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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Eureka Seven

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13:01 / 01.04.07

Got to admit, I totally missed Darren Emerson. Maybe it was the fansub I saw. Where was he?

Mysterious Transfer Student

14:46 / 01.04.07

It's in the scene in episode 34 ("Inner Flight") where Moondoggie takes over from Talho as pilot of the Gekko-Go, and produces his pilot's licence; there's a momentary close-up of the document in question revealing his real name, Michael Darren Emmerson. It just crystallised the wonderfully witty attitude the series has towards the particular strains of pop culture that form its base.

Very pleased that this thread has led to people getting so much enjoyment out of the show. For me, it's the first major anime series in this vein since Evangelion to move its protagonist and characterisation out of that show's shadow and succeed in telling a story that, while brutally realistic in the sense of the unhappiness and trauma its characters endure, is nonetheless overwhelmingly filled with optimism and hope. I think that's the real reason I invoked Grant Morrison's name in my opening post - despite his many faults, he's the undisputed master of the "everything's alright forever" happy ending, and it takes guts to write a story that way.

In fact the only thing I didn't like about this show is that we never got to see Holland and Talho's baby! A serious omission.

15:16 / 01.04.07

And Renton/Eureka's baby. Am I wrong?

15:17 / 01.04.07

Although for the aforementioned reasons I doubt they would have shown it.

Mysterious Transfer Student

15:38 / 01.04.07

True, although Eureka's being pregnant was more implied than ever shown - Talho's pregnancy was more of a story arc and, to be honest, part of the relationship that I really wanted to see pay off. Holland's survival and redemption wasn't a certainty for me during the series, whereas Renton and Eureka's kinda was; so I was keener to see his and Talho's happy ending.

The real mega-happy moment for me, out of this whole epic show, was seeing Axel Thurston and his pal survive on after delivering the new board for the Nirvash. I loved that character so much and was about to throw the series if they decided to sacrifice him.

Here's a terrific interview (in PDF format) where Dai Sato talks about his scheme of naming characters - Axel is, genuinely, named for Axl Rose since Guns'N'Roses are what he considers "oldest generation" music. Another reminder that the world of anime can be terribly ageist at times.

16:52 / 01.04.07

That Sato interview is great. I'm blown away by what was achieved considering the amount of cooks involved:

"In the case of 'Eureka Seven' there was a director who wanted something that reflected the music and subculture of his generation - and a love story. The producer said we need transforming robots that fight each other. The sponsor said the show much come on at 7:00 on Sunday morning, and that it should be for kids. Also there must be fifty episodes. Everyone had to be satisfied."

I love the fact that it was aimed at children just waking up and an adults who were just coming home from clubbing. But really, to spin gold from the creative/financial concerns of so many people really shows off how good a writer Sato can be and how commerce doesn't have to interfere with quality.

Sato really, really respects children's intelligence.

Lots of meat there on the current state of the industry that would make good Primer thread discussion material.

05:37 / 02.04.07

The sponsor said the show much come on at 7:00 on Sunday morning, and that it should be for kids.

right, for kids, with all the death and blood and metaphysical subplots and stuff.......its not overfiend or anything, but on occasion its a heck of a lot darker than spongebob

uncle retrospective

12:00 / 02.04.07

Plus my dub of it had some hardcore swearing going on.
I can't beleieve it is a kids show how did they get away with that?

21:02 / 03.04.07

Finally!

I've gotten the whole season through the door and I'm just about to settle back down to it.
I'm about halfway through, at the bit where Renton meets the husband and wife team in the red and blue mechs.

I know that within a couple of minutes I'm going to be sucked right back in to this wonderful show.

22:20 / 03.04.07

iamus, i am jealous of what you are about to re-experience

and yes, the swearing, were the translations a bit harsher then the original language?

22:28 / 03.04.07

Adult Swim air the show in america:

The series made its televised debut on Adult Swim on April 15, 2006. In Canada, it debuted on YTV's Bionix block on September 8, 2006 at 9:30pm, and it now airs at 11:00pm. Beginning with episode 26, Adult Swim began airing an additional parental advisory warning for extreme violence before each episode. In keeping with Adult Swim's practice of making jokes in such warnings, the warnings claim that they would rather air the episodes uncut since they are "American Cowboys."

via wikipedia.......

22:44 / 03.04.07

iamus, i am jealous of what you are about to re-experience

It's better than that. I only got halfway through and had to wait a month or so until I was able to see the rest.

I still have the whole second half of the series to see for the first time.

16:15 / 04.04.07

Very envious. I really want to rewatch this show, but there's a lot of other stuff I have to get around to first. I was working my way through it with someone who hadn't seen it before but it looks like that's by the wayside. Might be a while before I can get rid of the E7 envy I'm feeling right now.

