Eden of the East : Paradise Lost

Label:

MangaUk

Certificate:

12

Format:

DVD or Blu-Ray

Discs:

1.

Running time:

133 mins approx

Subtitles:

English

Video:

16:9

Sound:

English 5.1, Japanese 5.1

Release date:

21st November 2011

RRP:

DVD £17.99 – Blu-Ray £22.99

Actual Price:

DVD £11ish Amazon - Play

Actual Price:

Blu-Ray £15ish Amazon - Play

Brief synopsis:

Akira Takizawa, now posing as the illegitimate son of Japan’s previous Prime Minister, heads back to Japan in order to bring the Selecao game closer to a conclusion. But the Japanese authorities have other plans for him, believing him and his friends at Eden of the East to have been directly involved in the recent “terrorist activities” which threatened much of Tokyo just months before. Will Akira’s natural charm, innate tenacity, alleged connection to one of the greatest politicians his homeland’s ever known and a mobile phone loaded with billions of Yen be enough to keep him ahead of the game or will his fellow Selecao or the mysterious Mr Outside see him removed from play before he can make the world a better place by becoming the Kind of Japan?

Comments:

So, here it is, the second movie and final installment in the Eden of the East saga. We previously reviewed the TV series here and the first movie here and this release is pretty much more of the same. It still has the tight writing, the ambitious scripting, the impressive animation, the glorious music, pop culture and Shakespearian references flowing freely from every pore and an English language dub so impressive that it could probably squarely trounce the original Japanese language version in a bare knuckle fist fight. Also, the “reversioning” of the dub works wonders on making the finer points of the complex schemes and politics behind the plot easier to keep tabs on, though it still helps if you’ve watched the previous instalments recently in order to keep up with it all.

So then why, like the first movie before it, does it just it just seems so…. “meh”? After a bit of pondering I think I’ve narrowed it down to this. Do you remember that kid at school; the one that was always in the top ten students but for some reason the teachers always marked their report card with “lacks effort”? The one that you know could have danced rings around the syllabus if only they’d put in that bit more effort and gone for an A+ with distinctions and bells and whistles and all that kind of jazz rather than just an A and a pat on the back? Well that’s what the Eden of the East series ended up reminding me of once it had come to a conclusion… or rather come to a non-conclusion. Which is a shame as the show had started of with so much promise that no matter how good it was - and don’t get me wrong, it is a good story - it just wasn’t living up to it’s full potential.

Being written and directed by Kenji Kayiyama, the driving force behind much of two of Production I G’s best works of recent years, namely the Ghost in the Shell: Stand alone Complex TV show & movies and the magnificent Seirei No Moribito, and utilising some of the aforementioned company’s best audio and visual resources, Eden of the East was on the fast track to greatness, glimpse of which were displayed throughout the eleven episodes of the TV series. But then the series ended and the movies began and to be brutally honest, it seems like the production lost it’s way somewhat after that. It feels very much like during the initial production it was realised (a tad too late) that they had too much material for 12 episodes but not enough for 24 – especially as this is not a series that lends itself to either dragging out every single plot point for as long as possible (Bleach) or shoving a standalone filler episode in the middle and not having anyone notice (GITS:SAC) – so they’d have to do something drastic with the remaining material, and so cut it in half and made a pair of movies with it. The trouble with that was that the first movie, though technically and visually very impressive, presented itself as little more than a bridge between the TV show and the promised “oomph” of the concluding movie but then when the concluding movie arrived there wasn’t a whole lot of a conclusion and even less of an “oomph”.

Now again don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s bad, in fact it’s good, really good and still superior to 90% of the other anime out there, and I’m not just saying that to keep MangaUK happy - hell, if something sucks the big one you all know by now that I’ll be one of the first to say it – as it remains entertaining throughout, a number of plotlines are tied up nicely and story leaves itself open ended enough that there’s a possibility of a sequel. It’s just that, like the bright kids who end up spending the rest of their lives in a dull old office job, it’s a touch disappointing to see a series that could have been extra special and really be going places to lose it’s “wow” factor too early in the game and then just coast it’s way along to the end.

Extras:

There’s a Commentary track from some of the Dub cast, an interview with the director and promos & trailers for this movie as well as some from the previous installments.

Eden of the East: Paradise Lost is available now from most high streets and online retailers. Well, the ones that do DVDs anyway… Might have a bit less luck asking in Specsavers or Topshop though feel free to give it a go.