We continue to ride the trapar waves as Zigg & Aqua watch the classic 2005 mecha anime Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven, and discuss their thoughts and feelings on it as it celebrates its 20th birthday. Keep an eye out for this podcast between main installments of The GLORIO Chat – every two weeks or so – as we work our way through the show.

This installment we cover Episode 23 “Differencia” and Episode 24 “Paradise Lost”

RSS | Apple | Spotify | Amazon Music | Podbean | Stitcher | Youtube

Opening Music: “GEKKO-GO” – Eureka Seven Original Soundtrack vol.1
Closing Music: “Kibou no Sora” – Eureka Seven Original Soundtrack vol.1
Title font by Daeres

Show Notes

Intro: Unlike other robot shows Eureka Seven is about the characters

01:47 – A quick introduction to the legendary Ryuichi Sakamoto

06:35 – Episode 23 – “Differencia”

• Renton is in domestic bliss (except for bras)
• Renton suddenly has a passport in a new name
• Arriving in a tense city and the post 9/11 subtext of a work made in 2005
• The racial coding of the Vodarac and how it’s deliberately shifted this episode
• Once again Renton is well-meaning but does not understand the complexity of the circumstances
• The difficult moral questions raised by this plot
• Renton’s actions mean nobody is happy
• The difference in the way Ray & Charles treat Renton messing up
• Meanwhile Holland is shirking responsibility…again
• ‘I Made This’
• Metal Gear Hilda
• Another round in Talho vs Holland
• Holland as the non-Chosen One
• The Renton-Eureka-Hollan-Talho love tangle
• The narrative intertextuality between the Vodarac girl and Eureka
• It’s a great episode for Ray & Charles but there are troubling signs
• Zigg poses a hypothetical question

43:45 – Episode 24 – “Paradise Lost”

• Holland is LFOing under the influence
• Mischa tells him to stay in his lane
• Eureka’s Renton cosplay is somewhere between hilarious and heartbreaking
• The world’s fastest adoption track
• Speculation on Ray’s Etsy purchases
• Love for Renton vs Hatred for Holland
• What are Ray & Charles willing to sacrifice?
• Is giving Renton a choice a good thing or a bad thing?
• Charles is alarmingly cavalier in the face of missiles
•  Ray saving face and Charles playing the long game
• Nothing but praise for this arc and the complexity of the characters
• A quick look at the Gekkostate side of the episode

1:15:33 – We find ourselves at another point of transition in the story

1:16:33 – Final thoughts, wrapup, a shoutout to our much appreciated commenters, and plugs