The style of the show continues to dominate over the content.
What They Say:
Ao gets a taste of what it’s like to be part of a real mission and a better sense of just how high the stakes are. Meanwhile, strange things are happening around the world, apparently driven by one mysterious individual.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As Eureka 7: AO goes on, it does introduce more of the subplot aspects of the series in a decent way. Such is the case in the opening half here where there’s some small country issues going on in Myanmar where drugs and weapons are being dealt with but is quickly shut down by the government forces that arrive to take it out. It’s an instructive scene in its own way, but it’s part of a larger mystery involving a man who claims he doesn’t even know who he himself really is. He’s the one that offered up the path for this group and the whole thing became a huge risk and gamble that was taken which lead to the fallout that we see here. It’s an amusing economic issue in a way because those involved knew the risks, not just financially but to lives as well, and rolled the dice because they wanted the reward that could bear fruit.
Elsewhere, we get to focus more on Ao again as his work with Generation Bleu is getting him more involved with the actual combat missions. A lot of what we saw since his arrival was quiet and getting to know you things, but he was thrust out on his first mission quickly with this group that they themselves had just returned from, so the whole thing has worn down all of them. For Ao, he’s coping with all the changes to his life but also just how intense the battles are with how many lives are truly involved with each mission. It’s good to see that those he’s working with now understand what he’s been through and do cut him some slack rather than overworking him and forcing him to man up. It may work with some personalities, but it’s hard to see that as being the right path for Ao.
Giving Ao the chance to man up on his own, which he does rather quickly, is something that helps to paint him in the right way and is a nice change of pace from the kind of reckless nature we saw from Renton in the original series. Ao wants to be a valued part of the team and to do what he can to help out while coming up with new tactics. Since his ideas are what’s caused some of the problem in the current battle that he jumps into, being the one to help fix it is exactly what he intends to do. It’s definitely good to see such a mission positive character here, one that’s understanding the stakes but not whining about it in a big way on a regular basis. Though this doesn’t fit like a completely military operation, it’s too mixed for that, it does have a certain professionalism to it and Ao looks like he’s going to do his best to fit into it.
In Summary:
Eureka 7: AO provides for some decent material here that actually does a fair job of building up Ao and his personality while also showing that he’s someone that can really grow into a strong professional when it comes down to it. He’s gotten the most development of all but it’s things like this that help to humanize him a bit since it shows his core personality in wanting to do the right thing. We also get a look at a fairly violent subplot with a mystery man that’s obviously going to play more of a role as the show goes on, but what we get here is definitely something that sets up the kind of “whatever” but with a cruel streak to it. Surprisingly, what really made me interested in this episode is the last minute or two with Ao walking along the futurisitic city streets. Sometihng about its design is so appealing that it made me wish we’d incorporate more “science fiction” architecture into our lives now and start living in the future.
Grade: B
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
I agree with the view on the achite design, I sometime wish they focus on the design that the actually show in a matter of speaking. Agree agree