Around 1995, Japanese animation (anime) began pouring into North America, Europe and across the globe in video form. Most of these titles were unknown outside of Japan and never covered by animation journals. Whether a title is highly popular or very obscure, a high quality theatrical feature or a cheap and unimaginative direct-to-video release, they all look the same on a store shelf. Therefore, Animation World Magazine will regularly review several new releases (including re-releases not previously covered) that have merit.

Eden’s Bowy offers a lot of fast-paced action, but is short on a story that makes sense.

Eden’s Bowy. V.1, The Hunt is On. V.2, Hot Pursuit. V.3, Nowhere to Run. V.4, Fallen Angels and Flower Towns. V.5, Eden’s War. V.6, Eden’s Fall.
TV series (26 episodes), 1999. Director: Tsukasa Sunaga. V.1-2, five episodes/125 minutes; V.3-5, four episodes/100 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $29.98. Distributor: A.D.V. Films.

“What the heck is going on?” cries Yorn, the protagonist, toward the end of this young adult (recommended 12+) adventure serial. Starting in the midst of a dramatic mystery is fine, but the viewer expects small explanations and clues to gradually clarify what is going on. By the next to last DVD, the overall picture is more frustratingly confusing than ever.

Eden’s Bowy (is the obvious misspelling of “boy” just to look exotic, or does it have a plot justification?), is a 26-episode TV series (April 6 — September 28, 1999; animated by Studio Deen) that looks like an exercise in throwing in as many contrasting elements as possible. It switches without warning from somber drama to action battles to tender romance to slapstick comedy; from realistic character art to “super deformed” exaggerated cuteness; from a stereotypical heroic fantasy setting (sword-swinging warriors battling demons) to an apparent American teen high school locale with 1950s cars and pop music to 1970s Central European (Budapest? Bucharest?) street scenes; from magic & fantasy to technology & sci-fi.

When a white panther speaks to the questers hunting her, everyone is amazed (“The cat — she talks!”); but when, shortly after, they meet a human who really stands out with cat ears, fur and a tail, nobody acts as though they notice anything unusual. As the oddities keep piling up, the viewer must trust that there will be an eventual explanation for the inconsistencies, although it looks increasingly like just carelessness (as in this Americanization which has different spellings for names in the subtitles and the DVD liner notes: Fennis/Fenice, Yulgaha/Eurgoha, Yanuess/Yanueas, Rumesavia/Romezaviaa).

The setting is not original: an impoverished world with a giant floating continent-island, Eden, drifting across the sky. Practically all peasants and peons dream of earning the privilege of being taken up to this temporal paradise where the elite aristocracy lives. But some prefer a humble but free life on earth. There is a legend that ages ago, when a God became tyrannical, a human with a magic sword appeared to kill him. Since then, a “God Hunter” is occasionally born with an instinctual compulsion to kill any God (or Goddess) he meets. Eden is dominated by Yulgaha, a police-state theocracy, which is a rival of a mechanical flying city, Yanuess (a comically inept technocracy with robotic citizens). Both monitor the ground for the appearance of any new God Hunter; Yulgaha to kill him before he can kill their God, and Yanuess to capture him and “extract his quantum energy (life force)” to power a super-weapon.

When Yorn, a peasant boy about 13 years old, is revealed to be a nascent God Hunter, he suddenly becomes the bewildered target of hunters ranging from murderous robotic puppets to two genuinely funny buffoonish “secret agents” to soldiers in Eastern European uniforms to a rival God Hunter. Yorn is protected by two mysterious saviors; a cynical master swordsman known only as the Old Man (well, to a 13-year-old, anyone in his mid-20s is an old-timer) and Elissis, a sweet young girl that the most naive viewer will recognize as a God(dess) in disguise.

The fast-moving action, exotic locales and costumes, frequent exhibitionistic inconsistencies and young-puppy romantic interest between Yorn and Elissis show that Eden’s Bowy is clearly designed to hold the attention of young adolescents who may not care (or even notice) if not everything is explained at the conclusion. (Spoiler: almost nothing is.) But it does not offer much for more critical viewers.