Ranked #2664

Eureka Seven AO

OK. First off, let me just say that this series was a mess.

I had huge expectations for this sequel since I'm a fan of E7, however, this didn't even come close. What I enjoyed about E7 was the story and character development. I actually felt connected to many of the characters. The story flowed very nicely. I even liked the Nirvash as its own character.

E7AO started off ok while introducing the characters, then it quickly went downhill. The focus was more on the story and fight scenes. I dont think the story was good, but that's where the focus was.

I liked Elena and Fleur and i thought they had great potential. I thought that Fleur would develop feelings for Ao but that never happened. They actually threw in some signs that she had a thing for Gazzele. Elena made a lot of references to other anime. I picked up easily on the Evangelion ones. Both these characters failed to go further and were just part of the cast for a majority of the series until they decided to wrap it up and give them their scene. I felt like it just came out of nowhere. Ao just made me upset. He was a wet blanket. He was boring and indecisive until the end. Truth. Wow. Just wow. I think its always great to have a crazy character somewhere and let them have their 1 second insane facial expression, but Truth had his on more than half the time. It got old and annoying fast. Anemone is 100% a better character. I didn't even understand Naru. Noah was better than her.

The Mecha designs were well done I think. I wish they gave a little more air time to appreciate them. What was bad was that there were too many special ones thrown in. There were several Nirvashs and it became confusing because of them coming from a different time and all that. I understand that there are two, but it seemed like there were many more. I wonder what the back story was for Truth's Mech. It just appeared.

Then there's the story. The basic plot was good, but all the little details they threw in made it a wreck. I didn't even know what was going on half the time. There would be a serious fight going on, then it just switches over to a calm island scene. I didn't like this at all. It sucked the severity and seriousness of the events. They just jumped on the time travel hype, but time travel is really hard to put together. Its an interesting concept, but difficult to make it enjoyable. They would have been more successful if they had kept it more low key with a single goal. The protagonist didn't even know what his own goal was until the last episode. Also, that ending! Seriously, what the fuck? If you've seen it you probably have the same thoughts I have. The main questions, how and why. The series would be better off without it.

What was good about the series were the animations and music. They were consistent with the first series. The openings and endings were also pretty good. The animations for Ao were a bit lacking about halfway though. It kept changing. It might have been just me.

In conclusion, E7AO failed to meet my expectations. It may seem my intent was to bash the series but that is wrong. I'm just expressing what made me upset. It had a lot of potential so it makes me sad when it turn out like this. I wouldn't recommend it if you want to keep all of E7 in a good light. read more

Too be completely honest, I was a little disappointed With this series. I had higher expectations after Eureka 7. It was a great plot, very well developed characters, and had just the right amount of romance and action.

For Eureka 7: AO, This was not the case, the story seemed to be more thrown together and just tried to dazzle you with action for most of the episodes. This being said, character development was lacking and you could not relate or get to know the characters better. I loved the fact that Eureka 7 had great relationships which help bring it together but AO did not.

If you are into a lot of action though, you may like this anime. But if you were a very big fan of Eureka 7, you may be disappointed. read more

Eureka Seven was one of my most favorite mecha-animes of all time, but I was very disappointed in Astral Ocean. Here are the reasons why,

Eureka Seven AO focuses too much on the action. In the previous series, there was drama and love. I know most of you will think to yourself "mecha animes aren't suppose to have any drama or love, just action" but the drama in Eureka Seven was what made the series. It made you love the two main characters, Renton and Eureka. But in Astral Ocean, you don't have the same connection with Ao.

The story of the show is still strong, it's very mysterious. There are new entities called Secrets attacking the unnatural beings known as Scub Corals. There is a man named "Truth" who is trying to reveal the truth to the world (sorry if that sounded repetitive) and he is the shows main antagonist. There is Naru who was Ao's best friend who decided to go total whack on Ao one day and follow the main bad guy. And there is the mystery behind of "what happened to Eureka and Renton?"

The art is still beautiful like the original show, I love the action scenes and the mecha drawings, it's pure epic. The sound is crystal clear, the openings and endings are amazing, (OP 2- Very Nostalgic to Eureka Sevens original opening), and overall I give the animation and sound effects a ten.

Here is where I get a bit pissy. The characters seem very bland compared to the characters in the original series. Renton from the original series was a crybaby, he was a crybaby but we got to know his character so well that we felt like we actually knew him. He was very true to himself, and he loved Eureka dearly. He cared for others and put his life on the line at certain times. The rest of the crew- members in the Gekkostate (Gekkostate is their flying ship) all had their own unique looks and traits that made us love them. Holland (the captain) was a bit of a jerk but nonetheless I loved him as a character of the show.

But the characters in Astral Ocean is a different story. Eureka Seven had humor and the characters were fun to watch and listen to. But in Astral Ocean, many of the characters seem way too serious and it feels like you can grab several characters and just meld them into one person- that's how boring they are. A lot of characters feel the same to me and I just don't connect with them.
Even Holland (from the Original series) was such an ass to Renton that I actually hated Holland. To actually hate someone that doesn't even exist, means that they're a good and true character.

Here's how bad the characters are in Astral Ocean- I won't be sad if Ao dies. I'm serious. He's the main character but he's so boring like the rest, that I don't feel like I'll be very sad if he died. However, if Renton died, I would be extremely sad and I'll hate the show for killing him, (thank God he didn't die) but if Ao dies, I'll just say "meh the show could still possibly go on without him" (and a lot other characters besides).

The only reason I'm still putting up with this show is because I can't wait to see Renton and Eureka reunite. But Ao? Whatever. He can do whatever he wants to, because he's as boring as the shows pet.

My enjoyment of the show would be around a 6 when my overall enjoyment from the predecessor would be a 9.
Overall the show gets a 7 because the art and action saves it from dropping below a 5.

Watch Eureka Seven then watch Astral Ocean. You'll see a depressing drop and you'll wonder, what in the hell happened?
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Oh god Bones. How can you do this to me?

Honestly, it wouldn't have been an awful anime standing on it's own. But you had to attach it to Eureka 7, to which I have so many fond memories and emotions attached!

My first complaint with this anime is.. The waste of time. The key points of this episode could have been done in 12 episodes. There were no real filler episodes either!

Why 12? Well, at least half the content was just boring: Go here, kill these guys. Minor character development. Nothing really happens.


My next complaint is.. the characters. The super powers, they didn't make sense in this universe. To some extent, Naru fit in great. However, Truth was just the personification of every awful villain of any anime. Even when you get his full story. He just sort of.. is horrible.

The other thing about the characters.. Is the lack of development. Even on the main characters. We saw more development from Moon Doggy in E7 than we did from Ao in the entire series.

Third complaint.

The story doesn't make sense. I hate time travel. Hate it! With a passion, and this took confusing time travel and made it more confusing. They never answer a few questions which arise like "Were the scubs actually time traveling, or were they going to another universe in which an earlier time period of earth was occuring?" We don't have the insightful mind of a character like Dr. Bear to elaborate to the viewers what the staff knows.

To that end on the story. It kind of ruins the original series. I don't think I've been this dismayed at a series end since Mass Effect 3.

While creating a clone of the original is fruitless endeavor, making the sequel more similar than distant to the original story should have taken a precedent. When it didn't apparently. There were so many avenues to be followed upon with the original anime but instead they offer this short series which honestly should have been way shorter.

What I really missed were those scenes where you felt in touch with the character. I remember literally crying during Anemone's lamenting, and the tears of joy that followed when Eureka and Renton helped her see past the life she was locked in to.

Granted the end of Eureka 7 PoP was a little bit trippy for me, it was still amazing compared to what we got from Astral Ocean.

Goddamn how Bones has fallen.
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This proved quite disappointing considering how much I enjoyed the original Eureka Seven series, though I'm not completely condemning it to hellfire and brimstone as many folks presently are as there have been worst messes I've seen in anime. Eureka 7 AO gave us the promise of Eureka's son, Ao, trying to discover his mother's whereabouts by trudging through some complicated conflicts between military factions and Generation Bleu. While this idea showed its potential for much of the first half of the series, while also digging into the complicated issues surrounding affairs between the mentioned factions and monster threats, later episodes get increasingly messy with the title's writing and its exploration of characters.

