Ranked #1377

Aquarion Evol

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.

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.

The writing is strong and sharp up until about 2/3rds the way through, and then it gets a little dumb near the end when old plot lines end in anticlimactic ways, pointless new plot lines appear and things get pretty drawn out in general. But then the final episode is pretty great and brings all the important stuff back to the forefront for the most part, and the series ends on a strong, melodramatic cheesy note that it should.

This is all in contrast to the first series, where the story and characters were a little unfocused until the final 6 or 7 and episodes, and then those were all amazing and climactic.

Then you have the titular fighting robots. Shit looks absolutely fantastic, though, honestly, the 3D animation is a bit stiff and the original Aquarion has a leg up on it in terms of good choreography and smooth movements.

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 intact, 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, for the most part. 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?"

Yes. 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) was that it's actively referenced 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.

Also, honestly, while Evol might be more "likable", Aquarion was a better put-together show in the end, in my opinion.

"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 year?"

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 gave me colorgasms and excitement for something to see every week for half a year, and I hope it did the same for everyone else. Give it a shot. read more

The orgasm powered robots are back and ready to kick some ass. Now at this point I would like to say that if you dont already know, this is a sequal and I will admit that you dont need to see the first to understand this, I think you still should, because you will be able to appreciate this more.

The original was good but the main problem I had was that I didnt really think a whole lot of the characters. There wasnt that one guy that I was like, hey I can relate to this; it just didnt happen. Here however they did a far better job creating appealing characters which is the biggest step up in my book. Another change is that the show isnt about the orgasm powered robots, in fact they kinda go away from that. I like that because while I can say it was funny as hell at first it got old after so long and I was scared that that was all it was gonna be for a second season. Instead its used more in a symbolic nature, saying yeah thats whats up, but we're not here to make a vulgar display.

The story itself starts 12000 years after the stuff in Aquarion goes down, and as you probably know it follows the reincarnates of those characters, and of course the characters before that. As was the case in Aquarion, Evol follows a group of teenageish characters as they pilot Aquarion to save the world from abductors. It focuses on their relationships with one another and shit like that, but at the same time it is able to maintain an interesting story that keeps you going all the way through.

One thing that the story does is this: it changes alot of stuff that happenned in the original Aquarion, as in details that mattered alot to the story. This was risky because if you start changing stuff people can become confused, but I didnt and I doubt anyone will because they do such a good job in just the overall story-telling effort. It answers all of your questions which is very very important in any show.


The art was beautiful. I thought that the art in the original was pretty decent but damn, this just takes it all up several notches. The fight scenes are terrific and everything is so clear. The character models are done far better than in Aquarion and that was just fantastic to see.

Now on to the characters themselves. As ive already said, the characters were far more appealing to me this time around and I found myself rooting for them, which is something that didnt happen in the original. It follows Amata and his friend (who he'd like to be more than friends with) Mikono as they enter the Neo-deava academy and become elements for Aquaria. As you should have figured out by now, or will shortly these are supposed to be the reincarnates of celian and apollonius which is kinda true but at the same time not and as it goes on you'll see what i mean. Also in this you have a villain who looks suspiciously like Amata and some others make return appearances such as that shadow-angel dude from Aquarion and that crazy bastard Fudo shows up(yeah 12,000 years later).

As the story progressed, it got more and more tragic. There are just sad situations and the whatnot popping up everywhere at a point and I was all depressed and shit like "aw damn, this is gonna have a sad ending" which was the vibe I was getting. The actual ending though is very good and all the sad stuff that goes down at least gets brought to points where theres closure if nothing else. The ending also provides an actual end, by this I mean that the whole 12,000 year repeating cycle can finally be ended by the end to this.

On a whole I was really happy with this show. It had subtle humor, good characters, orgasmic animation(sorry I just had to use that pun) and it fixed alot of the crap that Aquarion didnt do so hot with. I will recomend thsi to anyone who liked the original, hell, Ill recomend this if you didnt like the original because this is just on such a higher level. Enjoy. read more