Ef: A Tale of Memories - Complete Collection

I have been waiting for this set since 2008, this is an amazing series. It's short but they cram a lot of content into each episode. The japanese voice actors are awesome but i'm excitied to hear it dubbed in english.

Plot Summary: The anime revolves around two protagonists, Hirono Hiro and Asou Renji. On Christmas Eve, Hirono Hiro meets a girl named Miyamura Miyako who was chasing a purse snatcher. Hiro later finds out that Miyako also goes to the same school as he does and they start hanging out together. This made Hiro's childhood friend, Shindou Kei, feel left out. Kei then tries to compete with Miyako for Hiro's affection and a love triangle ensues. The anime also tells the story of Asou Renji. Renji meets a girl named Shindou Chihiro at an abandoned train station. He soon learns that Chihiro suffers from a type of amnesia where her memory span only lasts for 13 hours. He also discovers Chihiro's dream of writing a novel, but she has never been able to fulfill that dream due to her condition. Renji then decides to help her fulfill that dream.

Highly recommend buying this sereis!!!

I watched this anime a long time ago and it's one of the great ones out there! Like Clannad, it's based on an original visual novel game, "Ef-A Fairytale of the two." It's romantic and psychological. The only thing I don't really like is the sort of "darkness" present in this anime. But I guess that's why the show is so great. The ending is good too, but I won't spoil it. I'm mostly looking forward to hearing the new English dub with many actors I've seen in previous animes released by Sentai. Nagisa Furukawa from Clannad and Haruko Kamio from Air will voice Miyako. Ryou Fujibayashi from Clannad, Ayu from Kanon and Yuri from Angel Beats doing Kei's. Greg Ayres who voices Sunohara from Clannad doing Hiro's. Mizuzu from Air will do Chihiro's voice, Fuko Ibuki from Clannad will do Mizuki's voice, and Yoshino Yusuke from Clannad playing Kazuya's voice (correct me if I got his name wrong). I'm so excited that I know how the characters will sound like before the anime, but too bad we have to wait an entire month until it's released. The opening song (euphoric field sung by ELISA) and second ending song are catchy too. If you buy this anime and it impresses you, don't forget to pick up the sequal season, ef-a tale of melodies which in my opinion, is even darker and kinda more disturbing than this season.

As you may know from hearing about this series, it is bittersweet. The plot flows great so that there is no boring times(except maybe one scene but I think it emphasized emotion)since this is a 12 episode series. Each of the main characters get some screen time and to show there character. The animation is very unique, its not very moving as in active motions but was very good. I felt an emotional/lifestyle connection to the 3 main characters. Some scenes in the story reminded me of some american drama stuff, but they were ten times better which increased my liking to this series.

The english dub shook my thoughts of english dubs. Great cast with a very accurate script.
Greg as Hiro, and Clint as Renji were very very good, it brought up there popularity as both of my favorite actors. People need to open up to understand that these actors expressed there character just like there japanese counterparts. Though I hate other stuff that Serephim dubbed just like everyone else(EX: H.O.T.D had good voices but had an inaccurate script).
Chris, David, and Illich were wonderful as usual. I suspected that Luci would voice Miyako, along with Hillary Hagg voicing Mizuki. Brittney had a very unique voice in this compared to other works which changed my opinion about her in a positive way, Monica Rial brought very good voicing as Chihiro. And I was surprised that Tiffany Grant did a wonderful dub as Renji's mom.

But what is so strange about this dub, is because that the actors used a lot of japanese honorifics in this dub. I don't know if this drops it or gives it a plus for cultural reference. I say this gives it a plus since a lot of visual novel anime series talk about honorifics in there subjects (EX:Clannad, Kanon), plus this is great for sub lovers if they complain about some parts in the script.

This series is good, but don't suspect to find a lot of comedy in this series. There are not a lot. There is some nudity in this of course, but it is very brief.

There are no special extra's in this set, just this wonderful 12 episode series that has a wonderful english dub. And it got me wanting to legally buy the soundtracks of the series. Go get this if you want a bittersweet relationship japan/U.S drama. Ef ~ A Tale of Melodies is coming out as well this year, I don't want to miss it. This series stands tall against Kyoto Animations moe visual novel anime series. Must buy for a emotional anime fan.