First of all, for those of you who have yet to take a look at my news Twitter feed to the right side of this post, last night I was in attendance at the world premiere of The Garden of Words, hosted in Queensland, Australia as part of the Gold Coast Film Festival’s “Cool Japan” festivities which also included screenings of films such as Wolf Children. At the event I was also able to get a 15 minute interview with the legendary director himself – Makoto Shinkai – and intend on having that posted up alongside my review of the film shortly.
But in the meantime, I thought it would be nice to share another one of his smaller animation roles, during his days producing some of the opening sequences for Minori titles – such as Haru no Ashioto which I covered the other week (See HERE) and my focus of this week….. ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two.
Amamiya Yuuko, a mysterious girl dressed like a nun, and Himura Yuu, a mysterious gentleman who is somehow attached to the church where Yuuko first appears, are having a reunion in a church during Christmas time. Despite her attire, Yuuko is not affiliated with the church. She always appears generally out of no where, and disappears just as quickly in various places throughout the story to talk with Hiro or other characters and give them advice. Yuuko and Yuu reminisce about the past and remember events of the previous year around the same time at the beginning of the first chapter of the story. Yuuko hints of events that are revealed throughout Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two..
Unlike Haru no Ashioto, ef: The First Tale is now actually available on the market in English thanks to the teams at Minori, No Name Losers and MangaGamer. While sales don’t seem to have been as strong as they could have been, I do hope this opens up the doors to future releases by the company.
Once again, keep an eye out for my interview and review very soon!
