Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers - Reviews

Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows (AKA Good Night, Sleep Tight Young Lovers) is an alternate story sci-fi seinen movie, featuring many of the characters and aspects of Eureka Seven. There is a big difference between this and the 2005 anime. With all of the differences, I enjoyed this more than the original series, especially since this movie fixes many of the problems that series had. It has a more complex story that may leave your mind boggled, thus is more suited for adults. The story is set on Earth this time, with none of the trappars or the like, but it does have references to the 2005 anime, like the moon and an abandoned Vodarak town. In case you want my opinion and insight into the 2005 series - here.

Animation

It's amazing the difference a few years can make. The quality of the animation is stunning, just the first scene alone had me in awe. It retains the design and animation style but things just look even better. Eureka doesn't look weird anymore and many things that looked a bit odd in the 2004 anime. Of course this still has a unique style, one that I've only noticed in all of the Eureka Seven animes. The action and fighting runs smoothly, it's just great. No ecchi or pervyness, though the artwork on a book essential to the plot shows a nude woman.

Sound

Once again, the music is also amazing. As to be expected from a movie, they really went all out. Sound design was good, the background music kicks in at all the right moments. The outro was especially sweet. Once again, this features the entire original cast of both English and Japanese audio. To quote my review of the 2005 series: "The VA for Renton, Johnny Yong Bosch also did the VO for Lelouch from Code Geass and the VO for Koizumi from Haruhi Suzumiya. And the VA for Eureka, the other main character, is Stephanie Sheh who also voiced a couple of characters in Code Geass, Illyas from the Fate series and Asahina from Haruhi Suzumiya too. And Crispin Freeman, the VA for Holland also did VO for Jeremiah from Code Geass, Togusa from Ghost in the Shell and Kyon from Haruhi Suzumiya. MichelleRuff even got a minor role too. So many VA did VOs for many animes and many of them were in the same anime like Code Geass and Haruhi Suzumiya." I'd download this soundtrack too, but I'm sure it's in a complete audio collection of Eureka Seven somewhere.

Characters

Renton Thurston is not the dumb kid he was in the 2005 anime. In this anime he is instead a badass prodigy soldier of the military, ranked corporal and is the sole pilot of Nirvaj. By the way, Nirvaj is also an adorable chibi larva creature that floats around. He doesn't give a damn about anyone but Eureka and this time, he has the guts to tell her how he feels and to act the way he wants taking no orders from others. There's no older sister this time, who instead has a minor cameo role as a scientist working for the government. Neither is he related to his grandfather, also a cameo role at the end along with the 3 kids (I'm glad they aren't in this), and his parents were a part of some sort of cult who caused a devastating event to occur. No hero dad this time either. I hated this character a bit in the 2005 anime, but here he's way more cooler. Except... there is one occasion where I think he pisses himself.

Eureka is Renton's childhood friend in this anime. She also makes her feelings for Renton apparent very early on and her character is arguably more normal. She even gets angry at Renton and behaves with him like a normal girl would. At the start of the anime, a few years before the rest of it, she gets abducted by the military for torture and experimentation, getting seperated from Renton. She also turns green with exposure sunlight and doesn't have wings. If that last bit makes no sense, pay no heed. There is some similarity between her actions here and in the old anime. Overall, she is still a better character.

Dominic and Anemone. In this anime, Dominic is instead Renton's childhood teacher and a professor who reseaches some serious stuff. He is a more calm, collected and philosophical figure, similar to Anemone in this anime. They are in love with each other from the very start as they spent their adult life doing Dominic research. Anemone also features later, in a role giving guidance. Completely different to the tsundere girl of the 2005 anime and I love it! Also 'The End' is a chibi larva creature just like Nirvaj.

Holland and the rest of the crew of the Gekko are not rebels in this anime. Instead, they are part of the military and Renton is one of their crew members here. Except something is different. They aren't necessarily the white knight protagonists in this anime and have more of a gray role. The rest of the crew don't feature much but Talho still has a bigger role. This time, their romantic relationship is set in stone from the start, much like the other couples in this anime. The crew of the Gekko are seperate from Renton and have an interesting backstory in this movie, unlike the 2006 anime and are not what they seem. For starters, they call themselves 'The Children of Neverland' which has a lot to do with the plot.

