Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two./Characters

Character sheet for ef (A Fairy Tale of the Two, A Tale of Memories, and A Tale of Melodies).

Miyako Miyamura
"Voiced by: Hiroko Taguchi (JP), Luci Christian (EN)"

A seventeen-year-old student in her second year at Otowa Gakuen, the main heroine of the game's first chapter and one of the main characters of the first anime series. Miyako is zany, cheerful, and never stays on one topic for too long; she's also almost always smiling. At school, she's known as a delinquent who's always skipping class, ! Miyako meets Hiro on Christmas Eve, and borrows his bike in order to chase after a thief who stole her purse. When the two of them meet at school a month later, they begin to fall in love.

Despite her outward demeanor, Miyako is actually fairly lonely, and carries emotional scars from. She tries to live her life so as not to be tied down by anything or anyone, but deep down, she badly needs and wants love.

Miyako's birthday is the eighth of September. She's 162 cm tall, and her three measurements are 88-57-83.

""You mean you're going to draw everything?! No mosaic?!""
 * The Ace
 * Ahoge
 * Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: Just try to get her to stay on one topic of conversation for longer than five minutes. And she regularly walks out of school because she's too bored to stay there.
 * Big Eater
 * Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word
 * Character Development: She's notably nicer and less self-centered in Kei's chapter than she is in her own.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Not quite to Yandere proportions, but close. Played for Drama in the anime, where her abandonment issues are more played up.
 * Common Mary Sue Traits: Perfect at everything she tries, popular when she actually bothers to interact with people, pretty, and also a Karma Houdini (Jerkass to a lot of people; gets called on it occasionally but never gets punished). Her character flaws and vulnerabilities are played up in the anime, which helps to counteract this, as does her guilt when she realizes she's crossed the line with Kei; Miyako is also a fairly well-liked character anyway.
 * Hair Decorations: Those big fat yellow ribbons of hers...
 * First Girl Wins
 * First Name Basis: She flatly insists on being called Miyako by everyone.
 * Freudian Excuse: Her abandonment issues over her parents' divorce, which are exaggerated in the anime.
 * Green Eyes
 * Hero Stole My Bike: Steals Hiro's bike to catch a purse stealer.
 * I Just Want to Be Loved
 * Image Song: I'm here
 * Kick the Dog: She feels bad about it later.
 * Leitmotif: "Free and easy."
 * Manic Pixie Dream Girl
 * Medium Awareness: The scene between her and Hiro at the end of her chapter, where Hiro asks her to model for him.
 * Medium Awareness: The scene between her and Hiro at the end of her chapter, where Hiro asks her to model for him.


 * Meet Cute: With Hiro.
 * No Social Skills
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: She's really, really booksmart.
 * Parental Neglect
 * Stepford Smiler: Has huge abandonment issues, . You'd never know by looking at her.
 * : In the anime.
 * Snow Means Love
 * Supreme Chef
 * : Why she became The Ace.
 * Zettai Ryouiki

Hiro Hirono
"Voiced by: Hiro Shimono (JP), Greg Ayres (EN)"

A seventeen-year-old student at Otowa Gakuen. He comes from a family of artists, and has loved shoujo manga since he was a kid. Unbeknownst to his classmates, he's actually the author of a serialized shoujo manga. Unfortunately, his job requires more of his attention than he can spare, and he's nearly failing school because of it. He's been friends with Kei since they were very young.

He has, which he cannot treat properly because of his job. Because of this, he is.

Hiro is the protagonist of the first chapter of the game, and one of the main characters in the first anime series. His birthday is the ninth of September.


 * Brown Eyes
 * The Danza: Voiced by Hiro Shimono.
 * Firstperson Smartass
 * Genre Blind: Even though his own manga deals with romance.
 * Leitmotif: "Imagination."
 * Like Brother and Sister: His view of Kei, poor girl.
 * Oblivious to Love
 * Real Men Wear Pink: Draws shoujo manga. And likes classical music.
 * Reclusive Artist: About three or four people know who he really is, and he writes under a penname.
 * Sitting On the Roof: He winds up getting Miyako doing it, too.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: With Kyousuke.

Kei Shindou
"Voiced by: Junko Okada (JP), Brittney Karbowski (EN)"

A sixteen-year-old student at Otowa Gakuen, and Hiro's childhood friend. She was the one who originally got him into manga, and she's had a crush on him for a while. Despite only being in her first year, Kei is the star of the basketball team, and has incredible athletic skills. She talks like a guy around Hiro, and takes it upon herself to take care of him (read: beat the living crap out of him if he slacks off at school).

Kei finds it very difficult to be honest with herself, probably due to her own Tsundere nature. She has a twin sister named Chihiro, who's also an important character.

