Eureka Seven Astral Ocean |OT| "Don't fight it, feel it"

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Episode 6

At first I thought they were spoofing Ungo with that initial transformation, but it turns out he can be anyone. I don't get how he was in 2 places at once though, or were those events at the beginning taking place at different times. Nvm missed the location titles at the beginning.

That was a cool episode, less Omigawa too.
 
FUCK. I just realized I totally missed the extra scene between the ED and the Next Ep preview because I skipped right to the preview. FML!

Edit: My brain is BLOWN now! :o
 
I will be the odd one this week. For some reason I didn't really liked the episode, something felt terribly off. Didn't liked the new characters, didn't liked the flow of the episode... Yet I'm not sure why.

Oh well, first time it happens in 6 weeks.
 
Episode 6

At first I thought they were spoofing Ungo with that initial transformation, but it turns out he can be anyone. I don't get how he was in 2 places at once though, or were those events at the beginning taking place at different times. Nvm missed the location titles at the beginning.

That was a cool episode, less Omigawa too.

 
The series is pretty great right now. I enjoyed every episode. Even the here hated episode. My standards are low I know. The Nirvash looks more like the original Nirvash which I totally like. (Unfortunately I still prefer the original look of it.)

Pretty excited to see what Bones is trying to do with Eureka, Naru and
Truth
. I hope it will not be awful. I hope it will not be bad.
 
Thus far, the show has been entertaining and since episode 6, I feel that the storyline is taking a turn for the better. Although to be frank, when I started watching the beginning of that episode, I thought I had accidently selected a different anime!

I like how it has a spine and is not afraid of going to certain places you'd not expect of a E7 sequel, even if those places aren't maybe that good or if certain elements are out of place. But this is the start of a new show. E7 had tons of weird irrelevant/relevant stuff in the beginning as well. E7:AO gives me the vibe that they're trying to do something different with the IP and something that can stand on its own.

The one thing that I am missing is variation in the music. The music is very good, but they re-use couple of songs a bit more often than I would expect from a E7 sequel. AO has most of the richness of E7, but thus far it lacks a bit on the musical side.
 
It's interesting that they're only going for 24 episodes this time around. I wonder if it's a creative choice, or a budget thing.

Do you guys think this might be the last we see of the IP for a while? Or is the lower episode count a sign that we might be getting multiple seasons, or a couple of different shorter series?

Probably too early to tell, I guess.
 
http://eurekaao-prj.net/?p=917
http://eurekaao-prj.net/?p=601

OST1 cover:
Lb2R7.jpg


Sample pages from the BD/DVD Vol1 booklet:
9mfVx.jpg

etX0V.jpg

DJNOy.jpg


Character designs by Kenichi Yoshida: Ao, Naru, Gazelle, Noah
Character designs by Hiroyuki Oda: Fleur, Elena
 
Thus far, the show has been entertaining and since episode 6, I feel that the storyline is taking a turn for the better. Although to be frank, when I started watching the beginning of that episode, I thought I had accidently selected a different anime!

I had the same feeling when I started the episode. Hope they explain it all next episode.
 
Eureka Seven AO Episode 6

The animation and music were acceptable again in this episode. There were a few nice animated sequences but nothing too impressive. I think they introduced a new music piece near the end when Chloe was berating Ao but either way the soundtrack in this series has been pretty much top notch for the most part and I've long ago stopped expecting anything other than excellence from the composers.
One interesting thing of note was how Chloe doesn't cry that much when she finds out Bruno and crew is dead and instead gets angry. This is apparently a company that deals with death quite often and it seems everybody has gotten used to it in their own way. The commanders would rather die then to have the death of the children on their hands and the children are aware of the risks of this job and understood the role of the adults in this.
They are also really trying to play up the ambiguity of the corporation in this in that they seemed more interested in getting the mech parts back probably to avoid revealing company secrets rather than the lives of the children. Ivica's response in that scene shows that he's not a fan of company policy and that is definitely going to come to a head eventually. I also liked the militaristic touches in Bruno's room as while I've never seen a military XO's personal room/home space, I imagine it being something similar to that.

Also I guess Ao won't get any sleep till halfway through the series. Again this attention to detail is rather remarkable. Someone has been keeping a detailed entry of timing of events and taking into account realistic things such as sleep. The fact that Ao is completely burnt is a very nice humanistic touch.

