[Anime Review] Eden of the East

“There's nothing more dangerous than someone who wants to make the world a better place.” 

                             ― Banksy

Here's something to ponder for a couple moments. Anime is partly loved so greatly from me because just how different it feels from other mediums. Anime has a unique feel to it, from the tsunderes, to the nonsensical shounen power ups, to the fact that everything must always revolve around a highschool. You find stories you couldn't anywhere else, for example, I firmly believe that anime like Gurren Lagann, Bakemonogatari or even Clannad just wouldn't work if they weren't anime, the overall zaniness, insanity, cliches, and weirdness of the medium allow certain things to work where in other forms of entertainment they would just be viewed as... well just freakin' weird. And don't get me wrong, anime is freakin' weird, but sometimes when there is so much of this weirdness, it starts to lose the appeal, and almost feel repetitive.  When I start to feel this way, I can turn to one of three things. Firstly, I could just stop watching anime for a bit and watch American television. That's never going to happen though, so secondly, I could turn to anime's downright deranged side and see how much weirdness I can take. Or lastly, if I don't want to be scarred by what I might see, I could turn to anime like the topic of this review: Eden of the East, an anime that tackles a kind of story that anime usually just doesn't go for. If anything, Eden of the East feels like something that would be produced over here in the West, but through a great premise, a good taste for music and a fantastic first few episodes, Eden of the East pulls it off. Well, almost pulls it off. 

     Hello people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving a couple of days ago, and welcome to a brand new anime review. Today we'll be talking about Eden of the East, what it does right, where it goes wrong, and why for better or worse, you should all probably go watch it. Here we go. 

So, before plot and characters and all that, let's talk about the show's background shall we? The original creator of Eden of the East and the director of its anime adaptation is Kenji Kawayami, and he hasn't been around the industry that much, but his most notable accomplishment is handling the script and directing Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The script for Eden of the East was actually written by three people, which is a little odd, the first and most prominent being Dai Sato, who was the head writer of both Eureka Seven and Ergo Proxy, as well as writing the script for Wolf's Rain. The second writer was Shoutarou Suga, writer of Isshuukan Friends(which admittedly I haven't seen but looks really good), and the third Naohiro Fukushima, who... um... wrote the ninth episode of Eureka Seven AO, and pretty much that. Which isn't encouraging. Animation is by the highly prestigious Production I.G, who have created some of the best looking anime of all time, for example, Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex and Guilty Crown. More recently though, they've been up to things such as Psycho-Pass, Haikyuu, and of course, co-producing with Studio Wit on a little known anime that goes by the name of Attack on Titan. And lastly, Eden of the East aired from April 10th to June 19th in 2009, and is only 11 episodes. Now, onto the plot. 

In November of 2010,  an unheard of act of terrorism was committed in Japan. Ten missiles were launched from an unknown source and with no time to react to them, land squarely in the middle of Japan's largest cities. But shockingly, a miracle occurs, and though all ten missiles find their targets, somehow not a single person is harmed. With this amazingly low number of casualties, Japan moves on practically forgetting the incident entirely, which has come to be known as "Careless Monday". A few months later after this fateful event, we meet our main character: a young woman named Saki Morimi, who is amazingly not in fact a highschool student, but a senior at university, on a graduation trip with a group of friends in Washington D.C. However, as she stands in front of The White House(and throws something onto the front yard), things become very bizarre, as after she is questioned for throwing said thing over said fence, she is saved by a charming man named Akira Takizawa. The thing is, he is stark naked, holding a gun in one hand, and a cellphone in the other. After Akira takes off suddenly, Saki follows him to the airport, and learns a few things. Firstly, that cellphone has about 8 billion dollars on it, just sitting there, and another thing, Akira doesn't appear to remember anything about who he is or how he ended up outside The White House in the first place. Also, after using that cellphone to speak with a mysterious woman named Juiz, Akira learns that he is one of 12 "Seleção" and begins to realize that he might be more involved with the events of Careless Monday than he could possibly imagine, and that the money that is currently sitting in his phone is only one step in an elaborate plot that must be completed by all 12 Seleção, a plot that will ensnare all of Japan, either "saving" it, or destroying it. And then, with these great plot-points and ideas, Eden of the East proceeds to commit a cardinal sin of the mystery show that it is, and plays it safe.

