Anime Club: Time of Eve

Hello everybody! For today’s anime club we have Time of Eve!
TIME OF EVE

CREATOR: Yasuhiro Yoshiura

GENRE: Science Fiction

NO. OF EPISODES: 6 OVA

YEAR: 2008-2009

COUNTRY: Japan

In the not-too-distant future, probably Japan, androids have come into common usage. Rikuo Sakisaka, who has taken robots for granted for his entire life, one day discovers that Sammy, his home android, has been acting independently and coming and going on her own. He finds a strange phrase recorded in her activity log, “Are you enjoying the Time of Eve?”. He, along with his friend Masakazu Masaki, traces Sammy’s movements and finds an unusual cafe, “The Time of Eve”. Nagi, the barista, informs them that the cafe’s main rule is to not discriminate between humans and androids. Within the cafe, androids do not display their status rings, and, when patrons depart, the door is automatically locked for two minutes to prevent someone from following them to discover their true nature.

The first few episodes involve conversations between Rikuo (usually accompanied by Masaki) and the cafe regulars: the bubbly Akiko, child Chie and her elderly guardian, the lovers Koji and Rina, and others. These conversations make frequent allusion to Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, often highlighting surprising interpretations of those laws, some of which form apparent loopholes. The overarching plot involves the beginnings of independence displayed by the androids, what they do with that independence within the bounds of the three laws, and what motivates them. Secondary plots involve the individual stories of each android the protagonists encounter in the cafe, and how they come to discover which patrons are androids and which are not.

Time of Eve is a very interesting anime in comparison to what I have reviewed in our past entries for our anime club. The series is incredibly short, a mere six episodes. The characters are actually all well done, which made it interesting to see their varying views on androids in todays society. It even touched on the Japaneses stand point on the three laws of Robotics, which I was actually quite surprised that they did. The series overall is a very philosophical analysis of how far society has come, so if you are interested in that, check it out.

My biggest issue with the series in its entirety is the length! They could have done so much more, from expanding on the characters to other plot lines that were alluded to by just increasing the length just a tad. There are only six episodes, so it makes for a short series to view. Some of the androids (sorry I mean people, I broke the first rule) needed to be fleshed out more, but they did as well as they could in six episodes. If you are looking for a short anime to watch (much like what I was looking for when I stumbled over Time of Eve) then this is perfect for you.

PROS:

•  Main character development.
• Interesting story.
• Philosophical analysis of society.

CONS:

•  Series length.
• Lack of minor character development.

SCORE: 8.0 / 10

If you have any suggestions for films/TV/Games/Music/Anime for me to review, drop me a comment!

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Brandon Stuhr

Who am I? Just some guy who decided to start writing on the Internet years ago and now operates his own brand and site. Owner/Operator of Modern Neon Media, I make all kinds of niche content to suit my interests at the time. DIY Enthusiast, Brewmaster extraordinaire, and avid freak for geek culture. Follow on my socials for a more “on” version of me.