Cinnamon Ass - Reborn Like a Zombie

Sousei no Aquarion Episode 14 - Shining Shadows

Silvia goes to talk to Sophia when she starts having dreams where she is Apollo - this is, of course, an excuse to reminisce about some of the moments the two of them have shared, while Sophia tells Silvia that she shouldn't let her past life rule her entirely as she IS still her own person. Meanwhile, Toma reassures Johannes, despite Moroha's objections, that he will recover all of the feathers they seek and personally make sure the Wing of the Sun is torn into little pieces.

Another Cherubim is sent out, with the power of invisibility, and Reika, Pierre and Jun go out to face it - Reika's psychic tracking and Jun's analysis, however, are too slow to keep up with it, and they end up getting pounded. When Apollo finds Baron's scarf in the woods, he regresses into Apollonius mode and returns to DEAVA, enabling him, Silvia and Sirius to transfer in to replace those already in the Vector Machines - however, Silvia's doubts about her real feelings and who Apollo really is cause the Mars Vector Machine to disappear, with Apollo inside it. Silvia searches her real feelings after lashing out against Sirius' misunderstanding of the situation to realise how much she really cares about Apollo after realising his feelings about Baron when she touches his scarf. Thus Apollo reappears, they kick Cherubim ass, everyone is reconciled once more. Aaaw.

Considing this was basically a recap episode, at least they got a fair whack of new stuff in. I reckon the OP must be changing next episode, as reported on Victor's official website, as this obviously seemed to be wrapping up the first half of the series nicely - I assume the DEAVA team will be going after the feathers as well as attempting to stop the Shadow Angels for the rest of the show, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. Not much else to say, really - all good fun, although obviously not as great as the last two episodes were.

Except that the Naruto pisstake nearly made me wet myself laughing, and it wasn't even that funny...

Sousei no Aquarion Episode 13 - A Twelve Thousand Year Old Love Letter

Wow, yet another great Aquarion episode! Watching out for spoilers once more, so we're off to the extended entry again. The show really seems to be hitting its stride here - however, I'm not sure whether I've got all the details of this episode right, so please correct me if that's the case. I was utterly gripped the whole way through, to be honest - thumbs up all round!

PS - someone out there must want to buy me this, right? I can cope without mecha models and I can afford the manga when it comes out, and a DVD release is so inevitable that I can pass on the amazing looking R2s, but I'm desperate to pick up the game despite the fact that it is no doubt absolutely rubbish.

We pick up where we left off last time, with Toma trying to seduce Apollo back to the Shadow Angels by reminding him of the wonderful things they did when he was Apollonius - flying across the Sun, listening to whale song in the ocean, all other sorts of romantic things. All Apollo wants, however, is Baron back - so Toma tells him he's ugly and toddles along back into the Cherubim with Otoha, before telekinetically throwing the Aquarion into the shield protecting the base. Reika allows it through to stop it being electrocuted, but Toma reveals his trump card - Baron, in an explosive prison. Apollo throws all sense out the window to try and rescue Baron and, with Pierre's angsty encouragement despite Silvia's protestations, breaks through the shield and rescues him. However, in freeing Baron, Apollo drops the bombed prison - the explosion not only takes out the shield but vaporises Baron before Apollo can protect him.

Incapacitated by grief, Apollo is pinned to a wall in an echo of 12,000 years ago by Toma. After Pierre beseeches him to act on behalf of his friends, Apollo goes berserk, ripping the Aquarion free from its arms and creating new ones from the Lunar Aquarion. As Apollo attempts to kill Toma, he escapes the Cherubim and heads for the research facility where the feather is being kept - Apollo and Silvia head off in hot pursuit, and Tsugumi and Reika transfer in to take their places.

Apollo's attacks are almost totally useless against Toma, and even Sirius (who snaps out of his torpor to help out) is ensnared in vines, along with Silvia. Toma tries once more to convince Apollo to return to him, revealing that the gauntlets Silvia and Sirius wear contain the essence of Apollonius' ruined wings and enticing him to return to his one true family, but Apollo refuses once more. Toma starts to choke him to death, but when Tsugumi blows up the Cherubim (after Otoha escapes) the blast also vapourises the feather - Toma leaves and returns to Atlantis, transferring his affections to Otoha at last. While Silvia is concerned with Apollo's wellbeing, Sirius immediately goes on the offensive, blaming Apollo for being "polluted" with Apollonius' wings (obviously Sirius is a racist as well as a snob!).

