Rakuen Tsuihou

Name: Rakuen Tsuihou
Genre: Sci-Fi
Released: 2014-11-15T00:00:00+00:00
Rating: 7.3

Expelled from Paradise

楽園追放 -Expelled from Paradise-

7.3(47,293)

Rank#3025

#2191

Movie1 ep.Finished Airing1 hr 43 min

In a future where a massive disaster has devastated Earth, most of humanity has abandoned their physical bodies and relocated in digital form to DEVA, an advanced space station orbiting the ravaged planet. Free from the limitations of traditional existence, such as death and hunger, the inhabitants of this virtual reality reside in relative peace until Frontier Setter, a skilled hacker, infiltrates the system and spreads subversive messages to the populace. Labeled a threat to security by authorities, Frontier Setter is pursued by Angela Balzac, a dedicated member of DEVA's law enforcement. When the hacker's signal is traced to Earth, Angela takes on physical form, transferring her consciousness to a clone body and traveling to the world below in order to deal with the menace. On Earth, she is assisted by Dingo, a charismatic agent, and during her journey to uncover the mystery behind Frontier Setter, she gradually discovers startling realities about the wasteland some of humanity still refers to as home, as well as the paradise above. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Reviews(20)

gwern

August 4, 2015

Recommended

_Trigun_ meets _Ghost in the Shell_ when a transhumanist space society dispatches a special agent to the post-apocalyptic desert Earth to locate and deal with a hacker that keeps annoying their citizens with a broadcast about space colonization. The agent discovers life as a computer upload leaves her unequipped to deal with the drawbacks of flesh but eventually she and her partner find the hacker and discover his true mission. The first plot twist I did not expect, and while the second was immediately predictable from the first, it was still fun to watch play out. Much better than expected; the fanservice is more limited thanfeared, the end sequence with the mecha battle is one of the funner mecha battles I've seen in a while, and it's hard to not like a story in which the 'evil AI' wins and the film's critique of a transhumanist society actually makes sense and is valid (rather than being one of the endlessly predictable tropes along the lines of "Caveman Science Fiction" http://dresdencodak.com/2009/09/22/caveman-science-fiction/ ). And it's not at all a downer like one might expect from a project involving Urobuchi Gen, rather it's a fairly uplifting classic SF space tale which reminded be a bit of _Wings of Honneamise_ and more recently, _Gravity_ or _The Martian_. It also ties into the Fermi Paradox in an interesting way. Deva government's actions makes sense in terms of control: limiting resources limits the number of free agents and potential random events, as does letting Earth continue to disintegrate. This resource scarcity, controlled by an apparently absolutely totalitarian government, produces predictably pernicious social dynamics and destroys Deva's claims to superiority in any way but brute force. Resource scarcity also predictably explains why Frontier Setter is an existential threat and they cannot simply peacefully negotiate a deal like 'starship supplies in exchange for a full security audit of the Deva computer security' - since, as an autonomous AI which can indefinitely reproduce itself, it will spread exponentially through the galaxy within a million years, gaining resources beyond calculation, not to mention possible encounters with aliens (which might lead to backlash onto the origin, Earth). Logically, to maintain its security, Deva must either destroy Frontier Setter and also ensure that no such escape is possible ever again, or embark on its own exploration/colonization program. From this perspective, _Expelled from Paradise_ is offering a refutation of possibly the most common 'explanation' for the Fermi paradox: many alien civilizations exist, but all of them are, independently, too lazy/oppressive/uninterested in space colonization. Unfortunately, this explanation is totally innumerate and implausible: it requires only one expansionist entity, not necessarily even a plurality of a particular civilization (possibly even a single idiosyncratic AI, depending on how intelligent it is and how many resources it can accumulate), to kick off colonization, and if it's implausible that more than a single-digit number of civilizations would decide this, it's even more implausible that this failure to colonize would be successfully maintained over possibly millions of years (no biological or computer system has ever had that kind of track record!). The ending is a bit unconvincing, since Dingo's political/resource concern is addressed by colonization (they can create many Devas in neighboring solar systems) and there's no particular reason for Angela to choose to be trapped on one planet rather than have the opportunity to explore many (especially since she would maintain her high-tech upload lifestyle in between solar systems). Flawed elements here would include the CGI (good overall but what we see the most of is hair, particularly Angela's, which looks atrocious; it doesn't have to be _Frozen_ or _Brave_ levels of hair rendering but it should at least not look 'chunky' and much worse than the rest of the animation), an unfortunate reliance on some anime tropes (Angela's appearance/character-design is standard somewhat-loli twin-tail tsundere/princess fanservice & archetype, which while not nearly as excessive as I feared from the promotional materials, still unfortunately will limit its appeal outside the usual anime demographics, and does a disservice to the character and also to Kugumiya Rie, who presumably is talented enough to voice a less common archetype), and a general absence of world-building (while often gorgeous, surely the *whole planet* can't be empty desert, deserted city ruins, and one town?). The music is decent but unlike some of the other reviewers, the core song didn't work for me.

