(L) Eureka Seven: Astral Ocean

[JediNight]

I really liked the original E7, and AO continues to impress as well. I was sad at first they weren't going to be using the electronica music from the first series. But the symphonic rock they have going for AO is great as well. I can't wait for the OST.

With Bandai USA gone, do they expect us to import R2s for AO? Or will we get an "Aniplex" type release at least that is $40 for 4 eps? I like the show, but not sure I can justify like $800...

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Flawnalyst

I'm sure she is important, but somehow, being introduced as Ao's sick friend that he's known for years doesn't work for me. It's not the same as Eureka.

It is the same as Eureka... the movie, that is

[Funkatron]

Originally Posted by JediNight

I really liked the original E7, and AO continues to impress as well. I was sad at first they weren't going to be using the electronica music from the first series. But the symphonic rock they have going for AO is great as well. I can't wait for the OST.

With Bandai USA gone, do they expect us to import R2s for AO? Or will we get an "Aniplex" type release at least that is $40 for 4 eps? I like the show, but not sure I can justify like $800...

Funimation already has the rights to the show, so we already have a basic idea for whats gonna happen; either 13 episode sets followed by 26 ep collections (forgot if this is 2 or 4 cour show) or straight to bigger collections and/or a series set. we might have to wait on Blu-ray releases if it comes to a case where the Japanese studio is restrictive and wants a big buffer between the Japanese and American releases

[Xagzan]

Originally Posted by JediNight

I really liked the original E7, and AO continues to impress as well. I was sad at first they weren't going to be using the electronica music from the first series. But the symphonic rock they have going for AO is great as well. I can't wait for the OST.

With Bandai USA gone, do they expect us to import R2s for AO? Or will we get an "Aniplex" type release at least that is $40 for 4 eps? I like the show, but not sure I can justify like $800...

Don't you mean R1 (it being Bandai USA after all)? Besides, Funimation's just licensed it, so why wouldn't they release it?

EDIT: Ninja'd

Originally Posted by Ashaman

Yeah. I get the feling that if Renton appears, and the even bigger if of whether he pilots, we'll have some E7 battle music then.

That would be. Wonderful.

[pinoscotto]

elena and the other girl are too old for ao (somewhere i read they are 16), in this ep they talked about baysitting him...

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by pinoscotto

elena and the other girl are too old for ao (somewhere i read they are 16), in this ep they talked about baysitting him...

Wait Elena is supposed to be 16? I thought she was like supposed to be Ao's age or younger based on the way she acts so immature and like it's a game all the time. I guess she's just supposed to be the comic relief after all then.

[Arya]

Originally Posted by pinoscotto

elena and the other girl are too old for ao (somewhere i read they are 16), in this ep they talked about baysitting him...

Well, the baysitting was meant more as a pilot-sitting than really baby-sitting. And usually does age really matter in anime? Even if I agree that Elena is supposed to be more as comic relief. But not Fleur.

[viperdk1]

Yes, I've had to split up this post in two. Potential spoilers for the original series for those who haven't seen it.

Eureka Seven - sequel or something else?
I ended up pulling a marathon run of the original Eureka Seven series so that I wasn't completely confused by this series.

54 episodes later (including the first 4 of AO)...and I'm still confused. From what I can tell, the events of AO are about as far removed from the plot of the first series as I am from attractive single women

Part of me feels it's an alternate dimension to the previous series (akin to what I've heard about the movie), what with history and the mechanics of the Scubs being very different to what I remember. In the original, if I recall, the Scub Coral became one with the world - leaving humanity to wander the skies for countless years prior to the events with Renton and Eureka. Here, we have the 'Secrets' that emerge from the Scubs - and the fact that these Secrets (along with the Scubs) have been showing up for 85 years. (*EDIT: Might be slightly wrong on that, actually - Anti-body Coralians comes to mind, somewhat).

Having watched the 'prologue' thing (well, half of it - the reusing of original series footage and the discontinuity in terms of the dialogue and overall plot left me rather dizzy and confused), the happy ending of Renton and Eureka being 'together' feels like it has been written out of existence - either that, or Eureka leaving behind seven fragments of what happened (one of which being Ao) happened afterwards as a result of the events of the final episode.

