アオ・フカイ (Ao Fukai) |
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Appearances: | |
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First Appearance |
AO Episode 1 |
Last Appearance |
AO Episode 24 |
Voiced by: | |
Japanese |
Junko Takeuchi (child, teen) |
English | |
Biological Information | |
Age |
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Race |
Human-Coralian hybrid |
Physical description | |
Gender |
Male |
Height |
155 cm |
Hair color | |
Eye color | |
Personal Information | |
Family |
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Allies | |
Enemies |
Truth (formerly) |
Ao Fukai (フカイ・アオ Fukai Ao), or more appropriately Ao Thurston (アオ・サーストン Ao Thurston), pronounced as "aʊ", is the protagonist of Eureka Seven: AO.
He is also the son of Renton Thurston and Eureka, the younger brother of Amber Thurston, the adoptive younger brother of Maurice, Maeter, and Linck, the grandson of Adroc Thurston and Blau Thurston, and the great-grandson of Axel Thurston and Rose Thurston.
In addition to being Renton's and Eureka's son, Amber's younger brother, and Maurice's, Maeter's and Linck's adoptive younger brother, he is also the nephew of Diane Thurston, and the great-nephew of Yucatan Iglasias.
Character[]
Ao is the son of Renton Thurston and Eureka. His mother one day fell from a clear sky into a bay in Iwato Jima, before giving birth to Ao sometime later. After Eureka was handed over to the American Armed Forces ten years ago, as the islanders believe her and Ao's presence angered their local deity the "Sea Colossus" with the appearance of Scub Coral, Ao ended up in the care of his mother's only friend, Dr. Toshio Fukai. Ao discovers the RA272 Nirvash Mark One after he unintentionally retrieves his mother's bracelet from Gazelle who was smuggling it for the Japanese Army, and then Gazelle gets him to pilot the IFO, both named the Nirvash by Eureka and created by Renton. Ostracized by the villagers and targeted by the armies of several countries, Ao decides to join Team Pied Piper of Generation Bleu, hoping to find her.
At birth, Renton and Eureka named their son Ao Thurston. He was later renamed Ao Fukai by his adopted grandfather after his mother's disappearance.
Appearance[]
Ao has a pale complexion and purple eyes with stained red rings that he inherited from his mother, and brown hair that he inherited from his father. From his father, Ao inherited the shape of Renton's face and eyes, and he looks almost identical to his father. Although his natural hair color is brown, it later turns turquoise, like his mother's hair color, permanently, when he first awakens the Nirvash Mark I, possibly due to it mistaking Ao for his mother due to his Coralian heritage. His outfit consists of a blue hoodie with a black shirt underneath, dark half-cut pants with black knee-length stretch pants underneath, and blue shoes. As a member of Generation Bleu, he wears the standard uniform that consists of a blue and white shirt with the company's blue triangle symbol, a yellow tie, blue pants that reach his knees, and black shoes along with white sweatbands around his wrists. He wears a space suit that is white and blue whenever he pilots Nirvash in battle.
By the end of Lord Don't Slow Me Down (One More Time), Ao's hair which was originally short has grown so long it completely covers his ears.
Genetic makeup[]
It is revealed that Ao has a slightly different genetic makeup than a normal person due to being a Human-Coralian hybrid, but only that he sees things slightly in the infrared range is known, such as being able to see the movements of Trapar. This becomes a setback for him while in space because there is little to no Trapar there. The incidents in episode 11 reveal that Ao belongs to a class of people that can be influenced by trapar. This class consists of people that are born near a Scub Burst, wherein Generation Bleu concluded that their brain structure have been altered by the Scub. The exceptions to this are Ao and Elena, who were not born near a Scub Burst.[1] In episode 12, it is revealed that Ao can apparently see trapar, and calls it the "path of the wind".[2]
Personality[]
Ao is a brave, modest, and empathetic boy who is willing to do anything to protect his friends and family. Ao seems to have inherited traits from both of his parents. Like his father, he is upfront and determined, and his unwillingness to give up; also like his father, Ao is shy around girls, but to lesser extent than Renton had been. Unlike his father, Ao is never obsessed with girls and instantly develops a good relationship with all of his crew mates. According to Eureka, Ao is just as honest as Renton is. Like his mother, he is blunt but a bit weary around certain people and suffers from identity crisis, although to less extent than Eureka did. Unlike his mother, Ao is modest and has always treats his friends nicely, especially Naru and Fleur. He is very curious; despite believing his father abandoned him and his mother, Ao increasingly becomes interested in learning more about his father and the rest of his biological family, craving to know the truth about his origins.
Towards his family and friends, he tends to be very mature, caring and protective. In difficult situations, he presses others and becomes their voice of reason in order to prevent them from running away from their hardships or feeling down. Generally, when under attack or in dangerous times, he urges the others to help out in any way they can no matter how bad the odds are against them. Despite learning he is a Human-Coralian hybrid and suffered years of ostracism, Ao doesn't care about the value of his identity because, as he says, no matter who his parents are or if it is his destiny to fight Truth and the Secrets as their natural enemy, he will continue to fight for the sake of others.
During his early days with Generation Bleu, he tended to engage in combat without fully understanding the risks of battling, and he eventually starts to think about the events around him before coming up with a rational solution. He is very intelligent for his age, but always finds himself at the center of attention due to his unusual appearance. He is shown to be reckless; seen when the Nirvash's arm broke and he used it to smash the Secret. He also has a fierce temper and sometimes is quick to act out by fighting, especially against Gazelle. Ao loves his mother, Eureka, dearly and keep his memories of her from his childhood close to his heart.
Ao spent much of his life angry at his father, Renton, for allegedly abandoning him and his mother, but upon learning he had been wrong, he risked his life to save his parents without making any more mention of his past feelings for his father. After this, he develops great respect and affection for his father, happy to know that he was always loved by his father. Despite growing up without either of his parents in his life until he was 13, he turned out to be a pretty grateful kid, who was willing to repay them for giving him life and preserving it by saving his mother from her doomed fate and reuniting her with his father, despite knowing he may never see them ever again.
History[]
Background[]
Ao was born to Renton and Eureka Thurston as their second child on June 27, 2012 (presumably 12021 in his parents' world). He was born at some period after their first child, Amber, died 3 months after birth. When Eureka was pregnant with Amber, she and Renton were warned that levels of high trapar concentrations would affect their biological children that might prove lethal, but they chose to carry the pregnancy to term and keep their child. Soon afterwards, they were trying to use the Gekko to solve the disappearances of some of the Scub Coral, which caused a Scub Burst and took Eureka to the year 2025 of an alternate universe, where she meet 13-year-old Ao. They instantly bonded, but Ao was aware that she was his mother while Eureka didn't know. She learned that he was her son after he sent her back to her world, and told Renton that they would have a son at some point following their daughter's birth. Shortly after Amber's death, Renton and Eureka were told to not have anymore children because of the incompatibility of human and Coralian cells in high trapar levels. Although despaired by their loss, they conceived Ao some time after Amber's death, and made plans to raise him in a world with no Scub Coral and trapar, and chose the world where Eureka first met Ao due to it's low level of trapar. They initially planned to keep Ao and raise him in the alternate world as a family. But as they traveled to the future of Ao's world, they came into a conflict with the Secrets, and his father decided to send his mother (then seven months pregnant with Ao) to the year 2012, where the environment would enable Ao to survive. He was born on the island of Okinawa, and despite being shunned by the villagers for the strange origin of Eureka, he was well-loved by his mother. Three years after his birth, his mother was taken by the United States Government, never to be seen again. He was placed in the custody of his mother's only friend, Toshio Fukai, who adopts the boy as his grandson and he was renamed "Ao Fukai". His hair was brown like Renton's, but due being the son of a blue-haired woman who fell from the sky, this doesn't avoid to rouse suspicion from the villagers who shunned his mother, despite her attempts to prevent her son from enduring backlash and hatred by dying her hair brown. That resentment was later passed on towards Ao following Eureka's disappearance, who couldn't understand why he was hated so much for being a "foreigner". It turns out that Eureka hoped to give him a normal life, if possible due to the circumstances of their living situation, and never told him about his human-Coralian heritage. It is revealed that Ao has been able to drive an FP since the age of 3, likely due to inheriting his parents' piloting skills.
