Higashi no Eden Movie II: Paradise Lost

Spoiler-free (nothing outside of the MAL synopsis) should-you-watch review:

If you're watching this before seeing the series, stop and watch that first. However: the series doesn't stand alone, the movies are clearly filling in for the second arc, and you should treat them as the remainder of the same season. To see my notes on Eden of the East as a whole, check my review of the series.

This movie is better than the first, but as a resolution to an anime that underwhelms, I'll let you guess what happens. Big problems get solved in unsatisfying ways. Some payoffs are more of a trickle, and some just ... don't happen. Don't let that dissuade you, though, it is still Eden of the East, and my praise of the series mostly stands. It is the resolution to a charming and unique show, and it still felt good.

I mentioned this in my review for the series: a sense of groundedness pervades the show. I think that's where many reviewers are sensing the disappointment and underwhelmingness. But there's something very *true* about that underwhelmingness; whether you appreciate it or not is up to you. There's no reason to skip the very ending if you've come this far already, so go on and watch it.

First off, I am and will continue to be a fan of Eden of the East. That said... not a fan of this tripe. Calling it "Paradise Lost" is a misnomer. It's "Paradise Never Reached in the First *$%# Place".

Typically when an anime has movie installments it's a bonus - a little more of what fans love, character development, even just some mindless but harmless fluff... but not a pivotal part of the story. If you are reading this you know Eden of the East is an exception. The movies are the obligatory half-baked conclusion to what was a good story and may have been ... better left unfinished. Had that been the case, my imagination would have chosen many possible directions, but never one this unsatisfying.

If you saw the series (nevermind the pointless first movie) you know what potential it had. If you haven't seen it then you shouldn't be reading this. Go watch it, then read my review before deciding to watch the movies.

I can't really say a lot about this movie without referencing the first movie and of course the series itself so you've been warned.

The first half of the series presents a fascinating what-if scenario: What would you do to lift up your country if you were given not only a substantial fortune to accomplish it, but a phone that allowed you to contact a mysterious woman who could make literally anything humanly possible a reality instantly?

With her impossibly vast (and morally dubious) connections and a disturbing amount of power bestowed on her by the elusive Mr. Outside, Juiz is like a genie granting wishes using any means necessary. If there was anything I enjoyed about this series to the bitter end, it was Juiz's often opinionated (and in one case scalding) remarks meant to steer the "chosen ones" towards nobler paths without ever denying a request within the realm of physical possibility.

Some indirect semi-spoilers:

1. This won't end how you - how ANYONE - would want it to.

2. The more you know about Mr. Outside the less anything will make sense.

4. The fact that Juiz is not a computer (which is exposed prior to this movie) is ludicrous.

And finally a *DEFINITE SPOILER* - HOWEVER! I wish I had known this so I just consider it my dutiful warning!!!:

The "end" is clearly a set-up for a continuation that will never happen. Takizawa disappears with an allusion to his "one last task" and we're expected to apparently get creative with what he means. It's basically like the writers wanted to leave it open on the off chance they were granted a third movie, but probably knowing it was a snowball's chance in hell that it would happen.

In the end, the real question remains the same as at the beginning: What does Mr. Outside want from these people? If you are thinking "obviously he wants them to save Japan!" consider the fact that he intentionally pits them against eachother by making them believe they will be terminated if they are not the victor - and only one can win. So if he really wanted them to succeed why would he not want them to work together, but instead force them to waste their money and energy on devising ways to defeat eachother for the sake of survival?

It seems apparent he's just a sadist and in the end he punishes the unwilling participants in his psychotic game for having played it.

Whatever Takizawa needed to do, I'm just going to hope it involved his fist and Mr. Outside's face getting to know eachother personally.

This is the end of Eden of the East, and am I happy about it? Truthfully, I am. While the series was a fairly entertaining ride the first movie was pretty pointless. Paradise Lost is the conclusion of the series, yet…doesn’t really feel concluding at all. It just felt like more nothing.

It’s strange really. This series is supposed to be focused on far reaching consequences and the results that these twelve people have on the well-being of Japan, yet you don’t see much of anything really change. There’s the missiles, which changed some things, but after that it feels like all of the things these ... characters do have no really worthwhile consequence. At the end of Paradise Lost you feel like you’ve watched nothing because of how incomplete it feels. And that’s not because the ending is lame (which it is, it is not exciting and doesn’t really make a ton of sense), but because this movie cuts off, just like the series and the last movie, without a clear ending. It’s like this is meant to be continued, but somebody realized that was not a good idea and canned the project. Like maybe there was supposed to be a third movie but the first two were so repulsive that nobody wanted a third.

The hour and a half this movie takes up does have more plot progression than the previous film, but, as I said, nothing feels substantial and everything seems inconsequential. Things are happening, but none of it makes a ton of sense. There are bad guys, but none of them are any good (just as I’ve said with the past two reviews). Nothing is changed here. It’s just a bunch of nothing. And I’m sorry to hurt anyone’s feelings, but this series isn’t that smart and isn’t that good because of the fact it does nothing. Takizawa and Saki are back in Japan to end the game. They learn a bit about Takizawa’s past (Takizawa has magically regained a lot of his memories too). And then there’s a long stretch of nothing. There’s all this set up to a nice final confrontation, but there’s no finale that wraps everything up. Takizawa ends it rather boringly and that’s that. A series and two movies to lead up to a conclusion about as thrilling as watching paint dry. And even then, it’s not a conclusion.

So what is good about this? The animation and sound. There you go. Otherwise the story is dull, uninteresting, unexciting, and pointless. The characters are all pretty much the same. Nothing about the plot stands out. Nothing about it is particularly good. Nothing about it is exciting. It’s all arbitrary feeling. As if whoever wrote this was forced into writing it and didn’t really care. It has no heart behind it.

Taken as a whole, the series starts off good but degrades over time. And that’s sad, because as I’ve said before, I love the premise. But if this is all you get for an ending, if this is all the series leads to, then I feel like I’ve wasted my time.

Paradise Lost is an apt name. At first this series seemed like something I could really love. Turns out, it loses any hope of that halfway through the main series and goes downhill from there.