Okay, the premise of this futuristic story is that 14 year old Renton seeks a life of glory and adventure. He finds that one day with a young blue haired girl named Eureka, crashes her LFO (a large mech-robot) into his grandfather's repair hanger. It being a military device of great power, it strikes Renton as curious that such a cute young thing would be piloting it but one thing leads to another with him falling for her (as young men tend to do). She is chased by the authorities however and after some minor repair work, she's on her way. Interestingly enough though, Renton's idol is associated with the girl and comes to pay a visit to the shop where his presence is immediately denounced by grandfather, making it clear that the man was affiliated with his son (Renton's dad). This intrigues young Renton, who ends up installing a special device onto Eureka's LFO (called the Nirvash; the prototype LFO and far more advanced than the retro-engineering of the government has been able to install in their own LFO's) called the Amiga Drive. This device greatly enhances the power of the already unstoppable robot at the hands of Eureka, leaving Renton with a choice of whether he should join the Gekkostate or not. Despite his grandfather's emotional pleas, he leaves with them in order to live his dream life, not realizing that the reality of his situation is far different from the fantasy he has built up over the years (like running away and joining the circus).

There were a lot of clichés used in the show but I had to admit that I liked the first five episodes a whole lot. Coming in with liberal amounts of material from shows like Last Exile and Neon Genesis Evangelion (to name a few), Eureka Seven seemed to contain enough action balanced with a worthy premise to keep many anime fans happy. The episodes this time were 1) Blue Monday, 2) Blue Sky Fish, 3) Motion Blue, 4) Watermelon, and 5) Vivid Bit. While they were paced out in such a way that a lot more background will be needed to explore the specifics of the society Renton and company were living in, it immediately becomes apparent that Holland and some of his crew were formerly in the military working for a special projects division with Renton's father. After the event known as "Summer of Love" when the planet nearly ceased to be, Holland and company left the military, taking with them a variety of state secrets that the government wants back (including Eureka and the Nirvash). The other players in the cast have roles too although initially, Renton, Holland, Eureka, and a bitchy gal named Talho seem to be the leads of the show.

In the first five episodes, director Tomoki Kyoda managed to weave a compelling enough premise that I wanted to see more, a lot more, whether I was watching the original language version or the English language dub from Bandai's talented cast of performers. The mission of the Gekkostate was clearly opposed by the military and while unstated as yet, seemed to revolve around the tragedy that involved Androck Thorston saving the world, with the now-upgraded Nirvash at their disposal to accomplish their goals more readily. The science fiction technology thriller aspects aside, it was also a good fighting action series with some of the best battles I've watched in a long time and the underlying story of a boy growing up and finding his place in life seeming much more realistic than usual in anime. It wasn't original enough to rate higher than Recommended, but I strongly suspect future volumes will be even better once the rest of the character exposition s over with (allowing for the meat and potatoes of the story to really kick in). The "group with superior technology being hunted by the authorities" theme is common in anime but I enjoyed this DVD enough that I have high hopes for it in the future.

Picture: Eureka Seven V1 was presented in the original 1.33:1 ratio full frame color it was produced in for airing on television in Japan starting last year (yes, it's that new). It looked very appealing as eye candy with no obvious flaws to speak of and a lot of care taken to insure that the motion during the battle and flying sequences was handled to minimize the flaws so many older shows have displayed in recent years. There didn't appear to be a lot of corner cutting in general and the closer I looked at it, the better it looked to me.

Sound: The audio was presented with the usual choice of the 2.0 tracks: both the original Japanese track and the English language dub most of us have come to expect from anime. The two tracks seemed worlds apart in terms of the vocals, with the original track sounding somewhat more fluid and the dub having lots of liberties taken with the translation (I believe this was done to more accurately convey the sense of the material without devolving into the need for lots of explanations on cultural differences). In that sense, each offers up a different experience; both worth checking out. The special effects and music tracks seemed slightly louder and more pronounced on the dub, though the dynamic range was indistinguishable to my ears without a side by side comparison. None of the characters were immediately noticed as being wrong for their roles though, a step up from many contemporary releases (both original tracks and dubs alike).

Extras: The standard version of the DVD had an audio commentary in Japanese (with English subtitles thankfully) for episode one with the Japanese voice actresses playing Renton (Yuko Sanpei) and Eureka (Kaori Nazuka). They were kind of a trip as they rambled on endlessly in a stream of consciousness mode that only intermittently touched on the episode and/or series all that often. Still, they were fun to listen to and I hope we hear more of the cast in the future (albeit in a more focused commentary). There was also a fairly lengthy bit where the actresses were interviewed about the show, keeping much more on topic, but it contained spoilers so buyer beware (I'd suggest skipping it until you've seen more volumes of the show). There was also a textless opening and some trailers to enjoy, making the DVD a value given how rarely one with five full episodes gets any decent extras these days. I'd kind of like to see the dub cast have some extras too (I've said it before, I'm not a subtitle snob, even if I tend to prefer the original language) in the future but I'll take what I can get if there'll be 5 episodes per disc.

Final Thoughts: Eureka Seven V1 was a lot of fun and I suspect will also provide some political and environmental commentary over time given some of the references made in these five episodes. The story of Renton growing up to find out his place in a complex world will hopefully be balanced against the intrigue of the other themes, something I find likely given the content of the initial episodes. There were many questions I had after each episode and some of them were answered by the next episode or two but the bottom line is that there was a lot to appreciate in this show that serves as yet another jewel in the revitalizing of the Bandai Empire (the company tends to stick with limited genres of anime; thankfully thought provoking titles are on that list).

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVD Talk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, and Best of Anime 2005 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.