This is probably the best new Anime to come out this new year (well, so far)

I love Chika Umino after watching Honey & Clover and when I saw Eden of the East I suddenly thought,"Little Yamada and Morita clone." I mean, who couldn't? Except that Saki has hair that's more orange than Yamada's

Well done story-telling, intriguing plot and putting everything up right in the middle so that we won't know what it really is. Plus this selecao thing isn't a complicated conspiracy thing, it's pretty easy to understand, I could even summarize it in less than 60 words, but the actions of the selecao are what makes it interesting, how they use it.

Humour is also existent here (making the PM say "uncle", for example). The pace isn't so far off but it's a real pity it's only 11 episodes long, it really should be longer :(

There will definitely be a second season though, guaranteed, with all those unresolved Selecaos and the amount of money left with them.

The music was great, as a big Oasis fan, I loved the OP and the graphics, I mean, I wasn't a huge graphic-crazy guy before but after watching the OP alone, I started paying unneeded attention at immense graphics like those, the OP animation just blew me away, honestly, it was incredible. Then the series' BGM is also good, not disappointing in any way.

The characters are also very in-depth although Ohsugi can seem like a butthurt loser sometimes. It's as if all Animes with Chika Umino will always have very deep characters (see H&C for depth) and are likeable, especially Akira. Unique maybe. I still wonder whether or not Sissy is a guy or a girl.

Just have to say, in short, the quality is just superb. I cannot not recommend this to you. Sure the plot synopsis may discourage you but I assure you this is one hell of an anime.

Eden of the East Episode 1
Definitely the most intriguing new show of the Spring season.

The shock value provided by Akira's nekkidness aside, I was also sold on the terrific interaction between Akira and Saki. They really played off one another well and some of Saki's reactions were hysterical.

The gadgetry (specifically the cell phone) was cool and the American pop culture references were fun.

The backgrounds were beautiful, certainly worlds better than what you'd expect for a TV series. I'm pretty sure that was the first time a CVS drugstore made it into an anime.

The OP and ED were excellent. Slick and unconventional are probably the best terms to describe them.

As impressive as his package may be, here's hoping Akira will be fully clothed the rest of the way. Awesome start to what looks to be a terrific series.

Best new anime this year since Toradora. A must watch. The OP and ED are exceptional and the spy controversy story mixed with the whole game element is such a good concept. I can't believe it's only 11 eps.

Well, the great thing is that after these 11 episodes, there's going to a movie to complete the entire series. Everything about Eden of the East is pretty awesome. But the weirdest departure within the series was during the end of the Johnny Hunter Arc. Fantasy in my fiction? No Waaaaay. I hope you guys are still keeping up with this series. Also, best OP and ED this season.

My opinion for episode 2: Hmmm so let's see, obviously Akira has been sent to Japan to do something for the betterment of society there, and hasn't been doing a good job of so far. Kind of makes you wonder why Selecao would wipe his memory and then send him to do something instead of just sending him to do it unless he otherwise wouldn't have done it and this is just some bizarre Xanatos gambit.

As for Careless Monday, it almost seems to obvious that Selecao would have had something to do with it, and the current missile attacks that seem to have almost heralded the arrival of the "messiah". That will probably be covered later. Whatever the case these Selecao people obviously have a tremendous amount of power bordering on miracle like at their disposal to be given almost unlimited funds and the ability to call in an instant hit on anybody they want out of there way. Is there going to be some morality aspect introduced with regard to that.

Other then that I got a laugh out of Saki's comment about thinking she botched the interview because her face was too horrible. I felt like saying, "yeah your face is pretty freaky owing to your character design". Also the American Culture name dropping segment was kind of amusing for some reason. It was just like boom boom boom, place name after movie reference after celebrity namedrop... even a 9/11 reference.

One thing I'm not sure I like though is how overwrought the one bit with Akira pulling Saki on to the boat and his implication that they are at their own ground zero with the picture he takes. Why such seemingly romantic implications all of a sudden, and why walk the dangerous tightrope of comparing a fictional tragedy that happened into Japan to a real life one that happened in America. In either case it's somewhat dangerous territory for series to be in, but if it's this bold and pulls something off with it in the end then we might have an award winning series on our hand that will have noteriety in the years to come.

Getting ahead of myself, so I'm just going to leave it off here with the notion that I continue to be fascinated by what this series has to offer. Hopefully it doesn't end in disappointment like Tytania did though.

