Eden of the East

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Alternate Titles: 東のエデン

Original Japanese Release Date: April 9th, 2009

Episode Length/Run-time: 11 Episodes

Summary:

Saki Morimi is a Japanese graduate student on a school trip to the United States.  She runs into another Japanese citizen named Akira Takizawa who rescues her when she gets in trouble for throwing rocks on the White House lawn.  He is a mysterious boy and is totally naked, has no memory and has a cell phone charged with over 8 billion yen.

Review:

This is one of those rare anime that only comes around once in awhile.  It’s one of those shows that literally everybody watches.  Brought to you by the same group that created Honey and Clover, Eden of the East boasts amazing visuals.  The animation is crisp and flowing and the character designs, while again, reminiscent of Honey and Clover are very nice.  In addition, the music is great, including theme songs done by the band School Food Punishment.

The plotline is also incredible unique and sports a story that centers around a “game” in which the objective is to save Japan using that 8 billion yen on the cell phone.  You learn more and more about the anime’s plotline at an appropriate pace, the anime slowly reveals more and more about itself and is incredibly interesting and engaging.

The problem with the anime is however, apparent.  The overall story of the anime as well as the ending are based around Deus ex Machina.  The fact that the “selecao” can just use their cell phones to call on literally anything they want can make the anime feel a bit cheapened.  The other problem is that if the ending feels incomplete, it is.  You are expected as the viewer to wait almost an entire year, to watch two movies that “finish the series”. This is inexcusable.  As a result, this anime, which might have been truly great as a 26 episode series, ends up being forgettable as I’m sure that half the original viewers never bothered to go back and watch the movies almost a year later.  If they’re like me, they didn’t even remember what the anime was about.  Sad.

[starrater]