Alright, I decided it’s been too long since I last saw Sokyuu no Fafner, so that will have to wait. In exchange, I’ll just go ahead and give my thoughts on another gem. But first the lovely tale of the beastly reincarnation of a homosexual angel:

 Sousei no Aquarion - 創聖のアクエリオン - Genesis of Aquarion

Alright, I believe this qualifies as a Mecha-series, but it has a very spiritual theme combined with quite odd romance.

Sousei no Aquarion is mainly about a boy named Apollo. His behaviour (often his way of thinking) is more like that of an animal than that of a civilized human. He runs on all fours, uses his nose to find food and prey, hunts and eats rats raw and so on.

One day, a guy who can lit his feet on fire and a girl who can use telekinesis (moving objects with mere mind-power) appear in front of him, knock him out cold and proceeds to examine his back for traces of the "taiyo no tsubasa" (can be translated as "The wing/wings of the/a sun" or as the subbers usually put it "The solar wing/wings").

Turns out that 10,000 years ago, a race of almost divine beings called Blood Angels fought against eachothers and the legendary hero Apollonius, the solar wing, defeated them with the help of his female human lover. The problem currently in the world is that the Blood Angels are starting to reappear, so the reincarnation of Apollonius is being searched for to help them.

Three vehicles similar to the common sci-fi dogfighting-ship called "Vectors", each with their own designation (Vector Sol, Vector Luna and Vector Mars) have been found and are the legacy of Apollonius. If they are piloted by Elementals (people with special abilities, if you remember the telekinesis-girl and the fire-guy from two paragraphs ago :D), a "gattai" (translates as "union") where "the body, the mind and the soul" are combined into one. The result is that the three Vectors become an awesome mecha that tends to kick ass.

After the events of the in my opinion ridicilously epic first episode, Apollo joins the other discovered Elementals at their base of operations where they are trained for the ultimate purpose of piloting (and one day hopefully uniting with) the Vectors. These Vectors are, when united, Aquarion. The series contains lots of fighting, where the victory usually comes from discovering the truth behind the various things they are being taught during the training they get from Gendo Fudo (also known as the epitome of manliness. Is known to move at speeds faster than the eye can percieve and transforming an arrow into three arrows.)

Most of the time, these things and the truth behind them are very symbolic and the entire series strive to build on symbolism that seems to be inspired by buddhism (uniting the mind, soul and body leads to enlightement, hence the way uniting the pilots of the Vectors becomes the great and powerful Aquarion).
Although the holy stuff with all its symbolism may not be something you as the viewer directly care about, it’s pulled off in a really nice way that people who appreciate symbolism will really like (much thanks to the fact that it’s the core of the plot)

What this boils down to is a lot of sequences that may not be character development per se, but rather development of the knowledge and teamwork of the group as a whole. The core of the events is basically them figuring out the tricks of how the holy stuff works and how it can be used, after which it’s usually used in the next fight. Kind of a standard pattern, but the content itself is varied enough to make this an irrelevant to the enjoyment.

So as a whole, Sousei no Aquarion is a nice experience that may not suit people who want something that’s not the slighest bit heavy, but all those people should check it anyway. It’s quite surprising how easy you can get the wrong image of it until you’ve actually seen the first few episodes.

It’s a total of 26 episodes, switches opening in the middle from the awesome Sousei no Aquarion to the also awesome Go Tight! The endings are quite interesting songs as well, but I’ll just let you see them yourself.

Drawing and Animation gets  9.3/10 with lots of interesting things being done flawlessly by the studio and some really great combination of 3D and 2D for the mechas.

Audio gets 8.8/10, not because the music isn’t as awesome as the animation, but because they tend to use the best bit from Sousei no Aquarion (the song that is :D) whenever a fight is about to be won. It’s obviously meant to make things epic (and it DEFINITELY manages to), but I give it a little less cred for not making some more epic songs to play in such moments. The sound-effects and BGMs are quite simply flawless and fit very well with the surroundings they’re used in.

Story gets a solid 9/10 with its interesting and quite unique template, where even the core of the plot isn’t quite as simple as it usually is in most stories. The symbolism is well chosen and it all just really works.

Characters get a 8.5/10 for having a really great cast, but not fully developing or getting closer to several of them. The series itself seems to be, as I mentioned earlier, more focused on developing them as a group, although it does go in close on the pasts of several of them. Still, you won’t be remembering some of the names afterwards, sadly. Also, Fudo.

All things counted together, I’d give the entire series a 9/10. It’s one of the best series I have seen and it should be very worth giving a watch, though it may not necessarily suit fans of mecha.

Alright, I’ve got Bokurano on my to-do list, but my next post will probably inform you of what anime I’m following and I’ll be focusing on covering the new episodes of those ^^