Well the series was quite interesting and unique in its own way and I enjoyed it. I think its quite overrated though cause I don't know maybe I just can't see the beauty that everyone else can see about this anime. Like I would give this anime like a 7 out of 10 but like many people think its quite a perfect anime.

Episode 3: So it seems that targeting other players isn't part of the "game". Based on what Kondo said this episode, it seems that the idea is for the players to use the money to somehow bring about some sort of change in Japan.

And to this end, Takizawa... bought a mall and, allegedly, killed thousands of neets with the missile attack. The picture and all the crap laying around suggets the neets were staying in the mall, but the pictures we saw of the results of the missile attack in the previous episode showed huge areas affected with tons of buildings in those areas. I don't see how that adds up, so I still think a massive cover up has to be involved.

If the NEETs had died in the missile attacks on Careless Monday there would have been bodies discovered at the scenes. However, there were no casualties of the Careless Monday attacks - something which Kondou seems to have forgotten.

I don't think the death of the NEETs was "Akira"'s original plan. Why would he have bought them all bento lunches? And if he HAD called down the missile strikes then there would be a charge on his Noblesse Phone, which we definitely haven't seen yet - I can't believe Juiz would give him that for free. In fact, I'm sure Kondou or one of the other Selecao would have been back through all their phone logs in the aftermath of Careless Monday to find out what exactly happened (how did Akira get all those NEETs into the Toyosu Shopping Mall anyway?).

I doubt she'll get marginalized- they've got to realize that the dynamic between the two of them is one of the best things the show has going for it. She's already been a massive influence on things- he wouldn't likely have decided that Japan would be where he'd go back to were it not for her, and as he said- the whole reason he could track down Kondo was because of Saki's actions (giving him the change he used to make the call earlier since he didn't have cash, figuring out what his phone's phone number was when she sent herself the picture). I'd have to figure Akira is going to track her down to at least thank her, and probably enlist her help in figuring things out.

There's also the fact that her past is something of a mystery as well- so it would be wholly unsurprising if she has some kind of link to the Selecao but just doesn't have any clue about it. After all- Akira was right across the street from her when he initiated his memory erasure... it's entirely possible that this wasn't just a happy coincidence and he actually planned it so he'd meet up with her post-memory-wipe...

Episode 4: The more I learn about the game the more sadistic it sounds. I'm starting to get the feeling the game is less about helping Japan and more about giving some demonic jerk pleasure. I now have two main hopes for this series.

First, that the guy behind everything gets the crap beaten out of him. Perhaps maybe have sacred water poured all over him. Yes, what little I know about him has already made me hate him that much.

Second, I'm kind of hoping that in the long run things will work out and Akira will be able to live a normal life. That and of course they don't decide to kill off Saki for the sake of a dramatic ending. I have no idea why that thought suddenly crossed mind.

I guess it may be because part of the structure of the show has me slightly worried they might be heading towards a bad end. Although there's still hope for a good ending. By that I mean of the more reasonable type as opposed to the pipe dream version.

Episode 5:
- Ahahaha, wooow. I appear to have a fat dead naked man in my room (again). Please clean it up for me. What a way to start an ep.

- o_O And... Akira's backstory gets even more insanely bizarre. So he took 20,000 NEETs and sold them to Dubai (explains why people thought they "died" and then disappeared? Lots of things I could read into this, give how the ex-NEET in question turned out, but I'm not going to bother speculating too much right now.

- Saki-pan! Nice little glimpse into some of her issues. Gotta feel a bit sorry for the guy who likes her - he's far too normal to fit into the strange world she experienced the last few days.

- Ahaha, be careful what you wish for, Akira. I wonder how much that cost him?

- You know, I'm glad Saki didn't ditch her interview and go running when she got Akira's text. I really thought she was going to, but it seems like she realizes she can't be too frivolous with her life.

- Selecao 1... And what the heck, it only cost 60 yen to get the PM to do that? Talk about cheap. But 220k yen to find Saki.

- Wow. Talk about a harsh reality check for Saki. She had missed her interview before, so the interviewer/dept head is a total ass to her. If he wanted to make the point that ditching an interview without warning is bad that's one thing, but man, what a dick.

- Choco cornet!! And "leave me alone" bread. It sold out! We'll I'd certainly buy it.

- Saki. ;_; And now for the impending awkward confrontation between Akira and Oosugi when the latter meets the former.

- ...Or he could see her going by ona motorcycle with another guy. Heh.

