“The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power.”
Studio: Production I.G.
Format: The series is 11 episodes long, but a movie version will be available as well.
Director, Screenplay, Original Creator: Kenji Kamiyama (Blood: The Last Vampire, Ghost in the Shell, Moribito)
Plot Summary: On November 22, 2010 ten missiles strike Japan. However, this unprecedented terrorist act, later to be called as “Careless Monday,” does not result in any apparent victims, and is soon forgotten by almost everyone. Then, 3 months later… Saki Morimi is a young woman currently in the United States of America on her graduation trip. But just when she is in front of the White House, Washington DC, she gets into trouble, and only the unexpected intervention of one of her fellow countrymen saves her. However, this man, who introduces himself as Akira Takizawa, is a complete mystery. He appears to have lost his memory. and he is stark naked, except for the gun he holds in one hand, and the mobile phone he’s holding with the other hand. A phone that is charged with 8,200,000,000 yen in digital cash.
Character Design: Chika Umino (Honey and Clover)
Possible source of inspiration:
East of Eden is a novel by Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck, published in September 1952. According to his last wife Elaine, he considered this to be a requiem for himself—his greatest novel ever.
Steinbeck stated about East of Eden: “It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years.” He further claimed: “I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this.”
Aron returns from Stanford for Thanksgiving. At dinner, Cal gives his father the money, but Adam refuses to accept the money and tells him to give it back to the poor farmers he exploited. Adam adds
“I would have been so happy if you could have given me — well, what your brother has — pride in the thing he’s doing, gladness in his progress. Money, even clean money, doesn’t stack up with that. If you want to give me a present — give me a good life. That would be something I could value.”
Major themes of the book:
The book explores themes of depravity, beneficence, love, and the struggle for acceptance, greatness, and the capacity for self-destruction and especially of guilt and freedom. It ties these themes together with references to and many parallels with the biblical Book of Genesis (especially Genesis Chapter 4, the story of Cain and Abel).
The title, East of Eden, was chosen by Steinbeck from Genesis, Chapter 4, verse 16: “And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden”
The novel was not well accepted by the critics of its day, who found it heavy-handed and unconvincing, especially in its use of Biblical allusion. Nevertheless, it became an instant best-seller in November 1952, a mere month after it was released, and is now considered one of Steinbeck’s finest achievements.
Source: East of Eden (Wiki)
Further Reading: Eden of the East (ANN)
Kitsune's Thoughts 
Akira Takizawa is very similar to Morita(honey and clover) 🙂
Yes, the same character designer worked on both anime. Sometimes artists don’t vary their style too much 🙂
Really interesting, now I must watch this show.
Yes, it has potential, so I’ll try a few episodes 🙂
This looks really interesting but I wonder what they can do in only 11 episodes. I’m going to definitely catch it when it comes out.
For some reason, I instantly thought of Bourne Identity when I read the description.
A good story can be told in 11 episodes, but we’ll see if they succeed. Also it looks like the whole series can be compressed into a film format. I guess it shares some similarities with Bourne Identity.
Oh, I can see the Morita resemblance…even the girl looks a bit like Hagu 😛 Looks interesting. Another title goes to my Spring ‘to see’ list. Dear me, Spring looks to be another bumper season for new series.
Yes, plenty of new series 🙂 I am sure some of them will be disappointing and lighten the load though 😛
Sometimes artists don’t vary their style too much.
Why? Because of their lack of artistic flexibility?
It depends on the artist. Style may reflect the growth of an artist and her/his view on life. Let us take Goya for instance. He is regarded as the last of the old masters and the first of the modern ones. Among many other things, he used to draw portraits of the royalty, but his Black Paintings and The Disasters of War have quite a different character.
When it comes to anime, the situation is somewhat different. You are expected to be consistent with your style. This way the creators know whom to call when they want a certain feel for the show. Many characters in Ghibli films look similar, but they are great nonetheless.
Also what we see as character design by an artist should not be equated with her/his artistic flexibility because what one draws at work may be influenced by third parties and represents only a part of the repertoire.
In the case of Eden of the East, the selection of character designer and the design of the characters themselves were intentional to draw a specific audience.