「ステップ・イントゥ・ア・ワールド/heaven and earth」 (Suteppu Intu A Wārudo)
“Step into a World”

Now that’s how you deliver a game-changer in spectacular fashion.

I can’t help but think there are going to be a lot of viewers happy about the turn AO has taken in the last two weeks, and especially in this episode. That’s great, especially for someone like me who was depressed about all the abuse the show was taking from fans. I’m much happier as a fan (and E7 is one of the rare series where I fully slip into fan mode, with “viewer” and “blogger” taking a back seat) when the fanbase is happy, too. But I feel the same way about AO as I did when I heard complaints about the early eps of Seirei no Moribito and Tsuritama – that those episodes were vital to creating the scenario and developing the characters, and they were the foundation that the later eps needed in order to succeed. I think that proved true in those cases, and I think it’s proving true here. The shortest distance between two points may be a straight line, but it isn’t always the preferred narrative route. Sometimes you have to turn off the GPS and let the characters drive the story, not the other way around.

Let me state up front, I don’t know what’s happening here. A lot of voices are being raised from people who claim they do, but they’re only guessing – I have my theories, just like they do, but they’re still only guesses. I’m still confused – but it’s a wonderful kind of confusion where the possibilities are constantly shifting and evolving, and the world Aikawa Shou and Kyoda Tomoki have created is beginning to solidify. It’s Aikawa’s nature as a writer not to connect the dots for the audience, but he always gives you a fair chance – the clues are there, along with some intentionally misleading blind alleys. And as is his way, he tends to raise more questions with each one he answers. Here are a few moments from episode 12 that stand out as potentially significant for me:

  • The Truth tells Naru that she “has a scub growing inside her”.
  • He then tells her that the two of them are “parts of the same being”.
  • The Truth is the adopted son of a disgraced scientist named J. Johannson, who was apparently the first one to use The Truth’s line about this world being “incorrect”.
  • Ao can “see” trapar, quite literally – his eyes are genetically built to do so.
  • Hannah, the leader of the heretofore unseen Team Harlequin, is apparently a believer in Johannson’s ideas (prophecies?)
  • Hannah quite specifically refers to Ao as “an alien” and says that she didn’t want him to fight because in fighting (against The Secret, presumably) he “might be fighting against his own kind”.

I’m deeply, deeply suspicious of Hannah Bester, better known as “Mama” (Kato Yuko) and of Team Harlequin (and let me express a rare note of disappointment that they seem to be an all-girl crew, like the other teams – I hope we get an explanation for that eventually, otherwise it’s a bit of a cliché EDIT: Not only is the boy, Rajkumar Nair, that I (and Elena) took for support staff a pilot, but he’s played by 15 year-old seiyuu Hatakeyama Kosuke, who was so superb as Nitorin in Hourou Musuko. So not only great to see Harelquin is a co-ed team, but Hatakeyama getting another major role. But how come he’s serving tea and cake and helping out in the infirmary?). Their role seems to be as a kind of deep space specialist team, but Elena and Fleur both speak of strange rumors, of “Seven Days of Fire” which Harlequin would survive even if everyone else died (as I’m also highly suspicious of Stanley, I wonder if he and Hannah are in cahoots). I fail to see the reason why Pied Piper was summoned for this mission at all unless Mama had ulterior motives involving Ao. We see what almost amounts to a custody battle between Mama and Ivica over Ao, with Mama presenting herself as the caring figure, wanting to keep him out of the fighting. And she seems likely to get her way, as Ao is initially spooked by his inability in space to his his trapar-vision to guide him as it does on Earth.

But Ao, as usual, gets past his initial doubts and tackles the task at hand, which is a good thing considering just how much the new few minutes rocked the Astral Ocean world. I think the key question is just who wanted what to happen next, because the feeling I had was that everything was being manipulated to produce a desired result. The Truth seemingly prodded his Japanese ally, Nakamura, to use a Japanese “railgun” on board a satellite to break up the orbiting scub coral after Ao had defeated The Secret, with the result being that the laws of physics leave Ao plummeting into the atmosphere along with the remnants. But The Truth is also the one who seemingly saves Ao, opening up a hole in space that appears on the scub fragment on which Ao is trapped, and inside which he finds a very familiar looking ship and LFO. And was it me, or did Ivica not seem very surprised when all that happened?

So did The Truth engineer all this to get Ao into that very position? Here’s what we can say for sure – the ship is indeed the Gekko-go, legendary vessel of E7 fame (it even has the right damage from events late in the run of that series. The woman who emerges from that familiar LFO is indeed Eureka. Or at least, she looks like Eureka and it looks like the Gekko-go. But whoever she is, I don’t think she’s Ao’s Mom – or at least, not the one from his timeline/dimension/reality. She doesn’t look old enough, and in fact, she looks as if she might be pregnant – in theory with Ao, as weird as that sounds. That should be heartbreaking for poor Ao, who no doubt thinks he’s reunited with his own Mama at last.

So who is she, then? I’ve seen every theory in the book for what’s happening here, with some sort of “Matrix” styled scenario currently in vogue. I don’t know, but my best guess is still that the entire “reality” we’ve been watching for 11.8 episodes isn’t real at all, but a construct – and that most of the people inside it (say, for example, everyone with “normal” colored hair) are NPCs, or artificial beings of some sort. I don’t think they know that’s what they are, and I think that reality feels “real” to them – but I get the sense they’re part of a science experiment (including Fleur, sadly). So – whose experiment is it? The Coralians? The Secret (I doubt that)? Some people can see the truth – Johannson could see it, and whatever The Truth is, he can see it. And people like Ao and Elena are seemingly outside this reality too, even as they feel like part of it. When Hannah calls Ao “alien” this is what I think she really means – though she probably doesn’t understand it that way.

The part that doesn’t fit neatly here is Naru, who by all physical appearances seems to be a normal human girl – but clearly, she’s not (The Truth verified it, if it needed verifying). Perhaps the reason The Truth and even Naru seem so unconcerned about the lives he takes are because they recognize that these aren’t true humans and they don’t have “lives” per se – though if they feel fear and pain, does it matter? Naru even calls Truth “kind” even as a factory full of workers has just been blown up by him – kind, because he hasn’t killed Ao. The Truth believes that Ao will come to see “reality” as he sees it, and The Truth seems to exist outside the reality of those first 11.8 episodes and is able to manipulate it. Perhaps Ao could manipulate it as The Truth does, if some latent awareness inside him is awakened. This is all very comfortable territory for the BONES of E7 and Rahxephon, and for Aikawa-san as a writer – the fallibility of perception is a favorite theme for both of them.

It’s great to see all the heavy lifting the early episodes did paying dividends so handsomely now. It was necessary to build all that detail into the world, and for the character drama to have real power it was necessary to take the time to establish the characters as people, not just plot drivers. This is the luxury of the multi-cour series, though impatience is always going to be a problem. With 50 eps, the original E7 perhaps had a little too much time to tell its story, but with 24 episodes AO seems on-target to deliver a blockbuster second-half as the connections between the two shows become clearer and clearer. We could have gotten the Gekko-Go and Eureka making their grand entrance a few episodes into the series, but something essential would have been lost if Koyama and Aikawa hadn’t done the hard work to establish Astral Ocean as a series in its own right first.

 

Preview

68 Comments

  1. getting a bit of a “WHO WAS PHONE???” moment as I struggle to work out who was flying the gekko. The bridge was shown to be empty, and no one appears in the preview, and I doubt Holland or Talho or the rest of Gekkostate will show up next episode, so how???

    Also dont’ya just love it when a series blatantly breks the laws of physics and then immediately, uses them to explain in in-universe phenomenon? trololol

    Richaka
  2. Ohhhh, nice catch on Eureka looking pregnant. I thought it was just her suit looking bulky but even they way she supports herself as she’s standing up leans towards that line of thought.

    Qwert
    1. Yes can see a first trimester baby bump out of focus when she is getting up.

