I haven’t been looking forward to the Eureka7 movie, for the following reason: the series was pretty conclusive, wasn’t it? Why ruin it with a movie. I therefore just assumed that it was going to be one of those recap movies like with Gurren Lagann, but as it turns out it takes place in an alternative universe. Alternative universe movies are always a bit tricky to do, as they tend to be completely different from their original source material. When inspired of course, this can lead to awesome stuff as the Utena movie. Now, did the same happen with Eureka7?
Errm, no.
While not entirely bad, this movie certainly isn’t a good one. It’s mediocre: it entertains but its content is flawed and often nonsensical. The best way I’d describe it is “shallow”. This is the sort of story that I’d label as pretentious. There is A LOT of dialogue throughout the movie, but you quickly realize that it’s not really about anything.
There’s a lot of talking spent on explaining the setting for the movie, but hardly anything is done to develop it or go in-depth. The movie also has its share of symbolism and moralism, but the symbolism either is overly obvious or doesn’t make any sense (especially Anemone’s ramblings are part of the latter), while in terms of morals this series never really gets further than saying “killing is bad” over and over, being a hypocrite in the process when Renton kills a bunch of enemies while he didn’t really need to do so.
But the biggest offender is the relationship between Renton and Eureka, because BOY has it turned cheesy. 99% of the lines between the two are directly copied from any other romance story. The lines they use are so incredibly ambiguous that they fit in any sort of situation. When they’re not angsting and repeating these lines over and over, they behave totally incomprehensible; their actions make no bloody sense and feel like they have been thought up on the spot by the creators.
Since this is a movie, it does have a number of kickass action scenes, whenever the characters aren’t talking. But here’s the deal: this is Bones. When you compare the animation in this movie to what they showed in Eureka 7 and especially Bonen no Xamdou the animation actually feels inferior. It really makes you wonder where the budget for this movie went, if the TV-episodes were animated so beautifully.
So yeah, when the story is supposed to come together in the end… it doesn’t. the plot twists, revelations and insights don’t make any bloody sense and the movie falls flat on its face. I usually like anime with lots and lots of dialogue (see Amatsuki and especially Mouryou no Hako), but this was just… shallow and rushed. Do yourself a favour, watch the amazing series, skip the movie.
| Storytelling: | 6/10 |
| Characters: | 7/10 |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 |
| Setting: | 7/10 |
Agreed series was aswome moviies was okay Best anime ever!
liked the series better and didnt understand the plot of the movie well, but none the less enjoyed watching it the same
Are you ever going to do a review on the Eureka Seven series? 🙂
cassie: http://psgels.net/2006/10/16/eureka-7-review-91100/
I still enjoyed the movie even for all of its faults. Watching all whole new take on the Eureka 7 universe was a little fun and refreshing in itself but the ending left me horribly confused.
I just finished watching the movie. What i can say from all the excitment i was waiting for prior to watching the movie is well still unanswered. It was like watching teh DragonBall:Evolution movie, where all the names are there but withought the actuall “true” plot. The movie is about 10% parrallel with the beloved anime. All of the series’ beloved cahracters are antagnoized and not given real depth to thier character or motavitions. I was hoping to see some sort of a continuation to the series, but i was bitch-slapped with unnecessary plot-hole of a movie. The movie gives a 3 to 10 second glamps at waht we. i included, really wanted to know. I really did not care for the mirrored wrold as much for the the actual one. It was very difficult for me to tie anything i knew to this story. At the begining of the movie i was confused wondering whether i was watching the EUREKA SEVEN MOVIE or not. ONe clue comes into play at waht i have been watching for about 40 minutes into the movie that i find out that the movie takes place in an alternative wrold. Whit really made me not want to watch the movie. Ine series ended in a somewhat question asking what ever happend to the lovers. I had seen pictures over the net of two different characters who looked like Eureka and Renton, not to confuse wit hteh PS2 games, holding hand together near a beach with a surf board. For that reason i was hoping to see a movie about how Renton and Eureka grow up and have kids and how that wrold changed. The way this movie explaing is way too different from the series.
I understand what you have said but the company who made this was Bones. Bones makes incredible anime 2 of their animes are my all-time top 3 which are FMA and Eureka 7 if you watched the FMA movie it was almost the same this includes an alternate universe. but they make a great story for all their moveis and anime the only thing that truly goes wrong with the movie are the ending there ending people would not expect because of the character’s personality traits.
Honestly, I think the movie was a shot at easy some money. They reused a lot of backgrounds, and animations.
Heres what i think happened at the end
*Spoilers for anyone who hasnt seen the movie yet*
The ending of the movie confused me too until i rewatched it again.
I think that Eureka and Renton remade the whole world into their ideal world; they are not in neverland but they changed the world into neverland.
Remember when Renton’s sister said that the 7 test subjects (anemone, eureka) had subatomic powers that could change reality and also Dominic’s last words to Renton were to go and reach for it, dont wait but make it (something like that). Nirvash disappearing and Eureka’s inablitiy to talk was due to the fact that Renton and Eureka erased the Image off their world, which then erased Anemone and Nirvash. But why didn’t it erase Eureka? Well Renton probably wished for Eureka to become human, hence the lost of speech and long hair; basically she had a rebirth.
And lastly they wished to go on the hill where they promised their teacher they would watch over it.
PS: I heard a rumor that there is going to be a sequel for this, maybe we will see some official explanations
NO SEQUEL PLEASE.
It was bad enough once around; next time my head may actually explode from all the unanswered and unresolved WTF moments.
I have to agree with almost all of the comments here. This was a very confusing and uneven effort by Bones to reimagine the series. I don’t know why they decided to go the route of an alternate universe, especially when the series was some 52 episodes long and this is a movie we’re talking about so pacing and story were going to get crunched and condensed to all hell. A continuation or true sequel would have made more sense.
The characters were similar and some of the animation very well done but this movie had none of the heart and complex themes that were present in the series. Aside from reusing animation from the series (did Bones think the fans wouldn’t notice this red flag?), they killed off key characters (Dewey and Dominic) or made them so radically different from the series (a creepier-than-usual Hap, a very rational Anemone) that they weren’t the same person anymore. Motivations were ambiguous (not in a good way) and character actions nonsensical (the entire Gekko State crew, Holland, especially).
I wanted to like this movie as I loved the series but watching this just left me scratching my head and strangely hollow. Hopefully this sequel they’re talking about is an actual continuation of the series and not this movie.
Completely agree with your assessment, although I think I found it to be even worse. This movie was a freakin’ letdown. I hated how they tried to tie in details from the series but didn’t go anywhere with them. And yes, they even screwed up the most fundamental part of Eureka 7 which is the love story between Eureka and Renton. Thumbs down.
wow. I have to say. Before watching this movie i re watched the whole anime again so i could remember all the bits and pieces. Even tho i had already seen the anime once, it still blew me away which goes to show how amazing the original tv series is. I just finished watching the movie now. First of all. let me say. I was extremely dissappointed in the animation. Sure, it looked nice, but the fact that nearly 50% of the animation (and probably more than that), was directly stolen or warped form the original anime dissappointed me right away. i got extremely dissappointed in the whole movie, especially in Bones, one of my fav animation companies whom is renowned for amazing anime and animation. The story did not make much sense on first watch, which is to be expected. I think that some things will tie in after i analyze the very complicated dialogue, but the story was too complex to fit into a 2 hour feature. There was not enough build-up in story or character development. I felt like i was being carried away by a wave and drowning in water with the pace of the movie and speed of dialogue and information was being thrown at me. Overall, i think the film needed more work and was overall kind of a sketchy idea that bones took and turned into a movie without taking enough time to make the story flow or have original animation. In the end, i was satisfied to see some of my favorite characters fresh on the movie screen again, but very confused and a bit dissappointed in the story. If rumors are true about another E7 movie to be released, i really hope it continues the actual tv series. Even if it is a bland story about how eureka and renton make a family after the events of the series, i still think i’d feel more satisfied after watching a movie about that (so everyone cross your fingers!!)…than a movie such as this one where a new mythos couldnt even come close to measuring up to the original one.
Yea the movie wasn’t all that great, but if any of you are interested check out this real sequal to E7 called E8, found at http://eureka8.webs.com/
This story is almost like the original series, but with a much darker twist. Its perfect if your not into the light side of eureka. But its a good read and it isn’t finished, the guy is still writing it, up to 34 chapters and counting. tell your friends that like E7 to check out E8, the REAL SEQUAL.
