Eureka Seven: Volume 12 (ep.47-50)

If you have never seen Eureka 7 you need to see it, period. If you are a fan of Evangelion, you need to see it, period. If you love crazy mecha action, you need to see it, period.

I'm not kidding. This show has me thinking . . . . dare I even say it. . . that it is even better than my beloved Evangelion. I never thought there would be anything that could ever come along that would make me even suffer a fleeting thought like that but with Eureka 7, my mind has been flooded with that realization. . . . Eureka 7 may be the greatest anime series of all-time.

Now it has to be said, there are a lot of similarities between Eva and Eureka 7, and you can tell that BONES was highly influenced when creating this story by the classic Angel series. How only the "chosen" can pilot the Nirvash (just like the 1st, 2nd and 3rd child in Eva) and there seems at least at the beginning to be another alien race that wants to destroy mankind (like the Angels in Eva) and that the subject of rebirth for mankind (the Third Impact). But Eureka 7 seems to run with these themes and tie them all together with one of the most heart-wrenching love stories I have ever seen. Pure brilliance.

And I have to say that I have watched the series both with the Eng subtitles and with the Eng dub and I have to say the English translation on the dub is great and perhaps delivers an even more moving performance from the voice actors.

I have never teared up more at an anime. Weird. What always got to me was during the English dub at the end of every episode Renton and Eureka would both say in unison "To be continued. . ." but in a way and tone that reflects how the episode ends emotionally. At the end of many episodes they sounded happy, chipper, excited, relieved, worried. . . it really let you know how the characters were feeling.

But what really got to me was the end of episode 47 I think. They had such a sound of hopelessness in their voices like everything was done. . . and then at the end of episode 49 . . . there was only Renton uttering those words. I have never been more emotionally invested in the characters of an anime series in my life and it may be because they reel you in with 50 episodes!

Buy this show.

By Far the best anime I've seen!!!!!!!, the story was superb, the twists and it left you in tears near the end, forcing you to chew on your keyboard/Remote from the Suspense! you will love it !!!

The last 10 episodes were just magnificent and I cant even count the amount of times I was on the verge of tears (ep 45 especially) While the show was slow to start none of those episodes were wasted. The quality of the character development for Eureka and Renton is just staggering, even the kids in the final eps. I haven't been as pleased with a show as this in such a long time, and I really think it represents the absolute best in anime. Great story, fantastic characters, great writing etc. This seriously is the type of series where the word "timeless" comes to mind.

If you're looking at this I'm sure you've already seen the rave reviews for this series elsewhere, so I'll briefly add my two cents that this is indeed the single best science fiction series ever, animated or otherwise.

Volume 2 (don't forget to buy volume 2 as well) concludes the series with the same perfection you are soon to experience in this first half of the series. By the time the series ends, "Eureka seveN", unlike so many other series, not only answers every question you may have had and delivers several "Holy crap!" surprises, it actually has a very good, very satisfying ending.

I'm a very nit-picky person when it comes to my entertainment, but other than breathing at high altitudes and at tremendous speeds without some kind of air mask and and never changing their clothes despite several scenes where the female cast go shopping, there is not one scene, not one word of dialogue, which I can complain about. "Eureka seveN" is not only a fantastic and original science fiction story, it is impeccably well told from start to finish. Like "Cowboy Bebop", it's the kind of showpiece you can lend to your animé hating friends to show them than animé has come a long way since "Robotech" and "Captain Harlock" that they watched on TV when they were little.

Nice menus, good quality video and audio, and the English voice acting is as good as the original Japanese cast (yes it is, purists -- accept it) and I'd go so far as to say it's better because having Renton (the main character) voiced by a boy instead of a woman sounds a lot more convincing. Subtitle options include the now standard (for the most part) of well translated full subtitles or translations for Japanese words that appear in scenes only. Also, the opening and ending songs include both English translations and romaji for those who enjoy singing along.

My only disappointment is that the audio wasn't remastered into surround sound, but otherwise this collection is proof that Bandai finally "gets it" and has stopped buying properties to just dump cheap English dubs on us.

The extra's are a bit dry and the limited number of trailers for other series is disappointing as is having the first two openings and endings appearing textless only once each, but it's a far cry from Bandai's past standard of not giving us any extras at all.

All of the commentary (one episode per disc) is "hosted" by the Japanese voice actors for Renton and Eureka with one or two of the other cast members as "guests", and with few exceptions this is rather like listening to a bunch of friends getting together and talking as they rarely bother to comment on the show itself. The sole exception is when the director "guests" and gives insights into some of the symbolism, much to the surprise of the ditsy hosts who clearly thought that this was just another dumb animated series. You'll lose track of the number of times they say with shock and surprise "...and this aired at 7am on Sunday morning!" every time a serious scene comes on.

The cast interviews (again, one per disc) with the English and Japanese voice cast is hit or miss (mostly miss) but that's the case with most DVDs; however, I would have preferred interviews with the people responsible for the actual production of this series like the directors and writers as I'd love to hear more about the symbolism, etc., but again, it's better than the nothing Bandai usually gives us.

In conclusion, don't hesitate to buy this series, and specifically, this two volume set of the complete series of "Eureka seveN" as this is no cheap bootleg or half-assed production: This is a good quality product.