dj722 give us his review:

Euereka 7 – Pocket Full of Sunshine OVA

Okay, so it’s been awhile since I posted a review since I’ve been busy. So this is going to be a quick “cliff notes” version. Lol. I might post a more full blown one on the main page of the forums later.

First off, the you either love E7, or hate it. There’s been plenty of debate on why it was good/bad, but I won’t go into that given that this is supposed to be a non-biased review. Lol.

Storyline: If you think that this is a continuation of the original E7 series, you’ll be dissappointed. When E7 ended, there were fans who were upset that it ended the way it did, which is understandable, so many thought that there was going to be an OVA to tie things up. Unfortunately, it’s not the case with this OVA. Instead, the movie is a re-telling of the entire series from an “alternative universe” kind of standpoint. Meaning, same characters, same voice actors, completely different storyline. The actual core plot is somewhat similar though, aliens attacking the earth, earth defending itself, and the love story between a boy and an alien girl.

So what’s the difference? For starters, the movie skips over things like what trappar is, what the LFO really is, where the Gekkostate came from…etc. Renton is already aboard the Gekko-go, but instead of a civilian he actually enlists in the army. Also, the story has a different telling of why Holland and the others are rebelling against the army, and where Eureka came from. Nirvash is there, but he takes on a completely different form and starts off looking something like Mokona from Tsubasa Chronicles(the girls will love it).

So in a nutshell, here are my thoughts. The animation itself is still top quality, as is expected of Studio Bones. While it’s an interesting “revision” of the story, I was annoyed by the fact that there was a lot of focus on Eureka and Renton and their undying love. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cute. But those who hate E7 will agree that Renton can be a little annoying and super emo all the time. The actions scenes were really well played. There are some slight changes to the LFO’s, more notably Hollands. Instead of flying the original LFO we see in the original, he’s actually piloting something like THEND instead. As for the ending..hmm..I’m 50/50 on this. I have to admit that it was much better than original ending, but I was still left with the “ftw…where did that come from and what the hell just happend” reaction.

Aside from Renton’s crying, I have to say that the movie wasn’t too bad, and was enjoyable. Just don’t expect any closure from the original anime. I can’t really go into much detail about the changes since it might spoil most of the movie (I think that the purpose of the OVA was to retell the story…kinda like an alternative ending on a DVD). Hardcore E7 fans will enjoy it to see all the characters again from another point of view. There’s also one thing to look forward to in a fight scene on the gekko -go….and as much as I want to say it, you’ll have to watch (unless you really wanna know, then PM me). If you’re just looking for something to watch, look for something else. The subbed version was difficult to find since the anime is licensed.

dj’s score: 6.5/10

Tell us what you think of Eureka 7 and anything J-related in our forums!

V4sh reviews:

After War Gundam X

Animation: 8/10
Story: 9/10
Music: 8/10
Action: 7/10
Overall: 9/10

Length: 39 Episodes

Themes: Romance, Mecha, War, Action

Synopsis – “Once, there was a war,” a fierce battle between the people of Earth and the rebelling Space Colonies. Within eight months, the fighting escalated to the point where the Colonies gave the Earth Nations an ultimatum, accept their independence or face bombardment by falling colonies. In retaliation, weapons arose to turn the tides of war, the Gundams. However, with one drop prevented, it did not matter as dozens more fell reducing the population to less than a million. No longer were there any victors. Fifteen years have passed since then, and a new generation has risen to claim the future.

Brief Summary – In 1995 sunrise produced gundam wing, which despite a few issues was a major success. The following year it was followed by Gundam X. Many fans were overjoyed at the prospect of a similar series. They were sadly disappointed. As they discovered Gundam X is nothing like Wing, or any other gundam series that preceded it or has been made since. Because of this it was a horrendous failure, so bad in fact that the story was rewritten to cut 10-13 (the exact number is not know, but 10 is the accepted value) episodes from it. Now this may seem a funny way to start what is a positive review of the series, however my point is to make it clear that the reason that this was such a failure is because it does not suffer from the stigma of the formulaic gundam series, and although it carries the title, it cannot be compared to them in terms of story. Instead it is more accurate to compare it to Eureka 7, with which it shares many story traits.

