Jun 21 2009

Categories: eden of the east, episodic review
Tagged: eden of the east

27 Comments »

BANG!

I had two thoughts continuously running through my mind (a la Micchon and Saki running through the nakkid NEET gauntlet). The first is that the anime blogger in me can’t stop thinking of the parallels to Code Geass R2. Damn. So clear, yet I missed it. I blame myself for watching too much NBA basketball, re-reading too much GTO manga, and playing too much Final Fantasy IV After Years.

Lulu had some amazing power bestowed to him, and he used it to try to unite a nation. The only problem was, he had to become the bad guy to do it. Once everyone was united in despising him, he “solved” the problem of himself by having Suzaku penetrate him with his sword. Now, Taki used a similar formula the first time the deal with the missiles, in that he used the NEETs to save Japan, but then he made the NEETs hate him to cover up what has happened. Instead of killing himself, he had his memory wiped and dropped off nakkid in front of Washington DC with a gun.

The second time around, the one thing Taki had is Saki, who quickly became the Nia to his Simon (rather than the Suzaku to his Lulu) in the change-up from the R2 method. Now, Taki, even if he’s hated, he wants to man up and confront the problems head on… as King. My gosh. That’s a lot to process, but it’s a vastly better solution than Lulu’s in that Taki is taking responsibility rather than running away again. If anything, Taki stays alive, can guide the reconstruction, and can continue banging Saki. All around good times.

Unfortunately, like R2, there’s a plot hole to be had. All of this. Everything. Is dependent on Taki meeting Saki. What is the chance that Taki would bump into Saki in front of the White House? If Taki never met Saki, he wouldn’t have gone and met Panties, wouldn’t have used Eden of the East to harvest the NEET’s combined intellect, and he wouldn’t have found the resolve to become King. Either that’s a plot hole, or the original pre-wipe Taki figured all of this out and used Juiz to orchestrate his meeting with Saki. Honestly, I’m not willing to rule out either possibilities.

And, yes, it’s dawning on me that this series that I enjoyed so much for its plot has more in common in Code Geass than it does with Mirai Nikki, which I originally thought it would be closest too. Sigh.

My second thought is that while I was learning how to write, one of my professors told me that the two classical types of “good” (as in writing method) endings are the circular and the climax. The circular is easy to understand in that the plot is the circle and finishes at the end… or at least references back to the beginning at the end. The literary example would be Lord of the Rings, where eventually Frodo and Samwise return to the Shire. The recent anime example would be K-On!, which had Yui recreate her sprint. The climax was described to me as, “It’s exactly like a sexual climax. Everything simmers slowly and then eventually crescendos to a most exciting point.” The literary example would Dune, with the climax being Paul taking over the planet and controlling the melange. The recent anime example would be Eden of the East with going from knowing relatively little about Taki (even four episodes ago) to seeing him find out who he is, what he is about, and then the showdown with the missiles.

The pacing is even similar to Dune in that it’s slow to begin with, speeds up… and up… and up… and whoa! How’d we get to Taki going, “BANG!” on top of a carnival ride?

And, actually, I find that Eden of the East has more in common structure-wise with Dune than R2. Like how Paul was betrayed, Taki was betrayed, and like how Paul found redemption in the Fremen, Taki found redemption in Eden’s crew and in the NEETs. While the Fremen and Paul harnessed spice in different ways, Taki and the NEETs found different ways to use information, and both used their take on this resource to overcome the establishment. And, at the end, both Paul and Taki didn’t want to walk away. Both wanted to be impossible kings.

(And, definitely, I see Saki more as a Chani type than a Suzaku type. Glad we cleared this up.)

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this series… the initial hook was awesome, and it just became a game of being invested in and actually wanting more details. The viewer got glimpses into Taki’s past with Taki, and there was just a fabulous level of intrigue with the Selecao game. The high production values and the frumpiness (or non-frumpiness) of Saki’s outfits were just icing on the cake. Kamiyama and IG did a great job in establishing this franchise.

Wait, so Juiz isn’t a Maria-type meido? And, instead, Juiz is actually a Veda/Tieria-type supercomputer? OH GEASS NO!!!

Funny thing is that Taki thought that Juiz was part of a group of young women sitting side-by-side in a control room somewhere– he just described Section 9’s nerve center!

(I should have known this was coming, but seriously, now I can’t get an image of Tieria out of my head whenever I hear Juiz when instead I should be picturing a fluttering 17 year old uber-meido. This is horrible. Horrible!)

(Honestly, I’m not willing to give up on this. Juiz is Maria. I don’t care.)

OH GEASS NO!!!

What Juiz had been saying all this time:

“Please continuing being a Messiah.”

What Juiz says now:

“May you become this country’s Messiah.”

I get the feeling that these 11 episodes were just a prologue that sets the stage for something bigger– much bigger. With two movies upcoming, that’s a lot of potential material (equal to animation length to a season). I’m excited, and I just hope that neither movies are recaps. “King of Eden” should, by the name alone, follow what happens at the end here. “Paradise Lost”… well… we can infer a lot. If it’s referring to the Milton poem about Adam and Eve… well… Taki and Saki will be Adam and Eve for the new Area 11. And Paradise Lost refers to the temptations of these powers and leads to their leaving Eden. Of course, the poem also had a lustful sex scene in it… so… uh… it could be could. Of course, the poem was written by a “Johnny.” I wonder if Kamiyama had all of this symbolism planned. Gotta hand it to him if he did… oh Johnny Milton…

Where sceptred Angels held their residence,
And sat as Princes, whom the supreme King
Exalted to such power, and gave to rule,
Each in his Hierarchy, the Orders bright.

(Am I more excited over the Kyou OVA, Gundam 00 Jupiter, or Eden of the East movies… mmm… probably still Kyou OVA since it’s closer in time frame. And Kyou has much more impressive thighs than Saki.)

When Saki acknowledged that Taki is gonna be King, look at what is in the background– a castle! Nicely done. Props to you Kamiyama and IG.

(One thing I’m not sure about is the end. Taki’s final request, despite not having any money left, is what? He slips Saki his phone too. Did he slip it to her as a memento? Did he transfer the phone to her? Did he ask Juiz for a ring?)

I still like Kyoto’s o_o face more. Though if you told me three months ago that the two anime that would feature o_o the most would be K-On! and Eden of the East, I would have believed you on K-On! and told you to GTFO for Eden of the East. But I still enjoyed Saki’s and Micchon’s, “Wait, is that Ohsugi’s barnacle?!” faces.

And, yes, the plot is completely revealed in both the OP/ED. Maybe another point for R2 and less a point for Dune… but at least it didn’t have Taki on a white horse, that’s an improvement, isn’t it? Isn’t it?!

The King has come!
To lighten up our feet
The King has come!
With justice till the end
The King has come!
To save us from the dark
Who could ever doubt? We have faith

Awesome lyrics. I want Mio and Yui to be singing this on that K-On! All Concert DVD along with My Love Is a Stapler and Fuwa Fuwa Time. It’s also definitely a chill scene. Everything just came together at the end… Taki’s motives, his relationship with Saki, Eden of the East, Juiz, and 20,000 nakkid NEETs. The only thing missing was a real explanation and not just Mononobe’s surmising… which may be true, but may not be true.

“Ohsugi, I knew you were a man with balls.”

Taki is awesome. We need a awesome gar male lead competition between him, Simon, Kogarashi, Hosaka, and Onizuka. Though I also liked how Micchon didn’t like her laptop touching Ohsugi’s Johnny.

More Taki awesomeness in how smoothly he handled Saki’s phone call. He pretty much won over Saki completely by the end of it much like Haruka in any Hosaka fantasy.

This week’s “Mio is moe” “Production IG knows backgrounds” image.

I enjoyed pausing and staring at the fake movie posts. They kinda give a heads up to what’s coming up… and there sure are a lot of people named “Johnny” listed in them. “Johnny Ron Full” sounds like a great pr0n name; it’s “Chest Rockwell” good. There was also one that read, “A Real Love Story Nymphomaniac.” I get the feeling Kamiyama is just fucking around at that point.

