Eureka Seven AO - Episode 21

Now that Japan have arrived to save the world (well, to save Generation Bleu at least), the resultant confusion means unfamiliar circumstances for a not inconsiderable portion of the show's cast.

While Ao has to get used to working alongside both Japanese forces and Secrets, Fleur has an even bigger task to get to grips with as she becomes the new president of Generation Bleu with all that entails.  Elsewhere, Elena is taking on life amongst the US forces in her own inimitable manner, and Naru makes an unlikely comrade of the former Team Harlequin crew, as the question as to who are the good guys and bad guys in this series continues to rage on  -should we be rooting for the Scub or the Secrets?

It's Elena that really gets the focus for the latter half of this episode however, as she continues to pursue the opportunity for her to return to her own world - the trouble is, when Eureka makes an ethereal appearance before her, she hears an uncomfortable truth... she's already on her own home world, but simply in the wrong time.  Put simply, this isn't what Elena wants to hear at all, leaving her to continue her quest despite the evidence mounting to suggest that it's entirely fruitless.  With the new-look Generation Bleu joining the Secrets in a raid against a new Scub burst, former colleagues quickly come to blows, meaning that it's decision time for Elena - can she accept the truth before Truth gets in the way?

Inevitably, and as per the last few episodes in particular, Eureka Seven AO's complexities really show themselves at this stage in the series - when you have to spend half an episode exploring all of the changes in the show's politics and what it means for its characters, you know you're in pretty deep.  Still, in spite of this I'm sufficiently invested in the show's world to be able to soak this up with the requisite degree of fascination, and the focus on Elena's predicament was both much needed and welcome even it was a little anti-climatic (albeit joyfully meta in its cliched ending of said sub-plot).  My biggest concern right now is how the series is going to finish - it somehow feels like we're still so far away from a real resolution to everything that Eureka Seven AO needs to wrap up, which could make for some rip-roaring instalments in the weeks ahead; then again, it could mean that the show ends up as a train wreck.