well,good review
Eureka 7 tv Review
Renton Thurston is a dreamer. His idol is a Ref Boarder named Holland, from an organisation named
Gekko State. Holland and the other members of Gekko State pilot giant mech's called LFOs (Light
Finding Operation). Renton reads of Gekko State's exploits in a magazine called ray=out, and dreams
of someday joining them. Renton even bought a replica of Holland's ref board and practices every
day to become a ref boarding champion like Holland.
It seems ref boarding is the only escape for Renton who works for his grandfather, Axel Thurston,
in the small town of Belforest. Until one day a LFO, piloted by a strange and beautiful girl,
crashes into Renton's home. This is where Renton Thurston's adventure begins...
Credits: fluke
Story & Characters
Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven, commonly known to anime peeps by Eureka seveN is an original studio production and conceptualized by BONES. Released in 2007, Eureka seveN is all about one near-humanoid mecha as big as a two-storey house that is seemingly wearing a biker's helmet that is capable of surfing in the air, a mysterious pale chick, an ambitious kid, a group of outlaws fighting against practically the world.
So far so good? Good. When I say mecha, maybe animes like Gundam series, Evangelion, Tengen Toppa, Macross or whatever anime that falls right into that genre will cross your mind. Mind you, I'm an avid Gundam mecha fangirl (yes, fangirl, you heard me right) so when I heard the news about Eureka seveN being a really hot anime two years back I did not even bother checking up what the heck is this anime was being so hot about. Well, half of it was that my mindset was stuck to the silly little fact in my little head which is seemingly saying that nothing beats Gundams , especially RX-92 but yeah, you get the point. I was still living in this little silly planet of mine when I suddenly had the chance to browse the scans of the characters in Eureka seveN and I realised, "Heck, did hip-hop invaded this anime or something? They look cool!" I've only gotten the chance to get my hands on this anime few weeks ago and sweeeeet. You will not regret watching this, mecha fans.
The whole story takes place in a planet which is NOT known as Earth for as far as I know, and there is an invisible particle which exists in the air known as Transparent Light Particle, commonly referred to as Trapar. Because of this special particle which exists abundantly in the air, a popular sport unique only to this planet known as Reffing came to life, and people make use of the Trapar in the air by using a board called Ref Board and they will be able to surf in the air. Trapar riders are known as Ref Boarders, and Holland is really good at this thing. But that is not the only special thing in this planet. The existence of the Scub Coral, an intelligent sentient life which has merged itself with the planet has caused the planet to form a solid wave-like terrains which is also the reason why Trapar is abundant in the air. The mechas in Eureka seveN are known as Light Finding Operations (LFOs) while the military ones are known as Kraft Light Fighters (KLFs) for unmentioned reasons. The first LFO, the Nirvash typeZERO was excavated from the Scub Coral and has since been the model for all the LFOs that now exists in the planet. LFOs and KLFs, if not in their humanoid mecha form, are capable of transforming into a vehicle-like mecha which is useful when you are traversing in an area where Trapar is not or least exists in the air. These mechas are created from the idea of Ref Boarding and yes, these mechas ride the waves too.
Our 15-year-old hero Renton Thurston looks up to Holland so much because of his awesome ref boarding skills and dreams one day to join his group known as Gekko State. On one funny night, an LFO known as typeZero practically landed on his house and was rooted by the appearance of this mysterious pale girl which emerged from the cockpit. He eventually joined Gekko State but this group of wave riders are not your ordinary wave riders.
Honestly, the idea of mecha on a surfing board fighting in the air and on water (mostly in the air) is a pretty neat
concept. Ever since the earliest mecha came into popularity in Japan (Which was it? Gundam? Mazinger?) Mecha designers
have been competing by adding stronger weapons or design a really stunning looking mechas. But Eureka seveN is nothing
like that. Mecha on a surf board? This is first! Concept impresses me. Story gets a bit cliched to the end
though.
Rating:
Art
In this section, Art basically means Character Design and Mecha Design. For me anyway. So I would be talking about these 2. That's the good thing of reviewing mecha anime, you will always have the extra chance of crapping about how bad or how good this or that mecha is and whatnot.
Character Design
The first thing that comes into mind when you look at the characters of Eureka seveN, FLEXIBILITY. Yes, flexibility. I'm not talking about the flexibility in gymnasts by the way. The design of the characters, almost all of them looks dynamic. Every character has a given way of acting. Not like, okay this is the standard stance I'd be using for my characters, they will all look the same-- NO. For character design, it is necessary that your characters are standing, well unless you gave him/her a special reason not to, otherwise they stand. When we think of standing, yeah everybody can stand, nothing so special about standing. But Eureka seveN character designer has done a great job giving each character not only distinctive attitude and appearances, but also the way they stand, they way they are going to act and all other actions you can think of CLEARLY. Now go and search for some character scans for Eureka seveN and you'll see it. They're all dynamic.
