Rakuen Tsuiho: Expelled from Paradise

It was pretty good. The animation is spectacular, almost too spectacular. There were times I thought I might have a seizure, but it was still dazzling. The first part of the story is fairly conventional: sharp, focused woman is paired with lazy, uncommitted slacker. (Think "True Grit" or "A Few Good Men" or "The Princess and the Frog" or "Trading Places" or "Flushed Away" or "Zootopia".) Essentially, she leaves The Matrix in order to combat a threat in the real world. The mystery part of the movie wasn't terribly interesting, but it got better when the two main characters stop racing around long enough to discuss their different worlds. The film concludes with a huge, action sequence, but there isn't much tension since there is no element of "How are they going to pull this off?" They're going to pull it off by having tons more firepower. It was an entertaining film, but not terribly original.

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.

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.

I went into this movie thinking it would just be a cool action movie with nice animation, and too be honest, that is what it is. The movie centers around Angela Balzac, as she is sent down to an now apocalyptic Earth to track a hacker, where the remaining humans try to live their lives. This movie provides a good story of 1h 40mins which you will enjoy, but not think about too much after that.

The movie tries to question whether robot could essentially act and be human, however, it never quite succeeds at that, so going into this movie, don't expect it to have deep questions. Instead enjoy the cool action and interesting animation that is displayed. Overall, I thought this movie was fine, nothing too bad, nothing too great, but I wouldn't mind a sequel to it.

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.