It’s time at last to conclude our journey through ef – A Tale of Memories. This has been a very intriguing ride of a show, all told. Personally, I found its unique combination of melodramatic storytelling and highly interpretive visual design a little too impersonal to be all that emotionally moving – it fell into that issue I sometimes feel Ikuhara shows face, where the thematic lines and visual storytelling are so divorced from immediate human experience that it’s hard to invest in the characters’ struggles.

That said, I also generally liked ef’s characters, and found them to be compelling and multifaceted people. And even if it didn’t facilitate a greater emotional connection with the narrative, ef’s visual experiments were always pretty compelling for their own sake, offering both uniquely pretty compositions and plenty of clever storytelling tricks. Shin Oonuma clearly has a unique eye that has informed but is distinct from the modern Shaft aesthetic, and while not all of this show’s ideas work, the overarching effect is often impressive and never boring. Ef is also a show that leans heavily on its big dramatic turns, so with just one episode to go, I’m ready for beauty and tears from start to finish. Let’s close out this sad little tale of living for your art and suffering for your love!

Episode 12

Starting off right where we left, with Chihiro sending her pages to the wind. Our first shot rises from the beach to the moon, contrasting the key setting of their story against its current moment

As Renji cries over the result, Chihiro pens a letter to her future self, saying that the torn-out pages were a “mistake” she shouldn’t worry about. The more Chihiro isolates herself, the more she sees this book as the whole of her personality – and conversely, the more she sees herself as a work subject to interpretation, a living draft that she can rewrite as she wills. Hanging on to this book at the expense of all else allows her to dehumanize herself, and she knows this – her whole goal here is to dehumanize herself to the point where she can’t even really feel pain

Kinda fun to be watching this simultaneously with Princess Tutu, where one character is essentially trying to enforce that view of happiness upon another

Oh wow, I really like what they did with the OP. It’s the same song, but sung in Japanese this time, with some energetic tonal embellishments and what looks like a few visual changes. It’s not the biggest shift, but it clearly conveys a sense of rising tension

Spending some time with Renji as he sadly wanders past all the places he visited with Chihiro

The episode’s title was “love,” but it looks like we’re also getting some act titles, like this first “Recollection.” I wonder if Oonuma was the one who contributed this embracing of structural artifice to the general Shaft aesthetic? The studio obviously embraces visual artifice in all sorts of ways, but loud chapter announcements are a bit more specific, and something I’ve otherwise just seen in late-era Monogotari

“It’s already been thirteen hours since I’ve seen Chihiro.” Renji stands inside the outline of the bell, a cute illustration of how he is literally trapped by time

And now we get another title shot, “Story.” An odd, attention-grabbing choice, but this is a show of odd, attention-grabbing choices, so

“Do you know why she wrote that story?” It does seem like Chihiro’s novel undercuts the conviction of her pledge to Renji. She said she’d make it so none of this ever happened, but the book is her monument, her standing testament to the fact that she lived and loved and existed at all

“Even if a miracle occurred, lost entries could never be retrieved.” Chihiro’s condition obviously reflects more than that, and is illustrated in a variety of compelling ways, but at a base level, “if your love is lost, it will have never existed at all” sure does up the melodramatic stakes of this romance

We’ve also clearly set up the posts so that this story could cleanly end with Chihiro reading her own story and precisely that miracle occurring

“Are you always at this church because you’re bearing that burden too?” “Who knows? I’ve forgotten.” Very fucking cute, cryptic love prophecy man

Renji’s mom tries to comfort him, but unfortunately uses Chihiro’s line: “don’t worry, tomorrow might be even better than today.” Whoops

“Human beings are so cruel. I’m so depressed, but I still get hungry and tired. I hate myself for eating and sleeping despite the pain.” God, sometimes this show really can pull off some incredibly insightful lines. What Renji describes is such a clear, unique, and true-to-life feeling – the sense that when you’re suffering, you should be doing nothing but suffering, and that simply going through the motions to survive the day is in its own way a betrayal of the truth of your feelings. It thus becomes more aggravating than anything else that in spite of your pain, you still have to perform being a functional person in all these small ways

“In order to make your dream come true, you need a dream first. You need a vision, a will.”

