Subculture Anime Blog

Are you enjoying the time of EVE?

Summary:

In a future Japan, humans have become very dependent on robots. One boy named Rikuo looks through his phone in the morning with the help of his own family’s robot named Sammy, almost asking a question after seeing something peculiar in her movement logs. He decides not to, however, only allowing Sammy to then prepare breakfast for him. When he asks for his family’s status, he is told that his father and mother have both already left for work. His sister Naoko soon enters the room after sleeping late from a hangover, and Rikuo is forced to have Sammy make breakfast for her despite her wish not to. When Naoko turns on the TV, there are several programs talking about the controversiality of robots and mechanized living in the present. When a program comes up about a group called “Dori-kei”, people who are obsessed with robots, Naoko warns Rikuo to be careful as well. Rikuo is troubled about his sister’s statement, and when he looks back through his phone, he sees the message he saw previously: “Are you enjoying the time of EVE?”

When Rikuo reaches school, he is approached by his friend Masaki who saw his sister the previous night. Finding that Sammy had picked Naoko up, Masaki again mentions his belief that Rikuo trusts robots too much. This makes Rikuo bring up the various laws they have, however; the first one being that robots may not hurt humans in any way. Rikuo then shows Masaki the logs in his cellphone, but Masaki does not see anything interesting about them. Rikuo asks for Masaki to accompany him throughout the city, mentioning that his family’s android has been acting strange recently. Because of this, he has been following her movement logs to various places. The boys are confused when they seemingly come across an ordinary door in the city, but when an android enters past them, they decide to follow. Inside, the boys are fascinated to find a cafe inside. The surrounding signs suggest the time of EVE, as well as indiscrimination between robots.

When a girl named Nagi sees the boys enter the cafe, she quickly invites them to sit. Rikuo and Masaki are confused as to why robots would enter a cafe, but they are further shocked to see that the android from earlier does not have a ring above his head. This makes Masaki mention that the area they are in is in the “grey zone” of the current android laws. When Nagi stops by to take the boys’ orders, she reminds them to follow the rules of the shop. This would be the act of non discrimination between human and robot. The boys realize that this is the reason there are no rings above the android’s head, but they start to worry when they believe that everyone around the cafe is moving according to these rules as well. The boys are not given much time to worry about this, however, as they are quickly greeted by an energetic girl named Akiko.

Shortly after introducing herself and several others in the store, Akiko is questioned about Sammy’s entering earlier. Nagi appears to warn the boys about the rules, as they said the word “android”, but Akiko helps to bring everyone back to good terms shortly after. The boys take the chance to question why Akiko is at such a place, and when Masaki mentions the rare fact that his family does not have an android in the current society, she states that she actually does know of occurrences like this. Akiko states that she sees everyone as family to her, but despite how much they seem alike, humans and robots are completely different on the inside. Despite this, Akiko came to the cafe with her want to learn more about others and the world.

At school the next day, Rikuo brings up Akiko’s wishes to Masaki. Pointing out how poorly and indifferently most people usually treat androids, Masaki wonders if it wouldn’t be better to use robots in this way. However, Rikuo wonders if Akiko was simply kind. Rikuo is suddenly surprised to see Akiko pass by him, however, and further shocked to see that she is actually an android. Rikuo is soon picked up by his own android, and when she introduces a new coffee to him at home, he wonders why she bought a new kind on her own. Sammy simply states that she thought it would make Rikuo happy, then making Rikuo think about the previous beliefs that robots and humans are similar. As he continues to stand in shock about his new realizations, Naoko mentions that he seems a bit like a Dori-kei.

Preview: Sammy.

Impression:

I wasn’t originally planning on covering this, and the post is quite a bit late, but I just knew I would have to say something after seeing how well presented this animation was. Eve no Jikan is a six part ONA, as the first episode can be streamed on the official website. I believe it will be converted to a movie release at some point as well. It was directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura (Mizu no Kotoba, Pale Cocoon), and for those unfamiliar with his work, he is often compared to Makoto Shinkai (Byousoku 5 Centimeter) in terms of how well his short animations look. Eve no Jikan certainly did look amazing, and it’s series like this that make me remember that animation is a form of art. Digital painting has always fascinated me, and the backgrounds done in this form were astonishing to look at in this act. The way compositions were presented was brilliant, as well as the camera-like imitation they used in the animation. It’s rare to come across an anime that really makes me feel like I am actually in an area with the characters, but this was definitely one of them. Becoming absorbed in this way reminded me of what made me start to love animation so much in the first place.

Eve no Jikan also has a very strong cast, including talents such as Jun Fukuyama, Rei Tanaka, Rina Satou, and Yukana among other popular seiyu. Not that well known seiyu are needed to make an animation successful, but it didn’t hurt in my eyes (ears?). The story wasn’t the most original in the world, involving humans living with androids, but it didn’t make the story any less interesting. In fact, I think this is a very interesting theme to play on – especially coming from Japan where machines have started playing a huge role in people’s lives. The protagonist realizing empathy for the once seemingly lifeless androids really made for interesting drama, and when Akiko was revealed to be an android at the end, I started jumping in my chair.

I’ll have to thank hikago for reminding me to watch this series. Pireze also provides a nice sub for non-Japanese speakers and those wanting to access the episode in other forms rather than the stream. I definitely can’t wait to see the next act, though I’m not sure how consistently I will be able to post on all of the parts (I’m really bad with OVA scheduling and the such). Seeing how much I loved this though, I will probably end up talking about them on my own time anyways.