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Year: 2009
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Episodes: 11
Rating:
What would you do if you woke up with $8 billion? What would you buy or try to do? Would you buy a new car, house, and clothes? Would you donate some of it for the betterment of the world? $8 million is a lot of money to have. You would become one of the wealthiest people on the very earth.
Let’s take it a step further. What if you had a cell phone that could do anything you wanted for a price. Any request could be made at any time or place no matter the situation, but it subtracts from your $8 billion. You want to fly first class from New York to Australia in an hour, the phone could do it. Want to own an NBA team the morning of, the phone will do it.
Finally, what if you had to change the country for the better? You had to use your $8 billion to change the country you live in for the betterment of the people. Once your $8 billion is spent, and you haven’t changed the country for the betterment, you are killed. Will you play the game?
Eden of the East takes 12 individuals by giving them unique cell phones and 8 billion yen. Which one of the 12 will change the country they live in.
Overview
On Monday, November 22, 2010, Japan came to a halt. Ten missiles struck Japan, but the strange thing was that no casualties happened. Japan and the world referred to the apparent terrorist attack as “Careless Monday,” and soon, the populace forgot about the event.
Eden of the East begins three months later after the events of “Careless Monday.” Saki MorimiS, a senior in college on her graduation trip, visit Washington D.C. as part of her graduation trip. She has the bright idea of throwing a penny in the fountain of the White House lawn. Realizing that the fountain is nowhere near the gate, she decides to throw the penny anyway. The police spot her when a mysterious young Japanese man appears out of nowhere, utterly naked while waving a gun and cell phone. The man rescues Saki from the police and manages to get her coat as a favor for saving her. Saki realizes that her passport is in the coat he just gave and gives chase after him. The mysterious man manages to make it to an apartment but learns that he has lost his memory. After searching around, the man discovers a bunch of fake passports at his residence. He chooses the Japanese passport and takes the name Akira Takizawa. While reuniting with Saki, they head back to Japan, where they learn another missile attack that has happened in Japan.
Akira learns that his phone holds over ¥8.2 billion in digital money and that he is part of a “killer” game. The game consists of twelve individuals called Seleção, who are given ¥10 billion to “save” Japan in some way.
The Seleção, with the use of their unique phones, can access a concierge named Juiz, who can fulfill their orders for a price no matter the demand of the request. The only stipulation is that if the money is used up entirely or used for selfish reasons, the Seleção will be eliminated by the mysterious Supporter.
With the game set and the stage ready, will Akira regain his memories and the reasons behind Careless Monday? Will he win the game and save Japan?
Review:
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Eden of the East somewhat reminds me of a little bit of Jason Bourne. It has many of the Jason Bourne series in it. When I started watching this anime, I was pretty excited. The first episode had me hooked, wondering what was going to happen. Who wakes up in Washington D.C. right in front of the White House, waving a gun and a cell phone, completely naked? Dude would be locked up so quick in today’s world. Back to Eden of the East, it had the potential to be an excellent anime but falls short just a tad bit. It’s the difference between an A and a B+.
We learn that that the main character is part of an elaborate game where 12 people called Seleção are given unique cell phones that can pretty much do anything. All the phones start off with ¥10 billion. The key is that with the money, the person must “save” Japan in some way, shape, or form. You give me 10 billion, and hopefully, I won’t spend it on anything I want. Here’s the catch, once that money is gone, you’re dead. Someone comes and kills you and takes away the magical phone. The premise of this story is excellent. The main character, Akira, loses his memories and can’t remember anything. Just like in the Bourne Identity, he meets a girl named Saki, who becomes intrigued by him and wants to help him. Also, along the way, we learn that a terrorist attack happens against Japan, but no one dies. So Japan pretty much forgets about the whole thing and moves on. Crazy World!
Besides getting a dark anime, the anime is actually light-hearted and pretty funny. To me, that is the best appeal. Some scenes will make you just laugh out loud. An example is when the NEETs come back from being inside storage containers. They are completely naked when the doors open, and all they want to do is beat up Akira for putting them in there. Their reaction is priceless. The whole story of trying to save a country with 10 billion is pretty impressive. Even though the story pits the contestants against each other, the real goal is to save a nation. One doesn’t have to fight another. You really see the motivations of people and what they will do to “win” the game. The story actually has a really nice pace. There is a nice mixture of Akira learning about the game that he is competing in, to his action scenes where he tries to out due other contestants. Definitely an anime you want to watch.
