I legitimately thought this movie was a fever dream I had after watching the original series several years ago.
3 Reviews
It's weird.
ExpNoob1912 May 2021
Something definitely for fans. A bit jagged 'round the edges.
death-of-zero-requiem12 May 2011
Warning: Spoilers
First off, I'd like to say that the original series was by far my favorite anime, second to none. The series as a whole surpassed so many that had come before it, and few come as close to the range of emotions, lifestyles, issues, political and environmental commentary presented. I'm afraid to say that the movie gets rid of a bit of this, but it is still present in veins and traces amongst the action and romance.
The premise of the movie is entirely hypothetical, but actually can be considered canon because it takes place in an alternate universe (not explicitly stated, but extremely heavily implied). The time is actually not that far from modern day, compared to the 10,000 years in the future shown in the series. The setting ambiguous as to whether they are on the Scub Coral (now called the Image in the movie) or on the surface of the earth, but it can be inferred from maps and the topography that the Scub did in fact cover the entire earth, but not as a shell; the Command Cluster is visible from the surface, shown later in the movie.
The plot was insane. Extremely insane. Most of the mythos had been turned entirely upside down. The previously benign Scub Coral are now violent and purposely destructive. The human-coralians like Eureka are "spies" rather than emissaries. At one point, all LFO's (other than the mystical Nirvash, of course) are rendered useless as the underlying skeletons free themselves of the systems humans attached to them. Various things are reversed, twisted, created, and destroyed, and a lot of it is just excessive.
I have a few complaints that stop this movie short of the masterpiece it could have been. The extensiveness of the plot-redirection was far too much to be contained in a movie, and the constant infodumps were a bit of a nuisance, but nothing to truly complain about. A few shots were stolen from the show to save time, not that bad, but I think the context of those shots were something worthy of re-drawing for. The romance of Renton and Eureka is believable, but obviously rushed (compressed into 100 minutes, so...) and a lot more cliché than how it was handled in the series. The only character fleshed out at all was Renton, Eureka follows closely after but since their role was reversed in the relationship, she is a bit stereotypical and kind of boring. In the series, she sort of led the dominance (with the exception of the last few episodes) with piloting Nirvash and having a bit of a leash (albeit not knowingly) over Renton's outpouring emotions. In the movie she is just a damsel in distress waiting to be saved. At one point, she even blatantly calls out for Renton to save her.
But the movie has so many saving qualities that the complaints are pretty much overwritten. First of all, the animation of every shot was handled carefully and with much detail, and the last fight scene between Renton and Holland was honestly the most breathtaking animation I had seen since Akira. The voice acting was, of course, perfect, and the plot pacing was perfect despite all the overwhelming amount of information needed to follow. The soundtrack was generic action/romance movie, but was not gaudy, overstated, or entirely cliché and was generally tasteful; it has nothing on the original series' techno/acid/rave soundtrack, the greatest since Samurai Champloo's instrumental, primordial breakdowns. But the bulk of my score comes simply from the fact that is Eureka Seven, despite all of the plot changes, and a lot of the series' heart and soul is retained. If I had seen this before I had seen the series, I'd be a bit disheartened and probably not as forgiving as I am now, and my score would be around a six.
But the great animation, great sound, amazing presentation, and decent hypothetical handling warrants this anime adventure an 8.5 out of ten, rounded to nine. Great for any fan of the series, and average for any fan of anime in general, but newcomers to either beware, it's a lot to take in.
The premise of the movie is entirely hypothetical, but actually can be considered canon because it takes place in an alternate universe (not explicitly stated, but extremely heavily implied). The time is actually not that far from modern day, compared to the 10,000 years in the future shown in the series. The setting ambiguous as to whether they are on the Scub Coral (now called the Image in the movie) or on the surface of the earth, but it can be inferred from maps and the topography that the Scub did in fact cover the entire earth, but not as a shell; the Command Cluster is visible from the surface, shown later in the movie.
The plot was insane. Extremely insane. Most of the mythos had been turned entirely upside down. The previously benign Scub Coral are now violent and purposely destructive. The human-coralians like Eureka are "spies" rather than emissaries. At one point, all LFO's (other than the mystical Nirvash, of course) are rendered useless as the underlying skeletons free themselves of the systems humans attached to them. Various things are reversed, twisted, created, and destroyed, and a lot of it is just excessive.
I have a few complaints that stop this movie short of the masterpiece it could have been. The extensiveness of the plot-redirection was far too much to be contained in a movie, and the constant infodumps were a bit of a nuisance, but nothing to truly complain about. A few shots were stolen from the show to save time, not that bad, but I think the context of those shots were something worthy of re-drawing for. The romance of Renton and Eureka is believable, but obviously rushed (compressed into 100 minutes, so...) and a lot more cliché than how it was handled in the series. The only character fleshed out at all was Renton, Eureka follows closely after but since their role was reversed in the relationship, she is a bit stereotypical and kind of boring. In the series, she sort of led the dominance (with the exception of the last few episodes) with piloting Nirvash and having a bit of a leash (albeit not knowingly) over Renton's outpouring emotions. In the movie she is just a damsel in distress waiting to be saved. At one point, she even blatantly calls out for Renton to save her.