lawlmartz

May 9, 2016

Mixed Feelings

In an idealized version of The Matrix world- humanity lives in a state of blissful ignorance of the physical. Technology has advanced to such a point where the collective consciousness of humanity has been placed onto a space station orbiting the ruined Earth, after a destructive event renders most of it uninhabitable and desolate. Adults and children alike's DNA was examined and coded into a virtual world known as Deva- where they are immortal, suffer from no maladies, no war, no hunger- a true paradise with only their imagination restraining the infinite capabilities for the cyberized denizens. This paradise is not alone, however. Humans stillexist on the Earth- those left behind who did not have the ability or means to have their consciousness transported offworld. Being completely reliant on an in-universe version of the internet and computing abilities, Deva is then vulnerable to cyber attacks- which comes in the form of a strange request from one calling themselves the Frontier Setter- seeking humans to travel to the far reaches of the solar system in order to find a new home for humanity, leaving their digital paradise behind. Security agent Angela Ballzac (yes, someone had the bright idea to name a character ballsack... how this passed and made it into the movie is beyond me) is tasked with discovering the identity of this hacker, and is sent to Earth in a newly cloned human body with her consciousness. She meets up with Dingo, a suave, roguish man who also works with the security agency and together they find out that the "threat" posed by Frontier Setter is not exactly what it was made out to be. The story itself borrows heavily from the aforementioned Matrix movies, and with a healthy dose of Gen Urobuchi's flavor of existentialism- focusing on what really makes a human human in a world where AI can achieve sentience and a consciousness can be transformed into data. Like the Matrix, it also examines the question of whether humanity is really happy in an heavily regulated, artificial world of their construction, versus being in control of their own destiny in a world full of harsh realities, inequalities, and threats to continued existence. This idea is present throughout the story, and while there's not enough runtime to really flesh it out a lot aside from some comments and mentions, it does at least raise some interesting thoughts. Ultimately though, the plot really has no central antagonist and no one to really support or get into their struggle- it's almost purely an action fest with hints of a deeper thread that never thicken. The characters themselves, Angela and Dingo are fairly interesting, if a bit underdeveloped. Dingo is your Han Solo type rogue character who plays by his own rules but always gets the job done, and Angela is a bit of a spoiled brat who has to learn how the other half lives. As a trained security agent, she has experience with all manner of technology and weapons- including the use of large mechs. Interestingly enough for how stripperific her outfit is, Angela isn't overly sexualized (this even lampshaded with one of Dingo's comments), nor is she sidelined for being a female MC- which was refreshing. She wasn't turned into waifu bait and set aside for the other characters to run over, but instead takes an active role in the action and plot. Angela and Dingo have decent chemistry as characters, but thankfully there's no terrible tacked on romance to ruin anything the viewer might imagine between them. An an auditory note- Steve Blum is fantastic as Dingo, and Wendee Lee is at her best here as Angela- both veterans gave excellent performances. The animation itself is probably the best Toei has ever done, and maybe ever will do. It makes heavy use of 3D, but the framerate stays above that necessary 20fps for about 95% of the time, with just a handful of noticeable dips below. Not visually stunning as a film, but given Toei's track record with visual aesthetic... this ranks among their best! In conclusion, Expelled From Paradise has a few big ideas in it that are borrowed from series like The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell, but doesn't capitalize on them in the same way- they're merely ideas tossed out in breaks in the action, which is Paradise's second biggest flaw aside from not having a real antagonist. As far as being a shallow action flick, one can certainly do worse, but then again, there are better out there.

golila-3

November 18, 2014

Recommended

Rakuen Tsuihou: Expelled From Paradise, is Gen Urobuctcher's (sorry, couldn't resist the bad jokes) new original animated film that explores the meaning of humanity and personal reality. The movie offers a few interesting twists and introduces some extremely intriguing ideas about sci-fi and humanity itself. This movie is about our cute female protagonist, Balzac Angela (voiced by Kugimiya Rie so end of review, 10/10 :P ) sent from Deva, a new world created based on data after a certain apocalypse in earth that turned the whole world into a never-ending desert (portrayed as the wild west), to stop a certain someone or something who wasrecently hacking into the Deva system to convey a certain message that contradict's Deva's values. Angela, along with our male protagonist "dandyman" Zarik Kajiwara, sets on a mission that will redefine the many things that She was taught on the Deva. Story : 7/10 As explained earlier, the story tries to explore many different themes and tries to convey them in many different ways; however, the story is not extremely smooth and well told mainly because nothing in the movie was explored well enough. Character ： 7/10 Much like the story, simply underdeveloped. There was pretty much only 3 in the movie characters and none of them were extremely well developed, but being underdeveloped does not mean they are boring characters. All of these characters have a very lovable personality and these personalities are well portrayed through their actions. Regarding the 3DCG, I actually think it contributes to the storytelling extremely well mostly due to the story partially being the exploration of the difference between a digital reality and a traditional human being. Sound : 9/10 The Soundtracks are very well developed, playful, and fits the situation very well. The voice actor/actresses fit the roles extremely well and the ending song is also great. PS: don't skip the ending. Enjoy the song a little and wait for a tiny cute and heartwarming treat at the end :) Art : 9/10 The whole film is made in “3D" modeled animation. Like a refined version of (RWBY) It was well made so it was not too distracting most of the times. Some of the scenes had awesome cinematography and some other scenes are extremely well drawn. Also, the fighting scenes are extremely entertaining and contains some great CGI Enjoyment ：8/10 The way this story is told could get boring at times, but some of the really lovable characters and original ideas from the anime can really bring the audiences back. Again, great cinematography and mech fight scenes. Overall : 8/10 Only if the story and characters were more developed. Everything else could be better, but they were already quite nice. I would definitely suggest this movie to anyone who is looking for something a bit different and doesn't hate the 3D animation. Final words： I really like this animated film a lot, and it has a 10/10 on my personal ratings because some parts of it really does deserve that score. Sadly, there are too many things in the anime that prevents me from doing so in a formal review.

SanaeK10

December 20, 2014

Not Recommended

This was a travesty. An absolute insult to any mecha fan or Urobutcher fan. It's hard to believe great talent, be it writing or VA or w/e, were all roped in for this mess. All at a high budget too. Lets begin with our main heroine, Balzac, whose name is hilarious, has no redeeming features beyond her stupid funny name. She is the embodiment of every cliched terrible tsundere character rolled in and condensed into one terrible package of fanservice. She is unlikeable, she makes poor and questionable decisions, and she barely contributes to the plot, of which there is very little of. She whines somuch in this I wished that somehow, in Butcher tradition, shed be silenced in one way or another (It didn't happen). She's nothing but a useless fanservice girl. Alongside Balzac is generic bounty hunter secondary protagonist guy, who've you've also seen a thousand times before. He's the epitome of genericness, he knows what's right, and serves as one of the competent members of the group who does stuff properly at least. And lastly is Claptrap, who's there to prove his existence to the world or something. Claptrap is easily one of the less horrible characters in this (alongside that dealer person I like somehow). Heck, that one exposition scene with him is one of the only ones I liked. Plot wise this whole farce is barebones to its core. In the beginning, with the help or closeups of Balzac's tits and arse, the film seems to hint at something more than just a typical Hur-Dur authority is evil Hur-Dur kind of movie. It isn't. It is as generic as generic can get. If anything the biggest plot twist in this is how obvious the plot twist is as that authoritarian totalitarian entity turns out to be , surprise, not as benevolent as previously thought! And for a mecha anime, there really isn't much in mecha action, hell, less than 30 minutes in and the mecha is sold for christ sakes. I used the term "anime" throughout very lightly. Most of the film's character models are terrible 3D cell-shaded models that greatly resemble MMD stuff. They greatly feel out of place amongst the (I must admit) very well done backgrounds, and amongst the 2D extras. Animation wise, the 3D character models also seem to operate at a different framerate from the rest of the backgrounds. I dunno a good way to describe it, but it feels out of place. If anything it feels like a video game at times. A pretty video game I give it that. The fight scenes, few as they are , are terribly done. While on paper they seem pretty decent, a high budget mecha on mecha action kinda thing, most of the action scenes are messily edited, with unnecessary closeups that detract from the main fight. Also every few minutes, the fight deviates to give us a closeup of Balzac's tits and arse and her screaming. The fights aren't particularly clever either, most of them are just your standard fare, no planning or strategy here, just brute force mostly. Overall, a better way of spending your time in a similar manner would be to load up MMD and mess around with it for an hour or so. Because hey, you'd get more enjoyment out of that than this. (Speaking of MMD, all the female character models feel like they're lifted from vocaloid). 2/10 Fun fact : this film can't even be used to play butcher bingo properly. It only has like 4 out of 25 squares.

Holokai

May 9, 2015

Recommended

I thoroughly enjoyed Rakuen Tsuihou, as well as Gen Urobuchi's other works, namely Psycho-Pass, Madoka, and Gargantia. As an introductory aside, I want to start by strongly disagreeing with people who highlight Urobuchi's tendency to kill off character ("the Urobutcher") or his aptitude for plot twists as his main appeal. They are not. What draws me -- and I believe many other viewers -- to Urobuchi's works is their philosophical undercurrents; everything in his films and shows touch upon some aspect of society, humanity, or morality, and the story is often a sidekick (although an exciting one). For example, Psycho-Pass is focused on the impact onhaving a benevolent, all-knowing, but tyrannical autocracy on society; while Gargantia revolves around reflections of a soldier faced with peace and prosperity, and learning to throw away his inculcated beliefs. With that said, I think Rakuen Tsuihou's main appeal is along the same lines. There are no real plot twists in this movie, besides perhaps the identity of Frontier Settler itself (for the longest time I expected this nefarious hacker to be some evil genius or something). Everything generally works out the way you expect, and I think it's fair to say that most of us know, going in, that Angela won't stay with Deva for long. But this movie is not about some futuristic sci-fi world of people living in virtual reality; sure, that's the backdrop, but that's not what it's really about. It's main focus is on the dichotomy of Angela and Dingo, and the two societies they represent. This is a dichotomy that exists in today's world just as much as it does in the world of the movie. These two societies might not be spatially segregated as in the movie, but we still have it: the increasing disparity of the haves and have-nots. Every commentary on this issue in today's society talks about it as if it's a problem to be solved, as if there are only negatives. We live in the world where ambition and the drive to succeed are unconditionally praised, even when that drive leaves us with no time for relaxing or pleasure or trying to truly learn what we are meant to do. I see Rakuen Tsuihou as a commentary on this, and while Angela doesn't exactly do the best job of defending her "high-society" ambitions, I think the movie as a whole does a great job illustrating how this sort of all-consuming career ambition can leave us blind to the true pleasures of life.