images © Bandai Entertainment

It’s Saturday night, you’re home for whatever reason, channel surfing, you land on the Cartoon Network where you see some kid with spiky hair piloting a giant robot, you think, “God, not another anime,” and continue clicking the remote. That show was most likely Eureka Seven and while at first glance it may seem mundane, give it another look and you’ll discover a series that will change your life or at the very least not make you groan in confused disappointment like when you watched Neon Genesis Evangelion.

In essence, Eureka Seven is a coming of age story of 14 year-old, mechanic in-training Renton Sustone who, at first sight, falls in love with enigmatic, giant robot pilot, Eureka. Renton dreams of leaving his boring small town life behind to join the fun-loving, air surfing rebels of the Gekko-State. Now this wouldn’t be interesting if opportunity then come in the form of Eureka who crashes her robot, Nirvash into Renton’s house. Of course Eureka just happens to be a member of the Gekko-State and after a few cool fight scenes Renton gets to join to this group who are actually not just rebelling against the government but fighting to make peace between humanity and alien entities called Coralians. Like in many anime, there are tons of plot and story developments that lead up and follow this event, but what really makes this show stand out is the well-crafted character relationships between Renton, Eureka and the rest of the cast.

In between all of the epic battles involving aliens and government soldiers is a story that’s ultimately about a boy trying his best to protect, date and love a girl who lives in a world completely different from the one he’s from. Renton now has to balance all the trials and tribulations of courtship with trying to understand just what is going on with the members of the Gekko-State, the government and the Coralians. Through Renton’s eyes the audience gets to experience all the confusion, joy, and disappointment that goes along with growing up in such a fantastic world. The closer Renton gets to Eureka and the quirky members of Gekko-State the more the audience learns about the intricate story developments of the show. For example in episode one we, just like Renton, don’t know anything about the true intentions of the Gekko-State other than that he thinks they’re just a cool group of people who love sky-surfing and not that they’re trying to make peace with the Coralians. While many shows let the audience in on alot of things that the main character doesn’t know, this series let’s you learn things exactly as Renton discovers them. This may be why many people find the show to be confusing in the early episodes but this confusion is the intention of Eureka Seven’s creators. By learning the answers with Renton the audience gets an experience that’s very rare on television these days.

Furthermore Renton isn’t the only character that gets this much attention. In most coming of age tales the supporting cast serve 2-dimensional roles to help the lead character grow but in Eureka Seven every character Renton encounters grows just as much as him. For example, the head of the Gekko-State, Holland has to deal with transitioning from a young, hip rebel leader into a more responsible one. The more he mentors Renton the more he realizes that he can no longer act just as reckless as he did when he was younger. Throughout the show he’s often grumpy, constantly wrestling with accepting his new role.

It’s this constant focus on character development that truly sets Eureka Seven from the pack. The show’s creators, takes stereotypes that we’ve grown tired of over the years and fully explores them ending up with a show that’s very original. Sure, you can get caught up in all the beautiful, movie quality animation, the complex sci-fi plot, jaw-dropping action sequences or even the basic hotness of the female characters, but you’d be doing yourself a huge disservice. So the next time you’re watching Adult Swim don’t be so quick turn off this show, or better yet buy the dvds or the manga and truly enjoy this fantastic series.

Links:
http://eurekaseven.bandai-ent.com/

http://www.newtype-usa.com/issues/index.php?itemid=337#more

http://www.eureka-prj.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka