Another episode, another hitherto-unrevealed, cute little wartime atrocity…
To EUREKA SEVEN’s credit, this tonal shift is a lot more gradual and a lot less jarring than it usual for such turns in an anime. I still say that maybe they ought to have… softened the crimes these likable scamps in Gekkostate are trying to atone for, because coldblooded “liquidation” like this is nigh-impossible for anybody to shake off. It casts a shade of ambivalence under the Renton and Eureka’s cute “will they or won’t?” moments that’s likely a lot darker than the creators realize.
Sheesh… I could just imagine the kind of gossipy advice Renton’s pals would try to give him if he was crushing on her while they were going to the same high school.
“Dude, seriously, you don’t really want to date her.”
“Why? She’s so nice!”
“She’s got kids, man! And she’s killed people, alright?”
Those are some serious deal-breakers. Then again, maybe it speaks to Renton’s naiveté (or desperation. I’m not seeing too many other teen girls around) that he’s not really processing all of that.
Then again, maybe trying to evaluate any drama on Gekkostate in regular human terms isn’t the best idea. This an environment where they refer to telling a girl how you feel in the all-too-ejaculatory terms of “spilling it out” (also providing another argument for the value of dubs over dubs.) It’s also an environment where a lover’s spat between Tahlo and Holland is escalated by her tricking him into going to a site where they’ve committed atrocities. The conversation they have about the pluses and minuses of remembering the past or moving on is a good one, but it seems to be missing a rather huge logical gap in how they went from shooting up civies to having their varied MTV-style shenanigans in what might as well be a flying youth hostel.
Watch this episode, "Higher Than The Sun" here and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon here & here. Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk
