insatiable

STORY

I've been meaning to watch this anime for almost a year now, thinking that with such high ratings and such an interesting synopsis it would turn out to be a new favourite.

Apparently not.

A series of mysterious terroist attacks tied together with a (naked) man with no memories of himself or his life having to participate in a game with life or death stakes? Sounds interesting. Or rather, sounds like it has the potential to be interesting.

The first episode opens with a girl who we know nothing about getting in trouble with the police for something petty. Regardless, it looks like she's about to get it-- or maybe not. Suddenly the police's attention is drawn away from the girl by a naked man shouting and waving his gun around. In almost no time at all he manages to send them on a wild goose chase, saving the girl from any unnecisiary trouble. How heroic. 

This kind of beginning is the kind that's meant to draw you in and keep you there simply because you want answers. It's weird, bizzare and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Who's the girl, who's the guy, why is he naked and what do they have to do with each other? Within the first episode all of these questions are answered, but the story doesn't seem to be going in any clear direction just yet. By the end of the second episode, the centre of the story and conflict is reveleaed. At the time, I was very intruiged. I liked everything about Eden of the East, from the characters to the mystery to the pacing. From that and the "suspense" and "high-stakes games" tagged to it, I thought I was in for a real ride.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

As I said before, Eden of the East had potential. If executed properly, it could have been so much better. The way the characters were introduced (and protrayed) was just bad, the "mystery" was so much of a mystery that it sucked and the supposed suspsnese? It didn't even exist. There were instances where I found myself getting a little excited, but the feeling wore of within a matter of minutes, if even. The pacing of the story was horrible and dull. One thing happens, and you're like "Oh, okay, that's pretty cool!". The attention is shifted from that matter to another, and then another and another and I could go on forever. It wasn't the elements included the story and that events that took place that ruined everything, but how they were introduced. We were left in the dark in order to create "suspense", but that failed, and too much was crammed into a measly 11 episodes. I understand that there are movies that wrap up these missing plot points and I do plan on watching them, but this review is based solely on the anime.

The ending might have been the worst part of the entire thing. Finally, something interesting happens. The characters (and many other peoples) lives are at stake due to something I won't state for the sake of spoiling, and it needs to be stopped. Rather than making the last episode exciting and trying to get the viewers on the edge of their seats, everything is dull, unexplained and the ending was so anti-climatic that it hurt.

When I finish a good anime I'll usually be left feeling giddy, though a bit dissappointed and it becomes the default of my thoughts for the next couple of days. With Eden of the East, I simply thought "What, that's it?" and closed my browser, thuroughly unimpressed.

Overall, the story was weak. More focus should have been put on the "game" and other potentially interesting elements of the story rather than on Saki (not that I didn't enjoy her) etc. Yet, I did find myself enjoying bits and pieces of it, such as the relationship between Akira and Saki. I was never bored, funny enough, and while I can regocnize its overhwleming flaws I can still say that it was a pleasant watch, even if not quite worth my time. I give the story 4 out of 10 even if all I did was complain, simply because of the potential it held and that it mananged to keep me busy for a few hours.

ANIMATION 

Clean and simple, fitting to the story (for the most part) and pleasant to look at. I don't have a whole lot to say regarding the animation except that it was nice but nothing special. "Clean and simple" often translated into plain and the way the characters moved (or rather, didn't move) was boring. It was good, but once again, nothing special.

SOUND 

I don't have much to say here, either. The opening and closing themes were alright, fitting to the story and not something you'd actively skip, but remarkably average. They were to standard anime OP/EDs, and to me they got boring to listen to by the end of the series. The voices of both the original and the dub were good, but a lot of the time I felt as if they lacked emotion, specificlaly in the dub. But that kind of flaw is typical for dubs, so I won't judge too harshly there. Anything else, such as background music... well, I can't really say because I don't remember any of it. That's funny considering I finished the anime a little over the hour ago and started it three days prior. With any stunning soundtrack, you may not remember it but you at least remember that it was. Judging by that, I'd say it was average at best.

CHARACTERS

I feel that only about three of the characters had any thought put into them. The rest were fairly bland and we didn't know much about them from start to finish. There was absolutely no development (even on the main character) and I never found myself wanting any of them back on screen. Somehow, most of them were still quite entertaining and while not outstanding, I wouldn't call them bad. It took me a while to decide if the characters were average or below, but I'll settle with average.

OVERALL 

I had high hopes for Eden of the East and most of them were let down. It's a shame, really, because if it hadn't been so rushed and poorly executed, it could have turned out so much better. 4/10 may be a low mark, but I'm still not going to call this anime bad-- just not all that good, either. I didn't drop it (and that's really saying something, because I drop a lot of anime) and it provided me with a decent amount of entertainment, so there's at least that. If I find the movies a step up (or down) then I might review those too. Here's to hoping they do they do the story at least some justice.