Here's the thing with Truth, my first instinct is that he/she/it is a human-form Coralian. They were the only people in the original series that morphed their bodies at all and potentially could have destructive abilities like that(as general Coralians could wreck stuff with their anti-matter beams). Truth also has amnesia similar to other human-forms. The thing though is that Truth flashes back to when Eureka disappeared into the Scub Burst which leaves only three viable options; he is Eureka himself and got a case of amnesia(the perspective is wrong in the scene but that might have been intentional so it's not too obvious), some random person who got powers similar to what happened to Naru, or a human-form Coralian that came in on the wave that Eureka left on. If he is a human-form then it is possible that Secrets are early stage human-forms as well. Another interesting thing of note is how Truth was able to pilot an IFO despite the earlier comment that only kids could pilot them. I also like Truth's 'natural' VA, it's deeper than what I was expecting.

The core of this show is that of a mystery show unlike Eureka 7's which was that of a romance. It does seem like whoever is writing this knows what they're doing as I thought the politics would just be a throwaway part of the storyline attached only to Okinawa and instead it might be a part of the bigger picture. The show also looks less MOTW than I thought it was going to be but we'll see how that turns out.
 
I'm going to make a terrible speculation about E7AO again. Yup, it's one of those horrible theories which I hope is totally wrong!

The appearance of "Truth" definitely indicates there is something "wrong" about the entire world. Not only is it wrong, but it seems Truth can exploit the layers of reality. He can assume any appearance, appear anywhere at will, and he can simply will things to be destroyed. The rules of physics don't seem to apply to him either. This is starting to give more support into my VR simulation fear! Matrix Seven AO here we come! :D
 
Eureka Seven AO 6

6qbqs.jpg

Takes me back to that one fear appeal TV Spot.

That's better.

Some
blood shed here and a "Merry-Go-Round
Secret there. I can without a doubt say that the show is prepared to put in more "straight-faced" elements besides "Racism and discrimination is bad." The recently perceived antagonist will perhaps add some textbook words and ideals of their own
but not before blowing shit up
!

Stanley's face still gets cringes out of me. He reminds me of one of the human figures they'd mock on Looney Tunes.

7JMUj.jpg

Snuff/Zero: The End

Some more serious themes in this one that are very welcome after the last week's eye-roll worthy episode. For example,
Mecha loli, Chloe's, reaction to Bruno's passing. She sees as an exhaustive fight towards a goal to protect rather than a sacrifice to feel remorse over. Of course, not saying she wasn't sad about it, but saw moping as a counterproductive reaction.

As for
Team Goldilocks
all that matters is that the
Mecha loli/ Honorary Sengoku Collection character lived.
The small role they played wasn't shabby either, giving Ao a little "uumph" and whatnot.

Decent animation for the fighting and whatnot. Though the strategy was
handled a bit "quick" and flawlessly.
I guess bigger battle hurdles can wait another day.

eQYnH.jpg

You know the word.

Overall, neat episode left me with a positive experience unlike the last few. The scene in between the ED and the preview has me looking forward to what
mayhem and conflict Truth
can bring forward. I, as always, am hoping for an entertaining ride.

Side note:
Truth
is so :DTL
 
I had a feeling that Gazelle was designed by Yoshida. I wasn't 100% but nice to have that confirmed.
 
Id wager Yoshida too

As far as Episodes 5 and 6, I just don't understand why one of the girl pilots has to be so young. The character on its own, I dont hate, episode 6 made sure of that, and the VA is good, but still, its just another little thing in the list of things that are bugging me.
 
Yoshida tweeted about
Truth's appearance
in ep6 on Twitter, so either he's helping promote the major beats of the show, or he designed that character. Most likely both.

As for mech designs...

- Shoji Kawamori did the base design for the new Nirvash
- Shiho Takeuchi did the animation designs for Nirvash
- Kimitoshi Yamane designed the Triton, while Shiho Takeuchi designed the bridge for it. They probably did Medon too since it looks the same. :P
- Takayuki Yanase designed the three Team Goldilocks mechs, I think he designed the two Team Pied Piper ones too but I can't find confirmation right now.
- Takayuki Yanase also designed Ao and Gazelle's FPs in ep1, and the Okinawan battleship.
- Shiho Takeuchi and Shingo Takeba designed the other varieties of FPs all over the island.
- Kanetake Ebikawa designed the US IFO Eisenhower, and the cockpit designs for the various IFOs.
 
