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!