The other characters are also different. I'm disappointed by the lack of Charles and Rei, who weren't even in the 2005 anime much. Many other characters don't appear or have very minor cameo roles. This includes Dewey, who was killed by his allies before the events of the story and was also apparently abducting children for who knows what nefarious deeds. The council and military are the good guys this time too and the story follows Lady Koda rather closely.

Story

The plot of this anime is vastly different, especially since it is set in another universe compared to the 2005 anime. There is no ref boarding or trappars here. On earth, the humans have been warring with the invading alien creatures known as the Azo for approximately 70 years. A great catastrophe was triggered by Renton's parents a few years back and from the annihilation, a group of children were found at the epicentre. Eureka is captured by the military as a kid and Anemone has nothing to do with the military this time. The crew of the Gekko are part of the army who fight the war against the Azo, but they also have eyes on something else: Eureka who is being held in an allied facility. The story of Peter Pan is referenced here, especially with 'The Children of Neverland.' There is a lot in this story that is confusing and unexpected, but it is fast paced and the plot doesn't simmer down for one moment. It's better than the 2005 anime IMO and reminded me a lot of FMA and Neon Genesis Evangelion again, but this time more crazy like NGE. I loved it. Trying to read in between the lines is rather difficult, especially as this is a fast paced 2 hour movie, but I think it says a lot about peace. There's some heavy material reference like pedophiles, torture, genocide and such, but nothing too much. This plot is more suited for adults as such, especially with the difficulty of understanding it.

Conclusion

The 2005 anime Eureka Seven ended in a rather satisfactory manner. This movie doesn't add to the story but instead does it's own thing. In my opinion it is better, since it has a more complex story that is akin to the likes of Neon Genesis Evangelion. as such, younger viewer may not be able to appreciate it, but adults would like it better. I know I did. A great watch and a must watch for any who watched the 2005 series and for fans of mindboggling seinen storylines.

Family-friendliness Rating: 4/5 It would be 2, but the image on the book and implied dark themes (lower is better)

Overall Rating: 9.7/10 (higher is better)

I was excited about watching this because I just finished the series. Despite me being disappointed, it was a good movie. I was just so confused when watching it. I didn't bother reading anything when going into it. I had no idea it was an alternate retelling. To me it seemed like some guys at Bones were coming up with an idea for a movie when some guy tells them, "You know that is the basic plot of Eureka Seven?" Since they were so far in writing the story, they then just decided to replace all the characters with Eureka Seven characters. It was just so weird, because some characters were totally different. In the show, one character who was an enemy is now Renton and Eureka's teacher? Even some major characters weren't even the movie. Instead we only saw their picture. Now, a VERY minor character because the main antagonist. Even one guy had a different last name. It bugged me how they changed some of the terminology. Why? What's the point in that?

Now the mechs transform into pokemon? WTF? Did they explain that? I can't remember because I was so confused, I might have missed that.

 I can't just be comparing it to the series. I can't just judge it's quality based off of something else. You have to determinate that by what it actually is. So, if I were to review it as if I never saw the series, then it was pretty good. It had a lot of action, and it was well animated. It was very entertaining. The only problem is its story. It felt like it was going to fast. At least I can say that it wasn't a recap movie. I hate it when they make a movie based off of a series, and it is only a condensed version of the show. Of course it won't be as good as the show because they will have to remove a lot of things, so why would people watch an inferior form of what they just watch? The Eureka Seven movie is definitely something worth watching for the people who saw the series. People who didn't see the show could still possibly watch it, but it is better if you saw the show first. Since they have their similarities, watching the show will give you a basic idea of what's going on.

I decided to write a review because it looks like I'm the only one who has watched this movie but has never seen the TV series. To be honest, it's funny how I get interested in this; it all started with a friend saying to me "hey, hear this song!". And I'm here writing now.

