dwalker - 2015-01-20 21:39:07

This was ok it has its ups and downs but overall was enjoyable. This puts a smile on your face

oreilly.eva - 2015-01-08 21:41:42

HyperWind's review #8

Sometimes you just feel like you need something else in your anime watching career, you feel like drowning in the sea of generic action shonen, romcoms, harems and shows you just show no interest to. You need some sort of refresher. I think that this is where shows like this jump in and liven up your day a bit, giving you something different, breaking the routine and are generally liked by most people for that fact. But, when talking about Eden of the East, is it actually that good as everyone praises it to be? I'd say, somewhat, it's not that good, but it's not complete shit either. 

-- The Story --

Technically, Eden of the East is a battle royale in the vain of shows like Mirai Nikki, Fate/Zero and movies like Battle Royale, but instead of using violence to win, you use a quite hefty amount of cash located in your magical phone to literally "save" Japan, and if you don't a certain selected person will come to you and show you the way to the purgatory. 

Well, that's only how it technically is, but in reality it's more like a semi-comedic mystery show following the marvelous misadventures of Akira Takizawa and the Gang in getting his memory back and trying to figure out what's going on.

I really expected more from this, after building everything up and setting up a very interesting world in the first arc they start losing focus and not answering the questions proposed before, plus they poorly introduce the other chosen ones (aka. the Seleção) and kinda mess up the ending adding in some unlikable characters and throwing in some bullshity motivations and reasoning, also it's a "to be continued" sort of ending, stopping at a somewhat of a cliffhanger and leaving what feels like more than half of the story untold (left for the movies).

-- The Animation --

The animation is really nice in this one, everything is colorful and fluid the designs are pretty good, slightly tilting to the comedic design side though, and the quality rarely dips. 

-- The Sound --

Nothing really special, you won't really notice it when watching the show, though, when giving it a listen on it's own it came off as quite enjoyable, it's abundant of these casual, relaxing tracks that fit the feel of the anime really well.

-- The Characters --

The character you'll be clinging towards the most is one of our mains Akira Takizawa. Akira is a pretty great character and one of the driving forces that will keep you watching this anime, he's charismatic, funny, and pretty lovable, also, he somehow avoids logic holes in his motivations before and after the memory loss that happened to him at the beginning of the series. His actions were logical, even if they didn't seem so at the beginning and everything that goes around him ties into a pretty and sturdy knot.

But, unfortunately, the other characters can't really live up to his level, the other main character, aka. the main female lead Saki Morimi is leagues behind Akira, she just feels like the moeblob fanservice character of this anime, unable to do anything without her boyfriend. Also, I feel like she lacks logic in her actions, I mean if a naked guy with a gun ran up to you, the first thing you'd do is report him to the local authorities and try to stay as far away as possible, not to follow him home and go all lovey duby afterwards.

The other characters were also lacking, the Eden of the East group seemed really two dimensional and architipy, the Seleção are even worse, only getting a few sentences of backstory and mediocre presentation, also not all of them are even introduced in the anime! More than half of them stay as some scary bogeymen devising evil plots under a closed curtain.

-- Final Thoughts --

Eden of the East isn't a bad show, of course it has it's flaws, but still manages to remain entertaining and interesting during it's course. I'd recommend this to someone searching for a refresher or to people who want another battle royale series in their life. 

-- Other Details --

Eden of the East was written and directed by Kenji Kamiyama.

The music composition was done by Kenji Kawai.

It was animated by Studio I.G.

Licensed by Funimation in the US, Madman entertainment in Australia and Manga entertainment in the UK.

It originally aired from the 9th of April to the 18th of June, 2009.

Beware of dick (or "Johnny" as this show likes to call them) jokes.

wsporer - 2014-12-11 18:40:02

I started watching this anime because I got attracted to it's thrilling slice of life theme & I was pleased with my decision.
The series is amazing & the main character is really nice.
Also the Johny concept was quite funny.
The romance was really cute & overall this was a perfect pack of all I was looking for.

gutkowski.oleta - 2014-11-30 16:58:57

http://quanreviews.blogspot.com/2014/11/anime-review-eden-of-east.html

buddy.williamson - 2014-07-09 03:57:12

I definitely view this as one of my all time favorites. One of those things that was just so new, unique, creative, and just completely interesting that had me hooked from episode one.

Really hard for me to dislike this or any of the movies. I found them all to be exceptionally enjoyable. From the characters to the general premise, I found myself excited to see where everything was going.

eduardo.kuvalis - 2014-05-12 02:45:12

So I watched Eden of the East...

A fun and short Anime to watch, but really lacks a conclusion. It feels as though they made a Jason Borne Anime.

