I loved Higashi no Eden, but everything went downhill from there. King of Eden is such a disappointment. Since the prequel ended with a big cliffhanger, I felt the need to watch this movie.
“What’s going on?” That question popped up periodically throughout the entire movie. There is no logical explanation for the prequel’s ending or the new plot. Before the majority of the questions are analyzed, there are even more questions thrown out near the end of this movie. Since there is only one more movie left for the series, it’s impossible not to think how everything will be interpreted in less than 1.5 hours.
Apparently, Takizawa now holds the role of the successor to the King of Japan, and everyone knows about his right to the throne but him. The entire story about Takizawa’s life as a Seleção has to be repeated, since he erased his memory and created a new alias again for some unknown reason. It is bad enough that no one can easily predict the reasons behind Takizawa’s actions, but it’s even worse when he can’t even answer for himself.
The primary objective of the series is misled. The whole game with the Seleção is ruined, and it gave me no hope for a good ending. The game has rules that brings excitement to the entire series, and it makes you anxious to discover how a winner will be determined. There is no thrill to the game anymore, since some of the rules are disregarded. It literally takes the fun out of the whole anime.
There are signs of love and compassion like in the prequel, but there is not a passionate love story that most people would expect. Nothing sucks more than when the person you love doesn’t remember who you are. Poor Saki. However, Takizawa does consider her feelings prior to erasing his memory by leaving her a message that only they can understand. Saki goes against all odds to find Takizawa and help him regain his memory once again. Despite the fact that Takizawa has no memory of her, he shows her compassion. However, it is the same kind of compassion that you would show any kind or beautiful stranger. Based upon Takizawa’s considerate personality, Saki is not a special case. He’d do the same for any girl.
There are the same naïve portions of the story. As in the Higashi no Eden series, the setting takes place post-9/11 and guns are brought into the U.S. as if people just magically go past airport security. There is no law enforcement present, and the American characters didn’t show enough fear or concern at the sight of the firearms.
Thanks to Eden of the East’s miraculous technology, some things were clarified about the status of Seleção and the game in general. By receiving updates from the Seleçãos’ activity logs, they were able to predict their next moves and the level of danger from their intentions. The Eden team, especially Panties, made this anime a little easier. Admittedly, they didn’t understand much about the logic behind Takizawa’s present position either.
Overall, I was highly disappointed and really confused. There was little to no romance. Stories were repeated for the sake of a character. The objective of the anime is ruined because of misled rules of the game. Basically, I see no hope in a cool ending.
