|
|
||||||||||
| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Watch | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 5 |
 Ggultra2764
|
[series:1023#1552] |
|
Aquarion is a rather interesting entry in the mecha genre in all the wrong ways, being a sort of homage to the super robot genre. Set in a future where humanity is under threat by supernatural beings called Shadow Angels, a homeless boy named Apollo and several teenagers with various special abilities become co-pilots for the transforming mecha known as Aquarion to fight the Shadow Angels. Before I go into the mess that this series is, I should compliment the presentation of this series. The visuals are quite pleasing on the eyes with gorgeous and majestic scenic shots of both Earth and the world of the Shadow Angels, a number of unique character designs for the Shadow Angels, and nicely rendered CG animation of the mecha used by both factions that blends in almost seamlessly with the show's regular animation. The soundtrack composed by Yoko Kanno also sports a variety of instrumentals, orchestral scores, and haunting lyrical pieces that are fitting for the various scenes that play out throughout the series. Outside of presentation, Aquarion's faces plenty of issues with its plotting and characters, in no small part because it felt like the series was trying too hard to appeal to various audiences. The show's plot seemed to be spinning its wheels for much of its run with "monster of the day" plots where Apollo and the teens faced off against different creations of the Shadow Angels while trying to figure out some vague hint dropped by their team captain, with the occasional hints dropped about Apollo's past life as a fellow Shadow Angel and a few of his teammates having their own connections to his past incarnation. However the revelations are nothing remarkable as the series doesn't really take much time to further flesh out the origins of the Shadow Angels and the Aquarion mecha created specifically to combat them. The show also could not seem to find a consistent mood to maintain in many of its earlier episodes where some come off serious, while others have a more comical bent. While the final 6-7 episodes do get somewhat more compelling with some shocking twists and developments that reveal more about the origins of some major characters, the show still devolves into a mess focused around mecha combinations and mysticism that the show had done a poor job of attempting to have complement Aquarion instead of being the anime's main attraction, which is laughably ridiculous with its pilots almost orgasming anytime the Aquarion's different formations combine together. Not helping matters are the characters not having much to offer in terms of depth. All of the characters fill your typical anime character types in one form or another that include our lead Apollo as the rude and impulsive troublemaker, Silvia your short-fused noble girl with a brother complex, Sirius the attractive bishounen craving beauty and perfection, and team captain Fudou loaning enigmatic and vague hints that the teen pilots have to learn of. The Shadow Angels aren't much better off either as many of them are mostly two-dimensional baddies who look down upon humanity and see them as cattle for maintaining energy for their realm, with only main baddie Toma getting any sort of dimension for his character. In spite of its impressive presentation, Aquarion is still a mess of an anime that loses focus over what sort of mood and plot direction it wishes to take its story, lacks any memorable characters due to how shallow they are, and trying too hard at attempting to please as wide a fanbase as possible. Overall, it's a rather forgettable entry in the mecha genre. Last updated Friday, July 07 2017. Created Saturday, September 03 2011. | ||||||||
| Watch | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
 Violet D
|
[series:1023#1393] |
|
I finally got a chance to watch it. Dynamic effects, I was impressed and plan on watching more episodes. I nice one to enter into the world of animation and fantasy.
Last updated Wednesday, June 03 2009. Created Wednesday, June 03 2009. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Jan-Chan
|
[series:1023#967] | ||||||
|
Oh please ...no...not again!! Another Mega Mecha Series!!! I think that I saw most of this mecha-action in the transformers series of about 15 years ago. And if I hear one more pilot scream “Sousei Gattai!! Go Aquarion” just once more, I am going to get a frontal lobotomy, just so I can finish up watching the episode. Actually this series is really not that bad .. yes, it has been done before (about 200 times in other series) but the special effects are the singular redemption of this series. They really put a lot of effort and attention into the mecha and alien Fallen Angel scenes. I read somewhere that about two dozen special effects teams worked on this, and they even credit for a hair stylist (for anime characters?) The characters are mostly OK, but the tension between Silvia and Apollo is just too canned and predictable. I had to chuckle when the vectors combined and the female pilots squealed in an almost orgasmic voice about the pleasure of the Aquerion fusion experience. I will continue watching it just in case it gets better, but I am not expecting much. If you are really into sci-fi anime with a better story line and just as good special effects, then you should really check out Xenosaga - The Animation. It was a lot more entertaining and a lot less predictable. Well, at least we know that much of this series' footage will make it into the computer game. Last updated Saturday, October 08 2005. Created Monday, April 25 2005. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
|---|---|
| Official Japanese Web Site | http://www.aquarion.info |
| Official Japanese Web Site | http://www.so-net.ne.jp/aquarion |
