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1
Movie
Finished Airing
Nov 26, 2021
The virtual world inside the scub coral (intelligent coral-like lifeforms) created by Eureka... The people from that virtual world appeared on Earth ten years ago when it collapsed. Since this large-scale amalgamation, the humans from the virtual world call themselves "Green Earth" and the original Earth humans call themselves "Blue Earth," and they've come to cause various conflicts with each other repeatedly below the surface. Eventually, Dewey Novak, a senior officer in the Green Earth Armed Forces, rises together with his comrades and finally sets a large-scale terrorism plan into action in order to protect their own dignity. Meanwhile, Eureka, who is detested by the world as the main cause of the chaos, has become a high-grade combatant with the UN's A.C.I.D. unit. Live in order to keep this world at peace... This was the path of atonement she chose. One day, she receives an order to protect a girl named Iris, a new "Eureka" who has the ability to control scab coral. They fight a lot at first but gradually come to understand each other through their lonely escape. Soon the world faces a crisis, and when that happens, Eureka draws on every last ounce of her strength as she fights. "I want to protect Iris and this world." What future awaits her at the end of that wish of hers? (Source: Crunchyroll)
6.7/10
Average Review Score
33%
Recommend It
3
Reviews Worldwide
If youâve seen me on Mal before, or you visit my profile after reading this, youâll quickly realize that Eureka Seven is my favourite anime of all time. Itâs pretty easy to see, cause, you know, itâs at the top of my favourites list and all. I found Eureka Seven at a pretty important time in my life, and proceeded to fall so deeply in love with almost everything about it, that I watched all 50 episodes over the course of three days. I was that entranced with it. I have never, in my life, cried as much as I did when I was watchingthat show, and it wasnât sad crying either, it was happy cryingâthe best type of crying because it really feels like youâre emotionally decompressing everything. Itâs the type of crying where the tears feel like theyâre staining your skin; the type of crying where you can feel a lump in your throat, and it hurts. The raw, human sincerity, and pure, emotional honesty of the cast resonated with me, deeply, in a way nothing had managed before, and in a way nothing has managed since. These characters were human, just like me, and they had flaws, just like me, and even if they werenât actually humanâeven if they were differentâthey experienced life all the same. Watching Eureka Seven gave me an emotional catharsis I have hitherto never, in my life, experienced with media, so, I knew it was special. After rewatching it later that year, it became my favourite, and I swear by it to this day. And of course, when something becomes your favourite, you naturally want to check out everything from the property. Unfortunately, I was in for an ugly surprise when I eventually set out on the grand endeavour to do just that. To summarise, the Eureka Seven sequels are bad, bad, bad, and really bad, for the most part. A lot of it comes down to the bitter hack that is Tomoki Kyouda, and his never-ending desire to besmirch his literal masterpiece out of spite for his literal masterpiece. Kyouda has stated that his vision for Eureka Seven was ostensibly mapped out in the first handful of episodesâa story about some punk-rock kid, born lonely at Bell Forest hospital, falling in love with a beautiful girl, and leaving on his coming of age journey towards adulthood. Allegedly, the Bones execs took issue with the dark, bittersweet tone his original layout of the ending took, and thus, had the ending changed to be a happier, and ultimately better conclusion, so as to sell more toys or someshit. Kyouda, being a literal child, has since devoted his entire life to absolutely desecrating the good name of the original, to satisfy his fragile ego, and as a result, has been responsible for some of the worst, and possibly, some of my most hated, anime to exist. To start, Pocket Full of Rainbows was just fucking atrocious, like, what in the fuck was this movie supposed to be? I donât exaggerate when I say PFOR is my least favourite anime of all time, right next to No Game No fucking Lifeâitâs that bad. I donât really want to get into it because it actually makes me quite sad thinking about it. Itâs 99.9% garbage and about the only thing it does right is the ending song, which is something thatâs always kind of defined Eureka Seven: the music. Itâs about the only thing all of the sequels actually get right. Anyway, after PFOR, we had Eureka Seven AO, which wasnât AS bad as most people make it out to be. It had some gorgeous Nakamura sequences, and enough Itano circuses to make Itano himself blush in embarrassment. Even if Sho Aikawaâs writing was somehow WORSE than Satou Daiâs on a bad day, it doesnât really affect my enjoyment of the original, nor does it treat the original with overt disrespect. And now, we come