I say Bones contenus the E7 series
i very mouch liked the 1st 1 so y not have a sec. 1
i mean if BONES is bothering to make a movie that has nothing to do the series
i think hes j sturing things up to see if enough people want it
i do very mouch, and it would be a great challange to BONES cuz to tell u the truth, if ur a real E7 fan. ull at least want another 2 or 3 sesons
P.S. i think the kids should have belonged to sombody elts, it gave the series a good twist but it was sort of ocuwerd
Well the reason the movie doesn’t go in depth with story is because it actually is the sequel to the series at the end of the series the coralian tore off earth and left to another universe so the limit of questions wouldn’t be hit the movie takes place in the parallel universe it left to which explain anemone’s ranting about not being able to dream dreams, the anemone in the movie was created by the coralian and so through the original eureka has a connection to the original universe so her dreams are the experiences of the original anemone. This also explains Hollands ranting about seeing a beautiful green ringed world with a carved moon (see the last episode of the series) at the end of the tunnel when him and the rest of the 303rd youth forces were subjected to that experiment. also I was only able to figure all this out by watching the series then movie twice and I felt like an absolute dullard when I figured it out.
In my opinion…
This is NOT a parallel. It is a continuation, and I’d like to provide some references to back this up… (spoilers?) One that is striking is the end, when Linck is shown in despair at the firing of the Hammer of God, then he is shown in company with Gramps, Mater, and Maurice all looking upward to the moon (a la end of the SERIES). I believe this world/continuation to be a result of the SERIES. The Coralians are still trying to dream like the humans do, it is even verbally expressed at the end of the movie when Anemone explains it. Humans cannot yet exist with the scub coral until they can share their dreams. Only Eureka and Renton share the same dream, but it is still incomplete, thus Eureka’s inability to speak. Why else would Dominic exist in the form he takes in the MOVIE, yet still exist at Anemone’s match? The world that the Coralians created for themselves while they try to become more human and, I predict, rejoin the original SERIES, is the Coralian’s tool by which they are learning hopes, dreams, fear, all the emotion that makes HUMANITY. Coralians have the capacity LEARN, but not all of the afore mentioned things. In the SERIES, the Coralians leave, and Renton/Eureka… All other humans remain. I think that the overall story of this movie is the Coralian’s use of Eureka and Renton to learn how to be human, as Eureka did in the Series, so that in the end, both species can reunite at Earth.
It was a total disappointment to me. Like everyone else, I was really excited when I first heard that there’s going to be a Eureka 7 movie. But the way the story went and how they made it, really, it destroyed the series’ reputation. It would be alright to change the story and the characters’ roles, but like the review said, it’s really shallow. I was expecting more action and information about the original series, or somehow, a new twist that is better than the original but what they made was really bad. The Gekko-state members became oh so selfish and pitiful youngsters. Even Hap, whose supposed to be one of the most pleasant characters in the series, became some cruel punk who had his drastic karma right after he abused Eureka and shot Renton. And the Nirvash! The End! What happend to them? them became some cute talking creatures! That’s the most disappointing bit. The LFOs were supposed to be the coolest mix in the story since they were the ones that give the action in the battle scenes. All in all, I’d rate the series 4/10. Maybe Bones didn’t really thought of it and simply made the movie without careful planning.
WARNING: SPOILER
Understanding the movie is easy, simple really: The movie sucks SO MUCH that the characters are literally trying to escape the movie and get in to the anime series.
THIS. THIS.
JUST. THIS.
This sucked even harder than the Escaflowne movie. Both good series were demolished by the movies.
you know what,i just hope that there will be the continuation series and even movies of eureka 7.I had to say that the anime is so fantastic that it just had became a part of my life.
All of you who whine about the movie… Enough already. Ok you thought it sucked, it’s been repeated enough already.
The movie was kind of a mess. I’m sure that if I rewatch it a few times, i may understand it. Some people draw links to the series and rebirth. Much of this could make sense. But bones could have made it a bit more clear.
All in all, despite the messiness, I actually liked this movie. And the stuff people say about the link to the series makes sort of sense. I just wish the movie was a bit more well organized.
Another movie would be just right anyway… or perhaps a continuation as a series… Bones left us guessing a bit too much on this one :p
was really dissapointed with the movie, i still think to this day that they should have made a continuation which i think would have topped the brillant series it was of perfectly.
when i was done with the movie i was thoroughly just awe struck- like im not sure why; weather it was good or bad. i liked the animation personally & liked how they took old footage and refreshed it to see some interesting interpretations of original series scenes. its been about 10 minutes since i finished the movie, and im sort of realizing that while this is a very good movie, like nikki said, its also very unorganized. there were alot of times where i had trouble keeping up with what was going on. like so much had already happened within the first 20 minutes i was a little WTF. but the links that people are providing to how it actually is a continuation to the series can make sense- but bones really could have made it easier on us. this is something id have to re-watch to get a better understanding of. im deffinitley recommending this movie to all my friends that watch the original series.
I have very mixed feelings about this movie. While it wasn’t bad as a movie, it was strange as an Eureka 7 movie, as a movie that relates to the series.
I thought of a phrase that could explain this movie and I came up with one: “Put all the episodes of the series in a mixer and push the button, but not too long, then you kind of have that movie.” It’s not supposed to be a joke. Really, when I think about it, I can’t think of anything else. There’s so much change in the story and especially the characters (who are the hearts of the original series) that it didn’t really feel like the Eureka 7 series I’ve already watched twice because of its epicness.
I think when you don’t know the series and watch the movie, it can be pretty good although a bit hard to understand.
But if you already know the series, and I think most of the watchers do, it’s just such a strange feeling you get when watching it that you can’t really tell that it’s Eureka 7.
I’ve never watched this kind of movie, an alternative one that is (except for FMA, but that was more of a continuation). So I don’t know if there are movies which are equal to the original series. (I’ve read the e7 manga though…)
But, well… I’m not really pleased with it BECAUSE I know, that the series has another feeling to it that can’t be exchanged in this way.
It’s just … so strange :/
I saw it in japanese before it was on AS. It’s weird hearing it in english after you’ve heard it in japanese. All in all, its pretty cool. I just wish I had time to watch it (get up early for church, etc.).
Pointless movie, would have preferred a sequel, this film is a complete betrayal of the Anime casting aside any form of quality, substance and subtlety!
Haha, let me share a little story with y’all.
So I never watched the series. Bummer, huh? Well, I watched this movie a few times, and loved it to bits. Why? Intrigue galore, mysteries solved, wonderfully open, happy ending where Eureka sacrificed her dreams (born of memories) for Renton’s. The characters were lovable (except for the crew of the Gecko, who seemed as immature as their age would betray), and the Nirvash was quite cute. The romance was adorable, no matter how “formulaic” it’s described. I was so inspired I then turned to the anime, eager to see the object of abject fan praise.
I…could barely even get through it. The screen-time was dominated by the 3 whining bratty kids (who exactly is the target audience here?), poorly inserted humor, incompetent angsting Renton (who later experiences a ridiculously forced “growth” via laughably contrived scenes), and an ending that was so blatantly rushed (or at least stitched together with duct tape) that the series, while somewhat comprehensible, was quite a childishly pathetic flop. There were some powerful moments, granted (lady crawling to her death before the ship exploded, brat with the gun going to “shoot” our hero, etc) which merely contributed the gimmicky moments the show required to keep up a pacing reminiscent of faltering toddlers, a theme this show agonizingly attempts to cram down the proverbial throat.
The two forms of the story are incompatible, simple as that. It’s like the movie producers themselves gave up on the original series’ “aspirations” and accordingly forgot everything in the series, leading them to re-dream its entire premise — from the characters up. That said, I’m fairly sure I would have understood and appreciated the series more if I hadn’t seen the movie first. All differences it seems I seem to consider flaws, after all.
Hence the “bummer.”
Quite ironic, if you ask me (nobody asked me). The few people who don’t seem to fawn over the series probably would never watch this movie anyway. Except the exceptions. Like…
yours truly.
XD
Maybe because I watched this movie directly after watching the series (marathon style), or maybe because I read a little about the movie before I watched it, but I kinda enjoyed it. I thought this was going to be a movie “based on” the anime, and I didn’t expect any tie-ins to the anime at all.
I was surprised when I realized that this movie is entirely built off the anime to the point where it doesn’t really stand on its own. It makes some sense if you think about it as a dream of sorts (esp. since about 90% of the anime was spent reminding everyone that the land is dreaming) and it explains why the character’s motivations aren’t well developed – Everything seems to build on the 50 episodes of experience we have already watched.
I love this movie. It’s now in my top 5. The ending song was SO beautiful that I played the last scene, including the credits more than six times in a row. ^^
Also, the movie was in no way confusing for me. 😉
I agree with the long comment here. This movie is great on its own, having not seen the series yet. That said, I still plan to. I’m worried about the whiny kids like everyone else, though. XD
Of course I’m also worried I’ll hate the movie (or the series) after watching all the episodes… I usually agree on the ratings here, but this movie was pretty epic.
Quite ironic, if you ask me (nobody asked me). The few people who don’t seem to fawn over the series probably would never watch this movie anyway. Except the exceptions. Like…