ef - a tale of melodies - Episode 1

I really rather enjoyed ef - a tale of memories last year, although if I have to be honest I had more of a soft spot for the Hiro and Miyako side of the story than Renji and Chihiro and was thus a bit disappointed when I felt that they got a somewhat short shrift during the course of series as far as screen-time goes. But, a year later, here we are again with a follow up in the form of ef - a tale of melodies.

Well, this opening episode gave us no Hiro or Miyako at all, which is a bit of an early blow, with this instalment choosing to focus instead on a couple of ef's older characters. As Yu and Kuze chat away, the former finds his thoughts drifting back to his own school days, and his relationship with the slightly eccentric Nagi, while also bringing the rather mysterious 'nun' Yuko into the picture, suggesting an odd relationship between herself and Yu that ended in a far from satisfactory way.


While this side of the story closes out the first half of the episode, the second brings us onto Kuze himself, as he finds himself asked to look after Mizuki, who is staying with Renji during the Summer. This makes for an intensely dialogue-heavy experience, with the conversation loaded with an awful lot of tension that certainly goes beyond being purely sexual in nature (although there is an element of that there too).

Perhaps it's just been too long since I watched the first series of ef (a year is a long time when you're watching anime by the nice boat-load), but I'm really not sure what to make of this first episode. Ef always had a bit of a thing for overly flowery language at times, and this is present here once again, but more importantly it's impossible to get a grip on any of the characters or their motivations and thoughts at this early stage - While certain important points are obvious, there's clearly far, far more to it all that I wouldn't even want to begin guessing at. Still, despite this I have a fair amount of confidence in the series to do a decent job of telling its stories given the success of the first season, and it was always going to be a bit of a slow-burner, so I'm happy to just go with the flow and see what transpires for now.