Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Eden of the East: Paradise Lost Blu-ray Movie Review

Game over. . .maybe.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 15, 2011

It might be a footrace to decide which anime franchise has the most convoluted storyline. Two definite finalists would no doubt be Ghost in the Shell and Eden of the East and both in a way share several similarities. As with many animes, both of these franchises posit a technology-laden universe where man and machine tend to at least have a symbiotic relationship, if not an outright melding. And both series also harbor a sort of paranoid vision of governments run amok, steamrolling over the general populace with careless abandon. Ghost in the Shell has longevity on its side and may in fact outdistance Eden of the East for that and several other salient reasons, but Eden of the East is certainly one labyrinthine enterprise itself, one which requires a certain focus and dedicated memory in order to unravel. For that reason, it’s highly recommended that jumping headlong into Eden of the East: Paradise Lost without having spent time getting to know the franchise either by virtue of its original episodic television outing or two subsequent films (one of which is a highly edited and redacted version of the original television series) is not just unwise, it may in fact be counterproductive to the point where it will turn potential fans off of what is really a very interesting and entertaining thriller in the Ludlum Bourne vein. While Eden of the East: Paradise Lost ostensibly ties up all of the loose ends of the story, as should be expected, there’s a sort of open door left agape in the film’s brief coda which may hint at the fact that Eden of the East may be giving Ghost in the Shell a run for its money for years to come.

Eden of the East: Paradise Lost picks up more or less exactly where Eden of the East: The King of Eden left off, with Takizawa and Saki on a plane headed back to Tokyo. A rather Ghost in the Shell-esque melding of man and machine happens right off the bat, with Takizawa’s seleção phone coming alive in his pocket, jumping out and matriculating into his brain via his ear like those horrible sand crabs from Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Luckily, that turns out to be a nightmare, but it is a potent metaphor for a Japan ruled by technology, a technology that in a way is eradicating personal freedoms and in fact individuality itself. If Eden of the East and The King of Eden sought to portray the whole seleção “game,” Paradise Lost is much more an exploration of Takizawa’s backstory and what led to his being chosen as one of the Seleçao. In that regard, Paradise Lost’s intrigue comes more from uncovering nuggets of Takizawa’s past than it does from any political maneuverings as in the previous outings.

In fact that may well be the major letdown for a lot of viewers who have followed the exploits of Takizawa and Saki through at least the films, if not the original television series. Paradise Lost is a bit to slapdash and rushed for its own good. This latest outing obviously counts on the audience knowing the background to all the interconnected stories, but even so, much of what transpires in Paradise Lost never quite rises to the level that the set up might have indicated. In fact the denouement here is a mind boggling, literally so for some of the characters, as the whole “game” the seleção have been playing comes to a rather unceremonious end (to state more would constitute a spoiler).

What ultimately saves Paradise Lost is the relationship between Takizawa and Saki, as well as Takizawa’s quest to find out exactly who he is and where he came from. A couple of sidebar characters prove to be surprisingly compelling in this outing, including a mysterious waitress who might have a connection to Takizawa. For those who are (as the British might say) gobsmacked at where Paradise Lost ends right as the final credits roll, take heart: there’s a brief post-credits coda that at least partially ties up a glaring loose end. That said, Lost Paradise hardly feels like a finished entity, either within its own confines or as the capper to a franchise. I’d be very, very surprised if Takizawa’s story doesn’t continue in at least one more trip to Eden of the East.

Eden of the East: Paradise Lost Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Eden of the East: Paradise Lost, like its previous siblings, arrives on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a clean and precise looking presentation that offers nice, robust and well saturated color and excellent line detail. This particular outing has a peculiar design choice where several characters seem to walk around with a grey smudge on their noses, but otherwise the character designs are appealing and well done, and the Blu-ray presents them very well. Backgrounds, as with the previous Eden of the East outings, are very well done and help to maintain a high level of believability throughout the film.

Eden of the East: Paradise Lost Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both of the lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes included on this Blu-ray, one with the original Japanese language track and the other a very good English dub, offer sterling fidelity, excellent surround activity and some thundering LFE. Purists of course will want to stick with the Japanese version, but those who don't like reading subtitles should know they're getting a good translation and some superior voicework, as with the previous outings in this franchise. Immersion is nicely handled in a lot of the cityscapes which make up Paradise Lost, and such effects as planes landing or the Juiz trucks roaring around Tokyo freeways provide some awesome low end with great regularity. Dialogue is crisp and clean, underscore is well mixed, and both of these tracks should delight audiophiles, no matter which language they end up choosing to listen to.

Eden of the East: Paradise Lost Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• U.S. Cast Commentary features ADR Director Mike McFarland hosting a series of voice actors from the English dub, all of whom discuss their characters as well as the franchise as a whole. This is fairly interesting stuff a lot of the time, though it also tends to be typical "this was a really interesting character for me to voice" sort of commentary at least some of the time.
• Visual Commentary on the Eden System with Director Kamiyama Interview is, despite its insanely long title, a nice supplement that features text pop-ups by Kamiyama as well as other text info-boxes that dot the film with great regularity. Kamiyama's tend to give more information on the actual production, while some of the associated text boxes deal more with minutiae of the franchise. A couple of hints: have your pause button ready, because some of these cascade on top of each other very quickly, way too quickly to read as a matter of fact. And also just for fun, hit your rewind button once one appears and look how the boxes change back to Japanese ideographs from what must have been the original release version. I'm not sure exactly why that should happen but it's kind of fun to see.
• Movie 2 Preview (HD; 00:52)
• TV Spot (HD; 00:17)
• Eden of the East Series Trailer (HD; 1:02)
• Eden of the East: King of Eden Trailer (HD; 1:02)
• Eden of the East: Paradise Lost Trailer (HD; 1:02)
• Trailers for Other FUNimation Releases

Eden of the East: Paradise Lost Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Eden of the East: Paradise Lost might be a bit of a letdown, after the incredibly convoluted set up presented both in the redacted version of the television series as well as King of Eden. Suddenly we're more concerned with a kind of soap operatic exploration of Takizawa's parentage than we are with the outcome of the seleção game. There's still a lot to like here, especially if expectations for a gripping wrap up are somewhat mitigated, including some nice interplay between Takizawa and Saki, and some interesting side characters who come into play. But for a series and film franchise which wove such a complex story out of so many different elements, this outing seems more like a place holder than a "wow" wrap up. Despite these qualms, Eden of the East: Paradise Lost still maintains interest without too many issues, and it looks and sounds fantastic on this Blu-ray. Recommended.