     OK, so this is a little complicated, so stay with me a minute. First of all, I don't want to give away too much about the story. The reason why the first few episodes of Eden of the East work so well is that the questions it presents are very interesting, and the anime doesn't give you too much information too fast. It's only till about episode 4 that you actually start getting the full view of the plot, and since I consider the actual main idea of Eden of the East's plot to be actually really, really, good, this is easily the best part of the series. But here's the two big problems that kill this idea as quickly as it is raised. The first problem is what I've already stated, the series plays it safe(I'll explain what I mean), and maybe this would be tolerable in the series, since tons of anime start to fall on typical tropes and cliches as they go on, but there is one particular reason why it doesn't work here. The actual plot of Eden of the East is one of the most ambitious I've seen in anime for a long time. Once the main idea falls into view, you start to realize that it opens the possibility for a lot of other cool ideas, a huge amount of brilliant scenarios, as well as the ability for the show to dip into as many themes as it could possibly want, but it just doesn't. Here's what I mean by playing it safe. I'll keep the exact reason they have this money or who gave it to them vague, but all Seleção have this massive amount of money, and slightly different views of what completing their biggest mission actually looks like. This would, you'd think, set the stage for a set of very interesting battles between Seleção with clashing ideologies, both in themes, as both sides are presented and you work that brain of yours, and action-wise, as two people with an ungodly amount of money and power take their battle throughout all of Japan. However, this never really happens, besides a distinct point in the series when Akira is battling Seleção XI, as they both manipulate traffic to stop one another from reaching their destination, and yeah, that was pretty awesome, I just wish it had happened more than a grand total of once in the show. Sure, Akira does go toe-to-toe with a couple more Seleção in the show, but it's never within the complicity that the show is capable of, which really just baffles me. They obviously know just how far they can go with this idea, again, another reason why the beginning of the show works so well is that the other Seleção are faceless entities that could be doing who knows what, maybe manipulating the world's economy or something, but the people we actually do get to meet are painfully boring in their objectives. And when they are trying to do something interesting, namely the Seleção at the very end of the show, it doesn't really make a lot of sense from a logical standpoint as their motivations are never really explained. 

     However, most of these issues most likely stem from the show's second big problem, is it soooo rushed. Eden of the East is a mere 11 episodes, and all the problems that come with that materialize here beautifully. Again, the plot is extremely large-scale, and since we still need to fit in our ending, and still have that four-episode introduction which was is so vital to both atmosphere and intrigue, that leaves about four or five episodes. Five episodes to.... establish the other Seleção and their motivations, build up and develop our two main characters, explain Akira's amnesia and how it relates to Careless Monday, explain Careless Monday, and introduce all of the supporting characters, such as the other members of Saki's small business: "Eden of the East", and why is that business important enough to be the show's namesake? Well, it needs to explain that too. So, you know, all things considered, the anime could have handled things a lot worse than it did. This thing could have easily been 26 episodes, but amazingly, the show crams basically the structure of everything it needs to into the anime, but that's the thing, everything is crammed in, so there is no space left for elaboration or even context of certain things. You know, maybe rushed isn't quite the right word. I found the show's pacing to be fairly nice, it's more like the show decided to not try and stuff all of the story into the show and more focus on vast amount of things it needed to handle already.This might be more of the reason why vast portions of the story are left unexplored, and yes, I do know that there are two follow-up movies to Eden of the East that supposedly explain the rest of the plot, but since they are both supposedly really bad, I haven't got around to watching hem yet, and besides, this is a review of the series exclusively. 

However, the ending makes up for a lot... well sort of.

Before we move onto characters, I want to explain my mixed feeling on the ending of the anime really fast. There's a lot of things to like about the last few episodes. Several interesting revelations are unraveled, and the urgent tone starts to break into the series. However, the last episode of Eden of the East is always a weird one for me. The episode itself is perfectly fine, but then a certain thing happens. I won't say what, but let's just say it is something completely out of nowhere and silly that really made me wonder whether I was supposed to be taking this seriously. The anime didn't appear to have an answer, and then proceeded to confuse me even more by having the very last scene of the anime be kind of amazing. Seriously, when that jazz starts playing it's like...

Our two leads: Akira and Saki.

The problem with the characters of Eden of the East is no matter how likable or interesting some of them may be, the sheer number of them prevents us from getting to know, well any of them. All we get is the fast version, and in some cases that is enough, but for our two main characters, it just doesn't work.
     I'll guess I'll start with our "main heroine" Saki, but why do I put heroine in massive quotation marks? Well, as I thought more about her and rewatched certain parts of the anime for the purposes of this review, I began wonder whether she actually needed to be here at all. Saki is a normal woman put into this strange situation, but while superior anime might have these changes develop the average joe into something awesome, whether it be time constraints or that maybe Kenji Kawayami simply never had any aspirations for her character, Saki remains bland as they come for the entire series. She doesn't even really initiate anything within the plot, often only ending up in the middle of things because of dumb luck or sheer luck. In other words, the reason she's involved with this story is because the plot calls for it, and you know, if you're going to go through lengths to keep her in this story, you could try to do something with her. Granted, they do at least try to develop her character by throwing in an unexpected turn in her psyche, but literally the second I considered this new information and realized it might be good character development, they resolve it instantly. Like literally, a second later, and it's never brought up again. Seriously, why even bring it up at all then?
     Next is our other main character Akira Takizawa, and I guess he's a little more interesting. He enters the plot the charming and charismatic type, and pretty much exits it that too. He's not quite as bad as Saki I suppose, he at least does have a personality and plot relevance, but he so little developed it's hard to give his character much credit. Oh, yes, he has his mysterious past and all, but it never really goes anywhere in developing him as much as it does forwarding the plot, and when he does break his nice-guy persona and try to act serious, well, good effort but it is really nothing any of you haven't seen before. I like his character, don't get me wrong, but in terms of complexity he is almost as bad as Saki.
      And yeah, that's everyone character-wise. No really. Everyone else is either not given the time, the effort, or the light of day to worthy of mention. The rest of Saki's small company doesn't contribute much character wise even if they do have small plot relevance, as they include: Hirasawa: the one who adjusts his glasses, Onee: the big sister, Katsuhara: the annoying kid super-genius, Kasuga: the one nobody cares about, and Osugi: Saki's secondary love interest who doesn't stand a freakin' chance. Even if we turn to the other Seleção, again, time gets in the way of knowing them better. Hell, half the Seleção don't even show up in the show, and as I've stated, the ones we do meet don't half much to them. However, I will give special mention to Seleção Number XI, who gets focus in the middle of the series, and actually makes quite a big impact, getting motivation(hinted or not), a cool personality, and a back-story I want to know more about. Also, this is the Seleção that Akira battles using traffic, and again, their little mind-game was pretty cool as it lasted.

