Ranked #788

Aquarion Evol

"Why are you writing a review after only seeing two thirds of the show?"
"Because 2/3rds-way impressions are important."

Now that we have that out of the way... Aquarion EVOL. It's been 12,000 quarter-days since the first series came out back in 2005 and now it's been reincarnated for the new era. First, some history:

To my knowledge, not many people liked Genesis of Aquarion. It was an overly melodramatic, awkward, very episodic and somewhat girly mecha series where the robots were essentially powered by orgasms(You read that right) and it had to compete in an era where good mecha anime was still a thing. It was a show that couldn't take itself seriously even when it was trying to take itself seriously. Audience response was mostly apathetic, but people loved the theme song and the OST had some of Yoko Kanno's best work. Hell, that OP was the sole reason I decided to blindly download the whole show on dial-up back on Christmas of '05. It took 4 months to finish, and was actually my first subbed anime.

I loved Aquarion. It was stupid and weird in all the best ways, and to this day it's still a very different spin on the super robot genre. The melodramatic characters and their reactions to everything, the complete nonsense shouted by the leader that would lead to victory in every episode, the omnisexual, ten-way, cross-dimensional love story... All of it was just grand in retrospect. I had no idea of what to expect from this series' new art direction and the effects of a near-decade hiatus, but ho-damn am I satisfied.

Aquarion EVOL opens 12,000 years after the end of Aquarion, with the main character, Amata, watching his favorite decade-old movie that (poorly) depicts events of the prequel series' final episode. This is followed by his boss coming out and telling him "Amata, no one likes that movie but you, really. The theme song got popular, but that's about it." So yeah, the opening of this new foray into the orgasm-powered mecha genre is Shoji Kawamori brazenly declaring that he gives not a single fuck to the haters out there. I can't even tell you how happy that scene made me, I felt like Amata.

After that, you get treated to what's easily the prettiest god damn show of the season, and maybe year, as Amata takes this big-boobed blue haired girl on a date through the rivers of neo-Venice. The environments are always painted in absolutely beautiful detail and color, and many shots are screencap worthy because of how genuinely pretty they are. I strongly suggest watching this in HD.

The character and world designs are all very unique and memorable, infused with an injection of sharp detail, personality and visual originality that you don't see in many anime anymore. The world and characters feel alive, and there's even two full fictional alphabets that show up in the show that contribute to this. Also, each scene is well-composed on screen and because of that, Aquarion Evol is never a bore to look at.

So far, Aquarion Evol's new cast of characters is what makes it shine, at least in my opinion. Rather than the really odd focus of the first episodes of the prior series, Evol began strong by introducing a cast of lively, thought-out and memorably designed little mecha pilots and having them ping off of each other. There are about ten or so members to the main cast, each of which has specific foils who were pretty deliberately thought out. It almost plays out like early Naruto, where you saw all of the kids sorted into their respective 3/4-man teams, and then you'd watch and realize why they were put there, their opposing/kindred personality traits, their shared histories and how their mentors interacted. Except unlike Naruto, this series will not draw out these interactions for several hundred episodes and has so far put a big focus on its cast of peripheral kids.

The antagonists are presented in a very neutral and borderline desperate way. They don't appear evil and their motivations and details about their pasts are kept as a mystery for a while, but the show gives many hints and allusions as to who they really are and keep the viewer interested rather than starve them for details.

Then you have the titular fighting robots. Shit looks absolutely fantastic. EVOL makes full and complete use of the "orgasm when combining" joke throughout the first episode, but actually lightens up on it as the show has progresses. So far, the only real mecha orgasm sequences have been for particularly climactic moments and new character introductions. The gag is used sparingly and after the first series it's apparent the creators took note that it alienated some people. This whole project in general looks like it's taking the widespread criticism of Aquarion both in stride and into consideration, creating a series that satisfies both old fans and newcomers.

The OST is still amazing. If you watched the first series you'll probably recognize a number of the background tracks, remixed or reworked, along with a bunch of nice, new pieces. This show's opening theme is an orgasm of Japanese vocal work. Yoko Kanno knows what she's doing.

