“Still, it’s human nature to wait. Waiting for the dove to return with a branch of hope in its beak” –Ivica Tanović
(a quick note: Even though these are written in hindsight, I’ve tried to keep it as though I don’t know anything about events that take place in future episodes. I’m sure some stuff will slip through, but I will do my best to keep it out. Oh, and it’s been a while since I watched the original Eureka Seven, so if I make some mistakes, I apologize in advance.)
Alright let’s get this party started!
Summary: Episode 1 introduces to us Ao Fukai, a young boy with brown hair and pink eyes, who lives under the care of his guardian, Toshio Fukai, on the island of Iwato Jima. He seems to live a normal teenaged life, driving around his hover car equivalent of his mom’s minivan, and hanging out with his friend Naru Arata, who seems to have a mysterious asthma like illness, and her pet sloth Noah (yeah…about that.) Naru also appears to have some kind of special abilities that lead to her being able to sense events in the future (like being able to tell the forest will catch on fire and needing to find Noah ahead of time.)
While on the beach late at night one day, Ao encounters some smugglers (Gazelle, Pippo, and Han) who almost run him over. In the after math of the crash, Ao picks up a green bracelet, that seems to be of some importance. Before anything else can happen between the smugglers and Ao, a scub burst appears, and everyone kinda flees the area. The next day another scub burst crashes into the island, this time with a so called G-monster in tow, which then proceeds to demolish the island. Ao freaks out trying to find Naru, and when he realizes she might be dead, the mysterious green bracelet glows and shows Ao a memory of his mother wearing the same bracelet (a woman with turquoise hair no less. I wonder who she is /sarcasm/). Ao’s kinda upset at this point and so when the smugglers show up demanding he give the bracelet back, he essentially tells them to get bent. Oh, and we see some shots of a Swiss military organization of some kind called Generation Bleu.
Impressions: E7AO is the kind of show that takes a “Hey kids, lets learn to swim by throwing you into the deep end!” approach to telling a story. It just kinda tosses you right on in there and crosses it’s fingers you won’t drown. It’s more than a little confusing watching this episode at first, and I’ll be the first to admit that some of it’s my own fault for not taking the time to re-watch the original Eureka Seven before hand (I think it’s been about 6 years since I last watched E7.) The viewer is given a lot of information and not a lot of answers right from the get go. What is Generation Bleu? When exactly is this story line taking place in relation to E7? Where are Ao’s parents (WHERE IS RENTON?) What the heck is a G-monster and why is it shooting up the place? and most importantly: How does a Sloth, an animal that is native to Central and South American rainforests, get to Japan and survive there?
I liked Ao right off the bat (he’s such a little cutie!) despite the fact that I think more that half his dialogue was “Naru!” (or variations there of.) It seems like he’s had a bit of trouble in the past getting along with people on the island, since he talks to Naru about being “different” and “a foreigner.” Naru seems like a sweet girl (who also might be dead already? Some how I doubt it though, she seemed like a main character.) I’m curious as to what exactly her illness is and what effects it has on her. It’s hard to tell as of now which characters are going to end up playing big roles as opposed to minor ones, since they literally showed us almost all of them (at least briefly.) I’m hoping next episode will have some mecha action, and maybe some explanations as to Generation Bleu.
As far as the animation goes: Wow, it’s *PRETTY*. You can obviously tell that it’s the successor to E7, but the animation is just a tiny hair cleaner, and man are those backgrounds awesome. Especially when they show the island and the water, I can’t help thinking “I want to go to there.” Even the Scub look great, with their weird green glow bits. I can’t wait to see the fight scenes, since I’m guessing those are going to be A+.
Final note: Did they really expect us not to immediately know that Ao was Eureka and Renton’s kid? ‘Cause it just seems REALLY obvious.