Renji’s friend here is wise as fuck. He seems wiser than the show, actually – the show is utterly invested in the beauty of pursuing a hopeless dream to the point of destroying your life, but Kuze here understands that while passion is necessary, often shit just plays out in ways you never could have predicted or controlled

Another smart use of ef’s “black background, fill the focus object with the scenery” trick. As opposed to the bell entrapping Renji, this time Renji’s form contains the totality of the green field behind him, implying the way he’s holding onto a happy internal reality in the face of a bleak external one

And he runs into Chihiro, who of course remembers nothing

A paper airplane aloft in the sky. Is this his miracle? It’s a page of memories at best

Nice to see some actual animation for the show’s finale. Renji’s baggy shirt and pants seem like a real hassle to animate

The page he catches is essentially her final confession, and a reflection on the pain she currently feels. Renji’s “it’s not fair” is right – he’s still trapped with the feelings she’s here describing as a very temporary suffering

This is good. What I really like about this situation is that Chihiro’s feelings are both totally understandable given her situation and still totally wrong in a way that Renji should actually be able to overcome. It makes sense that Chihiro would see the finality of the pages she’s relied on as more substantive and permanent than her own self, and it makes sense that Renji would vehemently disagree

When that OP remix hits you know shit is ON. Renji starts rushing around town, literally recovering the scraps of her memories

“I can’t go for thirteen hours without thinking about you!” Haha, that’s such a wonderfully romantic way to resolve this. Chihiro was trying to forget him, but anything she recalls in her immediate memory can be remembered through that recollection itself, and she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about him because she loves him. One more very smart use of her condition

And they embrace, Chihiro’s chains shattering. Great stuff

Alright, now we’re jumping to hat girl monologuing about how everyone has prayed to a god at some point in their life. An odd shift, but sure

“Everyone craves it. Something created by passion and the desire for people to bond.” Now continuing on to the show’s art thoughts. Still not really following this jump, though

Epilogue time, though ef labels it “Coda” to carry on with its musical terminology theming. Interesting that none of this show’s artists were actually musicians, given that theming

Miyako and Hiro have a domestic conversation so grounded and endearing that I almost believe these kids won’t immolate in six months. Miyako is apparently attending classes now, while Hiro works on his manga full time. The two have a very natural rapport, which feels welcome after this melodramatic second half

And Kei also seems to be in a very healthy place. This story is turning out surprisingly well for everyone

Kei’s in a good spot for that, though. There’s always something of a natural push and pull between the need to make dramatic challenges that feel insurmountable and the need to resolve conflicts in a way that feels satisfying and earned. Kei’s situation manages this naturally: her feelings were an insurmountable hurdle because they were based in a conception of Hiro that didn’t actually exist, but once she’s able to honestly reconnect with Hiro, her romantic desires become almost a non-issue

Now all the characters are reciting the things they found through love, which is definitely not the most graceful conclusion. About as tell-not-show as you can get, and unnecessary besides

And we end on our two mysterious guides, hat girl and church dude, facing each other at last

And Done

Well, I guess that was A Tale of Memories! The last few minutes all felt like pretty awkward concessions to the show’s upcoming second season, and unfortunately leaned on the fantastical framing device that has consistently felt like one of the show’s weakest features, but that’s something I’ve sort of come to expect from these visual novel adaptations. On the positive side, the resolution to Chihiro and Renji’s story felt totally earned and emotionally satisfying, and there were plenty of the smart visual storytelling embellishments that have consistently kept this show engaging. A Tale of Memories was a messy show on the whole, but it was full of compelling reflections on creativity, standout emotional moments, and diverse fragments of visual splendor. ef itself felt like it could well be a work constructed by one of its own heroes, matching in form what its protagonists always sought in fiction. I was happy to journey through this unique production, and look forward to whatever wibbly-wobbly worldbuilding nonsense A Tale of Melodies will undoubtedly add to its mix. These were some endearing kids, and I’m glad they’re happy.

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