Eureka Seven AO - Episode 17

In the wake of Generation Bleu's audacious attempt to rid the world of its plethora of Secrets, the appearance of the so-called "Quartz Gun" might just have changed the world... quite literally.

Despite nobody quite believing Ao's insistence that Generation Bleu once housed a team of pilot's known as Goldilocks, a number of individuals are beginning to realise that something odd is going on with the world which causes them to suspect that somewhere along the line time itself has been altered.  This all leads to back to Johansson's book claiming just this courtesy of Truth's story, and lo and behold with a little digging Ao manages to track down Team Goldilock's members, all of whom have walked a very different path rather than becoming IFO pilots due to the lack of Scub Coral in Norway.

Elsewhere, we have Naru saving a man from death before running amok amidst some Scub Coral, while Elena and Fleur have to deal with an even more serious threat - the possibility of the Team Pied Piper anime series being cancelled (yes, Eureka Seven has suddenly become that meta).  The reason for this possible cancellation is simple enough - in the wake of the revelations that Generation Bleu were stockpiling Quartz, and with the captured Secret and its claims being taken as literal gospel by many, it seems as if our Scub-bursting heroes have very quickly turned from heroes to villains.  All of this comes to a head as Pied Piper look to extract Quartz from a Scub Burst in the middle of the ocean, only to find them staring down the barrels of some UN-owned guns.  This probably wasn't the most politically expedient moment for the Quartz Gun to gain a mind of its own and demand to be shot, even flying into the hands of Nirvash to do so; although Ao learns of the possibilities inherent within that gun his willingness to shoot it wavers as he finds himself caught in the midst of a tug-o-war for his allegiance.

If Eureka Seven AO hasn't fried your brain to a greater or lesser extent by this juncture, then I applaud you - it has bitten off so many things at this point (and we can now add alternate worlds to that list if it wasn't already on there in some shape or form), yet it somehow manages to be chewing them all to a greater or lesser extent without vomiting the whole lot up into a disgusting heap.  I still worry that there are simply too many things in flight at one time for the series to ultimate resolve in a satisfactory fashion, but that aside it continues to be a fascinating mess of idea, plot points and characters that works better than it probably should that has dragged my enthusiasm for it along rather impressively up to this point.