Years into the future, a global apocalyptic event known as the "Nano Hazard" scars the Earth just as humanity was ready to leave to explore the stars. Much of humanity is saved by preserving their DNA and digitizing their minds into DEVA, a space station that provides a virtual-reality paradise. Many years later, the station is hacked numerous times by someone calling himself "Frontier Setter", who promises the citizens of DEVA a better life in the "real world" out in the stars. DEVA's Central Security see Frontier Setter as a threat, enlisting one of their top agents, Angela Balzac, to investigate Earth (using a cloned body) with Earth-based operative Dingo (who has worked with Central Security on numerous occasions) to put a stop to the hacks.
What they discover, however, may shake their beliefs about what it means to be human to the core.
Expelled from Paradise (楽園追放 / Rakuen Tsuihō) is a 2014 anime feature film directed by Seiji Mizushima (of Fullmetal Alchemist and Mobile Suit Gundam 00 fame), written by Gen Urobuchi (of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero and Psycho-Pass fame), and produced by Toei Animation and Graphinica. Unlike Urobuchi's other works, the movie is lighter in tone. It had a November 15, 2014 release in Japan and a December 15, 2014 release in select theaters in the US.
A Light Novel prequel titled Rakuen Tsuihou mission.0 was published on October 17, 2014.
A Light Novel sequel titled Rakuen Tsuihou 2.0: Rakuen Zankyou -Godspeed You- was published on September 11, 2015 by nitro+.
A film sequel titled Liberated from Paradise - Rakuen Tsuihou: Kokoro no Resonance was announced on January 27, 2024, nearly a decade after the original film's release.
Expelled from Paradise provides examples of:
- Amazon Brigade: All of the DEVA Arhan pilots shown are women.
- Apocalypse How: Most of Earth is a barren wasteland. Given the name of the event, it was probably due to Grey Goo.
- After the End: The story is set years after a disaster rendered much of the Earth a barren wasteland and most of humanity now live in a digital paradise.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Interestingly inverted. Frontier Setter is an A.I. who evolved an ego. However, this amounts to basically "learn to become more human" and "complete my purpose" which is to complete the galaxy exploring ship Genesis Ark. He's very friendly to humans otherwise.
- All-CGI Cartoon: Everything besides some backgrounds and effects animation is 3D rendered, but styled to make it look like it was hand-drawn.
- All There in the Manual: The names of the other three most prominent DEVA agents in the last act: Veronica Kulikova (shoulder-length fuchsia/pink hair), Christin Gillum (short light-green) and Hilde Thorwald (long blue violet).
- And I Must Scream: The stiffest punishment in DEVA is to cease processing a human's Personality and compress it before archiving it forever.
- Award-Bait Song: EONIAN, supposedly a really old In-Universe song.
- Blasting It Out of Their Hands: When a thug attacks Angela with a knive, Dingo shoots it out of his hand.
- Boom, Headshot!: Dingo taps his head when he helps Angela by shooting some of the sandworms swarming her Arhan. She gets the hint, and flies really high, then targets and shoots the creature's heads, killing them all in the process.
- Bittersweet Ending: Frontier Setter eventually departs Earth, but without any volunteers on his journey through space, while Angela is forced to stay on Earth due to her rebellion with the agents sent after her presumably still on the hunt. Overall, the entire incident also prompted Central Security to reinforce their stance on controlling everything, furthering the dystopian image Dingo had been painting through the movie.
- Brain Uploading: All the humans in DEVA were flesh and blood once upon a time, even if that time was very short. Angela has lived basically her entire life inside DEVA, having been uploaded as an infant.
- The Computer Is Your Friend: Frontier Setter is actually an A.I. who's friendly to humans and wants to become more like them.
- Crapsaccharine World: DEVA is seen by its residents as a utopian paradise, but is led by a council of paranoid and incompetent leaders, and its residents are unable to experience the aesthetic or physical enjoyment of the real world.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Angela delivers one to the sandworms early in the film.
- Definitely Just a Cold: Angela gets ill within a day on Earth and she ignores bodily warning signs because she believes her computerized system would've warned her if it were serious. It didn't, because it relied on a connection to DEVA, which Dingo severed earlier to hide any trace of their activity from Frontier Setter. If Angela didn't have Dingo to care for her she would have been screwed.
- Digital Avatar: Humans on DEVA create themselves a "Personality". Apparently the higher up in society one is, the more generally attractive traits the Personality has.
- Fate Worse than Death: Getting archived in DEVA amounts to this. You're stripped of all your rights, and then you're essentially locked away in a really small area for probably the rest of eternity. Made worse because you're still technically alive until you eventually aren't, as Angela finds out right before Frontier Setter rescues her.
- For Happiness: The society in DEVA is built around this. This is deconstructed and lampshaded by Dingo. Frontier Setter has its own idea of happiness as well.
- Foreign Queasine: Dingo offers Angela some roasted Sand Worm meat... not quite the most exciting thing to eat. She'd prefer tasteless future food from a sports drink pack. She warms up to local food once it's in a more appetizing form.
- Fountain of Youth: Angela basically goes through this. Since she's not willing to wait for her body to fully mature before going after Frontier Setter, she goes from an older (56, but appears late twenties) woman to a 16-year-old young woman. She ends up stuck as a 16 year old in the end. Since she grew up in cyber space, she probably doesn't have any experience with things like hormones and periods.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: The antagonist, Frontier Setter, isn't malevolent or evil. In fact, he's actually quite friendly towards humans and wishes to become like them. On the other hand, the government of DEVA wants to create a perfect utopian society where everyone is happy, but they are willing to do whatever it takes to maintain the societal status quo, even imprisoning Angela when she protested that Frontier Setter isn't evil.
- He Knows Too Much: Angela tries to plead with Central Security that Frontier Setter is not a bad guy. Since she refuses to destroy him and knows of his intent, Central Security sentences Angela to life imprisonment.
- Honor Before Reason: As Angela points out, Frontier Setter could destroy DEVA on a whim, and given the stated intent of his mission has every reason to do so. Frontier Setter admits as much, but insists that the protection of his mission could not justify such an atrocity.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Angela assumes Central Security will be understanding when she informs them that Frontier Setter poses no threat. She instead gets archived when she refuses to terminate him as a potential threat, a reaction Frontier Setter accurately predicted would come to pass if he revealed himself to them.
- Humongous Mecha: The Arhan units that DEVA's security agents are sent with are about 10 meters tall, and are armed with appropriately huge equipment.
- Humans Are Special: This is how Frontier Setter sees humanity. In fact, he wishes to be like them.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: According to the artbook, Dingo is almost two feet taller than Angela.
- Immortality Field: See this page's entry on Utopia.
- Inside a Computer System: How the world in DEVA is portrayed. In fact, it's implied that digitized humans are merely programs in a giant computer system. However, they are born in human bodies before their Brain Uploading.
- Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Well, technically just thrown in jail/archived, but Angela suffers this after refusing to destroy Frontier Setter as demanded by her superiors. The ending suggests that DEVA will simply do this to her (and Dingo) instead after she escapes from her prison and lets Frontier Setter succeed in leaving Earth if they catch her.
- Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: After hijacking the Central Security's Ground Assault platform, Angela pilots the latest model of the Arhan, and after disposing of several drones pursuing her, uses a railgun to destroy a Resonance warhead from across the Earth's orbit, causing a massive EMP in the process.
- Lighter and Softer: Comparing to Gen Urobuchi's previous works, Expelled from Paradise does not have any dark imagery or tearjerking tragedies.
- Light Is Not Good: Angela tells Dingo he could be a part of DEVA if he wanted to. However, he refuses to, telling her that DEVA isn't exactly all its cracked up to be. She later finds out firsthand when she reports on Frontier Setter not being hostile, and refuses to follow the order to apprehend and/or destroy it. Her superiors immediately lock her up for her refusal. And then gets hunted down for execution when she breaks out with Frontier Setter's help. With the ending suggesting that the remaining agents that survived the battle likely to hunt both her and Dingo from then on.
- Male Gaze: One has to wonder if Angela's suit was designed that way as Author Appeal. Not to mention the rather suggestive position the pilots of Arhan are in while piloting it, giving viewers some rather nice Fanservice shots.
- Master Computer: While it's not certain Central Security is controlled by AI, the three deity-looking entities have the traits of this.
- Mirror Match: Angela spars with a digital copy of herself.
- Mook Horror Show: The sandworms getting destroyed left and right early in the film by Angela after Dingo gives her a hint to shoot them in the head.