Kei is the heroine of the second chapter of the game, and one of the main characters in the first anime. After a failed attempt at wresting Hiro's affections away from Miyako, she winds up in a reluctant romance with Kyousuke; for a long time, she is hesitant to love again because losing Hiro has given her a fear of abandonment. She's 150 cm tall, and her three measurements are 76-55-79. Her birthday is June second.


 * Berserk Button: Don't make fun of her height.
 * Book Dumb
 * Childhood Friend Romance: Miyako wins over Hiro before Kei even realizes she has competition. When she asks about it later, the general opinion is that even if she had already been dating him, Miyako still would have won. That said, one of the few bad ends is devoted to her and carries a little lampshade hanging to the effect of 'Okay, for all you Hiro/Kei shippers out there, here's your ending!'
 * Demoted to Extra: Her arc is extremely truncated in the anime.
 * Desperately Looking for A Purpose In Life
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me: To Hiro after Miyako's Kick the Dog moment.
 * Eyes of Gold
 * Hair Trigger Temper: But of course.
 * Ill Girl: Temporarily, when
 * Image Song: Kizamu Kisetsu
 * in the anime.
 * Lethal Chef
 * Leitmotif: "Hand with hand.", "Early childhood.", and "Heart to Heart."
 * Red Oni Blue Oni: The red to Chihiro's blue.
 * Replacement Goldfish: A lot of her chapter of the game deals with the morality of forming relationships similar to those you've lost in the past; Kei is aware that on some level she may only be interested in Mizuki and Kyousuke in order to "replace" Chihiro and Hiro.
 * Second Love:
 * Shorttank: Though she starts wearing dresses and skirts in order to show off her feminine charms to Hiro.
 * Sparkling Stream of Tears
 * Tomboy
 * Tsundere

Kyousuke Tsutsumi
"Voiced by: Yuuki Tai (JP), Chris Patton (EN)"

A seventeen-year-old student in the same class as Hiro. The two of them are best friends and occasionally best enemies. Kyousuke is a renowned playboy, but finds himself getting stuck on Kei in the second chapter of the game, in which he's the protagonist. Kyousuke also happens to be a devoted member of the school's film club, and has serious aspirations buried under his slacker's appearance.

Over break, he saw Kei in passing and got slightly obsessed with her; eventually he decides to quit the film club and make an amateur film starring her for an upcoming film festival. Along the way, they fall in love. His birthday is November 29.


 * A Man Is Not a Virgin: He boasts about his success with girls, though Hiro doesn't really seem to mind.
 * Casanova
 * Ladykiller in Love: After meeting Kei
 * Dogged Nice Guy
 * Gray Eyes
 * Idiot Hero
 * Leitmotif: "Bad friend."
 * Love At First Sight
 * Parental Abandonment: His mother is dead, and his father is rarely around due to work.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: With Hiro.

Chihiro Shindou
"Voiced by: Natsumi Yanase (JP), Monica Rial (EN)"

Kei's twin sister. Although she's often seen in uniform, she does not attend Otowa Gakuen for health reasons. She's often seen at the train station, reading books; this is where she bumps into Renji for the first time. Yuu (yes, that Yuu) is her primary caretaker. She has lived a very difficult life due to the fact that she has had for the past several years,.

Renji is the first person she's told about herself for a while, and his presence in her life helps her to move towards her goals again--Chihiro is attempting to write a short story about "the last girl in the world", but has largely given up due to her condition. They develop a relationship, although is a large obstruction to it. How things end between them differs vastly between the anime and game.

She's the main heroine of the third game, and is said to be the embodiment of the theme "a tale of memories". In the anime, Chihiro is one of the central characters. She's 151 cm tall, and her measurements are 77-53-78.


 * Bad Dreams: Of the accident where she lost her eye and her health problems started.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Her very existence. She's mentioned briefly in passing in the first chapter, and her character develops from there.
 * Dandere: She tends to be cold with strangers because her health makes it difficult to let them in, but she has no problems being social with the people she knows.
 * Different As Night and Day: Oh boy. Aside from their looks, you'd never think she and Kei are sisters.
 * Eyes of Gold
 * Fragile Flower
 * Hey Its That Voice: So this is what Fia would sound like doing sex scenes.
 * Image Song: Sora no Yume
 * Ingenue far sweeter and gentler than her sister Kei. Her condition makes her innocent
 * Leitmotif: "Warm color." Her novel also has three themes, none of which appear on the soundtrack for some odd reason.
 * Lethal Chef: Apparently this runs in her family.
 * Picky Eater: Will not eat peas.
 * Red Oni Blue Oni: The blue to Kei's red.
 * Reset Button: In the game,.
 * Shrinking Violet
 * Snow Means Death
 * The Stoic
 * Suicide Is Painless: She discusses this,.
 * Younger Than They Look: Because of her condition, Chihiro will always be thirteen years old mentally.

