Eureka Seven

The pacing at first was pretty apt. It only got slow later on.

Episode 26 was actually really aptly timed, what with Renton's return, plus the cliffhanger about Charles and Ray.

Also, the slower pacing in the first half made it possible to really make a point of how much Eureka missed Renton.

edited 6th Jul '11 7:42:06 AM by GlennMagusHarvey

I only watched the first half so far. It's... wonderful. It's to an average anime what a novel is to a movie adapttion. Sure, it's slower, but the characterization is more profound, and the ambience is better transcribed. I especially love the way they treat romance

Though I think they insist too much on de-deifying the Ace Pilot guy. At this point, his awesomeness as a pilot and his status as a leader is almost an informed ability. He looks like an overgrown childish bully.

And I also really loved the wey they unfroze the Fridge Horror. We should have a trope for that.

I think it's actually an important plot point - Holland, for all his "coolness" and status as leader of Gekko State, and Talho (as the Cool Big Sis) have basically been running away from growing up and taking responsibility for their actions despite being the "adults". Contrast with Ray and Charles, who make a much more functional family unit. (At least, that's how I remember it.) Holland and Talho get their act together later on, though.

I like Dominic and Anemone as a couple, but it's hard to write a decent romance when one half is completely nuts.

Also, as an aside: Capt. Jurgens is AWESOME.

edited 3rd Sep '11 6:33:45 AM by Pyrite

They're both insane, but Dominic is hilarious on top of that. I like Fox&Tanuki, for now, they seem like really decent folk. Talbo is running away too? But.. what are they running away from? Is that a major spoiler?

Don't think so, really. IIRC, they're running away from adult responsibilities. Or something like that. It's been a while.

I started rewatching this one yesterday, after a sudden attempt to rewatch Code Geass a few months ago fell flat. One spurred me to do this was that the first time I watched it, it was on animefreak and ripped from the Adult Swim version, so I never saw the full versions of the first two openings! But really, the real reason was that I finally used Netflix to watch the last episode of Xam'd just before I left for school, and was (as I had been for most of Xam'd) terribly disappointed. I wanted to re-experience the glory of E7, so I'm back at Crunchyroll, which is where I watched the second half of it the first time around.

It's great to be back. It's as wonderful as I remembered. Makes so much more sense and has so much better plot focus than Xam'd. And such a better dub, altogether!

Only watched the first 2 episodes though. I should watch some more after lunch...

edited 3rd Sep '11 11:00:38 AM by frog753

They're both insane, but Dominic is hilarious on top of that.

Anemone can be pretty hilarious too when she's not scaring the shit out of anyone. And any scene that involves her pet Gulliver is often comedic gold.

edited 3rd Sep '11 11:48:22 AM by ManwiththePlan

Gulliver is amazing. I still don't know how he manages to change his weight when most people try to move him, but he's one of my favorite anime pets of all time.

Er, so the only good thing about Xam'd is it's opening? I really loved it, it's almost as good as Rage Against The Machine's cover of "Renegades of Funk", in the "Music that makes you actually wanna start running and jumping and breakdancing around".

I do like the opening. Actually, I decided to watch Xam'd, which I'd previously never heard of, when I saw the opening in a thread on this very forum where people were posting their favorite openings or something. I was so floored that I managed to dig up the show on the Anime Network website and subscribed.

I was alternating it with Rah Xephon, so I suppose that didn't help anything.

But yeah, the opening was good but even that wore out its welcome after a while. I usually expect shows of that length to switch openings and endings halfway through, but they didn't. With Xam'd I found myself counting off who was dead or generally out of the story as the show got closer to the end.

But back on topic...one thing I love about the generally beautiful scenery of E7 is actually the pile bunkers sticking up everywhere. There's something eerily wonderful about them.

Also, I still barely understand the transformations of LFOs, especially...where the hell do they pull the board out from?

edited 3rd Sep '11 9:37:28 PM by frog753

It's pon their backs, looking like a Formula 1 fin.

Oh, the fin is the board?! I never considered that! Don't know how I could have missed that, but yeah, when they're in humanoid form, I never see the fin.

I always chalked it up to "Ridiculous transformation that doesn't need to be thoroughly explained, like so much else in anime."

