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  • Adorkable:
    • Renton's awkward and blushing around those he admires, and is nonetheless adorable despite it.
    • Dominic's serious and blunt about his work, but is just adorable when he's lost or if he's looking dreamily at Anemone.
  • Arc Fatigue: The Mine Arc, where the crew is trying to repair the Gekko, which ranges from roughly Episodes 15-20. Most of the episodes include a lot of Angst on the parts of Renton and Eureka and Holland's abusive behavior towards Renton reaches its upper limits. Fortunately, the Charles and Ray Arc begins almost directly after, which is where the series begins to pick up in steam again, which it manages to maintain for the remainder of the plot.
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Holland is the biggest example, as the fanbase is pretty evenly split on whether he effectively redeems himself in the second half of the series for his abusive Jerkass behavior in the first half or not.
    • Talho. Some find her irritating, which was not helped by her actions in episode 4 where she worked Renton like a housemaid and punished him for a financial outcome he had no control over. However, some give her slack for being the only member of the Gekkostate who is willing to call Holland out on his Jerkass behavior.
    • Renton himself in the early episodes. Viewers will either see him as The Woobie and a likable, engaging lead character, or a Wangsty brat who surpasses Shinji Ikari in being a depressive wuss who has no business being in the line of work he's in.
    • Dewey. Many see him as he was intended, a Hate Sink with ambition up the wazoo that gets scores of innocents killed for stupid reasons, himself included. However, with the dark developments in sequel Eureka Seven: AO, Dewey's actions in hindsight look far more like those of a Well-Intentioned Extremist... but still unforgivable nonetheless.
  • Broken Base: Fan reaction to Hi-Evolution 1 has been sketchy. There are a lot of people upset to see some characters cut from the apparent reboot and some steep changes that mess with the original story, and many who were salty when it became known that only around the first 30 minutes of the film and the last few minutes were new animation and material and the rest was just a repackaging of the original series around the second season. As for Hi-Evolution 2, people are wondering what in the world is going on with the story because the promos are darting in all different directions and suggesting a new universe, the old one, the reboot, and a weird soccer match between the mecha across all the various series incarnations.
  • Complete Monster: Dewey Novak put his top fighter Anemone and multiple girls like her through torturous experiments to make them Tyke Bomb soldiers. Anemone was the only survivor, but her mind was severely damaged. In order to gain support for his war efforts, Dewey engineers enormous levels of civilian casualties, using the Coralians as a scapegoat to convince humanity they cannot coexist and must wipe out the Coralians. His motivation is that his world domination plans have no place for the Coralians. He is also motivated by a petty grudge with his younger brother Holland, and he even prepared to destroy the universe should he fail.
  • Designated Monkey: A common complaint about the early episodes was for doing nothing but make Renton's life hell, as everybody at the Gekkostate (apart from Eureka) is a massive prick to him. Episode 4 shows it at its worst since it ends with Renton getting punished for a financial outcome he had no control over.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Charles and Ray are present for a single arc about mid-stream of the series but they get a lot of fan love for treating Renton with respect (they all but adopt him), and for being extremely sympathetic Anti-Villains. Some wish Renton stayed with them, mostly due to how much of pricks the people at the Gekko could be towards him.
    • Moondoggie is one of the more minor members of Gecko State but he has a lot of fans. Part of this is for his attractive design, and partially for his growth and character development.
    • The trio of girls who show up to Axel's workshop and can be seen in Renton's class; their designs are unusually well thought out, even for background characters. If only we knew their names.
    • From the prequel video games/Gravity Boys & Lifting Girl, Gillian's popularity among readers is noted to have skyrocketed after her Day in the Limelight.
  • Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Played with in the soccer episode. Norb says they should play soccer and several people ponder why they're playing soccer. At the end, Norb says something along the lines of "If you had fun, that's good. If you learned something, that's good too."
  • Fan Nickname: Renton and Eureka are respectively nicknamed "RenTears" and "EuWrecka" whenever they get overly emotional.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Long story short, everything released after the original series get this treatment from the fandom.
    • Even though (or perhaps because) the movie takes place in an Alternate Universe, many fans refuse to acknowledge the movie's existence. Previously popular characters like Dominick and Anemone getting bridges dropped on them or just plain not showing up, and throwing out some of the themes that defined the original series were also factors that contributed to fans refusing to accept the film.
    • Just to illustrate the level of rejection, a common nickname for the movie in the Russian fandom is literally "The pocket full of shit", mocking its Japanese title "The Pocket Full Of Rainbows".
