In a sea of Moe, fanservice and violence it's nice that once in a while there is a great anime that comes out of left field with none of that and yet can be the most entertaining and enlighting stories of the year (or in this case two years). This time that anime is Time of Eve a story mostly set in a little out of the way cafe in Japan in the near future. A cafe that doesn't discriminate against humans, androids or robots and everyone is treated equally that cafe is called "The Time of Eve."

Streamed online by Crunchyroll here in the states Time of Eve is the first anime that I thought was good enough to purchase from an online store coming out to some $15 for the six episodes I think it's a pretty good bargain considering how good I thought this anime was. Sure I wish I had a handy retail DVD version but I'm happy with my downloads as well. This is definitely the future of anime I think.

Anyways back to Time of Eve, In the near future androids usually recognized by their glowing halos (status rings) are often seen as little more than house hold appliances but many are becoming more individualized and are testing the boundaries of Isaac Asimov's "three laws of Robotics. The main story revolves around the many patrons of the cafe "The Time of Eve" and their stories. The main protagonist Rikuo and his friend Masaki discover the cafe after following Rikuo's home android to the cafe they are introduced to the one rule of the cafe and that is that no one can discriminate between humans and androids.

They find the cafe rather odd since you don't know who is an android and who is a human as the status ring of the androids is turned off and the door automatically locks for two minutes when it shuts not allowing anyone to follow people back to their homes protecting their identities. The boys soon become regulars at the cafe listening to people's stories and becoming friends with the patrons of the cafe. It also shows Rikuo's maturing and growing to accept the androids including his as individuals with their own dreams and wants instead of seeing them only as tools.

Time of Eve has a deep and meaningful story and the animation is just spectacular looking it's not nearly as great as Makoto Shinkai's work like 5cm per Second but it is dang close. It just has to be seen to be enjoyed and it's a great way to break people into anime who might not enjoy the glits and glam of the more violent or fanservice rich stuff that is easy to find. Even though it says Time of Eve is a first season I don't know if there will be a second season I can hope and wish like everyone else because you know I'll be right there waiting to see it too.

Here is a trailer for the first act:

After watching several episodes of Time of Eve I was interested to see what other works Yasuhiro Yoshiura had worked on and found that there are two titles that he has made and while Aquatic Language is more like Time of Eve I just couldn't watch more than a couple minutes so I'll have to give it another try later on but the second title that he did was Pale Cocoon which for me was more interesting and enjoyable to watch

At first I didn't even think I would be able to find it since it hasn't been licensed by anyone and it was from 2006 but thank goodness Crunchyroll has them both so I was able to check it out finally. Pale Cocoon is a short story OVA about a couple of people working to recover lost data from a world that once was. They are pretty much the last people working on this recovery as many people have lost the will to find out what the world was like before it was destroyed by humans. Ura is the main character and he starts working on recovering a couple files one day to discover that they are a music video and a journal of a young lady talking about her journey to the moon to be part of a colony or some such junk.

Because of the two videos Ura decides to climb to the top of the industrial complex that they live and work in and leaves his friend behind to discover the truth. The truth that the people were actually living in a moon colony and that the Earth had returned to it's colorful former self of a Blue and Green planet.

I found it to be a rather touching and sincere story with a bit more meat to it than Time of Eve has. It gives you something more to ponder that is more timely (Earth environmental issues green house gases that sort of thing) than something more Scifi. Obviously I highly recommend checking it out on crunchyroll and you can find it here in addition to that you can check out this sort of trailer on YouTube as well.