Now this series does carry some of the characteristics of the gundam franchise, you have your accidental teenage gundam pilot, gundams are the most powerful mechs, a mysterious char type character (with sunglasses not a mask this time), the earth federation, colonies, and a mysterious girl with newtype powers. However this is where the similarities end, the main character Garrod Ran takes the qualities of past gundam pilots, but without any of the whiny angst, he just gets the job done and doesn’t complain about it. He possesses no special powers what so ever and his skills are a product of the after war world he has grown up in. Much more like Renton Thirston then Ray Amuro. His reason for fighting is not to stop war or to defeat a certain enemy, it is simply to protect Tiffa, and he has no problem whatsoever in killing people to keep her safe, and unlike seed this mindset doesn’t change as the story progresses (so non of that disable the enemy rubbish). Also the main female character Tiffa Adill is much more like Eureka then your standard gundam annoying girlfriend type. The char type character Jamil Neate no longer has his newtype powers, they were lost in the previous war, and as such his only skills are those that he built up as a soldier. Add to this a cast of other likeable characters from a range of different backgrounds, and put them all on a ship travelling the world in search of newtypes in order to save them from being used as weapons by the new earth federation.

The gundams themselves are a lot more realistic then the hacked ones in wing and seed. For example the Leopard gundam is a land based artillery support unit, much like the heavy arms of Wing. However it cannot fly, and has no vernier boosters as it does not need them, which seems like a reasonable design feature for a land based suit, so when fighting at sea occurs it is either not deployed or has to stay onboard the carrier vessel and shoot off of it. Now although Heavy arms was formidable at range with its vast array of gattling guns and missiles, it was even more effective at close range with its tiny knife, and could also do that spinning jump that its pilot could do outside the suit, which to be honest is not all that realistic, a mobile suit should be either mediocre in close combat and long range, or excel at one and suck at the other. So when the Leopard runs out of ammo its game over as it doesn’t even sport beam sabers. Another example of the more believable nature of the gundams in this series is the main beam cannon of the GX-9900. Now wing zero and the freedom both also had super beam cannons, but these were powered by the gundam itself, and would eat a vast amount of power, but could somehow be fired repeatedly. Now the GX’s beam cannon on the other hand requires an external power source. This takes the form of a moon base with a vast array of solar panels and uses a microwave delivery system, which requires the GX to be stationary for a significant amount of time as it locks on, and can only be used when the moon is out.

Unlike most gundam series this is divided into multiple 3-5 episode arcs, some of which could have been longer in my opinion. The final space arc is a prime example of this, but this leads onto the main downfall of this series; its rushed ending. Due to the cancellation the final arc has been condensed, potentially taking a lot out of the story, there is not the build up of tension towards the climax that I would have liked, and the final battle with the frost brothers was a disappointment. But despite this I found myself satisfied with it, all the loose ends were tied up and nothing seemed forced. Even the last minute pairing of uber pimp Roybea and bondage queen Enil El is acceptable, when asked about the unexpected pairing Roybea simply replies, “well, what the hell.” fitting of an uber pimp.
However I do find myself wondering “what if?…”

Animation – Being made in 1996 the animation is typical of the style back then, and is of a similar quality to gundam wing. The action scenes are fluid, however there were a few of reused scenes, especially in battle when grunt suit after grunt suit is getting blown up. However this is kept to a bare minimum, and is nowhere near the level of reuse that featured in 00 lets say. Also the video also suffers from jerking in a couple of the long pan shots, now this may be just a bad copy that I have, and unless you are really scrutinising it then you wont notice. One more issue I have is the designs of the grunt suits, they look somewhat “bargain basement”, like designs that weren’t quite good enough to make it into other series. But the main focus of this series isn’t on the mobile suits, but on the relationship between Tiffa and Garrod, so this can be forgiven and shouldn’t be dwelt upon.

Music – The openings and ending songs for this series are all very good, the endings in particular are extremely nice to listen to (I am particularly fond of ending 3 “gin-iro horizon“). Consistency is also maintained throughout, with the openings being rather fast paced mecha music, reminiscent of TM revolution, and all the ending themes are much slower paced slightly romantic(?) songs. The background music is nice and orchestral and adds to the a sense of drama to the series, well above par for 1996.

Action – The action is well maintained throughout. The battle scenes aren’t as exciting as those in wing, but more satisfying then those in Eureka 7. The weapons featured are justified and believable as I explained previously.

Overall – I absolutely loved this series, and it is probably my favourite of the whole gundam franchise, the story kept me enthralled the whole way through, and at no point did I get annoyed or irritated by any of the characters. The opening scene where Garrod hijacks a mobile suit with nothing but a home made flash bang and a 9mm pistol is brilliant. Over the years Gundam X has acquired a much undeserved bad reputation, and as been ignored and blown off as not a true gundam series. It is not a true gundam series, it is something better, a precursor to Eureka 7 and the likes, it was unfortunate enough to be given the title gundam, and automatically judged as a gundam series, which it should not be. I would strongly recommend watching this series to anyone who enjoyed Eureka 7, or a gundam fan who wants a break from the traditional formula. So give it a try, and if you enjoy it then spread the Gundam X love to others.

