At first, you'd assume this takes place in the distant future, but nope! It's actually the distant past, and the origin story for modern humanity that bears more than a little resemblance to Scientology. The people of Mars are originally from the planet that used to exist where the asteroid belt is today, which is a pretty interesting take I don't think I've seen done before. They destroyed their home planet and fled to Mars, living in a dome city that they're also slowly destroying. Not a bad premise if done correctly.
Unfortunately, there is very little nuance to the issues of environmentalism and technology. The message is very bluntly "technology bad, nature good." There's outright talk of future generations living *without* technology.
The major problem with this is that Mars is quite literally uninhabitable without their little dome city. The movie makes a point to show that the massive forest under the city is completely propped up artificially, complete with air vents and everything. They *can't* live without technology, the point of no return was reached a long time ago.
I can't really talk about E.Y.E.S. of Mars without talking about the ending. It's a blatant deus-ex-machina, with everyone dying in an attempt to leave for Earth and their spirits going to Earth instead to start humanity. Like I said, a lot of similarities to Scientology. The ending narration says they created the civilization of Atlantis, but that didn't exactly work out either, did it?
The personal enjoyment I get out of this movie is the nostalgia factor. It's extremely 90's in a weirdly American way - nothing about this feels particularly Japanese. The heavy-handed environmentalism and animation style all feel very quintessentially 90's American. If you like that sort of thing or even enjoy it in an ironic fashion, go ahead and give it a try.
