Thursday, February 17, 2011
"Do you have memories you don't want to forget?" (Ef: A Tale of Memories)
I had quite a hard time finding a fitting romance anime series I could review this month since I've already reviewed most (perhaps the best)of the very few romance anime I have (Toradora, 5 Centimeters per Second etc.) and the rest I have with me borders more heavily on a different genre, drama mostly. (recently, I've learned to enjoy drawing out my emotions on good mixes of hearty comedy and tearful melodrama) So then I settled on this anime adaptation of the two-part visual novel Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two, which in this review, its first installment of the similarly two-part anime series, Ef: A Tale of Memories.
The story starts off as Hirono Hiro, a high school student and an aspiring manga artist, fails to attend his childhood friend: Shindou Kei's Christmas party as his bike got stolen by a girl who was chasing a purse-snatcher, Miyamura Miyako whom he later found collapsed on the street. Feeling responsible he ends up hanging out the entire night with Miyako without minding he stood up Kei who has deep feelings for him that she has kept hidden for a long time. Meanwhile, Asou Renji, another high schooler walks to his usual relaxing spot, an abandoned train station. He is surprised to find another person on the station's benches, a mysterious girl, Shindou Chihiro, Kei's twin sister. Caught off-guard, he goes into an awkward state and leaves immediately after saying a few words to Chihiro. The next day, he finds her again on the benches but oddly enough, Chihiro asked him a strange question, like she was unable to recall yesterday's events. Ef: A Tale of Memories follows the story of these teenagers as they experience and grow through the hardships of romantic relationships.
Zealous yet indecisive, Hirono Hiro chooses to juggle both his studies and work as a manga artist at the same time. Ultimately he has to choose for his future: continue with his studies to secure his future or pursue his passion, his childhood friend who cares for his future and his well-being or the new girl who supports his work and needs him more than anybody else.
Shindou Kei is our story's "Osananajimi" character archetype. Being a childhood friend to Hiro, eventually she developed strong feelings for him yet unfortunately, she is unable to tell him how she feels. Although her ending is quite predictable for most seasoned viewers of anime (especially of the harem genre), it still is interesting to see how she stirs up drama as she competes with Miyako, desperately trying to "erase" her from Hiro's heart.
Kei spends a lot of time around her "onii-san", Hiro. She even has the liberty to barge in his apartment to wake him up for school. Despite their closeness and Kei's eager attempts to show her feelings and how much she cares for his future, Hiro only sees her as a younger sister.
The lively Miyamura Miyako. Despite her bubbly and playful nature, she hides deep sadness and loneliness ever since her parents have separated and given her the feeling that she has been "erased" from everyone's hearts. She finds comfort in the company of Hiro and wishes him to stay by her side always.
Hiro found Miyako collapsed on the street shortly after stealing his bike trying to pursue a purse-snatcher. Hiro was about to call for medical assistance after seeing his bike thief unconscious until suddenly she woke up like nothing happened. Feeling concerned and responsible for Miyako, Hiro allowed himself to get dragged around and quickly Miyako's lively and outgoing nature made Hiro spend what she called a "romantic Christmas eve" with her until morning.
Hiro and Miyako later found out they were classmates and that they haven't seen each other since they both enjoy skipping school. Miyako also supports Hiro's passion after finding out he was a budding manga artist. She even cooks for Hiro and goes out with him often in order for her to keep him by his side always. Eventually, they became lovers much to Kei's disappointment and Hiro's confusion, finding out his "sister" has feelings for him and that he had to choose between the two of them.
Hiro's bestfriend, Tsutsumi Kyosuke. He has a strong passion in filming and is an active member of their school's film club. On Christmas eve, he instantly took an interest on a running Kei (although he didn't know it was Kei at that time) and tried to take shots of her but was instantly blocked by a truck that passed by. The thought of the girl lingered in his mind so much that he quit the film club and broke up with his girlfriend. After finding out who Kei was, he instantly asked her to become the main lead to a movie he was making. Kei agrees and ends up with him following her around filming her every emotion with his camera. Eventually, he fell in love with Kei.
Asou Renji, is also a high-schooler who has troubles choosing his career path after graduating. He often stays in an abandoned train station to ease his mind on its peaceful tracks. One day, he was surprised to find another person sitting on the station's benches since he is the only person that comes and goes there.
Shindou Chihiro, Kei's younger twin sister, unknowingly surprised Asou Renji as they met on the abandoned train station which Renji frequents resulting in a quick and awkward first meeting. The following day, Chihiro and Renji met again on the station but this time Chihiro asked him a strange question if they've met before, like she can't recall yesterday's events. This takes Renji's interest in the shy and mysterious eye-patched girl that suddenly popped out of his secret hideaway.
Even in the following days that Renji and Chihiro met, she always asked him if he was Renji from yesterday. Later on, Renji learned that she has a memory defect caused by an accident four years ago that also gave her that eye patch, that her memory lasts no longer than thirteen hours and that she gradually loses an hour's worth of memory every hour after that. Therefore, she makes up for it by religiously writing down her memories for a day on a diary that she reads every morning for her to keep track of yesterday. Renji, who fell in love with her eventually had to face the consequences of her illness. But Chihiro wants him not to since she doesn't want to be a burden to others. Things take a turn for the worst when one day Chihiro, stressed out from keeping track of her days with Renji, passes out for an entire day and loses 24 hours worth of memories and wakes up confused with only her memory of when she was 12 years old. Seeing this, Renji begins to question himself if he can still continue with his relationship with the girl tied down to 12 years and thirteen hours worth of memories.
A mysterious recurring character in the series is Amamiya Yuuko. She appears around Otowa (the story's setting) most of the time inside a Church. Whenever a character in the story contemplates on their problems she appears to them, giving advice and suddenly disappears. It is revealed later that she has ties with Chihiro's guardian, Himura but their story isn't revealed yet in this series. (in the second installment I believe.)
The first thing that really caught my eye while watching previews of this show is the unorthodox style and visual elements used in this series which is very prevalent when portraying character emotions or drawing out emotions on scenes. Shin Oonuma, who directed the series, used certain art styles like unnatural lighting, flat-colored images, scenes in black and white, split screens, strange camera angles and alternating shots. In my own opinion, the art style is superb and definitely accomplished its goal of portraying emotions in different scenes (especially with one certain scene that was really intense) and the character designs and backgrounds were very well drawn. Although, It appealed as a win to me, I believe it may not appeal to some, especially to those who are more used to and prefers the traditional animation style, and might get turned off by the first few episodes.
This is one of my most favorite parts of the series. What looks like a bunch of crawling japanese characters and a small watermarked silhouette of Miyako is actually a gradual buildup of emotional intensity portrayed, in my opinion, in the most unusual yet effective of ways.
The thing that excited me the most was the competition that went on between Kei and Miyako. Although I was expecting them to begin pulling at each other's hair, the execution on each one's emotional outbursts (especially with Miyako's) were better. Also I loved the way Chihiro's character was created. It was very different from the clichéd "girl with amnesia" since 50 First Dates and other similar romance stories. All in all, everything was very good, save for some scenes where the characters movements were animated rather awkwardly (especially with Renji). Definitely one of the best romance/drama series you'd ever hope to find.
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