

The point is..why does Kei need to call him Onii-chan. Is it only for the sake of putting he imouto character??? She doesnt even seem to be a neighbor. Neway..hope they explain that part well, because it feels weird that any girl u knew for long will call u Onii-chan just for the hech of it.

The other strange thing was between Chihiro and Renji..if this is a Romance couple..why the f**k do they see each other as brother and a sister.

I have seen other romance shows like Da Capo and Gift..even that had the girl calling Nii-san paired with the guy..but i felt that they gave a good explanation..which actually made me like these shows. But this one seems pretty forced...and I really hope they give a good reason..

Well, I think you might need to think outside the box a little bit in terms of what it means to consider someone a "brother" or a "sister" in a Japanese context. It's not necessarily the strict definition you're adhering to.

I don't know the "in-story" explanation for Kei yet (I assume they'll go on to tell us), but she's obviously some sort of close family friend or distant relative or something -- notice she has a key to his place. They probably grew up together, and it wouldn't be that unusual for kids who basically grew up together to call each other "brother" and "sister" as kids. He finds it embarrassing now (which is why he tells her to stop calling him that), but it's become something of a term of affection for her. There's nothing particularly weird about it; it means more than the strict definition of "sibling".

In terms of Chihiro and Renji, I also didn't find anything weird about their statement. At this point, they're just getting to know each other, and are trying to define what they are to each other. They start as friends, but are clearly more than that to each other. At this point, though, it's too soon for them to consider each other lovers -- they're still getting to know each other. Renji wants to assure her that he doesn't want to be with her out of sympathy (he's trying to establish trust), so Chihiro suggests that maybe they're like siblings -- closer than just friends -- and he goes along with it. That doesn't necessarily mean that, as they get to know each other more, they might realize that they connection they feel to each other is not as siblings, but something more... but it's too early for them to admit that to each other, I think. Not to mention, this was a sign of trust -- she felt close enough to him to tell him her secret. So I don't think there was anything weird about the "sibling" comment; it's just a way of explaining the connection they feel to each other at this early stage. Can they take it to the next stage, though, is the question...

[holyman282]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

In terms of Chihiro and Renji, I also didn't find anything weird about their statement. At this point, they're just getting to know each other, and are trying to define what they are to each other. They start as friends, but are clearly more than that to each other. At this point, though, it's too soon for them to consider each other lovers -- they're still getting to know each other. Renji wants to assure her that he doesn't want to be with her out of sympathy (he's trying to establish trust), so Chihiro suggests that maybe they're like siblings -- closer than just friends -- and he goes along with it. That doesn't necessarily mean that, as they get to know each other more, they might realize that they connection they feel to each other is not as siblings, but something more... but it's too early for them to admit that to each other, I think. Not to mention, this was a sign of trust -- she felt close enough to him to tell him her secret. So I don't think there was anything weird about the "sibling" comment; it's just a way of explaining the connection they feel to each other at this early stage. Can they take it to the next stage, though, is the question...

In other words, they do have feelings for each other, it's just that they're too inexperienced in romance to realise that it's love... They try to answer this inexplicable attraction towards each other, as that of siblings in an attempt to justify why they are having these feelings towards each other...

Ahh to be young and naeive........ The spring of youth!

[guuchan]

And you would think people who have watched a certain amount of anime should have gotten used to the term "onii-chan" by now.

Anyway, apart from being a childhood friend of Hiro, if I remember correctly, Kei is also Hiro's landlord's granddaughter.

Originally Posted by Messerschmitt_Bf-109

And she likes him? So there is a love triangle going? Betwen Kei and Miyako?

Spoiler:

It's not exactly a triangle relationship, more like a one-way love. And it won't last too much longer (from the point of view of the current time period in the anime), even though it lasted long enough already.

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Yeah, that's why I put "sister" in quotes -- she calls him "onii-chan", but they're not related.

Huhuhu, well...

Spoiler below from the manga:

Spoiler for while the "triangle" is resolving:

Kei calls Hiro-Hiro "Hirono-senpai" after confessing. Either way, guess who wins...

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Spoiler for while the "triangle" is resolving:

Kei calls Hiro-Hiro "Hirono-senpai" after confessing. Either way, guess who wins...

She calls him "Hirono-senpai" in the second episode too (after teasing him with "Hirono-sensei" )

Spoiler for related to manga spoiler above:

...it makes sense, though, why he would prefer that form of address if he doesn't have feelings for her...

[shouri]

Loved the first two episodes so far, the animation is also beautiful.

Made a Miyako sig out of boredom

[MagicaLideaL]

Something wrong with the colour inside for some scene..

[FlareKnight]

Can certainly understand Renji and Chihiro right now. It is early and are trying to figure everything out. No doubt it will develop into a lot more than that down the road. Though the immediate issue is how things go now that Renji knows about Chihiro's memory problem.

Also wonder how extensive the memory loss is. Clearly things like speech, reading, and writing are still there. Maybe the loss begins at a certain point in her life and everything after that gets lost which would explain why Renji got the feeling she was younger than him.

[Shiroth]

For anyone who's interested, here's a site that has the complete text from the OP: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/dis60966/mobile?date=20071017

I like that some of the text from this has appeared in the eyecatches that we've seen so far, really beautiful material.

Also i just watched the first episode, though my Japanaese knowledge isn't enough for this one --- so from now on i'll just view raw's for the outstanding visuals and SHAFT style, which are more <3 in this episode.

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for ep3:

First half of the episode is on Chihiro and Renji, second half on the other people. Also, the first episode to have an opening and ending.

Compared to Hiro/Miyako/Kei, Renji/Chihiro's parts feel so heavy and dark...
Well, a great episode, in any case.

A lot is explained about Chihiro's life. The rules in her diary, her thoughts on her "worthless" life, as well as why she has the condition, which is because she had an accident 4 years ago and lost an eye as well.

Kyosuke and the green-haired girl break up, though it came from her, which I didn't expect. Kyosuke wants to take a dream...

Quite a bit happens with Hiro/Miyako/Kei as well. Miyako and Hiro skip school together only to be seen by Mizuki. Then Kei gets mad at Hiro because the idiot reveals why he wasn't at the party on Christmas and because there are bad rumors flying around about Miyako. Mizuki told Kei about Hiro skipping school with Miyako...
And Miyako was pretty annoyed that Hiro didn't remember her name......