Download -
Unfortunately due to the unpopularity of this series most torrents are dead, or as slow as continental drift. However a high speed direct download is available here:
http://www.anime-eden.com/anime/series.755.htm

Review: Eureka 7 – Pocketful of Rainbows (Movie)
By: Soulsavior42 (Zeronuckols@gmail.com)

Animation: 9/10
Story: 10/10
Music: 8/10
Action: 10/10
Overall: 9/10

Length: 120 minutes
Themes: Romance, Coming of Age, Mech

Highlights:
Nostalgia Factor – For those who actually liked the series, all the same faces
Hair Factor – You get a ton of awesome scenes with Eureka’s hair down, what more can you ask for?
Fresh Factor – For those who didn’t like the series, great new story
Cheesy Factor – E7 still is its same cheesy self, not saying its bad though

All right so before I get into the actual review I’m going to say this now, I hated the Eureka 7 series, when I say hate I mean HATE. There were many different factors in my opinion and are justified in my eyes, but that’s for another review another time. That aside, I went into this movie under the assumption not reading up on anything about it, that it was going to be an alternate retelling, or a follow-up of the original series since that seems to be the going trend right now for animes. Still keeping the hope that Bones would pull out another FMA movie on us and just blow our minds away. Well I’m not going to go as far as saying that it was as amazing as the FMA movie but you cant compare two separate genres against each other. The E7 movie aside from the fact of having a flamboyant name (Pocketful of Rainbows) was really damn good, from start to finish it kept you entertained and intrigued. From my perspective of hating the series previous it was refreshing not having to deal with a lot of the emo side of all the characters along with the 3 horribly obnoxious kids from the series that have only a brief cameo towards the end of the movie with Renton’s Grandfather.

The movie is set in a universe aside from the series only really having similarities with the characters and very general plot. So other then that you can kick out all previous knowledge of E7 and enjoy watching a new movie, new story line, and somewhat new character relations between everyone, I almost want to say that besides Renton, Holland, and Eureka everyone is playing different personalities for this story, which is nice since you don’t have to deal with all the side characters no one really cared about in the series.

The movie starts out with young Renton and Eureka witnessing a flower blooming and some other events that set the stage for the story, next thing you know your in present day with Renton on the Gekko-Go who is enlisted by the military now which is explained later in the movie, since those who watched the series will know its supposed to be the exact opposite. Though dragging a bit in the middle of the movie with a lot dialog and little to no action, it stays solid for its story telling all the way through to the quite epic ending which cant be said for the series.

Animation
Well being a Bones series, everyone including myself have come to expect top quality from any of their work, be it E7, Bounen no Xamdou, or Soul Eater, which they definitely never disappoint. Pocketful of Rainbows is no exception except in one aspect which is more nit-picky then anything from my stand point. In the E7 series the animation quality was awesome, you really cant much better unless your going to be watching OVA’s or Bones movies like FMA: The Conqueror of Shambala. So obviously you expect the movie of such a well animated to be better right? Sadly aside from the final quarter of the movie the animation is basically the same thing as the series, which was a bit of a let down since, they had so long to work on the movie. Giving animation an 8 that I was originally going to while watching the movie is made up for the absolutely stellar ending battle sequences bumping it to a 9.

Story
Definitely this aspect of the movie was the strongest out of the 4 categories for me. The writing for Bones series has always been top notch but they brought it to the next level with POR. There wasn’t one part of the story that was random or wasn’t explained by the end and given a logical justification. To me this is a great stand along movie to those who never have seen the series and aside from the normal E7 shenanigans like magical mech upgrades in the middle of battle you accept it and sit back and admire all the pretty colors. A solid 10 from start to finish for sure.

Music
There isn’t anything to spectacular for this aspect, I mean the E7 music has always been good and well placed though with POR there is a significant lack of music in parts that could have added much more to the scenes then just pure silence. For the rest of the scenes that have music, its well done and fitting for the context of the movie.

Action
Well besides the fact that they didn’t scrap the idea of surfing robots, the action is pretty damn awesome, lots of explosions and very fluid. The only thing I wish is that there was more blood, but what ever, that’s definitely not enough bad to take off a point, so another solid 10.

Overall
I personally was VERY impressed with this movie, it exceeded all my expectations and gave me a newfound love for the series as a whole, even though I still think the TV series should never have been made and they just made a movie for it. For those newcomers to E7 I recommend watching the movie first, and if you like it then maybe go watch the series if you enjoy watching 10 people feel sorry for themselves for 16½ hours of your life. As for the people who have seen the series this is a VERY refreshing addition to the series and should definitely be watched and appreciated. I’ve have always loved Eureka’s character and her character design, especially when her hair is down and not some ugly buzz cut. So I got a lot of good “hair down” action in the movie, which was great, and then at the end you get to see her with really long hair, which is just more icing on this cake of awesome.