April, 2025. In independent Okinawa, Ao Fukai's day started normally enough - his friend Naru's pet sloth, Noah, had gone missing, and between errands he finds himself roped into helping find it. But nearby, three men are carrying a high-value package for delivery to the Japanese military, and when a generator fault downs one of their vehicles, they nearly crash-land on Ao. In the resulting chaos, Ao picks up a glowing bracelet that had been dropped near the wreckage - and a Scub Burst erupts nearby, signalling the beginning of real problems for the island - and for Ao...
There are two shows I've watched recently that were sequels / continuations of older shows: Last Exile -Fam, the Silver Wing-, which was a disaster and a disgrace to the name, and Aquarion EVOL, which is top of my current hitlist by quite some margin. I loved the original Eureka Seven, all 50 episodes of it, and I'm hoping it ends up in the same category as Aquarion EVOL - and so far, the signs are good.
There's clearly some explaining to be done, though. The original series was far future, but while it's clear that Ao is Eureka's (and presumably Renton's) son, we're now in the near future - whether there's an in-world explanation for that discrepancy or whether they've retconned some of the backstory hasn't yet been made clear. But what we do have are some neat parallels with the original (Pied Piper / Generation Bleu are clearly a new take on Gekkostate; Nirvash is back and impressing; the episode titles retain the musical theme of the original series), and an opening pair of episodes that jump straight into the action and don't really let up. Ao so far seems far more balanced and likeable than Renton initially was, and Naru has some potential as the girl who'll be by his side. So far, so good.
THE GOOD: Has kept the good of Eureka Seven, without the slower pacing (it's a much shorter series - 24 episodes versus the original's 50). Interesting characters and world setup; great soundtrack; top-class action sequences.
THE BAD: Early focus on action means there's a lot that hasn't been explained about how it ties in with the original (it's officially a direct sequel) and how the various groups introduced so far will interact with each other. How that plays out could make a real difference to perceptions as the show goes on.
In the EVOL camp so far, then. I've been looking forward to this hugely since it was first announced at the end of last year, and if the smile on my face after the first two episodes is anything to go by, it's delivering on its promise. So far.
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