Eden of the East is Certainly a Good Show, But I Can’t Motivate Myself to Watch It
Posted by: Noirsword in Anime
Forgive the mini hiatus, as I’ve been taking the time to officially finish up the last of my college finals. It’s now officially, unofficially over until graduation. Now that that’s taken care of, I wish to briefly discuss what is, objectively speaking, probably the best show in the Spring 09 lineup, Eden of the East/Higashi no Eden. As the season started and the weeks passed, I’ve dutifully kept up with (almost) all my shows regardless of how packed my schedule has been. Falling behind is inevitable, but I’ve been pretty consistent in watching my main staples of Dragon Ball Kai, FMA, Hayate no Gotoku!!, K-ON, Sengoku Basara and Valkyria Chronicles.
Eden of the East was something of a late addition to my lineup. I didn’t originally plan to add it to my schedule, but the first episode was interesting enough to put it on my watch list. The premise of an amnesiac Japanese guy waking up naked in Washington DC with a gun and a phone with access to a loaded bank account was bizarre enough to get my attention. So I went on to the second episode, and the plot got more interesting with plenty of… “bang” for my buck. But alas I fell behind on EotE. Like I said earlier, I fell behind on my other staples too, but I caught up with them as soon as possible. Somehow that hasn’t been the case with EotE. I’ve continued downloading the new episodes, but they just sit there not getting watched. I know the show is good, but I don’t want to watch it. This kind of situation happens to me occasionally. To name a few examples, the Do Not Want to Watch Syndrome struck with Code Geass, Darker than Black, last fall’s Casshern Sins, and RideBack earlier in the winter season.
I don’t know why this happens, but it does. Meu keeps insisting that I should watch it. I open up my anime folder, hover over Eden of the East, then click something else. I don’t know why I don’t want to watch it, because it’s a very good show — Probably the best anime currently airing in fact. The terrorist cell plot is intriguing and very real (real enough for an anime anyway), and EotE could definitely give American primetime TV (and Jack Bauer) a run for their money. Yet despite all this, I just sort of don’t want to watch it. Can’t tell you why really. You could probably say, “Hey, the common link between Code Geass, DtB, RideBack and EotE is terrorism plots!”. It might be that. It might not. Either way, Eden of the East continues to go unwatched for some reason or another.
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Aww… that’s a pity, I would certainly like to hear your comments about it. I like the series, for me it’s refreshing specially with that beginning.
Sometimes you’re not in the mood for heavy drama. I had the same problem with Clannad AS. When I did finally watch it, it become my favorite show ever.
Eden of the East is just…so good. But then again if you cannot find the motivation to watch it weekly, you probably will not enjoy it as much as watching it in one full swing. Part of the enjoyment comes from not having a preview for next week and not being able to guess what comes next.
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The same happens to me if the show is very long and the plot misses the original idea.
@Aimé: Well I’ll get around to it sooner or later. EotE strikes me as a show that should be watched one episode at a time for the full effect, so it won’t be marathoned when it’s time to catch up.
@Roy: Hmm yeah. I guess I’ve been in more of a comedy and hot blooded mood lately.
@Panther: Yes it is good but… I don’t want to watch it right now. It’s usually my personal policy to not marathon “deep” shows more than two episodes at a time if possible. I like to reflect and contemplate the events that have transpired.
@phossil: Hmm. *Looks at Bleach*