Thankfully for the Aquarion faithful they did not have to wait that long.
I am not sure how many of us actually watched Genesis of Aquarion, but if you did I am sure you had a good kick out of guessing who was who in the reincarnation cycle as such please use the spoiler tag where appropriate. Given the rather low fanfare back in ye olde days and resident Kawamori Watcher ghostlightning’s vote of no confidence in Genesis of Aquarion, Aquarion EVOL is probably going to be the first jump for a lot of people into the series. For the initiated Kawamori is a New Age Hippie who more than capable of drawing the “LOL WUT?” moment and this franchise is known more for literally orgasmic gattai. If this bothers you this probably isn’t your series. That said it sure went off nicely despite the useless ramblings of Mikono it certainly is different from how its predecessor opened. I have seen a bit of Genesis, but will try and blitz through it while EVOL airs. Right now though, I just LOVE the mechanical design changes that they made.
It just looks so pretty, and judging by the rest of the series Satelight is working on EVOL is going to get the lion’s share of Satelight’s attention. Whereas Genesis had a more mystical foe with abduction bots that weren’t very mecha in design, this time everything looks mechanical. I loved how they changed the abductions from herding machines to gigantic walkers that take people away like War of the Worlds tripods. While the Vectors aren’t exactly Valkyries they share enough similarity that they can still apply all that they learned from doing Macross Frontier with their Aquaria modes filling in the battriod mode. I eagerly anticipate more frenetic battles and the one we got wasn’t too shabby. Also the technology level is much higher and I love how they are still establishing a good setting. It looks nothing like the Hong Kong I know but there is a certain charm to this war ravaged Neo-Venezia. Having Yoko Kanno and Kawamori together again always brings the promise of good things.
Amata certainly is nothing like his Genesis predecessor, not quite the wild child but a whole lot more self-doubt in that one. I just hope he doesn’t whine our ears off given that Mikono is even whinier and revels in her uselessness. That strange cat does bode ill though, but it remains to be seen if there is a correlation between strange cute pet and the Ranka effect. Amata may grow up but for me the star of the show is clearly Zessica, she has some fight in her and hopefully between her and Cayenne they can shoulder most of the burden until Amata becomes a man worthy of his destiny. I am not sure if chastity is really a requirement but they sure do make a big deal out of it. Supposing it is true though I hope Mix jumps Zessica not only for BEST PAIR but so that Zessica never has to get out of piloting.
Aquarion can get ridiculously campy but I do hold out hope that each crew male and female will be more Immortal 4th Team than a bunch of misfits trying to go at each other’s throats or getting into each other’s pants. Fortunately there was some professionalism on display even if Mix is petty and Andy is being Andy. I just hope Zessica and Cayenne can keep their teams on the straight and narrow. Given how Commander Doner has it out for Andy I don’t think we have to worry much about Andy making a nuisance of himself. Commander Doner just looks so bad ass though he has two fists of steel and has an integrated taser, that should help him maintain order.
Not sure how things are supposed to work in this society but I am curious given how the boys and girls have radically different training regimes. The girls seem to be going to a church school while the boys go through a military school. It’s an interesting dynamic, and I am curious about the hokey religion they have build in the last 12,000 years and the origin of the Guize Stones and Barrier of Chastity. More importantly though I want to see how the humans have adjusted to the Abductor incursions. The bright colors seem to indicate something that will generally be happy but I wonder what depths of depression they have up their sleeves.
While it’s great you get the M-Type and F-Type Aquaria I hope the presence of armored vehicles indicates that there are more conventional forces that have yet to come into play. I dearly would like to see a big battle given how much Macross Frontier tech carried over, besides the abductors have piloted mooks of their own, so there is no reason for the humans not to have some support forces of their own. If the humans only got stationary turrets of questionable use then the humans are in plenty of trouble if Islagnissa is just the first of many. In fact the humans better be taking this near defeat to heart as Islagnissa can kick their Aquaria’s ass fairly handily as it did in the first outing. In any case there was plenty to be happy about especially the gorgeous mecha action. I just hope that they maintain this level of quality during the entire run as much as possible.
Next week looks to be Training Day for Amata I hope he doesn’t embarrass himself too badly. I am not sure what they plan to do with Mikono or how they plan on using her. Mikono doesn’t seem like piloting material but maybe she can surprise us and prove that she is not so useless after all. At which point we can all pile on Cayenne for being a paranoid fool for wanting to lock her into a tower. A terrible Union between Kagura and Mikono might occur but in that event I fully expect a Wedding Crash for the ages.
This future ain't so bad if all the lowly humans are KNEELING BEFORE MECHA.
I think I get it now so the Robot is Jesus and this is Mary who gave birth to it via immaculate conception. Given the disparity in mass it must have been miracle.
I can't argue against this dogma mecha are superior to men.
This hardly looks like Hong Kong or even Neo-Hong Kong...
