Eden of the East: Series Review

SUMMARY: Fascinating premise, but the execution fell short of what it could have been.

STORY
I would call Eden of the East a plot-driven anime. The premise is fascinating: Taki, the protagonist, finds himself naked in front of the White House with only a handgun and a cellphone and he has zero memory of who he is or why he is there. He discovers that the cellphone grants him near unlimited power--for the purpose of being Japan's "savior."

That interesting nugget is the engine that drives the Eden ship, the hook that keeps the audience wondering who gave Taki the phone, who Taki really is, who the other selecao are and what their motivations are.

The story that ended up unfolding was, for me, a wee bit of a letdown, but your mileage may vary. I do appreciate, though, Eden's engaging and thoughtful premise, which cleverly taps into modern-day themes like youthful malaise and activism through technology.

ANIMATION
The animation in this show was good, from the colors to the characters. What impressed me most were the cityscapes and backgrounds, which provided remarkably realistic backdrops for the show.

SOUND
The music in this show made very little impression on me one way or the other. For the most part, it was unobtrusive; it was also not striking in any way. As for the voice acting, I watched the English dub and for the most part, the voices are fine. No super annoying girls, thank god. Also, I should say that I have liked every single dub of Jason Liebrecht's that I have heard (Taki in Eden of the East, Luck Gandor in Baccano--despite the hammed up accent, and most notably Hei in Darker Than Black).

CHARACTERS
The lack of compelling characters and/or character development really held this anime back. Had the same plot been executed with well developed, interesting characters, Eden of the East would have hit a home run.

Let's start with Taki, the protagonist. While perfectly affable (and hence tremendously likeable), Taki doesn't seem to have much substance as a character. Sure, he likes movies, and he's a quick thinker, but . . . there isn't much else to him. His past remains a mystery; he doesn't learn or grow; he just kind of... is. He's certainly someone the audience can get behind, but there doesn't seem to be anything else to him other than that he's likeable.

As for the rest of the ensemble crew, they suffer even more from lack of substance. Saki, while only about a 4/10 on the Annoying Anime Women Scale (10 being most annoying), is a whole lot of nothing. Same goes for the rest of the personality-less Eden crew, whose names I actually don't even remember.

Had Eden of the East spent some more time developing at least the two main leads into characters the audience knows and should care about, the anime would have been far better for it. As it was though, the show relied on the mysterious plot to drive it forward and neglected to fill out the characters on the ride.

OVERALL
Overall, I enjoyed Eden of the East, but I thought it had the potential to be so much more. I wished the show had given more substance to its characters, to give the audience a personal investment in the story. As it was, curiosity about the plot carried the show. It was still an enjoyable experience, but it could have been more...

MOVIE REVIEWS
What was an intriguing and fascinating premise the first time around--Taki erasing his own memory--turned out to be gimmicky in the first Eden of the East movie. And what had been an intriguing mystery that drove the story in the series slowed to a halting, boring standstill in the second Eden of the East movie. Faux-deep social commentary on modern society got packed in via heavy-handed dialogue scenes, alongside a nonsensical plot that plodded to a poor, whimpering close. I enjoyed the series, but found the movies left a bad taste in my mouth.