Story[]
When Eureka Seven: AO begins, Ao is a 12-year-old boy who is about to enter into middle school, but he is an orphan and is hated by a majority of the villagers of Iwato Ito island. He lives with his adopted grandfather and spends most of his time flying his FP and swimming in the ocean, which he says is his favorite way of escaping from his problems. Due to that no one has seen or heard from his mother since the Scub Burst incident ten years prior, Ao initially believes that his mother died in the Scub Burst, and he thinks that his father abandoned him and his mother before he was born. As a result, Ao hated his father and always said that if he were to meet him, he would punch him. Ao's only true friend is Naru Arata, who is his neighbor and been friends with him since he was 3-years-old even though her father despises him and his mother. In April of 2025, Ao is flying his FP when Naru tells him to help her rescue Noah from the woods because she saw a vision of a fire occurring. Ao has always believed that Naru exaggerates her so-called prophecies but he has deep concern for her due to her weak body.After dropping her off, Ao runs into Gazelle and his friends, who are trying to smuggle materials into the Japanese military, and Ao finds a bracelet, which he decides to take with him and give it to Naru. Then, they witness a Scub Burst, and Ao rushes to Naru to check on her. On their way home, they witness another Scub Burst and a mysterious black object coming out of the light. Although he is not afraid of it, Ao has a feeling that something sad is about to happen. The next morning, Ao is running late for his first day at school, when he sees a Scub Coral appear, and then Secret appears and starts causing chaos. Ao barely escapes from it all, but is left angry and despaired when he cant contact Naru and thinks she is injured. Suddenly, the bracelet starts to glow and he sees the words "Eureka" and "Ao", causing him to remember his mother, Eureka, wearing the same bracelet. Gazelle demands for the bracelet back but Ao refuses to return it, causing him to be taken by Gazelle's team and Ao finds an IFO that they were also trying to smuggle into the Japanese military. Although Ao is confused on what to do, he decides to fly the IFO, but his inexperience causes him to crash into the ocean during his battle with the Secret. Ao sees 'Welcome Home Eureka" on the screen, and remembering his mother's name causes his natural brown hair to turn blue. He is able to successfully launch the IFO and battle against the Secret, and defeats it with a combination of ease and recklessness by using its' own arm to smash the Secret. Despite heroic actions, the villagers blame Ao for the Secret appearing and start searching for him to kick him off of the island. Seeing his now blue hair, Ao remembers that his mother had the same hair color. Naru comforts him as he calls himself a "freak" for having blue hair, and he shows her the IFO. Ao is caught by her father and his friends as he tries to get back home, and they assault him for bringing misfortune to their island and demand for him to leave, which Ao refuses. Gazelle rescues him and berates the men for blaming everything on Ao, who despite the hatred everyone feels for him, still decides to protect the island because he loves it as his home. He keeps a photo of him with his mother when he was a baby with him and remembers when she showed him the bracelet during his childhood and told him that it would help Nirvash remember him. Because of this, Ao learns that the IFO is named Nirvash and it has been waiting for him to become its' next pilot in her absence. When another Secret appears, Ao again defeats it with the Nirvash, but he is left exhausted and passes out, and later wakes up with Fleur Blanc next to him. She takes him to Naru and Ivica, who explains the circumstances surrounding Eureka's disappearance and that he believes that Ao was meant to be the true pilot of the Nirvash, which he says is really called the Nirvash mark I. He invites Ao to join Generation Bleu due to his excellent piloting skills and being Eureka's son. Having been ostracized by the villagers his whole life, Ao agrees because he suspects that Eureka may still be alive and he wants to find her no matter what. After saying farewell to Naru and receiving Noah from her, he boards the Triton with Fleur and Ivica.
