The three big mecha/sci-fi shows last Winter Season have gotten an addition: Eureka 7. If you don’t include Uchuu Kyoudai among them (which is a completely different show anyway), then these are the four best series of the genre in 2012. Where Rinne was fun and witty, Aquarion was over the top and weird, Mouretsu Pirates was creative and down to earth, Eureka Seven puts the focus on its drama, and does it really well. This second episode, I’d probably rank it above the second episodes of Aquarion and Mouretsu Pirates and below Rinne no Lagrange, but in terms of potential, it could possibly eclipse all of them if it keeps on going like this.
This show also looks gorgeous. It’s a bit different from Aquarion, which spams eye-candy through its CG department. Here the CG and 2D animation mesh much better, and it’s the 2D animation that steals the show by being really expressive. That’s really going to work in the show’s favor later on.
For this series, the creators really used Ao’s innocence as a central point. It’s no excuse that he immediately knew how to pilot the Nirvash as soon as he stepped into it, but beyond that: it cares about continuity, it plays around with different parties who are all after him, and he realy is forced in the middel of this giant war, just because he refuses to let go of this bracelet of his.
I’m also very surprised at how the creators used Eureka in this series. If that really is the same Eureka as in Eureka Seven, she really changed.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
If you have listened to Ao closely, he clearly mentioned that the controls were pretty the same as the flying car he piloted in episode 1. No need to nitpick :3
^Yup.
It’s similar to his hover vehicle (or whatever it’s called). I liked that they showed him struggling with it. Way better than having some mysterious “force” take control of his body and suddenly give him the ability to pilot like Sebastian Vettel.
There is that. Also…well, I guess Psgels hasn’t watched the original series but…
Remember the part where the Mark I picked up it’s own arm?
Let’s just say that LFOs aren’t simple mecha.
(I knew Psgels was going to pick on this. XD Kid newbies do not become instant aces just by sitting in the cockpit.)
I actually did watch the first season, and loved it.
Also, as for the driving: even if you can drive a car, it doesn’t mean that you’re also proficient in a fighter jet. The fact that the controls are “similar” seems very flimsy to me.
Wait. Then you know Nirvash is a scab coral too. The pilot is less a pilot and more like a rider of a horse. He/she has controls over weapons and can steer like reins but how well Nirvash performs overall is how well the rider and horse work together. Nirvash and Eureka were particularly closely linked as they were both scab coral entities that could communicate directly. Renton had a lot more trouble but I think Ao may have a much easier time once he starts to learn how to scab coral-communicate. If the Mark 1 is really Nirvash then it probably recognized Ao as related to Eureka.
Wow, this episode was amazing! Especially in terms of animation, characterization and soundtrack. I agree; this show could be destined for greatness!
Wah. Ok. Dang. Lots of new revelations. Some confirmations. Alot of new questions.
*****SPOILERFUL DISCUSSION FOR EUREKA 7*****
Ok. I think we can all but confirm that Ao is Eureka’s son. I’m buying Aidan’s time travel theory more and more now. Just wondering where the heck Renton is…
The Mark I sure looks like it could be Nirvash but I’m not 100% sure. Plus I seem to remember LFOs in Eureka 7 using a Mark system for their LFOs too. They were up to IV around the time of Eureka and Renton I think.
I think I have an answer for the existence of trapar technology. It looks like scab coral have been appearing as early as the 1940s, puffing out trapar into the air.
I’m wondering what those Secrets are. I’m not sure if they’re scab coral. I wonder if they’re chasing after the scab coral to wipe them out before leaving. However, there’s one Secret that detects Ao’s bracelet and chases after Ao and Mark I but doesn’t start shooting until the carrier they reach starts shooting at Ao. Also, it doesn’t stick around to finish off the Mark I and Ao and instead goes back to shoot the town. Was it trying to help Ao get to the Mark I or was it just a coincidence?
About the timeline….it looks like Eureka disappeared 10 years ago piloting an LFO (the real Nirvash?). I think Tokyo was destroyed at this time and soon afterwards, Okinawa declared its independence from Japan. I’m not sure if Eureka disappeared and left Nirvash behind to become the Mark I or if the Mark I is a prototype developed around the original Nirvash. I don’t remember Nirvash sporting head-mounted machine guns.
So how long was Eureka in Okinawa? It looks like she arrived there pregnant and gave birth to Ao since everyone seems to refer to Eureka as “the woman the doctor brought in” and Ao as “a child of the island”. Where’s Renton? I was a bit disturbed to see the old doc cry like that at the sight of the Mark I superimposed with an image of Nirvash’s colors. Could that old man be Renton? Separated from Eureka into different time periods? Uwah, that would be really sad.
Anybody have any other insights? I have a poor understanding of the 2nd half of Eureka 7 so I’m not really sure what’s what. I seem to remember flying scab coral but I’m not sure if they used trapar for flight so I’m not sure whether to peg the Secret as scab coral or not based on not leaving trapar trails behind.
Come to think of it, I’m not sure if Eureka would even age like normal humans. Could Renton and Eureka have arrived in the 40s and only discovered a way to have a child years later?
There’s something strange about Naru too. She’s linked to Ao and can share his dreams. Could she be like those people in Eureka 7 who are linked to the scab coral and go comatose? In this case, Ao?
I find it amusing the way I proposed that time travel theory on MyAnimeList and this guy called blackrock… something or other denied it completely. I return to MAL after episode two and I see the very same person posting seriously consider it. However it could be just be an alternate world which is quite possible but renders this a spin-off rather than a true sequel.
I still think it’s weird that people think this takes place twenty years after the events of Eureka seven. If that’s the case then the series gains massive plot holes. It’s impossible. Not only is there no mark on the moon but from the opening we can see that the planet does not have a halo like it did at the end of eureka seven.
Still my theories have fallen through before. Like my archer theory on Madoka.
No idea. It’s barely the start and we have no idea what Bones has in store. I don’t even remember anything about the state of the moon back in Eureka 7. ^^; Or a halo. We only find out that the planet they’re on is Earth near the end of the series.
I was thinking of an alternate dimension too, especially with the independent Okinawa but it seems that it’s a recent occurrence in history and happened in relation to a scab coral event so I could buy this world as part of the original timeline. We’re still not quite sure when or how humanity first came into contact with the scab coral anyway….do we?
The Original Nirvash would be MK1 as it was the first LFO, all the later ones were inferior copies.
Renton or AO? I’d take AO over Renton
Pied Piper crew or Gekkostate crew? I’d take the Gekko over the Piped Piper. The Gekkostate kinda has a natural feel to them
Still don’t know the Pied Piper crew well enough yet. But yeah, I get what you mean. The Gekkostate crew felt like a rebel band of surfers against the establishment while Generation Blue/Pied Piper feels like a special UN force, an elite strong arm of the establishment. *shrug*
Amount of youngsters in the opening is quite disturbing….The OP song is trashed by Eureka 7’s “Day”. Other than that I enjoyed the episode.
Actually, children seem to be a plot point. The Pied Pipers seem to make a special reference to “children” from different regions. And it is a little curious why they call themselves the “Pied Pipers” in the first place. Is it random?
There is no problem if it is a plot point. I hope it doesn’t follow Last Exile…They might have tuned Ao down unlike Renton but hopefully the other characters doesn’t become 10x Renton.
About that, I don’t see the issue about having a major cast of child characters in a drama. Especially considering the target audience. I don’t believe Last Exile 2 was targeted at an adult audience. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gone out of their way to tone down a lot of the bloodshed and make much of it happen off-stage. It may seem hard to swallow but I think there has been very successful literature in the past like Romeo and Juliet which features very young teenagers as the main characters. The storyline itself may have had issues but I personally am not placing blame on using children as main characters.
yea…. LE:Fam’s issue was not the kids in the cast, it was the terrible writers.
And what about the Opening? 😀
I still think this looks like a prequel. In Eureka 7 they left the earth after they could’t contain the coral, so this really seems like that… And who named Eureka in Eureka 7? If it was the coral or the humans, they could have got the name from this Eureka, who could have been the first to interact with the coral, or something like that. though the circles in AO’s eyes still makes him something close to the corals.
well, since Bones said this is a sequel themselves, I think you can safely toss out your prequel theory. Also, the doctor has obviously seen the Nirvash from E7 already, so there’s also that.
we just have to wait for Bones to reveal the links, and so far I get the feeling we won’t be disappointed 🙂
The doctor is Renton.
The bracelet is Eureka.
When they went below the surface didnt they find the original Earth preserved beneath? The coral must have recreated it as it was seen to expand destruvtivley during its first growth phase.
I hope continues to be this good. It really has started great and the soundtrack sounds amazing. I really liked the part where Ao shouts: “It isn’t lost! Pick it up!” 😀
Hopefully 26 episodes is going to be enough…or was it 24?