ef - a tale of memories. / First Impressions

Summary:

When he was young, Kyousuke had watched a film of his mother, and she told him that she had wanted to be in this director’s movies for a long time. Even though it was only a moment, his mother had her dream fulfilled, and she had hoped that he could have his fulfilled too. Kyousuke now finds himself filming Kei shooting a basketball, but when she comes over and looks at the video, she doesn’t like how he’s doing it and punches him in the gut. Kei’s own thoughts still dwell on how she saw Miyako feeding Hiro though. Meanwhile, Renji meets with Chihiro again at the station, but he knows by now that this Chihiro is different from the one he met yesterday. She’s aware of the promise to write a story together, and Renji vows to help so that she can do it even with her memory disorder. Chihiro admits that she had forgotten the dream she gave up on; Renji made her remember and made her want to try it again.

Back at school, Kei passes Miyako on the stairwell, but Miyako does no even notice Kei until she says something. Miyako doesn’t particularly want to hear what Kei has to say because she wants to go home, though she does allow Kei to follow her if she wants to talk. For Renji and Chihiro, it’s now lunchtime, and Renji inadvertently makes Chihiro think that he’ll cook for her at home. There, he introduces her to his mother as well as to his neighbor Kuze, and his mother quickly gets to asking Chihiro what kind of relationship she has with him. When Chihiro claims that they’re only friends, Kuze suggests that there’s no such thing as just friendship between a man and woman. Embarrassed, Renji finishes cooking as fast as he can and puts an end to the questioning. Afterwards, Chihiro hands Renji a notebook of story ideas, though she doesn’t want him to read it until after she goes home. Her main problem is not being able to finish writing in one day because she forgets details and changes things.

Meanwhile, Kei is trying to make Miyako realize that this is an important time for Hiro because he’s running the risk of having to repeat a school year. Kei still believes that he can make a recovery in his studies, and so she asks Miyako not to drag Hiro into cutting classes. Miyako feels that this is all stuff Hiro has to think by himself about, and only he can decide what to do. She questions if Kei can take responsibility for Hiro’s future and wonders if Hiro can succeed as a mangaka if he concentrates on his studies now. Kei is later jogging and thinking about what Miyako said when she arrives a particular beach. It brings back memories of when she was young, and back then Hiro had spent more time with Chihiro than playing with her. On one occasion, Kei had dragged him out to the beach to play instead of letting him keep a promise with Chihiro. They had left a note, and Chihiro had come running later, but that was when she got hit by a car.

Kei still blames herself, though Yuuko suddenly appears and calls that an excuse. Yuuko thinks that Kei has come to a standstill in one spot and is hoping that someone will lead her somewhere. Kei then gets a phone call from Hiro asking to see her, and Yuuko disappears. She finds Kyousuke waiting for her at Hiro’s apartment, and, to her surprise, he wants her to go out with him. Chihiro is meanwhile getting walked home by Kuze, and he recites a famous poem by Wakayama Bokusui for her: How many mountains and rivers must I cross before I reach that country where my loneliness will end? Today too I shall journey. He heard this from Yuu and thinks that he remembered it for someone a long time ago. With Chihiro gone, Renji opens up her notebook and starts reading about a girl who is the only one in the world. She finds herself on an island with a lot of books that talked about how a person can’t live alone, though the girl herself lives alone. At the same time, Chihiro is feeling chained down and thinks that all she has right now is the 13 hours she can extend her arm.

 
 
 

Well after enjoying last week, this week felt like it was back to the pacing of earlier episodes. We learn how Chihiro got into the accident and lost her eye (surprise surprise, it was Kei’s fault), and Kei got into a bit of a confrontation with Miyako, but the Chihiro and Renji parts just dragged on too long without enough happening for my tastes. Yes, it’s interesting that Chihiro talked about the math problem of the sheep that’s chained up because it’s comparable to her, but I didn’t really think that it was anything new. At best it was just another way of looking at how Chihiro is limited because of her memory disorder. In short, even though I still feel that Chihiro and Renji are further along in their relationship than any of the other couples, they didn’t make that much more progress this episode and are definitely not as interesting to watch as Miyako, Kei, and Hiro. I’d prefer if those latter three get more screen time, but this show will likely continue to jump around between the pairings.

27 Comments

  18. @MisterMan

    Both?
    XD
    I would say both, because while Myself; Yourself and ef are
    both romance, they are both REALLY good shows.
    They are released on different days, and are subbed quite quick.
    I’m pretty sure that you can watch both…
    ^_^

    Kyze-kun
    Reply

  19. Meh, Kyousuke needs to GTFO and leave Kei alone. And she also needs to speak up to Hiro or something quick. This show is only 12eps, so she’ll lose out if she doesn’t say anything soon.

    GP
    Reply

  20. lol kei will eventually fall over kyousuke its only because of her remaining feelings for hiro that makes her not accept kyousuke for sometime until she feels its already hopeless because miyako already took him it will be the end of hiro’s story once he decides to quit school just to finish his series

    Algester
    Reply

  24. Normal harem anime except deeper? I don’t think so, this is more romance than harem. Hirono is the only one with something that might resemble a harem and it only has 2 girls in it. It’s more like a love triangle. Normal harem animes don’t get very deep either. So far I’m likeing this a bit better than Myself;Yourself but they’re both pretty good shows.

    FlameStrike
    Reply

  26. Ah! Ef was one of my hopes for Childhood friend to get the guy, but With Kyousuke asking Kei I believe that the path is set up. Like someone said Hiro is probably already taken by Miyako. I hope I am wrong and Kyousuke and Rei don’t end together. The way that Kyousuke set up Kai is smart but VERY DIRTY which kinbd of pisses me off. I hope she put strong resistance!

    golthin
    Reply

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