Time for a new anime review this time it’s about the recently ended show called Eureka Seven AO. I actually planned to write a positively toned review of this anime, since it was decent most of the time, but the last two episodes made this impossible after all. First some introductional words.

Eureka Seven AO is a 24 episode long anime from BONES that aired from April to November 2013. It was planned as a sequel of the popular 50 episode long anime Eureka Seven from 2006.

Im a huge fan of the prequel Eureka Seven, which had everything a good shounen adventure should have; an epic storyline, great supporting and main characters, epic battles and a cute first love romance and to top it all, an more than impressive, unforgettable OST was also part of it.

I already watched it three times and also bought both DVD Boxes and both OST Soundtracks.

As I heard about a sequel of my beloved show, I was very happy, but at the same time I also thought that it would be quite challenging to come up with something as epic as Eureka Seven.

httpvh://youtu.be/7CeX76jKAS4

The story of Eureka Seven AO starts on the Island of Okinawa, where our main character Fukai, AO lives together with an old doctor, who took care of him after his mother disappeared. Okinawa aims for autonomy and so the inhabitants are suspicious about any person from outside. Ao is mainly shunned in the community of the Island, but he has cute childhood friend called Naru.

Obviously Eureka Seven AO plays in another dimension, here are also Scub Corals (huge coral like lifeforms) who emerge Trapar which is kinda hazard to the human body. Another new force appears in this dimension, the Secrets which are of unknown origin. Their goal is to destroy the Scub Coral, but they are also a threat to humanity with the destruction their attacks are causing.

The private organization Generation Blue takes care of dismantling the Scub Corals to prevent the massive attacks of arriving Secrets. In order to achieve that, they excavate the cubes called quartz, which are inside the Scub Corals. After an incident on Okinawa, Ao joins the organization as member of the mecha pilot team Pied Piper. His comrades are the 16 year old Fleur and the 15 year old Elena. Elena and Ao have a quite good relationship, while Elena… well she’s Elena.

Eureka Seven AO wanted to create a complex political framework, there are many different parties with different goals that they want to be achieved; Okinawa, Japan, China, USA, Generation Blue, Scub Corals and Secrets. One really could loose track while watching this anime on a weekly basis. I found it quite hard to follow with the many plot twist, time and dimensional travel and fast pace.

Out of good will and in hope to get more info out of the story, I watched the whole anime for a second time, where it actually made more sense to me and offered more entertainment while being marathoned, but it still feels chaotic and halfheartedly done at some points

possible spoilers time from here on…

Soon a true villain appears, an invincible creature called Truth, mhhh what did he actually want, ah yes being evil and changing the world were his goals. The main problem that Eureka Seven AO suffers from is relatively weak character development, between all these story twists the characters are changing their positions and purposes too fast.

The weakly developed characters lead to the next problem, lifefless character interactions and relationships. I rarely sensed real team spirit between Ao, Fleur and Elena or Ao and Naru.

Only the OVA “Jungfrau no Hanabanatachi” manages to portray some very convincing moments of interaction and a nearly friendship like scenes between Ao and his comrades.
There really should have been more character centered episodes in this anime, the viewer just learns a little more than the absolutely necessary about each character, even AO as main character stays plain most of the time. Elena as mysterious, energetic, weirdo otaku is the most interesting character, not because she has more depth compared to the others, but she is fun.

As kind of service for fans of the old Eureka Seven there were some guest appearances of machines and old characters. The audience was quite enchanted by the few appearances of Eureka from the predecessor anime. In this sequel she turned out as the mother of AO.
The appearance of a grown up Renton in episode 22 was one of my personal highlights.
I actually have the opinion that it had been more interesting to give more screentime to Renton and Eureka instead of lame AO. Don’t get me wrong he is a good boy, but really boring.

Fortunately, one very good part of Eureka Seven AO is the visual  presentation, it looks very good overall with vivid colors and appealing characterdesigns and also very smooth animations.

Now I will talk about the things that turned Eureka Seven AO into so such an unsatisfying show.

After episode 22 the anime took a break, probably to finish the last two remaining episodes. Wrapping up the plot and all the subplots in only two episodes already appeared quite optimistic, but it turned out worse than I could have ever imagined. They literally pulled off a new rushed story arc in the last 1 3/4 episodes that rendered all the episodes and characters before useless.

They used a dimension altering device in the story to conclude this anime and get rid of the unanswered questions and subplots, that’s so lame that I can’t put it into words how angry I was. I can’t believe that the same director as for the old Eureka Seven was in charge of Eureka Seven AO, as well. It makes me wonder why this show turned into such an half baked sequel.

