Don’t copy me. I’ve done it wrong. My first encounter with the franchise was with the spin off series Eureka Seven AO.
Like many anime fans I’m used to jumping into the deep end of plot. While I enjoyed, mainly, Eureka Seven AO I was frustrated I couldn’t quite tie back to previous events, didn’t care enough about the characters and knew I should be more into it.
I had hoped that watching “Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers” – which I think the full name of the movie is supposed to be – would cure that. It doesn’t. It makes it worse.
The challenge is that Eureka Seven is a story about different dimensions and wobbles in time. In my Eureka Seven experience so far these time or dimensional burps only come to the fore later on. At least in the movie it’s tackled more quickly and more head on.
The take away experience? Don’t try and watch a time travelling mystery backwards. Or even a dimensional hopping mystery backwards as the surprises with time/age/prophecy are more nuanced in the movie than in AO.
So, does that mean the Eureka Seven movie is a complete waste of time to anyone who’s not seen the series? I don’t think so. Just like AO – it held my attention. The characters are good. The plot clever. The action is engaging.
The movie starts with a young Renton and Eureka on a hill with a father figure. He introduces them to a special plant and then we discover he’s never seen again. The two children are then torn apart and we pick up as Renton is part of mankind’s frantic battle against alien invaders.
There’s also the key character of Nirvash. What I learn about Nirvash in the movie blew my AO-centric experience out of the water. Nirvash isn’t just a transforming mecha that can take the aliens on. Nirvash is a living, growing, thing and Nirvash’s own agenda becomes a point of interest.
The animation is good. There are scenes when there must be thousands of aliens on screen at one time. There are intense battle scenes and plenty of high-flying action. The blast waves and lightening effects are also pretty darn good.
The more I mull it over the more it becomes clear. The Eureka Seven movie is pretty good. It’s just trying to wrap it into any other experience that gets in the way. I can’t honestly say whether the same applies to the core Eureka Seven series as I’ve not watched it.
Overall? I think my strategy was right. Eureka Seven feels like it should be a better anime and one I should like more. Watching AO first was a mistake and, on paper, watching the movie could well have helped. I was wrong. If you’re in the same boat – watch the main series next, save the movie for later and hope that works better.
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