Let us first talk about the choices of writing for AO. The original series had a clear direction for what it wished to accomplish with Gecko State's motives, revealing Eureka's origins, some pretty shocking secrets surrounding the origins of the world and Dewey Novak's manipulations to bring forth his own twisted plans. For AO though, the series starts getting messy towards the middle of the show when we come to learn of Eureka's whereabouts as it introduces a convoluted plot device, that I won't spoil here, that makes things rather hard to follow with what exactly is happening to her and how this element to the plot affects things for later events in the series. The series also gets in the rather obnoxious habit of creating twists in the direction of the plot that you would assume would be relevant for later events of the show or unveiling details on characters yet in many cases, these twists aren't quite as relevant and were mostly there to swerve the audience. The final two episodes that were hyped up to just recently were noticeably more fast paced than earlier episodes of AO as a major character from the first season of the series finally made his appearance and the resolution to the series will have one questioning what the entire point of it even was with how mean-spirited and contradicting AO was from how it presented itself in the earlier episodes.

Characterization was another issue effecting AO. Relevant characters in the original series got a good amount of fleshing out with their personalities and backgrounds so the audience would learn to care for the issues faced by them throughout the series and see how they eventually grow throughout the series. Even among the supporting characters, the first series still gave them enough personality where they were entertaining to see in serious and light-hearted moments. In AO though, many characters who were relevant in the major events of the series get limited development and don't have much in the way of personality, limiting any kind of connection one could get from them. Those characters who do get reasonable fleshing out are still limited in their development and growth thanks to the mentioned messy writing. Any chemistry between characters that would have one think there is a significant bond between them, like friendship, family or love, or there is development of one is snuffed aside for the most part thanks to larger focus being on the advancement of AO's plot.

The only thing that AO seemed to genuinely land right were the visuals. Eureka 7 AO retains the same animation style used from the first season of the series while having a more vivid color palette and smoother details. The fluid and intense mecha fights are also retained here as well and make for some of the best animated moments I've seen from a TV anime this year.

Overall, Eureka 7 AO made for one of the year's biggest disappointments for me in terms of expectations. While I was expecting a title that would retain the spirit of the original Eureka 7 in exploring Ao's search for his mother from its earlier episodes, AO became quite a mess in terms of writing and characterization in later episodes as it had trouble deciding on a proper direction to follow with its elements compared to the original series. Diehard Eureka 7 fans may want to avoid AO lest they want to fume fan-rage over what they will inevitably see. read more

(It is a long one, so bear with me)

It is virtually impossible to not compare Eureka Seven: Astral Ocean to its predecessor, E7: Psalm of Planets; and with good reason. One, then, must ultimately ask: "How does it compare to the original? Should I bother watching it?" The short answer is "Yes." I will, however, say this: E7:AO and E7:PoP are fundamentally different from each other in story-telling and themes, and expecting a clone of E7:PoP will leave you disappointed. Some of the following differences partially account for the negative criticism E7:AO has received. In my review, I first intend to address two significant points that are critical to keep in mind while watching the series. Following that, I will provide my analysis of the series and provide the reasoning for my rating.

First, E7:PoP is the quintessential Bildungsroman: a growing-of-age story that centers on character-building. Rather than the plot driving the story, the characters drove the story. Underneath this superficial layer, however, the story was riddled with deep philosophical contexts and highly sophisticated cultural/literary references (60's surfer culture, The Golden Bough, music, etc.). This is characteristic of the script writer Dai Sato of Cowboy Bebop, Wolf's Rain, Ghost in the Shell 2nd GIG fame; creating deep and immersive worlds with incredible detail. But in the end, viewers were drawn in by the character interactions of the E7:PoP cast, which made the story dynamic.

E7:AO fundamentally differs in that the story is driven by the plot and is highly intellectual in an up-front way. Driving these events is a smart and engaging commentary on geopolitics; character development takes a backseat (although it is still there), and it is done in the context of addressing E7:AO's themes in minimalist fashion. This is characteristic of Aikawa Shou, the script writer for Un-Go, RaXephon, and both versions of Fullmetal Alchemist: highly political and intellectual.

Simply put: two different script writers; two different stories/interpretations. E7:PoP is grandiose, highly detailed, and philosophical (underneath the surface) with a strong character cast driving the story; E7:AO is intelligent, political, and down to Earth with a plot-driven story. It also requires a good head on your shoulder, as it requires an understanding of time/space and dimensional theory.

The other major conflict isthe themes of the two series. To be spoiler-free and to phrase it simply: E7:AO's themes are a response to the ending and themes of E7:PoP as aired (cf. E7: New Order, the originally written and intended ending). The one major theme of E7:PoP was that if one never gives up, he will achieve the impossible; a fairy-tale ending where everyone is happy. E7:AO's theme is grounded in reality: there are no fairly-tale endings, and things rarely work out the way it was intended. Similarly, the world is not black and white, as every choice has a consequence.

Should you decide to give the series a try, keep these in mind.
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And now, to my analysis of E7:AO.

This need not be said, but animation, music, and voice acting were all high-quality. The music was especially captivating.

The plot is smart and engaging, but this hinges on one's preferences. AO's social-geopolitically driven story is quite intelligent, but it will not appeal to everybody. As it heavily features time/space dimensional theory plot devices, critical understanding and thought is necessary while watching the series. Ultimately, this can be ostracizing for those who want a presentation similar to E7:PoP in its character-driven story (make no mistake, however, that it is deeply ingrained in philosophy, literature, and subculture but that lies underneath the surface). Nonetheless, taken for what it is, E7:AO's story is highly engaging. Elements of the story are rushed, however, and one can only make sense of the story/order-of-events after watching the final episode, or perhaps a rerun of the entire show.

Character development took a backseat in E7:AO. Unfortunately, this is it's weakness, as the balance between a primarily plot-driven story and having enough character development was not quite met. The development of the supporting cast was only done in a fashion to advance the plot and outline the themes of the overall story; in other words, fairly minimalist in its character development. Thus, viewers may feel a disconnect with the support cast. In contrast, this is where E7:PoP excelled. The viewer cared about every member aboard the Gekkostate because of their dynamism. Just as the story was rushed to some degree, E7:AO could have spent more time on valuable character development. Lack of development ended up making some of the cast forgettable and detached (perhaps a 39-episode run would have balanced the story/character development?).
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Final Thoughts:

While it pains me to say so, I also cannot help but compare E7:AO with E7:PoP. Considering the sum of its parts, E7:PoP is the better series. On the other hand, taking E7:AO for what it is, both as a sequel to E7:PoP and a stand-alone series, I found it to be highly engaging and to have been a rewarding experience. It certainly has its flaws and some will be disappointed (I even was to a degree), but in my opinion it is a fitting sequel to E7:PoP and is worthy of standing along-side it (unlike the movie, from a critical standpoint). One imply has to watch it and enjoy it for what it is.

Before watching this series, one must understand that the themes and story-telling are fundamentally different (different script writer, different . E7:AO is not a clone of E7:PoP, nor was it intended to be one. E7:AO is a true sequel as it is a direct response to the plot and outcome of E7:PoP (and the consequences), not a spin-off.

This concludes this review. I hope that it has, at the very least, provided some new insight and perspective for those looking for an opinion on E7:AO (Mine is likely among the minority). See you in the forum discussions!

Critical score: 8.4
Personal score: 9.0 (highly subjective)
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Eureka Seven: OW...er, AO

Ouch! That's is all.

...okay, that wouldn't make for much of a review, but really, the best way I can put this series was it was painful to watch. I remember seeing the original series in both English and Japanese and loved both. One of the few English dubs that I didn't despise that much. I really hope this doesn't get localized so it can slap the faces of any other Eureka Seven fans that don't watch subbed anime.

Okay, enough venting and more reviewing. The problem with this series was the story and character development...and boy, was it bad. Bones had a pretty strong reputation before this series but I get the impression it's going to take a major hit. The writers tried to create an innovative plot that took Eureka Seven character archetypes, put them in a time travel/dimensional travel plot, and see what happens. It's almost as if Bones took a look at Steins;Gate and said "see how successful this was?! We need to do that!" Problem is, Steins;Gate created a full cast of likable characters and didn't make the plot any deeper than it had to be. This? It was confusing from start to finish. It's one thing to slowly pace out plot development out of suspense, it's a complete other thing to slowly pace out plot development and then not have a proper payoff.

What made the original series so great was the character development. There was a cast that was well hashed out, well developed, and most importantly, the characters were actually likable and memorable. Astral Ocean failed in that department. It had some unique characters that could've filled that role. I felt as though Elena and Fleur were probably the best characters outside of Ao in this series when it comes to likability. However, even they were not hashed out as well as they should've been and in moments where the dramatic tension should've been high, it wasn't. Simply put, I react well to animes that can convince me that there's dramatic tension between the characters and how they respond to each other. I wasn't sold on any of their dramatic tension.

By far the WORST part of Eureka Seven: Ao though was the ending. Since I'm not allowed to "spoil" it, I'll just come out and say...it was pointless...and I mean that literally. The ending deemed the entire Eureka Seven: Ao storyline essentially pointless. On top of that, it COMPLETELY hung Ao, the series lead character, out to dry. I found it to be an absolute TERRIBLE approach. It's one thing to have a tragic ending that has an affect on the main cast of characters. This anime didn't have that. It had a tragic ending that effectively left zero impact on the main cast of characters. Buzz kill is really the best way to describe the ending.

I know I said a lot of bad things about E7: Astral Ocean so far, but are there any good things? Yeah, there are. The artwork was pretty consistent with the original series and I'd even say slightly better. Although, I do think they went a little overboard with Truth's facial expressions. The music on the whole was pretty good. I also found myself REALLY enjoying the 2nd OP BlazBlue by FLOW. The OP set up the feel that the anime would have an epic 2nd half...so good advertising on Bones part...just poor execution.

Ultimately, the bad outweighs the good. I can say that for the most part, I did enjoy the series but like many series before it, poor writing and an absolute "worst possible ending" just ruined the series for me. The writers tried to do way too much with the plot and not enough with the character development. In an attempt to be innovative, the writers instead created a confusing, heaping mess that even by the time everything was cleared up and explained, it left me unsatisfied. For a sequel to a great series like Eureka Seven, Astral Ocean failed to meet expectations...and then some. read more

I don't exactly have much time to write a full review as the previous people did. But I wanted to get this down since I just recently finished watching Eureka Seven AO. Probably won't bother doing much editing either. So here goes my review of Eureka Seven: Astral Ocean.

I will start this off by saying up-front I am a huge fan of the first Eureka Seven. It is by-far my number one favorite anime next to Steins;gate, NHK, and a few others. Tbh, I did have some pretty high expectations for the sequel. Based on how well Bones did with the first series. I really wanted / hoped the next one to be just as good if not better. And i figured with the way things ended with the last one they were free to do whatever they pleased and it should be fine. Right?

First off, in the beginning of AO I liked how everything was going. Bones has a way of leaving you with questions and building curiosity and suspense. After about maybe not even mid way through the season I got bored of it. Like, okay I liked where it was going but from the early-mid to end the plot practically stays the same. It's just flat out boring. Cool actions scenes, if you're into that kind of stuff. But not much worth watching if you're looking for a good story and some character development.

Speaking of development, AO had absolutely NONE (if any) character development. In Eureka Seven you got to see Renton grow from this clumsy silly little kid to this sort of heroic figure. And throughout the show you really get to connect with the cast. They were so likeable. Not only that you got to see what kind of challenges Renton faced as a young boy growing up. Not to mention the added love story which pretty much completed it.

I don't really want to delve into the soundtrack a whole lot but MY GOD they are seriously lacking in the OST department for AO. How do you go from an awesomely ridiculous soundtrack to like, half-assing the new OST?

It's as though Bones just said, "okay let's see how bad we can screw up and see if any of the fans will notice." I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that there was a lot that should've been fixed with the new series. I won't spoil anything but some characters that were added were unnecessary. Because they hardly served any purpose other than to be there just for show.

If anything they introduced new elements to E7:AO that didn't need to be there so they ended up spending more time explaining all the new elements and spent less time on the story and characters. As a matter of fact there were a lot of things in AO that they simply wasted time trying to explain. I felt like I was watching a whole new show. Hardly anything reminded me of the original E7. So for the most part I would watch it believing this was some stinky new anime that just aired.

All in all, I watched AO with an open mind and holding it to no standards too high but even as an anime for simply watching and enjoying, or killing time, I couldn't have been more disappointed. I might as well have watched paint dry if sheer disappointment didn't kill me first. If I had to say whether or not I would watch it again. I may. But I'd skip through most of it because some scenes are a nuisance and a waste of time to watch.

If you read the reviews before watching, you probably shouldn't have. Just some fair advice. You should probably go watch it yourself before checking the reviews to get your own opinion on AO. Because I get a feeling that not very many people are going to be too thrilled about this one.

tl;dr? E7 was the best. Nothing can compare. =) read more

Eureka Seven is the first Bones original work I've seen, and quite simply it was one of the best 50-episode anime I've seen to date (Last Exile comes close). From its brilliant planning and execution, to excellent visuals and soundtrack, to solid plot and characters, it was a quintessential "boy meets girl" sci-fi/giant robot show.

So naturally I was excited when AO was announced, and I started watching. The first few episodes weren't too bad, but as the show progressed the characters didn't seem to mesh with the story. Without spoiling the story, here's an example: Ao sees something about Naru that shocked him at the end of one episode, and the next episode he's off fighting Secrets as though that shocking revelation never happened-- there wasn't a single moment of hesitation or doubt, and up to that point Ao was depicted as every bit the impulsive teenager Renton was. You'd think he'd defy orders to go find Naru instead of dutifully blowing up Secrets! Whether a result of poor planning or poor writing, such a disconnect is simply unacceptable in a series that depends on a cohesive narrative, much less a drama with complex political intrigue. I remarked at that point, "If the production crew wants to kill off Naru, this is a really good way of going about it."

Additionally, it seemed as though the staff felt that hiding the connections to the first series behind hints until the last possible moment would be a great way to either entice viewers to keep watching, or pleasantly surprise them. But as it turns out, the plot is heavily dependent on Eureka Seven, and the latter half of the show is comprised partly of a mad dash to reveal all of the connections. Putting the direct connections to the first series at the beginning would've been predictable and only half as dramatic, but at least the rest of the series wouldn't be a confusing mess I would need to re-watch.

Another issue lies in the setting. Time travel is a tempting plot device for many a sci-fi writer, and as the Star Trek franchise demonstrated many times, it is not a device to be taken lightly, because it is so easy for the story to get out of control. Sadly, AO falls into the same snare, and evidently the writer's solution to a story inconsistency or plot hole is to blast it out of knowledge with a big ray gun. I've seen my share of deus ex machina, but this was in-your-face enough for me to stop watching the series. Would things have been different had Dai Sato been in charge of the series' story? Possibly, but unfortunately that's not how it worked out.

Yet another problem is with characterization. I never got a chance to really get into Ao's head the way I was able to with Renton-- those internal monologues were there for a very good reason, after all. Likewise, I was never given much of a chance to really grasp the motivations of pretty much the entire cast of characters-- or, whatever attempt to do so was lost on me and other viewers. Whether because AO's staff decided to focus more on visual action or to subordinate character development to the plot, the end result is a marionette show, superficially entertaining but lacking in substance. As a result, whatever conflicts that are portrayed are largely pointless or lost.

It's not all bad, of course. The action scenes are some of Bones' finest visual work, the performance of the cast was engaging and dynamic despite the writing, and the soundtrack didn't get in the way of the experience. But if the goal was to tell another story in the Eureka Seven universe worthy of the predecessor, this series was a disappointment to me. read more

After watching Eureka 7 and loving it I decided that I would give this anime a try. I tried to go into it with an open mind knowing the eureka series, however this is not what I expected. The best way I can describe this anime is a mecha mystery mess.

Story- In my opinion I do not feel that this story is solid. There are many holes and mysteries that even after watching up to episode 20 still don't make sense or haven't been explained. This story has endless plot holes that will most likely never be explained or never make any sense. You can't really write much about this anime without giving anything away the only things they do explain.