    • A lot of fans have much the same reaction to Eureka Seven AO for the exact same reason.
    • The film trilogy being another Alternate Continuity, instead of what was thought to be a Compressed Adaptation with new scenes that still follow the canon of the original series, has killed some fans' excitement for it. The second film of the bunch seems to have a mixed reaction with fans wondering if they should even try to make sense of the timelines anymore because the promos are all over the place and somehow the film includes all the franchise's mecha... in a soccer match. The second film ending with seemingly killing off Renton and making many controversial decisions with how to include the rest of the franchise in its narrative, making it seem as if all of them are just delusions of Eureka's. Naturally, the fans who found this out were quick to the drop the Hi-Evolution films and had low expectations for the third film. Some fans even resorted to penning fanfiction so they could pave over the offending canon.
  • First Installment Wins: The anime is highly regarded compared to any of the other entries that came afterwards. This is largely because of changes to the series that haven't gone too well for the fans.
  • Growing the Beard: Starts off inauspicious and mean-spirited, starts picking up once the Beams are introduced, picks up even more after Episode 26, and explodes several episodes later.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Ray's anger towards Eureka, for being sterile because of the Seven Swell, and can't have children of her own. This stings a lot more when you realize that in the sequel series, Eureka can't have children in that world without them dying, her firstborn child dies shortly after birth, and she wasn't able to raise Ao for most of his life. They were both robbed of their chances at (natural) motherhood. This is one of the reasons it's the Contested Sequel and a frequent Fanon Discontinuity.
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Anemone, whose belligerent attitude hides a horrific backstory and set of circumstances. By the end of her arc, the other characters are trying to help her, rather than fight her.
    • As much of a Jerkass Holland is, his past clearly haunts him, and the world seems to have it out for him, such as nearly killing him on a regular basis. Some of the later episodes are especially harsh to him, especially in the penultimate episode where he has to watch his older brother blow his own head off right in front of him.
    • The Ageha Squad. Five young girls, all survivors of an ethnic cleansing and heavily suggested abuse at the hands of the military, who've been groomed, brainwashed and raised as child soldiers by Dewey and maintain Undying Loyalty to him because he showed them kindness as means of manipulating them. Making them extra jerkish and extra pitiable is that their jealousy and hatred directed towards Anemone is based on things that apply to them as well but they're never able to recognize it.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • The re-airing of the series on Toonami has created a minor meme in the forums of this wiki: "Renton Thurston, fourteen years old!" or "It's time for 'Sucky Life Of 14-Year-Old Boy'!"
    • Eureka Seven is an anagram for Keanu Reeves
    • Nijiura Seven, where the second OP and Renton Thurston's funny face being held by the collar by Holland ended up as meme in Nico Nico Douga.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Movie!Hap and Movie!Stoner hold down Eureka and rip her top open. What makes this worse is their apparent motivation for doing so—they were concerned about their reenactment of a myth (you know, those typically orally passed down and allegorical stories) not following the story to the letter.
  • Narm:
    • Episode 6. The kids crying over not wanting to lose their mother may be appropriate for their ages, but it's so overdone especially in comparison to Renton's ordeals that it's hard to take the scene seriously. They apologize to him later, combined with the context and beautiful violins playing in the background does redeem it a bit.
    • In "Paradise Lost", Renton struggles with the idea of addressing Ray and Charles as his mother and father. ...anyway...
      Charles: (embraces Renton, shoving his face into his own chest) "I worked up a sweat at the gym just now. Do I smell bad?"
      (Renton looks up at Charles and shakes his head)
      Charles: "This is how your dad smells."
      Renton: (tearfully) "It really is a good smell..."
      • A few minutes later, Ray makes this face when she finds out who Renton's father is.
      • In "Wish Upon a Star", Renton grabs a flower that (presumably symbolically? The ending is a bit strange) appears in Nirvash's cockpit. As he does, there's a "ding!" sound effect like he just picked up a video game powerup.
    • The Silver Box in Hi-Evolution was a musical weapon to use on the Command Cluster and looked more like a rave party than a superweapon. It also is noted a problem arose because acid jazz failed to sync and the device soon accidentally razed the planet it was meant to save. Acid jazz helped partially doom the planet.
  • Narm Charm: The series practically runs on this. The colors are blindingly bright, the music is sugar-sweet, the idealism is almost offensive, and love always conquers all—and then the series finale ramps it up even further...and by some insane miracle, for many it works.
    • Even the extremely silly and hammy Charles and Ray still work in context given by the time Renton meets them, he's become a fullblown Emo Teen and they're the first people to treat him kindly in years, turning the Narm into a Heartwarmer.