Animation - 7.5 Fairly consistent, does its job, looks good when it needs to.
Sound - 6 Nothing special but gets the job done.
Characters - 5.5 Nothing too unique here accept the main character, who happens to be great.
Story - 7.5 Like i said, feels like a Borne movie but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Enjoyment - 7.25 Overall i enjoyed this watch, especially when they focus on the main character.

Overall - 6.5
If you're looking for a bit of action with an interesting main character, i'd recommend this to you. If you're looking for a good romance in this however I recommend you look somewhere else. Its an enjoyable experience but i feel it needed to be 25 episodes rather than 11. While it is true there are the movies, i feel a longer season would have been more effective. It is currently licensed by FUNimation and available to watch on Netflix for streaming or the FUNimation site.

connelly.harvey - 2014-05-02 12:02:11

I've seen quite a few people critisizing Eden of the East (or Higashi no Eden, whatever you prefer) as "mediocre" in the second half, making half-assed answers to the questions asked, which made some people disappointed. But in anime where even Hyouka is labeled as mystery, simply because it has some crimes/"mysteries" to be solved, Eden of the East makes a fantastic job to actually create a mysterious setting that is yet real.

Twelve people, so-called "Selecao", are given one more or less special telephone where nine billion yen is charged. With that, these people have to save Japan, or else they die. Among those twelve, there is the protagonist, Akira, who has a memory loss and no idea who he is. Along with Saki, the female lead, they try to find out who he is and what he did before he lost his memories. This is the baseline of the story without spoiling much. EotE also deals with more political issues such as NEETs ("Not in Education, Employment, or Training"), as well as Japan's current situation. The first half is fantastic and the second begins with an arc I'd like to call the "Konoha Arc". This is the arc where many people probably refer to when critisizing EotE, with questions that are answered in a half-assed way, but the anime picks up the awesomeness afterwards though, and does explain things in its usually logical manner.It's also amazing and noteworthy that this is an original work, meaning that EotE had nothing that they could've based on. Everything was Production I.G's work.

It's also important to mention that the plot won't halt to answer questions that appear in the viewer's mind (except Episode 10, where some fundamental questions are explained). Answers can be found in the dialogues, and if not, the viewer needs to answer them by themselves. I personally found that this is one of the anime's forte, but if you don't like that, you shouldn't watch it.

As for the characters, the most noteworthy is Akira. Even though he's suffering from memory loss, he is by far not a Shinji Ikari in behavior. Instead, we see a charming, interesting and cool young man who actively tries to get his memories back while not drowning in some sort of melancholy. The anime spends a good amount of time with him as focus, which is a little of a double-edged sword. While yes, the plot basically revolves around him and that had to be done, other characters who probably had potential don't get any character development or depth. 6 of the 12 Selecao don't even appear, and the other six who do appear lack of logical reasoning as of why they're doing what they're doing (especially apparent with Yuuki). The characters who aren't Selecao have the sole purpose of supporting Akira - even Saki who's supposed to be the female lead, which is sometimes hindering the overall plot.

The sound was good. I like how the OST wasn't used every single second like other anime do (I'm looking at you, Free!), and when it appeared, it suited the current situation well. The inserted song, Reveal the World, was also a nice touch, but Falling Down definitely takes the cake of awesome. Not only that it's from Oasis - which is unsual itself - but it's one of the best openings in all anime. The animation is great, it fits the show itself really well and the song is pure awesome. The Ending is also unique with Stop-Motion used for the video.

For the animation, let me just say that the anime might as well be airing right now. It's really well done, which is a given since it's Production I.G. The only thing that was a little awkward though was the little strip that was darker colored on the character's noses.

Overall, Eden of the East is a very good anime, but may not be for those who like getting the plot explained. Still, if you want to see how mystery really is, you should give this a shot, and also for knowing what a real original animation is like (unlike Free, Kyoukai no Kanata or Anohana). It's only eleven episodes too (with two movies), so it's great for marathoning it in a free weekend.

ftowne - 2013-12-06 01:34:52

A really feel good anime for me. Despite its flaws this anime is an enjoyable watch and I recommend giving it a shot.

bernhard.klocko - 2013-08-20 01:29:21

Just watched it...... and I am disappointed! The reason:

This anime is very nice, I would rate it as great ( 8 ), because the story is exciting and mysterious. The sound, especially the opening is awesome. Furthermore the characters are intresting and entertaining, notably the blue haired women. You can really watch this anime with joy.

BUT:

Open ending!!! ==> after the anime is watched you want to know how the story ends, so you watch the films, where the story goes on.

The movies are very bad and the story turns out very bad, too. That doesn´t mean bloody or violent, just very stupid, kind of awkward to watch, pointless and curious. Pity for the well made anime and the hot blue haired women.

