Original Story by BONES, manga by Jinsei Kataoka & Kazuma Kondou
Published by Bandai Entertainment
Rating: Young Adult (13+)

Son of a legendary hero and reluctant ward of his mechanic grandfather, 14-year-old Renton Thurston’s uneventful, albeit peaceful days are abruptly ended by the arrival of an odd (but decidedly cute) blue-haired girl named Eureka. Her arrival—and that of the giant robot Nirvash she abruptly crash lands in—delivers Renton into the care of the Gekkostate, a rogue resistance organization engaged in guerilla warfare with the planet’s military forces. Pursued for reasons he cannot understand and haunted by a past he knows little of, Renton forges a bond with Eureka that will test the limits of love—and indeed, may hold the secret that determines the fate of the world.

Boy lives monotonous life until wham! arrival of cute girl from mysterious origins in his backyard sends him on a Chosen One quest that will lead to life lessons, self-growth, assemblage of a motley crew, et cetera. It’s a testament both to the original source material and the skillful adaptation of Kataoka and Kondou that Eureka Seven manages to rise above the sum of its parts to become something more than the usual shonen boy fare—though the fact that the series takes its sweet time to do so may prove detrimental to single-volume samplers. Thankfully, Bandai Entertainment’s chockablock anthologies offer readers the story in two affordable three-volume chunks, plenty of time to power through the rockier open section and into the real meat of the story, where Eureka begins to hold its own. Nonetheless, signs of crunches and adaptation, however skillfully concealed, still rear their heads: common problems of an overlarge cast given breadth but not depth by a need for narrative speed and unexplained plot holes (why do we need those giant robots, again?) will resonate with those familiar with TV-to-page conversions.

That said, Eureka Seven manages to pack a lot of familiar BONES punches, even in manga format: well-timed mixing of humor, romance, and moral seriousness gives the series both thoughtfulness and comic value, while nods to hot button issues of military killings and ecodisaster give the philosophically minded plenty to chew on. Perhaps the most convincing argument to read Eureka Seven is that it’s slickly put together, with an eye towards a clear narrative arc and none of the dithering or tangential emptiness that is wont to creep in to other previously episodic adaptations. It’s engrossing—proof that a well thought-out narrative trajectory can trump even slightly stale archetypes or genre staples and create, ultimately, a series that is nothing short of enjoyable.

Kataoka Jinsei’s skillful turn at adapting the BONES original character designs to the page likewise makes Eureka Seven easy on the eyes to boot. Clean, uncluttered lines and a knowledge of when to pull back on tone and explosion make Eureka an eminently readable, effective piece of work even as color watercolors between chapters attest to Kataoka’s skill and more complex renderings. But beyond plot and tone, Eureka’s paneling is far and away the strongest element of the series, period. In several years as a reviewer, I am hard pressed to remember another artist as adept at transmitting the power of a moment or communicating the underlying emotion of scene through paneling as Kataoka: this is the stuff of required reading, cinematic in scale and breathtaking in presentation.

While the basic staples of Eureka Seven don’t break much new ground, a skillful adaptation and at times remarkable presentation go a long way towards ameliorating the problems lurking in the series. A low price point and anthology format further cement the case for at least giving the first anthology a spin—even those typically not of the shonen or robots camp will likely find something to interest them in this genre-spanning tale. Like any good story, Eureka spins a tightly woven, multi-faceted yarn—one that will linger in the mind and the eye long after the last page is turned.

Volumes one and two of Eureka Seven Manga Collection are available now.

Review copies provided by the publisher.