I see we have some serious self esteem issues at work here...
I like this War of the Worlds feel they got going.
Not quite a Valkyrie, but nifty in it own way...it may not have armor packs but can GATTAI AND HOW.
That is some precise shooting...
Damn it why do the red ones always go 3x faster?
Maybe he's a clown, he does dress funny... he also eats garbage.
I guess they don't have a NUNS type industrial base.
I wonder if there is a difference between Type-Ms and Type-Fs other than the missile packs.
Look lady you maybe right but humanity is on the verge of extinction this is not the time to focus on style points. We're here to win and an ugly win is still a win.
I think we just got a new fun term to toss around...
This is one heck of a chest bump. I'd flag them for excessive celebration, but at least it didn't get newtype painful.
Nice try but this kick did not connect, so it only gets 5/10.
Opportunity is knocking, try to answer the door next time...
So Andy from Gundam 0080 so offended Zeus that he was reincarnated as a butt-monkey.
Welcome back, it's been a while.
Some things never change, if you know what I mean...
Oh so does this mean we are getting a sequel to Escaflowne? Or a real end to Macross 7?
It worked in Shin Mazinger Z, it'll work.
Shutting up would be a good start Mikono...
Alright enemy mooks, I hope they can dog fight instead of be turkey shoot fodder.
Amata will be an anchor but at least Zessica will drag his ass to victory if she has to.
Wow I guess this is Neo-Hong Kong, someone has been carrying on the School of the Undefeated of the East.
Suffice to say the technique has been advanced so that it can destroy targets larger than wolves...
Well that is one way to break a leg in your debut.
Well he is quite a dog...
Harsh but TRUE.
Indeed the proper ratio should be Four Weddings and Funeral.
Maybe Mikono can erode his self esteem to the point he hangs himself.
Damn you! Why did you bring funnels into this?!
Indeed this episode was out of this world.
Oh come on Mikono can't you try to get HOT BLOODED for this scene.
Hell yeah set him straight Cayenne!
Mikono belongs to Zessica and don't you forget it.
13 Comments
I totally don’t get how this city is based on Hong Kong.
Neo Venezia, definitely… and it was a blast watching it get fucked up especially since Aria itself could never make the city this pretty.
Now since this is Aquarion… let’s all brace for the shipping clusterfuck!
Mix and Zessica FOREVER!
As for Hong Kong, maybe Kawamori had a vision of a newly renovated Hong Kong.
i remeber one of the promo poster backgrounds looked a bit like HK. Maybe its the lower class district thats HK like.
I went and watched Genesis of Aquarion just for this show. As a whole it wasn’t too bad but definitly would have dropped if i watched it week by week. The show reminded me of Macross.
I have to say it ain’t clear who is reincarnated into who at this point. It shouldn’t be that obvious other wise it be boring
Perhaps it is the less famous parts of HK, still I can’t remember part that looked like that the last time I visited.
It’s fairly clear that Kagura and Amata are remarkably similar to Apollo, as for the rest time will tell. Though Mikono seems to dead lock for Celaine or at least part of her, but time will tell.
thanks you¡¡
The orgasm gattai scenes in the original was fine, just orgasms, nothing else, then in EVOL, the gattai scene included obvious sexual references(I swear that crystal that broke was a hymen, and when the legs were connecting to the torso, a red rod-like thing extended out of the pelvic part and jammed itself into the torse, and the talk of something breaking, you know)
Yeah, it was just missing a “it’s coming in!” to make the awkward references to hentai complete. :p
All in all a very good start. It made me care much more about the characters than the original series, even if Mikono is sending out some serious Ranka vibes… but maybe they learned from *that* disaster. They might just be tearing her down so much already in the beginning to build her up properly throughout the series.
I think they learned something from that Ranka debacle but we shall see if cute strange pet is a sign of DOOM.
The Aquarion team certainly has gotten bolder… one can hope they just don’t get too carried away. I am just hoping that in the future Barrier of Chastity is going to be a buzz word along with Guize Stone.
I wonder if some crazy old chinese guy sold Zessica the manual for the Buddhist Palm.
Now in terms of comparison to the old Aquarion it somehow felt like a few of the old characters got split in two and others got merged. The old Apollo seems to be split into Amata and Kagura for example. Amata as the Wings of the Sun and Kagura as the wild animal Apollo was. That would explain why Mikono seems to be set up as the destiny girl for both. Cayenne seems like a mix of Sirius and that Misfortune girl Leica or however she was called. The asshole part and the elite part of Sirius and the bad premonitions of Leica.
There are splits to be sure, but it will be fun figuring out how messy this latest reincarnation cycle is. Still it is hard to deny that Kagura and Amata are the two halves of Apollo or at least are the two strongest candidates to fill that role.
man when i saw this post i was like “Sara?!?!? egad they redid macross zero?!?!?
We just need a confirmed flying rocks sighting…