[Kaoru Chujo]

Having watched this episode three times now, I am coming to like it more, especially for helping us understand what Hirasawa and the others are really getting at.

Japanese working life is unfair and onerous, it appears to me, particularly in companies. I've had it explained to me that in certain jobs, you spend the whole day sucking up to customers and potential customers, then go back to the office at five and spend three hours doing the actual paperwork. Some nights, you go out drinking with your boss and coworkers after that. Bosses can be quite inconsiderate, bossy, and proud. And you can't get out of social events connected with work, of which there are many. You are more or less imprisoned with your workmates for forty years, until you are forced to retire. And if you don't voluntarily enter this hell, you are a weirdo to be shunned, a NEET, a hikikomori, a freeter.

Eden is dedicated to finding a way out of this, to reorganizing Japanese society to be freer and more respectful of difference. I noted that when we first saw the hallway with the name of the Eden of the East club by a door, the name had been written over a previous club's name: "Eastern Revolutionary League." Maybe that was Hirasawa's previous club.

Like many Production IG shows, the emotions in this show are kind of restrained. And points aren't made that with that much emphasis, so it takes time for them to actually touch my emotions.

The romance between Saki and Akira is also being held back for a while. She decided not to stay with him that night. We are still not sure how much comfort and how much love there was in that kiss. But when he asks her if she really wants to know why he invited her to stay, the implication for me was that he was going to say it was because he likes her, as well as feeling sympathy for her position.

We were wondering earlier if Saki was a NEET: she is now, and proud of it. She may be timid, but she is also, almost despite herself, bold and fruitful: she went off to DC on her own, she figured out how to make the club actually work, she was kind to naked Akira, she followed him to Japan and the boat and the mall, she refused to work for a company she thought was going to exploit her. I know a couple of apparently timid women who would do stuff like that.

I couldn't help enjoying Akira and Micchan's little playtime out in the courtyard, but it was odd that Micchan was portrayed as if she was about four, even though she is actually 21.