Fun fact! The original title of this movie was Eureka Seven: Pocketful of Rainbow. I have no idea why they changed the title. If anyone knows, can they let me know?I actually went to see the movie in theaters. It was a supreme disappointment. I had just finished about the last 30 episodes of the series in just a few weeks, and I was psyched for the movie. Ew.
On rewatch, though, it was much better. My expectations were much lower, and I knew how it was going to differ from the series. As a stand-alone movie, it's not too bad. As a representation of the series, it's awful. Characterizations for the crew of the Gekko are way off. Dialogue's not so great. Animation is good, but could use a more oomph for a movie. Missed all the great music from the series. Fight scenes could have been better. Confusing as heck. Ending is weird. About the only really good thing is the romance.
Renton, son of scientists, and Eureka, a girl who can't live under the sun, are raised together when very young and become very attached to each other. One day, Eureka is taken away. Powerless at the time, Renton vows to rescue her. He enters the military and is soon assigned to the Independent Youths Unit 303 of the First Mobile Forces thanks to his exceptional performance alongside his Nirvash, a bio-mechanical armor/control system. Unknown to Renton, lies a plot to extinguish the alien invasion that is currently happening. It involves not only him, but Eureka too.
Eureka and Renton grew up together in the town of Warsawa. One day, army men took Eureka to experiment on her because when she is exposed to sunlight, her skin burns. Many years later, Renton is a military pilot and part of a mercenary regiment made up of members of the Gekko. Their mission is to capture Eureka, who has some connection to the EIZO, Corallian-like aliens. Renton brings Eureka back to the Gekko, overjoyed to be reunited, only to discover that the Gekko are a crew of rebels and are going to use Eureka for a mysterious, dark purpose.
Meanwhile, Coda Lovell is sent to investigate the murder of Dewey Sorenstram. Braya Mattingly is in charge of the Hammer of God, which will destroy the EIZO, but also most of the world and humanity.
Fans of the series will recognize that this is a complete reimagining of the series. Basic relationships are the same, characterizations are... sort of the same, but everything else is turned upside-down. It's a nice way to do a movie, instead of the typical side-story or summary of the series. I like the concept. A side-story wouldn't work so well in E7 because of the meticulously planned character development throughout the series. Straightforward fighting shonen series like Bleach, Naruto, Inuyasha, etc. have no problem cranking out as many movies as they can because of the nature of their shows. It was a good move for E7 to re-do the series.
The execution, though, was not as smooth as fans would like. The movie spends far too much time on exposition, and in the end, things still don't make sense. The crew of the Gekko are rough and unlikable. They need to use Eureka as they did in the original, but to different ends. Their reasons aren't that great, and I don't really care about any of them, not even with the plot twist that fans of the series can see coming.
I did like the shift from Dewy to Coda and Braya. Coda was a pretty cool character, and it's too bad that she's stuck discover so much exposition and can't do more cool things. I also liked the idea of reusing shots from the series, but in different ways. Usually shout-outs are in the form of cameos. This way still called out to fans of the series, but it didn't make non-fans feel like they were missing something. Cameos were still there, though, such as Dewey, Dr. Bear, Maria, and I believe William B. Baxter. Ray and Charles are notably missing, but I think their mechas make an appearance.
The best thing about re-doing E7 in 2 hours is that we get to skip straight to Eureka and Renton being a couple. If you cut the movie down to just cute moments between Eureka and Renton, it's worth just as much to the fans, and possibly less confusing. My favorite line of the movie is, without a doubt, "We're going on a date." Their back-and-forth "I'm going to die so you can live", "no I'M going to die so YOU can live!" gets old, but at least it's straightforward, unlike the rest of the plot.
Animation is good, but not movie-quality. The fight scenes are better than in the show, but few and far between, and still not as nice as they should be. Poor Holland spends all of his fight scenes dramatically shouting a line while the camera zooms in on his face. Every single fight scene.
Voice acting is superb. Crispin Freeman puts on a much more gravelly voice for villainous!Holland, Stephanie Sheh has a much more outgoing Eureka, and Johnny Bosch is much more comfortable with his Renton than he was in early episodes of the show. Kari Walhgren voices young and extremely old Anemone, with a completely different personality, and nails it. I have no complaints about any of the voice acting in the dub. I didn't get around to the sub yet.
Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers, is an interesting alternate take on the events in Eureka Seven, but falls short of its series. Too much exposition, stilted dialogue, bad characterization of everyone on board the Gekko, and a confusing ending are too much for a good romance and an interesting concept to overcome. Not even mascot!Nirvash is cute enough to redeem this movie. It's not so bad if you go into with with abysmal exceptions, which is what I did the second time around. It's still enjoyable, and I think fans should give it a look. It's only 2 hours. If it was between watching this movie and reading the graphic novels, I'd watch the movie because it's a different take on the series.
Rating: C+
+Focuses on interesting lesser characters like Coda and Braya. Renton and Eureka get to skip development and jump right into the relationship. Voice acting is really good
-Confusing plot, confusing ending, bad characterization for the Gekko crew
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