Eureka Seven AO - Episode 8

Given his nightmares, and the reality they represented, regarding the fate of Naru, it isn't really any surprise that Ao's first reaction upon awakening and discovering all this is to jump inside Nirvash and head off to track down the culprit.  It's a good job these IFOs have "emergency stop levers" to prevent him getting too far - I wonder if there's a fine for using those buttons illegitimately?

Although Ao looks all set to have the book thrown at him for his unprecedented behaviour, it seems that Generation Bleu's president is rather more forgiving of his error of judgement, letting him off with a verbal warning - it seems that his reference to the IFO pilot as "like his children" doesn't go down too well with Fleur, however.  There's no time to dissect this immediately however, as the appearance of another Secret leaves the crew racing off to tackle it.

Any thoughts of a prolonged battle against said Secret are soon scuppered however, with a call coming in to cancel the operation - it seems that America isn't too fussed about using Generation Bleu to tackle a Secret that's landed in the backyard of an "anti-American" country which they'd prefer to leave to rot, much to the disgust of Ao in particular.  As Ao runs off to cool his head, Fleur follows, and we get to learn a little bit about her - after mentioning earlier in the episode that she's the daughter of the company president, we get some exposition of why she hates him so.  Still, with news broadcasts from the area changing America's tune, Pied Piper finally get a proper call into action, and Fleur and Ao succeed in despatching the Secret before it does any real damage to the area.  Their relationship becomes much closer as a result, but it seems like Fleur's father is a smarter player in the political and propaganda game than he lets on.

If I have one concern after this week's Eureka Seven AO, it's that the series is beginning to lean a little too close to being "just another mecha anime", as it's increasingly failing to capture the charm of the original series.  Then again, at least it's continuing to be relatively competent in this regard - sure, there's nothing fresh here, and some of the drama surrounding Fleur is a little ludicrous, but its mecha action is pretty solid, the cast continue to be likeable and Elena is a surprisingly wonderful otaku insert character who provides all of the best comic relief.  I'm beginning to resign myself to that fact that this show won't live up to its pedigree (Eureka Seven movie notwithstanding, a small child could scrawl something more entertaining than that), but as long as I'm continuing to be entertaining be AO for the most part I'm happy to accept that and move on.