Although inexperienced, Ao quickly becomes a skilled pilot, almost surpassing the skills of his parents when they were his age. Upon joining Generation Bleu, Ao is assigned to Team Pied Piper, seeing it as an opportunity to find any information on the whereabouts of his mother, and Fleur and Elena Peoples become his teammates. Fleur constantly criticized him for his inexperience and tendency to rush into action without thinking things through first, but Elena is more friendly towards him but reveals to him that she harbors malice towards his mother because Eureka transported her to their current timeline against her will. Ao eventually wins Fleur's respect after they discover a mutual dislike towards her father. Ao also develops a strong friendship with Ivica, who takes on a father figure to the crew, and fellow members of Generation Bleu, such as Chloe, whom he treats as a younger sister, and Rebekah, who takes on a motherly figure to him. Although he quickly becomes disliked and untrustworthy by the government (due to him being Eureka's son), he persists with his goal to reunite with his mother, and eventually becomes one of the best pilots of the crew. The crew warns him that due to Eureka's mysterious origins and her role in the Okinawa Scub Burst incident, Ao is target for the military, and therefore, an enemy. Because of this, Ao decides to bring peace to the world by helping the human population understand more about the Scub Coral and secrets, and to stop anymore chaos the two species bring. However, Ao encounters a humanoid Secret named Truth, who becomes his main enemy because Truth wishes to take possession of the Nirvash Mark I and he personally despises Eureka. Because Ao is her son, Truth is determined to kill Ao as part of his revenge against Eureka, putting Ao in a difficult situation. Ivica tells him that Generation Bleu was deeply involved in investing how Eureka came to their world and learned that she did so via through a Scub Burst. In satellite footage from April of 2012, two months before Ao's birth, he sees the Nirvash appear from a pillar of light and eject Eureka from it, causing her to crash into the Okinawa island bay. Learning that Eureka came from another world and is not human, Ao's crew mates tease him in play for being the son of an "alien". Although, Ao is deeply affected by this due to how the villagers rejected him and his mother.
Soon after, a Scub Coral appears and is about to enter earth's atmosphere. Ao tries going inside to remove the Quartz but is trapped, and he is rescued by the original Nirvash TypeZERO. The Scub Coral breaks apart and the Gekko appears from inside. The TypeZERO teaches Ao to ride the ship like a board as they crash into the ocean, and Ao is shocked to see that his mother is the pilot. However, he learns that she is from the past, due to that she is still pregnant, and doesn't recognize him. While they wait for Generation Bleu to pick them up, Ao bonded with his mother and had a conversation with her about the Scub Coral and her past. Ao learns that she comes from another world where there are more Scub Coral and it co-exists with the humans. Asking questions about the father of her unborn baby, he also learns that his parents have known each other since they were teenagers and were crew-mates on the Gekko. Eureka described Renton as "immature", "a crybaby", and "a bit worthless" when they first met but said she still loved everything about him, making Ao suspect that his father did care about him and Eureka. She further explains that they were trying to solve the disappearance of the Scub Corals by using the Gekko. But in the process, a Scub Burst occurred, taking her and the ship with it. She also points out that he flying a Nirvash IFO that is similar to the one Renton is currently building. Ivica and Generation Bleu arrive, but Ivica is surprised to see Eureka, who doesn't recognize him. Ao secretly tells him that he suspects that he is the baby she is carrying, and Ivica advises him that if that is true, they need to return her to her world. Gazelle, however, wants to turn her in to the Japanese military for his benefit, causing Ao to attack him in a heated rage. He encounters Truth, but is soon reunited with his mother, who is in holographic form and asks him to return her to Renton before something terrible happen. She also tells him that the Secrets are not his true enemies, confusing him. He rescues Eureka before she is killed by Truth, and in their respective Nirvashs, take off to the nearest pillar of light. Ao again saves her after the TypeZERO ejects her to fight Truth, and once cleared from the Secrets, he helps her return to her time, but not before asking for her to give birth to a healthy boy. To his shock, she reveals that she is actually carrying a girl, and Ao sees a hazy destroyed form of Nirvash in the light before she disappears. The next day, Ao returns home to find any information about his older sister and reveals to Toshio that he always believed his father abandoned him and his mother. Toshio, however, reveals that Eureka told him, while she was giving birth to Ao, that his father is actually fighting for the lives of Ao and his mother. Ao feels a little guilty for hating his father, but is still too confused to understand why his father is not in his life. Ao learns that Naru is nearby on the island and goes to see her, even though he tries to make it seem it was out of curiosity. Naru reveals to him that she has developed a mental connection with the Scub Coral and his mother is a Coralian, which was born from the Scub Coral to learn more about the humans. Ao is stunned to learn that he is human-Coralian hybrid and this explains why he is so different from everyone. She asks him to protect the Scub Coral, but Ao is reluctant due to him not knowing anything. He is further shocked that she is supporting Truth and insists that he is a good person who wants to help the humans understand the Scub Coral, but Ao knows she is being manipulated and this puts a strain on their friendship. He continues with his goal to find out more about his mother, and with the help of Elena, Ao learns that the cause of his mother's disappearance is due to her trying to materialize with the Quartz, causing her to become limbo between different worlds, which explains her holographic form.
