ef: 2D vs. Reality
ef - a (really) real fairy tale.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I’m alive. Except for my April Fools Post I haven’t blogged for over one month! The reasons are simple. I just didn’t feel like it since I’m really busy at work. The usual stuff~
Well, minori’s april fools joke (ef - a real fairy tale.) eventually made me move my ass and visit the original location, of ef - a fairy tale of the two., which the fictional town Otowa was based on. And that location would be the German university town Heidelberg.
Heidelberg lies on the river Neckar in the state Baden-Württemberg
It’s just about an 90 minute drive from my home so I made it a nice one-day trip.
Her goes the comparison:
➀ Mönchgasse / Heiliggeiststrasse
This location was first featured in the first chapter of ef - the first tale. when Hiro found Miyako unconscious lying on the ground next to his damaged Bike, she borrowed to catch a purse snatcher.
➁ St. Peter’s Church

The St. Peter’s Church (ef: Otowa Church) is the oldest church in Heidelberg. As you can see, minori applied some main changes to the bell tower. Also, the interior looks totally different. It’s the key location and featured in all chapters of the ef VNs but not in the anime. They chose another or fictional church for that one.
➂ Hauptstraße / St. Anna-Gasse

Located at the entrance of the big shopping promenade, they left this location without changes major. Even the hotel sign made it into the game.
➃ Hauptstraße / Sofienstraße / Bismarckplatz

Minori only used the house on the right side, shortened and moved it to another location. The neon sign says Haus Der Brille (tl: House of Glasses). It housed a big optician’s store. The house is originally located kitty-corner location ➂.
➄ Plöck / Neugasse

I found this location by chance on my way home. It was only shown in episode 11 of ef - a tale of memories. On their date, Chihiro and Renji came across this Penny Markt Supermarket. It’s located the next street over from location ➂ and ➃.
➅ Heidelberg Castle

In episode 10 of ef - a tale of melodies. a few stylized photos of Heidelberg were shown. One of them shows the destroyed “fat tower” of the Heidelberg Castle.
I marked the locations on this map
I hope you liked my little tour through Heidelberg/Otowa. As a little bonus, here’s some more Yuuko in front of St. Peter’s Church:










Wow, that’s pretty awesome!
Now I know where the next Weekendtrip goes to… ;)
Nice shots, great composition. ^^
Quote
So there you went. Nice. Didn’t thought ef would play that much in Germany. Since I only know the Anime (no, I have enough).
But it was just a matter of time that you go there, as you are a ef-oholic.
But nice shoots. I like the one with the church, the shadow and that all. Very cool.
And Srsly OMGWTFBBQ @ Penny Markt at ef! XD
We do know where all those ef chars got their perfume from… lolo
Quote
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Joachim / 夜明けヒム, emuty. emuty said: Oh! :D RT @De_JaY: New blog post: ef: 2D vs. Reality http://touhou.us/blog/archives/1347 [...]
I also only watched the anime (only memories so far) and I didn’t recongnize Germany at all ^^;. I really have to play the games…
Quote
ef is fucking awesome. Great pics man, nice dedication also ;-) .
Quote
Looks identical to anime, to bad there are no real ef characters in town =(
Quote
Wooh, this is awesome! Good job man.
How many time did it take you to figure out those random places?
Quote
I already knew 3 of them since I went to Heidelberg before and have a good memory.
Quote
Lucky bastard, ill have to visit Germany sometime and drag yo out there again, then we get some people to cosplay the ef characters to make the photos even better. x3
Quote
Didnt think the ef game would be base in the middle of nowhere in germany, WTF!
I second what Nekotenshi said =)
Anyway good job with the pictures.
Quote
Oh my God. *Salute* Wonder if you managed to find the Fountain where Mizuki met Kuze for the 1st time?
Quote
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by De_JaY: New blog post: ef: 2D vs. Reality http://touhou.us/blog/archives/1347...
Well, Heidelberg has many fountains but none as simple looking as the one they met. heh
Quote
Really nice comparsion. Good job^^
I also didn´t know, that Heidelberg was the base for Otowa^^”
Quote
This is awesome!!!!
Seems you had a realy nice day.
Quote
Wow nice I’m near Heidelberg too (Mannheim),
will do some shots of them soon XD
Quote
Hab ef nie gesehen, und war auch nicht in Heidelberg, aber das Yuuko Nendo ist aberputzig. :3
Quote
Thanks a lot for the comparaison and the visit ! It’s amazing !
Quote
Now, this is really awesome :)
I really appreciate your dedication, nice job.
Quote
Haha, thanks a bunch for the awesome shots :3
Quote
Nice! Very lovely pictures. I’m sure it was rather difficult matching the 2D with the 3D so closely, eh?
Quote
Haha, not at all. I had some CGs on my phone to match the Photos.
Quote
hehe, great job regardless!
Quote
[...] my ef/realiry photo comparison? Well, now there’s video [...]