Ranked #557

Higashi no Eden Movie II: Paradise Lost

Many things can be said about the second Eden of the East movie "Paradise Lost." The first thing that would probably be mentioned would be "underwhelming" because compared to the TV series, it is. The ending was definitely unexpected, because unlike EotE which is always so fast paced and high thought process, the end simply tells you the story is over without ending. It's a bit unclear whether this is really the end of EotE.

I'm writing this review to urge you to watch this movie regardless of whether some people on MAL told you this movie was "shit" - because it isn't. It's far from it, and not only that but this movie also answers a lot of questions about the EotE universe.

Story: 9/10
The story has somewhat departed from it's original venture of romance, action, and global politics and degraded into just politics, but that doesn't make this movie a bad one. The story moves away from Saki and the Eden of the East server and really focuses in on who Takizawa Akira really is. The movie directly picks up where the last left off, where Ropponogi gives Takizawa a private jet and goes to meet the wife of the Prime Minister, doing so because he believes he's the Prime Ministers son. Spoiling too much would ruin the movie for you, but I can promise the suspense that builds is great and resolve is incredibly interesting.

Art and Animation: 10/10
God, I love Production I.G. The animation is nearly the same from the original series and the first movie (as if you didn't already know) and is of course, gorgeous. There's one scene in particular though that has animation elevated on an even higher level than usually seen in EotE and that one scene is probably one of the most powerful. I won't say which one but when you'll see it, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Sound: 9/10
school food punishment did the original ending to TV series and I really liked their sound, so having them do the opening and the ending made me pretty happy. The background music is also not something to leave without mention. The music can get pretty intense at times, and it definitely increases the suspense.

Character: 8/10
EotE is often criticized most harshly for it's characters. Takizawa Akira is the main subject of this movie, and you could technically say this whole series is about him, but that doesn't mean he's the only character that needs to be developed. At the very end of the series we have so many characters that haven't really been cultured into what they could have been. Saki is still just a romantically challenged girl running around Japan trying to find Takizawa, and so on. This movie introduces a couple of new characters too, the Prime Ministers wife, Takizawa's mom, the Prime Minister himself, the ball girls, and most notably Mr. Outside. Ato Saizo is the best new face in this movie. Once again, I'm not going to delve too far in because of spoilers.

Enjoyment: 9/10
Regardless of the last three or so minutes, the enjoyment of this movie for me was a ten out of ten. They really wrapped up the whole EotE story and put a couple of nice bows on it and then all of a sudden, a plot twist end that was very unnecessary came along. Albeit unhappy with this end, I'm not going to take out all my anger on this movie and call it awful. I think this movie has such a low score because like me, many others wanted to see the ending to Eden of the East. Whether this is or not, for now at least, we've reached the end of Eden.

Overall: 9/10
This movie supplements us with so much information on the EotE series, it's hard to miss for fans. It keeps the original dramatic and suspenseful nature of the series without cutting any corners - it's an hour and a half of pure story. After finishing this movie, I'm glad I followed this series all the way through. read more

A disappointing end to what started off as a very intriguing series. I'm sure Eden loyalists will disagree with me. After the rather uneventful first movie I expected movie 2's plot to skyrocket and reach a memorable climax, Instead we have a silly plot, personally I think the plot lost all it's credibility when the selecao began to be granted rather extreme requests e.g. "make me the king of this country" it made me wonder why on earth nobody tried to ask juiz to make them king earlier on.

Takizawa seems to love wiping his memory and regaining it for no good reason other than "he doesn't want to bear the guilt of using himself as a scapegoat". At long last the elusive Mr.Outside makes his appearance except he's extremely unimpressive, he doesn't live up to his hype at all. The possibility of Takizawa being the prime-minister's illegitimate son is explored but I won't drag on about the weak plot, I'll let you guys judge it for yourselves. One thing I will mention is that the ending is left open, that's right OPEN! After the ordeal of having to wait for 2 very stagnant movies I believe that as viewers we deserved a decisive ending. To me the ending felt like more of a make-shift conclusion to a plot that had spiraled out of control, they had to wrap it up in this movie so they ended it abruptly. Nothing gets me more worked up than when good shows are given bad endings. It's almost as bad as the disappointment I felt when playing Lost Planet 2 (a game that i still pretend doesn't exist).

The only thing I enjoyed about this movie was the very atmospheric soundtrack. The only reason this movie is getting a 7 from me is because it's riding on the success of the anime series, Part of me still wants to give it a 6! If you've seen the series there's no way you're not going to watch this so the only advice I can offer is not to go into it with very high expectations because they will be quashed.

GOOD RIDDANCE EDEN !
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