News

Eureka Seven Gets Film Trilogy Set a Decade Earlier With New Hardfloor Song

Studio BONES announced on Friday that it will produce a new film trilogy for the Eureka Seven anime franchise titled Kōkyōshihen Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution (Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution). The first film will open in Japan this year, and the next two films will open in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

The films will follow The First Summer of Love phenomenon that occurred a decade before the first Eureka Seven series. The anime franchise thus far has hinted at, but never depicted in full, "the beginning of it all." The films will then have the same basic story as the first Eureka Seven series, but will have an original ending. The trilogy will have completely re-recorded lines, redone footage, and new scenes.

Text: 12 years after the emotional TV series
Text: A film trilogy launches
Voice: Hey, Renton, let's go.
Voice & Text: Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution 1
Text: Opens in 2017

The 51-second teaser trailer above for the first film previews "Acperience 7," a new track by German electronic music duo Hardfloor. The original series itself contained numerous references to Hardfloor (including four episodes named after the duo's "Acperience" tracks) as well as other electronic and house music artists. The teaser video will begin running in Japanese theaters on Saturday, and will begin airing alongside the Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans anime on Sunday.

Much of the original staff the series is returning for the project, including chief director Tomoki Kyoda, scriptwriter Dai Sato, character designer Kenichi Yoshida, mechanical designer Shōji Kawamori, conceptual designer Kazutaka Miyatake, and designers Shingo Takeba, Yutaka Izubuchi, and Shigeto Koyama.

Other returning staff members include character animation director Ayumi Kurashima, special effects director Yasushi Muraki; mechanical animation director Shingo Abe; main animators Hideki Kakita, Shuichi Kaneko, and Ken Ootsuka; background director Kazuo Nagai; color styling Nobuko Mizuta; director of photography Shunya Kimura; sound director Kazuhiro Wakabayashi; and composer Naoki Satō.

New staff members include designer Masatsugu Saitō; character animation director Shigeru Fujita; main animators Kenta Yokoya, Nobuaki Nagano, Shiori Kudo; background direction assistant Yūshi Honjō; and editor Kumiko Sakamoto. (Fujita, Yokoya, Nagano, and Kudo did work on the EUREKA SEVEN AO sequel.)

Studio BONES' original anime series Eureka Seven debuted in 2005. The series centered on Renton Thurston, the son of a dead hero. Renton lives a boring life in the village of Bellforest, which is interrupted when Eureka, the pilot of a unique robot known as the Nirvash, crashes into his home. Hounded by the United Federation military, Renton helps Eureka get her robot up and running again, and joins her resistance group, the countercultural underground group Gekkōstate.

The franchise also received a 2009 anime film titled Eureka Seven - good night, sleep tight, young lovers, which told a different story with the same characters. Bandai Entertainment released both the original Eureka Seven series and the 2009 anime film in North America. Funimation re-released the series and film on Blu-ray Disc and DVD in 2014.

The series received a sequel titled EUREKA SEVEN AO in 2012, which also featured the return of many of the original staff members. Funimation streamed the series as it aired, and released it on Blu-ray Disc and DVD in 2013. The series is a sequel to the 2005 Eureka Seven anime series. Pachinko game maker Sammy streamed an extra episode of EUREKA SEVEN AO in four parts in January and February.

Sources: Comic Natalie, Animate Times, MoCa News