Eureka Seven Ao review

Following up on the highly acclaimed anime Eureka Seven, this sequel from 2012 numbers a list of 24 episodes.

AO is both short for Astral Ocean, as for the titular character, Ao Fukai, son of the human Renton and Coralian being Eureka from the original series, and takes place about 10 years from the events in the original series finale.

Spinning off precisely from the events in episode 50 of the original, the series has the same strong visual appeal as the original, with vibrant colours, high speed action and sky surfing mecha`s...

... but unfortunatly, it is left lacking in the strength of the storyline.

While the first half of the season centers mostly about Ao discovering a bit of his origins and destiny while fighting of the Secrets (the G-Monsters from the original) to protect Scub Corals, this whole Generation Bleu arc is slow, lame and basically a `Secret of the week` sort of tale.

The second half has more to it, as Eureka appears, as he meets his mom in her future from his past from alternate timelines, resulting in a time-altering gun that when used changes the past due to damage in the future.

Sounds confusing?  That`s because it is.  The series suffers from the shortness, as the moment the alien being Truth, who wants to seriously alter the past and the future, and the Quartz Gun come into the equasion, the remaining 11 episodes is jsut to short to explain it all without coming over hotch-potched and chaotic, not to mention rushed.

This combined with the fact that one barely knows at the end who the `good` and who the `bad` actually are in the Secrets vs Scub Coral conflict in which humanity gets entangled, and a rather intense BUT complicated final half of the final episode, really makes it fall short of the original.

It is nice to watch, but you`ll never have that urge to watch `just one more episode` as you will have with the original series, it`s just, well, plain.

At least there are some funny moments by also time-displaced (or not... it`s another complicated matter) Elena Peoples, an anime addicted IFO pilot who constantly quotes anime lines and build up styles, even going as far as an `You know what is in a basement` imitation of Evangelion...