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No, the story isn't really good.

First we have the weird plot. A dude turning into a chair makes you wonder who came up with such an idea. Could it have worked? Sure, with good writing. Did it? Well, the writing sorta sucked. Skipping all that, the reason why this movie fell flat is its dryness. It's trying too hard to deliver an engaging, meaningful story but with such bad pacing and flat characters that the viewers forget to even care. The chair dude doesn't have anything interesting about him except for his looks, which we don't get to see anyway. He lacks depth and simply ... disappears in the middle of the movie. Are we sad about it though? Not really, because the connection between the two main characters isn't properly established. Suzume suddenly cares a lot about this random dude, but we don't get the development we got somewhat in Kimi no Na wa. And just after the story reaches a climax the pacing drops down to an endless seeming car ride with weird family drama thrown at us out of nowhere. The viewers don't care at all at this point because the family drama isn't built to a climax in itself. The aunt suddenly bursts out, and after the reveal of the big cat controlling her, the drama is left unaddressed forever.

I don't wanna waste my time going on and on; basically there are lots of plot holes like that, no development, lack of emotional depth and flatass characters... I ended up not caring about the story at all and the pacing ruined it further. The last 45 minutes were boring as hell. Everything is forced, from the romance to the family relationships tbh. Of course, there were things I've enjoyed, but that doesn't excuse anything.

The only reason this movie has a high rating in MAL is Tiktok hype and Makoto Shinkai. But if this movie was his debut movie, I doubt Shinkai would be this famous. There must be a standard Shinkai has to live up to if he wants to establish his name, and this movie is definitely not it. I want interesting characters and a strong plot. Don't care about random scenery animation, we've got Pinterest for that.

Eureka Seven in one word, is beautiful. Among many other anime out there, maybe it won't stand out too much at first glance. But as everyone knows: gems are hidden rarities which need some digging to face the surface. Or that's how I feel about all this. For me, after reading the synopsis and seeing Eureka's pretty mint hair (don't you just love it?) I decided I really wanted to watch this show, but never did I expect for it to be this special... Well, let me begin.

What I like the most about Eureka Seven is its mood. It's so calming, peaceful, bittersweet... Even in ... its darkest moments E7 has this soft feeling to it, this is what E7 is about. Sorrowful, very sorrowful and so beautiful. E7 feels like a soft embrace with all the emotions it's got packed, it's a story made to resonate with our souls... E7 has also this strong feeling of nostalgia in it, you'll feel nostalgic even right after you finish it. I think this has to do with how it "resonates with the soul" like I said, which links us to the characters.

Eureka seven's strength comes from its characters. They are all quite round, which is a thing we all sometimes long for in shonen-ish shows like this one. Their personalities are portrayed well by the things they go through, as you watch them respond, act and grow you start to understand them. They all face difficulties, decisions that must be made... They hesitate and change the way we do. What makes this so powerful is the emotional portrayal of these characters, you can see and feel how Eureka's in pain just because of her identity, how Holland is angry at himself and bursts this onto others while knowing he's being stupid... You get the idea. Character relationships are also greatly thought out, they aren't superficial but complex as they should be.

Eureka Seven has an overall nice pacing. You get a better understanding and dive into the story as things are revealed, and you grow more curious of the next episode. The world building is quite fun, we're talking about sky-surfing (reffing) humanoid robots here. The Coralians and the Vodarac were great as well, I love the philosophical stuff behind all of them. And the desperation disease was a nice concept overall, I love what they did with it in the end.

The story starts out with a cliched beginning. Your typical shonen character (with a mysterious past?) longing for adventure... But it goes way beyond that, as Renton discovers things aren't as fun or nice as he thought. Little by little the secrets get unveiled, the dark and the sorrowful come into surface. It has a lot of intense moments and has a powerful build up to its climaxes. The character arcs are satisfying to watch, especially Rentons rebellious escape from the Gekkostate.

Sound & Animation
The animation was good overall, might not be the best one out there but definitely fits well with the story. The colors had a soothing effect just like E7 itself.
The soundtracks and OP&EDs were the best they could be, absolutely enjoyed them to the fullest. The soundtrack was rich and impactful while the OP&EDs catchy and well fitting.
I started out with the subs (cause that's what I generally watch) but switched to the dubbed one later on. And I wasn't disappointed! Though the subbed one wasn't bad, I feel their voices fit better in the dubbed one. (Especially Renton)

Overall as you can see I enjoyed Eureka Seven a lot, it felt quite special. There aren't major problems with the show as I can spot them, some fillers were kind of out of the place like right before the major climax though. (Yet I laughed a lot at the misunderstandings in the "Renton wanting to be a dad" episode) This was my first review here on MAL so thanks for reading! I felt I needed to write a review particularly for Eureka Seven...

Normally my score: 9 +extra points for the enjoyment
Final score: 10 (9.5)