Yoshida tweeted about
Truth's appearance
in ep6 on Twitter, so either he's helping promote the major beats of the show, or he designed that character. Most likely both.

As for mech designs...

- Shoji Kawamori did the base design for the new Nirvash
- Shiho Takeuchi did the animation designs for Nirvash
- Kimitoshi Yamane designed the Triton, while Shiho Takeuchi designed the bridge for it. They probably did Medon too since it looks the same. :P
- Takayuki Yanase designed the three Team Goldilocks mechs, I think he designed the two Team Pied Piper ones too but I can't find confirmation right now.
- Takayuki Yanase also designed Ao and Gazelle's FPs in ep1, and the Okinawan battleship.
- Shiho Takeuchi and Shingo Takeba designed the other varieties of FPs all over the island.
- Kanetake Ebikawa designed the US IFO Eisenhower, and the cockpit designs for the various IFOs.

So with that, I'll lean on it being Yoshida's work until I hear otherwise.

Mech-wise, nothing has impressed me except for the cockpit of the Nirvash(I really like it as it feels futuristic but extremely functional especially with the movement trackers). None of the mechs except the Nirvash are really distinguishable compared to say the Devilfish or the END.
 
So I just came across an episode 51 of Eureka Seven that aired a little while back (right before AO began). What the hell did I just watch?

I'd heard it was a summary episode that dropped a couple hints about AO, but having just watched it, it seems like they've created a whole new alternate ending.

Maybe something's just getting lost in translation. Which ending does AO take as canon? Episode 50, or 51?

It's sort of odd to be worrying about whether or not a sequel is treating its predecessor as canon. Nice move, Bones.
 
I've never watched New Order, and I'm honestly not that interested. I've heard about it for years though, since it was originally a stage event at one of the Aniplex festival events. It was originally scripted to be performed by the voice cast on stage, and act as a sort of pseudo-epilogue to the series for fans attending the event. No one has ever said whether it is actually canon or not.
 
So I just came across an episode 51 of Eureka Seven that aired a little while back (right before AO began). What the hell did I just watch?

I'd heard it was a summary episode that dropped a couple hints about AO, but having just watched it, it seems like they've created a whole new alternate ending.

Maybe something's just getting lost in translation. Which ending does AO take as canon? Episode 50, or 51?

It's sort of odd to be worrying about whether or not a sequel is treating its predecessor as canon. Nice move, Bones.

New Order is an alternate ending. It would cause a shitload of problems if they tried to insert it as canon and would introduce certain stuff that was never touched on in the series. My understanding is that it was the original ending for the series that they decided to scrap and later played to the fans as a bonus.

I've never watched New Order, and I'm honestly not that interested.
You should probably give it a listen as the VAs do a pretty spectacular job in it.
 
It's been a long time since I heard new order, but I definitely remember that Renton and Eureka's vas did an incredibly outstanding job with the performance.
 
New Order is an alternate ending. It would cause a shitload of problems if they tried to insert it as canon and would introduce certain stuff that was never touched on in the series. My understanding is that it was the original ending for the series that they decided to scrap and later played to the fans as a bonus.

You should probably give it a listen as the VAs do a pretty spectacular job in it.

I did some more research, and this seems pretty much spot on.

Weird of Bones to air it in full right before AO premiered..it's bound to cause confusion, even if the fans wanted it.
 
Eureka seven: AO 05-06

So many subtleties, so many hints. Bruno acting like Charles with that hug threw me for an unexpected loop. Everything seems to be getting to place, its maddening, and I hope they do something.

I still have my worries. Eureka Seven does its best work before and after air battles. When the characters are grounded(literally), everything seems to mesh poorly.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't see the Goldilocks team being injured or killed. I was surprised it happened the episode after they were introduced. I can't help but think what Bruno said will play an important role in Ao's psyche.

As for the character "Truth"? I don't know, I can agree that he is probably a Human-form Corallian, displaced like Eureka and AO are/were.

Oh, and it only took 4 episodes for everyone to forget about Naru.
 
Oh, and it only took 4 episodes for everyone to forget about Naru.