But the movie has so many saving qualities that the complaints are pretty much overwritten. First of all, the animation of every shot was handled carefully and with much detail, and the last fight scene between Renton and Holland was honestly the most breathtaking animation I had seen since Akira. The voice acting was, of course, perfect, and the plot pacing was perfect despite all the overwhelming amount of information needed to follow. The soundtrack was generic action/romance movie, but was not gaudy, overstated, or entirely cliché and was generally tasteful; it has nothing on the original series' techno/acid/rave soundtrack, the greatest since Samurai Champloo's instrumental, primordial breakdowns. But the bulk of my score comes simply from the fact that is Eureka Seven, despite all of the plot changes, and a lot of the series' heart and soul is retained. If I had seen this before I had seen the series, I'd be a bit disheartened and probably not as forgiving as I am now, and my score would be around a six.
But the great animation, great sound, amazing presentation, and decent hypothetical handling warrants this anime adventure an 8.5 out of ten, rounded to nine. Great for any fan of the series, and average for any fan of anime in general, but newcomers to either beware, it's a lot to take in.
I prefer the series
WeAreLive31 August 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Let's make one thing clear this movie is not a sequel or even related to the original series whatsoever. So if you have plans to watch this movie just don't expect it to be a sequel.
While I get that this was supposed to be a retake/reboot of the series, but there are a few things I didn't like what they did.
The good, qualities of this movie they kept the same animation, brought back the original actors, had great visuals and good music.
==Warning for spoilers ahead==
First off Renton and Eureka were not supposed to be childhood friends/lover. The main purpose from the first episode was that Renton had someone to look up to, someone to protect and even someone to love. While I admit it is similar here, but I dislike how Eureka's clueless and loveable personality was changed into a stuck up and rude teenager. Another thing I would like to pint out is Eureka in the original series was not affected by sunlight or spot lights because she was perfectly fine in various episode. I have no idea why the creator made her a vampire.
Dominic is not suppose to be a mentor to Renton and Eureka, he was rather a rival who would later became a friend of Renton in the original series alongside Anemone. I am glad they at least never removed his relationship with her.
Holland is very soft on Renton in the series, while I admit he wasn't my favorite character in the series, because of his rude behaviour, jealousy towards Renton and the fact that he abused him to take his anger out. But there was story behind why he is like this and you eventually warm up to Holland. Here, he is killing without remorse is just unlikeable. Also, renton would never address him as "commander".
Final problem, Hap in the original series was like a brother figure to renton who would give him advice, stop Holland from doing things which would make other people hate him like abuse Renton. He was also a long time friend of Holland and Talho even. They would always trust each other. Here, Hap doesn't trust Holland. Him alongside Stoner would never do anything perverted or creepy like what they did. Also, the real Renton would have never killed them. Heck why wasn't stoner taking any photos through out the movie like he was doing throughout the series. I nicknamed him Stoner the camera man because of that.
So yeah I recommend to skip this.
While I get that this was supposed to be a retake/reboot of the series, but there are a few things I didn't like what they did.
The good, qualities of this movie they kept the same animation, brought back the original actors, had great visuals and good music.
==Warning for spoilers ahead==
First off Renton and Eureka were not supposed to be childhood friends/lover. The main purpose from the first episode was that Renton had someone to look up to, someone to protect and even someone to love. While I admit it is similar here, but I dislike how Eureka's clueless and loveable personality was changed into a stuck up and rude teenager. Another thing I would like to pint out is Eureka in the original series was not affected by sunlight or spot lights because she was perfectly fine in various episode. I have no idea why the creator made her a vampire.
Dominic is not suppose to be a mentor to Renton and Eureka, he was rather a rival who would later became a friend of Renton in the original series alongside Anemone. I am glad they at least never removed his relationship with her.
Holland is very soft on Renton in the series, while I admit he wasn't my favorite character in the series, because of his rude behaviour, jealousy towards Renton and the fact that he abused him to take his anger out. But there was story behind why he is like this and you eventually warm up to Holland. Here, he is killing without remorse is just unlikeable. Also, renton would never address him as "commander".
Final problem, Hap in the original series was like a brother figure to renton who would give him advice, stop Holland from doing things which would make other people hate him like abuse Renton. He was also a long time friend of Holland and Talho even. They would always trust each other. Here, Hap doesn't trust Holland. Him alongside Stoner would never do anything perverted or creepy like what they did. Also, the real Renton would have never killed them. Heck why wasn't stoner taking any photos through out the movie like he was doing throughout the series. I nicknamed him Stoner the camera man because of that.
So yeah I recommend to skip this.
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