RRV: Kōkyōshihen Eureka Seven 1-3

"Blue Monday," "Blue Sky Fish," and "Motion Blue"

There's something about the "Blue Trilogy" that never gets old no matter how many times I've seen it. The feeling of embarking upon a new adventure is exactly why I chose the Trilogy as the subject for my first post.

This "Retrospective RAW Viewing" marks the 34th time I watch Kokyoshihen Eureka Seven. That may seem like quite a few times to watch one series, but somehow I find myself discovering new things about each episode during every viewing. This series is very reluctant to give up its secrets, and it's something of my life's mission to uncover and understand them all. Despite the staggering amount of times I have seen this series, this is the first time I've tried to watch it RAW, and it has made a huge amount of difference in just these three episodes.

If there's something I learned within ten minutes of the first episode, it's that subtitles are distracting. I've never so much as imagined subtitles could detract from the overall experience of watching anime quite this much. There are nuances at play in the art and voice acting that can be easily missed when the main focus is reading and absorbing information. For example, it wasn't until this viewing that I realized Eureka (Kaori Nazuka) uses a slightly different intonation in the first couple of episodes than she does in later ones. Perhaps Nazuka was attempting to fit the image of the "quiet, mysterious girl" a little more seriously here, or perhaps she wasn't quite used to the role yet. It's fascinating to see how things like this get missed even by someone who has seen this as often as I have. Then there's the fact that despite being seven years old, this series still has some of the most beautifully crisp animation I've seen in nearly any series. There's a lot expressed in body language in this anime; more so than in words. While I was aware of that before watching the RAWs, the lack of subtitles has emphasized the importance of that body language to a different level. It will be interesting to see this played out in season two...

On to the actual content. Episode one, Blue Monday, is fairly straightforward. Renton Thurston (Yuuko Sanpei) is a normal boy, one on the onset of adolescence and bored with his commonplace life. The son of a hero, Adroc Thurston, (who saved the world ten years before the beginning of the anime during an event termed the "Summer of Love"), Renton wishes for nothing better than to join the Reffing group Gekkostate, headed by his personal hero, the Reffing champion Holland (Keiji Fujiwara). Just as it seems he'll have to start giving up on his dreams, a beautiful girl riding a mysterious mecha (Light Finding Operation, or LFO) crash lands onto his house, and the military is right on her heels. In an attempt to help this girl, whom Renton is immediately smitten with, he accepts the responsibility of delivering a missing part to the LFO in the middle of battle, during which he hotheadedly drives his motorcycle off a cliff and realizes too late just what it is that he's done.

The episode is exactly what one would expect from the introduction to a Shounen mecha series, with a few exceptions. Firstly, Renton is surprisingly normal for a mecha lead. Other than being the son of a famous hero, he himself is just a fourteen year old boy who thinks the grass on the other side of the fence must be greener than his own. He knows nothing of the world and he desperately wants to see it. He establishes himself as a little bit of a clown, with his exaggerated facial expressions, his silly comments to himself ("Ore no atama ii!" "My head is so good/I'm so smart!") and his falling in love at first sight. This sort of behavior isn't unusual in Shounen anime, but Renton doesn't seem to particularly have anything he's good at in return... unless it's making mysterious girls laugh.

Another important thing to note: this episode is mostly high spirited, except for one particular scene. When Renton attempts to attach his Compac Drive into the LFO Nirvash TypeZero, Eureka warns him against it and says, "Sometimes believing in things isn't worth it," and looks away with a distant expression. In truth, the episode is packed with small moments of foreshadowing, but this one struck me the most RAW.

Before moving on to the second episode, I'd like to point out the use of colors. This episode introduces and flaunts a gorgeous palette full of pastel colors and bright intense tints that contrast the heavy use of shadows in its more dramatic moments. The highlight of color usage here is in the LFO battles and in the symbolic contrast between Renton and Eureka. The use of reds and browns on Renton reflects his livelier and hot-tempered personality while the cooler blues and purples on Eureka's quiet demeanor really help make those differences stand out visually.

Episode 2, Blue Sky Fish, is the most Shounen episode of the Trilogy. Within the first few minutes we're introduced to the motto of the series via a flashback to Adroc's funeral. It's the memory of Renton's sister saying "Don't ask for things, achieve it yourself, else nothing will be given to you," that snaps Renton out of his momentary panic and drives him to regain that courage and determination he had right before the leap of faith. Using his newfound strength, Renton manages to Ref his way through a deadly LFO battle, reach Eureka's LFO in order to deliver the part (the Amita Drive), and still look uncool doing it. Apart from confessing his love to a girl he just met, he also gets them out of a tight spot by piloting the Nirvash through a missle strike (with Eureka's support), "awakening" it in the process. In the aftermath, Renton meets his idol, Holland, and is invited to come along with him and Eureka because "It's useless without you."