03:10 / 08.04.07

You know, it just gets better and better and better.

Not. A. Dud. Episode.

03:11 / 08.04.07

Really don't want to discuss this 'till it's done.

03:38 / 08.04.07

nobody tell iamus that eureka is rentons father,

ok?

15:35 / 10.04.07

How much further have you got to go iamus?

I just rewatched the final two episodes yesterday, choked back the intense weepiness as I don't think Dad would understand his near-thirty year old son crying at a cartoon.

20:39 / 10.04.07

Avoiding spoilers as best as, I've seen the high priest of the Voderak topless and gotten substantial bits of information on Holland's connections with Dewey and Diane.

I think that's about episode 37 or so.

I love this show. I love how everything gets deeper and wider the further into it you get and the way the characters have transformed from archetypes into fully-fledged people, exactly the way they would have coming from Renton's POV, as idolatry slowly transforms into personal experience.

The only thing getting me through many long nights at work recently is the promise of Eureka 7 when I get home.

20:43 / 10.04.07

It's convinced me (though it's pretty much been said hereabouts before) that the Japanese are the current masters of long-form dramatic television.

Essential Dazzler

22:42 / 10.04.07

One of my favourite things about Eureka Seven is how many things about it's cosmology/philosophy/history are left totally unsaid.

Perversely, it's one of the things that helped me see it's fictional universe as an almost tangible one. No amount of rewatching the series will help with fine details that you didn't get after the first few times. It isn't a world in which people wander around throwing out complex explanations of who said god is and why he's worshipped etc.

It felt far more complete for leaving so many unexplained details in canon.

I suppose that makes it technically brilliant Sci-Fi, it posits a world that does not exist, and expects you to roll with it, but it never leaves anything unexplained in a wy that makes the story and themes obtuse.

03:32 / 11.04.07

brilliant!!!!!

SPOILER BELOW!!!!!!!!!!!

like the way i didn't ever assume they were not on earth, until suddenly there was a map of earth given as a mythical location....

Essential Dazzler

20:35 / 11.04.07

Spotting Pacific State's drunkposts 101

He will use words that he doesn't know the meaning of, like "Obtuse" and "Posit", and make little sense.

He will then feel thouroughly ashamed.

23:03 / 11.09.07

Damn yoooou,Barbelith! Now I've got another show to watch. I blame the Leeron/Eureka cosplay.

Rave passed me by,so the music references go over my head. Sorry :-).

This is not an easy show to watch. Not because of the gore or obtuse plot — it's kittens and puppies compared to NGE — it's because I was wincing and cringing in utter sympathy with Renton in almost every single situation.

The teasing. Wholly inappropriate crushes. Not being treated seriously. Embarrassment. The cluelessness with girls. The sheer indignity of taking something seriously,thinking you were gaining the trust of the whole group,when it was just an exercise in humiliating you.
I went through all that,and Renton encapsulates it so well it was hurtful to watch him go through it;I could only watch ep. 7 in short bursts. It's a tribute to his VA that he sounds like a real 14-year-old boy — I thought it was the same as Naruto's,but he's voiced by Yuko Sanpei.

The rest of the characters are just as well-rendered;they act like real people. Even Talho,who in any other show would be the source of gratuitous fanservice,acts believably. She's sexy because it is part of her,not all of her,IYSWIM.

Currently watching 10,and I'm actually saying aloud,"No,man,no. Can't you see she's worried? Don't...will he?...augh." at Renton's extended critical fumble with Eureka.

Mysterious Transfer Student

13:47 / 12.09.07

This is not an easy show to watch. Not because of the gore or obtuse plot — it's kittens and puppies compared to NGE *

You say you're on episode 10?

Ahahahahahaha. You have no idea. I sure hope you didn't read this thread in depth before watching the series.

I'd say that I put this show on the same pedestal as NGE in terms not just of emotional trauma and depth of feeling, or of narrative/philosophical complexity, if it weren't for that in my opinion E7 actually eclipses its predecessor for its capacity for unalloyed joy. Renton is the greatest teenage male protagonist I've ever seen in an anime show and the fact that you identify with the humiliations he endures in the first story arc only means that you'll be with him 100% when the real trials begin. Just wait until FAC-51...

I won't say anymore to avoid spoilage, but I do recommend reading Seth's mega-post on page one once you've completed the series - he's got a far more complete perspective than I on the multi-dimensional greatness of this show.

17:15 / 12.09.07

When pronouonced with a Japanese accent, Holland sounds like *Orlando*

Coincidence? Not if you replaced the letter C with the initials GM and spelled it backwards...

EMGNEDIMGNIOMG: the secret name that summons wankers.

21:09 / 12.09.07

Watching 15 now.

