Customer Reviews

Aquarion: Season 1, Part 2

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A decent show, but nothing to set it apart.

Aquarion takes place 11 years after a great disaster destroys most of Earth. Along with the destruction came beings called Shadow Angels who have been asleep for thousands of years, and begin to harvest humans and extract their life force. Ordinary human weapons are ineffective against the Shadow Angels, that's where the organization called Deava comes in creating machines to fight against the Dark Angels called Vectors. The Vectors can also combine to form a giant robot. The story takes off years later and follows Apollo who might be a reborn hero from thousands of years ago.

I'm going to begin with the things I didn't like about the show than to the things I did like.

1. This show just seemed to blend RahXephon, Eureka Seven and Evangelion together and this is what came out. I know the creators of this series were trying to tell a story, it just didn't work, it just didn't make much sense. This was the part that brought down the series for me, maybe if I hadn't seen the shows above I might have enjoyed it more.

2. The other thing that I didn't like was the soundtrack which didn't add anything to the series.

Onto the good.

1. The best part of the series were the characters. I'll focus mainly on Apollo who was a great main character. He was enjoyable to watch and you will just plain like him. You will like him more as the series goes on and watch him develop. There were other good characters in Silvia, Hong Lihua who I found very interesting, Pierre, and the rest. Each brought something to the series.

2. The other thing that I liked was the animation done by I think Satelight, I could be wrong. Anyway I thought it was very good, and added to the series.

Overall a decent series that recycles themes from other disaster anime.

If you're purchasing the second half of Aquarion that means you've probably finished the first, and if that's the case you might be wondering how they are going to wrap up the show in only thirteen remaining episodes. Don't fear that the show has been rushed, they pack a lot of the humor that you're accustomed to in with the plot and manage to end the series very well.

Aquarion never was a series stingy on production value, and you do not have to worry that the aspects of the show aside from the story will become rushed either. It is still a series without a badly drawn episode, there is no jarring change to the art (minus an episode where that is the intention) or the quality of the music. They put the same amount of care in blending the CG with traditional animation that you found in the first half of Aquarion.

If you've made it this far in the series you surely understand that Aquarion is taking some of the things we as anime fans love the most about the different genres and trying to make it new. They also blend in the things that we may find annoying, and in true Aquarion style they blow everything out of proportion to make the entire anime sparkle with the sort of "in your face" attitude that this series should be appreciated for. That may not be your cup of tea; if you're looking for something wholly original (if that is truly possible) - Aquarion won't provide that. What it will offer you is the running gags, over the top characters, sumptuous art, minor fan-service and seemingly misplaced sound effects you've become accustomed to over your journey through different anime.

The creators managed to wrap the series up very well, they carefully push the plot forward building on the characters you have grown to know throughout the first half of Aquarion. It should be noted that you may not learn all that you wanted to about the Shadow Angels as individuals, but that is perhaps the best way to handle them in Aquarion. They are meant to be mysterious, but we learn enough about them to begin to understand their motivations and emotions, which may have seemed Spartan or overly cryptic during the first half. We also learn more about our favorite characters beyond their personal idiosyncrasies, which is often amusing and at times touching. While it may be hard - upon reaching the last episode - to fully appreciate the ending of the show with time it does seem to be the best way to wrap up the series.

While the finale of Aquarion isn't the very best ending, it does a good job of tidying up the loose ends you may have felt were floating through the series. It isn't necessarily a satisfying conclusion, but it is a completion, a continuance, and it leaves the viewer with room to extrapolate their own meaning. I don't personally think that's terrible.

This is another slim pack, but the discs include heavy extras from text-less songs and music video, to several episodes with commentary. If you're looking for the printed media extras you found in Aquarion: Season 1, Part 1 you may be momentarily disappointed. I know that I was, until I sat back and wondered what more they could have put in to the second half to satisfy me when they provided so much with the first. The actual digital extras should be enough to satisfy. As with the first half of the show I cannot testify as to the quality of the dub, I don't personally care for them and so never watched it in anything other than Japanese with English subtitles.

Overall it's a solid series that will appeal to those who want to relive the shows of our youth or the early days of our anime exploration. The beauty of the series is that for all of the shows it cribs from it manages to do things differently enough to be called: Aquarion, and not part 2, 3, or 4 of another series.

Filled with twists and turns, Aquarion does its best to tell a fun story that touches audiences emotionally. While unlikely to convert a wave of fans that need to see more, the twenty six episodes of this series don't feel like wasted time either. While it will rarely be described as `great', it remains a mech anime worth watching once.