In the final episodes, Ao discovers that the planet is threatened by the war between the Secrets and Scub Coral, mainly due to the severity of the Scub Bursts. Naru continually tries to get Ao to help her, even appearing in a dream and kissing him. Due to Naru siding with Truth and Eureka's claim that the Secrets are not enemies, Ao is forced to choose between following the governments' order to destroy them with the risk of killing civilians, even though he believes taking lives is wrong. Truth is revealed to be a Secret, and his uncontrollable rage subsequently leads to a rampage on the group. Ao obtains a new weapon, the Quartz Gun, after gathering significant amount of Quartz from the Scub Coral to destroy the Secrets. But he learns that activating the gun on its' intended target will change history, and only he realizes this. After his first shot changes the histories of Chloe and her sisters that they were never members of the Generation Bleu, Ao decides to never use the gun again out of fear of the people dearest to him losing their memories of him and him never getting the chance to find his mother. During a battle against Truth, Ao is visited by his holographic mother and he tells her about the Quartz Gun, and she says that it is the weapon his father has been searching for in order to save them and she wants him to stop the Scub Coral before its too late. This hardens his resolve to never use the gun again after realizing it could do more damage than good. Upon realizing that Truth's current form as a Secret can kill people infected by the Scub Corals, Ao decides to fight against Truth without using the gun, but Truth manages to get a hold of it and fires it upon himself, seemingly erasing his existence and making Naru his new enemy. Naru and Ao fight against each other after she claims he tried to kill her (when in fact he just defeated Truth and history was changed a second time) and he defeats her by shooting her down, but he rushes to save her and feels guilty for what he did.
While visiting Naru in the hospital, Ao witnesses Renton's Nirvash Neo emerging from the pillar of light and thinking he is another enemy, Ao rushes to fight him. Renton destroys a large Scub plant in one shot, and the Scub is absorbed by the Quartz Gun. Renton uses the security code on Ao's Nirvash and demands to know where Eureka is, however, he notices that Ao has Coralian eyes and realizes that the boy is his son. The Pied Piper team tell Ao that Eureka has appeared on the Triton, and after hearing Ao call her "Mom", he orders Ao to take him to her. They are reunited, but she is holographic form, and she tells Renton that Ao is just like him and has what he wants, Ao realizes that Renton is his father. After getting over the initial surprise, Ao still wanted to punch his father, but is held back by Ivica. Ao learns from his father that the Scub Coral found a way to travel between universes in order to avoid the Limit of Questions, and used the Quartz to achieve this. It is believed that Eureka turned herself into Quartz, and because she wished to be teleported to a different time and place, she was unable to materialize at a particular destination. The only way to change history is to use the Quartz Gun, but Ao says that there is only one shot left.
