By: Robert Murphy
We open on the story with a young girl by the name of Saki
Morimi who is outside of the White House, throwing change at it (get it) only to
quickly find herself in a bit of trouble with some officers nearby who saw her
throw something at the White House. Close by we find our other main character, Akira
Takizawa who is butt naked with nothing but a gun in his hand, a mysterious
phone with access to huge amounts of money and no memory of how he got to where
he is. The two quickly meet and after a series of misunderstandings and
confusing events, the two start to slowly get to know each other more and Akira
himself tries to figure out what happened to him and how he’s involved in a
recent terrorist act known as Careless Monday, which involved ten missile
strikes on six major Japanese cities.
Love at first site
Right from the get go in “Eden of the East” you are laughing
and hooked on the strangeness of what is going on in the story as Akira
swaggers around with his junk out (don’t worry its blurred out, but still
funny as hell to watch). And if all that didn’t get you loving this guy, then the
rest of the show certainly will, throughout the show Akira is a constant riot
even when facing down the many serious obstacles he must confront in the story, he
remains a warm and engaging character. This man has no past and you spend
almost the entirety of the story following along as Akira tries to put together
what happened to him before he lost all his memories. As for our leading lady,
Saki is a hard character to get a good feel for at first as she follows around
Akira, a man who she just met and somehow has an unbelievably strong attachment
to. While she isn’t an annoying or necessarily bad character, she just feels
more like a sore thumb sticking out in the story but she does make her way into
the story eventually and becomes a more solid character.
Mysterious cell phone that Akira and others in the
game have
The rest of the supporting cast are Saki’s friends who all
are part of a small corporation they started known as “Eden of the East” that
is a sort of social networking website where people talk and interact but also
get to know each other just by having a picture of the person you want to know
about can lead you to learning everything about that person. The group is somewhat
of a rag tag assortment of characters, the most enjoyable of whom would have to
be Yutaka Itazu, a plump and reclusive hacker and Mikuru Katsuhara the shy and
frank little girl who does most of the programming work for the Edan club.
While others, like Satoshi Ōsugi, who has a huge love crush on Saki and hates
Akira for the affection Saki has towards him, makes for a very annoying
character. The last of the group, Kazuomi Hirasawa and "Sis", whose never given
a real name, are somewhat bland characters who blend in with the wood work but
have their moments in the spotlight that make them decent characters.
The series itself starts viewers off in the dark, leaving
you to figure out together bits and pieces of Akira's past on your own. He eventually does,
with sparse information along the way, leading you on to fulfilling the puzzle involving his
past. Along the way, Akira will meet other people playing a certain
"game" involving the phone he had on him when you first meet Akira. Some
of these people are good, some are bad, and some don’t really give a damn one
way or another, and are enjoying the money and power the phones bestow upon
them. Also along the way, he shares some tender moments with Saki who has a
story of her own concerning family and employment, which links together to
Akira's story through “Eden of the East” club with her and her friends. And
despite the short run time “Eden of the East” pulls no punches in the story
telling as you are pulled into the mystery of what happened to Akira in his
past, what are the mysterious phones all about and what is this “game” that
Akira and others are all wrapped up in? Wow that’s a mouthful and as you can
see it is a lot to take and enjoy as well.
“Eden of the East” is a highly enjoyable show to watch from
beginning to end and aside from the slow buildup of Saki and the annoying Ōsugi,
I have not a lot of bad things to say about the show. It is disappointing how
short the show is when there is so much more that could be done with the series
but the show does get closer in the two movies that it has, "The King of Eden," and "Paradise Lost." Also, you cannot go wrong with a character like Akira, who
makes the show an all-around laugh and a gripping experience for those of you
looking for a show that will grab your attention all the way till the end.
Good:
-Akira is an amazing and solid character
-A unique and griping story from beginning to end
-Short story but makes up for it with the two concluding movies
Bad:
-Slow character development on the main character, Saki, as
well as a few other unimpressive characters
Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10