Review of Time of Eve

Time of Eve is a ONA series consisting barely 6 episodes, each of around 15 mins, with the exception of the finale being 30 mins in length. It was adapted from the movie of the same name and has a couple of extra scenes as compared to the movie. This is the review of only the ONA and not the movie, which I have never watched. The story takes place on earth in a future wherein robots have become a common feature in everyday household. They are used primarily as maids or servants of the house and do menial jobs like shopping and cooking. The storyalso examines the increasingly blurring lines between a robot and a human, and the mental health of people especially teenagers who fail to make the demarcation. Despite all of these the main story is a more of a character study of the main guys Rikuo and Masaki. The plot follows the change in lives of two boys when they stumble upon a cafe which doesn't differentiate between a human and a robot; wherein the robot of Rikuo named Sammy is a regular customer. They interact with various customers who are present in the cafe during their frequent visits and learn what it means to be a human.

As for any character centric story the most important part of the story are the characters themselves, and this story had no shortage of well written and colorful characters. The main characters, Sammy, the barista, the lovers, the grandpa and his grand kid, all had their own difficulties and stories which defined who they were as a characters. Each episode focused on the couple of MC interacting with the different characters in MC. Through these conversations they discovered how little separated humans from robots; how the robots too wanted a life of adventure and opportunities just like humans had. Each character was written carefully and with utmost precision with their own quirks and such which made it difficult to tell them apart (between humans and robots). The writers took extra care of it as they did not let laziness affect their work, i.e, even the robot characters were written smartly, unlike in usual circumstances wherein all the robots are usually written as the same guys with slight variation in their personalities. The progress of both the characters was pretty good. Another thing I liked was the fact that the attitude of both MC towards the robots was different, by that I mean not only was their initial thoughts different, but the path that their progress took was also different in case of each MC, even if end destination was the same. Rikuo since the start was a bit more open minded and sympathetic towards the robot and throughout the story he bit by bit accepted the robots as similar creatures to humans. While Masaki was staunch believer in clear demarcation between robots and humans, but an major episode in his life at the end forced him to rethink his beliefs. Therein I felt writers did a tremendous job in writing each of MC and made them unique as well as fascinating people which emulated real life humans. The only reason I didn't give 10 to characters was because I felt 6 episodes, that too clocking only 15 mins each was a bit too short a time to develop them more; albeit given the time frame I do not suspect anyone else could have done a better job.

The art and animation were nothing extra ordinary but by no means were they were bad. To say that they were good but nothing great would be the perfect way to describe it. The art was elegant and simple, I would say it was graceful. There was quite a lot of use of CG, I am not familiar with the other works of the director but the CG never felt out of place. I often find fans complaining about the CG, though with this one the CG felt right at home and blended pretty well with the overall environment. The sound and overall music too was good with nothing much too complain about. The tune which preceded the opening made me feel like I was going on a happy and exciting journey and this anime made me feel just that.

One other thing that I feel most anime don't ay attention to are the dialogues. Despite anime being around for quite some time now, I always feel that most of them have terrible dialogues. Most anime focus on the MC sprouting cool lines rather than them having conversations, both ordinary everyday one and the occasion meaningful one. The ordinary conversations are lost in the manzai humor and the meaningful ones are lost in saying nonsensical and cliched cool lines. Though, I was glad that this wasn't such an anime. The dialogues were internal and essential part of the anime; which also helped in the character development and the overall progress of the story. The dialogues just like characters were well thought of. The dialogues contained both the fun bit and also serious discussion on a topic which might become an issue in real life in the foreseeable future. They were thought provoking and were easy to get into at same time, meaning they weren't cumbersome and weren't too full of philosophy which makes dialogues irritating. The dialogues were in tone with the rest of the show. The voice actors have done a good job in modulating their voice between that of robots in the cafe and in their everyday life outside of it, which made the premise more believable and engaging.

So, overall this is pretty charming anime series with a thought provoking theme. The idea that love knows no boundaries was conveyed pretty well. The only reason why this anime doesn't get a 10 is because I felt that it had lot of strings which weren't tied as well as I hoped it would; the entire reason for this would be that it was only 6 episodes long. Though don't let that be any reason for not watching this anime, for it doesn't prevent the anime from shining. For all SOL anime fans this one is a must watch.

Enjoy!!!