Anime

Anime Review: Aquarion DVD Set One

I purchased Aquarion mostly on impulse, like I usually do when I’m looking for new things.  I had seen it advertised in some of the other Funimation sets I had purchased and was intrigued by the design.  The fact that Funimation released it right off the bat in 13 episode sets was also a selling point, since I could get more of the show at once without waiting (or waffling on the decision to actually purchase the DVDs).

Though the decision to pick up this series was made rather flippantly, I’ve been pleased with the purchase.  Aquarion isn’t a masterpiece by any means, but it stands up well as part of my collection.  If you aren’t interested in dropping the cash on the show, it’s really worth watching – as of the time of this review, the entire first season of the series is available on Netflix.

PLOT

Aquarion is pretty straightforward: good guys plus big robot versus bad guys who want to kill everyone.  As long as you ignore the weird past lives undertones of everything, that is.  The series is set in a world under siege by a group of creatures known as the Shadow Angels, who have returned after being defeated 12,000 years in the past.  It’s a pretty standard plot setup, but it’s not as important to this show as the visuals and action sequences.

Aquarion, the giant robot of this giant robot series, is an intriguing use of the combined vehicle trope.  The mecha consists of three separate ships, or Vectors, each piloted by an Element User.  Each of the vectors takes on characteristics related to its pilot (in typical giant robot linked fashion), and when the Vectors merge Aquarion gains different abilities depending on which pilot supplies the head of the robot.  Since there are several Element Users capable of piloting Aquarion and only three spots available, this allows for many different permutations of abilities that the robot can become.

For the first half of the series, most of the episodes throw the protagonists into battle with the Shadow Angels, forcing the pilots to learn how to control their abilities and the powers of Aquarion.  During these battles, the links that each of the characters has to the battle of 12,000 years past are also explored.  The main thread of these deals with the main protagonists of the ancient war: Solar Wing (Appolonius) and his lover, Celiane.  In the current time, Apollo is believed to be the reincarnation of Solar Wing and Sylvia the reincarnation of his lover.  This undertone colors most of the battles, while an ancient former friend and foe fights alongside the Shadow Angels.

CAST OF NOTE

The voice actors that Funimation has on the dub of Aquarion seem to be a little bit lesser known than some other shows – at least, they’re lesser known to me.  From what I can tell, they did a decent job of matching up the dub actors with the original seiy?.  Beyond that, the English dub works pretty well when allowance is given for the shallowness of the characters – any of the faults I found with the performances were due to the character as written and not the actor.

• Apollo: Takuma Terashima/Christopher Bevins
• Silvia de Alisia: Yumi Kakazu/Brina Palencia
• Sirius de Alisia: Tomokazu Sugita/Eric Vale
• Hong Lihua/Reika: Sanae Kobayashi/Colleen Clinkenbeard
• Pierre Vieira: Masaya Onosaka/Travis Willingham
• Gen Fudou: Unshou Ishizuka/Brandon Potter
• Toma: Toshiyuki Morikawa/J. Michael Tatum

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH

Big robots, nicely scaling techniques, powers, and bad guys to fight.  There is also quite a bit of story that hangs around and doesn’t quite get in the way of the action.  The characters can be rather one-dimensional, but the show manages to work around that somewhat by having many different characters, each with his or her own problems and skills.  The animation is excellent, with a mix of traditional animation for the people and computer graphics for the mecha effects.  And boy, are the mecha effects good.  In fact, it seems like most of the work putting this series together went into designing the robot and its various combinations.

For those with an interest in anime music, Yoko Kanno was responsible for the music in Aquarion, and it shows.  The music is definitely well done, and I certainly can’t get the closing theme out of my head.

WHY YOU SHOULDN’T WATCH

If you don’t like giant robots, than this one isn’t for you.  It’s not a powerhouse like Gurren Lagann or anything like that, and there isn’t anything that would bring a non-mecha fan into the show.  The characters are pretty one-dimensional as well, and their dialogue is not very inspired.  Each episode can be a little formulaic as well: Gen Fudou presents them with a challenge at the beginning of the episode, and they encounter an enemy that can only be defeated by realizing the truth of the lesson.  This begins to get better toward the end of the first set of DVDs, but that’s certainly a long time to wait if you aren’t interested in the first place.

CONCLUSION

Aquarion is an enjoyable series.  Definitely worth viewing, if maybe not buying.  If you want to add this show to your collection, Funimation did an excellent job of releasing Aquarion in box sets right from the beginning, and as of now there is a full series box set available.  As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, both set one and two are also available on Netflix, though not for instant viewing.  The bottom line is that this is a series with excellent production values and a great giant robot – if the outside trappings don’t really measure up to the mecha, the action can certainly stand on its own.