Episode 1

ED

Episode 2

Episode 3
OP

Summary:
Episode 1 serves as a basic introduction to all of the important characters as well as establishing their relationships with each other. The main male protagonist, Hirono Hiro lives with a girl named Kei Shindo who has sister named Chihiro. The story revolves around these two girls and their relationships with others around. At a train station Chihiro meets a boy named Renji who she asks to be her friend. At the same time, Hirono has a chance encounter with a girl who steals his bike to chase after a person that stole her bag. The girl introduces herself as Miyamura Miyako and they end up spending Christmas together.
In Episode 2 it is revealed that Chihiro has a memory deficiency which was the result a car accident. She is unable to remember anything for more then thirteen hours and keeps a log of everything that ever happened throughout the day in her diary and in a number of books. Chihiro dreams of writing a story but she feels that it is impossible with her disability. Episode 3 continues to elaborate on Chihiro’s condition and how she wishes she could silently vanish from existence. One day, Renji neglects to come to the station after promising Chihiro that he would be there. He is met by Himura the next time he shows up at the station and is asked why he did not show up to the station that day. He is told that Chihiro makes it a point to keep promises. Meanwhile, Hirono skips classes to spend time with Miyako. Kei finds out via her friend Mizuki and confronts Hirono about it. During their argument, Hirono accidentally blurts out that the first time he met her was during Christmas. Kei then asks Hirono if he broke his promise with her to meet with Miyako.

Thoughts:
Ef is extremely SHAFT-like. The visuals and the overall feel to the show all are similar to what SHAFT has done in its previous shows. Always with the epic references, SHAFT has done it again with a Lucky Star/Tohou Project appearance here. I can see a huge conflicts in the near future; some are already beginning (ex. Kei vs. Miyako). Chihiro’s memory deficiency is also tragic in itself and it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

-exo