Art- The art isn't bad. There is a lot of color and the characters are well drawn.

Sound-well this category has never made sense to me because any anime I watch has good sound..

Characters- The characters of Eureka ao are not that great. Your left with wondering why some of them are even in the anime at all, and what their purpose is. Especially his friend Naru. I can't seem to stand her.

Enjoyment- I can say that after each eps. that I watch I get more irritated and seem to dislike this anime even more. I can't enjoy something that irritates me. To be honest I continue to watch it in some hopes that something that will happen. Some glimmer of hope that they will explain some of the mystery with the secrets, with Ao's sister....why the hell Naru is all high and mighty now...

Overall-I gave it a 4 for some level of hope that it will redeem itself with some awesome ending. If you are looking for an anime like Eureka this isn't it. This anime doesn't have half the amazing components that Eureka 7 had! read more

Ah, Eureka Seven AO, how I was so excited to watch you before you aired. Now here I am facepalming all over the place at how bad this show is, and how I was foolish to be excited for this.

Let me start out by saying, the original Eureka Seven is one of my all-time favorite anime series, and it's just sad for me to see what BONES did. They are merely marketing a show purely based off of nostalgia, and putting zero effort into it, less so than those incomplete adaptions used to sell more of the source material.

So first off, what is this show all about? Well originally it was about Ao, Eureka's son as you probably could have guessed from the promo image, joining a group called Pied Piper-actually, just a subsection of Generation Blue-(The E7 AO equivalent of the Gekkostate, not.), and trying to find his mom (Who he calls "Anma!"-Where did this shit come from?). From there, it's total nonsense, especially in the second half. Seriously, I doubt even BONES knows what they're writing in this show. Hell, it's even hard to review this show because it's so messy. So where did it all go wrong?

Part of the problem is how Eureka Seven had a completely closed ending, with no loose ends. So, what the heck were they supposed to do for a story, a sequel story? Set it up in our world, instead of the world of the original E7? Introduce an overpowered villain with no motives, and then come up with something along the way? Put in terminology the viewer is completely unfamiliar with, and explain it midway when all the characters knew everything from the start, and assumed the viewers were the same? Put random things in, and forget about them completely in only a few episodes, making it completely redundant? How about just put in random crap to fill up 24 episodes? Really, these are warning signs the show is going to be a total mess.

There are tons of plot holes everywhere (Especially in the final two episodes which are just one large Deus Ex Machina), and lots of things will not make sense as such. In one instance, it's stated everywhere the Secrets are not the enemy as they merely take an element called Quartz away from the Scub Corals. But then later, Generation Bleu tries to eliminate all the Secrets. Oh and let's not forget how you can travel around the world in only an hour, it doesn't matter where. Seems the earth is way smaller than it really is...

How about the characters? Did the characters turn out good? Hardly, the show makes some of the same mistakes Shakugan no Shana III (Final) made. It introduces a bunch of characters, and then doesn't bother to develop them, or show any backstory, so they're just...there. Many characters will develop in some way, but it'll either make no sense, or it'll be a total character rewrite. We'll also get some good backstory, but the show then tosses it aside and forgets about it. The backstory rarely ends up being relevant to the story.

Lastly, can we forget how they introduced certain elements you never in a million years wanted in E7? An otaku girl? Moe girls everywhere, resulting in a harem practically? Fanservice? And what purpose does this serve? Really, what does it serve for a good story? In this show, it can't co-exist with the story, and character development like does in various shows.

Now the production values, believe it or not, despite being newer, E7 AO visually looks worse than its predecessor, and the animation can be rather messy. The soundtrack, same thing. Not all that much to it.

Really, they should have either made this not a sequel, or took a page from Gonzo from when they made Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam, the sequel to Last Exile which also had a completely closed ending. That show managed to do a much better job at things, from the story, to the characters. It did not rely on purely nostalgia to tell a story, and the result wasn't all that bad.

Eureka Seven AO in the end is a prime example of doing everything wrong in a show, and what happens when a studio uses only nostalgia to tell a story. Take the E7 fanboy glasses off, and you'll immediately notice the many, many problems. One can only hope less of these kinds of shows get made in the future. Nostalgia can be great, but not when you use it to tell a story for a show. read more

Some minor spoilers here and there, so please be careful. Not that getting spoilers matters with this series.

Eureka Seven AO is a series that is difficult to write about since nothing is nothing no matter how you look at it. But that doesn't mean it's not easy to be short and bitter about my feelings of disappointment towards this series; AO was not just a failure as something related to the original Eureka Seven, but as a story about its own world and characters as well.

Like any depressingly disastrous trainwreck, AO's start was relatively promising. The opening arc did a good enough job at setting up numerous mysteries such as surreal invaders called Secrets or G-Monsters and Eureka's disappearance, as well as its own world's political map. And at least just as importantly, the first arc ended on a note that seemed a great starting point for development of the protagonist Ao Fukai's relationships with various characters, and he was also given purposes and a lot of drive. However, it didn't keep going as it should have from there on out. The next few episodes after the first arc are still decent for their purpose, although fairly generic. But after that it loses control, the story doesn't last past the first quarter before it's nothing but a disfigured mess. Only occasionally interesting for an episode or two at a time and reaching its high point in the middle, it never manages to accomplish a gripping, ongoing flow for its story or character progression. In the end it reaches an ending that is unrewarding and riddled with holes to the point of being nothing short of a disaster.

AO fails at characterization, completely. It never figures out how it should involve most its characters with the story, not even the main character. To think Ao was promising as a character; a lonely boy who is serious, stubborn and somewhat hotblooded, with clear and understandable goals right from the beginning. His unusual background already gives him an advantageous starting point concerning the series' theme of needing a place to belong. But although he's a interesting character, that doesn't amount to much if it's all unutilized. After the starting arc, pretty much all of his interactions with everyone are shallow. Most of the time you could replace the character he talks to with anyone else, it wouldn't change a thing, that's how poorly the characters' unique personalities are made to resonate with each other. In the end, only his scenes with Eureka have interactions that mean anything emotionally. In any other relationship, it's as if the series has no idea what he's the main character for. It wouldn't be as much of a problem if he reflected on his alienation, but as it stands the story instead takes unnecessary turns just to accommodate to really awkwardly written character development. And it doesn't help that his character development happens in rushed bursts that are very poorly integrated to the plot.

But even with all that said, Ao gets it pretty good compared to the others. His sickly childhood friend Naru Arata, she takes the role of being an agent of Scub Coral and its good/neutral /dangerous/incomprehensible nature. But she ends up being SO mysterious she stops being an understandable character. In retrospect she makes sense, kind of, but Ao has inconsistent reactions towards her, her storyline has a really dull and anticlimatic conclusion and her personality is boring. It's hard to think of her as anything but someone who's there just for plot exposure. And maybe the crowning jewel of the cast's terribleness is the villain. Named Truth, he's someone who reminds me of a needy kid throwing a tantrum, and he also has the charisma of one. Actually, he's so unnecessarily superfluous about everything he'd make the worst of KyoAni's Chuunis red with embarrassment. He also wields ridiculous superpowers that let him get away with pretty much anything, much to our chagrin.

At least the formerly mentioned characters have some kind of a purpose. Although the progression is extremely awkwardly handled, it's at least important for the way to story develops. As for the rest of the main cast, there are good character ideas. It's just that they are terribly executed in terms of development, relevance to plot and character interaction. Fleur Blanc, a pilot like Ao, has a responsible yet kind personality, and a complex that should make relationships among the pilots work out really well and develop everyone's characters, but the relevance and interaction just aren't there. The other pilot, Elena Peoples, she sure starts off with a weird personality, and she has a lot of secrets that should be of particular interest in her relationships, particularly with Ao. However, in the end I'm not even sure if she could be classified as a character; her complicated background is nice for a couple of twists, but it's never fleshed out enough to make her work out as an actual person in the long run. It's not like these three ignore each other, but they hardly interact past getting along superficially, even if they open up to each other for a moment it's rushed out of the way and never returned to again. Also, neither of the girls gets to do anything important or show up particularly much.