Do I sound like I'm making a really normal thing in an anime sounds like a really big thing? Good. I apologize beforehand if I'm getting a bit unnecessarily detailed but yeah, please do read on. Anyway, for all the dynamical stuffs that I've been talking about for one long paragraph, I'm only trying to say that it is because the character designer is Yoshida Ken'ichi, who is from Studio Ghibli. If you have watched Studio Ghibli's anime features, I'm sure you recognise the kind of characters that are in it. Well, for most of the features that have been released.
To conclude this section, dynamic is good. Yoshida Ken'ichi is good. Reffing is a sports, of course dynamic exists in sports. A normal character design is o-kay for sports anime but to me, the flexibility which exists in Yoshida Ken'ichi character designs adds a bit more life to the characters and makes them more varied and distinguishable. Me likes. I give this part an 8.
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Mecha Design
Wao mecha design! Talking about real mecha design makes me excited. It is a plus when reviewing a mecha anime since you do not get the chance to crap about it in other genre.
For mecha fans, I'm sure you know whats Super Robot and Real Robot. And fortunately for Real Robot fans and for me too, Eureka seveN falls into the category of Real Robot though it shares the similarity of the more humanoid form of Real Robot with Evangelion, except that Eureka seveN's do not make you puke when they are destroyed and they ride the longboards in order to stay airborne.
In terms of designs, the Nirvashes and Terminus B-303 Devilfish are the decent looking LFOs I've seen so far while the rest are well, enough to make sure we don't actually need to pay that much attention to it. I really like the colour codes for Nirvash typeZERO. Colour black, white and red feels and looks sporty so yeah, its awesome. The same goes for typeThe END and Devilfish with colour black and silver respectively. Their one-coloured LFOs but at least they stand out A LOT compared to the smallfries used by the military (Ah I've always wanted to say that lol).
Although the only thing I don't find impressing is the fact that LFOs are not really a heavily-armed mecha which blast through enemy's mother ships with all those fancy guns and unimaginably big swords. The only impressive thing I can find in an LFO is their ability to transform into a vehicle form, they are Trapar riders with the longboards and they can perform tricks Ref Boarders do with their boards. Their weapons and attacks? Nah. The standard weapons for an LFO would be the boomerang knife, and the boomerang knife. You heard me. Gekko State members will equip their LFOs with laser canons or guns but they are not really all that fancy and unique. The LFOs and KLFs are special for being able to be maneuvered as if they are ref boarding, but weapons are pretty... normal and most of them are not even named. Anemone did a great job naming her attacks, which is never known whether she named it herself or thats what written in the manual but yeah, you get what I mean. I'd give this section an 7.5.
Overall its 7.75 but lets just convert that to 8.
Rating:
Sound
When it comes to sound, few things come to mind. A little bit of Voice Casting and OST (OP and ED included).
a little bit of Voice Casting
Seriously, we all know Japanese voice actors are superb in what they do. And we will never forget to catch the end credit just to catch the list of voice actors behind the characters. Admit it, we all do that. For most of us anyway :p Okay, the only thing worth mentioning in my honest opinion, is Fujiwara Keiji who voiced Holland. Fujiwara Keiji, the man who always voice the characters who has an air of witty adult, if not just humorously witty. I seriously love almost every character that he voiced.
I honestly don't know the rest of the voice actors in Eureka seveN, and yeah they did a great job in their roles but the voice actor behind Anemone, Koshimizu Ami is worth mentioning. Anemone the Libby. She's like Mandy from Totally Spies, except Anemone kicks ass and is more pleasant than Mandy, and she do not have two girls who will follow her around and nod to everything she says. I really like how she voiced Anemone because mainly from her voice alone, you know she sounds tough, she is not afraid to voice her mind, and she's one tough cookie.
Original Soundtracks, Openings and Endings
OSTs
Original soundtracks. Eureka seveN's soundtracks can be pretty awesome. Some of the inserts are even amazing. Eureka seveN is pretty much to the hip side of music. Though what makes me truly remembers Eureka seveN's music is the inserts. Storywriter and Get It by Your Hands are among the noticeable amazing inserts in Eureka seveN and they are cool, with the latter being a techno song itself. Not much to say.
Most of us love anime songs. We have the habit of after having heard of any anime's OP or ED and run to Google and start typing 'this anime's ED or OP title' and download them. We put them into our music playlist beside David Cook (thats me, haha) and sing along with the artist even though for most of the cases, we can barely understand what are they singing. But for most of the cases, most of the OPs lyrics makes sense and are relevant to the storyline compared to the EDs. Like I said, unecessary details. Here's full of it. Anyway, list of their OPs and EDs:
OPs
1. Days by Flow
2. Shonen Heart by Home Made Kazoku
3. To the Center of the Sun by Bivattchee
4. Sakura by Nirgilis
I admit, the first time I heard Eureka seveN's first OP wasn't from the anime itself (Super Robot Wars Z in PS2 LOL). Anyway, OP. I personally like the animation of the OP and how they made them run along with the lyrics. I never miss an OP from this series since they made a lot of sense. Like my lecturer said, you'll miss a part of your life if you miss watching any OP from this series. Cold joke I know.
