neko’s thinkbox

Eden of the East is probably the best series of this season, at least as far as seasonal anime are concerned.

This review was up to 2000 words, but I had a heart for you impatient animu watchers and busy anibloggers so I shortened it a little.
Here’s even a link which will magically warp you to the bottom of this wall of text. Click here if you don’t want to be spoilt.
Click here if you hate TL;DR.

There is only so much I could have imagined with this anime, but nothing like this. I’m simply amazed at how much suspense it has created until the end.

I just don’t know where to start. Let’s start with the basic idea of this story, how to save a country.

Stupid question, really.

It’s as Akira said in some episode (where he kissed Saki after she failed her interview), 10 billion Yen, which amounts to 70 million Euro (or 100 million USD), are by far not enough to “save” a country per se, even if all the Selecao were to put their money together.
Such an outrageous game would be inconceivable in the first place, because, how do you want to achieve that goal? But nevermind the ubiquitous fact that the Japanese social hierarchy is screwed up anyway, the emphasis actually lies on NEETs, jobless people.
Every country has this unemployment problem, some more than others. And every politician should know that there is no way to achieve immediate, groundbreaking results, even if they were to use 10 billion yen, no matter how altruistic and optimistic their views and methods are. And long-term, those funds would by far not be enough.
Actually, would this game ever end? Just when precisely will the nation reach that invisible mark, that state of complete salvation? What is the barometer, and who has the last say?

Furthermore, having the eleven (or twelve) Selecao work together is a near impossible feat. They have all different personalities and points of view, and odds are that they would rather dilapidate their money against each other in a Battle Royale fashion in order to prevent others from interfering and going against their ideals. And I am positive that this Mr. Outside knew all of that.
As such, I believe that Mr. Outside is just a bored aristocrat or politician who created that game to entertain himself by creating a potential threat and a potential cure at once. And the winner of this game, if there ever will be, will be the last one standing with the last yen in the pocket.
Now this is just one possible theory. See how much food for thought this anime offers? It’s incredible, all the more that it has not ended yet as well. There are still two movies to come out in November (at least one is), and one can just keep wondering what will happen next.

I usually am not really into gadgets, but that cell is sexy. Actually, I heard NEC is planning to produce them. Though its functions would most likely be limited IRL. :(

For the time being, I’m simply amazed at the finition of this anime. It just screams QUALITY from beginning till end. The opening always kept impressing me with its dogmatic messages (”The king has come!” “Who could ever doubt; We have faith”), and the modern, abstract vector graphics and design. Plus the opening song NOT being of Japanese stock (Oasis - Falling Down) is very very rare. ^[1] And the lyrics just fit the theme perfectly, “I tried to talk with God to no avail; I called him up in-and-out of nowhere; I said if you won’t save me please don’t waste my time“.

Besides, there are a lot of biblical references in this anime, which I will not try to find any deeper meaning to, though. ^[2] Like the logo of that recognition program, Eden of the East, or EOTE, written on an apple (which is perceived in the Western world as the Forbidden Fruit), or the fact that Mr. Outsider is regarded as God, sending out a punisher to slay those who could not fulfill their mission. Though I’m sure others will do a much better job than me, do read… any blog that’s on the blogroll here on your right. But before anything, please do finish reading and commenting to this post first. :)

Back to the outstanding quality of this anime. Speaking of the rarity of English songs as anime openings, it is equally rare to hear proper English speech IN the anime as well. And the first episode, which takes place in Washington D.C., does sport a couple of well-spoken lines. I was truly delighted that they went through all the hassle to make it so authentic, and not just use some random Japanese seiyuus with a weird accent.
Moreover I absolutely like the quality production of this anime. Production I.G (amongst others) sure have outdone theirselves once again. Idem for the great character design, which was only slightly neglected with the mass naked events in episodes 10 and 11, but what gives, the great characters and the story make up a thousand fold for it.

Σ(ﾟ△ﾟ ﾉ)ﾉ (ﾟ△ﾟ ;)

Σ(ﾟ△ﾟ ﾉ)ﾉ (ﾟ△ﾟ ;)

During this entire series, one is glued to the back of their seat, wondering who, why, what was the reason No. 9 erased his memories, and while his initial behavior (wielding a gun, having an arsenal of weapons in his NY room) suggested he might have done it to forget his evil deeds of the past (the bombings of Careless Monday), we gradually find out that he kept acting his true self all the time, and that in fact, all he wanted to escape from was the despair he has experienced with the many ingrates he has saved from the bombings. ^[3]

There were a lot of good support characters as well, especially Saki. She is not the usual, overconfident girl that you find in most anime, but a rather introverted, near naive girl without a clear direction. Troubled by her family’s kindness, she seeks independence, only to realize that she is still too immature to make it up the social ladder. All she ever wanted was an adult, leading soul (pretty much the opposite of Oosugi), and that is when she found Akira. She immediately fell in love with him, bore all of Akira’s whims, and eventually grew up with him.

