Higashi no Eden / Eden of the East

[Laika]

Hmm, now that you mention it... Their probably have little else in production right now because of the Higashi no Eden and Tales of Vesperia movies planned this summer and fall respectively, and because they were kind of productive the past two seasons (even adding those awkward multiple versions of Sengoku Basara), so they have to finalize the dvd versions of their early 2009 series.

On the other hand, it's still not sure whether the Higashi no Eden movie will complete the story or just be a compilation movie, is it? For all we know the story might suddenly end next episode.

I haven't watched the last episode myself (waiting for a XVID reencode cause this computer's a POS) but from what I hear, the movies will really be there for closure. There have actually been two movies announced. Even though it's possible that the first of the two movies will be a recap, as the main story lines of GITSAC have been made into movies before, it doesn't seem that logical unless they really want to piss people off by making people wait a whole 6 months or so for actual closure to the series. If that were the case, I'd expect the majority of people watching to stop caring about the series by that point, because otaku are just that fickle. Also, since a movie had always been part of the production of the series, as it was announced quite early that it would be 11 episodes + a movie (now turns out to be 2 movies) I would hope that the first one isn't just a reworking of the series. I would guess that it would be something that would be watchable in a stand alone sense so that it wouldn't alienate an audience that hadn't watched the series on TV, but at the same time, there was really almost no filler in the TV series that it seems like it would be difficult to condense 11 episodes worth of plot into a 2hour film.

These posts were moved from the Anime Preview: Summer 2009 thread.

[Galth]

Actually, no. Otaku aren't that fickle. There've been plenty of cases when the closure of a series took month (or even years). Actually, as I just found out, it's gonna be the case this time as well: the first Higashi no Eden movie will premiere in November (which is indeed almost half a year from now) and will probably be a recap. The second will premiere in January 2010.

And compilation movies are very, very common in the anime world: Death Note R, GitS:SAC, various Macross and Gundam series, Shin Seiki Evangelion, Munto, One Piece, Shakugan no Shana, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, etc etc...

[Laika]

Actually, no. Otaku aren't that fickle. There've been plenty of cases when the closure of a series took month (or even years). Actually, as I just found out, it's gonna be the case this time as well: the first Higashi no Eden movie will premiere in November (which is indeed almost half a year from now) and will probably be a recap. The second will premiere in January 2010.

And compilation movies are very, very common in the anime world: Death Note R, GitS:SAC, various Macross and Gundam series, Shin Seiki Evangelion, Munto, One Piece, Shakugan no Shana, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, etc etc...

Yes, as I said, there's going to be a quite a gap for anything new if it's a recap movie, only a 3~4 month gap if there isn't.

And yes, compilation movies are common, I even cited a specific example that Kamiyama did with GITSSAC. It makes more sense to look at what IG and that particular director has done instead of compare it to other studios and with those sort of huge properties. Death note, Macross, Gundam, Eva, Onepiece, Gurren Lagan, etc those are all pretty huge properties. I don't think it's possible to argue that Eden was as popular as those. It only made it to 10th place for Japanese ratings on it's last episode on the late night slot. I can't really say how that is comparatively to other series finale ep, or it's popularity in general but then again popularity doesn't really have anything to do with it really. IMO that has something to do with how fickle I think most otaku are but that's neither here nor there.

But even then, comparing it to something specifically that IG and Kamiyama has done, you could boil down GITSSAC main stories to a 2hr film. That's really how the series was set up for. You had episodes that related to the main film and the rest were stories that concluded within 1 or 2 of them. With a series like Eden, with how each episode was paced so that there really wasn't any time for filler, it seems like it would be difficult to boil it down to 2hrs and summarize the entire thing. I'm sure it could be done though. Thinking about GITSSAC, it feels like the main story lines of each season felt like they took about half of the run (13 out of 26) but I don't recall it exactly and I can't be bothered to research.

But, as I stated before, the movie had been announced prior way long before the series end, in Feb of 2009 (series started airing April) so it wouldn't be so far out of the league to speculate that it wouldn't be a total recap. Add to that the fact that when they announced it in Feb. they only announced one film, it would suggest that initially they never intended to have a recap film at all, unless you would argue that selling a film version to the general masses was the focus the entire time and the Tv series was just to support that... doesn't seem likely with the returns on animated feature films or the industry in general to risk it on something that a typical of what's generally marketed.

The first movie could be completely recap, and they are plenty common. But I think there are plenty of things that suggest that it might not completely be one.

[Galth]

The first movie could be completely recap, and they are plenty common. But I think there are plenty of things that suggest that it might not completely be one.

Well, "completely recap" almost never happens, of course. They tend to add in a few unnecessary new scenes, so as to give a reason for people familiar with the original to watch it anyway.
[hr]
Created a new thread out of these existing posts, as we were getting a bit off-topic...
[hr]
So, with the television series having come to a conclusion, we can now more accurately (?) speculate upon the content of the upcoming movies.

First, their titles have been revealed (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-06-18/eden-of-the-east-gets-two-theatrical-films-green-lit) as The King of Eden and Paradise Lost, and with the happenings in the final episode, this first title makes it seem more likely than before that it won't be a recap movie after all...

Of course, there's still plenty of story material left, what with only 7/12 Selecao having been revealed so far...

[Laika]

There was some speculation on the order of the selecao appearing in the opening and what sort of significance it might have. However, I tend to stay away from most of the conspiracy theory stuff that gets thrown out there until everything's out in the open. But, it's not to say that most of the stuff that has been thrown out by the conspiracy theorists have been completely off base. A lot of it has been pretty on the mark, especially some of the stuff that gets mentioned by gg team member koda on her site, srsfkn.biz

In particular I'm pretty curious about the selecao that hasn't used his money at all. He seems like he's got something under his sleeves.

Anyways, I'm pretty hyped for the movie after watching the last episode.

[Galth]

Right, Tsuji Jintarō, Selecao #2... He definitely seems suspicious, alright, as if he is either plotting against his "comrades" or is actually the Supporter. This last episode specifically made him out as someone to keep an eye on, whereas Yūki Ryō (#11) just seems to be getting used by the others...