      Theories spring up. This Eureka is from another dimension or this is just Eureka first child and she has jumped to this time spot for the first time. If Ivica doesn’t seem surprised maybe Eureka told him she visited this world at a latter date in the timeline.

      Ani_BEE
  3. well that was a suprise in those last 3 minutes. really good episode , and was happy to see Ao decide to fight anyway rather than be dragged away from the fight shows hes a very mature character for his age. very much looking forward to next week’s ep now to see where this might start going now that eureka has appeared

    DanjCole
      1. He’s wearing the pilot’s uniform. the support staff wear what Rebecka and Ivica wear, and the ground crews wear those orange uniforms. Besides, The law of conservation of detail states that if the Proteus has any other staff at all they won’t be named.

        I can’t wait to see what Harlequin’s IFOs look like, since I assume they’ll all be customized for space missions and will have the huge external boosters that the Nirvash and Kyrie had during the space battle.

        triggerhappypilot
      2. from what i picked up, it doesn’t seem like Harlequin even is a full-fledged team like Pied Piper or Goldilocks. they seem more like a specialised team formed solely to guard the quartz/whatever that ship is supposed to be called. that’s why elena said the “seven days of fire” line, because they would remain there, guarding the quartz, even if everything else were to be destroyed, or something.

        Nitro
  4. The “Seven Days Fire” bit was another anime reference. It’s what destroyed the world in the Nausicaa movie. Which is why Fleur says it’s not the part Ao has to worry about. Elena is pretty liberal with them this episode.

    Honestly been one of the fans not liking Eureka Seven Ao. It just felt like it’s been spinning it’s wheels, with both the animation and writing suffering for it.

    But this episode got me on board with the series again. Loved the last scene, the space battle, and the fact that there is finally some plot development going on. The underground chamber in the first scene kind made the series remind me of Evangelion again, half expected failed prototypes or something.

    1. That’s the only thing that reminded you of Evangelion? The last few episodes have been laying on the psychobabble imagery pretty thick – my actual thoughts were that this is more like Evangelion then Eureka Seven. At least Gendo is more affable, both in general and towards his child. Fuyutsuki is pretty much the same, though.

      I wonder if the occasional feeling that things aren’t real is intentional.

      At least now there’s more clarification that this is a sequel and not just recycled settings and characters.

      Gamen
      1. No it’s not the only thing. One of the reasons it reminded me so much about Eva is because of all the other similarities.

        It’s hard not to see Eureka Seven Ao as a statement agianst Evangelion really. Evangelion was about isolation and the pain of interacting. Eureka Seven Ao seems to be more about the importance of family and realizing that you’re not fighting alone.

        During the second Secret/Angel Ao felt like he was alone and nobody cared about him, when it’s revealed that they left him behind for his own well being. And instead of moping around like Shinji, Ao proactively finds a solution and acts on it. I honestly like how the show is a strange antithesis to Eva.

  5. Yay, development! Talk about a double whammy here, never expected the Gekko State to just show up out of the blue, with (an) Eureka on board. Whether she’s the real Eureka or not (she does have some weird thing in her forehead, can’t remember that from the previous show), what is clear is that a lot of things are probably going to be cleared up when the next episode airs.

    It became obvious once again that Ivica, cool as he may be, does keep a lot of things from the other members of Pied Piper. He seems to know a lot more about Ao true existence than he lets on, and though ‘Mama’ is probably manipulative, she did have a point in saying I why he didn’t show the video of Eureka falling from the sky earlier. And while the ‘Seven Days of Fire’ is indeed a Nausicaa reference, Fleur did imply that the spacestation is apparently supposed to be some kind of ark.

    Naru’s behaviour was odd too, did she turn into a complete sociopath overnight or something? Would be cruel to Ao if she turned into a villain or something.

    Laughed my ass off at Ivica getting shot in the face by coffee btw.

    Well, anyway, the show has (finally) picked up some steam and has me excited again about what’s to come, so hooray for that.

    Dvalinn
    1. The “weird thing in her forehead” is consistent with how she looked at the end of the original series. She also has it in the OP but otherwise through this series it’s been obscured by her hair during flashbacks.

      Qwert
  6. “and let me express a rare note of disappointment that they seem to be an all-girl crew, like the other teams”

    you might need to rewatch the scenes with them…

    Longhaul
      1. On the official website he’s listed under Team Harlequin, and considering the website only shows the pilots and chiefs under each team names– I guess Rajkumar really is a pilot.

        kao
      2. I surrender – if that’s what the official site says, good enough for me. And not only that, he’s played by the same kid who played Nitorin in Hourou Musuko. But why is a pilot acting as a tea boy and a nurse in the infirmary?

      3. Or actually, scratch that, he really is a pilot. It’s clearly written on the official site, I just didn’t read that earlier.

        Who knows, maybe because they’re short on people? Elena said that there was “several” families live on the base (or whatever it’s called–), I assume there won’t be enough people to do everything so at times people just have to double up their roles?

        kao
  7. I’m still a bit confused about something. Naru gets absorbed by the scub, and a hole appears in the scub flying down to earth. Where the fudge did Naru go? Did Truth cause the hole to open up, or was that Naru’s doing?

    secondmuse
    1. I think Naru was the one who opened up the hole. If what Truth said is true(oh the irony in the statement, lol)about the scub/scub coral growing inside her and since we saw her communicating with it, the scub probably understood that she wanted to help Ao and it wanted to help her in return for helping it so, it somehow told it’s buddy or the scub in space to open up and help Ao. But if that is what really what happened wouldn’t this mean the scub corals are living things. It also makes me think of other things. Like besides wondering what happened to Naru now, it makes me wonder/worried about what will happen to her in the future. Will she stay like she is now or will she turn into or fusion with the scub? Also since the Gekko-go and original Nirvash and a version of Eureka was in that scub makes me wonder if anything(or something from different timelines) are trapped in the other ones. Hopefully these questions and more will be answered in future episodes but after think about it & the fact BONES is involved in this, I’m getting a bit nervous about the direction this is going.

      Leoman18
  8. This episode is– honestly, I’m at loss of words on describing it. I know at some point AO’ll make contact with the original series, but I didn’t see it coming so fast, nor in this fashion.

    And Gekko-go. I really didn’t expect it to appear here too (and I’m really happy that it does. Even after all these years my brain still recognize it’s shape), in a worn out condition, on top of it. Let’s see next week if the Gekko-state crews are also on board.

    kao
  9. I’m slightly concerned that we’ve got the Gekko now but we’ve yet to see anyone else from the ship in this episode or the preview besides Eureka. I seriously hope they didn’t bring back that whole ship just to introduce Eureka and no one else…

    Anza
      1. I don’t, and many reasons why.
        1) its the gekko, and i have too many emotional attachment to the Eureka Seven series so my biased opinion, they’re a lot better
        2) My personal opinion about the gekko-go suddenly appearing is,
        a) remember the original series and entering the “zone”
        b) the zone could be another dimension
        3) the story to me is that eureka is a actual alien that came from a different world literally and jumped a dimension. I don’t know to me this episode answered a lot of questions, but I have less questions now then from the beginning!

        paiser
  10. ow. OW. Ow fsck my head hurts >.<. As if last week wasn't enough of a twist. Then you came and threw us this week. OW!

    I'm more inclined to blame Naru for Ao's life saving divot on the scub burst in space, but time will tell. Also, as fan-gasm-tastic as it was to see the "Moonlight Ship" the Gekkou-go again, Howthefuwhassit?! I'm grasping for logic and getting nothing but the vast emptiness of space @_@;;. Here's hoping next week decides to take it easy on my poor neck and straighten me out a little.

    Kumakaori
    1. Ha ha, that would be so funny. Sure, it would be disappointing as a sequel, but it would also be an awesome trolling by Bones. The similarities are there: Ivica always wears that vest that’s too short for him, and in the last episode of E7 Show Spoiler ▼

      Renton is worried about children piloting the IFOs because he used to pilot an LFO and knows how dangerous and psychologically challenging they can be. And of course, he always had to help Eureka look after Maurice, Maeter, and Linck aboard the Gekko.