Not that it explains why Eureka fell out of the sky in this 'new world'.

That's not to say I don't like this anime so far. I am certainly enjoying Astral Ocean - it definitely feels like Eureka Seven, but the confusion I have regarding how it fits in with the Eureka Seven canon is frustrating.


Eureka Seven: Astral Ocean
Anyway, getting down to the nitty gritty of AO itself - to start, the OP and ED are brilliant in my opinion (the Stereopony song actually sounds pretty dark to me, especially in the chorus...but that's not important, of course - that belongs in the music section of the forum ). Heck, the OP makes me well up a little - which has become even moreso with the addition of Eureka to the OP vid.

Top notch music all round, really.

The level of xenophobia regarding Ao and Eureka...holy hell, that is insane. Seems like the Okinawans were desperate for a scapegoat regarding the Scub Burst that occurred 10 years ago - and considering that the Americans taking away Eureka led to the Scub Burst disappearing, the 'gaijin' that is Ao suffered that fate.

Personally (given my notion of pretending to be the protagonists of anime to improve my immersion in a series...trust me, it works - Code Geass and Guilty Crown were ridiculously fun for that reason), it feels completely unreasonable. Ao had nothing to do with what happened - I mean bloody hell, he was what, 3, at the time? Just because he is 'different' (half-Coralian, half-human) doesn't give anyone the right to persecute him and treat him like a chew toy because of what his ancestors (humanoid or otherwise, Coralians are Coralians) did.

Quite frankly, the fact that someone stood up for Ao in Episode 3 (namely Gazelle - who pointed out that the only reason he and his mates picked on Ao at an early age was because their parents said so) shows that such animosity among the Okinawans towards Ao is ridiculous. Never thought I'd like Gazelle after the first episode - but he's an impressive character and a perfect example (like Naru Arata) of the generational divide between the elder xenophobic Okinawans and the younger generation who, from what I can tell, realise the stupidity of that xenophobia towards Eureka and Ao.

There are still so many things I don't understand with the series - but as time goes on (and potentially once the racist and oppressive undercurrent falls under the radar), I hope these things will become far clearer. Hopefully Renton will return, but sadly I'm not holding my breath.

As a standalone series, it is my favourite of the Spring 2012 collection (I wouldn't be spending over an hour writing my feelings about any other series this year, believe me) - but considering the 'Word of God' (i.e. the word of the writers) that this is a sequel, I am left wondering how everything fits into place in relation to the previous series.

Of course, that's probably what they've intended - crafty sods.

[Master Chibi]

I don't want it to connect to anything right now, it's only 5 episodes in and E7 was like 50+.

Regardless of how long this series will or won't be I'm going to let it do its own thing without having to press comparisons and work out the connections to the point where it would keep me from enjoying AO.

:P

[Flawfinder]

Originally Posted by viperdk1

As a standalone series, it is my favourite of the Spring 2012 collection (I wouldn't be spending over an hour writing my feelings about any other series this year, believe me) - but considering the 'Word of God' (i.e. the word of the writers) that this is a sequel, I am left wondering how everything fits into place in relation to the previous series.

That's the thing with sequels. They should stand on their own, but they can't rape the previous franchise series in return. Of course, I've yet to see a good sequel that did that, so whatever.

@Kanon I never watched the movie. I'm still 10 episodes in from finishing the first series, but I can't work up the motivation.

[miketyson]

FWIW: the last 10 episodes of Eureka Seven are noticeably better than the previous 10 episodes. Everyone's tastes are different, etc., but for most viewers episodes 30-39 are far and away the weakest in the series, but from there it finally starts getting substantially better again. In fact I'd guess that for most of us who have fond memories of Eureka Seven it's really those last 10 episodes that're responsible for leaving that overall positive impression.

[SQA]

Originally Posted by viperdk1

That's not to say I don't like this anime so far. I am certainly enjoying Astral Ocean - it definitely feels like Eureka Seven, but the confusion I have regarding how it fits in with the Eureka Seven canon is frustrating.

