Ah, America...

never has it looked so crisp and clear.

Let's play a game. I'm going to give you a cellphone, a cache of weapons, a dozen valid passports each with different identities, and 82 million dollars. I'm going to erase your memory, take away your clothes, then plop you down in the middle of Washington DC. Ready? Go!! "What's the objective," you ask? Well, that wouldn't be much fun if I told you. All you need to know is that there are 11 other people playing against you, and once the winner is decided on, the rest of the players die. Oh, and to set up the scenario a little bit, it's now February 2011 and Japan has just become a victim of its own 9/11-style attack, dubbed by the politicians as "Careless Monday." Is this game related to those attacks? Well, we'll find out soon enough, won't we?

Saki Morimi, Japanese college-graduate on her last trip before entering the boring tedium of the everyday workforce.

"Akira Takigawa," the man with no past, forced to play a game to change the world.

Certainly a fabrication of creative imagination, unless you're Akira Takizawa. Or, at least that's who he thinks he is. He just picked a passport from his collection at random and went with the name written on it. The main story of Higashi no Eden/Eden of the East follows around Akira ("Number IX") as he tries to piece together what the hell is going on with his life. All he has are the aforementioned items, and his "Concierge", Juiz, the woman who assists him via cellphone (Eagle Eye, anyone?)... the only number in his phonebook. He's not alone for long though. After he gets a Japanese girl, Saki Morimi, out of a jam with the DC Capital Police, they decide to journey back to Japan together. This marks the start of a very interesting adventure for the both of them.

The White House...

... plus interrogating cops...

Immediately similiarities can be drawn to many familiar cultural icons. The Bourne Identity is the most obvious reference, as Akira even mentions in the first episode that he feels like he's Jason Bourne (the Matt Damon character who is a speciliazed CIA super-assassin with amnesia, but still remembers all his training). He mentions Taxi Driver, too, but I'm not familiar with that one. Also referenced are many other films, which seems to be a concurrent theme strewn throughout, especially important as even though his memory about who he is is gone, Akira still remembers all the movies he has seen.

... equals... "oh crap!!!"

It's been a rollercoast of a ride for this young traveller.

What I feel is important noting are the similiarities this series draws to the changes the world felt after the September 11th Terrorist Attacks in New York City in 2001. Taking place almost a full decade later, Japan is going through the same sentiments the American public felt in the aftermath of the disaster. At one point, Saki explains "... it really felt too perfect to be real, so everyone started to calm down after a while. It's kinda wrong, but everyone got kind of excited and was waiting for something even bigger to happen." A bit of a touchy subject, especially coming from a fictional source, but I can't help but be intrigued at seeing where this is going.

What would you do if you came home to an apartment stocked with guns, knives, explosives, maps of target locations...

... and a dozen fake IDs?

So in this world of the not-too-distant-future, we see that things are a big mess. An organization called "Selecao" is the moderator of this "game" designed to change the world. The recruited 12 players will compete to become the new "king" of human society. Noble phrases such as "Noblesse Oblige" (if my rusty Latin is correct, roughly means "as you wish, my Lord") and "may you continue to be our savior" fill the dialogue. The words splashed across the screen in the OP animation are pretty interesting, as cryptic as they are. In fact, for the first 4 episodes, a lot of things are mysterious... and just as they should be. The characters are stuck trying to unravel this mess, and we as audience members are along for the ride.

"Number IX" gets help from any place he can... mostly from Juiz, his omnipresent concierge who can help in any situation.

Poor Saki just wants her passport back... well, and a little adventure.

Detective Kondou's life has been nothing but adventure, and he's sick of it.

Now we all wonder, "who did this?"

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