This is a show review for "Aquarion", released in 2005. I rewatched this in July 2021 via Funimation, English dubbed.
I have been wondering if I should potentially review shows as I watch a lot of shows but the effort that it takes to watch a show and then try to review it afterwards is a lot more than watching a 2.5 hour movie and reviewing it. For one, there are not too many show reviewers (as far as I know). For two, it can be harder to get the basic information about the shows because some shows are very niche. I'm of course talking about animes because you have to deal with the fact that there are original language versions (Japanese, Chinese, French, etc) and there are the English dubbed versions. Talk about trying to get information from anime geeks.... There's so many things that could go wrong with putting out incorrect information about anime shows, aside opinions, that I have just avoided it until now.
The reason that I wanted to say something about this show is that when I first saw this show about 8-12 years ago, I loved it. The show hasn't changed but my understanding of the themes has. I have no set criteria to rate shows yet so I'll try to touch the main points of my usual reviews.
Trailer
Genre: Science Fiction, Mecha, Action, Adventure, Military
Plot: Twelve thousand years ago, there were some warriors that fought against the Shadow Angels (beings that consider themselves to be higher intelligence than humans and are not necessarily humanoid shaped). One warrior was Apollonius and another was Seliane. Apollonius fell in love with Seliane and they stood up against the way the Shadow Angels were treating humans. They defeated the Shadow Angels enough to have the Shadow Angels leave them alone. Present day, however, the Shadow Angels are back to drain the prana (life force) from humans so that they can stay alive and to feed the Tree of Life.
After 12,000 years, reincarnations of Seliane and Apollonius are due to return to the face of the planet. The question is who are they? Could it be this mangy street urchin? Could it be this stuck-up princess? How do the humans, with the help of the mechas (3 vectors that can merge to become Aquarion), stand up against the Shadow Angels? Is there a way to defeat the Shadow Angels forever, so that the humans do not have to worry about being harvested for prana?
Review
3.5/5 - *SPOILERS*
This is a cute anime. It is short series of 26 episodes, running about 25 minutes long.
Reincarnation is obviously one of the main themes of the show because everyone is wondering who is the reincarnation of Apollonius and Seliane. The other themes that I understood better this round were chakras, connections with the earth, spiritualisitic relations to each other, being able to see through vibes and auras (instead of sight), the sexualistic aspects of merging the spirit with each other when they merge the vectors into Aquarion, etc. For anyone that is willing to open their mind to other thoughts, feel free to watch this. When the three pilots ("Elements") merge their mecha Vectors into Aquarion, though, it really does look like they are have that "O" face/reaction. Talk about....well.... If you're not prepared or if you're a prude, it is awkward. :-P.
From all of these points, I would say this is not necessarily an anime to show a child [or to anyone who is a staunch institutional-religion person] because of the sexual and spiritual aspects.
The way that these points and themes are shown might be odd but they can be very subtle too. The artwork is awesome (except one episode where the prana harvester takes them into a different plane of existence and the art style is changed for half the episode). The music is wonderful, in my opinion.
From a second viewing of this show, I would still have to say that it is worth watching but not necessarily the "greatest anime out there". There are other shows that I would watch over this (Busou Renkin being the first to come to mind atm) but it is kind of a classic considering it is now over 15 years old. Then again, so are InuYasha and Sailor Moon and DBZ and Naruto so what can I say? It is interesting and cute.
Oh, but the ending of the show left me with a "wtf, is that it?" feeling. I can see why they came out with a second series a few years later (Genesis of Aquarion OVA) to give more to the story but then again, I have never had much interest in anything more than the 26 episodes. I also hear there are series called Aquarion EVOL and a Aquarion Logos. Looking at Funimation atm on July 25, 2021, they do have Aquarion, Aquarion EVOL, and Aquarion Logos.
Anyways, though the ending left me wanting a "afterwards" bit, this is still an entertaining show in my opinion. Feel free to try it out if you wish. (And yes, I may eventually watch Aquarion EVOL and Aquarion Logos.)
Thank you for reading my review! More reviews to come eventually.
~ Gracie Mae DeLunac
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