While the TV series wasn't quite perfect, it was a great proof of concept for Kamiyama as an original storyteller, and I was excited to see how he would finish the epic story that the series started. Unfortunately, the first Eden of the East movie, subtitled The King of Eden, stands as proof that getting an original story right takes a lot more than some slick directorial work and clever scripting.

It's been six months since the events of Eden of the East. The "Noblesse Oblige" game, in which 12 unwitting victims (called Seleção) have been burdened with ten billion yen, a concierge that uses that money to carry out their every whim, and an obligation to "save Japan," is still in progress. The remaining Seleção, those who were not killed or otherwised removed from the game during the series, are still trying to track down the "Supporter," the one player among them who supposedly kills each Seleção when their funds run out. Takizawa, the quirky young man who served as our protagonist for the TV series, has gone missing, and his records show that he gave an order to his concierge to turn him into the "King of Japan," an order that apparently involved wiping his memory and giving him a new name (again).

Our story opens with Saki, a recent college graduate whose budding romance with Takizawa flung her into danger during the Eden TV series, trying to track him down in New York City. From the get-go, I was stunned by Kamiyama's attention to detail. New York looks spot-on, from the EZ-Pass toll booths to the NYC Taxi logos to the diffused lights in the windows of apartment buildings. Yusuke Takeda's (Giant Robo, Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex, Gankutsuou) art direction strikes a delicate balance, creating scenes that are believable, but not so photorealistic that they're distracting.

It's that sort of delicacy that characterized Kamiyama's work on the TV series as well, and it follows through to the film. Takeda's backgrounds mesh perfectly with Kamiyama's screenplay and Satoru Nakamura's (Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex) animation direction, which focus on a sort of slightly cartoonish realism. City streets look like real city streets, characters talk about taxes and politics like real people, and technology works the way real technology works (with some exceptions). There is comedy to be had among the drama, however, and this adds that splash of silliness that keeps the film from going too deep down the rabbit hole.

He may have the execution perfectly mastered, but a flawless genius Kenji Kamiyama is not. While each piece of the story is compelling in its own right, they never really mesh into a cohesive whole. Furthermore, the central conflict is never clear, since the most threatening villains are either off doing things unrelated to the main characters, are shown to be harmless fools, or are turned into good guys! In the end, there's not much to actually be worried about, since the protagonists are never in any real danger.

Look at this! I've gotten six paragraphs into this review without mentioning that amnesia is the most lazy way to start a follow-up to a popular TV series. Once they meet back up, Saki and Takizawa's relationship ends up being essentially the same as it was at the end of the show, so amnesia doesn't even seem to be a way out of some inescapable plot cul-de-sac. Building on the existing character relationships and simply moving ahead with new challenges would have made for a much more interesting film, and I don't really understand why Kamiyama didn't go down that route.

FUNimation's dub is a little overacted at times, as was the case for the original Eden of the East, but some of the more subdued roles, like Saki (Leah Clark), Takizawa (Jason Liebrecht), Hirasawa (J. Michael Tatum), and the sultry concierge Juiz (Stephanie Young) convey the tone of the story quite well. Unfortunately, the occasional odd deliveries mean it's going to be tough for non-anime fan types to take this seriously, despite the very Hollywood-style premise of the series.

The true finale comes in the second movie, so I will reserve my judgment on the entire series until I see it. However, The King of Eden is a weak follow-up to the already somewhat unsatisfying TV series ending. While it continues to prove that Kenji Kamiyama is a competent director who can construct beautiful ambiance and believable character relationships, the movie also seems to pull away the curtain on his seeming inability to tie up a complex, original narrative. Unless you're someone who really loved the TV series, this film's not for you.

Eden comes from visionary director Kenji Kamiyama, who writes, directs, and creates the project, and who has had a very impressive career even before Eden. He directed the hit action show Serei no Moribito, is responsible for direction, composition, and script for every non-Oshii Ghost in the Shell production, and worked on script and planning on Blood: The Last Vampire. The relatively young Kamiyama has created a powerful cautionary tale about the tragedy of uncompassionate ambition. Keep an eye on this capable and talented story-teller.

Eden’s narrative keeps you in the dark between two central characters, one who is helpless in the world, and one who can save it. Saki is a young computer science student who discovers Takizawa in front of the White House, and her cheerful innocence becomes our view until the Selecao mystery picks up and she is pushed to the side. We follow both Saki’s coming-to-terms with her generation’s mistreatment and Takizawa’s desire to change that mistreatment.

It is typically rather difficult for a series to create amusing supporting characters who do not subtract from the efforts of the main protagonist. Few characters, save for Saki, are outwardly expressive, which is fine since it doesn’t detract from the excellent dialog. Truthfully, Takizawa’s confidence is addictive if not mesmerizing, though his persistent casualness leaves something to be desired. The character design is smooth, though the single-lined mouths seem to widen the faces almost like frogs.

Aesthetically, this is a beautiful series, layered in its lighting and spacious in its complex panoramic view of Tokyo’s metropolis. The shopping malls lie empty and tomb-like, highways are split apart and abandoned, and somewhere twenty-thousand Japanese nerds are without clothing or cell phones. The narrative glides from decadent hotel rooms to missile craters to amusement parks to backstreet slums, creating a concrete unbalance between scenes backed by power and money... and the rest of society. In short, Kamiyama’s scenery itself is crying out for national salvation, for someone to bring about compromise between the young and the old, the haves and the have-nothings.

The opening animation is sharp and dynamic, emphasizing a dichotomy of masculine teal and feminine hot pink splashes of colorful shapes atop the ruins of Tokyo after the missile attacks of "Careless Monday." It bursts and hard-cuts from scenes of destruction to scenes of Takizawa and Saki, the series’ secondary protagonist, with brilliant control. The visuals only enhance the hopeless and yearning opening theme by Oasis, “Falling Down,” which calls for a savior to rise up, a hero to arms, and for the seed of hope to blossom.

A lot of self-righteous idealism about the value of hope in a nation’s youth combine with a fascinating conspiracy theory, great visuals and an entertaining mystery. All these strengths are going to make Eden of the East a huge hit. Especially since two sequel movies are being released this November, and the cliff-hanger ending left us drooling for more, this journey to save Japan may just be starting its road to greatness. And if that’s the case, then hallelujah! The messiah of anime has come.

excellent.

After that, Sheehan entertained the room with some questions and answers. One of the first pieces of info that we gleaned was that "September sounds like a good month" for the release of the Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood dub, though release format (DVD, streaming) was not discussed. On a slightly related note, Sheehan said that we will have an "update very soon on the online status" of One Piece, which has been missing from the FUNimation video portal for about a month now due to online video pirates (har har). Phantom, which has been airing on the video portal as well, will also see a dub and a DVD release in early or middle 2010, though Sheehan seemed to be leaning toward earlier in the year.

Finally, when I asked him about the potential for FUNimation picking up some of Central Park Media's titles (the company went out of business in April), he replied: "We'd love to, we'd love to. There's some stuff that CPM left out on the table that's just great, great stuff. So we're going to be looking at that."

That's about it! Look forward to some more Otakon 09 coverage of a considerably less industry-centric bent in the coming weeks!