If I drop a series, I use it as an excuse to rip the unfortunate show to shreds. Jeff Lawson is not one to make a big production from dropping; he just quits one day (it's an utter mystery why his Mahoraba reporting stopped at ep.19). Yesterday he made the abandonment of ef official (in comments, scroll down). It was a matter of time after this:

All in all, ef - a tale of memories is a fascinating show.

And it bores me to tears.

I’m exaggerating, yes, but I have to admit that, after four episodes, I don’t find the show the slightest bit engaging. While watching, I feel completely detached from what’s going on, a little voice in the back of my head whispering, “you could be watching something else right now, you know.”

Ouch.

But "fascinating" is spot on. I'm only done with two episodes, but so far, ef is a treasure trove for weaboos, more so than Lucky Star was (which only had Miyuki for such purposes, and we know how little screen time she received).

There's no complex grammar, it's all だ and です with a smattering of ありません. One can enjoy it after a cursory reading of a textbook for a month. I thought I'd melt when Chihiro said "あそうさんのこと　試してました" together with a missing particle "wo" and "i" out of "iru". In the same time, a few of one-word oddities to delight the non-fluent:

いらそう — Translated as "arrogant" (the mangaka guy on the roof with the crazy girl). Not in any dictionary.

ごしょう — Translated as "an incorrect form of addressing someone".

Now, if you do not fall for this sort of thing, I think it's still an ok anime. We have a somewhat convoluted story, but not excessively. Surrealism is kept in check. A comfortable viewing, in other words.

UPDATE: Jeff says the blogging about Mahoraba fell victim to real life and its end coincided with the end of Nowhere. He did not actually abandon the series.