I'm really starting to wonder whether she is the actual romance lead and it's not Fleur. Yes she was designed by Yoshida and is featured all over the place in regards to the show but she has no tangible purpose in any of the plot lines. I'm expecting them to eventually write/reduce her out of the OP and add in Fleur in her place.

I did some more research, and this seems pretty much spot on.

Weird of Bones to air it in full right before AO premiered..it's bound to cause confusion, even if the fans wanted it.

My guess is that it was just a way to drum up interest and they really didn't think of the confusion, especially when we don't know how the sequel ties to the original. Only the hardcore fans would really be interested in it but I think they screwed up in not making it clear what it is. I mean New Order would explain why Renton is away from Eureka but I very much doubt they would make New Order canon.
 
My guess is that it was just a way to drum up interest and they really didn't think of the confusion, especially when we don't know how the sequel ties to the original. Only the hardcore fans would really be interested in it but I think they screwed up in not making it clear what it is. I mean New Order would explain why Renton is away from Eureka but I very much doubt they would make New Order canon.

Pretty much. Three reasons it probably won't be canon:

1) People love the original ending, don't they? I do.

2) The existence of Ao means that Eureka and Renton must have been together for at least 7 years or so after the original series ended. Astral Ocean is 20 years later, and Ao is only 13 or 14. That timeline's more consistent with episode 50.

3) In episode 1, and the newest version of Astral Ocean's opening, Eureka is wearing Diane's clothes, which is consistent with Yoshida's artwork that aired at the end of the original series' broadcast.
 
I'm really starting to wonder whether she is the actual romance lead and it's not Fleur. Yes she was designed by Yoshida and is featured all over the place in regards to the show but she has no tangible purpose in any of the plot lines. I'm expecting them to eventually write/reduce her out of the OP and add in Fleur in her place.

You're not paying attention to the dramatic arc of the story in that case. Everything in the OP/ED and in the first 4 episodes suggest that Naru is the character who reminds Ao of who he is. He will go off on his adventures everywhere, while she waits for him, but whenever he loses his way she will bring him back to the ground.
 
I'm really starting to wonder whether she is the actual romance lead and it's not Fleur. Yes she was designed by Yoshida and is featured all over the place in regards to the show but she has no tangible purpose in any of the plot lines. I'm expecting them to eventually write/reduce her out of the OP and add in Fleur in her place.

Unlikely and if it happens to anyone it'd probably be Elena. Because God is cruel. :/

:/

:/

:/
 
You're not paying attention to the dramatic arc of the story in that case. Everything in the OP/ED and in the first 4 episodes suggest that Naru is the character who reminds Ao of who he is. He will go off on his adventures everywhere, while she waits for him, but whenever he loses his way she will bring him back to the ground.

That is the only reason I haven't written her off completely yet as the Okinawa politics will come into play eventually. However it's hard to have a romantic lead of a show be away and not present for a good solid chunk of the show. That was part of the problem with Xam'd as they didn't know what to do with the female leads.

Not to mention, part of the interest in watching a romance show is seeing the romance develop.
 
How's Astral Ocean doing in the ratings?

Everyone I know who's even the slightest bit interested in anime is following it over here in the West. Is it performing well in Japan?
 
That is the only reason I haven't written her off completely yet as the Okinawa politics will come into play eventually. However it's hard to have a romantic lead of a show be away and not present for a good solid chunk of the show. That was part of the problem with Xam'd as they didn't know what to do with the female leads.

Not to mention, part of the interest in watching a romance show is seeing the romance develop.

I don't think romance is going to be a big part of the show for the first 13 episodes at least. So I'm not worried about that.
 
How's Astral Ocean doing in the ratings?

Everyone I know who's even the slightest bit interested in anime is following it over here in the West. Is it performing well in Japan?

It's a late night anime, so ratings don't matter all that much, it's all about BD/DVD sales. BD/DVD sales are pretty good right now, the preorders are very high right now. I also think it has already been licensed here in the West.
 
It's a late night anime, so ratings don't matter all that much, it's all about BD/DVD sales. BD/DVD sales are pretty good right now, the preorders are very high right now. I also think it has already been licensed here in the West.

The preorders look promising, but it's way too early to say that the sales are good because the first volume hasn't even been released!
 
