Anime ef - a tale of memories

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Your second 'Hiro and Miya' is definietly Hiro and Kyousuke XD you know, i realized sometime earlier that Shinbo really has a way with awesome characters named Kyousuke, lol. Maybe I'll finally get around to resizing the Kyousuke sig I've had on another board for 6 weeks for OB use lol. damn macs have no easy way to resize things.

Anyway, those stills were interesting - do Kei and Kyousuke become romantically involved in the game? They sort of hinted at it at the end of the show but we don't get much info... in any case Kyousuke is simply awesome and they'd make a great couple.

in response to that manga thing... one day I need to meet Shinbo and the entire staff of SHAFT and just get a handshake from all of them... and maybe their autographs... and maybe I can be their helper monkey...[/COLOR]

[Meggido]

those stills look really great. I'm now tempted to see if I can find the game online and buy it. I'm still processing the end of the series in my mind and want to watch it in a marathon to better process my opinions though I though the ending was great.

[Dagger]

[quote name='2008DigitalBoy'][COLOR="DarkOrange"]Your second 'Hiro and Miya' is definietly Hiro and Kyousuke XD[/color][/quote]
*sheepish laughter* Fixed.

[quote name='2008DigitalBoy'][COLOR="DarkOrange"]Anyway, those stills were interesting - do Kei and Kyousuke become romantically involved in the game? They sort of hinted at it at the end of the show but we don't get much info... in any case Kyousuke is simply awesome and they'd make a great couple.[/COLOR][/QUOTE]
[spoiler]Yes. Out of "the first tale," a tale of memories really only covers the first chapter (the resolution of the love triangle, Kei accepting Hiro's choice, etc). The second chapter is about Kei getting back on her feet, so to speak. When I started it, I thought it'd be a predictable rebound arc and wasn't terribly interested, but of course it turned out to be very heartfelt. They go a lot more into Kyousuke's character as well.[/spoiler]

For the record, here are the five couples in the two parts of the game. Spoiler-tagged for the heck of it, although most are obvious. :animeswea

[spoiler]Yuuko Amamiya x Yuu Himura[/spoiler] [prologue... and epilogue?]
[spoiler]Miyako Miyamura x Hiro Hirono[/spoiler] [the first tale, a tale of memories]
[spoiler]Kei Shindou x Kyousuke Tsutsumi[/spoiler] [the first tale]
[spoiler]Chihiro Shindou x Renji Asou[/spoiler] [the latter tale, a tale of memories]
[spoiler]Mizuki Hayama x Shuuichi Kuze[/spoiler] [the latter tale]

Chihiro's chapter is a big reason why I'm excited for the latter tale's release, of course, but I'm also looking forward to the chapter where Kuze (the costume-owning violin player!) is the male protagonist. It's going to be an interesting ride, that's for sure.

~Dagger~

[Kanji]

Those CGs simply radiate of Makoto Shinkai-quality brilliance. Was he in charge of anything else beyond the opening sequence? If not, who is responsible for these lush, beautiful panoramas in each CG image? I'm interested. Anyway, I can see myself appreciating the storyline a heck of a lot more if I ever get a chance to play the game... Might look into that translation patch as means to get my feet wet, come to think of it.

Kuze was one of the more interesting characters, in my opinion; not only does he have a very alluring, easygoing personality, but it constantly seems like there's more to him than meets the eye. Nice to hear that he'll be getting some more spotlight.

[Dagger]

Shinkai was only involved with the animated sequence. However, minori (the company that made the ef game) was where he became more widely known to fans as a director. Below are links to the various opening movies he directed for them before ef. It's pretty cool to see how his visual effects and cinematography became more elaborate over time.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_OqOS9XcB8][u]Bittersweet Fools OP[/u][/url] [2001]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cdE2hu0pKI][u]Wind -a breath of heart- OP 1[/u][/url] [2002]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lpZLdj3_Jw][u]Wind -a breath of heart- OP 2[/u][/url] [2002]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAHthGd3LMI][u]Haru no Ashioto OP[/u][/url] [2004]

He also collaborated on (but did not personally direct) another Wind movie later in 2002, the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsHCiGLjyd8][u]opening[/u][/url] to the Soyokaze no Okurimono fandisc. ef - the first tale came out in 2006. For comparison purposes, he released She and Her Cat in 1999, Voices of a Distant Star in 2002, Beyond the Clouds in 2004, and Byousoku 5cm in 2007.

The ef game art is attributed to Naru Nanao (who designed the female characters) and 2C = Galore (who designed the male characters). I'm assuming they had some help from nameless minori assistants and other affiliates, especially since ef has waaaay more CGs than comparable visual novels.

Because they went for that more cinematic approach, it ended up being a very expensive game to produce--minori spent most of their profits from their previous works [i]and[/i] took out loans to finish the first tale. :animeswea

~Dagger~

[Meggido]

So with the new series I thought rather than making a new thread I'd revive the old one. So far I've only seen the first ep of A Tale of Melodies, but I've watched it twice from 2 different groups releases. With the menclave release I noticed the recurrence of some names in the scenes regarding Himura's past. The first being Amamiya, a teacher's name and Yuuko's last name, and the second being Hirono, the girl who was drawing her own nude self portrait. If I remember these names also were related to Miyako and Hiro in the first series so it'll be interesting to see how it ties in directly.

As for the second story I was kind of amazed that it was focused on Kuze. But then again I didn't really expect a second story at first. It does make a lot of sense to have it though. I didn't realise Mizuki was the girl infatuated with kei in the first series either until she mentioned it. XD

In terms of animation it seems to use the same aesthetics as the first season so I'm really interested in seeing how this pans out and what new effects they use.