- Fantastic acting from Hayama Saori right here. But wait, what? Who the heck is Ryosuke and why does Saki love him? I'm so confused. I see nobody by that name on Wiki.

- And suddenly a kiss! And Akira knows what he has to do now? Knows how to save Japan, perhaps? Everything in Eden seems to be revolving around the role and outlook of young adults in Japanese society (Saki's job prospects, the NEET situation, etc) so perhaps he sees a way to "save Japan" that way.

- ...Oh god, creepy lady just chose Oosugi as her next boytoy.

I really liked the music in the Saki/Akira scene. A lot of very interesting things came out in this episode, along with meeting two Selecao, one of whom is a dead ringer for Supporter.

Episode 6:
- Creepy lady, that's not what cigar cutters are supposed to be used for. ;_;

- We seriously need more Micchon. Also, good lord Saki, those colors should never ever go together. ...but Micchon is right, you're still cute.

- Oh, so are we finding out what this Eden thing is? What is this Hirasawa guy running? An electronics store? Anyway, quite an interesting bunch we just got better introduced to.

- ...Good luck, Oosugi. ;_;

- Hahah, love the look Micchon gives Hirasawa when the latter is freaking out. And... Akira's entrance...

- Huh, so Higashi no Eden is an image search algorithm type thing. I had been assuming Micchon was good with computers since she's been on one a lot, but it's near that she's the programmer for it.

- Still a bit unclear on what Akira thinks Eden will do for him but this is an interesting sequence of events anyway. I'm also wondering what Saki's role in Eden is. She's described pretty much as a kanban musume for their recycling group turned used goods shop turned IT start-up but then there was something in there from Hirasawa about her using Eden in ways that others couldn't and, well, I think I missed something. I guess he's just saying that Saki is good at finding ways to make goods seem more attractive, like the "leave me alone!" bread.

- Oh god Micchon being teased by Akira.

- Twenty... twenty thousand... severed... penises... Also, that's the same number of NEETs Akira supposedly send to Dubai. I wonder if the number has any significance. Then again I'm sure the number is complete internet exaggeration but either way she's clearly done a lot of choppin', and cleaning up after murders can't be cheap. She should have run out of money long ago. Even if she owns a successful company.

Oh man, poor Oosugi needs to wait until next episode to learn his fate.

Episode 7:
- The Eden members seem rather calm about this whole situation... and like we were saying, Akira seems to agree that this "20,000" is getting mixed up with another 20,000. Ah, urban legends.
- Oh this is getting so good. I wonder how Juiz handles simultaneous conflicting demands? What if someone just ordered her to "kill the other Selecao"? I'm guessing that she simply executes each command in the order it's received with absolutely no bias or regard for how they'd be contradictory. It's probably all she can do in this sort of situation.
- Looks like it. Being able to see what the other Selecao are doing at any time makes for some really intriguing battle tactics.
- He bought the hotel('s management, anyway)!! Holy shit! But wow, that wiped out 15% of the initial amount right there. Isn't that sort of... inefficient though? Why not just pay the police to storm the room and recover Oosugi?
- Regardless, he's there now. How interesting that Kuroha is convinced he's the Supporter.
- WAT. What the fuuuuuck, Akira? Crazy lady is chopping off penises, let me cure her with my own! Also, wow, I forget so easily that Saki didn't know anything about the Selecao. I wonder if Akira has left his phone on on purpose?
- Ah crap, really bad time to pass out, Akira.
- ...DOUBLE WAT. Levitation? Wings? Ahahaa jesus.
- "Super Illusion material"? I didn't truly expect this show to jump into the supernatural or anything, but, uh, honestly now? That's a bit... elaborate a setup. Seems she bought the hotel back first too.
- And like... that wasn't Oosugi at all? Oh god, that would be hilarious.

That was fucking incredible in every imaginable way. I'm so glad I can jump right into 8 right now.

Eden of the east movie confirmed ;

will be showing in Japan on November and January 2010
entitled Higashi no Eden I: The King of Eden
and Higashi no Eden II: Paradise Lost

Episode 8:

- Bwhaha, so yeah, it wasn't Oosugi. Amazing, though sucks for Akira that he used to much money in the process. Certainly makes Kuroha's actions a bit easier to stomach. I wasn't buying her claim to only target evil men when she took poor Oosugi in, but it wasn't him at all.

- ::insert random MICCHON IS LOVE rant for no particular reason::

- Oh right, he has the detective's phone. I'd forgotten about that. Eden refers him to someone who might be able to get the data out of it.

