Ef: A Tale of Memories. (2007) User Reviews

It was ok but it didn't make me cry

[Irishchatter · 7/10 · 3 July 2018]

I have to say, this anime didn't make me cry at all. Although it was sad that one of the characters did have a type of amnesia and that her memory only lasted for 13 hours, however I just felt it didn't click with me to cry. I may have a dark heart to those who did cry with this anime, I swear to you I did cry with Classroom Assassination, Clannad After Story and Who's left behind?. I'm not 100% dark as you may think folks haha!

To end this on a few good notes, the characters were likeable and I like the way it discussed the topic of opening your mind on what career path you want to take in the future. I mean I'm clearly in my mid 20s and I still don't have a clue on what career choice I would have to survive on lol!

The storyline could've been more better by only just concentrating on only Renji and Chihiro together. This is mainly the reason why I'm giving this a 7/10 rating!

Beautiful but not enthralling story

[zeionara · 7/10 · 28 January 2019]

I've not very liked this series, because despite it is beatifully and unusually done in visual part, the plot is enough weird and definitely could be thought more well.

There are six different persons with their lives, but they are, on the one hand, have not been enough described and on the other, key ideas in the bases of these stories sound unclear, too irrealistic and as a result do not allow to fully understand and empathize to them.

The only story which is worth watching is the part concerning Chihiro - this one is the most beautiful among others which are much more strange and uninteresting.

As far as I can see, it would be better if either we before watching this were told about events, which are necessary to understand what is happening in this series (as I know, these events have been shown in the second season) either autors would have compressed everything to put it in one season. This could not be able to save the story, but it could make it a few better.

I cried.

[kristofthegreat · 10/10 · 27 August 2013]

I have watched a lot of anime and read a lot of manga. I am a 17 year old male and this series actually made me cry. No other form of media has every evoked as much emotion as watching Ef: A tale of Memories.

I had to watch the whole thing in one sitting and it left me completely and utterly destroyed emotionally. I actually cried for the entire last episode and became very dehydrated.

I'm not usually that in to the romance genre but this seriously almost killed me. If you have half a heart it will have the same effect on you. I would recommend it to almost anyone as it just punches you right in the feelings.I give it a solid 10/10

Two bittersweet loves stories

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 11 April 2014]

This anime follows two different couples. One involves high school student and professional manga artist Hiro Hirono who befriends and later gets close to Miyako Miyamura; a girl who seeks his love and fears being abandoned or forgotten. Their relationship is imperilled by Hiro's long-time friend Kei who fears Miyoko will take away her friend and she is determined to put an end to it. The second, interwoven story involves Renji Asou; one day he visits an abandoned railway station and meets Chihiro. Again a friendship develops despite Chiriro suffering from an unusual condition. After an accident when she was twelve her short term memory was damaged; she can recall events before the accident but recent memories only last thirteen hours. She copes by keeping a diary and 'extending' important memories by thinking of them just before she goes to sleep. Even knowing these problems Renji is determined to make their relationship work; it won't be easy though.

This series is distinctly bittersweet and the viewer is sure to grow to care for the characters in a way that makes some scenes emotionally difficult. The characters are interesting and even though memory loss is one of the most over used clichés in anime I don't think I've seen it used this way before… normally it is somebody tried to discover who they were rather than desperately trying to hang on to who they are. Both stories are fairly emotional and the creative way the story is animated only adds to this. The animation is quite beautiful and uses several tricks that couldn't work if it were live action; some may feel these devices are over used but I really though they added to the series. Overall I'd definitely recommend this to anybody looking for something emotional and different… I feel it will have great re-watch value too.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.