Later that evening, at DEAVA headquarters, Apollo gives Silvia the fertility goddess figurine she picked up before as thanks, and they seem to be reaching a pivotal moment - however, the full reality of Baron's death hits Apollo, and he runs away into the mountains screaming in sorrow.

Come ON, Sirius MUST have something to with Toma - note how Toma kissed his finger to ward him off, just like Sirius himself does! And another random note - I'm really glad Otoha survived, for some reason, despite her playing a very, very small role in everything thus far. And, as Fudou himself says, don't believe the preview...

What an awesome episode - aside from the generally kickass action and plot, I'm particularly glad Baron's dead just so that we can move on a little from Apollo's Baron-rescuing obsession (although if it's Baron-grief from here in on there may be screaming!), and I think Toma's an awesome villain so lots of him was very much appreciated. Animation was great, we got some new pieces of bombastic choral and orchestral music (I liked the piano intro to the OP theme's use in the Aquarion battle in particular) and basically I need to stop gushing. True, it's Aquarion, I don't think anyone's likely to really think it was as great as I did, but hey, I liked it, and that's what counts!

Sousei no Aquarion Episode 12 - The Time of Amber

A spoilery episode (at LAST!) so this one's going in the extended entry.

Overall, though - wow, a really rather good episode! Lots of juicy backstory nuggets and some other plot developments here alongside the usual Aquarion stuff, but that's exactly what I've been after - bravo!

A DEAVA submarine discovers a twelve thousand year-old feather encased in amber whilst exploring some ancient submerged ruins. Jean-Jerome and Sophia examine it while the Element Candidates take some time off in town - Silvia, Apollo and Sirius clash once more in an antique shop before they all head back to take a look at the feather's extraction, an event which certainly interests Toma and Johannes in particular.

As the feather is extracted, it has a remarkable effect upon Rina and Sirius - Rina babbles about the Tree of Life and the beginning of the world before falling unconscious (listen to the OP for some more references...), whilst Sirius hears strange singing and barricades himself in his room as his arm throbs in mysterious pain. Silvia and Apollo sneak into the room where the feather is held later on that evening, concerned about its effects - when they touch it, however, it jolts them into remembering more about their past lives.

Apollonius used to be a hardcore Shadow Angel until he met (and fell in love with) Serian, a human. Their love was forbidden, and also got in the way of Apollonius' betrothal to Toma - for his betrayal, they nailed his wings to a wall and threatened to execute Serian. However, as Moroha was about to deal the fatal blow, Apollonius ripped his wings off to block the blow.

Apollo and Silvia are jolted back to the present by the arrival of another Cherubim, however, and they head out with Pierre to face it - but this time, it is both Toma and Otoha who come to fight, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Baron is going to be involved somewhere this time...

So much to comment on! I'm almost certain that Sirius is some sort of reincarnation of Toma (although I don't know how that would work), so we've got some extremely odd relationship polygons going on here. Plus, what's up with the Tree of Life and the beginning of the world? I thought the Tree might be that cactus thing in Atlantis, but I'm not totally convinced - and 12,000 years ago wasn't the beginning of the world, despite what the show might want us to think. I think the underwater murals might also be interesting to have a look at for plot hints (but I can't be bothered right now as it's 1:30 in the morning!).

Plus Apollo and Silvia get closer, aaaw. Predictable, but jolly. I think they're both cringingly embarassing enough for each other, actually - Apollo's armpit hair antics and Silvia's fertility goddess statue blunders suit each other in their naivete!

Sousei no Aquarion Episode 11 - The Happiness of the Sea Bottom

Reika becomes steadily more and more convinced that she brings bad luck on everyone - she fouls up the weather, makes Gren's condition worse, and causes Tsugumi to "explode" when a routine repair of her computer causes visions of ghostly children to appear. She decides to run away from DEAVA and heads for a train station, where Apollo confronts her and tells her that, while it IS her fault that she's bringing bad luck on everyone, she has to change it herself.

