Rakuen Tsuiho: Expelled from Paradise

Nice anime. Not that it shines with art, music or a twisted plot. All these are of high quality, but not at all at an outstanding level. What makes "Rakuen Tsuihou" special is the presence of common sense in both the characters' behavior and the development of the plot. It may not be possible to agree with all the ideas, but intellectually, this anime will not keep you gritting your teeth waiting for the end of the story. What also pleases are adequate, adult heroes who have reasonable motivations and behavior appropriate to situations. The "incarnated" heroine experiences all the unexpected effects of having a body, including fatigue, illness, and the inability to cope with the three goons in the real world. Of course, it was not without exaggeration of her naivety, honesty, kawaii and the abuse of curvy forms with oppai swaying, but these exaggerations, perhaps, were designed to compensate for her negative features, outweighing them and arousing sympathy for the heroine, because otherwise she a self-centered careerist with views that would flinch even National Socialists. The hero, on the other hand, is quite a mature, calm and perceptive man, not a hysterical teenager. In general, the characters are quite sympathetic and cause empathy, the intimate narrative focuses on the development of their relationships and meaningful, not at all stupid dialogues. In terms of the plot, there are a couple of unexpected turns and an intrigue that does not disappear almost until the very end - what will the main heroine choose?

As for the moral message of the anime, the raised issues, perhaps the problems of "humanization" and "dehumanization" are considered superficially in the Rakuen Tsuihou, but clearly deeper and more insightful than in other works with a similar theme. Even in a seemingly "ideal world" where there can be no problems with food, housing, money and other material goods, people still found something to envy and on that basis to destroy other people ("archive" them). It shows a great deal of a fundamental, incorrigible flaw in human nature ("original sin", as Christianity calls it) - no matter how ideal society you build, how you'd avoid competition for resources, there will always be such a resource (anything - strength, power, money, popularity, health, beauty, intelligence, space, skin color, tall height, short, big breasts, small, long legs, short, virtual avatar, or allocated memory), which will cause envy, competition, conflicts and, ultimately, poverty (in relation to this resource), oppression and deprivation of life of the "unworthy". Neither world peace, nor communism, nor capitalism, nor "virtual heaven" will help - by virtue of human nature, all the same problems will flourish, and most likely, they will multiply the more the more they are denied...

Although this is not emphasized in the rather light narrative of the anime, "Rakuen Tsuihou" is a dystopia, where the "virtual heaven" became a hell ruled by self-proclaimed "gods" (in the form of which the elite of the pseudo-heaven is depicted) who established totalitarian control over the population of their world and turned it into slaves obsessed with competition for the resource of computing power. Correctly noticing the fatal flaw of humanity (original sin), the ineradicable incompleteness of human existence, the screenwriter, unfortunately, draws false conclusions from this, placing his hopes on artificial intelligence as a kind of perfect "child of humanity". However, for a non-Christian, the screenwriter is already perspicacious enough and unable to go further, except for creating an idol, but no longer from a man, but from an "intelligent" machine. To a Christian it should be clear that the only solution to the problem of mimetic desire, to use the terminology of Rene Girard, or original sin, is to look not to another person or object (idols), but to the one whose resources are not limited, like Him himself, to the one who possesses the fullness of being - to God. But, again, one cannot demand such philosophical and theological depth from Japanese anime. What is already depicted does not cause intellectual rejection and does not sin against common sense (except for the idealization of AI, of course).

There are a couple of plot flaws, such as why it was necessary to go to battle, if it was possible to simply hack and turn off the enemy's machines (here logic suffers for the sake of entertainment), or what feelings digitized "people" may have if organs of these senses (not gauges of abstract units) are missing? I'm not even talking about ignoring the problem of copying (not sending "consciousness" - but in this case all "humanization" of digitized "people" and empathy for the heroine would have disappear because of her countless copies) and interference in the "consciousness" of virtual "people". Ultimately, I believe, all "consciousnesses" would be "hacked" and "dehumanized" by the ruling elite to the level of machines, obedient performers - for the sake of the "common good", of course, the eradication of deviations and so on, but in fact - because it would be easier to rule and there would be no obstacles to this, like physical bodies. Or most likely the elite would begin to self-copy uncontrollably, gathering all the computing power for their copies and cutting out the rest of the "programs" so that they would not take up space until "there will be only one left" with an army of controlled copies. But in that case, there would be no one to make this anime about, which, for its atypical for Japanese thinking, pleasant, adequate characters and rationality.