If you gave me the assignment of telling you the story of Eureka seveN by music alone, I will just throw you the OPs and ask you to listen to them in order. You'll probably get how the mood of the story goes from listening. Seriously, OP makes a lot of sense and they help you a lot to make sure you feel very inspired and prepared to go straight into the content, personally thinking, in Eureka seveN. The first few chapters from the beginning introduces how Renton mixes with the Gekko State members and how they make fun of him. The atmosphere is pretty relaxed so Days by Flow is pretty fitting for the carefree few introductory chapters.
As the story continues and we concentrate on the character development, Home Made Kazoku kicks in with Shonen Heart. With a jazzy beat and a more serious beat compared to the tropical drum beats in Days, we know the story gets a bit serious from here. It does get a bit serious in the series as Renton tries to search what he truly believes in, and what his goals in the story is.
After that, we are served with the very fast beat of To the Center of the Sun by Bivattchee. Electric guitar shows how confident and strong the story has gone. In the series Renton has gotten matured a bit, and has come back with a resolution.
Then moving on to the peak of the story, we are then dished with Sakura by Nirgilis. Every story has the dark shadows that the hero has to overcome in the end where he/she/they become the hope of the world assigned to destroy that very darkness. This particular OP is special for they even insert 'Amazing Grace' into its lyrics. If you know Amazing Grace, I'm sure you know how it sounds like -- hopeful, thankful. In the series, Renton and Gekko State begins to move against the world to do what is right.
EDs
1. Secret Base by Takada Kozue
2. Fly Away by Izawa Asami
3. Tip Taps Tip by Halcali
4. Canvas by Coolon
Forget the animation, they don't make sense (Not a lot of anime EDs animation make sense do they?) The ED songs were pretty okay and they go along with the storyline as well, though not as much as the OP does but still they do make some senses of their own by concluding each chapter of the series with respected endings. Not much to say seriously.
Rating:
Presentation
The first impression of watching this anime, I was like "Wao, this is so cool! Surfing is cool! Holland is cool! Damn!"
Eureka seveN is pretty cool. The concept of reffing is good. I really like watching how Holland and Renton handle their own LFOs performing tricks and evading attacks so skillfully just by using a single board. I bet Tarzan gliding through the branches must have come from surfing. The art department comes out pretty strong in overall, music comes second. Oh, and one more thing, the character designs are pretty deceiving if you realise that. I've always thought Moondoggie and Holland were cool people. And I was hugely surprised after seeing their real selves in Gekko-go. Holland can be quite the funny guy at times if he's not out there exercising 'domestic violence' on poor little Renton.
The story development kinda puts me off a little. It is enjoyable where the main characters are renegades going against the military but as the story goes on, the character developments gets a bit all mushy and if not stifling. And if I am allowed to say this here, the ending killed the whole series. I was about to die from embarrassment after looking at the hilarious ending I just can't stand it. Makes my hair stand literally.
Overall, Eureka seveN is a good experiment on making mecha surf. Characters are fresh and man do they know how to dress themselves. Music is cool. Storyline is pretty average.
I'd give it 7.5 Lets deal with 8.
Rating:
Final Verdict
7.1667 (above average)
Reviewed by Ephemeral-Garden, Sep 22, 2009
Comments
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Fanatik007 Sep 23, 2009
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emina07 Mute Member Sep 26, 2009
tnx for the review
merged: 09-26-2009 ~ 03:42pm
tnx for the review -
Onlyrockman Sep 29, 2009
In my opinion, it's a bit long with 50 eps. The movie is really good! Looking forth to your review of it!
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emina07 Mute Member Sep 29, 2009
...
merged: 09-29-2009 ~ 02:25pm
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rukasu04 Mute Member Oct 05, 2009
o_o'
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angelbell00 Restricted Member Oct 11, 2009
I think Eureka Senven is worth at least a 9.75 but nice review
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Warpten29 Oct 12, 2009
great anime...ill watch it.
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Bertha0402 Oct 13, 2009
love the art!
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salmaGX Oct 13, 2009
nice one
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vangjlee Oct 14, 2009
great anime...
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mona12 Oct 17, 2009
nice anime
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SchRita Oct 27, 2009
Thanks for the review!
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rukasu04 Mute Member Nov 10, 2009
Thanks
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animalandia Nov 13, 2009
Que buen aporte gracias por tu paciencia
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Akaiken Feb 07, 2010
Of course... that's our lovely mecha fangirl Ephie! XD
Good job! ;)
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SchRita Aug 27, 2010
Very detailed!
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Chikaru-chan Jun 23, 2012
This anime is really great!
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