About the rest of the non-Selecao, well Hirasawa sounds pretty much like the optimistic NEET start-up entrepreneur who wants to make a difference into other NEET’s lives, Mikuru (MicchonYep yep, she’s legal. I think. or MittanWell even if she wasn’t… you know. :3c) is the usual computer otaku and programming genius (with loli features, at least she didn’t wear glasses) ^[4], and that woman… well, she never made any difference so bleh. Oh and Pants sure had an impressive pc vault in his small room. Just another proud hikikomori, I guess.

The first time I saw her, it scared the shit out of me.

The first time I saw her, it scared the shit out of me.

On the Selecao side, that Nr. 4 detective was pretty stupid, I guess his greed made him lose track of his mission, no wonder he ran out of money soon. The hospital director, Nr. 5, made me feel sorry for him, because he did not misuse that money for any bad deeds at all. I appreciated his lack of regrets though, it means he did it all for what he believed was right for his country. That blue-haired woman, Nr. 11, or Johnny Hunter was as pathetic as Nr. 4, not only because she arbitrarily cut off people’s weens for her own needs, but also because she barely did anything to improve the situation; she completely used her funds to boost her own company. I wonder why she never was gotten rid of by the Supporter, since that is somewhat a violation of the rules. In the end she almost seemed sympathetic to me, because she must just have had a bad experience in the past (rape, or simply bad sex lol), and probably would become a better person after meeting Akira. I do believe she was swayed a little too quickly by Akira. ^[5] But yeah, I wouldn’t approach her unless I knew she didn’t have that Johnny Guillotine with her. And I would administer her a pack of RED lipstick. Blue lips make her look sick, HCN sickSeriously, wtf. That’s just fucking ugly..

The other Selecao (10, err… forgot) were a little too focused on winning the game rather than making a real difference. Though, as I mentioned in my rhetorical paragraph up there, they probably knew it would be impossible to do anything long-term, so they wanted to use shock therapy on an ignorant country by bombing all major cities. However, without any information whatsoever, that is just jeopardizing people’s lives for a hypothetical change, and that makes them not leaders nor revolutionists, but full-blown terrorists. And this is why I believe that Mr. Outside just wanted to have a little fun; by creating this game, he wanted to witness how different perspectives of justice just create chaos and confusion within one same group, and eventually will resolve the problem that was none with absolutely no victor at all. Pointless game, please don’t waste my time.

In b4 mass naked something joke.

In b4 mass naked censoring joke.

Since I’m back to discourse, here’s another question that came up during the episode with the Blue Bitch. Akira purchased an entire luxurious hotel for the sole purpose of finding Nr. 11, and save Oosugi’s life. Just how much is a life worth? One eighth of your 10 billion yen budget that is meant to save millions of people? Priceless? Would he have done the same if it hadn’t been a friend of a friend? I doubt it. It did turn out it wasn’t Oosugi, and he let Blue Bitch fly away with that sex offender, so it is safe to assume that he did not care anymore about his fate. ^[6] To me, it seems like a whimsical mistake of youth where he forgot his priorities (I’m sure he could have achieved the same result with far much less expenses), and while some may argue that money is not everything, in this case, having 0 yen means death. But would I be able to live with a clean conscience, knowing that it might have been the only way to saved my friend’s life? I don’t know.

Ah well, I’m slowly running out of ideas. Well all in all, the pacing was just right, and the many humoristic passages here and there helped relieving the tenseness of the plot, especially in the last few episodes. Though a Mass Naked NEET event was something I expected the least there, and it temporarily dragged the seriousness down to ridiculous (NEETs following the girls into the elevator like zombies), and Micchon saying “They are only interested in 2D anyway.You’d be surprised, little lady.” ^[7]

Akira’s showing off as Sundance Kid was just awesome, bordering epicness. And it was over, somewhat. Not. “Make me the King of this country“, he asks Juiz. Just how can you achieve that with only 6 billion yen (as if any money in the world was ever enough to do that anyway), and what can you change by doing so?
Needless to say, I can’t wait for the movies in November!
 

Bang bang, my baby shot me down.

Bang! …this cool guy overdid it a little though.

May you continue your duty as Savior. You know what I mean. See you Fall ‘09.

TL;DR: Just know that this anime is incredibly well made, has an excellent story with outstanding characters, and that if you don’t watch it, I will call Juiz and ask her to kill you. So watch it. noblesse oblige.

1. Last time I heard one was that Franz Ferdinand song, Do You Want To. And it was only the Ending song to Paradise Kiss, too. [↩]
2. Even though I attempted to do so at melative, but I visibly suck at it because I’m absolutely not interested in the Bible, or religion. Bite me. [↩]
3. Kindof reminds me of this blogosphere… hah. Though I may not have saved anyone’s life so far yet. Not that I know, at least. :P [↩]
4. Very, very relevant to my interests, btw. Claimed. I’d program her, if you know what I mean. [↩]
5. Heck, he went all-out on her. He sure knows how to abuse a girls’ vulnerability heh. I almost thought (hoped) he would have some adult fun with her with Saki listening to their every word XD [↩]
6. In b4 “yes but he believed that she finally changed and probably would never kill a person again” asdfg blabla [↩]
7. Hell, I would be interested in you, 2D, 3D, even 4D! You delicious loli you. [↩]