The supposed supporting characters, that's a misleading name since they don't really support. Outside the first quarter, there aren't really any instances where a supporting character would have an impact on Ao in a way that's not completely contrived, superficial and/or poorly timed. Now these characters kind of are there as formalities, stage props who never interact with anyone past business talk and chain of command, and whatever involves their personality is limited to irrelevant and superficial casual conversations and banter. There's even a trio of weirdoes that just jumps aboard randomly and is haphazardly involved in everything for some reason. There's also an obvious fatherly figure who supports Ao, but even then something is terribly amiss about the credibility of that relationship. It was probably intended for some parts, but Ao's reactions are so inconsistent it's hard to tell. In general, most characters don't have any other presence than a flat role. As one exception there's a team Goldilocks, one of their members is directly involved with Ao's development and the team has its own balance. Still, arguably the best side character is Noah, the damn mascot animal. And even he only fits in because it's both amusing and fitting how he doesn't give a shit about the trainwreck he's in. So yeah, there's something really wrong with how all characterization is done here.

And there's still something concerning how unrelatable all of the characters are. It's weird since most of them have clear motives about what they want to accomplish, but they are still difficult to understand. Why? Because it's hard to connect their actions and motives. For example, Ao's goals about getting accepted and saving Eureka are there right from the beginning, but there's no plan or method to go with it, he just does whatever without any kind of plan and sometimes he just happens to find something that pushes the plot forward. There are no real methods, so what should I expect the character to do? In AO we have to try to connect random behavior of characters with their motives, but normally characters' intentions should show from their actions. I don't really understand how the writing can be that flawed in that aspect, I would call it deliberate if it served any rational purpose. You can apply that to pretty much anyone else in the series as well, only a couple of side characters are an exception to this rule, such as Fleur's father and team leader Ivica, but those characters have all kinds of other flaws that render the random success meaningless.

The story, in a nutshell, is a conflict between things that should have the right to exist but can't coexist in the same world with other things, then everything goes insane when everyone tries to reach their kind of order in their own way. The overall plot arc contains some kind of a theme about finding a place to belong, people and creatures living in a world where their existence is a crime try to reach a "true" reality where everything is stable and familiar for them. It involves lots of good ideas, but those are hardly noticeable at times because the story is injected full of narrative gimmicks involving but not limited to hallucinations, telepathy, shapeshifting, time travel, reality warping and dimension jumping. While some of these parts are important for some actually nice twists, they are used in excess. Although the story manages to tie most its multiple mysterious concepts and subplots together for the most part, the storyline is never convincing because many crucial twists and developments come out of nowhere, and the villain causes unnecessary and weird trouble while being both untouchable and annoying. Even disregarding the poor characters, this plot is really messy, and simply bad, without direction or focus and too many ambitious ideas that are poorly implemented.

The political aspect of AO's setting itself is interesting, it's kind of modern day earth, except completely not. It's basically an intricate what-if-alternate history, involving geopolitical issues that parallel ours, mostly about control of energy resources and other strategic locations. AO's scenario is a combination of our own world's history that was warped Eureka Seven concepts, and as a result AO's world has different level and types of technology from ours. Aside from the geopolitical tension involving the starting point of the story, the independent nation of Okinawa, there are multiple familiar sounding world political tensions in place, all of it roughly parallels real conflicts and it's pretty interesting. It's pretty well written, but it doesn't really have a place in this story about something else entirely. Although it clicks with the conflict between real history and mistaken history, the details don't directly concern anyone or anything important to the plot.

The ending, like said, is outright terrible. There are blatant plot holes caused by the use of a device that writes things out of existence (completely randomly introduced in the series earlier). Not only is the butterfly effect simplified to the point it doesn't exist, it still doesn't manage to be consistent. I'm not talking about details, the cause-effect continuity is ignored in obvious places, and the outcome is impossible, things happen although their cause was removed. It would be blissful to think this never happened and move on, but watching this crap did happen to us, unfortunately, and it left a really sour aftertaste. Having the sequel stumble and ruin itself would be that much of an offense, but AO's story goes against the original series in lots of ways. What annoys me the most is that this changes the perspective of the first series in some unsightly ways. The first series was, underneath everything, most of all a love story about two youngsters from cultures that can't coexist (humanity and Scub Coral), while old fools of humanity keep throwing fuel to the flames of war for idiotic reasons. In the end there was no perfect solution available, but a compromise and understanding were still found. But here, Scub Coral is something that is there just to be weeded out, there's no use pondering about whether it has a right to exist or not, options have run out. And even worse, this goes against what Eureka and Renton's romantic relationship represents in the first series, they also give up very easily.

At least the visuals have very little to complain about. The quality of animation is great, character designs are detailed and artwork is for the most part pleasantly vibrant, and when it gets paler it happens for a purpose and suits the mood. Art quality is not perfectly consistent, there are some pretty severe low quality moments, but art is still really detailed when it really matters, and in general it's above average. The environments are good, some even breathtaking. Ther's lots of fluidly animated combat and special effects never seem to be used for budget saving, only to make things even better looking. All this also comes with a really good soundtrack and great sound design, the sound really is able to make up for shortcomings of writing and get me pumped up or worried when the story and characters themselves fail at it. So in terms of technical production merits, Ao is really good. Actually, at some points I just watched episodes of it considering it nothing more than a long music video, and turned out it's easier to enjoy that way.

In the end, due to its terrible, unreadable and unrelatable characters, AO was only ever truly interesting when it involved characters from the first series. The story crumbles, which is a shame because the writing included many some great ideas among all the trash. They just lacked impact because most of the time twists ended up being played for the sake of being twists, without the ability to add any momentum to the plot. And in its attempt to wrap up the story, it gets shot full of holes at critical points of continuity. AO's characters and story ideas had all it takes to be a good series, but the end result fell from what should be well above straight to straight up poor as a result of horrible execution.
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If you want to watch AO while not being bogged down by rage-fueled reviews, then look no further. This review will tell you what to expect from E7: AO so you can be spared the headaches if you don't want to watch it. I won't be doing the generic reviews of the usual elements since many others have covered them.

First, don't expect that the original series is paralleled here in AO. It's a completely different story with elements from the previous series, the only links being Renton, Eureka, Nirvash, and the Gekko.

Second, if you don't like to think hard on an anime, then don't watch this. Spare yourself from a lot of hair pulling.

Third, this is a BONES anime. This means that the plot doesn't usually make sense until the end or near the end.

Fourth, if you're looking for action and lasers with good old mecha fighting, then don't watch this. Go and watch Gurren Lagann instead.

Fifth, if you're expecting romance like the original series, don't expect anything from this unless you're only watching for the Renton and Eureka one (which you'll have to wait for for a long, loooooong time).

Sixth, be prepared for a reversal of roles. Not everything you think is correct, IS RIGHT. It's like thinking for the longest time that 1+1 = 2, when the real truth is actually 1+1= 345934578934759.

Seventh, don't expect the typical plot build up. If you know about Romeo and Juliet and have read the book/watched the play, then you know what I mean. This is like Romeo and Juliet, without the romance.

Last but not least, if you care about background characters then don't watch this. Let me tell you right now, this is a story filled with resets and restarts. Stories like that don't usually bid well for people who want closure on everything.

People go hard on this anime because they didn't get what they expect. Let me tell you now, if you want to watch this, wipe all your biases and expectations. I learned it by Episode 13, and I say that's not too late a time.

E7 AO is a sequel made to close everything. It closes the scene on E7 POP and AO together. It's the curtain call for both series. If you like it, good for you, you understood it. If you don't like it, then too bad, go watch an anime with a proven formula for a plotline.

All in all, thanks for reading. read more

*Astral Ocean has not yet concluded its run as I write this review and thus I cannot say whether the last five episodes are along the same lines as the rest that will be reviewed.*

Eureka Seven Astral Ocean is an interesting series for various reasons. While the parent series, Psalms of Planets, focused on character interaction and psychology (among many other topics) with plot taking the backseat for more than half of it's run, Astral Ocean, which is less than half the amount of the original, has a stronger focus on politics. This makes for fundamentally different plot and character development, and while much of it is often seen in a negative light, some of it makes for very good viewing. Before I get into the pros and cons, here is a quick summary.

Story:

The series follows a boy, Fukai Ao, on his personal journey to find his missing mother. In order to find out more about her, he joins a for-hire organization, Generation Bleu, which fights mysterious creatures called "Secrets", which are destroying the world's precious Scub Coral, a valuable resource for an energy termed "trapar" (the same from the original series, but in much lower concentrations). The plot deals with various conflicts that surround Ao's life, namely; his (not quite) mysterious parentage and origins, the danger that the Secrets and Scub Coral pose to the world, generational politics in which adults are untrustworthy, and an even more mysterious and dangerous entity named Truth.

Cons:

-Ultimately, the greatest flaw that AO suffers from is time constraints. Unlike the original Eureka Seven, Astral Ocean has a 24 episode run, which means that plot and character development take a dive compared to the scope of the first series.

-As a result of the time constraints, characters in Astral Ocean do not shine as brightly as memorable characters in PoPE7 such as Eureka, Anemone, or Holland. The majority of the characters seem to have little screen time or true importance (such as Gazelle and the smugglers) or are downright boring or generic (some of Team Goldilocks and Truth). However, there are still brilliant moments of characterization interspersed within these examples. Ao and his fellow pilot Elena are good indicators of this, as both are actually very complex characters with interesting reactions.

-Astral Ocean was not meant to be seen weekly. A lot of subtle and important contexts get lost in the week to week wait for the next episode. The episodes thus feel slightly disjointed compared to how they feel in succession.

-The plot devices are not as creative as they could have been; the first half of the series is run in a monster of the week fashion, which then gives way to a plot which borrows heavily from classical sci-fi devices.

-Truth is a very annoying, and know-it-all, villain that embraces all the stereotypes for generic anime villains I can think off, including being flamboyant. Not as interesting or complex as Dewey.

-Occasionally there are visible dips in animation quality, in which, for example, Ao's usually feminine features suddenly change to resemble a burly Elric from FMA Brotherhood.

Pros:

Now, clearly AO is a flawed series, but there are far more pros involved that make Astral Ocean a very interesting series to follow.

-The major problems that people have with the series always begins with the sentence, "It's not as good as the original". I agree with this statement, to an extent. Yes, Astral Ocean is not a fifty episode epic chronicling the amazing romance of a boy learning to grow up and a girl learning to change herself, it's not particularly good at making you love its characters, and it's not full of the atmosphere that makes one so nostalgic for PoP.

HOWEVER.

Astral Ocean is very good at what it does aim to do, and what it aims to do is so different to that of the original that while it's easy to compare them, we shouldn't. We don't have a romance of the ages, we don't have a true makeshift family, and we don't have the themes of acceptance and change that made the original so poignant. Instead, Astral Ocean speaks to generational conflict and the ties between families. While the original did actually incorporate both themes, AO puts them on stage and presents them through an absolutely brilliant main character. The politics are very complex and have real world analogies, and they alienate the younger characters from the scheming and untrustworthy adult world. The family dynamics are interesting to watch and shape many of the characters in ways that are very natural and also very thought-provoking in retrospect. The pilot Fleur Blanc and her relationship to her father, as well as Ao's own family, are such examples.

-The production values are wonderful. The color palette is beautiful, the music, by composer Nakamura Koji of Supercar fame, is perfect for the atmosphere. The art is usually top-notch, and the battles, though short, are a treat to watch.

-Ao is one of the most spectacular main characters in recent anime history. To some, he comes off as whiny because of his attachment to his mother, and to others he comes off as boring because he's a no-nonsense type and does what he must when he's asked to. Ao is neither. He is a complex and amazingly developed character. His attachment to his mother, which is a very interesting parallel between himself and Renton Thurston's obsession with his older sister in the original, stems from her unexplained disappearance as well as the fact that she is the only blood relative he has ever known. He also identifies with her as an outcast, as both he and his mother were shunned from the island in which he was born. The resulting feelings and resolve are very realistic, and poor Ao has some of the most pitiable circumstances regarding his family outside of being downright abandoned. When Ao is not dealing with his mother complex, he is a very serious character, which might be the reason why he doesn't quite resonate with viewers. However, after a many truly whiny and annoying or useless main character in mecha, Ao is a breath of fresh air. He fights when he is told to, he does what must be done even if it means defying orders, he does not break down and run away from his problems. He might doubt himself or his orders, but sooner or later he tells himself he can and will do what is asked of him. The boy has what most mecha characters lack; a backbone and a no-nonsense resolve. This trait brings Ao into some truly interesting moral divides, and tests both his sense of what's right as well as that resolve.

-There are a great many superb references, both to the original series as well as to other franchises, such as Neon Genesis Evangelion or Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. Elena, the resident otaku character, is usually the one to bring these up, although Ao himself is a great reference to some of the most memorable E7 scenes and characters.

-While Truth isn't the greatest villain in the world, there is no denying that the plot is interesting to follow. There is no clear good side or evil side; even though I state that Truth is a villain, he is more of the antagonist instead, rather how Anemone and Dominic worked against Eureka and Renton but were not actually bad themselves. In fact, AO runs a bit like a free-for-all battle in which various sides have various agendas and everyone believes themselves justified. As a real world allegory, this is particularly intriguing.

-While the big picture feel of AO may not seem that great, it's important to understand the series as a whole rather than as separate episodes as well as to appreciate small moments of characterization, symbolism, conversation, and interaction in order to get the true scope of and appreciate what is happening and why.

Summary:

Astral Ocean is a great series to follow, and while it is hindered by time constraints as well as the fact that it's related to an epic makes it feel underwhelmed, the fact remains that one should not judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree. On its own, AO is at the very least decent and at its best superb for what it's trying to do. It is still fun, engaging, and well worth watching, and while you won't get as attached to its characters as you did with the parent series, at the very least Ao himself is someone worth rooting for. read more

It may be early days yet, but the refreshed and reinvigorated Eureka Seven franchise holds great promise. Earmarked as it's spiritual sequel, Eureka 7 AO appears to not only match its predecessor in beauty and story, but does create firm groundwork to better it.

Story

By the end of the first episode, I was hooked. The whole progression is well-built, where E7-AO dips its toes pretty evenly between character dialogue and fast-paced action scenes. Just when you think the action has outstripped its relevance, the plot yanks you back, to cover any gaps you may have missed. This to and fro between action and deep & moving storytelling creates means each is that much more compelling, as it is contrasted with one another. Episode four typifies this, where one half is pure mind-melting action, and the other half delving into the deeper mysteries of Ao and his mother.

More interestingly, the story feels darker than the original E7. This comes out in the open depictions of violence by the "G-Monsters" to the open yet diverse political opinion voiced between the main characters. Yes, politics and divided issues do form a subtle undertone here. Themes such as racism, nationalism, political identity and independence, and even government corruption are bandied about from character to character. Pippo's snide reply to Giselle's remark that the Nirvash being part French, US and theirs springs to mind ("it’s fat, wants to surrender and has bad teeth").

It reminds me A LOT of X'amd in a way, which also grappled with these issues, and as such, really makes the story feel real and visceral. More importantly, it feels like the story has aged with the viewer. Whereas E7 placed the viewer squarely in the sheltered and naive hands of Renton; here in AO, Bones does away with the protection and says: "Here's the real world - its not a fluffy fantasy - it's real, gritty and desperate." Nothing evokes better emotional responses than that.


Art & Sound

Please. It's Bones we're talking about here. There should be no question over this stuff. The artwork is BEAUTIFUL (as usual) and the voice-acting is top notch. More interestingly, the music really sounds like an improvement on E7, which did feel a tad repetitive. Here the music, especially the track concluding episode one, is swelling and moving.

Characters

For me, Ao as the protagonist is distinctly different from his previous counterpart (Renton). Renton in E7, was grossly naive for much of the early episodes, and his mood fluctuated wildly, often transpiring into tears or bouts of frustration/anger. Pretty understandable for his age BUT it did get on my nerves a little (probably doesn't bode well for when I have kids). Ao on the other hand, appears to be far more assured and assertive. He rarely contemplates/broods over issues, and rather jumps quickly to proactive action (Renton, to be fair, did this at times). For this reason, I prefer Ao, owing to his more assertive nature. Sure, there are times he is shocked or saddened, but several times, he shows this tough resilient attitude, such as the end of episode one. At other times, he acts entrenched and guarded of his secrets, such as his first interactions with Flair Blanc. Finally, Ao just seems to be less naive to Renton.