Renji Asou
"Voiced by: Motoki Takagi (JP), Clint Bickham (EN)"

A student at Otowa Gakuen who doesn't have many friends due to his family's moving around a great deal. His world is restricted to his class, his crazy mother Sumire, his often-offscreen father, and his cheerful cousin Mizuki--at least until he stops by the town's abandoned train station one day and meets Chihiro there. Although Renji is rather aimless and doesn't know what to do with himself and his life at the beginning of the story, meeting Chihiro and learning to cope with and consider her health in all of their interactions helps him to mature. He decides to become and author, and does his best to support her.

Renji's birthday is the first of November. He is a year younger than Chihiro, but his chapter starts when he's in his junior year of high school.


 * But Not Too Foreign: He's half-German.
 * Butt Monkey
 * Cloudcuckoolander: His ideal is to be a Knight in Shining Armor, and when he first meets Chihiro he imagines her to be basking in the warmth of a... spaceship launch?!
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait
 * My Beloved Smother
 * Second Love: Chihiro. His first love was.
 * Wide Eyed Idealist

Mizuki Hayama
"Voiced by: Mai Goto (JP), Hillary Haag (EN)"

Mizuki is 156 cm tall and her three measurements are 80-58-82. Her birthday is December 22.


 * Badass Adorable
 * Blue Eyes
 * Cat Smile
 * Cure Your Gays
 * Get a Hold of Yourself Man: To Kuze.
 * For Happiness
 * Girlish Pigtails: Changed to a single side ponytail in the fourth chapter.
 * Happily Adopted
 * Harmful to Minors: Oh, boy. First . And after that, when she was still a little kid. It's a subversion, though, as aside from her phobia of the ocean Mizuki doesn't let her childhood trauma adversely affect her behavior--rather, she wants to make people happy because of it.
 * I'm Taking Her Home With Me: To Chihiro.
 * Image Song: Egao no Chikara
 * Imagine Spot
 * Ironic Echo: At the end of chapter seven, when Kuze steps up to play, Mizuki points at him from the audience with her thumb up and her forefinger extended.
 * Leitmotif: Mizuki's chapter contains a number of tracks that are only used in conjunction with her and Kuze, no other characters. Only some of them made it onto the OST, sadly.
 * Les Yay: She just loooooves her Kei-sempai.
 * Love Martyr: Towards Kuze.
 * Plucky Girl
 * The Pollyanna
 * May December Romance: With Kuze.
 * : For.
 * Stepford Smiler: For a little while towards the end of her chapter after . She snaps out of it pretty quickly, though.
 * Verbal Tic: It's very rare for her to have dialogue that doesn't include onomatopoeia of some sort.
 * You ALL Share My Story: She's involved in all the other plotlines before she becomes a main heroine.

Shuichi Kuze
"Voiced by: Kenji Hamada (JP), Illich Guardiola (EN)"


 * Bishonen
 * Brown Eyes
 * Casanova
 * Decoy Protagonist: The fourth chapter is ostensibly from his perspective, but most of the scenes are shown from Mizuki's point of view as she tries to get closer to him, the reverse of the other chapters.
 * The Gadfly
 * Generation Xerox: In the fifth chapter, his role is much the same as Kyousuke's in the first.
 * Leitmotif: See the entry under Mizuki.
 * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: With Yuu. Contrary to appearances, he's the manly man.
 * Soap Opera Disease
 * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: With Yuu. Contrary to appearances, he's the manly man.
 * Soap Opera Disease

Yuko Amamiya
"Voiced by: Yumiko Nakajima (JP), Carli Mosier (EN)"

Yuuko is the main heroine of the overarching story. Her birthday is 6/21 and her three sizes are 82-56-83.


 * : Once, Yuuko is still subject to.
 * : In her and Yuu's fandisc epilogue.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl
 * : So your life's finally going great, Yuuko!
 * Doomed Appointment
 * First Girl Wins: Met Yuu as a little girl and then is the first girl we see in the entire Visual Novel. Nagi didn't stand much of a chance.
 * Forgotten Childhood Friend
 * The Gadfly
 * Generation Xerox: On the surface, her role in chapter five is similar to Miyako's in chapter one.
 * Happily Adopted: In Nagi and original!Mizuki's what-if fandisc scenarios, where she lives with the Amamiyas without incident.
 * Harmful to Minors: Much of her backstory.
 * Ill Girl: Because she lacks physical strength, she tends to get sick easily and occasionally has her legs give out on her. This happens much more frequently when.
 * Image Song: Negai no Kakera
 * Laser Guided Amnesia: Though she downplays it as just having a bad memory.
 * Leitmotif: "Girl's mask.", "Mysteric position."
 * Lethal Chef: Though she works hard to get better, and as she's less of a hopeless case than the Shindou girls, she shows some improvement.
 * Narrator: Of the first two games.
 * Never Trust a Trailer: The game's second opening revolves around, which never actually happens.
 * Nice Hat
 * Obfuscating Stupidity
 * Purple Eyes
 * Stealth Pun: When Yuu asks her why she's on the roof, Yuuko replies that she's a member of the recently-dissolved astronomy club. In Japanese, "astronomy" is "tenmon", which is the name of the game's composer.
 * Stepford Smiler
 * Vague Age: Turns into a Running Gag in the first chapter.
 * You ALL Share My Story
 * Purple Eyes
 * Stealth Pun: When Yuu asks her why she's on the roof, Yuuko replies that she's a member of the recently-dissolved astronomy club. In Japanese, "astronomy" is "tenmon", which is the name of the game's composer.
 * Stepford Smiler
 * Vague Age: Turns into a Running Gag in the first chapter.
 * You ALL Share My Story
 * Stepford Smiler
 * Vague Age: Turns into a Running Gag in the first chapter.
 * You ALL Share My Story

