Eden of the East #1
Whoa...when was it that I last watched one episode and made up my mind IMMEDIATELY that it's excellent? Production I.G.'s aesthetic and the political thriller backdrop (which was no doubt aided by Kamiyama's experience in GitS SAC) give it an overall feel of Toyko Marble Chocolate crossed with the Bourne trilogy. Hyperbolic fanboying/fangirling is justified for once this time.
Yeah, the Jason Bourne reference had me grinning so damned hard it made my face ache...if I didn't love those movies would I get as many lulz out of this? There's plenty of room to go all deep and dark: while world events in recent years have affected Western media this feels like the first genuine 'post 9/11' anime show to me, SAC 2nd Gig exempted.
I don't really think this going to be a thoroughly dark and angsty show though, not until the last few episodes at any rate. It has a playful and vivacious vibe that I love - the backgrounds, vehicles, weapons and so on were very lifelike but the anime-esque facial expressions were a slice of fried gold. Hell, even the Engrish was good. Not just passable but actually convincing. Kudos.
The chemistry between Saki and Akira is brilliant - when he whips his thing out in front of a stern-looking female American police officer and casually walks away was priceless (one of several excellent screencaps that are begging to be used in my first proper post on this series). Yeah, it had me thinking "Seriously...what the hell?" but the character-derived comedy carried it I think.
This could be all-out fluff and silliness, but it's a different kind of fluff and silliness to, say, K-On!, which also covers subject matter that's Relevant To My Interests.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a winner for the season.
P.S. there's even a SD .avi option for the subbed edition, which means it's actually, y'know, viewable on my clunky old 1.6GHz machine and its puny 768MB RAM (which is even punier than Akira's Wedding Prospects on an overcast Washington afternoon).
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