Just me, or does ATO’s chopper look like a Tachikoma?

There’s something brilliant about Saki at the end. She didn’t save the world or Taki through anything special, but by simply standing up for Taki and believing in him. It’s because she first saw Taki as a prince that he eventually saw himself as one.

(I think it was even more special that neither Taki or Saki were that special to begin with. He’s a rebellious youth with smarts and instincts. She’s a nominal dresser with a frumpy look but ended up being fully supportive of Taki.)

(And, thankfully, Saki doesn’t fall into the typical girl with special powers or damsel in distress type of stereotypes. She’s a normal girl, but she’s not a helpless normal girl.)

Couldn’t stop thinking of either Left for Dead or Dead Rising. After watching this episode, I think I want to go back to my old “Moe of the Dead” idea. A few people have read my original idea draft that I wrote two summers ago… you know what it was about? Four moe girls in a moe girl band battling zombies. Keep in mind, this was way before I knew K-On! existed. I even originally sold it as “Raki Suta meets Rock Band meets Desperado meets Kino’s Travels where Hermes is an ice cream truck.” It was awesome and horrible and awesomely horrible.

The Patriot batteries, uh, weren’t that great. They didn’t have a 100% kill rate to begin with, and there were still a large number of casualties in Israel and Saudi Arabia during the original Gulf War. (Mostly due to debris, which I would imagine be worse in a densely-populated Japan.) Sure, it’s about twenty years later, but I still can’t imagine a 60/60 success rate, and I definitely can’t imagine missiles launched from F-15s being able to intercept Tomahawks. And… does Japan even have Tomahawks? Thought only England and Spain have been buying them.

(But definitely Eden of the East could be a Hollywood film… I can imagine it set in San Francisco with Taki buying the big Bloomingdale’s downtown or something. I just hope they won’t cast Zac Efron as Taki, Miley Cyrus as Saki, Zachary Quinto as Ohsugi, Megan Fox as Kuroha, and Jack Black as Panties when that time comes.)

Mononobe swings … and misses!

I can’t knock him for his plan on taking over as Mr. Outside, except he took the Supporter (as well as the other Selecao) too lightly. He also made the classic fatal mistake of celebrating too early. Never understood why villains never just killed the hero when they have the chance… well… it would make for a shorter story. Though I’m surprised that the Supporter hasn’t killed him or Kuroha yet.

You know how you see DVDs sometimes advertised as, “American Pie Band Camp– UNRATED!”. Well, if I ever see an Eden of the East DVD as unrated, I’m walking away. Far away.

(More movie posters!)

Lord of the Flies meets Akihabara? Needless to say, I must have broken a record for most nakkid men featured in an anime blog post that followed a post about a moe girls band.

(Taki using NEET power to supplement Juiz’s abilities was smart. Coupled that into Eden of the East’s system, even smarter. Though I’m surprised that everyone there had a flip phone. Honestly. Flip phone? What is this? 2007? And no Blackberry, iPhone, Pre, or G1?)

“Girls!!!”

“They’re probably only interested in 2D.”

Can we get a MAD video made of Yui running with Gitah back to the school, only she’s taking a shortcut through this mall?

Have I mentioned yet that the climax of this series featured 20,000 nakkid people in a mall? A mall with clothing shops, yet everyone is too busy trying to recharge their cell phones to even bother start looting clothes? Did I mention that they were in a shopping mall with clothes stores? And that they were animated with more gusto, flair, and love than JC Staff bothered with the orchestras in Nodame? Did I mention that the Eden crew heroically went commando to, uh, rescue a laptop? Or that Saki and Micchon were chased by thousands of nakkid NEETs? And all of this culminates in 20,000 nakkid NEETs helping Taki devise strategies to shoot down missiles?

And that did I mention that a crazed woman who likes chopping off Johnnies got as much screen time as anyone else?

And, of course, the guy who should have been dead… is alive?

In other words, Eden of the East could have been an A+++ train wreck in Sunrise’s hands. I’ll leave that thought in your minds as we wait the half a year for the first movie. Until then, noblesse oblige. Please continue becoming a Messiah.