So avoid the movies..... or watch them and get disappointed.

ktoy - 2013-07-19 20:50:42

One day, in 2011, a Japanese university student by the name of Saki Morimi is visiting America. When she throws something into the Whitehouse courtyard, the security guards quickly start questioning her... but she is quickly granted a distraction by our protagonist, Akira Takizawa, who has appeared outside the Whitehouse completely naked, with a phone in one hand and a gun in the other, and absolutely no recollection of who he is or how he got there.Saki lends him her coat, but quickly comes to realise that she left her passport in there, causing her to chase after him. Meanwhile, Akira finds a large amount of weapons at his apartment, along with several fake IDs. As the series progresses, Akira finds out that he is part of a group called the Selecao, who have each been granted an enormous sum of money, and a phone connected to somebody called Juiz who will use this money to carry out any command they are given. Their cause is to use this money to save Japan.As you've probably noticed by this point, the premise of this series is absolutely bonkers, and in the best way possible. It comes across as anime's take on American spy thrillers, and pulls it off with ease. For example, a notable part of this series is their aversion to Engrish, not counting that spoken by the Japanese characters when in America. Instead, they hire actual American voice actors to play the American roles. This is, of course, only one facet of the genius put into this show's production. Watching it, it's very obvious that Production I.G. absolutely spared no expenses in making this series. The animation is absolutely top-notch, along with a distinctive art style that will be familiar to fans of Honey And Clover, whom it shared a character designer with. It's also worth noting that the opening and ending themes are both extremely impressive. For the opening theme, they use Falling Down by Oasis, which not only flaunts the massive budget they had on this, but also adds heavily to the multicultural chic the show uses. This is set over an animated sequence with a visual style that would make Steve Jobs cream his shorts if he saw it. The ending theme, while less notable music-wise, uses a very distinct style, using a stop-motion sequence made using papercraft.And all of this makes Eden of the East all the more disappointing.The first problem that appears comes up about halfway through the series, and that would be that Juiz is ridiculously overpowered. You can basically ask Juiz to perform pretty much any command, and it will magically happen. Now, in of itself, this isn't the problem. The issue isn't what she can do so much as how she does it. The ways in which the commands are executed are simply ridiculous. For one example, upon command, a truck is to be brought down to block the path. Rather than, say, a sniper shooting out the wheels, the truck falls apart. No explanation as to how this is done is ever given. It falls apart of it's own accord because somebody paid out a large sum of money for it to happen. And sadly, this isn't even the most nonsensical use of Juiz's abilities, though to name any worse uses would be to give out enormous spoilers. The ending, for example, features a mind-breakingly stupid use of it that provides a completely asinine plot twist that had no foreshadowing whatsoever, and doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. The Juiz concept does get put to good use on numerous occasions, mind you. One sequence, for example, is reminiscent of the back-and-forth mind games presented in Death Note, and is used just as well as they were there, which makes it a shame that it isn't put to such good use more often.Another problem is that the "Save Japan" concept is underused. On a few occasions we see the other Selecao and their ideas for how to save Japan, and these are actually very good, but overall we just don't see enough of them. These ideas, and the stories behind them, are one of the more interesting parts of the series, but we only really see it happen on two occasions, most likely due to the painfully short 11-episode runtime.The characters are another disappointing part of the series. Most of the cast are just completely uninteresting, especially Saki. The only truly interesting character in the series is Akira, but he isn't exactly great either. While he's far from a bad character, he's anything but impressive. Part of his problem is that he is permanently happy. The only side we ever see to him is an all-smiles personality with absolutely no depth of emotion. Of course, being constantly happy isn't exactly a bad thing, but it's hard to get attached to a character who seems completely one-dimensional.If anything, I think this entire series would have been better in almost every way if it had just been longer. 11 episodes simply isn't enough time for a series this ambitious, which is probably why two movies have been produced to follow it up. I have yet to see the movies, but nonetheless it seems nigh impossible for them to properly fix the series' faults. At best, they may give some development to the characters, but as late as that it seems like a poor idea. Really, it would have been better if there had simply been about 4 more episodes in the middle of the series. This would have given them time to make the characters more interesting and fleshed-out, shown the ideas behind the remaining Selecao, and come up with more interesting ways to use the abilities of Juiz, then Eden of the East could have been truly fantastic. Instead, it comes across more as a collection of great ideas that weren't properly realised.Final Words: I weep for the lost potential this series has. If we're lucky then the movies will pick up some slack for it, but there's no way it'll fix everything.Animation/Graphics: 10/10Story/Plot: 6/10Music/Background: 8/10Overall: 7/10