On the island of Okinawa, Ao asks his father what he was doing while Eureka was missing for 10 years, and Renton says that for him she has been gone for a short time. Father and son start to play soccer as Renton goes on to explain that he and Eureka used the Gekko to travel to Ao's world after learning that the Scub Coral had travelled into the world's past in order to evade the Secrets. But the Secrets pursued the scubs through their holes in time, causing the Scub Bursts. Due to this, mankind would become extinct in the future, and eventually, the Secrets considered him and Eureka as enemies and attacked them while she was pregnant with Ao. To save her and their unborn child, he forced her to enter the pillar of light to be teleported to Ao's world, while he stayed behind and killed all the Secrets and he didn't want her to kill her own kind. Ao asks Renton why he's trying so hard to destroy the Scub Coral, to which Renton responds that it's his responsibility as an adult; they had once fought to protect the Scub and inadvertently caused the Scub Bursts to happen. Renton quickly leaves and tells Ao that he's going back to the future, taking the Nirvash and Quartz Gun with him. Before Ao can go after him, Toshio pulls him aside to tell him something. Afterwards, Ao still decides to stop his father from destroying the Scub Coral because he still thinks Renton is wrong.
Ao chases after his father, who apologizes to the boy and tells him that he will use the gun to destroy the Scub Coral, and erase them from all the timelines. Ao angrily tells him that there is only one shot left and is worried that his mother will disappear due to her state of limbo between worlds. Renton tells Ao that she is prepared for the outcome, and father and son begin to battle each other with their own Nirvash. Truth, who became an archetype of the Nirvash, speaks with Ao. Renton orders Ao to get out of the Nirvash because it shouldn't have an archetype. Ao fires at his father to steal the Quartz Gun from him, and confesses that Toshio told him about his sister. According to Toshio, Ao's older sister, Amber, died at three months of age because the high trapar density environment caused the human and Coralian cells to reject each other and she turned to stone. Renton and Eureka wanted their second child to be raised in a world with less trapar, and destroyed any Scub Coral that did exist in his world in order to protect him. Ao is happy and touched of the sacrifice his father made in order to keep him alive, but tells him it still isn't right because Naru is infected by Scub, and is worried that she and others infected will disappear, which doesn't right the wrong. He takes the Quartz gun and heads to the pillar of light to save his mother. His comrades from Generation Bleu call out to him, and he begins to say something to Fleur but is cut off as he enters the pillar of light. He travels 10 years into the past, when Eureka disappeared. They happily reunite, and when Renton arrives, Ao tells his mother to go with his father and he will send them home while he will deal with the Secrets alone because he blames himself for making his parents destroying the Scubs and sacrificing so much to protect him. Eureka refuses to part with him and insists that all of the events that have happened are her and Renton's fault due to their choice to fall in love and have children.. Using the Quartz gun, Ao absorbs all the quartz and fires it at the Secrets in the sky, destroying them and erasing them from all timelines. As he watches his parents return to their time, Ao sees a different Earth, one in balance with Coral and the moon with his parents' names carved into it, much to his embarrassment and amazement.
During the next two years, Ao travels in between worlds in the Nirvash. Truth informs him that he has arrived in the year 2027; however, due to him changing history three times, no one will likely remember him and he will likely be separated from his parents forever. Ao accepts the possible changes, saying that him being forgotten by everyone is nothing compared to what his mother went through. Using his ref board, Ao bids farewell to Nirvash and Truth, promising to meet with them again, before heading towards Earth to resume his life.
In the final OVA version, Ao is shown time-leaping in the broken Nirvash. Traveling through multiple eras in changing people's lives for the better. He informs Ellen to rescue the real Elena in the next 40 years as she did while becoming a military captain in the process. Ao also interjects Fleur's fate in not suffering from her mother's accident (with Fleur developing an interest in him). In the present, Generation Bleu traces Ao's next arrival. Determined to save him from his endless time-traveling, Fleur and Elena fire a load of Quartz at Ao's Nirvash stabilizing its existence. As Nirvash gains a new transformation, Ao lands on a nearby beach reuniting with Fleur and meeting Elena, overjoyed, while Nirvash departs to another dimension.
Relationships[]
Eureka Thurston[]
Eureka is Ao's mother and the heroine from Eureka Seven. Ao loved his mother so much when he was a toddler and missed her a lot when she left. When he met her past self, he was surprised to see her but was sad when he heard she was from the past and was shocked to find out she was pregnant with a girl, leading him to realize that he had an older sister. Although the purpose of him joining the Generation Bleu was to find her, he loved her so much that he was willing to save her from her fate and have her reunited with her husband, and send them back to their world, despite knowing he might never see her again. Ao later told Truth that he did this because his mother had suffered enough hardships, which were coming to a different world to give birth to him alone and fought her own kind to protect him. He also wanted to return the happiness she had been denied with his father for a long time.
