Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am delighted to announce we are continuing Renton’s adventures with the Gekkostate team, as we return after far too long to the skies of Eureka Seven. The early ‘00s were one of the truly great eras in anime production, brimming with ambitious post-Evangelion originals, and elevated through brilliant creators like Eureka’s own Dai Sato. Eureka Seven embodies the passion and style of the era while also calling back towards prior eras, standing as one of the last examples of the once-common four-cour original, and demonstrating with its every episode how such a format can breathe life into a world and its characters.
When last we left off, Renton and the team had enlisted the services of the skyfisher Neal, who helped them secure the necessary supplies for repairing the Gekko. This adventure served a variety of dramatic purposes, offering chances for both Eureka and Renton to grow – Eureka through getting in touch with her feelings of jealousy and displacement regarding Renton’s growth, and Renton through coming to appreciate the variability of identity, how Neal (or, more pointedly, Holland) can seem like entirely different people depending on how and where they are framed. Additionally, it emphasized Renton’s emerging psychic link with both Eureka and the Coralian, as these creatures that have allegedly doomed the planet seemingly attempted to communicate with our hero.
With the Gekko now in fine fighting shape, and several episodes of heavy introspection behind us, I’m guessing the energy will be amping up as we return to the skies. But whatever’s ahead, I’m sure we’re in capable hands, and eager to see what adventures await. Let’s get to it!
Episode 18
Ah, it’s so nice to be back with this production. Bones was such a powerhouse in the ‘00s, and so committed to ambitious originals. Wolf’s Rain, RahXephon, Sword of the Stranger… it was a good era
The OP serves as a reminder of this show’s phenomenal effects animation, as well as its wild mixture of lighthearted adventures and devastating robot violence
We begin with the crew setting their newly acquired wing plates into place, grumbling about the likelihood of having diluted soup for lunch again. In keeping with its combined musical/beach bum theme, I like how much of the Gekkostate’s drama echoes the concerns of a touring band, perpetually running out of gas and suffering van breakdowns and just barely making it to the next show. You wouldn’t think Eureka Seven’s aesthetic influences and narrative would make for a clean union, and there are certainly some odd points of friction or contrast, but everything is drawn together through Renton’s experience – whether you’re experiencing the wider world through joining a band as a roadie or signing up for the resistance, coming to know you’re a small part of a much larger organism involves a lot of the same emotional revelations
Taking a pee break, Renton finds himself admonished by some old man for “polluting the scubs,” by which they presumably mean the coral mine
“Ill Communication”
“That scub is still kicking! Three, no, TWO more meters of digging, and tens of thousands of gallons of trapars will spring forth, I’m sure!” Ah, he’s the old stalwart clinging to the mine, perpetually believing they’re just on the verge of a breakthrough that will return life to this area. Considering what Renton discovered during just one trip into the mine, I wonder how much this man’s perspective has been saturated with the energy of the Coralians
Though his projects vary in quality, everything Dai Sato writes is at least about something, invested in engaging with the world around him and reflecting the concerns of that world through fiction. Eureka Seven’s environmentalist metaphor doesn’t just offer a worthy moral takeaway or provide a fun, novel worldbuilding concept, it imparts this world with a sense of age and consequence, drawing on the real-world resonance of ideas like old coal miners waiting for the good times to return
Talho suggests being nice to the guy, if for no other reason than that they might be stuck with him
Renton tails the digger as he leaves, offering us more glimpses of this strange, lonely mining operation. Having recently watched through a great number of Gundam productions, I have to say that around fifty episodes is a fantastic length for a show; at that scale, you can tell an ambitious story while still leaving your world and its characters time to breathe, to reveal smaller sides of themselves
The miner Mr. Brittany’s home is covered with maps detailing potential trapar veins
Renton also finds a photo of Brittany and a young boy from the year he was born
“Renton! Go complain!” Both the dialogue and the way the cast treats Renton are funny and naturalistic; mired as we are in the trends of modern anime, it’s nice to see kid protagonists treated like kids again
Renton actually offers to help Brittany with his machine repairs, which mollifies him enough to stop his campaign of pointlessly banging hammers against metal
