(L) Eureka Seven: Astral Ocean

[ChocoBar9]

http://nicoviewer.net/sm16992734

[Haohmaru]

Not impressed with the promo. The art doesn't look like Yoshida art. Animation looked jerky as well.

[duckroll]

Originally Posted by Haohmaru

Not impressed with the promo. The art doesn't look like Yoshida art. Animation looked jerky as well.

It's not. Yoshida has very little to do with the art in this series, it's pretty obvious. He didn't have much of a role in the movie either. And well, we all know how that turned out.

[Haohmaru]

Yeah, but he's listed as character designer, right? I thought they would at least, make it look like his art. BONES is stupid for not doing that, cause it did wonders for Eureka Seven. Looked beautiful. Ao's art looks generic. It doesn't have anything special about it.

[Xagzan]

Well, it certainly looks nice enough. But I'm still waiting for things to make sense. With locations like America and Okinawa, the Nirvash(?) being unrecognizable (though that seems like something they'd definitely explain), and a complete absence of any character from the original show, so far it barely feels like the same world anymore.

It's kind of reminding me of that Golden Sun: Dark Dawn game for DS, which was a sequel to the first two games on GBA. Even though only 30 years had passed between the second game and DD, somehow, while exploring the exact same continent as in the previous games, there were these major kingdoms and cities that had popped up and were treated as if they had a long, rich history and were important powers. Even though they weren't in the first games at all and we had no inkling of their existence while traversing the entire countryside. What's more, most of the main heroes from the previous adventure didn't even get cameos in DD, disappointingly.

That's how I'm seeing AO so far. Hopefully it doesn't remain that way.

[Jarmel]

Wow that was a horrible OP. Sounds like something out of Sonic Adventure. The animation itself looks fine although the artstyle looks different.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by duckroll

Main Cast:

Fukai Ao: Yuutaro Motoshiro
Arata Naru: Kanako Miyamoto
Flair Blanc: Ayaka Ohashi
Elena Peoples: Chiaki Omigawa
Truth: Kazuhiko Inoue

OP - "Escape" from Hemenway
ED - "stand by me" from Stereopony

Series starts on MBS, April 12 2012.


Edit: The music for the series will be composed by Kouji Nakamura of Supercar fame. The official site will go live in 2 hours or so, with a 90sec trailer.

Faith restored - BONES casts an actual kid as Ao. Whatever else happens, huge bonus points to them for doing that - it's so very rare that studios are willing to take that step.

Yuutaro-kun's not a total newbie - he was Yango in Xam'd, which was an important role (when he was only about 11 years old). I love it when studios cast age-appropriate actors - it really helps with authenticity.

[MisaoFan]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Faith restored - BONES casts an actual kid as Ao. Whatever else happens, huge bonus points to them for doing that - it's so very rare that studios are willing to take that step.

Yuutaro-kun's not a total newbie - he was Yango in Xam'd, which was an important role (when he was only about 11 years old). I love it when studios cast age-appropriate actors - it really helps with authenticity.

This also helps with R-15, when the casting was almost full of newbies (except Nomizu).

[C.A.]

Originally Posted by Haohmaru

Not impressed with the promo. The art doesn't look like Yoshida art. Animation looked jerky as well.

The animation is indeed jerky, but anime itself has always been jerky, there's not much they can do to help with the average 8 fps.

I'll judge technically only when they do actual aerial combat, that was where Eureka 7 was most outstanding.

Though I can see from the trailer there's a lack of easing in the movements, which Bones used to be good at animating. There are also lots of still poses and shots, lack of animation.

[TJR]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Faith restored - BONES casts an actual kid as Ao. Whatever else happens, huge bonus points to them for doing that - it's so very rare that studios are willing to take that step.

Traditionally, that would be the case. However, it's looking more and more like a cost-cutting measure. Just the other day, people were commenting on how kids are recording dialogue for Square Enix's Bravely Default, while Usagi Drop and Hourou Musuko also featured a few younger actors in the name of authenticity.

While the outcome may well be positive, I'm not about to give a producer points if lowering costs is the main impetus (and authenticity being the justification). It's sort of like the eco-friendly packaging you see with video games. Dropping/minimizing paper manuals and hollowing out the cases certainly has environmental benefits, but the real reason for doing it is to save money.

[aardvark]

The lead VAs in the first E7 weren't huge names either. Kaori Nazuka didn't really start to get more and more roles until after E7 IIRC, and Renton's VA hadn't done much of anything either

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by TJR

Traditionally, that would be the case. However, it's looking more and more like a cost-cutting measure. Just the other day, people were commenting on how kids are recording dialogue for Square Enix's Bravely Default, while Usagi Drop and Hourou Musuko also featured a few younger actors in the name of authenticity.

While the outcome may well be positive, I'm not about to give a producer points if lowering costs is the main impetus (and authenticity being the justification). It's sort of like the eco-friendly packaging you see with video games. Dropping/minimizing paper manuals and hollowing out the cases certainly has environmental benefits, but the real reason for doing it is to save money.