It's a late night anime, so ratings don't matter all that much, it's all about BD/DVD sales. BD/DVD sales are pretty good right now, the preorders are very high right now. I also think it has already been licensed here in the West.

Awesome. As I understand it, the first series suffered quite a bit from piracy. There was a huge fan-base online, but little to show for it in terms of sales. I'm going to make sure I watch Funi's streams of each new episode of Astral Ocean. I'll probably import the OST's as well..maybe even the blurays (I'll probably just wait for the inevitable Western release, though).

Also, I was just reading through the original Eureka Seven OT. I had no idea people on GAF loved it so much.

Must have really sucked waiting so long for a follow-up series. I felt everyone's pain as the dates on the posts went from 2006, to 2007, to 2008..etc.
 
Awesome. As I understand it, the first series suffered quite a bit from piracy. The show created a huge fan-base online, but had little to show for it in terms of sales. I'm going to make sure I watch Funi's streams of each new episode of Astral Ocean. I'll probably import the OST's as well..maybe even the blurays (I'll probably just wait for the inevitable Western release, though).

Also, I was just reading through the original Eureka Seven OT. I had no idea people loved the original so much.

Must have really sucked waiting so long for a follow-up series. I felt everyone's pain as the dates on the posts went from 2006, to 2007, to 2008..etc.
I don't think thats quite it.

The original series was a Sunday 7am timeslot series, meaning there was an expectation that it would skew extremely young and focus more on marketing to kids than anything else (and you can kind of see the seeds of that in the very beginning of the show, and then see that stuff be almost completely and utterly abandoned within the first dozen episodes). In the end, the success of the show suffered because, one, as it went on, the violence ratcheted up big time, and atmospherically and thematically it just wasn't what you expect out a 7am timeslot show, nevermind that it was more focused on world building than it was on introducing new robots every episode in order to sell model kits/toys.

And two, it not only didn't appeal to the ultra young demo, it also wasn't something that was ultra otaku-centric at all I think, aside from being in the giant robot genre. The radical visual changes to the characters like Eureka received a lot of derision from people online at the time IIRC as well. I think that the show as it is is something that can in no way be produced in the current times.

It worth noting that after Eureka Seven, Bandai Visual pretty much never again worked with BONES aside from Sword of the Stranger, and now E7:AO, despite originally being a regular producing partner with them.
 
Episode 6

I dunno, I feel like
the impact that Bruno's death was supposed to have on Chloe and the rest and the lesson Ao was meant to learn from it would've worked better had I known more about or cared for the character in any meaningful way whatsoever. Having a grand total of like five minutes of screentime was definitely not conducive to that. As it stands, whenever they talk about him I just sort of have to take their word for it
.

Truth seems just a tad overpowered to me.
 
I'm going to make a terrible speculation about E7AO again. Yup, it's one of those horrible theories which I hope is totally wrong!

The appearance of "Truth" definitely indicates there is something "wrong" about the entire world. Not only is it wrong, but it seems Truth can exploit the layers of reality. He can assume any appearance, appear anywhere at will, and he can simply will things to be destroyed. The rules of physics don't seem to apply to him either. This is starting to give more support into my VR simulation fear! Matrix Seven AO here we come! :D

hopefully it will end up something like this
 
Episode 7

Not really that much to talk about, since the entire episode was mostly action + setup for stuff which they won't explain for a while. It was pretty interesting, and at least we FINALLY got a Muraki Circus action scene...
even though it wasn't really "real" lol.
The only disappointing thing is that the design for the random extras in the Generation Bleu base are pretty bad, like all extra designs in the show. They look like they popped out of some bad generic anime.

As for the plot
it's obvious that Truth is from "outside" of this world, and related to the Scub Coral in some way. It also seems likely that there is in fact something very suspicious about the reality of the entire world, seeing how Truth can completely manipulate it across reality, visions, and dreams, with no regard for time or space. That static sound they worked into his theme music also seems to indicate that he's a sort of noise or interference, which plays into the simulation theory.

