This is a post I've been wanting to make for quite some time. I'm very happy to report that ef - a fairy tale of the two has finally been released in English thanks to the painstaking efforts of No Name Losers.

In case you're wondering why I'd give this title a mention:

A little over two years ago, Akira and I were members of the ef translation team (Akira as the project translator and myself as the lead editor). Because of unexpected personal issues at the time, Akira had to leave the team after roughly 20% of the first chapter was complete. Without a translator, the project was placed on indefinite hold and remained that way for the rest of the year.

Toward the end of 2008, a new translator approached the team, hoping to see the project through to the end. He was quickly able to prove his mettle, and I was ready to resume my work where we had left off. At around the same time, however, I was contacted by many parties interested in the Rosenkreuzstilette project. In the weeks that followed, I attempted to juggle both projects and the final course toward my university degree; unfortunately, it soon became clear to me that I'd have to give up one of my endeavors or risk sabotaging all of them. Since there were many tasks left in the RKS project that only I'd be able to tackle, I made my decision and parted with the ef team on friendly terms.

I'd like to applaud the team for completing such a massive undertaking. The story of ef spans a total of seven chapters, easily making it one of the longest and most ambitious visual novels ever released. An impressive 24-episode animated retelling of the story was produced by Shaft, but this version of events is abridged (omitting an entire story arc) and suffers from heavy adaptation decay. The anime incarnation has a very strong story; you can imagine how its source material compares.

I've always regretted not being of more use to the current translation team, but I'm very glad to see that their hard work has paid off. ef is a very touching story, and I highly recommend that everyone over the age of 18 give it a read.

A few words of warning: this is a standalone release that originally spanned two DVDs, so be sure you have plenty of free space on your hard drive before trying to download it. Download instructions can be found on the official No Name Losers website. The story contains adult content (including sexuality and violence), so please don't download it if you're not old enough or mature enough to handle that sort of thing (...but you probably won't listen to me anyway, will you?).

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: NNL, I'm damned proud of you guys, and I'm just as proud to have worked alongside you. You can guarantee I'll be looking forward to your next project.