April 24, 2005
Eureka 7 Episode 2 - Blue Sky Fish
Renton follows his father's advice, imparted to him by his sister at his funeral, to aim to win if you want a prize - cue Engrish, an image song and some sky surfing. He manages to get inside the Nirvash, and with typical shounen proclamations of love presents Eureka with the Amida Drive attachment. Sparkling ensues, which for some reason knocks Eureka out - however, working together, Renton and Eureka kick several kinds of military mecha ass. After they land, Eureka brings Renton back to his grandfather, who is paid a visit by Holland (who has a go at him for hiding things from Renton, and seems to have known Renton's sister) and Renton has to make a decision - stay behind, or go with Eureka?
Duh, what do you think?
As before (and unsurprisingly) most of the animation in this episode was opulent and gorgeous, with some particularly incredible action sequences. However, in some ways this is to the show's detriment, as even a slight lapse in animation becomes incredibly noticeable - when Renton falls into the Nirvash's cockpit, for instance, the fact that he falls without any animation at all jumps out given how the mecha have been leaping about all over the place spraying pink missiles prior to that. I happen to think the surfing mecha are pretty damn cool, so the extended action sequence for the end of the episode really punched all the right buttons for me.
Character-wise, Renton isn't doing too bad on the Shounen Hero front, although I could have done without the Hanada Shounen-shi-esque snot for a couple of minutes in the middle there, plus Eureka is pretty interesting. I have to admit, though, that my favourite character is probably Holland, because a) he looks to have an angsty backstory, and b) he's voiced by the same guy that played Hughes in Fullmetal Alchemist, so he is automatically more awesome than anyone else in the show.
While I'm definitely enjoying Eureka 7, I'd hesitate at classifying it as "great" for some reason. The animation is superlative, and the writing is pretty good, but I guess it's mostly a genre thing - it's good fun and all, but it hasn't impressed me in the same way that shows like Honey and Clover have this season. I think it's definitely pitching to a younger audience than me with its fairly stereotypical shounen storyline (although with some nice twists, perhaps) - while a good adventure romp, it hasn't totally grabbed me as yet. Still, I'll give it time, it's definitely worth that much.
Posted by BluWacky at April 24, 2005 03:12 PM | TrackBackWell, I'd say it's certainly a lot better than Sousei no Aquarion (granted, Aquarion is tremendously funny, but from a serious point fo view)... I don't think it's a masterpiece either like Kino no Tabi and Paranoia Agent, but it's good clean fun. In fact, putting in too complex a storyline for a show clearly intended for younger audiences just makes it look stupid.
And yes, anyone who voices Maes Hughes automatically wins. I'm SURE Bones is throwing us a joke by having Holland constantly look at a photo even in the weirdest of situations (for example, when Nirvash is berserking below, do you look at a photograph, for chrissake?! You RUN AWAY!!)...
Just hope he doesn't suffer the same fate Maes did. :(
And of course, don't you just love the Engrish? Try saying "Katto bakku doroppu taan" 10 times in a row! Silly Japanese phonetics, can't just say "Cut back drop turn"... By the way, I thought Renton going "OMG U R TEH BEST" to Eureka was just hilarious. The poor girl was so confuzzled, too.
And (this is the nth time I started a sentence with And) the OP refuses to unstick itself from my head. Eureka and Aquarion, 2 new mech shows I CANNOT FORGET THE OP OF.
Posted by: wao at April 24, 2005 03:57 PMI'm pretty sure that, as of the end of episode 2, Renton still hasn't learned Eureka's name, so he doesn't realize it has been appearing in that "Compac Drive" thingy of his for years. I wonder what will happen when he does?
And while I, too, am still not really "feeling" Renton & Eureka yet, on a positive note we won't need to wait 49 episodes for Renton to "confess" to Eureka, since he does it in episode 2, runny nose and all.
Posted by: dbm at May 3, 2005 10:01 PM