It is beginning to show its darker side. There was a moment in ep. 10 where they forcibly revealed the other side of being a freewheeling anarchist by storming the old lady's flat;I think my heart fell in unison with Renton's.

I wasn't too surprised at the appearance of Anemone - TEH REI is almost an archetype now. Effective way of hinting at Eureka's origin,too.

What is (pleasantly) surprising is that it doesn't change the characters to suit the plot. You feel like you know these people,what they'd do in such-and-such situation,and you're often right,but even when you're wrong it doesn't seem too unexpected;it's simply a natural extension of their character. And that's quality.

Ultimate Secret Technique for avoiding spoilers: simply take off glasses and scroll to the last post,then read cautiously. :-)

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

07:29 / 26.09.07

I haven't read the whole thread as I haven't finished watching the show yet - and normally that would mean I wouldn't post on it. But I just watched episode 32 a few hours ago (I've worked out that if I get up by half five I can watch a couple of episodes of normal length anime and still make it to work on time), and my absolute love for the show, which has been steadily building, must now know expression.

The part of the episode in which Holland finally puts aside his emotional armour and stops presenting himself as essentially a bit of git, had me in tears, and feeling little tingles of pure joy. It was so beautiful seeing a character who previously I hadn't liked much, but who'd for some time seemed to have a very decent man buried somewhere inside of him suddenly flower into someone who seems like the sort of proper hero one can look up, and who's people willingly and happily follow him, not because they think he's cool, or because he cows them into submission, but because it's the right thing to do, and because he's worth following. Of course I've no idea whether that transformation will hold - for all I know Holland might do something awful in the next five minutes of the very next episode that'll make me completely hate him, but right now I'm basking in the glow of that last episode and enjoying it immensely.

I imagine I'll say a lot more once I've finished watching the show and reading the thread, but I just felt like I was going to burst if I didn't express a bit of love for the show in general and Episode 32 right now, and I don't know anyone in meat-space who's watching that I can babble to, so I hope I can be forgiven for posting without reading this once.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

18:19 / 26.09.07

Meant episode 33, not 32. Sorry about that.

Mysterious Transfer Student

12:34 / 28.09.07

Hey, Shiny - and Razors - no apology required for posting mid-series. It's always great to hear a different perspective on a show you've already finished watching.

It's after about episode 33 (so fantastic was it, that it inspired one poster around here to change his screen name permanently in tribute) that a lot of the details of the E7 cosmology start to be filled in, the stakes are raised and the tone of the show changes. I'd compare it in style to the last act of a classic JRPG - and I stand by my comparison to Final Fantasy VII - if that didn't make the show sound far more trivial than it is. I mean, the stuff with Norb alone - but I'd wager you're already into that story. And yes, Holland's personal journey is inspiring.

Keep posting, at your leisure.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

16:51 / 29.09.07

By the way anyone who could tell where I might be able to get hold of the absolutely fantastic soundtrack would earn vast quantities of my gratitude. I want Eureka 7 on my MP3 player dammit!

Mysterious Transfer Student

17:11 / 29.09.07

Yes, the music is great, especially the fourth opening theme. So isn't it about time you signed up to gendou.com?

Alternatively, check your PMs.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

19:21 / 29.09.07

Cheers much appreciated. And agreed about the 4th opening theme - it's so damn climactic isn't it? From the first beat, you just know the series is heading to an explosive conclusion soon. Meanwhile, I've just finished watching episode 44, and have such been dragged kicking and screaming into the full force of the NGE level horror of the Dominic-Anemone plot, which is at this point fast becoming every bit as compelling as the main plot right now. Now of course I’m faced with a dilemma, with only six episodes to go, I’m torn between burning through all of them in one sitting as soon as possible and stretching them out for as long as I can. I suspect I’m going to be greeting the end of the series with equal parts joy and distress that it’s all over. So far this is rapidly becoming my favourite piece of entertainment. Although entertainment seems like far too trivial a word for it really. It’s entertainment, but also art, and perhaps even therapy of a sorts in my book. It’s no exaggeration to say at this point that this show actually makes me feel like being a better person, it’s that amazing.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

11:51 / 01.10.07

BESTEST ENDING EVAH!!!!!!1!!!!

Mor once my reason and powers of communication return. Right now my level is little squeeking noises of joy, and happy sobs to go with the happy tears.

Essential Dazzler

21:51 / 04.04.08

I ordered one of the Special edition DVD sets, and the T-Shirt is far too large for little old me, and Haloquin despises the colour. Who wants it?
Front:

eureka2

eureka3

Back:

eureka1

It's an American Large, and YOU can have it for nothing, because I love you.

EDIT: It's greyer IRL.

uncle retrospective

21:58 / 04.04.08

I wish that would fit me.

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