ef - a tale of memories.

When a Christmas night crash sparks tangled hearts, youthful love battles memory and destiny.

On a snow‑laden Christmas Eve, Hiro Hirono’s ordinary night takes a wild turn when Miyako Miyamura commandeers his bike to chase a purse thief. The pursuit ends with a wrecked bicycle and Miyako knocked out, leaving Hiro to care for her in a deserted park. Their impromptu companionship reveals they attend the same high school, and a tentative bond begins to blossom amid the holiday lights. Meanwhile, Hiro’s childhood friend Kei Shindou watches from the sidelines, her earnest, almost naïve outlook catching the eye of the charismatic photographer Kyosuke Tsutsumi, who’s forever hunting the perfect shot and the perfect romance. Across town, Renji Asou, a self‑styled knight‑in‑shining‑armor, meets Chihiro Shindou—Kei’s twin sister—at an abandoned train platform. Chihiro, a reclusive bookworm, agrees to co‑author a novel with Renji, sparking a fragile partnership that forces Renji to confront the gap between his chivalrous fantasies and the messy reality of Chihiro’s hidden past. As the two pairs navigate jealousy, unspoken desires, and the weight of their own expectations, enigmatic adults pull the strings from the shadows, guiding the youths toward painful goodbyes and bittersweet acceptance. The series weaves these intersecting love polygons into a lyrical meditation on memory, loss, and the fleeting moments that define first love.

This visually stylized romance drama follows two intertwining love stories, one involving a girl who cannot retain new memories due to a past accident. It handles disability, jealousy, and emotional dependency with maturity, making it best suited for viewers ready for bittersweet, psychologically complex relationships.