Eden Of The East

Label:

Manga Entertainment

Certificate:

15

Format:

DVD/Blu-ray

Discs:

2. (11 episodes)

Running time:

333 mins approx

Subtitles:

English

Video:

16:9 anamorphic

Sound:

English 5.1, Japanese 5.1

Release date:

29th November 2010

RRP DVD:

£24.99 - Amazon - Play

RRP Blu-ray:

£34.99 - Amazon - Play

Brief synopsis:

Late November 2010, on a cold winter day in Japan, ten Tomahawk missiles strike the Japanese mainland, destroying whole city blocks and leaving countless people homeless but miraculously killing no one. As no one takes credit for this surprise attack, and with no fatalities to mourn, the Japanese public are quick to push the issue aside and the media soon deem the event, or “Careless Monday” as it becomes known, as a simple terrorist attack to be left as nothing more than a footnote in the history books.

Three months later on a cold spring morning in Washington DC, a young man with no memory, no name and no clothes regains consciousness outside the White House. Carrying nothing but a strange cell phone and a gun, he soon attracts the attention of local law enforcement though a chance encounter with a Japanese tourist, a young woman on her university graduation trip, saves him from summery incarceration.

The young man, taking the name Akira Takizawa, returns to Japan with his new friend, Saki Morimi, where he discovers that not only does his cell phone contain almost 10 billion yen in digital currency, but his ownership of said phone marks him to be a Seleção, one of a group of people with similarly equipped cell phones. The Seleção are twelve citizens who have each been given billions of yen and thrust into a game where the only objective is the cryptic order to “Save Japan”. How they go about using this money to compete this task is solely up each individual, but should they deplete their funds without achieving their goal, or if any other Seleção completes the task before they do, they will be eliminated not just from the game, but also from the land of the living, swiftly, permanently and without warning.

As Akira progresses further into the game, he discovers that not only was he the one that wiped his own memories, but that he may also have been the one who orchestrated the missile attacks on his own homeland. In order to stay alive he needs not only to stay one step ahead of his fellow Seleção, but also to stay two steps ahead of himself, or at least the person he used to be, and to uncover what it was that was so important that he’d voluntarily mess with his own brain to keep it a secret.

Comments:

So here it is, the star of our 2010 Oktoberfest anime all-nighter available to take home on both DVD and Blu-ray. This release comprises all 11 episodes of the Eden of the East TV show, which itself serves as a lead into the two Eden of the East theatrical movies.

If you’re a fan of films such as The Bourne Identity or anime like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, ie full of political machinations, shadowy behind-the-scenes scheming and grandiose power plays brought about by the rich and corrupt, then this show is for you. In fact, you’d be easily forgiven for finding this show to very much look, sound and feel like a present-day Ghost in the Shell, as it has the same writer and director as Stand Alone Complex (Kenji Kamiyama), the same composer as Innocence (Kenji Kawai), the same animation company (Production I G), and covers much of the same ground, that being the use of money, power and technology to make major changes within Japanese society. It’s a tale of socio-political revolution for the technological age and a stark reminder that any power or technology that holds great promise can be quite frighteningly misused and misappropriated at the same time. Also, with the reliance of high technology, you’re never to sure who’s telling the truth about anything; be it their actions, their motives and even down to who, or what, they really are.

Now, while the characters do look more like they’ve been pulled out of some college drama anime - which again isn’t surprising as they were created by the same designer as handled Honey and Clover - this is a smart move on the producers part as there’s several characters, our “hero” especially, who through their actions could have moved very quickly into “deeply unlikeable” territory had they used more “serious” character designs. Luckily however these slightly more cartoony character designs help soften the blow and keep them more friendly and acceptable.

Plot wise, oh boy do you have to pay attention. There’s a lot going on that may seem unimportant but does become particularly relevant later and you really do need to catch everything that flows across any PC monitor or cell phone screen even if it’s just for a second so keep that pause button handy. In fact, a lot of the first episode may only make sense if you go back and re-watch it after you’ve completed the final episode. There’s also a lot of references to old US and UK films such as Dawn of the Dead, Taxi Driver and Quadrophenia and many of these hold plot clues and plenty of foreshadowing so don’t let anything slip by you. Even the opening titles hold a lot of information so keep em’ peeled.

Speaking of the opening titles, there was quite a furore of excitement when it appeared that the US distributor FUNimation had managed to secure the rights to use the original opening track – Falling Down by UK band Oasis – as this is one of these series where the title music really does set the tone for the whole show and having it replaced – as was done for Speedgrapher when Girls on Film couldn’t be licensed from Duran Duran – does have a profound negative effect. It was unfortunate then when it transpired that FUNimation had only managed to obtain the rights to use the track for the first episode, which then left a lot of fans somewhat disappointed. That isn’t to say that the replacement track used for episodes 2 though 11 isn’t good, it’s just that once you’ve seen how well the original fits, anything else is a bit of a let down.

But what isn’t a let down is the animation quality, which is everything we’ve come to expect from Production I G. This is best exemplified by the sheer amount of research and effort put into the scenes set in the US, even though the series only spends the first episode there before moving back to Japan. This is one of those show where, if you do have a Blu-ray player, then you really should invest the extra money and go for the Blu-ray release over the DVD version. The animation is impressively handled from start to finish and the sound has that lovely polished feel that makes the extra money well worth it.

And here’s the bit where I moan. Come on, you should be expecting this bit by now. The only thing that really doesn’t ring true for me about this show is that even though Japan gets hit but not one, not two, but ten rather large military grade missiles, the public are quick to sweep the whole thing under the rug and get on with their lives with no obvious last side effects. Nice though this idea may be, we’re seen here in our own reality how this just wouldn’t happen. Were something like this to occur in real life then within a week we’d all be required to carry valid travel papers everywhere we went and go though full body scanning every time we even wanted to go to the toilet.

But one thing I’m not going to complain about (for once) is the dub, which honestly is excellent, probably better than the original Japanese even. And also for once the English usage in the original Japanese version isn’t half bad either. .

Extras:

There’s an interview with director Kenji Kamiyama and the very secretive character designer Chika Umino; an interview with the two main Japanese voice actors plus the original Japanese promo videos. Oddly enough the almost ubiquitous textless OP and ED are surprisingly (and conspicuously) absent.

Eden Of The East will be available from most high streets and online retailers from 29th November 2010 with plenty of discounts to be found if you hunt around. A trailer for this series can be found at Manga UK’s official website here.