As Reika reminisces about good times with Gren and Sirius, she heads straight into the warzone of the next Cherubim attack - the Cherubim has been lurking beneath a lake and sucking people in to harvest their Purana. Sirius, Silvia and a substitute in the form of Apollo head in to confront the Cherubim, but Reika's zone of absolute misfortune (there's a reason for the Escaflowne reference!) screws up their gattai sequence and they start to drown - Apollo is attacked by the ghostly children once more, while Silvia and Sirius begin to freeze. As Apollo psychically appeals to Reika, she decides to embrace her misfortune and leaps into the water, replacing Sirius and forming a distinctly inverse Aquarion Mars (the looks of disgust on Apollo and Silvia's faces as they combine are priceless!) - using the newly coined "Unlucky Bottom Attack", they burst the jellyfish-esque Cherubim and save the ghost children, who were kids trapped on a school bus that the Cherubim had absorbed and was preparing to take back to Atlantis. To cap things off, Gren gets moved to another facility.

This whole episode felt like a little homage to Escaflowne to some extent. The tarot card that Reika draws (The Tower) is the first card that Hitomi draws in her bedroom as she reads for Amano - it means separation, hence why it gets flashed up again at the end when Reika finds out that Gren has been transferred elsewhere. What with all the fate/destiny/fortune talk as well, I'm sure there must have been SOME intent to reference the earlier show - especially as Reika takes a decidedly odd stance on it by embracing her misfortune instead of changing it like Hitomi tries to do.

Any excuse for me to waffle a bit about Escaflowne is a good excuse.

Anyway, I really rather enjoyed this episode - some nice Reika character development added to the usual spazz-and-lovely-animation made this episode a particularly enjoyable experience. Even better, next episode appears to have more Apollonius and Serian stuff, which is ALWAYS a good thing for Aquarion.

Sousei no Aquarion Episode 10 - The Stars in the Sky, The Flowers on the Earth

Sirius and Apollo fight. Again. Apollo gets the upper hand before he. Pierre and Silvia get called out to battle the latest Cherubim, Iskuron (which is Greek for "forceful thing", incidentally), which can split in two and fly around. Apollo's rash insistence on being the head means that Silvia takes the brunt of the damage when they are utterly trashed, landing her in intensive care as the Iskuron vanishes. Siriua and Apollo clash once more as Sirius rejects Apollo's attempts to help her (admittedly with lizards, but still...) and this time Sirius has the upper hand in his fury at Apollo's cavalier attitude to Silvia's safety.

Iskuron reappears and Sirius takes Silvia's place - however, although Aquarion Luna is hopeless against the splitting power of Iskuron, Sirius is oblivious in his drive to protect Silvia that he's in danger of killing her. After a quick wake-up courtesy of Apollo, they use Solar Aquarion and manage to win by creating a double Infinity Punch to knock out both parts - Sirius and Apollo are for the moment reconciled, while Iskuron's creators, the pilot Moroha and the craftsman Lensi, are left in conflict with Toma and Otoha.

While again we're still vaguely filler-ish, it's nice to see that there HAS been some character development, especially for Apollo and Silvia. Some of the artwork was abysmal this episode - towards the beginning Silvia's face looked like it had been sat on - but overall the animation was pretty good as usual, and the episode structure was a little more interesting than the usual lesson-fight template Aquarion goes for. I think I mainly just enjoy the dynamic between the three leads quite a lot, so whenever they're fighting amongst themselves I really get involved, much like in episode 7.

As usual, looking ahead to the next episode - Reika realises her uselessness and runs away! Although quite why she ends the episode preview with "PYON!" I don't really know...

Sousei no Aquarion Episode 9 - The Route of Dreams

The latest Shadow Angel attack is to trap children and teenagers' souls in their sleep to sap their Purana, so Fudou's newest line of attack is to have all the Element Candidates sleep to try and catch the Cherubim responsible, Titania. Of course, this is Aquarion, so we get plenty of crack-induced dream sequences as a result, from Jun serving tea to a robot dog to Reika being chased by giant Noh Masks (perhaps most interesting is the small flash of odd symbols before we enter Sirius' dream, including Da Vinci's Everyman and a Fruits Basket-esque rabbit figurine - some clues to Sirius' past life, perhaps?).

