Forum - View topicREVIEW: ef: A Tale of Memories Blu-Ray
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Very uneven series. The Renji/Chihiro part managed a fresh take on the most recent trendy mental ailment to use in fiction (although the ending was far too pat), but the love triangle section was little more than typical soap opera with some rare nice touches. The way it depicted spoiler[Miyano's parents coming to hate each other by her mother calmly opening a cabinet and methodically smashing all the dishes inside was fairly chilling. Much more effective than just showing the two of them yelling at each other or something], but "childhood friend can't commit and is pushed aside by a spunky new arrival" is a dusty old story and at its heart ef doesn't have anything to polish it up.
And regarding the weak animation...just wait until the second series! |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
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Though I do think that SHAFT did well with the resources they had in turning what could've been a pedestrian VN adaptation into an artistic spectacle, I don't think I'd go higher than C+. |
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ArsenicSteel
 Posts: 2370 |
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Of the ones that I've seen that would be Genshiken 2, Clannad, Minami-ke, Shugo Chara!, and Kimi Kiss. Minami-ke is a little more energetic when the animation does kick in while the reviews for Shugo Chara, KimiKiss, and ef all had similar animation scores but none of those were any less noticeably limited in animation to me. |
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Fifth B
 Posts: 213 |
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Angel Beats for the quadriplegic, if memory serves me right. |
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boredandlazy
Posts: 189 |
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Clannad had limited animation? News to me... |
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naki12
Posts: 8 |
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Good memory! I, too, can recognise all the moe tragedies and I'm still doing high school. |
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Big Hed
 Posts: 1607 Location: Melbourne, Australia |
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I think sparse animation deserves calling out if it is detrimental to the overall viewing experience. I don't think that was a problem with ef, but then ANN reviews have always been strongly opinionated--fortunately. And the letter grade aside, I think Key wasn't exactly unfair to ef's animation in the body of the review. (The great irony in all this, of course, is that both ef series aired prior to Bakemonogatari--and the great financial windfall that followed--and we know how poorly that fared in the animation department at times.) Anyway, this debate causes me to ask why the review grading format here doesn't employ a broader "Art" category, encompassing both aesthetic and animation qualities. That's not to say that the current setup is unreasonable, but I think the argument could be made that anime/cartoons as a medium can't exist without the synthesis of both, making it unwise to delineate them--as much as Shaft sometimes likes to challenge that paradigm! As to the review overall, the only point I found myself in complete disagreement with was on the comparison to Key adaptations. It'll be interesting to see how you find melodies, (reviewer  ) Key.
Last edited by Big Hed on Wed Mar 28, 2012 6:34 am; edited 1 time in total |
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BalmungHHQ
Posts: 392 |
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They aren't integrated because (very minor "ef -a tale of melodies" spoiler) spoiler[Renji and Chihiro's story takes places in an entirely different country than the rest.] Because of this, I don't find it particularly proper to list it as a negative, but... looking at this season alone, I suppose it does make you wonder why they don't interact with the rest of the cast. However, I think that feeling was intentional so melodies could expand upon the world-view of this series in the way it did. |
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corinthian
Posts: 264 |
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I rather found the dub to be a pleasant surprise for me in form of Monica Rial. I've mostly known her in spunky-best-friend sort of roles where her high voice is well-suited (but sometimes grating). Hearing her in a subdued dramatic role worked really well. Hopefully the sequel will do the same for Hilary Haag.
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aereus
Posts: 574 |
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I also have to chime in and say C- for animation? Really? Shaft has always been known for doing striking visuals on a shoestring budget. (And keep in mind they did ef before their success with Bakemonogatari, so they weren't raking in the money then)
This youtube link is only 720p and not that great an encode, but it shows fairly well the visuals they come up with. I have the full 1080p creditless and it's really amazing for something from 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h4CWiIc_rY&feature=related Really catchy song as well. |
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Cecilthedarkknight_234
 Posts: 3820 Location: Louisville, KY |
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hmm that was pretty much a spot review for the series. It's been a while thought since i have seen it however but still rather decent adapt from a eroge/adult visual novel. The only down-side is that I will just wait for manga gamer to release the title since it's on their list rather than re-watching anime adapt.
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Polycell
 Posts: 4623 |
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Veers
 Posts: 1197 Location: Texas |
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Oh boy another review thread full of people not understanding the distinction between creative/artistic visuals and rich/consistent animation. ef has the former in spades; the latter...not so much, though I think that the series is so well directed artistically that the art direction really does almost completely make up for the often limited animation. |
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thalandor46
Posts: 3 |
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ef is without question one of the most visually pleasing experiences I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. I admit, however, that I am a rather unobservant person, and I rarely notice issues relating to animation quality, so I can understand how my opinion differs from that of this review. Rather, it was this point that really got to me...
I have always considered the emotional impact to easily be the highlight ef. I've watched memories from beginning to end five times, and the emotional roller coaster has been consistently amazing each and every time. I have never been so blown away so many times in so few episodes. I am simply baffled that anyone can list such a thing as a negative point without trolling... I hate to sound like I'm whining because someone doesn't like my favorite anime...but someone doesn't like my favorite anime! 
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Chagen46
 Posts: 4377 |
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Wow, the rabid fans came out of the woodwork fast. Heaven forbid someone critisize your favorite show.
The point of animation is to be animated. It doesn't mean jack if the animation is super pretty if it's barely animated at all. Thay's a damn fault if I ever heard one. |
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