Those are some well animated building....

So, yes turning to animation, I have pretty high standards. I.G, as I've already stated, have made some of the most aesthetically pleasing anime of all time, and are probably the most high quality animation studio out  there besides of course ufotable, and maybe Kyoto Animation. And while their work on Eden of the East isn't anywhere close to being their best, it's much better than most anime out there. It may have something to do with Eden of the East being an original material and thus an untested product with no fan base. If you look at it that way, it begins to make a little more sense why Eden of the East looks so different compared to other I.G anime. First, no, the animation quality is nowhere near bad. If I had to put it on a scale, it would fall somewhere slightly above average. The show always has these amazing backgrounds, I mean just look at the image above, but what I like most about the animation is the style. Eden of the East very much goes for more the realism of the animation spectrum, the character designs are usually never really too exaggerated, Saki's design being a prime example of this, she actually looks a real person. I also think this realistic style helps in the aspect that I mentioned at the beginning of this review, how Eden of the East goes for a story that most anime wouldn't, so departing from the style of most anime seems appropriate. 

Something I noticed about Eden of the East's OST is how relaxed it is. It seems kind of odd at first that most of the first few tracks are almost elevator music, but hey they work as background music just fine. Another thing I need to give credit for is how ranged the music actually is, and the number of instruments being used. Such songs like "Juiz" and "The Game" are so far cries from one another. This is to be expected though, as the soundtrack was produced by the  Kenji Kawai, who you might recognize from my Higurashi no naku koro ni review, as he also composed the soundtrack for that anime. A pretty awesome soundtrack at that. Eden of the East might not be quite as good as that, but there is plenty to like. Namely, the OP: "Falling Down" by the American band Oasis is the best song of the anime, soothing and classy at once, with fantastic use of colors and multiple animation styles being used as the same time. The ED: "Futuristic Imagination" by School Food Punishment. is only notable because it has a kick-ass drum, and also the animation style used for it is one of the coolest things I've ever seen, so I won't try to describe it, just watch it in the video below. The last song I want to highlight is the song "Reveal the World", a jazzy song that plays during the last scene of the anime, and is partly why I love that scene so much. It's just... strangely fitting, for both the show, as well as the part it was played, and I just love it when a song can do that. 

The OP

The ED

"Reveal the World"

So, is Eden of the East worth watching? Yes.  For all the shortcoming in the characters, and the untapped potential of the plot, it can't be denied that Eden of the East is a very intriguing anime. It might be mostly because of the strong start, but there was never one time I wanted to stop watching and not learn what would happen next, even as I checked off boxes on my clipboard of cynicism.  And as much as I complained about the characters, it's not that I don't like them as much as I just recognize they aren't that good as characters, which bring us back to the old Complexity vs. Likability argument. So here's my big statement for the show, which will hopefully convince you to watch it despite all these problems I've listed. It's not so much that Eden of the East is a bad anime, as much as it could have been so much better. There are worse problems to have. 

Final Verdict: 6/10

P.S: I'm sorry, but no illusion is that elaborate. 

Recommended Anime: 

Steins;Gate

Nearly complete opposites of each-other in a way. While Eden of the East has great start and premise but loses momentum towards the end, Steins;Gate takes the overused concept of time-travel, and after a very slow start, turns it into one of the most intriguing things to come out of anime in recent years. And despite the premise, it also takes advantage of the realism spectrum. 

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

OK, the coincidence of time-travel being the premise here again, this is another examination of self-identity and making the world a better place when given practically unlimited power. Funny, light-hearted, serious, and intelligent, this is Mamoru Hosoda's best work, and you should probably watch it whether you like Eden of the East or not. 

Goodbye for now guys. 

Since I mentioned it, click here for my review of Higurashi no naku koro ni.

Click here for my Footnotes: How Important is Fun? article. 

Or if you like games, click here for my review of Dishonored. 

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