Renton Thurston[]
Renton is Ao's father and the hero from Eureka Seven. Ao had always appeared to have some animosity towards Renton when he was a kid because he thought he was a deadbeat father who left him and Eureka. After hearing the truth from Eureka's past self and his guardian telling him that Renton was fighting for them, his hatred towards him lightened, but he still wanted to punch him when they first met. Ao later finds out that Renton, upon learning that high trapar concentrations would make it dangerous for a Human-Coralian hybrid, sent Eureka to a different world in order for Ao to be born and raised in a safe atmosphere, even if it meant risking his own life and happiness to ensure that Ao lived, but also because of the deep guilt he felt for not being able to save his late daughter. Saddened by those sacrifices his father made to keep him alive, Ao decided to save Eureka and reunite her with Renton, and sent them to their world and now loves his father. As a child, Ao looked almost identical to Renton and still bears a strong resemblance to him.
Naru Arata[]
Naru is Ao's childhood friend and she is one of two people on the island who don't see Ao as an alien or monster. Although her father despises Ao and blames him for all of the island's misfortune, Naru has a strong bond with Ao, and often tries to keep him in line. Ao cares deeply for her, to the point where his crew mates (namely Fleur and Elena) tease him for being romantically interested her, although both Ao and Naru maintain they are just friends.
His concern for her grows when she is revealed to be a coral carrier, which damages her health. She later join forces with Truth to bring a new era where people can trust the Coral then people would like Ao. However, after she realizes Truth has deceived her and he was killed by the Quartz Gun, Naru is hospitalized. It is unknown what happens to her after Ao shot the Quartz Gun for third time; other than she grew up healthy and may not remember Ao.
Fleur Blanc[]
Fleur is one of Ao's teammates and friends. Initially, Fleur saw Ao as a foolish and reckless IFO pilot, frequently critiquing him for any mistakes he made while on missions and not refer to her so casually by just calling her Fleur. Fleur starts to change her attitude towards Ao after the mission in Faisal Arabia, where they collaborated to help save the people there. During the mission there, Fleur reveals the reason she hates her father, Generation Bleu's President Christophe Blanc. They became friends after this, finding some mutual anger for her father, and she is frequently seen teasing Ao about Naru Arata.
She appears to have romantic feelings towards Ao because of the blush on her face and her deep concern for him. In the end she was sad when Ao was sacrificing his existence to save his parents from the fate that they had decided upon. At the end, Fleur was shown to have chased Ao to the Scub burst with the Alleluia's third engine activating. Her fate, however, is left unknown after Ao used the Quartz Gun for the third time; it is possible she may not remember Ao at all. At the end of episode 24 when Ao sacrifices himself, it is hinted that his last words to Fleur were something regarding about his feelings for her, however it still remains a mystery.
Quotes[]
- (To self) I don't know where my mother came from, but if the same blood as hers runs through my veins, if we share the same blood, then I must be able to fly, too.
- (About adults) Adults shouldn't do something they have to apologize to children.
- (To Naru) If I pilot the Nirvash, maybe, someday, I'll find the path my mother took.
- (To Nirvash Neo) I see...you remembered me. It's been too long.
- (To Eureka) MAMA!
- (About self) I'm Ao Fukai.
- (To Renton) Thank you for that, Dad. For sacrificing so much to keep me alive. Thank you.
- (To Renton and Eureka) Even so, you've both had to sacrifice yourselves for me. But all that's about to change. You can be free from it, because I'm here. I guess that's the reason why I was born.
- (To Renton and Eureka) Seriously you guys? That's plain embarrassing. And to think, these two are my parents. Even so I'm glad it's there, at least you made it back home.