If you've been mainlining the TV series, the important sequel hooks are in episodes 37, 47 and 50. (The "New Order" episode is apparently from some live-event a few years ago and actually isn't important nor relevant, per some sources. It's really confusing what's going on with that) Then, the production staff say it's a sequel. So, this is post-ep-50 Scub Coral. They've achieved Enlightenment, which is why they're acting different.

AO's world is likely the one the Scub Coral saw 3k years before the TV series when the Great Wall was created. You can even read the title "Astral Ocean" as hinting at this point. The Scub Coral said 1/2 of them were going there, through Gonzy in episode 50. That's the most straight-forward and direct sequel hook we have.

That could still be wrong, but, if it is, they've gone somewhere really contrived to make a world with roughly current Earth culture.

[Jarmel]

Originally Posted by miketyson

FWIW: the last 10 episodes of Eureka Seven are noticeably better than the previous 10 episodes. Everyone's tastes are different, etc., but for most viewers episodes 30-39 are far and away the weakest in the series, but from there it finally starts getting substantially better again. In fact I'd guess that for most of us who have fond memories of Eureka Seven it's really those last 10 episodes that're responsible for leaving that overall positive impression.

Somewhat disagree, my favorite ones are where Renton finally mans up and leaves the shit hole that is the Gekko State.

[Guido]

Ok. Seen the third episode. It's good to see Ao manning up to some determination to protect the island.

Spoiler:

The child me says that it was just unfair how the Okinawan adults behaved like such moron bastard, ostracizing both Ao and his mother just because of the incident with the Scub Coral from 10 years ago.

However, the adult me is realistic in that when it comes to the Scub Coral chains of events cannot be taken so lightly, since there have had to be a connection between Ao's mother and the Scub Coral and the same with the Nirvash reacting to Ao.

Nonetheless, the islanders treatment of Ao back then went beyond the line and particularly teaching their children to hate him just because being a foreigner.

Furthermore, I was partially right that the Okinawan would be using Ao as a political bargain chip to pressure the Japanese Government for full independence.

Probably, the Nirvash in this series is not the same as the one of the first series, but the connections it holds to Ao's mother are undeniable. Now, we'll have to wait to find out if Ao's mother is indeed the real Eureka or....

Spoiler:

like someone else theorized before a clone of Eureka or a different Eureka that has no connection with the Eureka we knew from the first series.

[Tyr Valein]

Originally Posted by miketyson

FWIW: the last 10 episodes of Eureka Seven are noticeably better than the previous 10 episodes. Everyone's tastes are different, etc., but for most viewers episodes 30-39 are far and away the weakest in the series, but from there it finally starts getting substantially better again. In fact I'd guess that for most of us who have fond memories of Eureka Seven it's really those last 10 episodes that're responsible for leaving that overall positive impression.

What? Episode 32 "Start It Up" and Episode 35 "Astral Apache" were some of the most memorable episodes for me. The first time typeZERO wins against theEND while showing off its new upgrades and a nice bit of dialogue to show the relationship between Dewey and Holland on Capital Hill.

[Azuma Denton]

Just watch the all 4 first eps of AO...
Very different setting from the original E7, so i decided to think that AO is a loose sequel that feature Eureka until they can connect a line between E7 and AO...


And poor Renton...
No one mentions him... ;_;

Another one, Ao looks very similar to army-hair-style Eureka...

[RiderLeangle]

OK please tell me I'm not alone that I can see this and wonders where the hell are her wings...
(And also I can see they didn't really listen to me when making the op subs but whatever... orz )

[SolarAquarion]

Originally Posted by RiderLeangle

OK please tell me I'm not alone that I can see this and wonders where the hell are her wings...
(And also I can see they didn't really listen to me when making the op subs but whatever... orz )

Where is that image from?

[RiderLeangle]

Originally Posted by Xezexal

Where is that image from?

Opening of episode 4

[SolarAquarion]

Originally Posted by RiderLeangle

Opening of episode 4

I didn't see that. Video?