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historyman101 · 7 years

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Full Analysis of Eureka 7 Hi-Evolution Movie 1 (with Spoilers)

So I have finally returned after a long ride on the metro and sharing my thoughts on Discord. I have a lot to tell and I will be straight to the point, pulling no punches. Firstly, I will get my overall review of the film out of the way now and save the spoilers for the remainder of this post.

The film is good, but it’s not great. If I had to rate it, I would give it a 5 or 6 out of 10. The parts that are good in the film are REALLY good, and the parts that are not REALLY hold it back. If you want to just get the nostalgic rush, and remember the series when you first watched it, this film will not disappoint. Hell, I felt like a kid again while I was watching. It succeeds with nostalgia, but it only succeeds with nostalgia. With that in mind, I would not recommend paying money to watch this in a theater, as you will not get the money’s worth. Wait for the BD/DVD release, or just pass it until movie 2, which looks to be more promising.

Spoilers follow.

There was a rumor going around on Discord and in the E7 fan community at large that this movie would be a repeat of Pocket Full of Stock Footage Rainbows (PFOR), and the screening confirmed it, much to my dismay. However, that is not to say the movie did not have its good moments.

The highlights of the film are definitely the opening 30 minutes or so of the film, which showcases Adrock’s death during the First Summer of Love, the soundtrack in general, which is as amazing as you would expect it to sound, and the ending sequence, where Renton resolves to go find Eureka. In the opening sequence, we see the operation against the Scub Corals from multiple perspectives. @planetaryoratorio will be happy to know that Holland and Talho are featured in this section, along with Dewey and even the Council of the Sages. Charles and Ray take part as well, and we see the showcasing of new mechs against the Scubs, including the gold Devilfish KLFs.

This is where the movie really shines, as it feels like Eureka 7. It has everything one would expect from an entry into the franchise: surfing robots, a shitstorm of colors and rainbows, explosions, and of course, pulsing techno music. It’s the best part of the film, bar none.

However, there were warning signs of what was to come even in this best part of the film. Eureka only serves a minor role, and she is spared from becoming part of the control cluster as Adrock sacrifices himself. We see her emotional for the first time when he dies, and it just begged for more development. However, despite being Eureka 7 Hi-Evolution, Eureka only has a screentime of maybe 20 minutes altogether, and she is with Renton even less.

From this point on, the point of view shifts to Renton, who is wandering around the world and running away from his foster parents Charles and Ray. He narrates the remainder of the story, which is told through a series of flashbacks, flash forwards and jump cuts that would put Pulp Fiction to shame. I don’t mind this format of storytelling, as it can be quite effective. But the way it is handled here is so jarring and clunky that it gives the feeling of disjointedness. The film skips around so erratically that I almost became irritated, along with a few others in the audience.

Kyoda tried to explain the storytelling method by saying that this film will make more sense when viewed with the others in sequence, as part of a whole rather than a film on its own. Perhaps this is a creative difference, but honestly, I don’t buy that. Films can be part of a series and still stand on their own for their engaging plots, characters, and building on an existing work. Novel and film series can balance the plots of individual books/films while at the same time weaving a larger narrative. I learned this stuff in high school English class and middle school writing, for Christ’s sake.

To add to the frustration, the film makes copious use of onscreen captions to explain EVERY SINGLE DETAIL about the show. What location the characters are in, who the characters are, what time of day it is, the model of mechs, EVERYTHING.

In the opening battle sequence, this was used effectively, since it conveyed a sense like this was an official military operation, and the captions gave a degree of plausibility to it all. However, when used in excess, it becomes distracting and obtrusive. Show, don’t tell. Let the viewer figure out what’s going on. You don’t have to hold my hand through it all, Bones.

However, that was not the biggest offense of the film. Instead, what really disappointed me was the lack of any new animations beyond the first 30 minutes. Much of the film can essentially be summarized as the first couple episodes of the Charles and Ray arc from the TV series (episodes 22-24ish) albeit with some new dialogue and touched up quality.

Let me be clear: I don’t mind recycled animation. Hell, Disney did it in the 1960s and 1970s, and no one gives them crap for it. However, they recontextualized their frames and made it fit with the new films. Even though PFOR used stock footage, it was not as easy to spot and it was recolorized to fit with the movie’s tone. Here, the stock footage is almost entirely unaltered, and it is only touched up for more detail. The usage of recycled animation here is almost shameful, because it betrays a sense of either lazyness, lack of funds, or lack of staff. If I had to guess, the ratio of stock footage to original footage was AT LEAST 70/30, and that is being generous to the film.

I don’t care what the reason for it is: this is Eureka 7. This is an anime known for high quality animation, and when I go into a new movie, I expect to see new animations to wow me. This just felt cheap, a shallow appeal to nostalgia. I can easily watch these scenes at home on my DVDs. Why would I fork over money to watch something I can easily see at home?

In addition to the overreliance on stock footage, the film does not really expound on Renton and Eureka’s relationship at all. The most we gather is they met on the Gekko, and Eureka’s body was damaged during Acperience (episode 19), and Renton fled the Gekko shortly after, feeling guilty. There is some change of dialogue where Eureka is more cognizant of how different she is from humans, and Renton realizes it too. But beyond that, we never see much of them together. We never see much of the Gekko either, and I honestly could not tell you if Gekkostate even occupied the same role in the movie as it did in the series. It just wasn’t explained fully.

This makes the romance angle (if there is any at all) feel tacked on and cheap. There is no background to Renton and Eureka’s relationship, no growth. All we know is what Renton can tell us, and even then, it’s not much. I couldn’t help but fear that Kyoda had forgotten the main draw of the series and what made it such a touchstone for many in the community: the romance between Eureka and Renton, and indeed the different romances across the cast. It’s not an Eureka 7 movie without the love.

The teaser for the second movie shown at the end credits seemed a bit more promising, if only by comparison to what we got here. Kyoda explained how while the first film is focused solely on Renton, the second film has Anemone and Dominic in a central role. In fact the codename for the second film is Anemone 7, according to Kyoda.

The teaser was very short, perhaps only 30 seconds in length maximum, but it showed all new footage including Renton by an abandoned car, Eureka with her wings, and Anemone performing at a pop idol concert. The latter scene has a stadium sequence where teams are assembled “cosplaying” as KLFs, and….hoo boy…there is an ass-shot of Anemone just before we see her face. Say what you want about the ass-shot, but Anemone as a pop idol actually works well with her character, given how she was rather vain in the series and concerned with appearances.

Again, I would not recommend buying tickets to see this in theaters. If you have to see it, wait until it hits Blu-Ray or DVDs, or just give it a pass until Movie 2. Hey, we only have to wait until 2018.

#spoilers #eureka 7 hi-evolution #e7hievo #eureka 7 #otakon #Tomoki Kyoda #anime film #Anime Convention #bones studio #anime #e7

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