Eureka SeveN: Pocket Full of Rainbows

As a pretty big fan of the original Eureka Seven anime, I was more than a little curious to see what would be achieved by a movie version of the show, especially considering the assertions that it wouldn't simply be a stripped down cinematic version of said TV series. Well, now I know what this movie, subtitled Pocketful of Rainbows, brings to the table... To be honest though, I kind of wish I didn't.

The story begins with footage of Renton and Eureka together as children (a huge departure from the original series right there), together with their teacher Dominic (and another) and Renton's pet... "thing" named Nirvash (you get the idea by now - Same characters and names, hugely different story). Dominic shows them a wonderful flower that grows beneath the winter snow, and makes them promise to look after it together in the future. We learn that shortly after, Dominic dies as part of an experiment that comes to be known as "the Agony of Doha". It's this experiment which also effects "Holland" (not his real name in this series) and the rest of his crew, who are infact seventeen years old in adult bodies.


With Renton hired as part of Holland's crew, he soon finds himself reunited with Eureka, who had been snatched away some years previously to be experimented on by the government, and as the movie progresses so their destiny, or rather the way others would wish to shape it, becomes clear. The decisions that face them are set once again against the threat of the Image, with the powers that be looking to destroy them with a vast weapon that will most likely take any humans left on Earth with it.


In truth, the movies plot is far more complicated and layered than that - Entirely too complicated in fact to the point of tedium. It seems that in creating Pocket Full of Rainbows, the writers and producers have forgotten every single thing that Eureka Seven was about - Yes, Renton and Eureka's love story in the face of adversity was always the centrepiece, but the original anime was equally (if not more) memorable for its anti-establishment and in your face attitude, coupled with a plot that had room for action, character development and more light hearted moments without ever losing its sense of pacing or purpose.

In contrast, Pocket Full of Rainbows is an almost exclusively depressing affair, with death, injury and misery taking centre stage from the outset. Even Holland and his crew are obstensibly turned into selfish villains who will stop at nothing to meet their own greedy goals, leaving only the main pair of characters as anything approaching moral righteousness. Thankfully, this does give us the one positive of the movie - That both Eureka and Renton are far stronger characters here, that stand up for what they believe and aren't afraid to say what they think either. This is probably a necessity given the shorter running time and different focus of the movie, but it did add a little punch for me.

Unfortunately, that really is pretty much the only positive of an otherwise mediocre two hours of anime, which dwells almost entirely in the shadow of the far superior original series. Character designs aside, this movie is unrecognisable from that wonderful series, leaving us with a movie that gets bogged down in the minutiae of its own overly elaborate plot and leaves you with a strange feeling of abject disappointment by the time it finishes. It would probably be harsh to accuse Pocket Full of Rainbows of ruining the Eureka Seven franchise (it isn't quite that bad), but don't be fooled by the name into thinking that this is anything other than "just another run of the mill anime movie", because that's exactly what it is. Rather than "tasting the rainbow", I'm left with the taste of disappointment.