If you crossed Air Gear1 and Code Geass2, you might expect to find something not unlike Symphonic Psalms Eureka Seven, a mecha show predating both those titles wherein Transformers surf waves of light in the sky. The first episode follows the genre's formulae very closely. We start mid-dog fight, then meet our protagonist (a civilian student), then he has a violent encounter with a robot piloted by a quirky young girl with whom he becomes instantly infatuated. We see glimpses of competing factions in The Establishment, and then the main guy's mechanic grandfather, after spending the entire time insisting that his grandson's life will be ordinary, gives him a dangerous quest. The episode ends with the typical... suicidal dive off a cliff?
Renton is pretty annoying, even for a shounen protagonist. He repeats himself a lot and is super me-vs-the-world individualistic. He worships celebrities and has no friends—in large part because he's more focused on Renton than on the world around him. He's a bit less loud than some of his genre compatriots (Eren Yeager and Uzumaki Naruto outdo him on those fronts), and he's a bit less dumb, too, at least until he decides to drive his motorcycle into a ravine. (As he falls into space, it becomes clear that he did not *intend* to kill himself.) We end with him in free fall.
The show looks great for 2005, and there're some uncommon music choices. If you like annoying boys, Eureka Seven is probably in the upper echelons of annoying boy anime.
Recommend: No.
Glad that anime blogging is coming back to life! I miss the good old days of aniblogs. Interested to see where this goes.
With that said, I’m not feeling the posts where you recommend shows based on only 1st episode impressions, because 1st episodes are often extremely misleading. I’d much rather see something like “will I keep watching? Yes/No/Maybe”
In Eureka Seven, Renton starts off as an unlikable brat, but the content is atypical in how the show treats his brattiness. The show doesn’t think he is in the right — in fact, it continues to punish him for his childishness, until he finally learned from his mistakes. To be fair, it takes about 20 episodes for Renton to become less of a horrible person, and I didn’t make it that far because I couldn’t stand him.
Kyousogiga looked like a mess at first, but there’s a method in its chaos. It’s about a broken family finding out how they can be a family again; children forced to grow up too fast, children breaking away from the responsibilities placed on them by their parents, learning to love — all of which happening in a whimsical fairy-tale world.
Children of the Whales had a wonderful 1st episode, but the rest of a show is a complete disaster.
Anyway, you get the point. Peace.
“To be fair, it takes about 20 episodes for Renton to become less of a horrible person, and I didn’t make it that far because I couldn’t stand him.”
Soooo would you recommend Eureka Seven? 😛
I hear what you’re saying, and you’re generally right, but there’re thousands of anime series out there and they’re mostly terrible. If someone has time to give a show 20 episodes to become less grating, they’re probably a saint and don’t need my recommendations. On top of that, this entire category is meant primarily as entertainment; the folks requesting these reviews are, by and large, interested in my thoughts on the first episode of a show they’ve already seen!
For me, the recommendation is synonymous with “would I keep watching,” because if I thought something was worth sticking to, I would keep watching it. (And in the case of Children of the Whales, hopefully I’d be observant enough to stop once it got bad—haven’t gotten around to it yet, granted.) If you just want more recognition of the subjectivity of the reviewer, I kinda get that, and I respect your feedback. I also 100% welcome folks coming into the comments and being like, “give this show another episode! It gets better!” That’s super useful. (And a lot of that commentary has already been happening on Facebook, where I’ve been sharing these posts. I hope more of it comes to the website soon!)
Thanks for reading!
This is a favorite of mine, really high up there.
Renton is annoying, as a starting point of his coming-of-age arc, and his triumphs (which to me are more like rungs in the maturity ladder as opposed to external achievements) will be earned.
The first tier of supporting characters are very interesting and worth staying for (Dominic, Anemone, Holland, Talho). The soundtrack is uplifting and delightfully odd at places.
The science fiction and fantasy elements interest me less (and I’m not sure they hold up), but the mechanical design and action made up for it – given my tastes.
I got really invested in the characters, even the ensemble background ones, and I felt truly rewarded by really high emotional highs. I want to watch this again.
Awesome! I know this is a fan favorite, and I may be convinced to continue.
What he said. Annoying boy here is mostly annoying so that he has room to grow, and in a way that you don’t see very often in anime. Supporting cast really are very good as well. As a bonus for someone like me, there are a pile of fanservice references to hip hop, techno, and drum machines, of all things.
Best thing about it though is the story, which you could almost call a more hopeful NGE (but not in the derivative way that rahxephon is). It gets pretty surreal but as gl mentions, the emotional highs are the reason to come back.
Right on 🙂 I’m into it.