Eureka 7 is one of the many mecha fusion series. It combines mecha with a long and detailed plot involving a young Renton Thurston. Renton finds himself onboard the Gekko-Go, a ship piloted by HIPPIES IN THE FUTURE who attempt to do good in the style of Beret from Final Fantasy 7.
The basics of the show is as mentioned, in the first few episodes you find our main hero who is a very modest and easy going guy getting together with a group of mercenaries who only do good. They enjoy a sport called “reffing” which is surfing on light particles that at the start of the series have no explanation. He meets a girl named Eureka who seems rather odd, but quickly falls in love. The anime follows his adventures as he discovers the past of his family and those on board the flying assault ship, the Gekko-Go.
The anime is hard to review as it suffers from the fifty episode problem. There are a total of fifty episodes and like most animes, the middle of the series really suffers. The actual plot of the show isn’t introduced until the last fifteen episodes, with the series getting to the half way super serious point around episode twenty five. It’s a very standard anime structure, but this anime isn’t completely standard.
Eureka 7 has a very rich story dealing with a lot of drama. Remember how I said it was a fusion with mecha and other genres? Well, it’s a mecha drama with less focus on the mecha and a lot of focus on the drama. Rarely will you see combat and when it happens it’s generally very brief or used as a focal point for some future drama. This makes it less appealing for those looking for the sci-fi mecha fix, but still doesn’t cause disappointment as the drama is generally well done.
There is a lot of focus on love and pacifism in Eureka 7. This leads to a few stereotypical plot points that kind of make some of the plot lines extremely generic. The whole “I don’t want to fight but have to end this fighting!” comes into play as the series takes a turn for the serious. This is one of the series only down points. The other one is lack of information throughout the series making you wonder what a lot of stuff is about. While a lot of it’s answered later on, not all of it is put together leaving you wondering.
Outside of that, the main character has a solid backbone through most of the series. He doesn’t start off as a magical LFO pilot (LFO being the mechas) but instead has to slowly work on skills. He does of course; gain super LFO piloting skills out of nowhere later on. That is to be expected though.
Animation wise, Eureka 7 is very well animated. There are few filler episodes and those are animated just as well as the other episodes. The colors are crisp and everything is presented in a way that it doesn’t seem out of place. It’s not the best of course, but it’s about what you would expect from Bones.
Overall the series is fantastic containing a ton of “HECK YEAH” moments. It does contain some generic plot points (mostly the pacifism) but that is well done as well. Some of the characters do become annoying but there is a ton of depth and richness inside of the vast story. While not every episode is awesome (or even interesting), the series is very worth watching.
As a side note, from what I have seen of the dub, it may be best to avoid it and just pick up the DVDs. The original Japanese voices are much better then what I’ve heard of the dubs. There may still be the dvd sets available to contain cool swag.
Overall Rating: 8/10
Pros:
Rich Story
Lots of Character Depth
Tons of “awww” and “Heck Yeah!” moments.
Cons:
Generic plot lines.
Episodes with little or not advancement.
Actual core plot doesn’t take place until later in the series.
