Coming in as a Eureka Seven fan, the moment the sparks flew after a whirlwind of emotion and the main mech exploded into action I knew this was going to feel familiar. For the rest of the 24 episodes, I was pleasantly surprised at how the formula Eureka Seven used was, at least partially, brought back in a new incarnation.

Sure, there are flashy mech fights, but the core of the story is, well, the story and the characters involved within. This combination can prove to be polarizing for some viewers. But for fans of stories like Eureka Seven and Evangelion, I believe there’s something to at least keep your attention. That is if you can manage to get past the massive abundance of sexual innuendoes thrown at you left and right for most of the first quarter or third of the story.

For me, this was the biggest problem with the entire story/show. It doesn’t take very long looking through my watched history to see that I’m fine with stories that have ecchi as a large component. It just seemed unnecessary to have entire series of lines borderline ripped from hentai early on. That’s not even getting into the entire method in which the pairs pilot the mechs. A female on all fours more or less with the controls mounted to their skin-tight suits on their hips while the pair. You can achieve a concept of pair pilots in mechs without resorting to a borderline BDSM dungeon for a cockpit. Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula was able to portray pair-based piloting for mechs quite well.

Thankfully there’s decent substance buried under the innuendos. You’re greeted with another take on an overharvested Earth resulting in domes. Much like Overman King Gainer, these domes are acting as mobile fortresses roaming the wastelands. Much like “Evangelion”, the pilots for each unit (the FranXX in this case) are children for reasons not explained early on. We’re introduced to the main character that’s being ostracized by most of his unit due to his failures in piloting the FranXX. Queue the, “stumble across a body of water with a pretty foreign girl bathing” and now we’ve met the female lead. Sure it’s not going to win a Pulitzer, but as far as tropes go it’s eased by the character archetype of Zero Two. Instead of us being greeted by a generic Tsundere or Moe character we’re greeted with a seemingly crazy enigma.

The enigmatic nature of Zero Two, along with her shady past, brings forth situations that force our male lead, along with the rest of the squad, into conflict, resolution, almost from the moment she’s introduced. For the main cast, coming from a lab-type environment upbringing, this catalyst ultimately leads to our cast of characters diving into emotions. Each event creates a domino effect leading others to discover and tackle emotions/feelings from previous events. Some emotions can be trivial but some deep ideas are being thrown around throughout too.

It’s hard to go into detail past that point without introducing spoilers. A lot of developments are fairly predictable, but that didn’t bother me. The important thing for me is that every story has a beginning, middle, and end. This anime didn’t disappoint me when it comes to that (it did deviate from the manga as often happens). It established the setting and characters well with limited information, expanded upon not just the leads but most of the cast, and finally provided an adequate resolution not wanting for more.

If you’re a Eureka Seven fan and always wanted a version with Anemone as the lead instead of Eureka then I can give two thumbs up without hesitation. The story is different enough to not leave you bored while still giving that focus on characters and their connections that Eureka Seven delivered. I’d give it a thumbs up regardless, just with a disclaimer to try and forgive/wade past the innuendos.