Yeah, it definitely seemed to be a more "grown up" or "adult" version of Clannad or other moe shows. I was actually a bit surprised when both couples had sex. It didn't show any really intimate moments but it was definitely implied that was what had happened. Teenage sex isn't a subject that is approached very often in anime. In fact, I think the only other series I can think that approached it seriously was Rumblig Hearts.

celestial_being wrote:


Eastern name order and honorifics were made clear to me as a teenager some 30+ years ago.

The US State department / US Army took over a defunct nursing college's campus across the street from my parent's house in 1975 and housed over a thousand Vietnamese refugees in it. You get a quick schooling in eastern style names when you have that many neighbors that use it.

My father spoke very basic Japanese, again courtesy of the ever-reliable US Army, which gave me a rudimentary understanding of some Japanese language conventions. Honorifics and social status conventions, my dad always said some Japanese POW Officers were hard to deal with because they were not accustomed to having foreigners address them as equals.

To the subject at hand. I'm definitely going to have to move all of EF up on my to-do list, which keeps getting longer and longer. Now where to find the $ in the budjet, so much Anime - so little time.

Mark Gosdin

mgosdin wrote:

...and money!

Newshawk wrote:


Back to prostituting for you!

The premise seems interesting. I really wanted to know more about the girl inthe church.

dragonrider_cody wrote:


When you said you couldn't think of an anime where the teens were having sex, I instantly thought of School Days. Of course that "realistic" part may not exactly apply, depending on your point of view .

This show took me a few minutes in the first episode to warm up to it, but I started to really enjoy it. The second episode was even better, it went by too fast. This is a show I'm going to have to buy on blu-ray. I really like the unconventional animation sequences. You know the scenes in the middle of a conversation where all of a sudden a character will just be outlined, or things will be going crazy, or a character will be colored in the color of the sky. It looks really beautiful. Reminds me of Kare Kano. Sad the animation for the rest of it isn't amazing. I mean it's good and all, but not mind-blowing or anything. So far what i think about the show is it's like one of those "oh this is a bunch of unrelated people and stories" drama. Guess it remains to be seen if the stories connect in way, if the people meet up, or what. This could get good.

Oh I'm really liking the dub so far btw. I'm watching this at the same time as The World God Only Knows, and it's great hearing Luci Christian in both of these. She seems very fresh, especially in this. I can't remember the last time I loved her in a role like this. Also it was brilliant casting Clint Bickham as Renji. The only other shows I know his from are Magikano (which is what i think of when I hear his voice) and Project Blue Earth SOS. If i must nitpick this Monica Rial isn't at the top of her game. I mean she's good, but not as good as the others here. But it's still early (I'm only on episode 2).

I was thinking the same thing. And I kept praying that Ef's ending would not be like School Days ending XD.

Well, I think School Days reminded me of hell of a ton American teen dramas that involve relationships then later exposing them which in result involved the male characters wanting another relationship. The ending was so creepy, yet awesome ^_^.

I was surprised about the english dub, when I look back at the casts previous works I thought none of them compared to Ef. Greg Ayres was very good IMO, probably because I never thought he could play a normal main character so well. Well, as far as relating to characters. Something clicked in my head in the first episode when I saw the 3 main male characters and heard about there background.

The animation was very good with the unconventional sequences, plus the music in the series made it even better.

I'm also enjoying the English dub. When I tried watching this subbed it just felt like a non-interactive visual novel, a movie of someone playing one if you will, but the dub allows me to actually see the characters as more than pure (haha) embodiments of stereotypes which has allowed me to get into the show (despite my chafing at the honorifics).

Clint does a pretty remarkable job in Ghost Hound, a Sentai show that I just finished. Until Project Blue (which I watched just a few months ago) I hadn't heard of him, and thought that he was an alias for Vic.

Once again, Ilich is a villain of sorts. It seems that if Andy McAvin isn't the villain, Ilich is. After someone suggested it on Ann I keep wondering what Death Note would have been if he had been Kira.

I certainly hope that this won't end up like School Days. Isn't that the show with the lolis and the head in the box, as seen in AMV Hell Mini 8 (season 1)?

Well, school days is the true definition of a stereotypical visual novel/american drama. The main character goes in one relationship, but decides to cheat for a new girl after thinking his previous relationship was tiring. But after rumors spread, other girls want to ask him if its true, but due to him wanting to not believe that he is cheating results in another cheat. In the end, due to peer pressure he breaks up with both her first love and 2nd relationship partner. And decides to have sex with any girl at his school, and some of the girls decide to have sex or sleep with him out of sheer curiosity. In the final 2 episodes, his 2nd relationship partner finds out she is pregnant. In result, all of his other relationship partners stay away from him except his first love which he wants to stay with instead of her 2nd relationship partner.

The ending is too messed up to say, but the male character had it coming. Though I hated yet laughed at how the male character decided to cheat, and I got so depressed when his first love gets bullied. It had such an impact on me and way of thinking of personal relationship/cheating drama shows that IMO american drama shows have never touched upon. But the japanese dub was pretty dull, because of what you say about stereotyped voices. Which made me get annoyed of the Clannad japanese dub.

And Ef~A Tale of Memories/Melodies took a step to show what you should do when caught in relationship issues, or solve your problems with future goals/desires.

(Melodies) Episode 10 –