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(All episodes watched): Of all the new fall series I was curious about, this was the last one I actually viewed. I knew nothing about it, and feared that a "tale of memories" (and an "ef", whatever that is), might be something weird or disturbing. In fact, ef-atom has turned out to be a really neat and classy show, with intelligent dialogue (and lots of it), an interesting avant-garde approach to colors and artwork, philosophical discussions (but not overdoing it), and fun OP and ED songs. In fact, ef-atom is so good that I'm tempted to say that such a show would never get made over here because few Americans would be interested in such a deep and sophisticated work of art (which may not be fair, but also offers one reason why I like anime). There is a "prologue" (a longer than usual promo), which suggested that this would be a more serious than average school romance. But when I finally watched the opening episode, I was pleasantly surprised. Background colors are strikingly rich, especially sunset scenes. I don't know if the show was supposed to be, but it is kinda funny! A sublime, witty humor which I especially appreciate. Perhaps best of all, the dialogue is clever and the characters have become correspondingly likeable and interesting. It seems that two couples have formed, and I'm eager to see where things will go from here. Indeed, this may well be my favorite romance series of the Fall 2007 season. I'm having a hard time keeping complete track of the plot, because I'm watching four or five school romance series concurrently, but episode four was genuinely moving and almost made me cry at one point. Whereas many series are only modestly entertaining and I'm not unhappy to see an episode end, I was quite sorry to see this one go. As I watched episode ten it dawned on me that ef-atom was only going to be a 11-13 episode series (12, to be exact). The Hirono/Miyako/Kei love triangle seemed to be resolved, but I was left confused; which girl, if any, will Hirono wind up with? He seems to both breakup and makeup with both. Either I am dim, or the two girls weren't distinctive enough for me to keep track of which was which. There were two more episodes to go, so I figured that maybe the resolution would be made more clear. Anyway, I always found the Renji/Chihiro tale to be far more interesting, no doubt due to the strange twist of Chihiro's unique type of memory loss. This seems to reach an unexpected conclusion--I wasn't sure whether to be sad, or scratch my head, accept it, or what--except once again, there's still an episode on the way. One thing I haven't a clue about is who that woman in a fur cap who shows up occasionally is. The final episode offers a more pleasing conclusion to both plotlines; the Renji/Chihiro one was first-rate, The Hirono/Miyako/Kei one was average. Still, ef-atom was a neat show, being avant-garde but not overdoing it; that is, the unusual artwork and animation "tricks" are interesting and pleasing without confusing me or distracting me from the main plot. Anyone up for a little "artistic" anime romance? Try ef. The artistic, avant-garde approach and the unusual premise of one of the storylines were well done and result in a pleasingly unusual anime romance Last updated Saturday, January 05 2008. | ||||||||
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Analysis : All Fansubs Watched
Ef, 2 tales rolled up into one. One is about Hiro and Miyako, a strange girl he meets on the way to school, and Kei, his childhood friend. The other is about Renji, a guy who is hasn't decided on his future, and Chihirio, Kei's sister who just happens to forget each day. What did I walk into? A love triangle meets 50 first dates? It does turn out that Chihiro and Renji are the stars of the show and Hiro's story was just added in. It was very good and SHAFT has out did itself in the beautiful looks and scenery. I was a bit mad that they start with Hiro but he isn't the main storyline. He's #2 (And there is a very loose #3 going on). Miyako is WAY cuter than Chihiro but Chihiro's story is sadder. It's a good story though and it got a Rent from me. Last updated Thursday, December 27 2007. | ||||||||
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| Unevaluated | Devil Doll | # | ||||||
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[1 episode watched]
Three interesting series at once? This seems to be a nice fall season. While I'm a bit confused about what's going on (but believe to have some idea why this lonely girl in the train station "needs her notebook to survive") and who is who, I got hooked by the Animation of this series already (which is quite rare in my case). The subtle things they're doing, like using written text or even negative cuts of the characters within the scene, combined with 3D elements such as the front wheel of that bicycle, excite me - they give a distinct touch to this anime. More when I've seen more. Last updated Tuesday, October 23 2007. | ||||||||
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Other Sites
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| Japanese (Language) Series Web Site | http://www.ef-memo.com/ |
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