Bandai outlines Eureka Seven anime/PS2 project

Bandai has teamed up with Bones animation studio and Hakuhoudou DY Media Partners to launch a new anime series and PlayStation 2 game pairing called Eureka Seven. The anime series will debut on Japanese television this 17th April and run for a total of 50 episodes, while the game is due out in the summer.

The similarity to the approach taken by Square Enix with its hugely successful Fullmetal Alchemist series (and revisited for Code Age), which saw it emerge as a manga series before becoming a game, is surely not coincidental.

The Eureka Seven anime will tell the story of a 14 year-old named Renton who lives with his mechanic grandfather, and whose life is thrown somewhat off-kilter when a mech called Nirvash crashes into his house one day and a young girl called Eureka pops up asking for help to repair it. Shortly after, we're told, the military mechs get involved.

Although the game and the anime will share settings and at least one important character, otherwise they're said to be quite different - linked only by the fact they share the same writing and production teams.

Bandai certainly seems keen to get behind Eureka Seven. In addition to the anime and game, it's planning to start a Eureka Seven manga series this month, and aims to release the pilot episode of the anime on its website soon - with each new episode made available a week after its Japanese air-date.

If you can get past the language barrier, you can find out more here.