Forum - View topicEve no Jikan / Time of Eve.
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Courbet
Posts: 47 |
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Just watched the first episode of this ONA and I have to say I was very impressed.
I like the fact that its like an updated, more serious version of Chobits, asking the usual moral/philosophical questions of what it means to be human, spouting Isaac'a three laws of robotics, the animation is very nice too, so I hope they will continue releasing these:) Question to those who have watched it: spoiler[ Do you think the barlady is an android or not?] Looking forward to see how this develops. |
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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Eve no Jikan
From the same director/writer as the phenomenally underappreciated Pale Cocoon and quirky Mizu no Kotoba. Eve no Jikan seems to be atmospherically lighter, somewhat more akin to Mizu no Kotoba than Pale Cocoon. However, it retains the amount of thought poured into Pale Cocoon, as evidenced by the obvious social commentary. Haven't seen the first episode yet, but from screens and trailers it seems great (particularly considering this is supposed to be relatively low budget). Will get around to doing so soon and post my thoughts. Hope that others watch this! |
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Jedi General
 Posts: 2485 Location: Tucson, AZ |
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Darn it, I was going to make this thread but you beat me to it, Courbet.
Anyway, I've been looking forward to this series ever since I watched Pale Cocoon and Mizu no Kotoba a few months ago and I was ecstatic when I saw that a fansub of first episode came out on Saturday. I downloaded and watched it immediately. So far, I'm loving the series. I can confirm that it is certainly more akin to Mizu no Kotoba, as HellKorn already surmised, but it also is taking on social issues a la Pale Cocoon, making it a nice blend of both. For its supposedly rather low budget, the animation is pretty good so far and it looks nice from a artistic standpoint as well. As for the plot, it has a good amount of potential and the first episode laid some nice groundwork. Not to mention a nice little surprise at the end.
Too early to tell, really, as it could go either way. spoiler[She could very well be one of those people who are "unhealthily attracted" to androids. But, given the fact that Akiko is an android, I wouldn't be surprised if the the cafe owner(?) is also an android. Akiko had me fooled. I genuinely thought that she was a hyperactive human girl, given how believably human she acted. Perhaps the cafe has that effect on the androids that go there? Aside from the obvious absence of the "halos," it seems that the cafe allows them to temporarily break free of their robotic shell, if you will, thus making them able to pass off as humans. I'm very interested to find out more.]
You and me both, I hope it lives up to it's potential. If people watch this, perhaps more folks will come to appreciate Yasuhiro Yoshiura. He is certainly one of the most under appreciated anime directors out there. I look forward to your thoughts, HellKorn. I wrote that plot summary, by the way, although I did notice that it needed some minor edits for grammar after reading it again (oops!). EDITS: Minor grammar fixes. Last edited by Jedi General on Tue Aug 05, 2008 7:16 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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Courbet
Posts: 47 |
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Oooo some nice insight from both Jedi and Hell there, I haven't actually heard of Pale Cocoon nor Mizu ever before, so I will be on my way to check those out at the next opportunity
Also, I know most ONA are around the 15 min mark, but I really wish this was longer haha 
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Jedi General
Posts: 2485 Location: Tucson, AZ |
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 Awesome, I hope you like them. Pale Cocoon especially, since it's the superior of the two. Not to say that Mizu no Kotoba isn't great (it is great), it's just not nearly as terrific as the masterwork that is Pale Cocoon.
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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The first episode is great. It's really an interesting twist on the fundamental story of human and robotic interaction. The "twist" is also paradoxically expected and satisfying; it doesn't feel cheap, but instead emphasizes spoiler[the difference in attitudes that the androids have in and outside the café, as well as showing that humans and androids are not as dissimilar as the former would like to think.]
This is supposedly done on a low budget, which makes the beautiful and lush art direction and backgrounds even more impressive. Animation isn't showy, but more than gets the job done and never distracts. And every single anime Yoshiura has done has had a great soundtrack. Really subtle pieces that don't really make you take notice of them and simply aid the atmosphere. Oh, and the direction is fantastic. Absolutely brilliant pacing, with some brilliant shots (such as spoiler[when Akiko first appears at the table.]). Looking forward to the remaining five installments. |
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BrothersElric
 Posts: 1996 |
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Hmmm, very interesting. I just saw an AMV to Pale Cocoon (Thanks to AG for that
 ) and immediately decided I wanted to see that one anyways so that was already a given, but this and Mizu no Kotoba I'm definitely interested in as well given what their encyclopedia pages say. And 2 of them are only 2 or 1 episode long OVA series, the other being an only 9 minute special, so that definitely helps the matter!
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Jedi General
Posts: 2485 Location: Tucson, AZ |
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Which is a stark contrast to the social commentary going on in the series. spoiler[People who do realize that androids and humans are actually quite similar (and even go to the lengths of allowing themselves to be attracted to the androids) are looked down upon by society. However, as this series shows, androids and humans aren't really all that different. When androids are freed from the oppression, if you will, cast upon them by the human population they can easily pass off as human. This was very evident in the cafe, when Akiko had the Rikuo and Masaki (and countless viewers like myself) fooled to the point of believing that she is a living, breathing human being. I was just as shocked as they were to find out that Akiko was exactly the opposite. Especially given the huge difference between how she communicated with the boys at the cafe and how she communicated with her master].
I love the camera work in this. All the shaky camera shots, the first-person shots, the lightning-fast zooms and pans, in all it just goes to show how very skilled Yoshiura is at directing animation. Not to mention that spoiler[first shot of Akiko at the table. I loved how she paused, tapped her hands on the table a couple of times, and put down her bag before continuing to run off her mouth at Mach 2]. @BroEly: Glad to hear that you're interested in watching Yasuhiro Yoshiura's works. You're right, the nice thing is that two of them (Pale Cocoon and Mizu no Kotoba) are very short and don't take very much time at all. Eve no Jikan, on the other hand, is going to be six 15-minute episodes. |
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BrothersElric
Posts: 1996 |
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Ah, I see, my bad.  That's still going to be quite considerably short though, so yeah, still no problem.
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Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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Good first episode. Not great, but very pleasing, especially the audio and visual aspects (not to mention the Pale Cocoon ode). But watching it I realized how deeply science fiction has scarred me: I was a little uneasy with how lightly the series treated androids gaining self-awareness. Maybe watching the Terminator when I was 9 wasn't such a great idea after all. The crew obviously isn't arguing that this idea is a good thing and are probably going to use the story as a vehicle to explore other themes, but its weird seeing a show like this after being conditioned to fear androids all my life. Kind of like how it must have felt to see Close Encounters for the first time after a childhood of B-movie alien invasions.
Anyways, I like what they're trying (I say trying because there isn't as much substance in it as some people seem to believe) to do with the story. One problem is they never explain how the androids gained self-awareness; as is that question is just a plot device to get to the twist ending. Hopefully as the episodes progress the social commentary will get more weight to it. But I am curious to see just what the writers are going to say in the end. A Tezuka-esque examination of what it is to be human? A story about human prejudice and class structure? It looks pretty wide-open at this point. The actual narrative set-up is a bit typical, but given the fact that the whole thing will run an hour-and-a-half it was probably a smart choice. One interesting parallel I got from it was between the android lovers and otaku. I can't help but feel this was intentional given the way that characters react to them.
I wouldn't go that far (that was a pretty unremarkable shot actually) but it is certainly a cut above the average TV anime when it comes to cinematography. It definitely has a lot of similarities to Pale Cocoon beyond the animation style, as Yoshiura's style is pretty distinct. |
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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Told ya that I'd eventually get around to your post, Kagemusha -- eventually being the keyword.
Only 15 minutes in and already you want the ending! (Exaggeration, but you get the idea.) While somewhat typical, don't think that the first episode is by-the-books "futuristic" science fiction, either. A common theme is to investigate whether machines can obtain human sentience and emotions. The question that takes an entire story to answer has already been established here with an affirmative YES. It'll be interesting to see where Yoshiura and co. take us from here.
Yeah, the opening bit with the television an obvious example of that.
Should clarify: the composition isn't spectacular, but I love the faux-camera that Yoshiura uses in his works. The greatest sense of non-animated movement that we usually receive from anime is panning, and that's mostly done out of necessity than for stylistic purposes (though it is occasionally used). But in Pale Cocoon, Eve no Jikan and even Mizu no Kotoba Yoshiura manages to create a lens that's really atypical of anime, period. (The only one who even does something similar is Shinkai -- an influence of Yoshiura's -- but even then doesn't utilize that technique in the same quantity and amount of versatility we see in the aforementioned works.) Hope that more people get around to this! |
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HMMcKamikaze
 Posts: 189 |
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I ran across this by accident, and it's been a long time since I've been this delighted by a show. The animation is very impressive, and I find it preferable to most shows created by major production companies. I'll definitely have to check out the other things by this director.
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HMMcKamikaze
Posts: 189 |
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Wow, I just saw the 4th act a few minutes ago. After waiting so long I was thoroughly pleased by this episode. And, of course, the preview was as tantalizing as always!
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Mike On Top
 Posts: 298 |
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What I absolutely adore about the series is how the androids (and their "casual deployment") come to reflect the controversial nature of the creatures who bestowed them with (in fact) their "fuzzy" logic. Consequently, seeing it working from the side lines invokes various feelings, confronting attitudes, prejudices, misuse, or curiosity to what extent the initial input would stir autonomic behaviour.
Episode 4 continues to provide us with another rapid exchange of human- robot points of view, accompanied as usual with dynamic dialogues. Well, perhaps those who read sci-fi won't necesserily find the theme new or the extrapolation totally unheard of, but it is the kind of sci-fi I missed in anime for quite some time. Crunchyroll should have for streaming all the four episodes aired till now, so those who are interested, there's a chance to enjoy Eve no Jikan. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24157 |
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I've just watched the first four episodes of this on Crunchy Roll and I am absolutely blown away.
This is film-making - and I say that quite deliberately knowing that it is a TV show - of the first rank: The camera work, editing and animation are all stunning. The music, although unobtrusive, is perfectly suited to the material. I'm heart-broken to discover that it seems there are only two episodes left: one coming out in July and the last in September. This is MWA (Must Watch Anime). Do yourself an enormous favour and check it out. |
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