Review for ef ~ a tale of memories Collection

Introduction

We may have Clannad to thank for this. When you think of the UK anime scene, it tends to bias towards the mainstream, understandably so given the size of the audience. Sci-fi action abounds, as do giant robots, vampires, harem comedies, and all the various permutations that sell to the broadest anime audiences. Till quite recently, it wasn’t often that companies took a chance on something outside of the ordinary, something that would appeal to more of a niche. The last couple of years have seen companies trying a few different things though, to try and keep the UK scene vibrant and new, and we are beginning to get genres that we had never previously seen in the UK. One such genre that has massive play in Japan, and has translated quite well to the US is the tragicomic romance, and especially those based on visual novels, the restrictive video games that guide players through stories. Key Visual anime are strong proponents of the genre, and last year Manga Entertainment brought Clannad, and its sequel After Story to the UK, shows which resonated with quite a few fans. This year it’s MVM’s turn to dip their toes into the genre, as they bring ef ~ a tale of memories to the UK. They’ll also be releasing its sequel, ef ~ a tale of melodies in due course, so we’ll have two courses of romance that is both heart-warming and heartbreaking.


Actually there’s more than one romance occurring in ef ~ a tale of memories, and the show has two or three tales that are intertwined in its narrative. At heart the couple whose story is most appropriate given the show’s title is Renji and Chihiro. Renji likes the solitude of an abandoned railway station to read, but one day he runs into a girl with an eye patch named Chihiro there. They get to talking and hit it off, and even agree to meet there again. But the next day it’s as if Chihiro has no idea who Renji is. The reality is that Chihiro survived an accident a few years previously that left her with short term memory loss. She can’t remember anything past 13 hours, and in essence every time she meets Renji, it’s for the first time. Despite all this, she has an ambition to become a novelist, and when Renji hears this, he offers to help.


Hiro is not much of a high school student, but he can be forgiven given that he already has a career. His absences and tardiness are down to his work as a mangaka, and making deadlines is of more importance than making the grade. Chihiro’s twin sister Kei doesn’t agree, and she’s always acting like the mother hen, making sure he wakes up on time, and attends school. One day, Hiro’s bicycle is stolen by a girl who’s chasing a purse thief on a motorbike in turn. It’s an unconventional meeting, but encountering Miyako changes Hiro’s life. It also makes Kei re-evaluate just what she feels for Hiro.


Kyosuke is a would-be filmmaker who has a reputation as something of a playboy, and who is never without his video camera. But the school film club is too confining for his vision, and he’s on the lookout for a muse to truly inspire him. When one day he catches a glimpse of Kei in his viewfinder, he has the star of his next movie, but he may have picked the wrong leading lady.


Twelve episodes of ef ~ a tale of memories are presented across two discs from MVM.

Disc 1
1. eve
2. upon a time
3. paradox
4. honesty
5. outline
6. rain

Disc 2
7. I...
8. clear colour
9. forget me not
10. I’m here
11. ever forever
12. love

Picture

ef ~ a tale of memories gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer on these discs. The image is clear and sharp throughout, and the native PAL playback is smooth and unmarred by standards conversion artefacts and the like. The image is also free of visible compression and any significant aliasing. All in all it’s a very pleasant anime transfer, and the only issue you might have is when the image is up-scaled to a decent sized HD panel, where a smidge of edge-enhancement becomes apparent.


It’s a Studio SHAFT presentation, but in some ways it’s a curiously subdued one from them. It’s an animation that, while it is as varied and imaginative as the usual SHAFT creation, with all manner of animation styles, visual gimmicks and odd camera angles, at no point is this ever allowed to overwhelm the narrative or the emotional life of the characters. I suppose that the characters are somewhat conventional in design ethic probably contributes, but when you get two characters in a scene just talking together, that’s what you see. No sudden cutaways to ants marching across a snow-cone, or pages of text taking the place of an image. It’s certainly not as mind-blowing as Bakemonogatari, which in a romantic anime is probably a good thing.

Sound

You have the choice between DD 2.0 Stereo English and Japanese, with optional translated subtitles and a signs only track. I went with the original language track and was happy enough with that. The dialogue is clear throughout, and the music and sound design comes across well. I tried the dub long enough to confirm that it exists, but not long enough to form an opinion either way.


The subtitles are accurately timed and mostly free of error. There are one or two rare typos in the subtitles, which normally wouldn’t be so bad, but this time they have somehow contrived to be glaring errors that actually change the meaning of sentences. It’s like the irrational annoyance that can result at an escaped grocer’s apostrophe.