As long as the quality is there I think that the end result may actually end up being positive for viewers as well. I for an am starting to feel a bit tired of recognizing most VAs on shows I watch. Getting that occasional feeling of recognizing a VA is pretty neat but hearing the same voices season after season can get tiresome eventually.

[duckroll]

Originally Posted by Haohmaru

Yeah, but he's listed as character designer, right? I thought they would at least, make it look like his art. BONES is stupid for not doing that, cause it did wonders for Eureka Seven. Looked beautiful. Ao's art looks generic. It doesn't have anything special about it.

You can't expect much from the guy who is responsible for Oreimo...

[wandering-dreamer]

Originally Posted by djmaca

OK. So where did wandering-dreamer's "1000 years" came from?

In the original series it's revealed that the planet the story is set on IS Earth, it's just been so long since humans have been on Earth that they have almost completely forgotten about it/don't remember where it is (they actually "colonized" it thinking it was a new world) and it was completely covered by the scrub coral. I was under the impression that it took a really long time to lose your planet hence why I said hundreds, possibly up to a thousand years, in the future. The AD (Anno Domini) bit is also really confusing me here, if Renton really was born in 1991 AD then he'd be my age which isn't old enough to have a kid Ao's age.

Liked the music in the trailer, CR has a video for it up now if people are still having trouble seeing it, and I'm amused by the Mystery Machine look-a-like flying van, still not sure what to think of everything else though, even the shots of the setting look really different from the original show.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by TJR

Traditionally, that would be the case. However, it's looking more and more like a cost-cutting measure. Just the other day, people were commenting on how kids are recording dialogue for Square Enix's Bravely Default, while Usagi Drop and Hourou Musuko also featured a few younger actors in the name of authenticity.

While the outcome may well be positive, I'm not about to give a producer points if lowering costs is the main impetus (and authenticity being the justification). It's sort of like the eco-friendly packaging you see with video games. Dropping/minimizing paper manuals and hollowing out the cases certainly has environmental benefits, but the real reason for doing it is to save money.

Actually, using minors in lead roles generally works out to be more expensive than using name seiyuu. Labor laws make recording sessions much more cumbersome. That's why you most often see it done by big studios like I.G. and BONES, and in theatrical releases with bigger budgets.

As for the issue of criticizing BONES for not using huge names, to each his own - I applaud them for it. I'm tired of hearing the same tiny group of actors in every damn series - it's nice to add some new talent to the mix.

[djmaca]

Originally Posted by wandering-dreamer

In the original series it's revealed that the planet the story is set on IS Earth, it's just been so long since humans have been on Earth that they have almost completely forgotten about it/don't remember where it is (they actually "colonized" it thinking it was a new world) and it was completely covered by the scrub coral. I was under the impression that it took a really long time to lose your planet hence why I said hundreds, possibly up to a thousand years, in the future. The AD (Anno Domini) bit is also really confusing me here, if Renton really was born in 1991 AD then he'd be my age which isn't old enough to have a kid Ao's age.

When it comes to age where a pair can have children, being 14 is enough actually.

[Dhomochevsky]

If that rainbow light got Eureka pregnant, it would all add up.

The trailer looks just like E7 to me. Same character designs, lots of flying with the birds, landscape panoramas from high above and some mecha action mixed in.
Could have been taken right out of an E7 episode.

[sonicgx11]

Originally Posted by djmaca

When it comes to age where a pair can have children, being 14 is enough actually.

Exactly, I have a son and I'm 19, so its definitely possible for renton to have a kid.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Dhomochevsky

The trailer looks just like E7 to me. Same character designs, lots of flying with the birds, landscape panoramas from high above and some mecha action mixed in.
Could have been taken right out of an E7 episode.

The birds actually stood out to me as being weird. As I remember it (and I may be mis-remembering - it's been a few years since I watched Eureka Seven), I don't think that there were any birds - it was always sky fish. Is that right?

[sonicgx11]

Originally Posted by wandering-dreamer

In the original series it's revealed that the planet the story is set on IS Earth, it's just been so long since humans have been on Earth that they have almost completely forgotten about it/don't remember where it is (they actually "colonized" it thinking it was a new world) and it was completely covered by the scrub coral. I was under the impression that it took a really long time to lose your planet hence why I said hundreds, possibly up to a thousand years, in the future. The AD (Anno Domini) bit is also really confusing me here, if Renton really was born in 1991 AD then he'd be my age which isn't old enough to have a kid Ao's age.

Liked the music in the trailer, CR has a video for it up now if people are still having trouble seeing it, and I'm amused by the Mystery Machine look-a-like flying van, still not sure what to think of everything else though, even the shots of the setting look really different from the original show.

Well if the first series andthe second series is close together in years, if 20 years have passes since the original, then it took renton and eureka 7 years to make a child, in thirteen more years it will be 2025, if that's possible, bones can pull anything off with this sequel. But yeah this is my theory.