Sucks for Ao though, only 7 episodes in and he already got NTR'd!!! :D
 
so the punk girl is the otaku girl right? or am I imagining things
the plot reads something close to a Squirrelking fanfic at the moment
 
Episode 7
As for the plot
it's obvious that Truth is from "outside" of this world, and related to the Scub Coral in some way. It also seems likely that there is in fact something very suspicious about the reality of the entire world, seeing how Truth can completely manipulate it across reality, visions, and dreams, with no regard for time or space. That static sound they worked into his theme music also seems to indicate that he's a sort of noise or interference, which plays into the simulation theory.

Sucks for Ao though, only 7 episodes in and he already got NTR'd!!! :D
I got the impression
that Truth is an IFO. If I remember correctly, the Nirvash was a living being in the original series. A Scrub Coral. In this episode Naru says she can fly with Truth and that not the Nirvash was her Sea Giant. Instead it was Truth. But why did she always think that Nirvash had saved her? So Truth had had to be a IFO in a similar design to the Nirvash.

Another evidence for my theory are these screencaps[Spoiler alert for Episode 7]:
Truth's true form in Naru's flashback. It looks more like IFO http://i.minus.com/iTgrFryC4Nty.png
"Secret IFO" below Generation's Bleu base http://i.minus.com/iMsRP0KHXdoxl.png
For me there're some similarities to the secret IFO and Truth in Naru's flashback. Overall can we call Generation Bleu Nerv now? And I will call the secret IFO Lilith now.

I hope I spoiler tagged everything correctly.
 
I got the impression
that Truth is an IFO. If I remember correctly, the Nirvash was a living being in the original series. A Scrub Coral. In this episode Naru says she can fly with Truth and that not the Nirvash was her Sea Giant. Instead it was Truth. But why did she always think that Nirvash had saved her? So Truth had had to be a IFO in a similar design to the Nirvash.

Another evidence for my theory are these screencaps[Spoiler alert for Episode 7]:
Truth's true form in Naru's flashback. It looks more like IFO http://i.minus.com/iTgrFryC4Nty.png
"Secret IFO" below Generation's Bleu base http://i.minus.com/iMsRP0KHXdoxl.png
For me there're some similarities to the secret IFO and Truth in Naru's flashback. Overall can we call Generation Bleu Nerv now? And I will call the secret IFO Lilith now.

I hope I spoiler tagged everything correctly.

I think you're right
about the fact that Truth is a sort of "living IFO". But I think he is more like the soul of an IFO, without the physical parts man-made which makes it a robot.

But I don't think that the IFO in Naru's flashback is Truth. Instead I think that was Nirvash. Look at the outline and it looks very similar, in fact she herself said that Nirvash was the guardian spirit which protected her in the past when Eureka arrived. What is happening in that flashback within a dream is that by altering reality, Truth is making Naru see what he wants her to see I think, and hence he can use Naru as bait for Ao to follow him.

As for what Generation Bleu is hiding... doesn't that look like Nirvash too? Maybe even... the actual original two-seater Nirvash. I see a lot of white, and I see red pods... two of them? Hmm....
 
I think you're right
about the fact that Truth is a sort of "living IFO". But I think he is more like the soul of an IFO, without the physical parts man-made which makes it a robot.

But I don't think that the IFO in Naru's flashback is Truth. Instead I think that was Nirvash. Look at the outline and it looks very similar, in fact she herself said that Nirvash was the guardian spirit which protected her in the past when Eureka arrived. What is happening in that flashback within a dream is that by altering reality, Truth is making Naru see what he wants her to see I think, and hence he can use Naru as bait for Ao to follow him.

As for what Generation Bleu is hiding... doesn't that look like Nirvash too? Maybe even... the actual original two-seater Nirvash. I see a lot of white, and I see red pods... two of them? Hmm....
Maybe Generation Bleu is hiding the movie Nirvash. And Truth wants that everyone knows the truth about the non-existent movie.

Joking aside.
The IFO looks more like the Devilfish? Was that the name of the IFO which Holland controlled to destroy his brother's machine to get more time for Renton and Eureka? On the other side Mark-I Nirvash looks more different than in the OS. So let us wait and see. But yeah there is a big connection between Eureka, Truth, Naru, Nirvash, Ao and the stars.(especially our moon.)
 
I think you're right
about the fact that Truth is a sort of "living IFO". But I think he is more like the soul of an IFO, without the physical parts man-made which makes it a robot.

but the one AO pilots
didn't bleed when it lost an arm? are they supposed to be entirely robotic now?
 
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