Extras

Both discs present their content with animated menus, but the only extra features are on the second disc.

You get the textless opening credit sequence to episode 1 listed under one link, and obviously this is 90 seconds or so in length.

You get several textless closings in a show-reel lasting 9 minutes, however hidden amongst them is the second, and main textless opening sequence. Otherwise there are five textless endings.


Trailers on this disc comprise Dream Eater Merry, and Bodacious Space Pirates, which are available from MVM, Arakawa Under the Bridge, which is coming from MVM later this year, and Toradora!, Alien 9, and .hack//G.U. Trilogy, none of which have UK licenses at this point.

Each episode is followed by a silent, white text on black background, translated English credit scroll.

Conclusion

We have another supernatural tragicomic romance in the UK and it’s a pretty good one. Actually, in terms of what it attempts to do, I actually prefer it to the Key Visual anime such as Clannad and Kanon, although when it comes down to it, I like the latter more. The Key Visual adaptations played up the comedy more, went to town with the supernatural, and really delivered on those stereotypes and clichés that appeal to the mainstream anime fan demographic. ef ~ a tale of memories doesn’t do this. It actually is a show that focuses on romance and relationships. It doesn’t really deal in the character clichés that will play to the mainstream, any comedy develops naturally from the plot and characters, and certainly isn’t shoe-horned in. As for the supernatural element, it’s ephemeral, and not immediately consequential to the plot. The various characters in this show often turn to a couple of older figures for advice, and the nature of these two figures remains undetermined and somewhat mysterious through the series.


What ef ~ a tale of memories actually focuses on is the teen romance aspect of the story, and surprisingly despite the character designs, these teenagers are pretty normal for anime teenagers. The girls aren’t excessively cute, and prone to falling over at the drop of a hat. The boys aren’t wishy-washy, unless the plot requires them to be, and they aren’t liable to blush, back away at a hundred miles an hour, and apologise profusely if their hand accidentally brushes the hand of a girl. There is actual sex in this show, even if it happens off screen, and for that to happen in an anime about relationships is rare to the point of unique.


There are three stories in this show, three sets of relationships that the show explores, although they are linked by characters in common, and the stories do overlap at times. Kyosuke’s story is the most straightforward, his affection for Kei is platonic, and he sees her as a muse to his aspirations of becoming a filmmaker. This is really an understated story that doesn’t develop all that much. It’s just that Kyosuke is also part of the second story as a facilitator in that narrative. That second story sees a love triangle develop around manga creator Hiro Hirono, and he is the wishy-washy one, in that he doesn’t want to hurt his childhood friend Kei, or his girlfriend Miyako by choosing between them, and quite naturally winds up hurting both until he does make a choice. What makes this story interesting is that Kei’s affection for Hiro is obsessive and smothering, while Miyako has abandonment issues of her own that she transfers to Hiro. The relationships between the three can be light and affectionate, but they can also be nasty and hurtful as well.


There’s a reason why this show is called ‘a tale of memories’ and that is revealed in the third arc, featuring Renji and Kei’s twin sister Chihiro. Chihiro has retrograde amnesia; she can’t form new memories, and has been that way since she was twelve. It seems unlikely that the two can have a relationship, but their shared love of literature and a common meeting place bring them together. Chihiro tries to manage her condition by keeping a diary. Her memories only last 13 hours, every morning she wakes up again, practically as a twelve-year-old, and she learns who she was the day before from what she writes in the diary. She also wants to write a novel, and it seems that with Renji’s help she can finally achieve her ambition. But her condition is not as easy to deal with as they think. There are elements of Memento here, and you may be reminded of 50 First Dates. But the tale of love triumphing over repeated tragedy reminded me most strongly of The Notebook, which is no bad thing.


I liked ef ~ a tale of memories a lot. The writing is engaging, the characters are rounded and somewhat more realistic than the usual anime protagonists, and SHAFT’s animation really does sell the story well. It’s a visually striking and very appealing work. I liked it, but I couldn’t get myself to love the show. The one problem I have with ef ~ a tale of memories is the soundtrack. This is one show that is overpowered by its music. When tragedy and drama strikes, by golly do you know it. The music is selling the emotion of the scene so strongly that the actors needn’t have bothered turning up for work that day. It’s a small but significant flaw that stops the show from being as good as it could have been. MVM will be releasing the follow up series, ef ~ a tale of melodies next month, and we’ll get to learn more about the supernatural pair in this show. I’m looking forward to it.