  • Never Live It Down: Okay, Holland is a total prick to Renton in the first half of the series. Some people seem to forget that he grows out of it in the latter half and claim he remains an insufferable douchebag throughout. This attitude seemingly stems from the fact quite a few people would regard physically assaulting a child just once hard enough to live down. Holland attacks Renton on multiple occasions.
  • Older Than They Think: The iconic insert songs "Storywriter" and "Niji" were released before the show in 2002 and 1994, respectively. "Niji" was especially a hit with Japanese and European techno fans, and it being used over a decade later as the finale's Climactic Music speaks for how timeless the song is.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Holland's general treatment of Renton during the first half of the series is downright brutal at times. The fact he uses Renton as a punching bag on multiple occasions, basically taking out his own inadequacies on a kid, is enough on its own to be loathed by many fans. By the second half however, he becomes a more likable character thanks to him accepting the fact that Renton is The Chosen One and also reconciled with the latter.
  • Rooting for the Empire: Holland being the biggest Base-Breaking Character in the series his early abusive treatment of Renton leading to many viewers actively rooting that Renton would actually stay with Charles and Ray and that they would succeed in their attempt to kill Holland.
  • The Scrappy: Those Goddamn kids. Linck in particular. They cry in almost all of their appearances, are completely spoiled, and their continual cries of "Mama!" can become really annoying. Maurice shows his Scrappy colors later on, when they're lost on Earth. "Only love me, mama! No one else!" And then Renton and Eureka just have to go and be so damn understanding about it.
  • Take That, Scrappy!:
    • Whenever Talho slaps Holland, you can hear the sound of cheering around the world.
    • Fans were also impressed when Renton gave Holland a Badass Boast on how he came back to the Gekkostate for Eureka.
  • Wangst: Renton does a lot of griping around half of the first episode because his life isn't as exciting as he would like. Stays in sight for a while before it evolves into genuine Angst and then disappears.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Ever wonder what the crew's backstories are that would make them more than just auxillary characters that Renton happens to know?
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: When Renton finally reunites with his father, Adroc doesn't say a damn thing. This is because the Japanese voice casting crew couldn't find an actor they felt would do his character justice. Because of this, the apparent closure between Renton and his father that needed to be addressed in that episode seems to come off as weaker and inadequate, and it leaves a bitter taste in a lot of viewers' mouths.
    • Following the release of Hi-Evolution 1 and 2, some fans believe Bones missed a prime opportunity to update the franchise for a new audience. Much of the criticism around Hi-Evolution 1 centers on the opening 30 minutes of the film focusing on the Summer of Love before segueing into an hour-and-a-half-long Compilation Movie when it was widely believed the movie would be a full-blown prequel. Likewise, Hi-Evolution 2 has been heavily criticized for not taking the chance to give Anemone a fleshed out backstory and add depth to her character and her relationship with Dominic and instead going on a wild, multi-dimensional tangent that renders the story difficult to understand or care about due to veering too heavily on Mind Screw and Darker and Edgier elements.
  • Viewer Pronunciation Confusion: Many people mistakenly think Eureka's name is pronounced "yoo-reeka", but it's actually pronounced Eu-Recca.
  • Vindicated by History: Downplayed with the manga, which was generally well-received but not everyone enjoyed the changes made to the series, including the Bittersweet Ending. However, considering how incredibly divisive the later, other well-known adaptations note  would be, many now see the manga as the only acceptably Darker and Edgier installment by remaining true to the spirit of the original series (it is notably one of the few to avoid making anyone an Adaptational Jerkass; a common criticism of other adaptations is characters needlessly becoming villains/unsympathetic).
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: As confirmed by the screenwriter Dai Sato, Eureka Seven aired at 7 AM on Sunday mornings in Japan. The large amount of violence, however, caused the English dub to air at 1:30 am on Adult Swim.
    • It is also interesting to note that Studio 23, a channel in the Philippines, aired the Tagalog dub at 10 AM.
    • Not to mention that Episode 38 deals with the confusion that Renton was pressuring Eureka into sex (which Renton would NEVER do), and an earlier episode hinted that Holland had sex with Talho.
    • In the DVD commentary for episode 20, even the voice actors were astonished by the show's timeslot (especially with regard to the final scenes of that episode).
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: The show has references to Buddhist mythology and The Golden Bough.
  • The Woobie: Renton (once he transitions out of being the Designated Monkey) and Eureka are both children who go through a lot in their efforts to save the world, along with grappling with a lot of pressure and understandable insecurity along the way.

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