Adam by Eve: A Live in Animation Review
Potential spoiler for “Adam by Eve: A Live in Animation”!
“Adam by Eve: A Live in Animation” is a Netflix Original movie music video that incorporates animation and live-action footage. The movie was released on Mar. 15, 2022 and features songs by Eve, a Japanese singer-songwriter, who has collaborated with Director Nobutaka Yoda on multiple of their music videos. In addition to directing this film, Nobutaka Yoda also served as the writer.
The story follows two best friends, Aki and Taki, who are inseparable. One day, Taki disappears when they are eating at a diner and Aki goes on a journey through Tokyo, Japan looking for Taki. She figures out that her disappearance is linked to a mysterious one-eyed monster that appears in their dreams.
While the premise of Adam by Eve is seemingly simple to follow on the surface, there are several moving parts of the narrative that are easy to miss on an initial viewing such as the incorporation of Eve’s song and music video “Don’t Replay the Boredom.” The focus of the story is mainly centered around the friendship of Aki and Taki with their shared love of the violin and both being considered outcasts at school but doing certain segments of the music portions there are recurring characters of an animated boy with black hair and a fictional creature fighting. This ties into “Don’t Replay the Boredom '' which has the main character repeating the same activities in their living by playing a fighting game which has a boy with black hair fighting a fictional creature.
It ties nicely with the concept of a loop that’s featured in the main story where Aki has the same dreams of a one-eyed monster over and over again. The monster is shown to be watching her throughout the film with visual elements such as the animated eyes that appear on billboards, buildings and even on Aki’s phone while listening to music.
The movie incorporates various forms of animation such as:
2D animation
3D animation
One of my favorite scenes was the anime action scene where Aki fights the one-eyed monster. This scene incorporated 2D and 3D animation. They used 3D animation to capture the different angles Aki was filming from like an aerial view of her shooting at the one-eyed monsters as well as jumping down, but it kept the expressiveness of Aki’s face and detail of the clothing using 2D animation.
Overall, I really enjoyed the surrealism of Adam by Eve: A Live in Animation and how they blurred the lines between dreams and reality. I highly recommend it if you enjoy animation and music. There is something for everyone to enjoy.
