ELISA -- EONIAN (イオニアン)

Several months ago, my anime buddy and I viewed a film called "Rakuen Tsuiho - Expelled From Paradise"（楽園追放）which my friend was touting as this wonderful mix of animation and CG. Released a couple of years ago, I couldn't understand the intricacies of the plot without having my friend explain it later over dinner but basically it followed the story of Angela, one of many cyber minds living on a space station, tasked with hunting down the rebel hacker Frontier Setter who is on a now-barren Earth. During her search, she is assisted by Dingo, a snarky Earthling.

The action was fine although the main story went over my head along with the missiles. But what I initially got from the overall movie was that it seemed to follow along a similar plot line as that of an old Clark Gable classic "It Happened One Night" with the two main characters of Angela and Dingo verbally sniping at each other during their time together before developing some joint grudging respect by the end. Y'know, if "Ghost In The Shell" is coming to fruition in Hollywood, I figure that "Rakuen Tsuiho" should be given a look as well.

Anyways, I've seen the movie just once but the theme song from "Rakuen Tsuiho" has been given more life in my memory since my anime buddy has often played it on the stereo during the anison hour.

"EONIAN" is a song by anison singer and fashion model ELISA that was released as her 13th single at the same time as the movie. It's an interesting song since there are a few tempo shifts in there that makes it sound like a romantic ballad at the start, a more uptempo version of that ballad in the middle and then into an uplifting anthem of hope by the end. I'm not quite sure whether the lyricist and composer of "EONIAN", Sumiyo Mutsumi（六ツ見純代）and mish-mosh were trying to emulate the story of "Rakuen Tsuiho". However, what binds the sections together is the sweet vocals of ELISA. And I also have to say that I like the slightly R&B arrangement a la Misia.

Going back to whether there would be any chance of the movie being Hollywoodized, provided that Scarlett Johansson's "Ghost In The Shell" actually works (I wouldn't say the track record of anime being made into live-action works has been a great one), I would vote for "EONIAN" to be retained during the ending credits.