Series Information
ANN Encyclopedia | 東のエデン
Genre: Thriller, romance
OP: 「Falling Down」by Oasis
ED: 「Futuristic Imagination」by School Food Punishment
Production: Production I.G.

Let’s start with the OP and ED. Both are great in both visuals and sound. You can tell Production I.G really wanted to be creative here. Oasis doing the OP didn’t worry me because I’ve heard a bit of it from the trailer and the sound fit in really well. The visuals are eye catching with all the different vector graphics and text. You can catch all kinds of poetic quotes and terms so I’m guessing this anime is going to be pretty deep which I welcome in the midst of all the moeblob and fantasy RPG shit that came out this Spring. The ED’s paper cut out style is charming and the song is pretty catchy as well so I can’t wait to grab both OP/ED singles for this show.

As expected from Production I.G the visuals are simply gorgeous. As I’ve said in the Spring preview, they’ve set the bar so high it feels like I’m watching a movie at times. The backgrounds look incredible and I was glad to see some familiar places as Akira and Saki were running around D.C. such as the Spy Museum. When I saw that pop up I was like “Oh shit, I’ve been there before!” I’m guessing I.G really did their research here to give the audience the feeling that the characters are actually in Washington D.C. There were a couple of American movie references as well that weren’t distorted in a weird way like I usually see in anime.

As my most anticipated show for this Spring, the first episode Eden of the East did not disappoint at all. I found myself drawn to the characters and what was happening to them each and every second. Akira not just resembles Morita from Honey and Clover in looks but a bit in personality as well. Saki feels like a mix between Hagu and Yamada and I love how even her reaction faces are the same as Hagu’s. The character designs give the show a certain charm that you can’t help but love in the midst of all this political intrigue. And finally for once, the English I heard in this anime actually sounds like English. Hiring American voice actors was a good choice here. I.G. is really going all out with the production values.

The episode remained highly interesting with all the mysteries surrounding Akira and what the hell is happening with Japan. All of a sudden they’re important enough that there would be a missile attack against them. That’s probably where the “East” in the title is coming from. Is Japan referring to themselves as “Eden” as well? I’d rather not jump to that at this point. I’m not expecting to figure out all the political and societal themes this anime will mostly likely have since I kinda suck at that stuff (I had to look up what noblesse oblige meant); but I’m excited about what I’ll be able to leave with after finishing this show.

Out of all the Spring anime I’ve seen so far, this was easily the best for me. I can only see things getting better from here on out and I can say that I’ll be enjoying both watching and blogging this quite a bit. tl;dr of this post would be: Penis of the East is awesome. Go see it if you haven’t yet because it has the potential to be this season’s best.