What's interesting about this series is that even when it's living up to what is essentially Shounen trope, it manages to do so in an unconventional way. Despite all the action, military jargon, and "awakening potential" we see in this episode, there are quite a few dark inserts. The confrontation between Holland and Axel, Renton's grandfather, implies that there's a past between them, one that certainly didn't have a happy ending. Renton's narration often has a haunting sound to it as well, as if an older Renton were looking back and reflecting on where his decisions led. The final scene of the episode should be a happy one, where Renton metaphorically accepts his destiny, yet there's a sense of melancholy in it. Eureka's serious expression, Renton's hesitation in taking her hand, his narration about why he chose to do so, ("I simply wanted to see this girl smile"); it all serves to add a sense of disquiet to what should be a very optimistic beginning.

If we look at the Trilogy as a microcosm of a story, Blue Monday serves as the introduction and conflict, and Blue Sky Fish as the climax leading to a resolution. This is the episode where Renton realizes he has to achieve his own goals, and while he may not remember doing some of it, he builds up his courage in order to confess to the girl he likes, risk his life to help her, and to accept the potential consequences of his infatuation with her. Of course, the Trilogy in and of itself acts as an introduction, so this is a very limited analogy, but with the addition of the third episode, Motion Blue, we get a nice little resolution to the set, though not one without a sense of disappointment on the hero's part...

Which leads to the third episode of the series. Motion Blue is simultaneously the denouement episode of the Trilogy as well as the set up for the rest of the series. It's here that we see the outcome to Renton's resolve to join Gekkostate, though it isn't until the end of the episode that he actually sets foot on their ship. In accepting Holland's offer, Renton has finally reached a point in his life where he feels that he can control the outcome of it all, and he's ecstatic at the prospect of joining his hero and spending time with this girl, whose name he finally learns. However, in gaining his "freedom", Renton has to let go of his old life through parting with his grandfather, and despite how he may have felt about his hometown, it doesn't change the fact that leaving one's home is a nostalgic and melancholy process. The second half of the episode is dominated by a battle showcasing Bones' talent as a studio, and the overall feeling is one of possibility and eagerness as the Gekko and Nirvash boldly escape military capture. All in all, the sky seems like the limit for Renton, and all his problems seem to have vanished with the appearance of Eureka into his life...

Until he actually meets Gekkostate. Not only do his expectations of them as a cool and fashionable group fall short, they're hardly impressed by him either. Renton made the naive mistake of thinking that the content within a set of magazine covers accurately reflected the real life equivalent, and he hasn't quite figured out how to deal with that. But at least he has Eureka, right? Or perhaps not.

So what exactly is it that makes the Blue Trilogy so special? It all comes down to one basic device: atmosphere. The actual events of the Trilogy aren't what rivets us to the story. It's the style in which they are delivered, and the feelings they evoke in us. Renton is so normal that he could easily be any of us at that age, wanting adventure and glamor in an otherwise boring life. The feeling of freedom he finds in Reffing is something we can visually understand, aided by the use of bright blue skies and beautiful clouds in the background. Everything is somewhat romanticized by his narration, and we're given an intimate look into Renton's thoughts and outlook on the world, one where Eureka is alluring and mysterious, and Holland is just as cool as he imagined. We're drawn into the world easily and nearly flawlessly, and fortunately the Trilogy is only the beginning of what this series is truly capable of.

Quick Thoughts

-I was pleasantly surprised to realize that Eureka speaks in casual form rather than the polite form I had always assumed she used. However, her lines are somewhat unusual in terms of vocabulary, something the subtitles have never been able to properly convey. For example, in this scene, she says, "I knew someone like you once," but in Japanese there are various words to use when you're talking about someone. Normally the word hito is used to say "a person", but Eureka uses the more outlandish ningen, which means "a human".

-There were various symbolic scenes I missed out on before this viewing. When Renton last speaks to his grandfather, a bird simultaneously flies away, alluding to his leaving "the nest" so to speak. There are also several shots in which Eureka and Renton are standing together with a huge background behind them, emphasizing just how small they are in comparison to the sky or the Bellforest Tower. It's possible to take several meanings from that, depending on whether you've seen the series before.

-I apologize for the poor quality of the screencaps. Unfortunately I don't have my official copy of the series to use at the moment, so I had to resort to a much lower quality copy. However, the next RRV: Eureka Seven post will utilize the official source.

N.B. Because the Trilogy is an important component of the series, I chose to focus on only these three episodes. However, in future RRV posts, I will be reviewing much larger swaths of material, and I won't be separating it into individual episodes.

Opening 1 "Days" by Flow:
Episode 1 Blue Monday:
Episode 2 Blue Sky Fish:
Episode 3 Motion Blue: