Story; 10. The questions presented through Eve no Jikan are nothing particularly new, yet nothing entirely exhausted either. Humanity, discrimination, acceptance; the cast of Eve is used to portray these themes, and they do so in spades. While the issues at hand have been seen before, they are rarely integrated into the story so eloquently. The conversations between characters are anything but contrived, and the liveliness and reality of the interactions in the show are really beautiful. The story alone is worth seeing, and that's sadly pretty rare in anime, as much as I hate to say it.
Art; 10. If there's on thing I'll never stop regretting about becoming an art student, it's taking all these figure drawing and anatomy courses, only to find out that now whenever I finally do have the free time to watch anime, almost all of the shows turn me off due to the proportional issues most shows suffer from. Luckily enough, Eve is stunningly gorgeous, and not just the environments. The environments would easily be the artistic high point though, and it would hardly be a stretch to say that Eve has the most engaging, realistic settings out of any series or movie I've seen to date. The characters are refreshingly well drawn too, and feature a lot of diversity that other shows these days seem to lack. Characters are not only distinctive in their outfits, but also in their faces; it's uncommon to see a show where the hordes of animated women actually look different, so I get very giddy when I do.
Sound; 8. The show is pretty well orchestrated, but for this sort of "futuristic japan" show, pretty generic. At least they are well done, and the short theme that plays each episode when they are in the coffee shop is actually pretty awesome. The sound is far from the high point, but also hardly an issue for Eve.
Character; 9. Eve has a brilliant cast of characters, all which I was able to enjoy in one way or another. The dialogue no doubt plays a huge role in this, but the character's persona's were so well developed that I found myself sucked in enough to forget that they weren't real. And for me, this unusually engaging experience is what truly marks a stellar series. The story, characters, and the universe crafted in Eve no Jikan was enough to pull me in and make me forget completely about my life and the world around me for it's length, and allowed me to truly enjoy a unique fictional adventure. If that isn't quality, then I don't know what is.
Enjoyment; 10. I haven't been this surprised with a series since I finished Ergo Proxy, nor have I had the pleasure of watching something that drew me in and held my attention so well. Eve is a brilliant, beautiful, well-paced romp through a futuristic Japan where the line between human and machine is beginning to blur heavily. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants a good series, but most especially to other sci-fi buffs.