“I’m sure this is the first experience of this kind in her life.” Eureka’s separation from the Nirvash is framed like a separation from her parents, and is apparently causing her tremendous stress. The descendants of Rei Ayanami’s cold, alien affectation can often suffer from weak characterization, as they’re frequently used to articulate their male counterpart’s ignorance regarding female interiority, but I think they’re treading an effective line with Eureka – she still feels like her own fully realized person
Renton’s concerns reveal he’s becoming a more sensitive observer of Eureka’s troubles
Renton once again imposes himself in the old miner’s life, bringing him some soup. He clearly sees his own grandfather in this man, and likely feels a bit homesick
He’s also happy to be able to fix the old man’s clock. This dynamic feels familiar to him, and he’s happy to feel both welcome and useful, two concerns that undoubtedly nag him aboard the Gekko
He’s delighted that this man connects “Thurston” to his grandfather instead of his shitty dad
And just as Renton is waiting to prove himself in the real world in order to have something meaningful to show his grandfather, so is Brittany presumably digging out here to prove himself, and bring back vindication to his own family
Ah, this show’s got such nice incidental character acting. Kenichi Yoshida is such a fantastic character designer/animation director – I really should get to watching Overman King Gainer, that’s one of the key Tomino productions I haven’t watched yet. No surprise that Mitsuo Iso tapped Yoshida for Orbital Children, either – and as perhaps the greatest animator-turned-director of modern anime, Iso’s trust definitely says something
Brittany leads Renton to a depository of unmined LFOs deep within the earth. Mining these devices directly from the planet is an interesting concept – I wonder if Saito took inspiration from Turn A Gundam, which employs a distinct but largely similar conceit
However, the lights are dwindling, these veins are steadily dying
Brittany at last sees the Nirvash, and is for some reason stunned
Renton invites Eureka to join him visiting Brittany in the mine. Surely this won’t result in some kind of horrifying resonance event between Eureka and the dying LFOs
He finds Brittany attempting to break into the Nirvash and brandishing a revolver
“There’s no meaning in digging if you don’t find anything!” Brittany serves as a sad echo of Renton’s quest – he too was seeking meaning or validation through his journey, but has lost hope in the mine offering what he seeks, and now seeks merely to steal the consolation prize of the Nirvash. But it’s hard not to sympathize; it is much easier to place your faith in an unknown future when you’re young enough that the future seems limitless
“I only ran across this thing because I stayed there for over a decade!” He attempts to rationalize this theft by framing it as providence, the righteous reward for his decade of faith
“If I was your son, this would never make me happy!” Their two journeys finally converge
The Nirvash is detained by local military police as Gekkostate charge into action
Love that they largely excise the resulting battle entirely, instead cutting directly to the revelation that our cover’s blown, and Holland muttering that this old man’s not even worth killing. None of this should feel triumphant – this is the last, regrettable spasm of an old man’s dream fading into dust
As much of a child as ever, Holland takes out his frustrations on Renton until Talho steps in
“I wasn’t really listening. All I could think about was why Mr. Brittany had stopped his digging.” The glow of Gekkostate has entirely worn off for Renton, and now he can only think about this symbol of connection with his grandfather
“What did he want his son to say, by showing off the Nirvash?” Brittany’s hopeless dream also casts a harsh light on his own. What is he trying to prove out here, with this crew that regularly exploits him, with this girl he can’t understand?
“Sis, why am I here?”
And as if in direct answer, Eureka calls through his door, thanking him for protecting the Nirvash. At least one person is thankful that he is here
“I’m sorry. I can’t concentrate on anything you’re saying right now. Please leave me alone.” Goddamnit, Renton!
And Done
Oof, what a nasty stinger. Nonetheless, I’m delighted to return to Renton and his Gekkostate companions, and happy to see this show is still as thoughtful and lovingly realized as ever. Mr. Brittany proved a keen and painful counterpoint for Renton; his connection and resemblance to Renton’s grandfather brought back poignant memories of home, while his doomed quest to save the mine called into question the value of Renton’s own bold, potentially pointless adventure. Claiming your independence and journeying out into the world is all well and good – but when such a journey offers nothing but isolation and confusion, how are you supposed to find the confidence to continue? Was Mr. Brittany’s mistake the fact that he gave up after ten years, or that he even tried to save the mine in the first place? All Renton has to guide him is an old man’s regrets, and the knowledge that Brittany’s son surely felt just as abandoned as Renton himself.
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