It makes no sense at all to build such a complex story when you don’t have an idea how to end it in a satisfying way. There actually are a few nice ideas and good looking action scenes in this anime, but overall it is not enough too reduce my disappointment after the last episode. They should have kept it more simple without including present day politics stuff or cleared everything in a less rushed manner in 20 more episodes. After J.C. Staff already drove Shakugan no Shana III against the wall this year, Bones followed them with Eureka Seven Ao, that could have been a great show, if the plot had been planned more thoughtful with the spirit of it’s predecessor.

Fans of the predecessor won’t like like Eureka Seven Ao cause it’s storytelling quality is not even close to it. In case you like uncountable plot twists in exchange for weakly portrayed characters you could give this a try, but honestly I can’t recommend anyone to watch this strange show.

I rather would recommend to watch the Original Eureka Seven it’s a fantastic anime.

httpvh://youtu.be/CfK7NKqDPqk

Have you watched this show? or did you have a better opinion of Eureka Seven AO ?

please share your opinion in the comments.

Intro

Nopy mentioned an interesting project, about writing down your anime history, at his blog and I said that would take part in Nopy’s anime history project, and so I will start directly with my experiences with anime, maybe the timeline isn’t 100% accurate but I tried my best. When I was a little child in the late 80’s, Im from germany and at first we had no pay tv at home until I was ten and so my first experiences with anime were a bit limited, we had Alps no Shoujo Heidi, in my Country it was just called Heidi and Chiisana Viking Vickie called Wicky und die starken Männer. I decided to only torture you with the german opening song from Heidi XD.

I liked these shows a lot, I think it were good shows for kids, sometimes these shows are aired even nowadays and sometimes I watch an episode when I find the the time for it.
At this time I didn’t know that these shows were considered anime, and honestly as a child I didn’t really care where these colorful cartoons were coming from.

Then came a the time were our household changed from antenna to satellite tv and the availability of entertainment increased, the channels for kids aired a mix of dubbed anime and US Cartoons were I watched anime like Samurai Pizza cats, Peter Pan no Bōken and so on.

Then the good stuff for kids changed to cable tv (how mean), luckily I met my best friend at primary school, he had cable tv at his home and we were watching shows like Saber Riders
(Sei Jūshi Bismarck) which still has a big cult status in my country. later I learned that the
US company who licensed it altered and americanized a lot in the show like the opening and even the main character changed. The opening really rocks and I still think it is * awesome* ;D

we also watched Mila Superstar (Atakku No. 1) and Captain Tsubasa, Sailor Moon was also aired, but I can’t really remember anymore too bad. After some years I guess it was in 1997 shows like Ranma, Pokemon and Digimon appeared  I felt too old for that kind of shows and wasn’t very interested to watch.

The slowly growing interest

In the years 2003 to 2006 there was a big anime boom in germany. It was the first time were shows aired which were more aimed torwards an older or adult audience.
Shows like Agent Aika, Spirit of Escaflowne, Hellsing, Golden Boy, Cowboy Beebop and Noir . These shows were good and showed me a different kind of anime, very good looking animations and more interesting stories, the things I’ve seen before were all a bit old, I liked Golden Boy and Noir and watched every episode of them.

After the anime boom downturned it was hard to find good shows or better said interesting shows for my taste, so far I only watched passively the anime shows which were being aired ,without searching for shows by myself. In my new school I wasn’t very happy and after I’ve done my homework everyday, I felt totally bored and didn’t know what to do with myself in the afternoon. Out of boredom I created an account at a forum to talk a bit about Hardware,
Games or just for fooling around. One day I noticed that many members of the forum used
Neon Genesis Evangelion related avatars and I became very curious about it, to shorten things up it was the first non dubbed anime show I started to watch and man I loved it. The apocalyptic setting mixed with the epic story was totally overwhelming for me, of course. I also liked the lighthearted parts with the comedy and the few fanservice moments. Around this time I slowly developed my love for anime related music, because it was totally different from the music I’ve known so far.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b3jsyndEBg&feature=fvst
At first reading subtitles while watching was a bit exhausting after two episodes I had enough for one day, but that improved bit by bit and that also was the time where I got addicted to this smooth sounding japanese language, today I can’t really listen to dubbed anime, especially when knowing the original voices I really get a headache when I even try it.

searching on my own

I had no idea where I should search for other shows I could like. my knowledge and sources were, very limited and so I was looking through covers and descriptions to find new animes which could suit my tastes, at first I found very nice but also quite unpopular shows.

