I've decided to treat myself and review something that doesn't suck! My coronary arteries requested me to take a break from reviewing anime that sends my blood pressure north of 200!
Today I look at Eve no Jikan, which is a very highly rated series here on MAL, although somewhat obscure.
Plot: 8/10
Eve no Jikan takes place in the near future, when humans are constantly being served by androids. These androids have not only developed complete artificial intelligence, but the ability to feel emotions just as complex as humans do. Despite the fact that these androids are fully human mentally with artificial bodies, they are treated like crap and dehumanized in order to justify using them as slaves. One place where androids can go to escape this discrimination is a small bar called Eve's Time ("Eve no Jikan" in Japanese) where there is a rule to treat androids and humans equally. Our main human protagonist is Rikuo, who is a shy and introverted young boy who used to be a master pianist but gave up playing. He is actually interested that androids can feel and think independently, so he decides to follow his android maid and discovers the hidden bar Eve's Time. Rikuo's friend Masaki also discovers the bar and both boys are amazed that inside they can't tell who is android and who is human. Normally androids have halos of light above their heads to distinguish them from humans, but are otherwise indistinguishable. This is similar to the special ears that the "persocoms" have in Chobits. We learn that Masaki has a strong hatred for androids, but he actually has a reason for this feeling and he isn't portrayed as a one dimensional, shallow, cartoonish villain as all too often happens in anime with an anti-discrimination message.
We learn more about all the patrons of this bar and the problems that androids go through in society. Eventually the plot takes a sinister turn when an extremist anti-android organization called the Ethics Committee finds out about the bar. The Ethics Committee was once a fringe organization and frowned upon by public opinion after they severely beat and nearly killed a little girl thinking she was an android, but it is insinuated they are quickly growing in power and influence. However...the show ends without a real resolution and we never find out what happens next, at least not in the 6 part ONA. I haven't seen the movie yet. Masaki is able to overcome his hatred of androids, but we learn Masaki's father is the ruthless leader of the Ethics Committee and he never shows any sign of change. There was going to be a sequel, but the series wasn't a commercial success and any sequel is unlikely at this point. Eve no Jikan will join the ranks of cult shows with near universal praise that got shut down early and will never get a sequel... like Firefly, and Sonic SatAM, the sonic cartoon that actually didn't suck!
Eve no Jikan had a lot of strong points, but also a few weaknesses. One strong point was that the discrimination portrayed in Eve no Jikan was a bit more realistic and nuanced than in many other examples of "fantasy racism" where humans act like complete assholes for no reason. Humans ARE capable of acting monstrous towards each other for something as little as a different physical appearance, but there are many levels of discrimination and it would be a mistake to only focus on the most extreme and obvious variety. Examples like the little bastards in Elfen Lied that murdered a mutant girl's beloved puppy just to be mean to her because she looked different, do have real world parallels. Think of the KKK members that used dynamite to blow up black children preparing for Sunday School (yes that really happened), but most people in the Jim Crow South weren't tossing sticks of dynamite at children. People simply didn't question the status quo and accepted systemic discrimination because that was the society they knew. Many people in the United Arab Emirates today (a US ally) own South Asian people as slaves and view them as sub-human. However, it is unhelpful to portray these people as cackling madmen who simply wake up every morning to do nothing but evil deeds. Humans are sadly capable of dehumanizing each other and creating a complete psychological detachment that "justifies" and allows otherwise ordinary, non-sociopath people to treat others in a certain group like trash. A good book dealing with this topic is The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass, who grew up in Germany during the Nazi period and during WW2 was drafted and forced to serve as a tank gunner in the Waffen SS. In the novel there is a character representing the people of Nazi Germany. Although many of his actions in the novel are indeed disturbing, he isn't overtly evil and never murders anyone himself, just as most Germans didn't. His great flaw is that he is extremely selfish and largely oblivious to the suffering of others. When kristallnacht happens and the Jewish toy store owner is murdered, our "hero" is only upset because no other stores sold toy drums that were as nice. He never feels sorry for the victim that was always nice to him, but instead is mildly upset that this was an inconvenience for him personally. This complete and profound indifference to the suffering of the "other" and "them" is the true face of discrimination that allows it to continue in a society. Eve no Jikan wished to capture this more common, casual discrimination instead of being like all the science fiction media where humans try to kill all AI simply for being AI.
If Eve no Jikan should be rewarded for taking a more nuanced and sophisticated look at discrimination, then what does it lose points on? Oddly enough...subtlety. Allow me to explain what I mean by that. Despite the fact that Chobits is viewed as a crap anime by many in the MAL community, it actually had a social message just as profound as Eve no Jikan's. However, it didn't beat the viewer over the head with the force of a sledgehammer, so many viewers missed it. Chobits was about a guy falling in love with an AI android and how his friends reacted to this wild and unusual relationship. The female android of course couldn't produce children and couldn't even have real sex since she lacked a vagina. This caused many to scorn the relationship for being unnatural, but the show tries to convince the viewer that a consenting and loving relation between 2 adults is valuable and precious even if it is unorthodox. Chobits (one of the authors is a lesbian) delivers a highly pro gay message without shoving it down the viewer's throat. Eve no Jikan is more like Glee, or a 1980s after school special. At times it seems as if the director is saying to you "We think that you're an idiot, so we are going to beat you over the head with this message until you get it." The show CONSTANTLY flashes from the characters to the sign in the bar saying "androids and humans are equals". They may as well have used the gag from Don't Be a Menace where the mail man walks onscreen and screams MESSAGE!
Overall:
Eve no Jikan was a very short series with each episode lasting only 15 minutes and only 6 episodes. However, it made a strong emotional impact at times and did an admirable job telling a very familiar story in a fun and different way from most other Science Fictions that tackle this topic. I also loved how they integrated Asimov's Laws of Robotics from I-Robot as an important part of the plot. Rather then just being a throw away reference allusion to show the writer had read some science fiction before, the show actually explores the 3 laws and what robots could do without breaking them. For example, many science fiction in which robots must follow the 3 principal laws don't realize that logically robots could lie to humans if 1. that lie didn't directly, physically hurt humans and 2. the robot was not specifically ordered to tell the truth. Eve no Jikan ended with a complete non-ending and clearly wasn't completed, however it isn't the writer/director's fault that a sequel couldn't be made. Therefore, I will not deduct points for being incomplete. After all, no one would insult Schubert's beautiful 8th Symphony just because he only got to write 2 movements before he died. An incomplete work in which the completed part was well made, is still valuable and worthy of admiration. Although Eve no Jikan had a few flaws, it was a strong effort overall and well worth 1.5 hours of your time to watch it all. I give it a 7.5/10 which of course rounds up to 8.
