Time of Eve | Eve no Jikan Gekijoub Review

I recently watched Time of Eve and thought it would be perfect for my first review on here! Exciting isn't it? Alright Time of Eve takes place a couple years into the future. Androids have become a common thing for most families. While everyone has an android, it is not treated like a person. Rather like a machine. In the movie, which is based originally off an OVA series, we find that a cafe exists where robots and humans may interact without any prejudice. It is against the rules to mention whether someone is human or android. It is in this cafe that the majority of the movie takes place.

Most would think that an anime that takes place in a cramped up cafe would result in a boring and uninteresting movie. Well for some it might. I don't see any Hentai fans lining up to see this. The movie keeps it clean to focus on the main dilemma. While being very serious the movie frequently lightens the mood with some rather well done comedy. One such event is when an old outdated houseroid, or an android that doesn't look human, enters the cafe trying to act human and everyone has to play along and try and convince it that they think he's human. This had me laughing rather hard. So the movie keeps the plot flowing at a decent pace without making you fall asleep.

The plot as I said before was well done. Several times in the movie you get glimpses of future events or past events that hint about a certain character. The way the world is originally presented to you helps with this. Your first introduction is to the androids is as this boring emotionless machine that looks completely human aside from a floating ring above their heads. However, in the cafe the line between human and android is completely blurred and the movie does well to keep you guessing.

The animation wasn't all too bad. Quite good in some instances. The lighting and settings made it feel like it was in the future, while still retaining a modern feel. The direction of animation was really nice. The framing of scenes was well thought out and they did a great job of doing quick cuts to fill in details without confusing the viewer. Very similar to movies like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Sometimes the movie would do this strange blur/slow motion thing when the view would pan around. It was definitely put there on purpose, but I could have done without it. It made it feel like the directors were trying to cut down on time animating so skimped a bit.

The musical score was matched very well to the tone of the movie. This was one of my favorite parts of the movie, the music. It kept it feeling lighthearted even during the intense serious scenes.

Now enough about the aesthetics. Time of Eve has some great philosophical points. Ones in fact, that are very similar to those presented in Ghost in the Shell. It focuses on how the line between man and machine will one day, become blurred and what is it that defines a human. The only difference between Time of Eve and Ghost in the Shell is that in Time you're left guessing who's what, while G.I.T.S. still leaves it open as to who's a human and who is an AI.

While Ghost in the Shell had some similarities, the movie also appeared to have pulled from a couple other sources, such as Blade Runner and iRobot. Blade Runner was actually mentioned in the movie when a regular at the cafe is being stared at and he says, "What do you want of me Blade Runner?" He's making a reference to the movie in that blade runners are people who hunted down replicants, or fake humans.

iRobot wasn't actually mentioned in the movie but it seemed rather obvious that it was pulling from it. This is because of the 3 robot laws: Do not harm humans, Obey all human commands, and a robot must protect it's existence so long as it doesn't interfere with the first two laws.
Edit: iRobot was not the first to do the robot laws. The movie "Bicentennial Man" has the exact same laws, and that movie came out in 1999 (A good 5 years before I, robot).

I would definately recommend this movie to any fans of robots, cyberpunk, and futuristic themes. Even if you're not a fan of those things, it's worth checking out. The animation, script, music and themes are really well placed together and Time of Eve pulls it off nicely.

Overall I would give Time of Eve an 8 out of 10