I had huge expectations for this sequel since I'm a fan of E7, however, this didn't even come close. What I enjoyed about E7 was the story and character development. I actually felt connected to many of the characters. The story flowed very nicely. I even liked the Nirvash as its own character.
E7AO started off ok while introducing the characters, then it quickly went downhill. The focus was more on the story and fight scenes. I dont think the story was good, but that's where the focus was.
I liked Elena and Fleur and i thought they had great potential. I thought that Fleur would develop feelings for Ao but that never happened. They actually threw in some signs that she had a thing for Gazzele. Elena made a lot of references to other anime. I picked up easily on the Evangelion ones. Both these characters failed to go further and were just part of the cast for a majority of the series until they decided to wrap it up and give them their scene. I felt like it just came out of nowhere. Ao just made me upset. He was a wet blanket. He was boring and indecisive until the end. Truth. Wow. Just wow. I think its always great to have a crazy character somewhere and let them have their 1 second insane facial expression, but Truth had his on more than half the time. It got old and annoying fast. Anemone is 100% a better character. I didn't even understand Naru. Noah was better than her.
The Mecha designs were well done I think. I wish they gave a little more air time to appreciate them. What was bad was that there were too many special ones thrown in. There were several Nirvashs and it became confusing because of them coming from a different time and all that. I understand that there are two, but it seemed like there were many more. I wonder what the back story was for Truth's Mech. It just appeared.
Then there's the story. The basic plot was good, but all the little details they threw in made it a wreck. I didn't even know what was going on half the time. There would be a serious fight going on, then it just switches over to a calm island scene. I didn't like this at all. It sucked the severity and seriousness of the events. They just jumped on the time travel hype, but time travel is really hard to put together. Its an interesting concept, but difficult to make it enjoyable. They would have been more successful if they had kept it more low key with a single goal. The protagonist didn't even know what his own goal was until the last episode. Also, that ending! Seriously, what the fuck? If you've seen it you probably have the same thoughts I have. The main questions, how and why. The series would be better off without it.
What was good about the series were the animations and music. They were consistent with the first series. The openings and endings were also pretty good. The animations for Ao were a bit lacking about halfway though. It kept changing. It might have been just me.
In conclusion, E7AO failed to meet my expectations. It may seem my intent was to bash the series but that is wrong. I'm just expressing what made me upset. It had a lot of potential so it makes me sad when it turn out like this. I wouldn't recommend it if you want to keep all of E7 in a good light.