to Hi-Evoâyeah, about 600 words in and Iâm only now talking about the subject of this reviewâwhich is a very, very mixed bag of great ideas, and fucking atrocious ideas. For starters, the first half of Hi-Evo 1 is spectacular! We finally get to see the Summer of Loveâone of the most important incidents in the seriesâwhich, funnily enough, happens off-screen. Anyway, the second half of Hi-Evo 1 is, yeah, not so good; itâs a half-assed, schizophrenically edited mess of a story, that, despite its admittedly interesting conceit, fails to deliver on almost every front. It even ends with a fucking dumbass bait-and-switch sneak preview of a sequel movie THAT DOESNâT FUCKING EXIST! Wow, you sure fucking trolled me Kyoudaâgot me a good one. The sequel we ended up getting (donât worry, Iâm almost there, just let me pointlessly ramble for a little while longer) was⊠good? Hi-Evo 2 is, frankly, kind of, sort of, amazing, kind of, sort of. I know I said the Eureka Seven sequels were âbad, bad, bad, and really bad, for the most part,â but as you can probably guess by the way Iâm setting this up, Hi-Evo 2 was the, âfor the most part,â part of that summary. I think if youâre an Anemone fan, like me, youâll end up really enjoying Hi-Evo 2. Itâs basically if Anemone was a real girl, and wasnât trapped in the Pleasure Island of drugs she was designed to sedate herself with. Itâs also an audio-visual fucking masterpiece that cuts between widescreen and 4:3 to mimic the stylings of the original show, with appropriate art direction to match. So itâs basically a fanservice film, but with one of the most ridiculous plots ever conceptualised. But like all Eureka Seven sequels, it has problems. There are weird CG segments that surely could have been animated, considering the bat-shit crazy mech sequences in the film, and itâs tonally just, kind of, all over the place. Overall, thereâs nothing egregious about the plot; itâs a fanservice film, and, well, Iâm a fan, so being serviced felt good, lol. I could go on for longer about this film and talk about the significance of Keiji Fujiwara playing Dewey, but, despite being at 1000 words and not yet mentioning it, this IS an Eureka Seven Hi-Evo 3 review, so now that Iâve finally set the stage, itâs time to discuss it. In anticipation of the filmâs release, I followed every crumb, every drop of news to the best of my ability. I was there for all the trailers, all the PVsâthe sneak-peak at the first 15 minutes? I was there. So naturally, the music video for the credits theme of the film âa song thoughtfully titled âEurekaâ by the band Hentai Shinshi Clubâcaught my eye when it was uploaded to YouTube. I sat there, watched it, and thought to myself, âWhy am I feeling legitimately emotional watching this? I know this is going to suck, and I know Kyouda is going to let me down,â but despite acknowledging that, I couldnât shake that pleasantly awful feeling of butterflies in my stomach. Right off the bat, my expectations for this film were shakyâlike they are with most thingsâand something just felt⊠off about the whole thing. I gotta say, I was getting a little bit anxious, and a little bit impatient, and a little bit aggravated. And the more I thought about itâthe film and its releaseâthe more I felt a little bit anxious, a little bit impatient, and a little bit aggravated. Alright, first things first: no Yoshida. Yeah, so weâve lost the heart and soul of Eureka Seven because he was doing Orbital Children at the time or something like that. This is important, really important. Remember what Iâm always saying: the character designer is really important, remember? Yoshida is really important, remember? All hope is not lost though, because Okumura Masashiâa man most notable for his work on the beautiful, but blatant Eureka Seven cash-in, Xamâdâdecided he would try and fill Yoshidaâs shoes. Unfortunately for Okumura, Yoshida wears a size 14. Okumura sure did his fucking best though, because this film looks fucking amazing! Ostensibly the last bastion for hand-animated mecha, aside from, maybe, Hathaway, but then again, I donât remember Hathaway pulling out Itano circuses every fucking second. Sure, the film doesnât always look stellar, and in the middle, the quality dips horrendously, but itâs not like the acronym âI.G.â is plastered on the cover or anything, so I canât exactly hold it to a standard it couldnât possibly live up to. But, yeah, like Tom Cruiseâespecially after his little foray in Iranâthis movie looks, and sounds, pretty darn cool. And thatâs the bottom line, because I said so. Before I really get into things, Iâd be remiss if I didnât mention the circumstances by which Iâm actually able to watch this film. Hi-Evo 3 had its home release in June, and in the meantime, a small community of diehard fans on redditâwho donât know Japanese, mind youâput together a fansub subtitle track for the film. While itâs not the greatest fansub out there, it was a real labour of love, and is literally the only reason I am able to watch this film. So thank you to those who were a part of that project. Alright, the movie. Okay. As aforementioned, I had already seen the first 15 minutes of the film back when Bandai released it on YouTube, but, oh boy, it was something else seeing it again. I remember doing this during that sneak preview, but as soon as Eureka performed the cut-back drop-turn, my heart fucking skipped a beat, and I said, aloud, in my best Fujiwara impression, âCut-Back Drop-Turn!â The film doesnât even make a point of it either, until Holland delivers the appropriate reaction, of course. Speaking of Holland, heâs in this movie, for some reason. Ultimately, he has no business being in this film, other than to share a scene with a pregnant Talho, which drove a fucking knife into my heart as soon as I heard Neye Michiko deliver her first of few lines in this movie. Honestly, itâs probably for the best that Fujiwara didnât reprise his role here, cause it would have hurt too much, especially considering what Kyouda does with him later. At least with Morikawa voicing him, I can pretend heâs a different character entirely, which isnât too hard to do, given his awful redesign (reminds me of another character). Iâll just come out and say it (spoilers, kids), Kyouda kills Holland off at the end of this movie, and it isnât earned, and means absolutely nothing, and because of that, I feel absolutely nothing. I should be outraged, but Iâm just⊠sullen about itânot even sullen, more like emotionless. I didn't even register that it had happened, because, for some reason, I was hopeful that Kyouda wouldn't fuck it up right at the end. I don't know why I ever thought such things. Thankfully, not all was lost. If this film had one saving grace, it would be its titular heroine, Eureka. If there is one thing Tomoki Kyouda is good at, itâs writing characters. Eureka brought a human touch to this film I was honestly shocked to see. Somehow, it makes sense that a grown-up Eureka would become a weight-lifting alcoholic, as out-of-character as that sounds. Hearing Eureka and Anemone, as adults, with the same voice actors, talk as close friends, made everything so, so real to me. I instantly bought into their dynamic. Whilst both their designs arenât amazing, they still seem believable, as if these characters would actually look the way they do, given the appropriate context. Like, it makes sense Eureka would, without the love or kindness of those around her, mature into a hardened badass, and that Anemone would become a twenty-something that gets frustrated at kids for calling her old. Itâs also a perfect touch that she does her hair like Katejina, even if thereâs no way that was the parallel Okumura was drawing. Structure-wise, to me, it honestly feels like Kyouda conceptualized the middle part of this filmâits emotional coreâthen realised he had to quickly devise the âplotâ of the film, which kinda just bookends either side of the actually good, middle part. However, whilst attempting to ground the inherently larger-than-life soul of Eureka Seven with political intent, geopolitical conflicts, multi-national ethnic terrorism and anti-immigration movements, by means of, general, stern-faced diplomacy, Kyouda inevitably dampens the beating heart that made the franchise so special in the first place. What Iâm trying to say is, this film lives and dies on its second act and the relationship between Eureka and Iris, despite Kyoudaâs best efforts to âelevate,â or, âsubvert,â the original intent of his masterpiece, out of spite for his masterpiece, in some vain attempt to debase what little good he managed in this film. Anyway, this all brings me to the shower sceneâarguably the best scene in the entire movie, and possibly, the entire Hi-Evo sub-franchise. Seeing Eurekaâs body brought Kyoudaâs absolutely ridiculous script crashing down to earth, but in a way so real, I wasnât ready for it, nor was I expecting it. This was a real womanâs body, with real scarsânot fake, neatly adorned, anime scars from some tragic backstoryâreal scars, accumulated over a lifetime of fighting, externally and internally. Eurekaâs scars are painful, and ugly, and harsh, but beautiful, in the sense that despite all that struggling, she continues on living, as hard and unfair as living may be. So thatâs why I was shocked to my core when Iris asked to touch her, and then expressed the exact same sentiment I just did. It was mature, emotive writing I thought Kyouda not capable of anymore. But this is Tomoki Kyouda weâre talking about, so it all had to come crashing down somehow, and the cracks started to appear right when Sumner showed up. I donât know how to say this any other way: Kyouda made Sumner and Ruri fucking jobbers. Why even bring them back? This goes beyond a cameo, because you literally wrote dialogue for Sumner, only to have him killed in the scene you introduced him in. Then we have your big twist, since youâre such a smart, out-of-the-silver-box (see what I did there?) kind of writer. Sigh (there you go, I typed it). Kyouda, why? Why do you retcon your own narrative with stupid shit? You do not deserve a Big O, metafictional plot twist. You have done nothing to EARN a metafictional plot twist. You hack fuck. It makes no sense; it is not smart. Why was Hi-Evo building to this WHEN THERE WAS NO FUCKING PAY OFF!? Having Eureka hug Anemone and tell her she loves her right before the third act WAS the big pay-off of this movieâwell, for me, at leastâand whatâs worse, is that it wasnât even intentional, just my sentimental ass. Kyouda canât see whatâs in front of him before itâs too late, and it ostensibly ruined the movie. The final conflict was so utterly and artificially manufactured as to be literally laughable. At a point, the movie becomes so caked in continuity, lore and meta, that it rips the stakes clean off the plot. Gosh, I haven't even mentioned Charles and Ray, but for my sake, I'm not going to explain why. Why couldnât Hi-Evo have been just a fun collection of little âwhat if?â stories, set in the Eureka Seven universe? If this was the plan all along, then what was the point of Hi-Evo 1? Surely this couldnât have been the plan all along? This movie ends with NOTHINGânot even a fun post-credits sceneâit ends with nothing, but Hentai Shinshi Club. I know this review has just become a disjointed, ranting tirade, but at least it helps me feel something. That was the problem with this movie and its ending: I felt nothing. I should have felt something, but I didnât. When Renton made his grand entrance at the end, it wasnât real. He didnât fight his way across worlds to get to Eureka; he didnât mature and pick up Keiji Fujiwara as a voice actor; he didnât speak as the loving, caring individual known as âRenton Thurston.â I couldnât help but think that Renton, in some way, represented the franchiseâlooking exactly like it did back in 2005âand that I was Eureka, holding on to him for dear life as he fades away into the light. *** So, this is it? This is the send-off to the franchise of my favourite work in fiction? Youâre right, Kyouda. This, this is all I have. This 24 minutes a night, 90 minutes a sitting. This is my everything. I donât think thatâs a surprise to anyone when they know that I live this. This. This is what I love. But you know what, sometimes things you love donât always love you back. And you can give, and you can give, and you can give, and you can give, and you can give, and you can give, and sometimes you get nothing in return. You get nothing! And you have friends, and family, and fans coming up and telling you, âWhy do you still do it? Why are you still here? Why do you subject yourself to this every night?â Itâs because I canât stop. I canât! Itâs a sickness. I canât stop! And maybe my life didnât always turn out the way I thought it would, you know? I thought it would have been better. I thought I earned something. I thought I would be more successful. But you know what. I just canât stop myself. I canât. But you, you bring this franchise back one more time. Listen to me, Kyouda! Bring this franchise back one more time, and Iâll put up my entire career. âDolph Ziggler, probably.
And thus Tomoki Kyoda bitter quest to destroy everything that made Eureka Seven great has finally come to an end,the first minutes of the first movie is the only good thing about these "movies" the rest is just a bastardization of everything that made Eureka Seven special and unique. Eureka Seven original series was a show about love,coexistence with nature,family and forgiveness,this three movies instead feel like a cheap attempt to turn E7 into an Eva/Gundam/Ghost in the Shell knockoff and succeding at none of it,the only two good things about them were the big explosions and the first 10mins of the first movie where theyanimated the "Summer of Love" cataclysm event,after that it turns into a bunch of retcon multiverse baloney with inconsistent animation,generic futuristic scenery,generic music,generic giant robot fights and a script so bad it almost feel like an AI wrote the whole thing. I can only recommend this trilogy of movies to people who like to watch big explosions because that was the only good thing about them,the rest is just your typical confusing edgy scifi mecha trying to milk money from fans of the original E7 and judging by the box office numbers,reviews of the films and even the NFT they tried to sell to us,it even failed at doing that.
An absolute masterpiece. The movie uses all the best that has been built in all the Eureka series so far and delivers premium quality animation and visual art. The cutoff point is Pocketful of Rainbow, if you liked the movie the Hi-Evolution series (2 and 3 in fact) will deliver a similar experience. Knowledge of everything past is required, including AO for full enjoyment, which is why the film is not easy to accept, but for anyone who is a true fan of Eureka Seven it was the best gift possible. Another side of Eureka is presented, a suffering adult, just like in the AO premise, butwho never got screen time. At the same time, the film presents a story openly inspired by Terminator, delivering a good Terminator-like movie for the first half, returning to the "Eureka Seven" in the final section. Is this a farewell to the series? If so, it was a farewell in style, it leaves a satisfying taste of a closed cycle.