Okay, I didn’t see this one coming. I will however accept this conclusion for Renji and Chihiro’s arc since it’s believable enough given the characters in question. I’m guessing the ending in the game is going to be different because the shock value will be completely lost otherwise.

As a whole, I felt that the ending seemed pretty anticlimactic. Maybe the break-up should have happened in this episode and just have that wrap up the arc instead? The ending “messages” that the characters gave also didn’t seem very meaningful to me. And hey, we never got to found out what the deal was with Himuro and Yuko! All you see is the two meeting up at the church after the ending theme, come on! :(

Looking back at the twelve episodes of ef - a tale of memories., I think it really came through with a very strong script, visually imaginative renditions of scenes (this cannot possibly be emphasized enough), and excellent music. What it seemed to fall short of was the lack of a strong storyline to match its unique characters and its failure to develop all of the characters sufficiently. Himuro and Yuko, anyone? And what about our male leads? We know very little about them compared to what we know about our female leads. Perhaps the real problem here was that ef tried to do too many things at once by telling two stories in twelve episodes?

In essence, if you don’t care too much about the plot and am more interested in character dynamics and their relationships, you should definitely give this one a go. However, if you watch shows because you’d like to see a great story unfold, you might get a feeling of wanting more at the end of the ef.

Well, the first half of this episode was a little dull, but eh, what can you do? I shouldn’t have been expecting too much since they did say they were going out on a date so it was kind of obvious that nothing was going to happen until the end of the episode (or the one after if it came down to that). Still, the date could’ve been more entertaining. I guess the fact that this couple doesn’t interest me didn’t help. I mean, I like the arc and all, but I just don’t really care for the pairing.

In any case, the ending was certainly quite a twist. I don’t know about you all but I was certainly expecting Chihiro to have died in this episode. At least, if not this one then the next. I was expecting her to kill herself to break off her ties with Renji…but no. I will admit that I think this is more painful for Renji since he has to live on knowing that their relationship cannot be the same as it once was even if they did meet again whereas if she just died…well…she’s dead, there’s not much you’re going to be able to do about that.

So what’s in store for us in the next episode? I really can’t say. Will Renji try and confront Chihiro? Will Chihiro and Himura move elsewhere? Well, probably not, that kind of defeats the purpose of ripping those pages out I suppose? What about Himura and Yuko? Yes, what about those two?

This episode has pretty much wrapped up both Kei and Miyako’s arcs. With two episodes to go, I don’t think they’re going to investigate Kyosuke and Kei’s relationship. It would look way too out of place anyway. I was extremely satisfied by this arc’s conclusion. I don’t know if this was an original ending for the anime or not, but whatever, it was beautifully done. Well played, SHAFT, well played.

The script work in this episode was simply brilliant. I really liked the part where Kei was making a series of statements while Hirono was acknowledging them one by one. The voice acting there was simply brilliant. The violin playing in the background only made that scene even more awesome. I like the Hirono x Miyako pairing and all but this part was simply too good for me to pretend/lie and say that the phone conversation the two of them had at the second half of this episode was better than the one Kei had with Hirono.

So, we are left with two episodes to wrap up Chihiro and Renji’s story here. I think two episodes is more than enough but what about Himura and Yuko’s story? Are they going to be addressed at all? Since they’re skipping out on Kyosuke and Kei’s story, does that mean they’re going to skip out on Himura and Yuko’s too? That would disappoint me greatly if that was the case.

Okay, so I did get what I wanted by getting to see Hirono and Miyako on screen together. And how! The scene was a little unexpected but I guess that it’s only natural for Hirono to come to realize that the feelings he’s been harbouring for Miyako were actually romantic feelings.

Renji and Chihiro’s story continues to move along. Unlike the bit with Hirono and friends over on the other end, I’m foreseeing a “bad” ending for this arc. Although, to be fair, I can’t really see any possible endings for this end that seems remotely “happy”. I really don’t see Chihiro recovering from her current condition, so what kind of ending would you coin as being “happy”? The completion of her novel? Sorry, but I just can’t see myself getting excited over that unless they play it out properly.

Just like any other anime series, they pulled a fast one on us with this episode’s ending. I was slowly leaning over towards the screen bit by bit and then you realize that Kei was just getting ready to leave instead of opening Hirono’s door! What a curveball.

Wow, Kei is one evil lady, deleting all of those messages that Miyako left for Hirono. Now I really have to play the game to see this scene unfold in its original form. We’re starting to run out of episodes here though, so it’s still a little unclear as to how she’ll suddenly drop Hirono and go for Kyosuke.

So, what is Renji going to do now? How many times has Chihiro gone through a reset thus far? Is there a cure at all? How will their tale end? So many questions that we all want answers to. It’d be kind of stupid if he just gave up, so that’s probably not going to happen. Will the same thing happen again? It’s quite likely. Chihiro did tell Himura that she wasn’t going to forget, so if the same thing happens again, will she feel a déjàvu down her spine?

Next episode, will Miyako find Hirono or will Hirono find Miyako? Or will it be something totally different like what happened with the last episode? Who knows, I sure don’t, hell, I didn’t even watch the previews for episode 9. What I do know is that I want to see Hirono and Miyako on screen together. ;)

Wow, this episode was amazing. It’s set a pretty high bar for the rest of the series but I think it can only get more awesome as it goes. It’s times like these that makes me feel reassured that there are still people out there that are capable of weaving words together into a magnificent tale.