Another thought on the mecha in this series in general... They must be some of the hardest to use in any series I've seen, because it seems that lifting (like surfing) is hard enough when it's just you on a board, so add in having to control a mecha and it gets even worse! But even though the series never clearly explains how one pilots an LFO (i.e. which controls do what, but then again so few series explain that anyway...), it does explain somewhere (maybe it's All There in the Manual) that the Monsoono pilot mooks rely on heavy automation and lots of sensory input help from those weird pilot suits because they're not all naturally talented lifters and don't have time to spend years learning. And yet they still die in bunches. At least they take some steps to humanize them.

Indeed, I think that infamous part where Renton sees the hand or finger or whatever, while it made me facepalm a bit (You didn't realize there were people inside those KLFs? Really? You though the Air Force was using robots or something?!) was very powerful, and a lot of series don't bother to do that. Or the thing where after the Gekko/Izumo team-up, the KLF pilots nearly get in a huge fight with Gekkostate because, yeah, they were killing their friends and comrades throughout the series. A nicely realistic touch indeed.

edited 4th Sep '11 6:31:48 AM by frog753

Started re-watching this recently.

I agree with the issue of the series focusing too much on Renton and Eureka at the cost of other characters. I also feel like is resulted in issues for their development as well. It seems like they eventually ran out of ideas (for a few episodes) and decided to recycle an issue they had, rather than giving that screentime to other characters. They're the main characters, so of course they should get the most screentime, but it felt like they were afraid to focus on something else.

For example, Eureka cried about not being human, and thus not being able to be with Renton way too many times, no matter how much Renton (and all her friends) said they were cool with it, she brought it up again later.

It makes sense because she's a teenager, but eventually I just wanted them to move onto something else.

That entire soccer episode should have been removed, and the time should have went to other characters.

edited 5th Sep '11 4:27:50 PM by SilentColossus

Now wait just a second, man. She's "not-a-human" AND a "teenager"?

Mentally speaking, is what I meant. And IIRC, she is 14.

Which is why I don't care for those characters. When they're not being heartwarming, they're being insipid. There were potentially more interesting characters that could've gotten more foucs. But I'll take whatever screentime for the "bad guy" characters I can get.

edited 5th Sep '11 7:04:02 PM by ManwiththePlan

My friend, if I cried for every time someone said my mind wasn't human I'd have an eyedrop business. Or did you mean it the other way around?

Oh. You probably did. Still, Eureka is weird, I mean she's about as much of a Rei Clone as a Rei Clone could be, except for her upbringing. And her entire world is just s weird. Am I ever going to get a proper explanation for that, or should I expect a GAINAX ending? Why is it that when I reread my post I read it in Renton's English voice? Isn't that weird, sis? How do I, Renton, manage to sound so whiny and wangsty and still be adorable as hell, and why are people still tolerating my lengthy, rambling, inconclusive internal monolgues with the intention of hugging me rather than smacking me over the head? Also, why does my whole existence revolve around Eureka? Have we been Strangled by the Red String? Is the entire story a Romanti Plot Tumour? Is it still great because Tropes Are Not Bad? I don't know, sis, but what I do know is that I love the beautiful scenery, the gentle surfing animation, the memorable character designs (even if they suffer from Limited Wardrobe) and all those soft, pastel colours everywhere. Especially Eureka's aquamarine... everything. She smells nice.

Does she get any new eyebrows next season?

edited 5th Sep '11 7:11:15 PM by JesusSaves

Eureka does get new hairdos, at the very least.

I think the series did take some inspiration from Evangelion, but with the intention of taking things in a different, more positive direction. For example, Eureka seems similar to Rei (Strange Girl love interest and stuff) but becomes more human over the course of the series, rather than less human.

Also, Dominic is not insane at all.

BTW I subscribe to the theory that Gulliver is a trapar-manipulating creature.

What is an LFO? Lymphatic Flying Object?

It's named for the operation that discovered the things or something, so it's "Light Finding Operation".

Also, Dominic is not insane at all.

Renton flat-out calls him crazy in episode 11. He's not certiafiably insane but he is pretty odd.

And Anemone is only crazy when she's on her drugs. Or she's really, really pissed off that she has a really bad headache.

Otherwise, she's just loud and obnoxious.

edited 5th Sep '11 7:51:59 PM by SilentColossus

inb4 evidence of people who have a crush on yandere!Anemone

Also, Dominic isn't insane, just a bit odd with his inability to read maps.

Anemone's freaking hot, drugged or not.

And yeah, it's not the same as insanity, but Dominic can still be kinda crazy.

edited 5th Sep '11 8:09:24 PM by ManwiththePlan

Her eyes are weird.