Random Curiosity

Summary:

On her way back to the shopping mall, Saki calls Hirasawa and explains what she knows about Akira. She and Micchon want Hirasawa to examine the data that Itazu sent, but he has more immediate problems right now because of all the NEETs who have arrived. Those NEETs have gone to work recovering their old cell phones from the large piles, and in the meantime, Hirasawa and company are able to find a safe spot to hide. Saki uses this time to explain to them over the phone that Akira had recruited people on the net to help him evacuate people originally, but the people who were saved were suspicious of why Akira and his helpers knew about the missile attack. Akira thus gathered the NEETs afterward and declared himself the culprit of the missile terrorism so that all the hatred would be directed at him. He then sent the NEETs to Dubai so that they’d be hidden from the public’s attention. Having been betrayed by the people he wanted to protect the most, Akira had finally erased his memories.

Saki thinks that their best course of action in order to prevent the new missile strike is to post the target locations online, but the problem is that those locations are on the laptop that Hirasawa and the others left behind to the NEETs. Fortunately, Kasuga has an idea on how to get it back: infiltrate the NEETs by having the guys strip down naked. They thus manage to get close to the group that is holding the laptop, and right as the NEETs start getting suspicious, Hirasawa grabs it and runs. The NEETs give chase, and Hirasawa has to throw the laptop to Oosugi before he gets caught. At around the same time, Saki and Micchon arrive and dash through the mall, and they manage to run into naked Oosugi. Once they’re able to look at the data, they realize that one of the targets is none other than where they are, Toyosu. Before the group can do anything about it though, Akira starts broadcasting a video message to the cell phones of everyone inside the mall. Claiming that he’s launching another missile attack, Akira instructs everyone to go to the mall’s rooftop if they want to survive.

The stairwell up thus becomes jam-packed with naked NEETs, so Saki and the others try to take an elevator. The NEETs come after them and prevent the elevator door from closing, but Akira then appears through the other elevator door, saves Oosugi, and pushes the NEETs out of the elevator. He turns to leave, but Saki stops him because she suspects that he’s really here to save everyone. This time, Saki extends her hand, and Akira takes it and pulls her with him. They end up in the amusement park area above the mall, separated from all the NEETs, and Akira instructs the NEETs to write on the Eden of the East site their ideas for shooting down the missiles. As the NEETs get to work, Akira admires their potential, and he soon has thousands of suggestions. He then calls Juiz, and she’s ready to employ the best method out of those. The attack missiles come flying in soon after, and right as Akira targets them with his finger and lets out a “Bang,” fighter jets fly in and launch interceptor missiles.

All over Japan, the attack missiles get shot down while still in the air, and many of the Selecao watch it happen, as does Itazu who had survived. Tsuji in particular is unimpressed and thinks that Japan has already on the way to its demise. Back at the shopping mall, there’s one last missile heading straight towards the merry-go-round that Akira is standing on top of, and though he manages to blow it up at the last second, Akira gets thrown back by the debris. He’s unhurt, but he grows worried when he sees Saki unconscious. Fortunately, she’s okay as well, and while she’s still waking back up, Akira calls Juiz and asks her to make him the king of Japan with the rest of his money. He feels that this country has a lot of smart people, but no one to play the thankless role, and although he himself doesn’t really want to do it, there’s a girl who believes in him. Akira also asks Juiz for something else, and after Saki regains consciousness again, he listens to a noise from his cell phone and then slips it into her pocket. Saki recalls that this is how Akira became a prince in this country with no king.

ED Sequence

Well damnit, that was every bit as frustrating an ending as I was afraid there’d be. It was certainly very cool to see the Bang scene with Akira “shooting” down the missiles (just like the ED papermation foreshadowed) while that song Reveal the World was playing in the background. But aside from the second missile attack, pretty much everything else remained unresolved. They even added twists by having Akira ask Juiz to make him the king of Japan and by showing that Akira requested something else that is probably connected to the noise coming from his cell phone at the end (another memory wipe perhaps), so this was essentially a cliffhanger. It’s even more frustrating because we won’t be able to see the conclusion of it until the two movies are released, and those won’t be out until November and January respectively. I was yelling at my screen by the time this announcement appeared.

While it’s fresh on my mind though, I found it interesting that Itazu ended up surviving since I didn’t see any reason to revive him after seemingly killing him, unless they wanted to reduce the body count or (more likely) unless he’s going to play a role in the movies. Hopefully Shiratori will appear as well since she didn’t really do anything at the end here, and I suspect the two movies will probably give them a lot of freedom to involve all of the remaining Selecao. And what was with the creepy taxi cab driver that they focused on for several seconds? Is he actually someone important, like Mr. Outside? The Atou Taxi that he was driving could be a tip-off.

Final Thoughts: The series isn’t over, so these aren’t truly final thoughts on it, but more a reflection on what we’ve seen so far. I found Eden of the East to be a wonderful series which had tons of charm in the first episode, became more mystery-oriented in the middle, and ended decently even if it was a cliffhanger. The bright side of leaving a lot of things unresolved is that they at least didn’t have to rush the story to get everything wrapped up nicely by the finale. I still wish they animated this as two seasons instead of one season and two movies, but I should probably just be happy that there is more. Hopefully I won’t have forgotten about the details of the plot or even have lost interest in the show by the time the movies come out.