Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two is a Japanese two-part adult visual novel series by Minori for Windows PCs and PlayStation 2.

A 12-episode anime adaptation titled Ef: A Tale of Memories was produced by Shaft and aired between October and December 2007.

[3] On September 26, 2010, it was announced that MangaGamer had acquired the rights of the visual novel for a worldwide English release, in partnership with the translation group No Name Losers.

[5] The gameplay requires little interaction from the player as most of the duration of the game is spent simply reading the text that appears on the screen which represents either dialogue between the various characters or the inner thoughts of the protagonist.

Each protagonist is paired with a heroine, and each scenario in the original PC versions of the visual novels includes scenes with sexual content.

For Ef, Minori attempted to create a movie-like experience, using a lot of animated two-dimensional computer graphics presented from various angles.

The first part is titled Ef: The First Tale and primarily consists of the story of Hiro Hirono, Miyako Miyamura, Kyosuke Tsutsumi, Kei Shindo, and Yuko Amamiya.

Yuko Amamiya (雨宮 優子, Amamiya Yūko, voiced by: Yumiko Nakajima (Japanese), Carli Mosier (English)), a mysterious girl dressed like a nun, and Yu Himura (火村 夕, Himura Yū, voiced by: Kōichi Tōchika (Japanese), David Matranga (English)), a mysterious gentleman who is somehow attached to the church where Yuko first appears,[7] are having a reunion in a church during Christmas time.

[7] Yuko and Yu 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.

[7] Writing manga causes him to lose interest in school and focuses mainly on his work in order to earn an income, as usually he does not have much money as it is.

While out one Christmas night, a purse snatcher rushes past Hiro on a bike and soon Miyako Miyamura (宮村 みやこ, Miyamura Miyako, voiced by: Hiroko Taguchi (Japanese), Luci Christian (English)) appears, chasing after the purse thief, taking Hiro's bike without asking to pursue the culprit.

[7] She eventually starts to become attracted to Hiro after they start spending more time together, but during this time Hiro's childhood friend Kei Shindo (新藤 景, Shindō Kei, voiced by: Junko Okada (Japanese), Brittney Karbowski (English)) begins to feel left out and a love triangle develops between the three students.

After thinking about the mystery girl, he ends up quitting the film club and agrees with his girlfriend, Emi Izumi (voiced by: Kaori Nobiki (Japanese), Allison Sumrall (English)), to break up.

Ef: The Latter Tale begins once again with Yuko Amamiya and Yu Himura in the middle of a reunion in a church during Christmas time.

[7] One day, he goes to an abandoned train station in town he would often frequent to read at since it is so quiet there and meets a girl wearing an eyepatch over her left eye and sitting alone named Chihiro Shindo (新藤 千尋, Shindō Chihiro, voiced by: Natsumi Yanase (Japanese), Monica Rial (English)).

Chihiro is the younger twin sister of Kei Shindo from Ef: The First Tale and the main heroine of the third chapter in the story.

Renji later learns that she has a severe case of anterograde amnesia, where she can only remember 13 hours' of memory at a time, aside from the events before the accident that led to her current state, which she can recall perfectly.

Renji loves to read novels, and after discussing it with Chihiro, he collaborates with her to see if he can finally make her dream come true.

Shuichi keeps to himself that he is dying of a special case of neurosis, of which Mizuki is aware of, but even though she tries to get closer to him, he forcibly pushes her away and rejects her affections.

at 35 chapters,[20] but continued serialization in the June 2008 issue of ASCII Media Works' manga magazine Dengeki Daioh sold on April 21, 2008.

Ten tankōbon volumes were published under ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Comics imprint between February 27, 2006 and January 27, 2015.

[23][24] The stories are written by the same scenario staff as with the original games and manga, and illustration is handled by Naru Nanao, 2C Galore, and Mitsuishi Shōna.

[26] The Ef series, encompassing the visual novels and anime adaptation, was the only Minori title to receive coverage in an entire issue of Dengeki G's Festival!

In this way, the promotion mainly entailed news about the series and any updates related to the visual novels while also discussing points about the games themselves.

The anime series, under the title Ef: A Tale of Memories, aired 12 episodes on Chiba TV between October 7 and December 22, 2007.

The opening theme for Ef: A Tale of Memories, starting with episode three, is the English version of "Euphoric Field" by Tenmon featuring Elisa.

The first ending theme for the anime is "I'm here" by Hiroko Taguchi which was used for episodes one, three, seven, and ten; the single for the song (entitled "Adagio by Miyako Miyamura") was also released on October 24, 2007 by Geneon.

The second ending theme, "Kizamu Kisetsu" (刻む季節, Carving Season) by Junko Okada, was used for episodes four, five, and nine, and the single (entitled "Vivace by Kei Shindo") was released on November 21, 2007.

[47][48] From mid-April to mid-May 2008, Ef: The Latter Tale ranked fourth in national PC game pre-orders in Japan.

"[52] He concluded the review saying, "Despite some laughable melodrama, the raw emotions and Shaft's hypnotic animation makes ef ~a tale of memories~ a memorable romance.