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Eureka Seven: Surfing, Robots, Surfing Robots, and Young Love

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Guest Review by Lothos

I went in to Eureka Seven knowing next to nothing about it. All I really knew is that it had aired on Cartoon Network and had something to do with a young guy, some girl, robots, and something like surfing. I was pleasantly surprised by the series; it just got better the more I watched. It’s brought to us by Studio Bones, the same group who did Fullmetal Alchemist, Sword of the Stranger, Wolf’s Rain, and Darker than Black. Eureka Seven, like the other shows I mentioned, takes a bit of a dark streak towards the end, which I was not expecting given that the overall tone of the story is rather light.

I will say that it shared quite a few similarities with Neon Genesis Evangelion. From characters to themes, you can easily draw comparisons between the two. Renton can easily be compared to Shinji, though much more likeable. Eureka of course to Rei. Holland is kinda like Kaji without the spy part, but just being a badass and awesome in general. Talho is very similar to Misato. Then you have the bridge bunnies; Gidget, Matthieu, Hap, etc. filling the roles of Maya, Hyuga, and Aoba. Mischa is a bit less sinister version of Ritsuko. Anemone I feel is a pretty close analog of Asuka. Dewey is a slightly more demented version of Gendo. The Council of the Sages is Selee. The Scub Coral can also be compared to the angels. You also have giant robots, with the Nirvash being pretty comparable to unit 01. Characters aside, there are also quite a few similar thematic elements and styles between Eureka Seven and Evangelion. Without giving away too much, the Scub Coral really are much like the angels in terms of their purpose in the series. There are some times of trippy introspection and metaphoric symbolism thrown in. There is also the theme, though definitely not unique to Evangelion, of a boy having to save the world with his robot. Things seem to get more tragic as the series progresses as well, with some characters falling into periods of deep depression to the point of being suicidal and hating their existence in general.

Despite all of these similarities, I still fell Eureka Seven is its own series and wasn’t trying to make itself like Evangelion for the sake of being like Evangelion. One might be tempted to think of Eureka Seven as Evangelion-Lite, I know I was at the start, but this would be doing the series an injustice as it really is great on its own. I just wanted to go ahead and get the Evangelion comparison out of the way since if you’ve seen it, you’ll likely see the same similarities I saw. I also wanted to stress that despite on the surface it having so many similarities it is not trying to be another Evangelion.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #060

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I received a copy of Oh! My Brother 1, one of the latest series coming from CMX, and by the same manga-ka as their other recent release, The Name of the Flower. This short two book series revolves around Masago who is rather average in all things and her brother Shiro who is rather extraordinary in all things. When Shiro loses his life saving Masago from a speeding truck, he doesn’t actually go away. In fact, his spirit gets implanted in Masago so he can help her and take care of some unfinished business on Earth. Masago is tied between blaming herself, feeling inferior to her brother, and helping him because she loved him so much. And she is in love with his best friend. Sure that sounds complicated but the story is rather tame, it’s unclear whether or not Masago will really change or grow, in this first book she doesn’t seem to. The story is not surprisingly, rather silly and highly dramatic at times but never seems to do either extremely well. With this premise I expected the comedy to be turned up much higher. I found this better than The Name of the Flower but on the whole it is just a serviceable little series. 

I am very curious to see what my friends that started Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 at the same time I did have to say about the series as a whole. It was an excellent show with a unique premise. By taking such a tremendous but mundane event as a major earthquake you get all the power and excitement of a fantastical plot but with all the weight of story feeling of reality. The major divide in people’s feelings will come with the fact that each third of the series has a different feel. The last third will either make some viewers claim it as one of their favorite series of the year or it will make them walk away feeling very disappointed or even betrayed. It is an ending that has to be experienced fresh for maximum impact. Therefore I suggest you avoid spoilers for this show until you finish it and then let the actuality wash over you. No matter how you feel about the ending you can not deny that it made you feel something. Continue reading →

New York Anime Festival 2009

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Everyone’s question was would NYAF live up to, exceed, or fail compared to the two previous conventions? There was quite a bit of talking with the announcement that NYAF would join with NYCC for 2010 so there was also the question of what would NYAF do as its last year as an independent convention? Although those are all pressing questions my main question was if I was going to have fun? Was I going to be able to do as much as I wanted to? We were also running two panels one of which had a lot of people looking forward to it. The Bloggers Roundtable had some big names on the marquee but it was a the first time we ever ran the panel. I had the most expectations for the panel because I felt it could succeed or fail so much more than any of our previous panels. On top of all that I had two guests staying at my humble abode during the convention so I had to play host as well as press.

It was no secret that we were looking forward to New York Anime Festival, probably more than any other con previously thanks to a killer guest, director Yoshiyuki Tomino. This sent NYAF which I always enjoy but never as much as say Otakon right to the front of the line this year. That being said, the rest of the con experience remained the same though I was happy to see quite a few license announcements this year. Since NYAF’s space has basically stayed the same from its first year, there weren’t too many surprises but that also means it still has some of the same problems. Javits, is Javits, its a bit of a walk from the train, the hotels, and most food. Though it also means that for the most part events went off without a hitch and things seemed to be well in hand with the staff.

The convention for me started on Thursday night since most of my main convention group went to see the Eureka Seven movie. Although not officially a part of the convention experience it felt like a great way to spend an evening before the big show. The movie itself was bizarre. I will never forget the line, “I am an enemy alien spy robot” as long as I live. It was a visually appealing movie but otherwise a utter train wreck. I appreciated their attempt to do something new with the original story but their execution left something to be desired. Though I was happy to watch a film with my friends and be able to talk about it afterward because I often feel like I hardly watch any anime at anime conventions. On Friday morning my two guests the spectacular OGT, the amazing PatzPrime, plus the remarkable SDShamshel all met up and went to the Javits center early to get Tomino autograph tickets. We were all a little worried when we heard that people were already starting to line up at 7am. We finally arrived at 10 and got progressively worried when we saw how the VIP line was growing but we were able to get our autograph tickets. Since we got there before the con officially started getting our press badges was a snap. We all went for some delicious Go Go Curry before starting the convention. Starting the con with curry is a tradition I could get behind.

Once again, the staff of NYAF as far as tickets goes were on top of it. Not a moment more than one was I in line for my press badge, which incidentally looks very different this year. This goes for the weekend con badges and VIP ones as well and only half for individual day passes. I’m not sure what to make of them, on the one hand I really like the hard plastic but on the other hand the badges aren’t very fun. Maybe that sounds like a stupid complaint, but too bad, many of us have a grand time trying to guess what show or characters will appear on the badges before going to a con. The speculations can even spawn forum threads, so it has become a popular and expected part of anime conventions. And I was surprised to not at the very least see the badges sporting the logo from this year’s contest winner. Since I never made it to the convention center before opening time, I have no idea what the lines looked like but from the massive crowds on Saturday I can imagine there was a pretty good wait in the morning. However, panels seemed to be well organized in this regard though having a press badge prevented any problems for me. The Javits space allotted for NYAF was insufficient for Saturday but was tolerable on Friday and Sunday. Happily this mean the Tomino panel was rightfully full.

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