Review for Eureka Seven: The Movie

Introduction

Opinion is divided over Eureka Seven The Movie, with some appreciating it as a moving work of art, while others berate it as a pale shadow of, and failing to do justice to the series of the same name. Usually, the latter camp can be found consisting of fans of the series, which is to be expected I suppose. I on the other hand have never seen the series. I'm approaching this film fresh, without any preconceptions and prejudices. That's except for my usual dislike for all things mecha, which despite a concerted effort to address recently, hasn't been altered much. I don't like giant robots, and with the exception of the genre defining classic Evangelion, I'm even less enamoured of whiny teens that pilot said robots. Eureka Seven is a tale where a teenaged protagonist pilots a thoroughly anthropomorphised giant robot, and it's a tale where the giant robot rides a giant surfboard through the sky. That was never going to attract me in the first place, but when you realise that the Studio Bones series was a lengthy, fifty episode prospect, then I had even less reason to sample Eureka Seven's questionable delights. But where 20 hours of this particular anime may have had me screaming for the hills, 2 hours worth of the same may be a more palatable prospect.


The Eureka Seven Movie, titled Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers is one of those anime adaptations of existing material that actually make it worthwhile to step into the movie theatre. This is no simple cut and paste, hasty re-edit of the television show, understandable when you consider the daunting prospect of finding a coherent and short narrative within a 20 hour epic. For the Eureka Seven movie, they started again from the ground up. The story is similar, the characters are recognisable from the series, but there are major, fundamental differences to the tale. So for fans coming straight from the series, it's as if this tale was taking place in some parallel, but similar universe. It's the same sort of treatment that the Escaflowne movie got, and the current Evangelion movies are in the process of getting, although it's nowhere near as extreme as the Adolescence of Utena film. Most importantly for me, I don't need to know a thing about the television series to watch and appreciate the film, as it stands comfortably alone.


It was a peaceful and idyllic childhood for Renton, Eureka and Nirvash, raised together at the research institute in Warsawa that Renton's parents ran. Renton was an apparently normal boy, but one who had a strange rapport with the cute mascot animal Nirvash, unique in his ability to communicate with it. Eureka on the other hand was a cute alien girl, inseparable from Renton, but unable to tolerate direct sunlight. But that idyll was all too brief, and violently disrupted when the military came and took Eureka away. Six-year-old Renton couldn't do a thing. What do you expect in the middle of a war that spans the globe?


In 2009, the alien EIZO appeared and started laying waste to the globe. In 2054, 14-year old Renton Thurston serves aboard the military skyship Gekko, where he pilots Nirvash in battle against the EIZO forces (Nirvash grew up to become a giant sky-surfing robot). It isn't going well for humanity, and the military has come up with a last ditch plan that will use orbital lasers to scorch the planet clean of the alien menace, even if it renders it uninhabitable, and will escape the Earth in a starship crewed with the elite. As the EIZO encroaches on South Dakota, the Gekko is ordered to retrieve a top-secret military experiment. It's Renton that makes it into the facility, only to find that the secret experiment is Eureka. Maybe this time Renton will be able to protect Eureka, but after eight years in the hands of the military, the cynical Eureka isn't in the mood to be protected. On top of that, the crew of the Gekko aren't who they appear to be, and have their own plans for the military experiment. With all these challenges, and the clock counting down on the fate of the world, destiny lies in the hands of Renton and Eureka.

Picture

Eureka Seven gets a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, which as I am rapidly coming to expect these days, is a native Film to PAL conversion on this DVD. The image is clear and sharp throughout, although scaling it up does introduce a layer of grain that isn't visible on my old CRT display. The animation is something of a mixed bag, and the subdued colour palette gives the film a rather washed out look on occasion. It's a mix between a quality TV animation, and a full on theatrical presentation. There are moments, usually the quieter character moments that feel somewhat lacking in detail and definition. But then Eureka Seven throws us a burst of action, or some grand imaginative vista of creativity, and you can see every penny of the budget on the screen. Eureka Seven is also released on Blu-ray on the same day, so those grand imaginative vistas should look even grander.

