Eden of the East

[Yukimura]

Yay...yet another WTF?! episode.

I liked the Shiratori interaction and her character seems to be the most interesting and sympathetic to me of all the chars introduced so far (I consider this somewhat of a bad thing for the series). Despite his good showing in this ep my mistrust and dislike of Akira continued to grow as I watched. While I can't help but respect his general cool factor Akira's attitude just doesn't seem quite right given the situations he's put in. He never seems upset or flustered or confused or frightened or anxious despite being in all sorts of crazy or dangerous situations where one would think some sort of emotional response other than mild amusement might be expressed. This consistent emotional display in spite of everything that happens around him creeps me out and leads me to believe he is and has always been a sociopath (EDIT: sociopath is possibly the wrong term but basically I'm talking about a condition where a person doesn't 'feel' emotions in the same way a 'normal' individual might, they don't necessarily have to be violent or destructive.) at the core. This and the unpredictable behavior it leads to makes me fear for any who associate with him.

[Ryllharu]

He never seems upset or flustered or confused or frightened or anxious despite being in all sorts of crazy or dangerous situations where one would think some sort of emotional response other than mild amusement might be expressed. This consistent emotional display in spite of everything that happens around him creeps me out and leads me to believe he is and has always been a sociopath.

I think that is kind of the point. When he wiped his memories, he really didn't have any kind of personal memories with which to base his own behavior off of. The only thing he had left was movies. Movies always sort of exist in their own, ideal, isolated worlds. Some of them are sad, but a lot of them have the, "Hollywood Ending." Akira acts just like the hero in these kind of movies. Everything will sort of work itself out if he act heroicly.

But we also saw that he had more or less become either an action star or a terrorist in the first episode.

So I agree, but I like his type of character. It's very interesting to see how someone who can only function based off happy illusory worlds interacts with real people.

[Buffalobiian]

[Nipponsei] Eden of the East OP Single - Falling Down [Oasis].zip
[Nipponsei] Eden of the East ED Single - futuristic imagination [school food punishment].zip

[Kraco]

So I agree, but I like his type of character. It's very interesting to see how someone who can only function based off happy illusory worlds interacts with real people.

Moreover, it can't be denied he cares about people quite a lot, so he's not any lost case in terms of humanity, even if his emotional range so far has been somewhat compromised.

[Yukimura]

Sure it can. I don't consider behaving benevolently without emotional investment in the behavior to be an indicator of true caring. He seems more akin to a robot programmed to do good deeds or an actor following a script that calls for him to behave like a hero. While his good deeds are certainly laudable it's the motivation behind his deeds which I am uncertain and uncomfortable about. Maybe Ryl's right and he can't do any better than go through the motions due to his situation but even if that's the case he's just not genuine for me. I don't think he's a natural jerk or a nutbag just pretending to be nice, but I think his attitude gives off more of an air of "I get lulz out of helping people" than an air of "I care about the plight of people".

[Kraco]

Ho... I was surely under the impression Akira has been actively trying to get into Saki's pants. Why else would he pay so much attention to her? Why else would he continuously be in contact with her? It's not like Saki as such would be any remarkable or key person. Her only special characteristic is being the first person Akira apparently saw after losing his memories. But so far it seems that was nothing but a coincidence, though knowing this series it might turn out to be something else, but that remains to be seen, and even if that was the case, Akira would have no idea, so that's hardly the reason for his interest.

[Yukimura]

I did consider that earlier but since he hasn't gone for it despite multiple opportunities it just added to my suspicions that he's just playing around or something. I believe he could have taken Saki with very little fuss by now if he wanted to but he hasn't bothered. He gets her plenty hot and bothered but then just pulls away to be aloof and happy go lucky again. I suppose he could be running an extra deep game on her but I do wonder what the point of that would be if he just wants into her pants.

I like conspiracy theories though and it just popped into my head that that Eden program seems like something plenty of conspiracies could be focused around. Perhaps the entire Akira-Saki relationship was established in order to get him (or someone) access to the program/programmers. It may not have been a coincidence at all that the Japanese Akira woke up right as a certain Japanese girl was visiting the White House in DC all alone and feeling lost in the world. Whatever the case may be, I don't trust Akira one lick at this point.

[Ryllharu]

Ho... I was surely under the impression Akira has been actively trying to get into Saki's pants. Why else would he pay so much attention to her? Why else would he continuously be in contact with her?

I can't blame him one bit.

I was under the impression he was doing a damn good job of it so far. Just a few days and the only person she thinks about is him? She even blow off that friend of hers who has been actively trying to get into her pants for years.

I did consider that earlier but since he hasn't gone for it despite multiple opportunities it just added to my suspicions that he's just playing around or something. I believe he could have taken Saki with very little fuss by now if he wanted to but he hasn't bothered. He gets her plenty hot and bothered but then just pulls away to be aloof and happy go lucky again.

Maybe he's taking it slowly. Waiting until she approaches him like Shiratori did, nearly begging for it. Then again he didn't go for that either, but Shiratori is a little...different from Saki.

I am still not convinced chance alone brought him and Saki together. Unless they reveal that he wasn't, I will still operate under the impression that he was aiming the gun directly at her.

[Buffalobiian]

Episode 08 - gg

[Kraco]

Jealousy can really drive a man. Ohsugi will stop at nothing when pursuing his one-sided love. Still, it's rather interesting why Akira seems to be identified by so many names. The fact so many also considered him a crook might tell something about why he opted to have a memory sweep. Although naturally it's still too early to say whether those identifications were real ones.

[RyougaZell]

I wonder if this is the first time he has gotten a memory wipe... perhaps all those name have been of past re-formating.

After this episode I wish Ohsugi had been the one Shiratori was going to kill.

BTW
I really hate when GG leaves those tv spots in the middle of the episodes.

[Kraco]

After this episode I wish Ohsugi had been the one Shiratori was going to kill.

Although you never know with this show, but Akira's persecution by Ohsugi might end up working like a good catalyst for various things. Saki already has some doubts herself, yet she's clearly hesitant of proceeding with any investigations of her own - maybe simply because she wants to like Akira and not doubt his motives. However, such suspicions in the background can be a poison so it's good somebody makes a few things clear. Maybe it will end up breaking it, maybe it will end up sealing it, but either way something should change.

[RyougaZell]

That is quite true. But I still don't like Ohsugi's character. Lol.

[Buffalobiian]

Yeah, he does come off as one of those desperate hot-bloods with half a brain. Not that it all applies to him, but that's the general category I put him in. More cowardly than the usual stereotype too, might I add.

Part of the annoyance is how Ohsugi is treating Akira after we saw to what Akira went through to save him.

[shinta|hikari]

But he wasn't really in trouble, so it is only natural for him not to feel gratitude, not that I think any better of him despite this. He is not likable character at all.

[Ryllharu]

Yeah, he does come off as one of those desperate hot-bloods with half a brain. Not that it all applies to him, but that's the general category I put him in. More cowardly than the usual stereotype too, might I add.

Even then I'd say you are being generous to his characterization. He seems to only be doing this because Akira seems to have gotten along further romantically with Saki in a few short weeks than Ohsugi has in several years. He comes off as pursuing the truth about Akira only because he is butt-hurt about being beaten to the punch. It is very much the behavior pattern more commonly seen in a stalker. He's convinced that Akira is a dangerous criminal.

In contrast, Saki and the others are certainly curious about Akira, but they don't assume he is a bad person. They did initially (as would be everyone's reaction to hearing their friend has run off with someone they've never heard of who lives in a mall) but after they got to know him a little, they still want to find the truth, but they aren't operating under the assumption that he is pure evil. They just want to make sure that someone they are about to go into business with is legit, and that he won't bring any harm to someone they care about. Saki trusts him more than anyone, and while she wants to know, she seems reserved in going about prying so deliberately.

The other members of Eden, including Saki, are going about this like adults, while Ohsugi is going about it like a spoiled child who had her doll taken away.

-------------------------
I like what this series has been building on as a case-study about morality. Akira seems like a good person, but he is really a total unknown. Shiratori thought he was the launcher of the missles, other Selacao were convinced he is the Supporter, and while his intentions ultimately seem good, some of the things he has done are not particularly "good." He's had terrorist kind of things in a D.C. apartment, strands 20,000 people in the UAE, and a lot of other "grey" activities.

Konda, the cop, would from the outside looking in appear to be a good person, but he was unfaithful, a murderer by proxy, not caring about consequences to his actions only the clean up, tried to cheat by stealing another phone, and all over a greedy, selfish person. We mostly saw his bad sides, but the other people he spoke with in his two episodes thought he was a real guy.

The doctor was completely selfless, a paragon really. Quite the contrast to the more shades characters in the series.

Even Shiratori. She was a murderer, and admitted it. But she had her own sense of honor, her own principles. Unlike Konda, the power of a Selacao didn't corrupt her. By her own admission, she was a murderer before, the power just sped up her schedule and made things easier for her. She chose targets deliberately, worked carefully, and apparently was very frugal with her funds. While she most certainly would be a truly evil character, we can't really label her that way.

All of the personalities of the various Selacao and Eden crew paint an interesting portrait of the human condition.

[Archangel]

This show doesn't seem anywhere close to any sort of ending and nothing really happened on this episode

How many episodes are left?

[Yukimura]

@Ryllharu: What rational adult would enter into a buisness contract with someone who has an admitted case of ~weeks old amnesia without doing at the very least that same Eden search that Ohsugi did? These people know nothing of Akira's life before his mind wipe and what issues he might have forgotten about that the world might still remember yet they seem willing to just trust his word that he's completely on the level. I find this puzzling as he himself can't offer any explanation for his abnormality or guarantees that something from his past won't jump up and bite them in the ass for associating with him. Getting involved with someone you don't know well and who doesn't even know themselves just seems like asking for trouble to me.

On the Ohsugi front I'm far more annoyed at the plot device that he represents than his contrived jealous guy behavior. When I look at him I don't even see a character worth judging at this point I just see a plot device worth being annoyed at for its lack of subtlety. Ohsugi's purpose in the story seems to be to uncover potentially dirty information about Akira while at the same time tainting any such information with his jealousy and zealotry so that the characters (and the audience) will be less inclined to believe ill of Akira than if they had uncovered the same evidence themselves or through a neutral party. Since I lean toward the 'Akira was not such a good guy' camp I'm somewhat annoyed that any evidence supporting this belief will likely be poisoned by strawman Ohsugi and written off as less jealous rambling . On the bright side (for me) the fact that they are going to the trouble of setting up Ohsugi to skew negative opinion away from Akira's past could be a sign that there is more dirty info to be found and I can hope that ignoring that info now might later bite everyone in the ass, serving them right for falling for the strawman ploy in the first place.

[Kraco]

Contrived jealous guy behavior:

Episode 9 - gg





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Too bad the nerd guy had to die. He was an interesting dude of quite 1337 skills. Still, he uploaded something somewhere. Not too surprising Akira wasn't a villain, although that confirmation does nothing to explain why he ordered the memory wipe for himself.

The next question is, then, what Akira will do to those murderous Selecao, especially if the nerd dude uploaded the relevant info he's missing and he receives it.

Another pleasant thing is that Saki wasn't interested in listening to Ohsugi, and even the others had their reservations. And I can't really see how one graffiti would convince them, either, even if it may increase their suspicions. Ohsugi of course only sees what he wants to see.

[MFauli]

for fucks sake, why have sd-groups abandoned this series? im at episode 7 and cant watch 8 and 9 because theyre only in hd.
meh