  11. Oh ye of little faith! Haha, I always knew this anime was great, even before beautiful Eureka came back to us. There’s something gorgeous in world building, and few animes have done it better than Kokyoshihen Eureka Seven or it’s successor. Nor am I all that surprised that Ao and Eureka have met. Well, I’m surprised it’s a past incarnation of her, which should have been obvious at the go by the swell of her belly, but it’s not unexplainable, I think. Isn’t it possible that Naru’s psychic powers mixed with the power of the Scub to change reality and the laws of physics resurrected and created a tangible memory that the Scub had of Eureka and the Gekko? Perhaps it was done to save Ao from that tight spot, or perhaps Naru and the Truth felt that it would be the kindest way to show Ao the truth of the world, whatever it turns out to be. Course, that’s just a theory, but it’s plausible, I suppose. In any case, I’m rather sad that it took a major turn (a wonderful, amazing, fan-girl inducing turn, but a major turn nonetheless) to make the negative Nancies realize what a gem of an anime they have on their hands.

    Beautiful review Enzo. Our positivism has paid off!

    Genesis
  12. I know it might not mean anything, but the clothes Eureka wears,like in the 3rd screenshot for the preview, the long blue shirt and brown pants, remind me of the outfit Renton’s sister wore in the first series. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t help noticing that…

    Maneki Neko
      1. that makes absolutely no sense. if ao’s mom is renton’s sister where did he get the light blue hair? Did renton’s sister somehow miraculously turn into a exact replica of eureka? Lol think about it…

        aimless
    1. I’m pretty sure that was done on purpose-there was a picture floating around here and on /a/ and /m/ someone made that showed several examples in the first 2-3 eps where it was pretty much the exact same shot as one from the original series, with new characters replacing the original. They were too similar to be unintentional, and the fact the it happened more than once adds to that.

      dustandechoes91
  13. Hmmm my theory is that agter Eureka disappeared during the original series she has transported to this “alternate dimension.” It would explain her pregnancy and why she looks so young. I mean i guess time travel itself is always a viable option? I mean this current universe might not exist if Eureka finds out what happens in the future and goes back to change the events that lead up to the current world. Either way, where is Renton? I hope he appears as a antagonist o_0 major plot twist trolololololol

    Manndoo
  14. Let me be the one to express no excitement at cheap tricks of finally returning the main character to the screen 12 god damn episodes in. You just know it’s some kind of another cheap mind game as heavily telegraphed by the preview reel – what’s with the floating spirit of Eureka in dark-blue dress? This is not going to go well.

    Frumix
  15. I won’t try to take any of the theories too seriously because I know BONES exists just to mess with our heads. I won’t be surprised if a big-ass gate opens from the moon.

    JD
  16. I have to admit, this is the first episode where I’m actually worried about the direction in which the show is going. The hugely nostalgic reappearances of Gekkostate and the LFO Nirvash were definitely welcomed, but I couldn’t help becoming alarmed at how Bones would tie them with the story well. (Plus, as nice as it was to see Eureka’s face again, I wasn’t really a fan of her hair and suit; the hair seemed too long and unlike her, and the suit’s design is simply atrocious.) At this point, I’m rather worried that AO will end up like Pocket Full of Rainbows: an absolute disappointment. In fact, if the title of the next episode didn’t strike fear in your heart, then you obviously didn’t see the movie version, or don’t remember it well enough to.

    The scub coral opening up because of Naru is another instance where I worried if AO will rely too much on supernatural or magical explanations–hopefully this will be explained as well, and satisfactorily at that. I think the part about Naru having scub coral within her is from whatever incident she was involved in ten years ago. It’s probably also the reason for her sickness. As for Truth and his powers, I can understand why the Matrix theory is so popular; it’s like he can change the perception of reality–probably because what we’re watching isn’t reality to begin with.

