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Of Surfboarding and Rollerskating Robots.
Psalm of Planets Eureka Seven is brilliant. I can't believe that I missed this series the first time around. (Well, "the first time around" was when I was still in college and had no life outside of research and occassional bouts of eating and sleeping, so I guess I can believe that I missed it.) A lovely person in Iida lent me his DVDs and I've been marathoning it for the past week.
For those of you unfamiliar... Eureka Seven is basically Solaris. Yes, that's pretty much it. It's Solaris right down to the last ethical what-if, only instead of a bleak ending Eureka Seven ends in a burst of beautiful hopefulness. Unlike Solaris, however, there are very dark parts wherein the alien entity in question defends itself from human intrusion in violent and quite frankly absolutely horrifying ways. Oh yes, and there are also surfboarding giant robots. And there are references to Dostoevsky and Sir James George Frazer (Golden Bough FTW) that I am ashamed to admit I did NOT understand, and that I had to resort to fansubs and Google and Wikipedia before I "got" them. Yes, I am a failure as a college-educated upper-middle-class white person. I am not literate enough to appreciate the depth of this anime series about surfboarding giant robots! Woe.
Also, the fourth opening song is the best use of "Amazing Grace" in Japanese dance-pop EVER.
Eureka Seven is interesting to watch because it's told through the eyes of its young hero, Renton. Renton is, of course, an immature and wanky teenage boy. At the beginning of the series he thinks that he's setting off on some big happy adventure with a bunch of lovable counter-culture rogues who are only interested in having fun. (This is so, so wrong.) Renton thinks that when he and Eureka defeat the "bad robots" this is a cause for happy swelling music and sparkly uplifting fun-ness. (And indeed, it is, at the beginning of the series, where the narrative voice of the series itself is basically Renton's point of view.) Only later does Renton realize that fighting the "bad robots" and sticking it to the man means, you know, killing people. Nobody ever hid this fact from Renton, he was just too much of, well, a dumb kid to realize it. Eureka Seven is essentially a coming-of-age story about both Renton and Eureka, but unlike so many other anime that attempt to be heartfelt coming-of-age stories involving kids and giant robots, Eureka Seven doesn't suck. It's painful to watch at times, especially when Eureka and Renton are thrust into ugly situations in which there is no clear or good answer. Overall, though, the characterization and the writing of these two characters is just so damn good. Really, truly beautiful. The supporting cast is great too, and the villains (particularly Dewey and Anemone) are truly memorable. This is a fantastic series.
Speaking of giant robots... I don't care if Code Geass is a rip-off of everything under the sun, it's simply more fun and entertaining than half of the things that it's ripped off. Most of its entertainment value comes from its badness, however. Which is always fun. The premise and half of the character designs are play-by-play Gundam Seed. There's also shades of Death Note (dissatistified genius boy suddenly granted god-like powers and doing horribly unspeakable things in the name of "justice") and even Suzumiya Haruhi (particularly the pervy fangirl student council president who thinks it's a good idea to have everyone come to school in swimsuits). The character designs are vintage CLAMP, right down to the girl who is blind and thus is always drawn with her eyes closed. Because, you know, blind people always keep their eyes closed. Lloyd looks so much like Yukito from Cardcaptor Sakura that I keep thinking I'm watching an AU version of Yukito who is an insane evil genius that cackles a lot and refers to human pilots as "parts" for his giant robots. Oh yeah, and the hilarious SUBTLE OVERTONES OF JAPANESE JINGOISIM which are totally SUBTLE. You know, the way that the political message in Marvel's Civil War is totally two-sided and SUBTLE.
Karen should be an interesting lead female character. Unfortunately, for some reason, I find her as boring as toast.
One thing I will praise Code Geass for, however: I believe that this is the first anime series I have ever seen that suceeds in making a beautiful play on words in English. (The play on words in question would be "Knightmare.") The linguist within me squees with delight. And I know that this is cheesy and manipulative, but I actually like how every episode ends with a DUN DUN DUN! cliffhanger. At least it makes me actually want to see the next episode.
For those of you unfamiliar... Eureka Seven is basically Solaris. Yes, that's pretty much it. It's Solaris right down to the last ethical what-if, only instead of a bleak ending Eureka Seven ends in a burst of beautiful hopefulness. Unlike Solaris, however, there are very dark parts wherein the alien entity in question defends itself from human intrusion in violent and quite frankly absolutely horrifying ways. Oh yes, and there are also surfboarding giant robots. And there are references to Dostoevsky and Sir James George Frazer (Golden Bough FTW) that I am ashamed to admit I did NOT understand, and that I had to resort to fansubs and Google and Wikipedia before I "got" them. Yes, I am a failure as a college-educated upper-middle-class white person. I am not literate enough to appreciate the depth of this anime series about surfboarding giant robots! Woe.
Also, the fourth opening song is the best use of "Amazing Grace" in Japanese dance-pop EVER.
Eureka Seven is interesting to watch because it's told through the eyes of its young hero, Renton. Renton is, of course, an immature and wanky teenage boy. At the beginning of the series he thinks that he's setting off on some big happy adventure with a bunch of lovable counter-culture rogues who are only interested in having fun. (This is so, so wrong.) Renton thinks that when he and Eureka defeat the "bad robots" this is a cause for happy swelling music and sparkly uplifting fun-ness. (And indeed, it is, at the beginning of the series, where the narrative voice of the series itself is basically Renton's point of view.) Only later does Renton realize that fighting the "bad robots" and sticking it to the man means, you know, killing people. Nobody ever hid this fact from Renton, he was just too much of, well, a dumb kid to realize it. Eureka Seven is essentially a coming-of-age story about both Renton and Eureka, but unlike so many other anime that attempt to be heartfelt coming-of-age stories involving kids and giant robots, Eureka Seven doesn't suck. It's painful to watch at times, especially when Eureka and Renton are thrust into ugly situations in which there is no clear or good answer. Overall, though, the characterization and the writing of these two characters is just so damn good. Really, truly beautiful. The supporting cast is great too, and the villains (particularly Dewey and Anemone) are truly memorable. This is a fantastic series.
Speaking of giant robots... I don't care if Code Geass is a rip-off of everything under the sun, it's simply more fun and entertaining than half of the things that it's ripped off. Most of its entertainment value comes from its badness, however. Which is always fun. The premise and half of the character designs are play-by-play Gundam Seed. There's also shades of Death Note (dissatistified genius boy suddenly granted god-like powers and doing horribly unspeakable things in the name of "justice") and even Suzumiya Haruhi (particularly the pervy fangirl student council president who thinks it's a good idea to have everyone come to school in swimsuits). The character designs are vintage CLAMP, right down to the girl who is blind and thus is always drawn with her eyes closed. Because, you know, blind people always keep their eyes closed. Lloyd looks so much like Yukito from Cardcaptor Sakura that I keep thinking I'm watching an AU version of Yukito who is an insane evil genius that cackles a lot and refers to human pilots as "parts" for his giant robots. Oh yeah, and the hilarious SUBTLE OVERTONES OF JAPANESE JINGOISIM which are totally SUBTLE. You know, the way that the political message in Marvel's Civil War is totally two-sided and SUBTLE.
Karen should be an interesting lead female character. Unfortunately, for some reason, I find her as boring as toast.
One thing I will praise Code Geass for, however: I believe that this is the first anime series I have ever seen that suceeds in making a beautiful play on words in English. (The play on words in question would be "Knightmare.") The linguist within me squees with delight. And I know that this is cheesy and manipulative, but I actually like how every episode ends with a DUN DUN DUN! cliffhanger. At least it makes me actually want to see the next episode.