So we see that Renji has pretty much started to break down himself, kind of going back to Himura’s warning to him. I didn’t quite realize it until they started talking about the ending. Then once I saw that scene being replayed from Renji’s memory, it all just kind of clicked together. It’s going to be interesting to see how he’s going to get back on his feet with this one because he’s really hurt Chihiro’s feelings here.

And of course, I haven’t forgotten about Miyako. That half of the episode just made the episode even more awesome than I could have ever imagined. I didn’t get the confrontation that I wanted while watching the last episode but that’s really no big deal compared to what we got instead. I was literally on my seat, staring at the scene, watching the scene unfold, as soon as I remembered that Hirono had mentioned that he had dropped his cellphone somewhere and that Miyako’s calls were never going to get through to him. And what a great scene it was, let me tell you. I have to give a big kudos to SHAFT due to its brilliant execution, truly a work of art.

As we all expected, Kei turned Kyosuke down on his offer for a role in his film, but she’ll surely have a change of heart in the future if the conversation at the infirmary was supposed to imply anything. I really liked the argument that Hirono and Kyosuke had and I’m now rather interested in what Kyosuke’s final product is going to be like.

Once again, we see Himura warning Renji not to get too close to Chihiro. Is she going to die? They haven’t mentioned anything about her health weakening or anything of that nature (if I recall correctly) and she seems to be doing pretty well right now, so a death in the end would be a little odd if you ask me.

The next episode should be really good since Miyako will likely be confronting Kei. We’ve seen a glimpse of their confrontation in the prologue’s DVD and I’m very anxious about seeing the conversation in its entirety. I don’t know how she’s going to win Hirono over but it can’t be as extreme as what Kaede did in Shuffle! when she tried to pry Rin away from Asa, will it?

Well, we finally get the story behind Chihiro’s condition this episode. I must admit that I just didn’t really feel all that surprised by the revelation. It’s not even really like Kei comes off as some sadistic person or something, I don’t know. I guess it’s not all that surprising because there weren’t really a lot of other “realistic” causes behind her condition. That probably didn’t really make any sense to you, but anyway…

We’re almost half way through the series and I still don’t know where this show’s really going given that there are multiple “arcs” at work here. I am most interested in Amamiya and Himura’s story, although I can’t decide if that’s only because we really know nothing about those two or not. I don’t think it’ll go down that path though. Kei and Kyosuke’s probably going to be tossed off to the sidelines since their story probably isn’t going to be very interesting or original. Renji and Chihiro’s is the the ideal candidate with an interesting story although I do like seeing Hirono and Miyako on screen more. Ah, which arc will the series focus on?

The ending for this episode was a little odd. I was contemplating over how Kei would magically fall for Kyosuke back in episode 3 and I can tell from that there’s going to be a lot of angst (and hand waving?) involved here.

I really enjoyed this episode personally. Hiro and Miyako have a great chemistry together and I think they make for a very cute couple. I’m also still loving the artistic liberties that SHAFT is taking with these episodes. These obviously wouldn’t fit in your usual anime series but I think that they look great in ef.

I was actually taken aback by Kei’s lacking of cooking skills personally. I thought she knew what she was doing when she bought that cookbook…but, yeah. On the other hand, while Miyako also took the initiative to cook for Hiro, I was not surprised by the fact that her food was actually edible, oddly enough. Before I forget, I’d like to note that the scene of Hiro telling Miyako about the dangers of cooking improperly was absolutely hilarious.

With the strong focus on Hiro’s story this time around, we’re probably going to get a lot of Renji and Chihiro time next episode. I wouldn’t mind that at all as long as nothing “out of the ordinary” happens like what happened in this episode when Renji decided to ask Chihiro if he could kiss her. I was totally not expecting that request. He’s a brave man, that Renji.

It looks like the wheels of motion has started to turn with this episode. The slow but solid developments in Renji and Chihiro’s story thus far seems to have been balanced back with Hiro, Kei, and Miyako’s story with this episode. However, I wish we could learn a bit more about Yuko and Yu. I don’t see them as often as I’d like but I have a feeling that they’re an integral part of this story in terms of bridging the two “worlds”. Let’s not forget that Yuko was first spotted at a church and Yu had noted that he was waiting for someone at a church in the first episode.

I don’t know about the rest of you but I personally can’t stand Kei. She’s just so annoying and has a crappy, overprotective attitude. One thing I’m worried about with regards to Kei’s character development is how she ends up falling for Kyosuke. I mean, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that she’s crazy about Hiro, so why does she suddenly switch her target over to Kyosuke, what does she find in him that she doesn’t find in Hiro? Or is she just manipulating him and trying to get Hiro jealous?

The next episode will probably consist of Hiro trying to come to terms with Kei while Miyako continues being her usual cheerful but “unwelcome” self which causes problems for all involved but her. I don’t know what to expect of Renji and Chihiro’s side as that story’s significantly less linear and predictable than the high school romance triangle we’re seeing with Hiro, Kei, and Miyako.