Secret Santa 2014 Review: Eve no Jikan Movie
Story 8/10
Androids live alongside humans as their partners in day-to-day-life; but their burgeoning sentience is not recognized by the populace at large, so they're mostly still treated as menial labourers. And at least one radical group with some influence has an interest in keeping things this way. But where do those robots go when they're... for lack of a better term, off-duty? In Time of Eve, we take numerous visits to a special cafe wherein androids and humans are held as equals, and the androids seem to be developing their own personalities to fit the new role.
Focusing on events in the cafe, Time of Eve is very much a slow build, and unfortunately the payoff isn't quite strong enough to warrant the journey. Said journey, on the other hand, is relaxing, clever thought-provoking, surprisingly funny, and highly engaging, and makes interesting use of the laws of robotics in an unexpected context. The feel of the story having been made to use an episodic structure comes through, but in and of itself this doesn't detract from the flow of the film.
Animation 8.5/10
Understated, but fluid and very well done overall. Colour palette is muted, which seems to fit the overall style of the film. The main set, the cafe, is appropriately unassuming for a subversive locale of clandestine meetings, but all of the elements come together well. The robot designs are excellent, and what little we see of the androids makes me curious as to their inner workings as well, which I would term a success.
Sound 7/10
The score is very sparse and spare overall. Kind of disappointing, particularly in a feature-length film; I can sort of understand in a fairly contemplative and dialogue-heavy show not wanting to overpower the discourse, but you can try a bit harder than this. The voice acting fluctuates in quality as well, but there are some definite emotional moments which are successfully hit. Overall, the production takes a hit here, but not enough to spoil the fun.
Characters 8/10
Quite strong overall. Both the android and the human cast members have a lot going for them, and it says a lot that it's often difficult to tell the two groups apart. The biggest flaw in this category is that the show mainly takes the form of 'snapshots' of life among the cafe-goers, and most of them don't get to develop too much in the course of the story. Those that do have satisfying arcs, however - even one robot with less than 20 minutes of screentime manages to make his final moments meaningful, and both of the main characters grow a good deal over the course of the show.
Overall 8/10
Sci-fi slice-of-life is something I haven't experienced a lot of, but Time of Eve pulls off the idea well, exploring hard sci-fi concepts with surprising finesse in a very compact format- almost like the visual application of the concept of the short story collection, which puts me in mind of I, Robot immediately - a positive connotation for a work in this genre. Yes, I enjoyed the time of EVE.