This is really the same for all the main characters in general. Naru, the vulnerable romantic interest, Elena and Fleur combining to make tenacious yet comical Generation Bleu team to the rough and rebellious Giselle and his crew (much like Holland and his). By the end of the four episode, each of these characters (and more) are memorable and provide their own watermark on the story. This most of all shows fantastic storytelling and writing, that it has only taken FOUR EPISODES, to flesh out stories, that take some animes triple the time to get to.

OH - and how could I forget NOAH. Easily the best pet-sloth-thingy ever. It's like Bones stole the "cuteness" potion from the Powderpuff Dolls and smeared it all over the one animal. Awesomesauce.

Conclusion

One analogy springs to mind when summing up E7:AO so far. One of my best mates produces electronic music, which is a time-consuming and hair-tearing process. By the end of writing and recording the track, the track must undergo "mastering." What mastering does, is basically it crams as much synth, bass, treble, percussion and general loudness into the smallest capacity. This process is often rife with error, and as such, the perfect final sound is hard to come by, yet sought endlessly by my friend.

Eureka Seven AO is really beginning to feel like that perfect mastering. To bring back to the topic at hand, it just feels like the writers have managed to craft episode after episode crammed with great storytelling - such that by the time the 22min (or so) disappears, you feel like you've watched an hour of story in 5 minutes. Every second is utilised. No unnecessary fat here.

E7:AO has set high expectations from its great opening episodes. As such, many commentators preach that like most anime, there will come the inevitable dip, when the studio needs to pad out the script. However, judging from the past episodes, I feel quietly confident that AO is quite safe in the mastered hands of Bones.

UPDATE: Episode 12 and on.

WOW. Just wow. M Night Shamalamalamalyan (maybe incorrect spelling :P) would be envious of this well performed twist. Without divulging spoilers, episode 12 represents a significant shift in the plot surrounding E7:AO, and direct links between E7 and E7:AO are beginning to show clarity, like peering through a clearing fog.

Up to this point, the plot feels like it has taken 3 sharp "chapters". Episodes 1-4 really introduce us to Ao and the main characters, as well as the greater world of E7:AO. Episodes 5-10 then slow down the pace, and allow in-depth character development to proceed, of supporting characters. Then from episode 11, the series begins to pick up pace again, whereby many questions and answers are raised, as the worlds of E7 and E7:AO begin to collide.

Regarding the three parts, probably 5-10 is the weakest. I still enjoyed them, but the view between E7 fans, voyeurs and the general mishmash of commentators appeared to hold a mixed, if not, negative reaction. In a way, I do share their criticisms. These episodes were very formulaic, whereby each episode could be summarised as the following:

Supporting character problem
Protagonist tags along
Monster of the week appears
Monster of the week is destroyed + supporting character overcomes issue
Pudding is had by all

In hindsight (eg. after seeing episode 12+), I can see why BONES had to approach the supporting characters with such detail, as the characters of Ao, Naru, Truth, Elena, Fleur and Ivica become incredibly central (I predict) to the quickly changing plot. But, I also think that despite the product being good, BONES could of thought of perhaps a more complex path to get there. To be fair, I am nitpicking, so as to not come across as completely biased :P

To cut to the chase: if you are an E7 fan but are unsure whether to proceed through the series, perhaps due to getting restless during eps 5-10 or due to the somewhat negative fans, my recommendation is to persist at least till episode 12. I can at least predict that if you watch it no further, you will still get a kick out of a certain blue-haired individual making their fashionably-late entrance ;)
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Okay, first of all let me just say that when I first saw the original Eureka 7 I actually had a hard time getting into it. so much so to the point where I put it on hiatus for a while. Now usually when I do that I rarely go back to finish watching it but E7 was different. I found myself checking it out once more and loving it! I'll tell you why I was so compelled to watch that anime again despite initially not liking it very much....the characters and character development was great! Even for characters I did not like such as Dewy and Holland. I still was able to understand where they were coming from. Talho was a flawed character as well but she had a personality and was likable. Renton, I thought he was the typical mech anime boy until he opened up and revealed his true and honest feelings toward eureka, his family life, and his future. I was glad that none of the characters were up in Renton's buttcrack like most of anime characters tend to be toward the main character, they just liked him. Eureka, once again I thought she was the typical expressionless anime girl but she surprised me and revealed to be a girl who suffered a lot and truly wish to set everything right. Her, Renton, the kids, and the members of the Gekko State were unique and enjoyable to watch.

But don't expect that from E7:AO

Now when I finished watching E7 and heard there was a second part I was so happy I immediately began watching it. We're introduced to Ao who is Renton and Eureka's son and I'm thinking great start! But soon you learn that Eureka and Renton are nowhere in sight and he is in fact in another world on another timeline. Apparently Eureka and Renton get separated and Eureka came to their world and had her kid and went back blah blah.

First of all, don't expect to find decent character development here. The characters are ALL typical mech anime characters. First we have typical mech anime boy Ao who gets recruited to join "Generation Blue" a military like organization that uses children to fly IFOs because for some odd reason only children can fly IFOs *eye roll*

All of the characters are one dimensional including Ao. He's the typical mech anime boy that all the characters instantly love even when they say they don't. He comes complete with a "funny" pet, and a love interest whom he feels he must fight to protect. Of course there is a chief of the child pilots who love them all like they were his own children. And the story does take a five minute break every five episodes so we can see the characters be "quirky". But is this character development? No! These characters are so bland they could really all be just one person and you would never notice. These characters lack everything that made the members of the Gekko State fun and interesting to watch. The members of the Gekko state had lives, the members of Generation Blue needed to get a life. There is really nothing to them but never ending mech battles. Gone are the priceless moments such as the Gekko team tricking Renton into thinking a bowl of Ramen was a deadly mission. Instead with AO you get some banter about whether or not Ao can swim. Gone are deep characters like Charles and Ray and instead you get....nothing! None of these characters are remember-able!

The plot of AO simply sucks! the creators try to be deep with the whole mysteriousness of it but it's really just a ploy to keep people watching cause they really have NO PLOT!

They try to do this whole time travel deal but it's a mess.

Now I don't mind time travel stories being a little messy but this was just a hot mess and it seems as though the creators are just pulling plots out their rear to compensate for the lack of character. For example; When Eureka arrives again in that world on board a ruined Gekko State she is pregnant and just before Ao helps her go back she says she's having a girl not a boy which leads Ao to question the whereabouts of a mysterious older sister. There is never much of a explanation as to how Eureka is constantly traveling to that particular world while pregnant and she never even seems to remember anything. The anime also tries to remain interesting by not explaining anything and coming up with stupid names that are supposed to make you question what is going on. Such as "The Secrets" "The truth" *eye roll*

Yes the main villain's name is Truth and apparently he's Ao's girlfriend's (Haru) Nirvash although he's not in mech form. Anyway he's called a "Secret" which at first are the main bad guys of the show. Sigh. So this regular girl gets her own Nirvash simply because she was accidentally exposed to scub corals? Then she spends her time riding on the real Nirvash for some reason. Blah blah. And of course Ao wants to save her blah blah. The creators for some reason thought it made sense to take away everything that made Eureka and Renton and subsequently Ao, so special and just pass them to the other bland characters like hot cakes. Anyway, the story sucks, the characters suck, and the music sucks. I tried to watch as much as I could just to see Renton and Eureka and so far all I saw was Eureka and the show picked up somewhat but she left and it was back downhill again. read more

Almost every fan of the original Eureka SeveN can tell this is a big mess, so avoid it at all cost. It's not a proper sequel.

The story started being average and it looked like some Evangelion rip-off, then around episode 12 suddenly it became bullshit, it looked like if they hired a monkey to write the story.

The Art is great, as you can expect from Bones.

Sound is... Meh, the OST is not as good as the original E7.

Characters are BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULSHIT, I mean, if they ONLY developed some characters like Elena it could be a little bit less bad.

Enjoyment? I don't know what I've seen this in the first place, maybe it was the hype of hoping to see Renton and Eureka again. But I think it's not THAT bad is you just only want to see a few explosions and fights.