If you read a synopsis, the first minutes of the movie are kinda strange, and you always wonder if is it really necessary to have watched the series first. But, while the minutes keep moving fast, all starts to be clearer and understandable for your eyes. The story itself is quite average: there is this boy, Renton, who entered the Gekko-State to save his childhood friend Eureka; she has been kidnapped by the military while a war with strange creatures called Image is being fought. With huge robots, the Earth in danger and a "I'll do everything and kill everyone for you" protagonist the plot could seem boring and average. Honestly that's what I thought first. But, because it is well-developed, this paucity of content doesn't matter that much.

To say it all, characters are love. They can easily be annoying, as Eureka in the first 60 minutes over 120 (who doesn't want to punch her in the face?), but they are always coherent. Even the characters that have just little time to be presented are filled with some personality. Naturally Eureka, Renton and Holland are sharper than others; and what you'll appreciate of them is that even having two hours for sending their character development to the absolute nothingness this never happens.

About music and animation, there's no much to review about. Animation deserves a full 8 because it's seriously well-done in nearly all scenes and the OST, without being a masterpiece as Evangelion or Toradora!, does its work well.

Summarizing? Watch this in a rainy Sunday, even if you haven't read the manga or seen the TV adaptation. It's not a must to see, but amuses at first glance.

I actually wrote this article after watching the first 20 minutes or so of Eureka Seven: Pocketful of Rainbows, giving it a scathing review. However, after finishing the movie, I have a much more favorable disposition towards the movie and decided to rewrite this review.

At first I was extremely disappointed in Eureka Seven: Pocketful of Rainbows because almost nothing in the movie, besides the individual characters, was the same as it was in the TV show. When I watch a movie based on a show I generally expect to see a movie with the same characters as the show did, set in the same time period, just with a different story. Pocketful of Rainbows had all the characters from the original series, except most were a different age than they had been in the TV show. For example, Dominic, a soldier who was the same age as Renton in the show, was Renton and Eureka’s teacher in the movie. Another main character, Dewey Novak, played absolutely no part in the movie whatsoever and was assassinated without even making an appearance. Another difference that shocked me was that Gekko-State was fighting for the military in Pocketful of Rainbows, whereas they were the face of the resistance during the show. Little, subtle differences totally threw me, who had seen the show in its 54 episode entirety, through a loop and into an uproar at first, but my indignation soon subsided to a slight disappointment as the movie progressed.

Pocketful of Rainbows was, in itself, a good movie. However, having seen the original TV show beforehand it was very difficult for me to get past all the differences between the show and the movie. That aside, the movie was good. Unfortunately there are no very good summaries of the movie, and I will not be giving one at this time. However, I do plan to sometime in the future. The thing I want you to take away from this is that, while Pocketful of Rainbows is very different from the show, is still a good movie that you should definitely watch, and therefore I will give it a high review.

 

Okay so for starters if you go into this thinking that it's a movie with a plot that takes place after the story in the tv series or it's a movie that basically tells the same story all over again, but much shorter with some new scenes thrown in then you would be wrong.  This movie is something of an alternate retelling of the story with some rather big changes in not only the story, but the characters as well.  People who were enemies in the tv series now take on completely different roles.  So that was just a warning.  If you completely loved the story from the tv series then you many still like the story for the movie, but you're just as likely to completely hate it.  The story by itself and treated as somewhat of a seperate entity from the tv series is actually quite enjoyable.  The action was nice and very well animated and even if the story at times became somewhat confusing it was still overall a fairly enjoyable experience.  Really the movie is probably a must see for anyone who watched the tv series and enjoyed it and for those who haven't seen the tv series yet.  It would probably be best if you watched that first since the movie moves fairly fast and some things aren't fully explained in the movie.  Though watching the tv series first is actually what led to some of the complaints I had about the movie, but still nevertheless watch the movie if you find yourself having a couple hours of spare time one afternoon.