This is really the first "10" I've given anything, moreover, its' the first anime I've seen, out of many, that deserves it. This feature is simply beautifully animated and produced. The two main characters, Angela and Dingo, are attractive and engaging, having personalities that have been carefully crafted to be quintessentially human. The fact that Angela is as beautiful and sexy as she is, with an astonishingly provocative body, is almost out of place here, since it is the only truly erotic thing that there is in the movie; but the way the creators handle that is just to leave her be, this evocative beauty working her way through an otherwise barren and post-apocalyptic world. I suppose they did that to keep reminding us of the "perfect" world she comes from, and that she is truly out of place here in the far more sublime and tawdry Earth environment. The "real world" and its current state is the reason that whoever created Deva, a digitized, computerized virtual reality in which 98 % of the world population now "lives" - or whatever verb you wish to use to characterize that existence.

There is a real story here, with some philosophical inputs as to what it means to be human. It seems that the Deva people believe a world without any hardship or struggle, and where you can have almost anything you want - providing you have earned enough memory - is the ultimate lifestyle. Dingo, of course, Angela's Earthbound guide, has different ideas about what it means to be free and human, which provides some thought-provoking interest. We are reminded by this comely, savvy Earth man that such ancient types as Hitler, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and Attila the Hun were people who had similar motives to the administrators of Deva!

The story moves along quite briskly, with some satisfying action here and there, but mainly it is a contrast in the two lifestyles, the computerized one Angela comes from, and Dingo's Earth reality. The two of them eventually come up against Deva's totalitarian rules for existence, and Angela comes to wonder whether her Deva reality is the ideal existence she believed; ultimately the two of them have to battle Deva's forces to maintain any life at all, while the Deva big-shots would be happiest if the two Earthbound people, and every free-thinking person like them, were eliminated altogether to protect their "utopia."

Overall, this is a satisfying epic, with decent story, superb animation, which includes simply beautiful backgrounds and characters, and a mindful nod as to what the true value of being a human actually is. It is entertaining and satisfying to watch over and over again.

First, the animation is undisputed as a masterpiece, it's a combination of hand drawing and 3D modeling, and the music is one of the best of all anime. Gen Urobuchi did a perfect on writing the plot, even though it's completely different from his original style, you will understand if you watched any of his other works. The story is more emotional and more meaningful than any of you had thought. It has multiple themes, and the most protruding one is about freedom. What's the true freedom? Is it the approach of physical freedom release from pain and death? Or is it social freedom, where people get to keep their individuality? In the story, DEVA was illustrated as a utopian, but it's not. There's no privacy, the government gets to know everything that you're doing, and everyone is forced to follow the order and decision from the authority figures. Disobedience could end in ephemeral isolation, where death isn't an option.

Normally, I will give it a 9, but it's rating is too low for me to do so.

Good watch, will likely watch again, and can recommend for anime fans that don't mind some fan service.

This is a great, Matrix like premise for a story, but let's the get the obvious stuff out of the way: yes, her outfit is ridiculous, and while the idea that they can grow clones and harvest them prematurely, it was a very unnecessary that her body be the equivalent of 16 years of age, I'd even go as far as to argue that it would be detrimental if all the hormones and everything are balanced naturally.

THAT aside, I love the concepts that are used in this: the technological aspects of digitizing humans, having A.I.: the moral philosophical quandries it presents about freedom, society, and fixed resources.

The biggest problem is part of the premise, the entire time the characters are floundering for position in this discussion of dealing with each others' cultures so you never really feel like you're completely on anyone's side. That shifts a little in the 3rd act, but no by much.

But if you like action: robots, gunfire, explosions, and / or cool sci-fi stuff, this anime has it.

With Earth now left in ruins following the "Nano Hazard," most of humanity has abandoned the planet they once called home along with their physical bodies and rebuilt their digitalized minds into a society within the cyber universe of "DEVA." A. D. 2400, DEVA's central council detects an incident of unauthorized access into their mainframe. Someone on Earth was trying to hack into the system. The only information DEVA was able to retrieve was that the hacker referred to themselves as "Frontier Setter." To investigate the mysterious hacker's motives, the high officials of DEVA dispatch System Security Third Officer Angela Balzac to the Earth's surface. Equipped with a prosthetic "material body," Angela attempts to make contact with a local agent Dingo, but what awaited her instead was a swarm of Sandworms now infesting the Earth's surface. Angela intercepts the gruesome pests with her exoskeletal powered suit Arhan. Will Angela and Dingo be able to find Frontier Setter on this devastated planet? Their journey to explore the secrets of the world will begin now...!

This was definitely a good Sci-Fi anime film.