Overall: 3, I just pretend that every sequel that Bones does doesn't exist, they just turn to be awful.



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Before we get started I am planning on making a 2 part review of Eureka 7 AO this being the first one. Since i have reached the half way mark of AO i felt like it would be a good idea to give a opinion on it now, then an opinion after the show. Also i will not be ranting in any case of this review. I feel like people aren't here to hear a rant they want to know about what the anime features good and bad.

Eureka 7 AO or its full name Eureka 7 Astral Ocean is the sequel to the very popular Romantic/Mech anime Eureka 7. If you have not seen Eureka 7 yet then it's recommended to watch it before AO as it does mention very important things that people who watched Eureka 7 would know. Another thing to note is that AO takes place in a different universe than the original show which is explained in the original Eureka 7 and in some of AO.

The story takes place on Okinawa's isolated island of Iwado where a young boy of the age 12 named Ao (yes the main characters name is the same as the anime title) Fukai lives. Ever since he was born nobody liked him and was known by many as a foreigner. Why? AO knows very little of why everyone hates him but what he does know is his mom at a very young age. She had Beautiful aquamarine hair and Mallow eyes with a red fringe. But soon after AO was born his mom left him alone with the old doctor of the island Toshio Fukai. AO tried living a normal life on thel island just like anybody else on the island, accompanied by her childhood friend Naru. a young girl of the age 13. Soon after AO's mom's appearance scub bursts begin to appear all over the world. for those who do not know Scubs are Intelligent lifeforms that has been on earth for 1,000's of years before the series. As soon as the scub bursts appear secrets( uninditified objects) appear creating havoc at wherever their destination is which is really close to scub bursts. But back to the story of Ao, Scub bursts start occurring more and more on his island and then he soon gets caught in the situation of the scubs and secrets and meets a mysterious robot named the Nirvash. A bit after his situation he soon joins Generation Bleu a organization dedicated to stopping the Secrets and extracting certain objects from the scubs. AO is teamed up with a group who name themselves the pied piper. From then on AO is dedicated to helping the world by defeating the secrets with the help of Nirvash.

I do not want to spoil everything I just wanted to Talk about the intro and a little summery of how AO got to the position he's in now. Story wise it keeps you very intrested in whats going on, but. It can at times be very slow in the first few episodes. It may also be very repetitve at times but they keep it from not getting to boring. But, give it time and it will become very awarding after the few episodes.

Like Original, Like Sequel, AO was able to provided outstanding visual performance that's even better than its Original. The animations had amazing detail and the fights with the secrets looked top notch and detailed. the way the trapar waves in this anime looked was outstanding even better than Eureka 7. The art was phenomenal all the colors that they added and all the detail in the background really gave it a addicting feel to it. The way the hair moved and the way the models interacted was outstanding job.

Bones seemed to pull it off again creating an amazing soundtrack for this anime. The music being played in certain scene gave it more emotion to that certain scene and created a sense of enjoyment. The sound effects in the anime sounded splendid to such as the way the Nirvash moved on the trapar waves or the battles with the secrets. As for voice actors, They sound fantastic the way the put in their emotions in certain scenes just added to the Anime's quality. As the music did sound great their were a few scenes where the sound shouldn't have fit in or just sounded weird. But never the less it is a great soundtrack.

The Characters definitively provided a sense of enjoyment to the anime. AO the main protagonist was really great and had a great personalty. Naru was really great character to be with AO its as if they could be lovers but i digress. Noah AO's pet sloth was really funny to watch too. As for other characters, Gazelle played a very important part in AO's story he has a great sense of how people feel and is a very smart person. Truth supposedly the main antagonistic of the story so far is really played out well. His ability's were really unique and kept you wanted to know who he was. Team pied piper are alright too but it seems as though they don't provide lots of back story about them SO FAR! Fleur and Elena are very interesting but it would be great to know more about them. As for Ivica the leader of the pied piper he has an interesting back story that's really enjoyable to watch. Other characters in AO kept the story interesting and made the anime oh so more fun to watch.

Eureka 7 AO provides a great deal of detail so far that keeps you wanting for more. Story wise it is really interesting but can get a bit repetitive and boring at times mostly just in the first few episodes. The art and animations are especially phenomenal and top notch for a show of its caliber it will keep you entertained with stunning visuals and effects. The music and sound effects play out very nicely in certain scenes of this anime and voice actors are espically top notch.(do know that I am talking about sub right now as dub has not came out yet.) The characters are very unique in there own ways and are very fun to watch. As for action and Mechas Eureka 7 AO is not so technical when it comes to Mecha battles they are mostly quick battles that are very entertaining to watch and are unique in their own way from other Mecha's. If you are a hardcore mecha fan then you will see that this show isnt really based on mechas but more of the characters themselves. Overall this anime is well worth the watch for anyone who has seen Eureka 7 the orginal show. for new people who are watching this first it can become very confusing and will leave your brain in knots and twists.

DO NOTE THAT I AM MAKING 2 PARTS THIS IS PART 1 OF WHAT I THINK AND PART 2 WILL BE AFTER EPISODE 26. SO PLEASE REMEMBER THAT I MAY CHANGE MY OVERALL OPINION OF THE SHOW AFTER THE ENDING FOR THE GOOD OR BAD.

THANK YOU :D.
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My previous enjoyment of Eureka seveN was the reason I decided to try to keep up with Astral Ocean. Here are my thoughts thus far.

The quality is great, it matches the genre and the situations, and in comparison to the previous series, it's more subtle. Sometimes the music has the problem of being overwhelming enough to distract from the plot, but this happens rarely. The art is stylish and colorful but at times overbearing. Aesthetic seems it's merely for show, I haven't inferred much besides the more obvious intents. Art that exists in the series seems it's there to awe, distract, or simply 'be' rather than add to the story. The art is, overall, wonderful as it is since there's nothing glaringly wrong, although some things feel "off" it's still strong in comparison

Characters embody any plot development through poignantly repeated seemingly random conclusions. Meaning they point out their feelings or thoughts on the situation without prior character or plot development, allowing for maximum plot flexibility with little content depth. Besides how the characters are developed, they're fairly well fleshed out. They have their own distinctive personalities, so it's hard to confuse them. Within that, there isn't a feeling of normalcy for any of the major characters. All the major characters are extremely stylized in some way, while the less important ones look like they're from matching sets.

There's a disconnect, and much of the new information deals with symbolic and thematic ideas. I've found myself unable to comprehend the characters' thought processes. Due to how deprived the audience of details regarding the events unfolding, we must take the character's words and feelings on the situation as fact without the possibility of fallacy. Problems that occur seem they're either binary problems, or ignored by the characters in power. It's hard to tell what's supposed to be important within the story because there isn't a distinct tempo. Within everything the main character is attempting to secure a place in a new society. I don't really know what I can say about the main character - I think I've become too apathetic to the story to actually connect with him.

Events are unfolding. But there's a taste of apathy, and lack of direction. Too many things feel off for me to rate this accurately. I'd hoped I'd be able to watch the whole series through, but more and more ridiculous events are stacking atop one another without explanation. For whatever reason I didn't expect this series to solely be an action series. read more

This series cannot be reviewed as a sequel. It's best to look at it as an optional side story. That being said, it has both positive and negative aspects.

For those that love the original and have yet to give this a look, I do advise perhaps taking a pass on this one. It has very little continuity with the original, and it doesn't expand on the overall story. One word to sum it up is this is clearly DIFFERENT (than the original).

Eureka 7: AO has a lot of mystery throughout. The biggest problem is the overall delivery of the story. The flow of the story is very choppy, almost like it was butchered in post production. Some scenes simply don't transition properly from one moment to the next. It is flawed in it's emotional delivery, and lacks heavily in character development. It's difficult to feel any emotional attachment to most of the characters as the story goes on. It does have great artwork and good music, but this isn't enough at most times. This is one series that could easily be redone with an hour and a half long movie that would probably work better overall.

I do warn that my next comments are a bit of spoilers.

SPOILER: this story works well with the time travel/alternate universe theme, and I do not feel it lacks in it's explanations of the universe. There are a lot of new things like their G-Monsters (or secrets) that have the cool factor. read more