I linked some of this before, but I want to have a consolidated list in one place (I have a category, but it's too diffuse).
Firstly, Omo's is an RTWT, hard to quote concisely entry. He also has a tag.
It’s really hard to find an anime that has so much impact in this season. [...]
If there is something more beautiful in the romance of the two couples this year, please point it out to me. It’s been a while since I last cried at an anime, and the last anime that did was AIR.
I don't find ef to be a mindless tear-jerker in the way AIR was (although I did not see much of AIR at all, in fact because I hate this kind of tear squeezing).
ef started rather humbly and pretty unimpressively too, after the initial hype for it that I was exposed to. [...] The turning point of ef for me was probably the start of Chihiro’s novel writing endeavors [...] ef’s climax for me was Chihiro’s tearing of her diary pages from the time she met Renji until the day she tried to break up with him.
Another thing I would like to give credit to is SHAFT’s artistic style, while initially I disliked, but I soon loved it as it has been a real star by it’s own, as it managed to convey itself very well and also added to to overall fantasy-styled setting of ef, giving it a more fantastic feel.
And the use of Tenmon’s music: while Tenmon’s score was not as brilliant, in my opinion, as his work with Makoto Shinkai, it was still head and shoulders above most anything except by Yuki Kajiura or Yoko Kanno for this year’s work. More importantly, it was used in ways that almost always added to every scene in crucial ways. The only exceptions are the somewhat predictable soaring passages that occur when romantic resolution comes (a kiss, a hug, etc). That’s almost... Hollywood.
My favourite example was the BGM change when Hiro turned the timed phone call around. It was very overt. But hey, whatever works, I've got no complaints.
Aside from the overt artsiness of the beginning episodes, the voice actors were, frankly, poorly cast for people who are not already immune to the eroge/harem style of voice acting.
I thought they were pretty good, and I've got Hashi-hime on my side. Natsumi Yanase had left an especial impression.
Just noticed that ef is in a statistical tie, rating-wise, as Gurren Lagann over at ANN as a “masterpiece.” Gainax put a lot more effort into Gurren Lagann than Shaft did with ef. Gainax wrote the story and provided better animation… I’m still of the feeling that ef succeeded in spite of Shaft []
One thing I do have to say about the show is that it was interesting to see the series, for the most part, have two separate stories going on. There are hundreds of series that have subplots or have side characters that get their own story and so on but I haven’t really seen a show like this before. For the most part the two stories that they had going were completely separate and had nothing to do with each other.
I thought that running two stories was detremental. In comments, Omo had a different angle:
I think the ultimate achievement of ef a tale of memories is bringing that visual novel flair and style to the anime format. That’s why we’ve never seen something like this before...
It would have been hard for me to believe back when I started watching ef -a tale of memories that I would find it to be so profound, moving and extraordinary. During these twelve episodes I was baffled by the imagery and symbolism, only to gradually understand at least part of what the creators were trying to say; turning a dating sim/visual novel into one of the most powerful pieces of drama of 2007 amounts to the metaphorical act of making a diamond out of broken glass.
There's more at the link.
I was one of those who was put off by the visual style that cluttered ep 1. Oh yes, I get it. They are meant to accentuate mood, emotions and the less tangible aspectsof the plot/interaction in an artistic, sometimes abstract manner etc etc. The problem was that it was overdone, to the point that it was self-indulgent and distracting. Thankfully, the intensity tapered off within episodes and a nice balance was struck between the story and symbolisms.
Heh. I think I can see a pattern in blog reactions now.
There was way more blogged: ED translation mismatch @Astrobunny's, a self-proclaimed expert underwhelmed, and general buzz. I don't think I can cover all of it, so this will do.
UPDATE: Woops, forgot about Jonathan, who was disappointed:
[ef] has earned itself a host of devoted fans with its clever, insightful writing and splendid retro artwork. Unfortunately it turns into a massive angst-fest. I’m usually pretty tolerant of angst, but I do have my limits. In this case the angst causes one of the main characters to do something truly horrible, an act so abusive that it ruined the series for me, in spite of the subsequent attempt to proceed to a happy ending.
Now that's what I call a substantiated disagreement between intelligent people.
(Meta-update: Jonathan spelled out the argument later, and it's probably the most thought-out entry on ef across all blogs.
UPDATE: C.C. Yoshi (very long).
UPDATE 2008/2/24: One more for lulz:
Also for a supposed sky-whoring anime, sola is majorly outwhored by ef in that respect.
There's also a serious message.
UPDATE 2008/3/13: Evirus finaly caught up with the show:
Just a few brief final thoughts about ef: I liked the series, but clearly not as much as most people did. I never did fully warm up to most of the characters. However, I do appreciate that ef tried to do for moe blobs what Eva did for giant robots and their pilots.
That's giving ef a lot of credit, don't you think?