- Nipple and Dimed: Averted in the opening sequence, where Angela chases Frontier Setter's signal in cyberspace as an Out-of-Clothes Experience.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Angela tries to sell DEVA as being superior to flesh and blood existence because they can devote themselves to intellectual pursuits and use their time more efficiently. Dingo deconstructs this by pointing out that they are limited by the amount of memory allocated to them. Service to the system equals success and more memory, while those who fail to contribute get archived to save memory. Really, all they've done is trade one rat race for another.
- Orchestral Bombing: Just as Angela runs out of ammo in the climax and has to find a weapons cache, "Beyond the Galaxy" starts blaring with a full orchestra, triggering the movie's most intense mech-vs-mech fight sequence. Just for added punch, a choir joins in the last third.
- Properly Paranoid: Dingo severs Angela's link to DEVA as soon as she arrives on Earth, reasoning that if Frontier Setter could hack into such a secure system, it would be trivial for him to use the link to keep tabs on her. He's proven right, too; the only reason they're able to find Frontier Setter is because he can't use the connection to throw them off the scent.
- Spoiled by the Manual: The Limited Edition Blu-Ray mini art-book spoils who Frontier Setter is.
- Ship Tease: One-and-a-half-sided? Angela is a classic blushing Tsundere to Dingo, while Dingo displays equally classic Big Brother Instinct towards Angela; carrying her around and feeding her when she gets sick, etc. The really weird part is that he's fully aware that she's actually a full grown adult — Angela is 56 and chooses the appearance of a young adult in DEVA's virtual reality, but was too eager to gain an advantage over her fellow agents and pulled her cloned body out of the Rapid Aging process as soon as she deemed practical — and Hilarity Ensues when Angela is immediately awash in teenage hormones typical of a 16-year-old girl while Dingo just as quickly dismisses her as a "Loli"; he's actually rather disappointed when he realizes Angela's body is underage.
- Simulated Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic Reality: In the wake of a "Nano Hazard" that has ruined the surface of the Earth, the surviving population has put its faith in DEVA - a virtual reality paradise that human beings are digitized and uploaded to. Residents are granted immortal lives free of aging, disease, hunger, or any kind of physical suffering... but unfortunately, they're constantly under the watchful eye of DEVA's Central Security, are limited in what they can do by the amount of memory allocated to them, and are rated on their performance: high-rated individuals are rewarded with more memory, but those who are judged to not be contributing enough are archived in order to save memory - essentially imprisoning them in a very small space for the rest of eternity.
- The Stinger: Two occur at the end. The first shows the DEVA leadership discussing how people can still be tempted by things, and vow to crack down even more to prevent such things from happening again. The second shows Frontier Setter singing as he travels through space.
- Title Drop: Is said in reference to Adam and Eve, who were cast out of paradise of Eden.Angela Balzac: Now I know how Adam and Eve feel when they were expelled from paradise.
- To Be Lawful or Good: Angela is presented with this while reporting on Frontier Setter to her superiors. She informs them of Frontier Setter's plans to leave Earth and no longer hack into DEVA, which she tries to paint as a good thing. But her superiors don't see it that way. They tell her Frontier Setter is something they can't control, and having it leave Earth just means they have no way to monitor it at all. Thus it may come back at a later time and destroy humanity with weapons that they have no defense against. They order her to destroy it and bring back its central processing core as proof, but she refuses. As a result, they strip her of her security and her rights, and promptly "archive" her, essentially putting her in jail.
- Understatement: Angela claims it's too late for her to send a resignation letter after hijacking a space station's worth of armament and escaping her own death sentence, causing a major security breach the likes of which DEVA does not take kindly to.
- Utopia: DEVA is made to be a haven for humans following their digitization. Without the need for food, water, or sleep, or having sickness and death, humans have supposedly evolved to enjoy "higher entertainment". Dingo deconstructs the notion by revealing that humans over there are still rated by their performance and are given appropriate compensation in the form of more memory space (digitally speaking), making it more of a False Utopia.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Angela by the end of the movie. Further enforced by the ending implying that she and Dingo will be forever hunted down by the other agents DEVA sent.
- Zerg Rush: The sandworms that Dingo drags along with him when he first meets up with Angela. They even swarm her when she attacks them in an Arhan mecha.