The first shows I picked  were Amaenaide yo!! and the sequel Amaenaide yo!! Katsu!! It was a show about a young priest who transfers to the temple of his grandma, where so far only girls where trained. Yeah it was good ecchi comedy but the story was good as well and the informartions about buddism were a nice extra. I liked all girls with their quite different personalities and the interactions  between the characters a lot, Amaenaide yo!! Katsu!! Was a bit better than the prequel but I liked both shows quite a lot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrZN7RzfxCw&feature=related

After I finished  this I wanted more anime, so after some searching here and there I found a show called Magical Pokaan where four princess from the underworld  lived in a treehouse in Japan.

The show had an enchanting character design, the girls were cute and lovely as well as the interactions between them, it was mainly slice of live filled with the different adventures of the girls, a mix of heartwarming and toatally funny episodes,the humor was quite adult sometimes but not too bold in my opinion, a really good show and still a fav of mine, I loved Pachira.
Haha the following video might cause misunderstandings this show isn’t as dark or ero as it seems in the opening, its a very funny and nearly tame anime XD

Another show I found with my aimless searching methods was The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It was so entertaining to watch the hyperactive and moody Haruhi doing strange things, the combination of characters in the SOS Brigade was very great, also the kind of storytelling was pretty unique and interesting.

On the forum I’ve mentioned earlier we had a small anime related thread with just around ten active members, where we talked about the shows we’ve watched and planned to watch.

In this time someone recommended the show Eureka Seven, a 50 episode long show from Bones and that was a really great recommendation. Eureka Seven turned out to be one of the best anime shows I’ve ever watched, it has an epic story in very cool scifi setting, another good part of this show were all the different and interesting characters. in terms of music this is unbeatable with its great and very diversified soundtrack. I bought two DVD Boxes from Beez as soon as they were available here, they have nice extras btw ;D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILokHXPGDvg&feature=related

Anime seems like a lot of fun

I really started to watch anime more seriously as I learned about anime seasons. I started to watch more actual shows in summer and autumm season 2008, there were shows like Toradora, Hyakko, Casshern Sins, Kannagi and Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora with so many new impressions I felt like a kid in the biggest candyshop on earth XD

Going all out

In 2009 I became a big anime fan I had so much fun and watched a whole lot of great shows like, Clannad, Clannad ~After Story~, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Shakugan no Shana, Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen…, but I noticed that I should take things at a slower pace, after all a healthy dosis of anime is neccessary to prevent yourself from loosing interest or burning out your eyes. To keep track of the things I’ve watched and planned to watch I created an account at Myanimelist, there I found a lot of nice people to talk about anime and received recommendations for good anime shows, some of them I still count as the favorite anime shows I’ve ever watched, shows like, Aria the animation, Pani Poni Dash, Shugo Chara!, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Zero no Tsukaima, Lucky Star, Penguin Musume Heart, Nanatsuiro Drops, Toaru Majutsu no Index, Kimi ni Todoke and a few more.
I’ll pick a few where I’d like to write a few words about.

Aria the animation was a great show which I watched in summer 2009, the story takes part on Waterplanet Aqua were humanity build Neo Venecia, a nearly 1:1 copy of the city from earth, there we follow Akari in her training to become a Undine(Gondola pilot). There is a relaxing and somewhat soothing atmosphere in this beautiful and almost real appearing city with it’s kind and friendly inhabitants and tourist. There ar three Seasons of that show and all them were just great, but prepare some tissues for the last episode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRoXge8i5pA&feature=related

Nanatsuiro Drops was a show I picked by chance, the story is about magical girl and first love, it was a romantic and sweet show, honestly it was the cutest show I’ve watched so far and after the last episode I did an instant rewatch because I liked this show a lot. The girl Sumomo really enchanted my manly heart, she’s adorble and moe.

After I realized that I could probably like romantic anime a lot, I searched for the next romantic one and got the Chobits Box, it was a very nice and funny show, but it also had sad and dramatic times, the main topic of love between Cyborg and human was an interesting aspect of it.

Zero no Tsukaima no perfect anime, but I enjoyed it quite a lot, the Harry Potter like setting
was very interesting and the show had a good atmosphere, funny comedy nice fanservice and of course there was the lovely tsundere Louise, voiced by my favorite voice actress Kugimiya, Rie

End

I will end my anime history post here I probably could have written a lot more, about more of my favorite shows, but lets keep it like Im not always on the hunt for the next blockbuster anime to get a new kick, I watch anime because it makes me happy. Im glad that I came in touch with anime even if it was a bit late that I became a real anime fan
sorry for the long text, but it would be nice if some of the shows I’ve mentioned maybe woke up your interest to watch them.

See you…