- Hey! You heard it here! Micchon hates panties! She must always go commando.

- So at Hirasawa's suggestion Akira goes to meet Itazu Yutaka, alias Panties, a brilliant programmer who supposedly built a computer that successfully predicts society. Micchon and Saki come too, because Panties is weak to cute girls (can't blame him) Panties is especially interested in the strange recent goings-on related to the Selecao. With Saki and Micchon off running an errand, Akira starts negotiations.

- (Oh, and Itazu is voiced by Hiyama Nobuyuki. HAH!!)

- Meanwhile Oosugi is getting a bit hysterical over the conflicting stories he's getting about who AKira is. He posted Akira's picture to Eden and like a dozen different names were suggested by users.

- And back at the apartment, Akira got Itazu to agree to check out the phone...

Absolutely brilliant as always. But damn we're close to the end of the TV run. And only two Selecao have been taken out with 3 eps and a movie left to go.

Episode 9:

- Heh! Dramatic backstory on missing pants. Akira and Itazu start working together after Akira proves he's worth trusting.

- Woah now. There's a Selecao that... kinda looks and sounds similar to Akira? And Mononobe more or less says that it was this Selecao who caused Careless Monday. Talk about an interesting twist.

- Hirasawa et al head out to find out what has Oosugi so spooked.

- And back at Itazu's place, we're getting the info dump episode we all expected. It's fascinating. Akira finds out that he didn't, in fact, massacre 20,000 neets although he did ship them off to Dubai in the UAE (as we knew). But what we also see is that... he seems to have orchestrated a mass evacuation in the day(s) before Careless Monday, so the word about nobody dying was actually true after all. And from the images they're showing while Itazu explains this, it seems like the NEETs were his workforce responsible for carrying out the evac. Of course he remembers none of this.

- And confirmation that Selecao X bombed the cities.

- Ahhh. So that's why Akira never looked at the old Selecao purchase history. He cleared it when he cleared his memory, thus he needed to use Kondo's phone to retrieve it. Somehow I had never quite caught what exactly was holding him back from checking.

- Ah I take back X looking much like Akira. He doesn't, not really. Maybe he could if he wanted to, but the multiple identities of Akira aren't necessarily tied to getting him mixed up with this guy, as I'd thought.

- ...Oh man Itazu, you are so fucked.

Yep. Mononobe runs Itazu over and kills him (not before Itazu is able to start uploading his findings to... Eden?), snaps Kondo's phone, and has Akira's address. Not only that, team Eden meets with Oosugi and sees (what they'll think is) the darker side of Akira's love shack. And Saki is growing increasingly wary and conflicted and worried about Akira's involvement with these "Selecao". How long will she be able to trust him?

From the shots at the end, Selecao 10 (Yuuki) is aiming to "Attack Japan with missiles to take us back to the post-WW2 era. And yet to see Yuuki's interactions with Mononobe, I have a hard time imagining it was completely his idea, or that he's the only one behind it. [Edit: Thinking about it more, he talks about how he's "working for bureaucrats" now. In other words, of course he's not the only one behind it. It's more like the government, or the military, or segments thereof, are behind it.]

Plot movement in the extreme in this episode, and it's all brilliantly executed. Which is good since we're so close to the end.

Episode 10:

- Wow. The entire sequence before the OP was... engrossing as hell and yet so simple. The music really helps too, the track that plays has been very effective every time it's been used. Damnit this show is so good.

- Oooh, so Saki is letting Micchon listen in too. How sloppy of Mononobe to let Akira secretly relay this conversation. He sure knows a lot though - even the identity of Mr Outside.

- "It's a pun." ::little anger icon:: XD

- This is unquestionably info dump wall of text talk talk talk pt 2... and I'm loving it.

- ...And Mr Outside is probably already dead. Hah. Though we don't know how far we can trust Mononobe.

- Well, hah, there goes my government/military angle theory. Mononobe (says he has...) retired from being a gov't bureaucrat and is doing this alone. Hmmmmmmm.

- Oh Juiz, you're so lovely.

- Another Selecao! ...Who seems pretty disinterested in all this. Man, how to even begin to comment on all the information? All I can say is that it's suitably fascinating for this show.

- SUDDENLY, THOUSANDS OF NAKED NEETS! Run, Eden gang.

- And we don't hear the pivotal piece of information...

- Hah! So who the hell *is* Juiz? And Selecao 12, who has never used money until now... The supporter? Or... Mr Outside? HAH!

Hahah, oh my god this show is genius.