Toon Zone Talkback - "Aquarion": Of Robots and Angels

Reading this was a pleasant surprise. A super robot show with good characters? Lately I've had the impression that corabining robot shows generally don't have that much to offer, but I'm honestly curious to try this one now.
 
I just got the first volume of this in my netflix, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Though the whole...merging thing is very....well...*ahem*................

They just portray the merging of the mech to form Aquarion in a certain way.
 
Yeah, the whole "merge" idea is taken quite...literally (I must wonder how the FUNi dub cast was able to do this without busting out laughing at the sounRAB they had to make )

You know, I still have mixed feelings on Aquarion. One one hand, it is a great throwback to the super robot series and is a great and visual pleasure on its own. On the other, you get stuff like Apollo's consistent whining of that Baron guy (which luckily stopped....for the wrong reason ) and really annoying stuff that keeps happening like the plot taking extremely long breaks and....Apollo being himself (As you can see, I didn't like Apollo too much). I kind of had problems with the ending as well but it was a satisfactory series. I would say that it's not for everyone and has a lot of things that wouldn't normally be in these kinRAB of shows (like vampires....no I'm not making that up) but there was a certain charm that kept me watching every episode so I guess I have no choice but to recommend it.

I should note that every episode is on FUNi's video site which is where I watched it.
Gonna have to reaaaally disagree here. Not that it's at, say, Evangelion level but I do go "Oh look, another Christianity reference" on a frequent basis. Has more Greek myth references if anything.
 
Hey, I'd also like to see the show in order to answer that question for myself.

Never really had the opportunity to see this one yet. Opinions about it seem rather mixed, so I guess it's probably a bit of a garable.

Nothing else I can really add without going tacitly or blatantly off-topic, so that's all for now.
 
I enjoyed Aqaurion until the final episode, but I hated the final episode for reasons that I don't care to spoil. It is a great giant robot series and is superior to Gundam, though Gundam will always get more respect. The voice acting is great, the music is great, and the story is great. Most of all, while the first 13 episodes seem pretty standard compared to other series, the last 13 are full of immense shocking moments that made it where I couldn't stop watching until the end.
 
To be completely fair, Anne Mccafrey did the same thing in a much more creepy way in Dragon Riders of Pern, So it's not a completely new concept... but yeah.



Huh. I actually thought Appolo's complaints about Baron were too sparse; after going all crazy about it around the third episode he seems to completely forget about him until... you know. As for the plot breaks, they were a mixed bag for me; Merge to Eat and Mischief Without Malice were decent and kinda funny, but they were also completely surreal, somewhat out of place, and did nothing to advance the plot. So, a resounding "meh" in that department.

And as for the Chritianity References, I didn't catch many beyond the "angel" concept, but it is entirely possible that I missed a couple.


Looking back over the review, I realize I have a few addendums:

* I need to stress just how trippy some of the fight sequences are. A lot of it relies on you not needing to know - and certainly not actively asking - how certain attacks and such worked, and just taking it for granted that they did. If that sounRAB like a problem to you, you may want to skip this one...

* Mecha shows are not my strong suit, so I can't comment on the shows success-or lack of- at being a throwback to older ones. However, I can say that there's a certain feeling of corny awesomeness prevalent in the series, particularly during the last few episodes, that could probably be the result of such an attempt.
 
Yeah, this happened a lot. I mean, there's pulling moves out your ass and then there's....this!

Biggest one to me was when they made that gigantic silver cross in the vampire episode. I'm like "Okay, what...the...heck?!"
 
I love how this show conveniently has the robot use a move that connects to the plot of an episode. I mean at first glance, its like Power Rangers...but animated and with better characterization.

I'm not ususally a fan of Gundam/Giant Robot shows, but this one FEELS SOOOO GOOOOOD!
 
Every time the vectors corabined to form Aquarion they merged with "wondrous" results especially for female pilots. So, yeah, that happened a lot. Rather a running joke for the entire show.
 
Like I said, this shows hidden purpose is the display biblical nature of merging.

The best part of that vid was:

"Come here, lets do this." "What?"

ROFL, so great out of context. Though, "What is this heat?" is a close second.

Ah, blessed innuendo. What would this show be without you.
 
Apologies for bumping, but I've gone on to a few more episodes, and I have to compliment Aquarion on something.

While it's a pretty episodic series so far, I have to say that some of the episodes are some of the most creative ways of going through a series that I've seen in a long time. Sure, they all generally lead to the same end result, but the trip through some of the episodes has been unique, which is appreciated.
 
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