Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers movie review

On Thursday, Fathom Events held a one night only movie screening of Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep tight, Young Lovers (known in Japan as Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows), the theatrical reimagining/continuation of the TV series Eureka Seven and developed by the same animation company, Studio Bones.

The film follows the journey of Renton Thurston, a boy who is emotionally driven to be with his childhood friend Eureka, a girl who has a mysterious past reveiled later on, and their own mechanized/organic robot called the Nirvash. But the protagonists are frot with danger, when a rebel group calling themselves the Gekkostate, whisk them away to fight against the ongoing threat of the oppressive Earth Military and the Coralians, a race of interstellar beings that are re-shaping the world and killing humanity along with it (but in the movie they are refered to a different name, I think they were called Aikoes).

Off the bat, the movie has a completely different story than the TV series, the timeline takes place during 2054 on planet Earth when the Coralians were first invading and humanity was making their spaceship (I think its called the Megaroad) to escape the Earth. The film has all of the characters from the original TV series, but since the film leads you to believe that this Earth is in an alternate dimension, many of the characters you know and adore are slightly different from the TV series. All of the characters look the same, but have altered personalities.

Renton isn't bored with life anymore, instead he knows what he wants in life right at the beginning of the movie, and Eureka isn't an alienated girl living in a human world, instead she is a troubled girl with many issues confusing her actions to take. All of the members of the Gekkostate are present for the adventure but have a contasting background to their original one that gives some of the members a darker side to them and they get revealed as the main antagonist to Renton and Eureka.

The characters often known for siding with the Military faction on Earth, have many differences there background information too. Dewey Novak (a long time villian in the original series) is only mentioned that he got killed off in battle and noted that he was a pedofile (though if you know what he did in the TV series, it kind of makes sense *eww*). Anemone is not portrayed in the movie as a remorseless killer, instead she is an older woman who guides Renton and Eureka to their goal (So don't expect any fierce rematch battles). Dominic Sorel is shown in the beginning of the movie as Renton and Eureka's teacher when they were younger and inspired them to carrying on his dream. And remember the Council of Sages from the TV series? Well for some reason they get a bigger part in the movie, but now that I remember it, it wasn't that major.

And lastly we have Nirvash (the mechanized being that helps Renton and Eureka fight there enemies), most of the time in the movie, Nirvash is shown in a larve form that is very cute, but also it makes a wierd sound throughout the film that sounds like "Ma you" and that kinda threw me off on a laughing spree. And throughout the movie Nirvash was in its usual Type Zero form which was typical. But at the end of the movie, Nirvash tranforms into it's new Spec V form and kicks major ass.

One thing nitpicked at me during the film was the art style. Many of the scenes taking place outside had a weird brightened feel to it, almost like the picture was glaring, and many sections inside the Gekkostate's ship had weird bright textures to the hallways also; I wouldn't say it detracts from the experience of the film, it's just something I didn't like. But that was my only complaint, the rest of the movie was amazing.

All of the voice actors of the english dub from the TV series come back to star again in the movie and I was estatic about that, even though seeing the great contrast of the characters did throw me off a bit, I felt like all of the actors did fantastic in there roles. The animation looked great (but what else does anyone expect from Studio Bones), and the music was great too (it was composed by Naoki Sato who also did the music for the TV series as well). What I liked most about the film was it still incorporated many of the themes of the TV series, like how love conquers all and to never give up on what you hold dear. (Also the movie used certain scenes that act as a great nod to the TV series)

Overall the film had many of the same themes as the TV series, but don't go in expecting the same rehash of the story. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the TV series.

Spill score: High Matinee
My score: 4 out of 5