Higashi no Eden Movie I: The King of Eden

After preventing Japan's destruction, Akira Takizawa made one final request to become the "King of Japan," before he erased his memories once again and disappeared. Leaving Saki Morimi with his cellphone, the only clue she has in regards to Akira's whereabouts is the message, "I'll be waiting where our journey started."

Six months later, rumors have spread about Akira, and Saki's search leads her to New York City. However, Saki is not the only person who goes to investigate—with several billion yen burning a hole in their pockets and a challenge to "save Japan," the remaining Seleção are not far behind. Some are willing to help Akira achieve his goals, but a few are making dangerous moves in order to eliminate him and achieve their own picture of a better Japan. With rising stakes and new revelations, the game is still on.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Takizawa, Akira Main

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Morimi, Saki Main

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Shiratori, Kuroha Supporting

Igarashi, Rei Japanese

Mameshiba Supporting

Katsuhara, Mikuru Supporting

Saitou, Ayaka Japanese

Juiz Supporting

Tamagawa, Sakiko Japanese

Itazu, Yutaka Supporting

Hiyama, Nobuyuki Japanese

Hirasawa, Kazuomi Supporting

Kawahara, Motoyuki Japanese

Ohsugi, Satoshi Supporting

Eguchi, Takuya Japanese

O-nee Supporting

Saitou, Kimiko Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Yamamoto, Kouji Producer

Ishii, Tomohiko Producer

Kawaguchi, Tooru Producer

Reviews

Jun 22, 2024

Keistere

Recommended

THIS REVIEW CAREFULLY AVOIDS SPOILERS!

I think "King of Eden" is an unfit title for this. They could have at least added an interrogation mark ("King of Eden?") and it would have portrayed what's about way better (actually, it would be very on-point), while also making it more intriguing.

This won't be a negative review, though; I actually found this to be a decent continuation of the first season. If you've seen that one, you really should watch this, and the sooner the better. It not only follows the style and spirit of the first season (you can tell the same creators are behind this), but it also explains and ... elaborates on a couple of details that seemed to not make any sense during the last chapter, that with time you may forget about, and you'll miss what they are referencing here in some scenes. In the end, things make more sense after all, and you can tell that the whole progression up until this point was thought-out from the beginning, regardless of what it seemed to me back when I finished watching the prior season.

So, as much as I don't think that this has any big problem like the first season had (in my opinion, the rushed crazy ending with all its justifications and explanations popping up suddenly, feeling almost random), I think that this lacks any outstanding strong points in comparison; I'd say this "season" is more average, for the good and for the bad.

And I say "season" because this doesn't really feel like a movie; it doesn't build up like one (introduction, climax and conclusion). Instead, it totally feels like a bunch of episodes meshed together; the build-up is a flowing continuum with its ups and downs, and I think it would have benefited from being released in a series format again instead, as the ending is by no means conclusive either. It feels, in fact, like the first half of a second season. So I understand that those who watched it strictly as a movie left disappointed reviews.


All that aside, among the list of things that are properly inherited here in King of Eden, is, once again, how tasty the main characters are. We are reminded of how good the character... characterization has always been in EotE. Just like in real life, you can read their personality just by looking at their body language, that's how real they feel (at least, the two protagonists). Props to the artists there.

On the other hand, this time around we have a way more evident use of 3D graphics meshing in, and it's not precisely seamless; sometimes it's somewhat abrupt. In some scene they even put a cartoon character among 3D-model characters, and it really stood out to me like a sore thumb. Not many people seem to realize about these details, though. The vegetation and background of half of the places also uses 3D in an almost obvious way. It doesn't degrade the visual aspect too much, but sometimes it's counter-immersive, and it's a pity.

King of Eden also inherits the first season's inability to be completely serious when it probably should. It still tilts a little to the light-hearted side in the situations that ask for a more suspenseful and dramatic mood. Something else that bothered me, also part of this light-hearted vein, is how they wiped all the negativity surrounding a particular character, whose personality and story was a little more interesting precisely because of it (wasn't he grumpy and distrustful? Shouldn't he be in a way worse physical condition...?). I'll take character development anytime, but please, don't do it overnight without telling us how the process was at all. Another example of this problem, to me, is the film-maker character. He is just an extremely shallow character that's totally unfitting for comic relief -or whatever they were trying with him here-, that waters down every scene he is in.

One last inherited mistake that I need to point out: in Eden of the East, no matter how good the ideas are, how good the decisions are; they are always made on the go. It's just a fraction of a second. Except for Saki, we are not given any show of doubt, mental processing, remembering, considering... the characters just seem to adapt to the course of events immediately, and that steals a little of potential depth from them. I think that, in fact, this is what waters down the whole show the most.

So, all in all, I'd say that this also suffers the "shortening/shallowing" problem that seems always present in Eden of the East; great ideas, great main characters, but everything's just too fast, there's barely any introspection, and the light-hearted extra touch only adds another grain of sand to its shallower side. It's not severe, but I think that the project as a whole had way more potential than it was really exploited.

The opening and closing songs are not bad and I think they create an appropriate mood, but they become almost irrelevant in the movie format. The ending reminds me of the ending of the first season, which was quite good.

In the end, being as inconclusive as Eden of the East has been up until King of Eden (and its potential before the final conclusion not being as impressive as it could) it will be the last movie (II: Paradise Lost), to me, what will decide if the whole of EotE was worth it to watch or not.
For now, I'm interested in seeing the ending, so this gets a slightly positive score from me. As much as I wasn't surprised, I wasn't bored or disappointed.

Even if I didn't like it as much as the first season, I can recommend it with more confidence as a proper follow up to it, and a seemingly adequate bridge to whatever is to come.

Rating: 6.1/10 (rounded out as 6).

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 30, 2022

Myrmiderp

Mixed Feelings

Spoiler-free (nothing outside of the MAL synopsis) should-you-watch review:

If you're watching this before seeing the series, stop and watch that first. However: the series doesn't stand alone, the movies are clearly filling in for the second arc, and you should treat them as the remainder of the same season. To see my notes on Eden of the East as a whole, check my review of the series.

That said, this movie chose a weird chunk of the plot to cover, and you're better off forgetting that it's a movie and just watching the series and both movies in one run as 20 or so episodes. On ... its own, this part of the plot is fine but kinda lame to choose for a movie. They do this weird thing at the beginning that I can only guess was 1) meant to punctuate it from the series, and 2) meant to re-create some of the success of the series: the movie starts in a different place, and Takizawa has lost his memories again. It clearly isn't supposed to make sense, as the "why" is pretty plainly ignored throughout the film. It really just invites a lot of questions and weakens the original ideas.

Watch it if you liked the series, then watch the second movie, which doesn't have the same problems.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 4, 2022

RemiKG

Not Recommended

The story was just more boring than the series. The series has mystery surrounding how everything works and the discovering the system and secrets of the Selecao operation was pretty interesting. The movie has no such interest factor. Yes, Takizawa loses his memory again, but I feel like I'm rewatching the first part of the series again seeing him puzzled and Saki slowly helping him remember who he is. Basically, the movie just has a lot less going on.

The worst part of the movie is the collection of characters. The Eden of the East crew feel like they are just there. They're at the head ... of the company but they don't do anything. And how did they get so many workers in the first place and work the operation smoothly when most of them have the social IQ of a neet, which is what they were. It's just grating how a crew that contains an absolutely useless Oosugi is perfectly leading a company. Like how did they get there?

The guy with glasses and black hair has too short a temper. Saki just listens to the black haired glasses guy scream at him over the phone ordering what to do. Like wtf basic respect with your friends you're not even capable of that? Pants guy just came along the group and acted like the token fat smart guy of the group that tries to act cool but fails. (Steins Gate?) I guess the worst part about the characters is that they were just there, and not doing anything. Saki didn't mature at all. In the series it felt like she was trying to become a little more independent. In the movie that progress is stunted: he completely relies on Takizawa. She also does the emotional character speech that's completely illogical but I'll do something because my feelings are too strong. (this happens when she tells black haired glasses guy he would save Takizawa by acting rashly because she feels bad for him, which only endangers her and thus the whole ass operation of saving Takizawa in the first place) Finally, seeing Takizawa having amnesia again gave be déjà vu boredom.

Basically my gripe with the movie is that nothing happened and that the characters were uninspiring.


Tl;dr Worst than the series in every aspect except visually

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Funimation Acquires Higashi no Eden Movies and Spice and Wolf II

According to AnimeNewsNetwork, Funimation announced at Anime Boston 2010 that they have acquired following new titles: Higashi no Eden Recap Movie - Air Communicatio...read more

Apr 4, 2010 8:47 AM by dtshyk | Discuss (40 comments)

	Poll: Higashi no Eden - Movie I: The King of Eden Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Faust721 - Nov 30, 2009	189 replies	by sharosharo »» Jan 19, 11:34 PM
	Memory DrakensbergMist - May 1, 2014	1 replies	by xytech »» Jul 16, 2014 9:51 AM
	detail summary eden of the east arsh231 - Mar 29, 2010	4 replies	by DrakensbergMist »» May 1, 2014 12:21 AM
	What is "Vintage"? SKDoesMAL - May 18, 2010	5 replies	by 5layer »» Jan 14, 2011 3:12 AM
	LEAH? Waw - Apr 22, 2010	2 replies	by XzaR »» Apr 27, 2010 12:03 PM