Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven (Eureka Seven)

In the backwater town of Bellforest lives a 14-year-old boy named Renton Thurston. He desires to leave his home behind and join the mercenary group known as Gekkostate, hoping to find some adventure to brighten up his mundane life. However, stuck between his grandfather's insistence to become a mechanic like him and the pressure of his deceased father's legacy, the only excitement Renton finds is in his pastime of riding the Trapar wave particles that are dispersed throughout the air, an activity akin to surfing.

Everything changes when an unknown object crashes through Renton's garage, discovered to be a Light Finding Operation—a robot capable of riding the Trapar waves—specifically known as the Nirvash typeZERO. Its pilot is a young girl named Eureka, a member of the Gekkostate, who requests a tune-up for the Nirvash. Their meeting sparks the beginning of Renton's involvement with the Gekkostate as he takes off alongside Eureka as the co-pilot of the Nirvash.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven has won multiple awards including "Best Screenplay," "Best Television Series," and "Best Character Designs" at the 5th Tokyo Anime Awards, an award in the "Domestic Digital Contents Category" at the 20th Digital Content Grand Prix, and the "Best Female Character" and "Best Television Series" during the 2006 Anime Expo SPJA Awards in the US.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Koukyoushihen Eureka seveN, Eureka Seven
Summary:	Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven: Kinkyuu Tokuban Navigation ray=out
Alternative version:	Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven: Pocket ga Niji de Ippai, Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven: New Order, Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution 1, Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution 2: Anemone, Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution 3: Eureka
Sequel:	Eureka Seven AO
Other:	Storywriter (2022)

Matsumoto, Yasunori
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Maruyama, Hiroo

Producer

Kyouda, Tomoki

Director

Utsunomiya, Satoru

Director, Storyboard, Key Animation, Animation Director

Wakabayashi, Kazuhiro

Sound Director

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Opening Theme

	1: "DAYS" by FLOW (eps 1-13)
	2: "Shounen Heart" by Home Made Kazoku (eps 14-26)
	3: "Taiyou no Mannaka he" by Bivattchee (eps 27-39)
	4: "Sakura" by NIRGILIS (eps 40-50)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Himitsu Kichi (秘密基地)" by Kozue Takada (eps 1-13,26)
	2: "Fly Away" by Izawa Asami (eps 14-25)
	3: "Tip Taps Tip" by HALCALI (eps 27-39)
	4: "Canvas" by COOLON (eps 40-50)

Reviews

Feb 17, 2023

09philj

Recommended

Eureka Seven is first and foremost a coming of age story, but more broadly it's about how everyone can and should adapt as their circumstances change. It's also about mecha on flying surfboards, the horrors of war, the power of love, fascism, counterculture, Gaia Theory, the importance of family no matter its form, how you shouldn't meet your heroes, some really out there sci fi worldbuilding, and finding your first love. Even at a stout fifty episodes it's positively overstuffed with ideas, which does mean some have to be run through at a million miles an hour and arguably don't get the screentime that they ...

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Jul 25, 2022

aaron_z

Mixed Feelings

Since this was 50 freaking episodes I could never touch on every single thing I want to in a reasonable number of words so I'll try my best to mention the big things.

I don't want to say that I found this show to have missed potential because my expectations were never too high. I was definitely bored at many parts, but never actually felt any major dislike towards it. That is until I finish it, and I surprisingly feel strongly...unfulfilled? I think it starts from how this show clumsily dropped so much 'lore' (emphasis on the quotes) and terminology in the later stages. I ... have a solid idea of what it all was trying to say, but this was so late in the game that I don't necessarily care enough that this world-at-stake climax has me at the edge of my seat. I won't deny that the show was building up certain plot points throughout, it's just that when a car goes from 30 MPH to 80 MPH and then back to 30, you feel it.

Have to mention Renton and Eureka. Cute romance? Yeah. Perfectly laid out? Nah. I really like that throughout their relationship they get interactions with the older members of the cast that push it along, and I'm generally surprised that the show has their romance at such a forefront of the narrative. It's not something hinted at for the whole run, it's there and we actually see their affection expressed throughout. However, there was a definite jolt from them just getting closer to them 'realizing' their love. Then there are these f*cking kids that are involved for the whole 50 episodes. They don't do much other than overemphasizing the family dynamic trying to be built around Eureka assimilating into a human. Like I don't normally get bothered by these sorts of characters but when it's detracting from the real core of the show I start getting tired. Their 'arc' should've been left to a single episode resolution. In the end, Renton has bloomed into maturity, fully devoted to Eureka. It's all this plot hullabaloo that just for some reason doesn't make me feel the same sweetness over how their relationship resolves at the end compared to how I felt for the majority of the show.

Now I don't like to divide anime into 'story and animation' because it all coalesces at the end of the day, however, I do think the production value was a distinct factor in me sticking with the show. I LOVE the character designs, Eureka's especially is awesome. 2D mecha animation is a dying breed nowadays so going back to a real behemoth show that centers around it was really nice. Regardless of how I feel initially, Eureka Seven is a really ambitious anime project. The beginning had this early-2000's punk style down pretty nailed down but with the plot leaning much more into the sci-fi that novelty was kinda lost in the latter half. I still feel very comfortable in praising just how well made it is, even with the odd weaker episode here and there (what was that soccer episode about?)

I was well aware throughout that the target audience here was clearly not for me, especially in the beginning it had this 'Saturday morning cartoon feel to it that made me set my standards. With that, I still can't ignore how thinly laid out some ideas were, even if I do like what the show has to say in concept. This is especially in regard to the brief commentary on race relations and environmentalism. I don't think these 50 episodes were spent effectively. While E7 did scratch that shounen + romance itch, I can't shake the increasing indifference I felt as I finished it.

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Dec 29, 2019

deathabarbar

Not Recommended

It's bad, I don't know what other people see in it.

*might contain spoilers*

The story doesn't really know where it wants to go, not only that but it seems to heavily borrow from other shows, such as NGE, but utterly fails to understand what what made those good. The episodes switch from SoL to grimdark to mecha fighting, you might get a "funny" comedic episode then get a backstory about wiping out a city. Near the end, where they have to save the world there is an episode, a full episode, of them playing football, you don't get 50 episodes for nothing. Speaking of the number ... of episodes, this is a 12, at maximum 15, episode show, and the rest is just filler or story episodes at very slow pace, most of the background characters don't even characterization besides one trait, and they stuck with that for 50 episodes. It's not even worldbuilding or anything and I would guess around half of the episodes could be just dropped without the story having to be changed. Most of the things are not explained anyway and there are things that are important for one episode, then completely forgotten for the rest of the show. And the worst thing is that it turns out that the villain is in the right.

Art is mostly good, with quality drops here and there, I suppose with 50 episode show you get that, but nothing special. The unique alien designs were good, but thanks to the story we don't get to see them too much. The charaters also look distinct, but not much is done with that.

Sound is about the same as art, OPs and EDs are good.

Most of the characters are absolutely garbage, there is one that's only role is to function like a note twice during the whole show.
Let's start with the MC, who is retarded. Probably actually has some mental illness, this is beyond normal anime stuff. It takes him 20 fucking episodes to realize that mechs are piloted by humans, despite piloting one himself. He probably killed dozens by that point if not hundreds. In the first place, he joined a pirates/criminals he was bored. The whole thing is played out as good guys vs bad guys before and after that, as if a policeman was evil because he tries to uphold the law and the show dehumanizes them to the point that they look as if they were machines. This brings up another point, the MC has character developement, but it keeps getting reset.
Eureka seems to swing between two personalities and doesn't seem to have any developement besides what happened in her flashbacks. That is, she suddenly grow maternal instinct when, after gunning down a bunch of people she found three children and decided to adopt them. These children continue to fuck up things and act as annoying as possible for the most of the show.
Holland, the leader of the criminal band, is a manbaby, it's a term that perfectly fits. Why the rest would follow him? Because most of the crew is 30-40 year old hippies that are even worse.
Talho is one of the better characters, she have her reasons and goals, and actually developes through the stroy. Her personality might not be the best, but it fits.
There isn't much to say about the rest of the crew, they really have anything going for them.
On the other side Anemone and Dominic gets just enough screentime to be likeable, I would say they are the only people in the show that gets actual character developement and traits, and not just what they need for the story, even though the romance might feel a bit forced, they most certainly cared for each other.
Apart from them, the other duo are the most likeable characters, Charles and Ray, they are actually good, kind people. Miles better than anyone on the Gekko, it's hard not to cheer for them, but they are killed off. I guess they were too good for the show.
The villain, Holland's brother, but that's only important for exactly one scene, is another well done character, and though his motives might not be the best, his goals are certainly worthy, to purge Holy Terra of the xeno menace. Through flasbacks it is show how he got there and while he does not get much developement, he is well established and his actions doesn't come out of nowhere.
Honorable mention goes to the army captain and his crew, barely any screentime, but they are present during most of the show, not much developement, but they end up being likeable.

The shows lenght really takes a lot out of enjoyement, especially when it's just another filler episode. I can say without a shame that there were episodes I watched at speed, as I mentioned above, there are lots of pointless stuff that doesn't nothing for the story or the characters. And even if it wasn't 50 episodes, most of the characters really suck, the story is a rehash of NGE and done badly. The original idea of surfing mecha is really good, and the way they've done is also good, but they just left it as that.

Overall it is not a good show by any means, it's note even average, while it has a few good moments, ideas and characters, the sheer amount of episodes and the focus on the worst characters with a bad story pushes those into the background, showcasing the worst aspects it has to offer.

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Eureka

Thurston, Renton

Novak, Holland

Yuuki, Talho

Anemone

Sorel, Dominic

Beams, Charles

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Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven

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