Benjamin Carignan!!!!

(rebloggable version, as requested)

Eureka Seven AO.  I think it is bullshit.  It kind of strips away everything that made the original show endearing.  And that’s not to say it’s “too different” in terms of setting or specific characters or anything, that’s not why Eureka Seven was good.  Eureka Seven was great because of the way it was told, and the way it made you fall in love with those characters.  It was told with so much care by Dai Sato, everything was lovingly written with so much charm and just layers and layers of depth and implied mythology that you couldn’t help but just be so fucking enchanted by the world they painted.  Everything incited this curiosity in you, and everything just shined with character and referential joy.  It did something not many other things have been able to do; manage to be a huge love letter to so many different things (mecha anime, electronic music, surf culture), while also being so independently its own thing that it just stands as this exemplary form to me.

But then you have AO.  Which for me has only stood as an example of two things; how amazing Koji Nakamura is a writing music, and how fucking essential Dai Sato was to what made Eureka Seven great.  With him absent, you have every other anime in the world.  A generic story full of plotholes just for the sake of being “weird” and “cool sci-fi”.  It even tries to relive Eureka Seven’s reliance on the story of the sacrificial king in Frazer’s “The Golden Bough” by referencing the story of the Pied Piper (a real big instance of a blatant “hey, remember when we did this the first time?”), but their incorporation of those elements are so shortlived and don’t even make sense to any context given.

Perhaps my most hated thing about the show is that it lost the sense of integrity and respect for the viewer Eureka Seven had.  Eureka Seven didn’t need to lure you in with its references, they just existed in the world.  There was never any, “Hey, get it, the 303 Devilfish is a popular modification for the TB-303 Bass Synthesizer and ALSO A SWEET ROBOT”, they just paid homage.  Whereas, you have AO and its cutting references to dropping literal lines to Madoka in the biggest “Hey, get it?!?!” sort of way ever.

Eureka Seven also didn’t need to give you shitty fanservice to continue watching.  Sure, there was Talho, but the way she dressed was never exploited for the viewer’s pleasure.  Her manner of dress and behavior was essential to her character and her story arc.  They never used her sexuality in an exploitative way, they used it to tell a story about a character who felt she had to appeal to her neglectful boyfriend that way, and ultimately realized she did not.  It was handled with a ton of respect and in a very adult manner.  When you saw scenes of her and Holland in their room and Talho is naked and covering herself with a blanket, it’s not presented in a way like, “oh damn look at that almost-butt”, it’s presented to show the kind of relationship they have.  Holland wakes up and is on the couch, completely separate from Talho who is in bed.  It makes you wonder what the hell kind of relationship they have that you don’t see.  It’s wonderful.

But then you have characters in AO who literally call out that they’re delivering you fanservice.  You have outros with characters getting their bikini tops popped off in fun beach scenes.  The whole series is laden with butt shots and skin-tight suits.  Like, seriously?  Can you fuck off for a moment and actually try to tell a story?

The pacing of the series is just so confused.  It’s a shame, because I really hoped Kyoda, the director, would be better at this sort of thing.  The story didn’t really begin to make any sort of sense or point toward any conclusion until episode 17, and in a 24 episode series that is unbelievable.  They waste the first 2/3rds of the series just messing around with crap that has no consequence.  It squanders its very short time to tell its story instead being a monster-of-the-week show, making zero progress and whatever progress is made is delivered by the most uninteresting characters that you are in no way invested in.

No one is developed.  The only characters you like are the ones you already know.  Ao’s arc himself is even completely unknown up until the last third of the series, he isn’t even a character up until that point.  It’s all just a shame.  I wasn’t expecting something as good as the original show.  But I was expecting something that would pay respect to what made the original good.

That’s not what AO is.  It’s simply just another anime.  And that’s a fucking shame.