Yu Himura
"Voiced by: Kouichi Touchika (JP), David Matranga (EN)"

Yu is the hero of the overarching story.


 * The Comically Serious
 * Dead Little Sister
 * Dead Person Conversation: He has a few conversations with in his dreams. They may or may not be hallucinations or tricks of the psyche, though.
 * Deus Angst Machina:.
 * Think Yuu's state in the anime was bad? In the game,
 * Eyes of Gold
 * Firstperson Smartass
 * Generation Xerox: His role in chapter five is similar to Hiro's in chapter one, although he's much more tsun than Hiro ever was.
 * Harmful to Minors: He describes the great disaster in gruesome detail. After which it's easy to see why he's got issues.
 * Its All My Fault: First concerning, then . He gets proactive about the latter.
 * My Greatest Failure
 * Narrator: Of the second two games.
 * Perpetual Frowner
 * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: With Kuze. Despite appearances, he's the sensitive guy.
 * Stay in The Kitchen: He doesn't mean it out of sexism, but he desperately tries to get Yuuko to sit around the house doing nothing out of concern for her health. Yuuko is not pleased.
 * Sugar and Ice Personality
 * Tragic Keepsake: The red watch. Later, . Even later,.
 * White Haired Pretty Boy

Sumire Asou
"Voiced by: Sayaka Aoki (JP), Tiffany Grant (EN)"


 * Adult Child
 * Cat Smile
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Curtains Match the Window
 * Genre Savvy
 * Green Eyes
 * Hot Mom
 * Meganekko

Nagi Hirono
"Voiced by: Shizuka Ito (JP), Allison Keith (EN)"


 * Bokukko: "Watashi" is three syllables, making it too long! "Boku" has two--isn't it perfect?!
 * Chekhov's Gunman
 * Childhood Friend Romance: Goes nowhere, to her disappointment. However, she does have a route in the fandisc.
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Cool Big Sis
 * Curtains Match the Window
 * Generation Xerox: Her role in chapter five is very similar to Kei's in chapter one. Minus the Tsundere, at least.
 * Gray Eyes
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Nagi is perfectly accepting of Yuu and Yuuko's relationship, and is good friends with Yuuko despite everything.
 * : She feels like because of her conversation with Yuu,.
 * Leitmotif: "Art and Art."
 * Mad Artist: Mostly played for laughs.
 * Non Standard Character Design: She was designed by 2C=Galore, who designed the male characters in the series, as opposed to Naru Nanao.
 * Oblivious to Love: Even when she's the one in it.
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Would you believe that Nagi is Hirono's big sister, not Kei and Chihiro's?

Akira Amamiya
"Voiced by: Tohru Furusawa (JP), Josh Grelle (EN)"


 * Good Smoking Evil Smoking
 * Leitmotif: Mostly Inverted. In most of his scenes, no music is played at all.
 * Purple Eyes
 * Sympathy for The Devil:
 * Leitmotif: Mostly Inverted. In most of his scenes, no music is played at all.
 * Purple Eyes
 * Sympathy for The Devil:

Mizuki Hayama ()
Heroine of one of the what-if stories. Renji's first love; the girl who as a child in the main continuity.


 * Non Standard Character Design: Designed by the main artist for *eden rather than Nanao or 2C=Galore. Further research about the artist, this troper found out that its one of the artists for Wind-a breath of heart (also another minori work) named Shouna Mitsuishi. so its neither chikotam who did the art for eden*

Akari Amamiya
Heroine of one of the what-if stories, which examines what life would have been like if the great disaster had never occurred. Amamiya Akira's real younger sister. She is stated to be something of a masochist in promotional materials.


 * For Want of a Nail: Her survival apparently would have made all the difference in the quality of Yuuko's life.
 * Meganekko
 * Non Standard Character Design: Same as Mizuki above.