The Future of AI in Anime and Movies Series: [Eden of the East Part 1] Neither a Genius nor Rich. Yet, AI Became a Weapon
⚠️ This article contains spoilers for the story of "Eden of the East." Please be aware if you have not watched it.
I love anime and movies.
Sometimes, I suddenly realize that the world on the screen is
"talking about us right now."
I have moments where I think that.
This series is a collection of such "musings of an anime fan."
This time, I will take up Eden of the East, which focuses on "money, AI, and human judgment" rather than flashy robot battles.
Chapter 1: What if you were given about 10 billion yen and a high-performance AI?
In the 2009 anime "Eden of the East," an entity called "Juiz" appears.
In a nutshell: It is a massive amount of funds and an operating system that fulfills any request.
While it is depicted in the work as a hybrid of an advanced system and human labor, in modern terms, it is close to a "super-high-performance AI agent."
The 12 people who possess this Juiz are called "Seleção."
The mission imposed on them is only one: "to save Japan."
A Seleção who fails to produce results by the deadline will be eliminated.
That is the kind of game it is.
If you replace it with the modern day, it is the image of 12 people given the highest-performance AI tools and abundant funds competing to solve social issues.
Now, how would you use it?
What if you could apply it directly to the challenges of your current job or life?
Chapter 2: What kind of people lose their rights?
The 12 Seleção each use it in completely different ways.
People who tried to gain power.
People who acted for their own benefit.
People who tried to achieve their goals by stepping on others.
People who dumped the "correct answer" onto Juiz and did not think for themselves at all.
And those who were swallowed up only by their own desires gradually lost their rights as Seleção and collapsed.
Why?
Juiz is ultimately just a tool.
It fulfills any request, but it is the human who decides "what to seek."
If you use it only to satisfy your own desires or desire for control, the capacity of that human will appear directly in the results.
If you use it for small purposes, only small results will be born.
A tool is a mirror of the person who holds it.
Then, who was the one who "used the tool most naturally"?
Chapter 3: Were the NEETs "mastering it"?
The protagonist, Akira Takizawa, joins the game while having lost his memory.
Supporting him was an image analysis system created by a group of NEETs called "Eden of the East."
In a nutshell:It is a collective intelligence platform where a large number of people contribute their wisdom little by little.
They do not have a Juiz.
They have no funds.
They have no titles or careers.
But
because it's interesting
or
because it seems useful,they faced the system every day and kept thinking.
This eventually became a force that even moved the Seleção who possessed a Juiz.
Of course, the work Eden of the East itself is much more complex and multifaceted.
The story moves through the intertwining of various elements such as the anomalous existence of Takizawa, human relationships, and the power to act.
However, I felt the archetype of "humans in the AI era" in it.
It was not the side that possessed a Juiz that mastered it, but the side of the NEETs who possessed nothing.
Chapter 4: AI does not belong to the "haves"
Back in 2009, it was an era when smartphones were beginning to spread and SNS was about to change the world.
Amidst that atmosphere, Eden of the East depicted something like this.
Even if you are given the best tools, if the thinking and purpose of the person using them are poor, the results will also be poor.
Conversely, even if you have nothing, there will come a moment when the tools smile upon a person who continues to think and engage in dialogue every day.
This overlaps surprisingly well with the situation surrounding AI in 2026.
People who have the latest AI tools but don't think about what to use them for, versus people who polish their judgment while engaging in dialogue every day even with old tools.
The answer to which one is "mastering it" is already visible.
AI was neither for the "smart" nor for the "rich."
Eden of the East had already provided that answer 17 years ago.
Next time, [Eden of the East Part 2] will delve deeper into "why the NEETs and the young man who lost his memory were able to win."
We will approach the essence of an upset victory and the image of a person who can thrive in the modern AI era.
📖 If you want to make AI your own weapon, click here → [Yumemi no Mori Academy Course Link]
Is there a moment when you felt, "I was able to act based on my own judgment" while using AI? Please let me know in the comments.