All of the base elements of Aquarion remain in tact, for better or worse. It's still pretty cheesy and melodramatic, but this time they're hamming it up even more while at the same time keeping a good focus on down-to-earth elements like the cast. I appreciate the hell out of it, but I'm sure some people still won't 'get' it. It's also still really, really pretty and the energy produced by the visuals and sounds carry the show's asinine writing like a thoroughly lubed bullet train.

"So should I watch the first series before getting into this one?"

Yeah, probably. Or at least maybe the OVAs to get a feel for the characters and stuff. One of the main draws of this series (for me) is that it's actively referencing Aquarion quite a bit, such as one of the main villains basically being an evil version of the main character in the first show. Kawamori's also stated that the main cast in this show are reincarnations of the previous cast. Eventually learning how the two stories and their characters will tie together is going to be, as I predict, one of the most rewarding aspects of EVOL. So if you want to enjoy Evol as much as you can, experience the previous project a little bit first.

"They... orgasm in the robot? that's stupid!"

And ironically this show has far less ecchi and has more thoughtful writing than any series it's directly competing with. But really now, you probably just got done watching tit-infused garbage like Lagrange, you can't criticize this show lmao

"So, is it better than Lagrange, the other girly mecha show this season?"

Yes, in just about every single possible way, shape and form.

"Is Fudo Gen in it? He was the only good thing about Aquarion"

Yes, and he's a fucking pirate ohmygodit'sgreat

Aquarion Evol is still actively giving me colorgasms and excitement for something to see every week, and I hope it does the same for everyone else. Give it a shot. read more

I haven't watched the first season (don't really need to imho since they basically bring up the past a lot of times and you really only need a few tidbits to get whats going on). However, I will be watching the first season after this season is over to get a better feel of the story.

Story: The story is really good imo. You have 2 guys who clash together in order to win over the girl they love. The season isn't over yet but in my opinion it feels like 1 side represents "old love/destined love" and the other represents "new love/breaking chains of fate". It's a typical space/sci-fi/school life anime where a boy gets involved in a cross-planetary war and his whole life is changed. He gets introduced to various "special" people who possess unique powers that are used to protect the planet.

Art: The artwork is beautiful. It's basically a 2012 looking anime so of course the colors are vibrant and very nice.

Sound: This show reminds me a lot of Macross Frontier for some reason. Music plays big rolls in major events that happen throughout the show. New powers = music, dramatic events = music, etc , etc.

Character: The characters are really good. You have the perverted male friend who clashes with the tsundere boy hating goodygoody girl and the typical bishounen guys that the girls are head over heels for. Then you have the various girls that are in love with the MC (One is more open, the other is the typical conservative shy soft spoken girl).

Enjoyment: This show is really really good. I honestly only watched this for Zessica Wong (she's cute :3) but I wound up enjoying the show a lot. It reminds me a lot of Macross Frontier + Isekai No Seikishi Monogatari which happens to be my favorite anime :3

ENJOY IT and don't forget! ZESSICA IS #1 F*CK MIKONO


EDIT: I finished watching the first season. I recommend it to those of you that want to a get a better feeling of the whole Aquarion history. However, it is not necessary to watch S1. All you basically need to know is that 12000 years ago 2 lovers fought to save the world from destruction and through self sacrifice they were separated from each other, destined to fall in love again when they were "reincarnated". It's basically a recurring 12k year cycle of lovers. All of this information is shown in EVOL (episode 1 for that matter).

If you would like to get to know more about the past lives of some of the characters you should watch S1. You can see how Kagura and Apollo share MANY traits which leads viewers to believe he is the true reincarnation of Apollo, yet Amata has the Sun Wings.

Even if you watch S1 you still won't understand why Mykage does what he does or why he looks like the dude from S1 (forgot his name... wait it's Toma, now I'm too lazy to change what I just wrote -____-)

Basically the reincarnations as I see it are:

Amata/Kagura = Apollo
Silvia = who cares, she's a betch :3
Toma = Zessica (can't say why because that's a spoiler, message me if you want to discuss)
Silvia's Brother = who cares, he's a loser. Seriously, he really is. Go watch season 1. read more