Trivia[]
- It is revealed by Gazelle that Ao hates his father. This reflects Renton's hate towards his father, Adroc, believing that his father cared more about his research rather than his own family. However, it's revealed by Eureka that Adroc did care for his family and that's what caused Adroc to vanish which causes Renton to forgive his father. Now, Ao bears a similar hatred because he believes that Renton left him and Eureka when Eureka arrived at Iwato Island. But then the past Eureka and his guardian reveal that his father always loved Eureka and that he is fighting for her and Ao. This allows Ao to let go of his hatred towards his father and now kind of loves him. It is also revealed that Renton sent Eureka to Ao's world because he wished for Eureka to bear a child that would not be turned into stone due to the atmosphere.
- Ao is the youngest person in his family to become a hero by saving the planet from the Secrets and changing history to remove Scub Bursts at age 13. His father, Renton, became a hero at age 14 by saving the planet from the Limit of Questions and uniting the humans and Scub Coral; his paternal grandfather, Adroc, became a hero in his 30s for saving the planet from the First Summer of Love. Ao's family also consists of geniuses: Renton created the first IFO by combining his knowledge of LFOs and Scub Coral; Adroc created the Amita Drive to help Nirvash awaken its true power; his paternal great-grandfather, Axel, is a famous mechanic for creating the first LFO ref board.
- In the manga version, Ao says his favorite way of escaping from his problems is jumping in the ocean.
- Although the motto "Never beg. You earn by winning, or you won't get anything" is passed down from parent to child in the Thurston family, starting with Adroc to his children, Diane and Renton, Ao never learns this due to the short time he spent with his father, Renton. Eureka apparently never told him about it either.
- Despite looking similar to his father (especially when his hair was still brown), Ao looks like a carbon copy of his mother when he was forced to dress like a girl in the OVA.
- Despite not meeting him until the final episode, it is shown that Ao and his father have a lot in common in personality and interests. They care deeply for others, they are against violence but are willing to fight in order to protect their loved ones, they are shy around girls, and they like soccer and later lifting. Renton even gave Ao his old ref board as a farewell present.
- Because Ao didn't know his father's name until episode 13, it seems that Eureka never told Ao about Renton and the reason for his absence in Ao's life. It is possible that Eureka did tell Ao about Renton, but he was too young to remember it and forgot as he got older.
- Although his name is "Ao Fukai" in the world the series takes place, his birth name is "Ao Thurston" due to his great-grandfather formally marrying Renton and Eureka in "Wish Upon a Star" of Eureka Seven.
- Although Ao lives with his adoptive grandfather, he revealed that he can make by on his own because he does odd (and illegal) jobs, possibly to lesson the burden on his grandfather of raising a child that is not biologically related to him and is the object of resentment and hostility from the villagers.
- Although Ao finds out that Amber was his older sister, he never learns that he has two adoptive older brothers and one adoptive older sister; Maurice, Maeter and Linck. It seemed that Eureka never told him about any of his adoptive siblings during his childhood because of the pain she feels towards his biological sister's death but why she never spoke of the adoptive children is unknown.
- While aboard the Gekko in episode 13, Ao wore the track suit his father wore in "Absolute Defeat" of Eureka Seven.
- Ao was born in the year 2012, the same year both the anime and manga started. His birthday is June 27, 2012.
- The name Ao means "deep blue" in Japanese. The meaning of his name may imply that Renton and Eureka named him after the blue sky or the ocean.
- In the front cover of the final Eureka Seven DVD, Ao was depicted as having brown hair like his father and purple eyes like his mother, but sported green wings similar to Eureka's. But for reasons unknown, BONES chose to forgo this.
- In the Japanese dub, Ao refers to Eureka as “anma” which means mom in Okinawan.
- Many fans commented on BONES' Facebook that they dislike the change of Ao's hair color from brown to blue, because his brown hair is what made him resemble closer towards Renton and his brown hair matched up with his purple eyes better than the blue hair. Many fans commented that Ao was more of an exquisitely beautiful child with brown hair and purple eyes.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ^ Eureka Seven: AO episode 11: Plateaux of Mirror (Mirror of the World)
- ^ Eureka Seven: AO episode 12: Step Into a World (Heaven and Earth)
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