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Higashi no Eden, the series, was original, fun, and even interesting. The series really started to gain momentum as time passed on, and by the end I was very interested in what would happen next. Sadly, this movie was a let down.

The original series definitely had some issues -- poorly done CGI effects, awful English (and I'm not even talking about the dub), and strange art decisions (Saki's eyes, for instance). All those things remain, but now they have taken away what made the original good. Higashi no Eden redeemed itself in it's interesting characterization and a plot that was pretty captivating, when it was ... comprehensible.

The movie drops all of that. Instead it focuses on the Eden of the East employees watching Saki run around trying to deal with memory-erased Takizawa all over again. As if we didn't have enough of that. Most of Takizawa's charm is lost when he loses his memory and he just doesn't act quite the same anymore. Plus, the nagging fact that he doesn't even remember anything that went on during the series (from the selecao plot to Saki to, well, anything) makes the whole thing feel like you're playing catch up. And that leads to the next point.

The plot. It's quite bad. Which is impressive because it's almost nonexistent. For some reason the writers thought it would be a good idea to introduce a time skip since the series ended, but then go ahead and do flashbacks/summary of what went on in those 6 months. So... what was the point of doing a time skip at all? Finally, once you get past all the re-cap stuff, the plot basically amounts to Takizawa remembering a little bit of his life, going on a wild goose chase, and then realizing the dire situation they are in. Then the movie ends. Yep, they finally set up the plot to move forward and then the movie ends. Oh dear, oh wow. I have to click the little rating buttons above to score "plot", and the score of "2" is "dreadful." I'd have to say that's pretty accurate.

Overall, this movie was not enjoyable. The series definitely had some interesting aspects, but the movie did not capture any of them. Standing alone it may be the most pointless thing in the Higashi no Eden universe that ever happened. 90% of it could have not been shown, and we wouldn't have missed much. The other 10% was just setup for the next movie which is pretty ridiculous.

I can only hope the next movie is better.