    I don’t see how Bones could pull this off as a satisfying sequel after seeing this last episode, but nevertheless, I’m still holding onto hope. I for one can’t wait for the next opening and ending animations (the first ones were fantastic; I loved how Bones changed Ao’s hair color in the OP and ED after it turned turquoise in the show) and the songs. Let’s hope AO won’t dash our expectations after only being halfway done.

    1. I hadn’t even noticed that Ao’s hair had changed in the opening and ending until you mentioned it. Out of curiosity I looked back at the openings & ending and noticed they have been changing many things that I hadn’t paid attention to before. #1 I noticed Eureka did not appear in the first opening but appears with her back turned in episode 3 opening and has been showed turned around slightly showing her face since episode 4 opening after they showed her face in the 3rd episode during the flashback and her picture. #2 After the Mark 1 name was changed to the Nirvash and received a upgrade in the 5th episode, starting with the 5th episode’s ending and 6th episode’s opening the upgrade version is shown. #3 Starting with the 8th episode the Nirvash’s ship form schematics is shown at the beginning of the opening. I don’t know what brought about this last addition though.

      It’s kind of cool/interesting to see that they are taking the time to add little changes to the openings and ending based on things that happen in the show.

      Leoman18
  17. damn the last minute of episode made me cry when i heard the start of the song i thought it’s niji the finale song of e7 then i saw the gekko-go and the original nirvash! that made my day!

    jigen7
  18. I think people need to be ready for just Eureka showing up next week. It seemed like the Geeko-Go was just gliding down to Earth, at no point did it ride any Trapar or activate its engines.(This image is just atmosphere entry causing come flames https://randomc.net/image/Eureka%20Seven%20AO/Eureka%20Seven%20AO%20-%2012%20-%2034.jpg)

    I’m happy about the ending of this episode but it still doesn’t excuse how mediocre the episodes between 3 and 12 were. I just hope they can keep this momentum up now until the end of the series!

    As far as concerns, I’m a little worried that they won’t be able to explain how Nirvash went from final form back to Spec 2 in a way that doesn’t seem cheap. Then again, this whole situation may be a cheap trick, such as these being memories of the scub brought to life – essentially just being a clone of what we saw in the original series. I’ll guess we’ll see next week!

    P.s. That’s an LFO not an IFO!

    MrZero
  19. The last few scenes of this episode sent shivers up my spine and oh Naru, how I’ve missed your sexy midriff 😉
    I agree, it doesn’t seem like the current Eureka is the same girl that Ao calls Mama, though it would certainly be great to see the Gekko-go and typeZERO in action again.
    The puzzle pieces are finally falling into place and as you said, the foundation building in the first half was essential in developing the many characters that we’ve come to love. The second half of E7 AO is going to be awesome and I’m definitely pumped!

    Seishun Otoko
  20. I’m expecting Bones to have a mindscrew for us.

    It would be interesting how they plan to tie this sequel to the original Eureka Seven. And I’m sure they also plan to make some reference to the movie in this sequel too.

    Linkark
    1. You’d think that? I was thinking why isn’t it Nirvash post-transformation. It’s more badass that way.

      So the title character appeared. But isn’t she supposed to be older? I bet it isn’t the real one.

      The Moondoggie
  21. I’m going with someone screwing with the time stream theory. Even if Eureka isn’t his mother that instant, she’d still be an good influence on him given how nurturing she is. Besides, Ao’s half-Coralian and if he starts transforming, they need someone who knows WTF is going on.

    Twi
    1. Also, if Eureka is really his mother though, does that mean she automatically get custody of him?

      What about the Gekko and Nirvash? Generation Bleu and any government that learns that an alien came down is going to be fencing for her and the technology on board. This changes the game on a political level and personal, and this is without whatever secret the preview says will shake the world.

      Twi
  22. Havent had such intense goosebumps when watching anime in a long time; when the Gekko-Go, the original Nirvash, and finally Eureka appeared, i almost died with happiness. Its the first EurekaSeveN all over again!

    AvgJoe
  23. Wow eureka, nirvash, and gekkotstate are back my mind is blow away. they came from the different world, now Bones is just messing with us now. If eureka never met Ao before then how does Ao remember her?

    reptilianking213

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