So instead of doing work and studying, like I should, I'm going to rant about this amazing anime series, Time of Eve, instead. Links are on the bottom if you want to skip my babbling.

It's a pretty short series, consisting of only 6 episodes. It's produced by Studio Rikka and directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura. He also directed Pale Cocoon and Aquatic Language, which I also recommend (links on the bottom).

Anyway, back to Time of Eve. It takes place in the far future (probably Japan, as the opening sequence states), where robots and androids have long been in use. The main character, Rikuo, discovers that his house android has been going somewhere on her own. When he and his friend Masaki investigate, they find a cafe called Time of Eve. The rules of the cafe are simple: no discrimination between humans and robots. In this series, androids have a status ring hovering over their heads, identifying them as a robot. While in this cafe, one cannot tell whether the person they are talking to is human or a robot since the androids have to turn off their ring to observe the cafe's rule.

This series really investigates some pretty deep questions about humans and robots. Can robots have independent thoughts or emotions? Are they capable of love? Should a human treat their incredibly human-like android like a machine or like a human? Are relationships between humans and machines good or detrimental? And where should we draw the line?

But it's not all just philosophical technobabble that makes your brain hurt. It's also a really entertaining series. The characters have a great deal of depth, even though they only have 6 short episodes to develop, it's beautifully animated, and the storyline is incredibly interesting and thought-provoking. My only complaint is that it's too short. The last episode's open-ended, and they called these episodes the "first season," so hopefully there'll be a second one.

I remember starting this series towards the end of fall semester last year. I had a writing seminar exploring the idea of self/humanity through anime, and my professor recommended this to us. Instant love. There were month-long gaps between episodes, since the animation studio's fairly small, but it was worth the wait. You won't have to go through that, at least until you finish this series and want to wait for the second season to start.

You can watch all the Time of Eve episodes online here.

Pale Cocoon, another work by the same director, can be found here. It's a 23-minute OVA that I also highly recommend. It can be a bit depressing, depending on how you interpret the ending, but it's also amazing.

Aquatic Language can be seen here subbed and here dubbed. Normally, I wouldn't even bother with the English dubs, but I find the dub hilarious. It's only 9 minutes long, so it's worth a look.