What makes this anime move are the characters. The characters are pretty funny and entertaining. The main character of Eden of the East is Akira Takizawa. Akira is a mysterious young man but in a funny way. When he first is shown, he is naked in front of the White House, waving a gun and cell phone at the police. We come to find out that Akira lost his memories to a brainwashing program. While meeting Saki, he decides to travel back to Japan to figure out who he is and the reason for the cell phone. What I like about Akira is that he is extremely loyal and friendly. He never seems to get mad and has complete faith in the people that he works with. He always has a smile on his face. He is like Jason Bourne but without all the training and being a spy.
The main female character is Saki Morimi. Saki is a young girl who is in the last year in college. She meets Akira while in Washington, D.C. She gives him her coat to cover up his nudity but forgets that her passport was in her coat pocket before he runs off. At first, I was hesitant about Saki. I didn’t know what her purpose was or if she would do anything for the story. She actually is the best companion for Akira. She is very shy and reserved while being incredibly supportive of her friends. She genuinely cares for Akira, going great lengths for him. Akira brings out her shy, reserve ways making her more of a supportive character.
As far as the Seleção goes, most of them have no background and are quite dull. The best one of them all is Seleção No. 11, Kuroha Diana Shiratori. Shiratori is a beautiful woman who is president of a modeling agency. She is hard-nosed and knows what she wants. She is someone not taken likely. At night, she is a serial killer. She cuts of men’s private parts known as “Johnnies” with a cigar cutter. She uses her cell phone to clean up her kills. Even though she hates men, she takes a liking to Akira.
Another group introduced in the series is the Eden of the East club. This group is friends of Saki. They started out as a small recycling group but quickly turned their attention to a website made by Micchon that becomes a revolutionary image recognition engine. The characters of this group are excellent and provide the comic relief of the series. Without them, this anime could’ve been a colossal bore. Satoshi is the crazed love member of the group. He profoundly loves Saki but becomes jealous of the sudden appearance of Akira. Seeing him drink his sorrows away is pretty funny. Haruo is another comic character who tries to help Satoshi. He loves to sit inside the club’s roll top desk. He has no shame of closing it when his point is made. Mikuru is the cute little girl who is smart as hell. She programmed the imaging system. The best of them all is Yutaka Itazu. Yutaka lost his pants one day and decided to stay in his house and never put on pants again. He is a hacker, but let’s be real, never leaving your place because you lost your pants. You didn’t own another pair. Pretty funny.
The animation is really well done and adds its own little unique feel to the anime. It doesn’t have that usual anime feel. The anime is full of bright colors, rather than the dark and dull colors. Examples of the funny effects the anime does are when someone is surprised, their face goes blank, with their eyes, are white, and spirals on their cheeks. It’s pretty funny. Another thing the animators did was blurb out the private parts of males. They are covered up with black squiggly lines. All the animation is excellent.
On top of the animation, the music/soundtrack is pretty well done. Now the soundtrack is nowhere near the perfection of Cowboy Bebop, but it does do its job for this anime. Most of the songs are calm or fun-loving. They move at a steady pace or a sweet melody. All the songs have that pleasant mixture of jazz in it. Whether it’s a piano or trumpet playing, you can make the distinction in each song for the proper situation. Now the song that made me somewhat question but I was okay with was the song “Reveal the World” by Brenda Vaughn. When listening to it and seeing Akira combat against several Seleção, I initially was like, “Why did you put this song in?” After witnessing the sacrifice, Akira did to try to win the game, it made perfect sense. The song is somewhat out of place because it is a soulful song that you wouldn’t think would be in this anime.
Overall, Eden of the East was a pleasant surprise and a fun anime to watch. Being only 11 episodes long, it moves pretty fast. The downside, you have to watch two movies to figure out how the game officially ends and how Akira did. I would recommend this anime as a starter anime for those getting into anime. The action scenes are pretty good, and the pace of the story is excellent. You won’t be confused by any of this anime. Definitely, one to watch.
