Eureka Seven Ao
following a near 2 month hiatus, E7 Ao returns to screen with its final 2 episodes. Honestly speaking, having a long break in between a season itself isn't really a good thing. Since people tend to lose track of the story or even lose the momentum of the series itself. Expectations would definitely be high awaiting the final 2 episodes, thinking that perhaps the ending would be satisfactory enough to have proved the long break worthy. Madoka did deliver exactly what we could have wanted, but E7 Ao wasn't close to making the mark at all. The 2nd last episode brought to us more mysteries and unanswered questions, following a meet up with the all famous and familiar Renton Thurston. The episode packed a load of mecha action, followed by seeing Ao struggling over the decision of whether or not to change the world by firing the cannon due to continuous stress placed over him by Truth.
In the end, Ao discovers that he had a sister before but had died the moment she was born due to a possible clash of genes between a human and a coralian. As a result, Renton and Eureka has been searching for a place with low trapar concentration to raise their second child, Ao, who was threatened by the blooming corals and the trapar that they produce. Ao wishes for Eureka to stop fighting her own kind, the Coralians, and took the responsibility of taking care of the corals by himself. He fires the cannon, and as a result, he manage to send Eureka and Renton back to the 1st world, or the original E7 world, before he disappears into another time and space. What I thought had happened was that Eureka and Renton were now back to square one, after hearing what Ao had said that they should just continue to live and not deny the fact of his existence, from the suggested use of the cannon to "travel" into another world with less or no trapar. As a result, the first dimension exists another Ao inside Eureka and thus Ao was automatically shifted to another timeline to prevent a time paradox. Finally, Ao arrives in another timeline similar to the one he had left, with no trapar, no coralians, no secrets, and no Nirvash. The 3rd world that Ao had changed after firing the Quartz Cannon for the 3rd time.
The ending was pretty normal, but there wasn't really a definite feel to the end of the series. No one knows what exactly the 3rd world contains, or what might be expected of Ao. Or even that the ending was a happy or a sad one, there isn't really a clear line. What Ao did was to the benefit of his parents but in the end, it took so little effort to part with them both when Ao clearly does misses his mother quite dearly as seen in the earlier episodes. To Renton and Eureka, to allow humans and coralians to coexist was their first mistake which saw the Corals growing out of control and the secrets were created to tackle that. As a result of the coincidental timing of appearance, Scub Burst was named after this phenomenon. Carrying the guilt of the scub bursts and the loss of their first child, it would have made Renton and Eureka determined to set things right, to create a world where there were no Scub Corals and to ensure that their 2nd child, Ao, would live on as a normal child. Having to part with Ao in tears, it makes me wonder if Renton and Eureka were thinking if it was the right decision to make or not. True enough, Ao would be born in their own world perhaps in a few months/years but the risk of Ao repeating the same phenomenon as his sister was still there. The decision was only made when Ao himself asks no not deny his experience of living.
If I was looking into Ao's point of view, it does seem that this ending was a pretty sad one. He had sent his parents back to where they belong and he continues to live alone, in a whole new world that was still unknown to him. With the Scubs gone, there wasn't a sure-thing that the "others" would still remember Ao. Without the Scub, there wouldn't be Generation Blue, and there wouldn't be Nirvash, let alone all the others that he had met: Chief, Fleur, Elena etc. It is a new timeline after all so that would leave many, many questions left unanswered. Seems like a pretty abrupt end though, with the loose ends tied up rather loosely.
With the series coming to a close, there were still some questions that wasn't quite answered as of yet. What exactly did Eureka do when she appears in a hologram state? It just seems that she was able to cross time but not fully, whereas her Scub counterparts have no problem. Nothing much is explained about the Quartz, only that it's the Scub's core and having many of them isn't a good thing... What does the pole light do anyway, seems like a portal to another timeline? And for the Quartz Cannon, does it just deny whatever it shoots or just randomly changes the timeline? The first shot fired eliminated the scub burst and the 4th shot returned Eureka and Renton back to their original timeline.
The whole character of Truth seems to be totally random as well. There wasn't actually much development on his part of the story. Or rather he is portrayed to be an individual who is in a complete mess, not knowing what exactly is he and upon learning the truth, denies his own existence. It would have been far more interesting to see the plot twist earlier, so that they could squeeze in more screentime of the 3rd world, or with Truth as the archtype for Nirvash Neo. I was pretty confused over what Truth had did in the final 2 episodes. He does not seem to have sided with the Scub or the Secrets and due to his messed up conscience, he just wants Ao to fire the cannon to deny his existence. And then comes the same question again, does the cannon deny something? If it does, I wouldn't see how the effect of denying or changing the world structure could have brought Renton and Eureka back together.
Ao was a likeable character, there were some funny and interactive scenes here and there, but he jumps into a hero mode too much that he's endangering the lives of him and his other comrades. The only part that I hate about his personality is that he wavers too much. One moment he vows to fire the Quartz Cannon to get his mother back or to meet with Eureka once again, but then he hesitates again when he knows the truth that the world might change due to the cannon and as a result, he stones and have conflicting actions once again. Which also causes Nirvash to get hit and in the end, had to be rescued by the others. It was pretty tricky since with the multiple timeline part, and in the end, he finds his purpose of his life, or his true goal other than just plainly fighting Secrets and Scubs, at the final 2 episodes. Seriously? Now that's just a lagged out protagonist.
Naru on the other end made me feel the same way as Truth had. In one episode, she meet up with Truth, does not suspect him at all, accepts the Scub and becomes the enemy. And then the series continues to picture her as an icon or a person that can communicate with the Scub, with less and less development on the connection of her and the Scub. Its like "BAM! She's half Scub! Oooooh. Ok."
E7 Ao could have more scenes featuring Renton and Eureka since it is a sequel after all or perhaps this was more like a spinoff? Similar to Code Geass and Last Exile? Though it'll be great if I could see Lavi and Claus fly again in their vanship.
Overall, what I felt really lacking from the ending was the "wow" effect. Having a E7 sequel was an interesting move and with the characters that were not mainly focused on the original characters of E7 was good and with some connections here and there made it better. But then the pacing for the series just felt weird. The ups and down of the series were running around randomly. The plot development seemed rushed near the ending, and even the 23rd episode didn't make it felt like it was the end. Neither did the 1st half of the 24th episode. It just feels like a normal episode that could have still tens of episodes left over for the series... and then it just ends. Like that. It wasn't actually a BAD ending, but just a plain ending that leaves many E7 fans disappointed. The plot was going strong, there was a nice twist of plot but that's just that. Nothing special at all. At times I can't really keep up with how the series was going, there wasn't like a clear end drawn for the story to reach. It just felt like the series could just go on and on until the line is drawn and quickly ends it. At least E7 Ao had more likeable characters compared to Fam of the Silver Wing. Seems just like a repeat of Darker than Black S2... or even more similarly with Hitman Reborn's manga end. If it wasn't said or labeled to be the last episode, I can actually see how the series can continue. Oh well. thankfully the OST still retains its quality :)
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