Eden of the East - Shooting Missles Out of the Sky With Your Finger is HARD Hard as in Walker, Texas Ranger, not hard as in difficult obvz. Takizawa Akira is the hardest dude ever. I had to marathon the last 4 episodes to catch up with what everyone was talking about this week - the finale of what was arguably the best anime of 2009’s Spring Season. I had some trouble watching Eden every week because I felt like the heavy subject matter required me to be in a different headspace than fluffier sports/romance shows I can sneak in here and there. God damn was it ever hard preventing myself from reading everyone’s blogs though. Marathoning the last few episodes was a good choice since I got to immerse myself in Eden’s world and fully appreciate just how good the writing and production of this show was. (I also didn’t have to cry for too long over Pantsu’s death, yay.) I can definitely say this is one of the most mature contemporary anime series’ I’ve seen. References to Dawn of the Dead combined with a compelling representation of the cultural apathy of an entire generation had me sold. I’m generally a slice of life junkie so give me a story about college graduates trying to find their way in society, struggling with unrequited loves and social disenfranchisement in a modern global setting and I’d be furiously happy. But the fact that the whole show was so cleverly written and woven into a political sci-fi mystery of this scale just blows me away. I always feel like ending a series with film versions is a bit of a cop-out. Or cash-grab, anyway. I would usually bitch and moan about such an obviously “to-be-continued”, “get-you-next-time-Gadget” ending as episode 11 and note that the season really should have gone 25 episodes to get the most out of its depth of plot. But I’m actually looking forward to the two Eden movies that were announced as a continuation to the series - even if we’ve gotta wait well into next year for them over here. The epic conspiracy subject matter really does seem better suited to film than 22 minute tv slots (part of the reason I found watching every week difficult), and I’m SO looking forward to seeing a big-screen budget boost in the animation department. See you next year Takizawa-tachi!
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