Sound

You have the choice between DD 5.1 English and Japanese, with an optional translated subtitle track. I went for the original language track as per usual, and found a powerful, even strident audio mix that brings across the film's action with vigour and bombast. I was on the volume control as soon as the opening sequence with the ships passing by overhead hit, and I ought to take this opportunity to apologise to my neighbours. Despite this robust audio, the dialogue is always clear and audible. I sampled the English dub briefly, and found nothing to turn me off from the experience, aside from the lack of a signs only track.

Extras

It appears that Madman in Australia made a flub authoring this disc, as placing it in the player brings up a Funimation logo screen first and foremost. Funimation have nothing to do with Eureka Seven. It's a Bandai title, and it ought to be a Bandai logo that precedes the animated menu screens.

On the disc, the main extra is a 50-minute long Making Of featurette, which offers the usual suspects of interviews with the cast and crew, behind the scenes footage (in this case voice actors in the recording studio), and clips from the film. There's also footage from the film's launch event.

Finally there are 30 seconds worth of TV spots.

Conclusion

Eureka Seven is a film that works on two levels. On one level, it's a stand alone feature, a simple sci-fi love story of two children separated by adversity, and then re-united in the most trying of circumstances, learning that they hold the fate of the world in their hands. It's entertaining, it's full of amazing action sequences, and some beautiful animation, and a fair bit of narrative dead weight, additional characters that mean very little to the central story, and subplots that don't really make a lot of sense. Naturally you'll ignore them to focus on the main characters, leaving the film feel a little bloated as a result. On another level, Eureka Seven works with the television series that precedes it. It may be set in another reality, tells a parallel story to what happens in the television show, but you'll need to watch that series to make sense of the intricacies of this future world, to get an idea of where the ancillary characters are coming from, and you may find rewards in investing in them and the various subplots that reveal themselves in the background.


It does make me wonder just how far this film diverges from the series, and how different the characters are, to engender such negative reactions to the film from the fan base. It really is as much a gift to them, as The Conqueror Of Shamballa was to fans of Full Metal Alchemist. Both are films spun off from television series, and both are made by Studio Bones. Both do work as stand alone pieces, but are better off served in conjunction with the original properties. I've never seen the Eureka Seven series, so I have to take the film on its own merits, and accept that much of the back-story and subplots are going to go straight over my head. For me, it is the simple, sci-fi love story between Renton and Eureka that has to carry the film. I find that while it does have resonance and impact, is well written and performed; I just feel that there is too much 'dead weight' holding it down. There's so much about this story that just isn't explained or developed that the central story seems diluted as a result.


That isn't to say that Eureka Seven lacks for ideas or grand concepts. On the contrary, it's practically brimming with them, from the Hammer of God doomsday weapon hanging like a Sword of Damocles over the Earth, the nature of the crew of the Gekko, and what motivates their betrayal of the military and the quest that they pursue, to the very nature of the EIZO threat itself. There are the questions of just who and what Eureka actually is, just what sort of creature Nirvash is, and what sort of experiments Renton's parents were doing at the Institute where he was raised. And when the climax of the film comes, it aims to provoke as much thought as it does to entertain, taking the conclusion down philosophical and existential roads, although some harsher critic might call it pretentious and derivative. Certainly I wasn't blind to the similarities this film has to The End of Evangelion movie, although it does steer clear of the more overt biblical overtones.


I certainly enjoyed Eureka Seven. It does deliver in terms of action, and Eureka and Renton do appeal as characters. But the feeling that I was missing half the story, and that despite the film's standalone and self contained nature it still relies on knowledge of the series, meant that it was ultimately an unfulfilling and hollow experience. It is a very pretty looking unfulfilling and hollow experience though, and I must note that at no point did I find it boring or tedious. The real audience for this film will probably be the fans of the Eureka Seven series. Despite the fan response to the film on several forums and websites, I do suggest that you take a look at it though. You'll certainly get more out of it than I as a newcomer did. Eureka Seven: The Movie is also released on Blu-ray the same day as this DVD.