Anyway, Apollo manages to smell that something's up and doesn't get tricked by Titania, although he wakes up with chokemarks (what hurts you in the dreamscape hurts you in the real world). Only he, Chloe, Pierre and Silvia have escaped, and the first three head back into the dream world to face Titania, sleeping in their cockpits - only Apollo makes it in properly to start with, and faces off against a dreamscape version of Sirius in a sword battle that hurts both of them until Silvia screams for them to stop - Apollo and co. use the "Route of Dreams" to transfer their Vector Machines into the dreamscape (who cares if it doesn't make sense?) and face off against Titania - as she uses her Gorgon-esque snake tentacles to sap the life out of them, Sirius manages to inspire Silvia to "head ot the other side of the dream!" (blech) - she knocks herself out to transfer in instead of Chloe, and she takes control of Aquarion Luna to shoot Titania and her various clones. Everyone can sleep easy, and Fudou brings Apollo back from being lost in the dreamscape with a bowl of rice - as always, he's hungry.

More filler, which is a bit of a shame, but at least it's half-decent filler at that - the usual levels of Aquarion crack (which aren't really having the same hysterical effect on me they were earlier on in the series, but are still enjoyably silly) and a fairly enjoyable, if slightly cliched, story. I just REALLY want to get onto some kind of over-arching plot line soon, that's all.

Sousei no Aquarion Episode 8 - The First Union

Tsugumi and Jun are very nervous about their first potential Aquarion union, and each goes to their respective sempais for advice - Tsugumi to the embarassed Reika, and Jun to the rather overly randy Pierre. While they successfully unite in training, Tsugumi gets incredibly nervous about it and causes things to start exploding when her heart rate peaks (unsurprisingly given that Jun manages to get a picture of her heart beating transmitted all around the DEAVA headquarters - nice going, mate), which seems to be her special Element power - although she's called on to fight with Apollo and Jun, she runs off and has an Angsty Backstory Moment where it's revealed that she blew up her home town and was ostracised because of it as a kid. Pierre swaps in instead of her and gets beaten up by the Cherubim, which has an incredibly tough outer shell - Reika transfers in and also gets beaten up, and it takes this plus Jun's imploring to get Tsugumi in to help. Cue gattai, and Tsugumi's "Psychometric Bomb" technique blows up the Cherubim, thus making her happy.

Oh dear, that was a bit dull. Tsugumi and Jun just aren't all that interesting, unfortunately - Tsugumi's only defining character traits are that she's a bit of a wuss and she has a crush on Reika, while Jun's is that he likes Tsugumi - big deal, neither of them are important enough characters for me to really care, and if they'd been in more than about one episode so far I might have been more interested. There were some decent crack-induced moments as usual - new gattai sequences are always worthwhile, especially Jun's - but overall this was generally rather meh. Ah well, one bum episode isn't the end of the world.

Sousei no Aquarion Episode 7 - The Knight of the Crimson Rose

Silvia attempts to get a Greek book on gems of power out of the library for Sirius, but gets pissed off when Reika won't let her - of course, Reika ends up giving it to him herself. An argument breaks out between Silvia, Sirius and Apollo yet AGAIN over who the real Wing of the Sun is, Apollo calling Sirius on his prejudice against Apollo's less than upper class background - as Silvia runs away, she flashes back to her past life as Seria and the moment when Apollonius saved her from certain death at Toma's hands - Seria arises from her unconscious state to discover a crystal like the one from the ED sequence lying before her as the only remnant of Apollonius.

After Sirius notes that the Shadow Angels have formed a pentagon of power nodes, he flies in to investigate with Silvia and Apollo but they are all caught in a Shadow Angel trap that attacks their minds based on their fears - Sirius is scared of disappointing his family (he is a prince of the Kingdom of Alicia, and has been told all his life he is the Wing of the Sun - but obviously that's not true!), Silvia of abandonment by Sirius, and Apollo of being worthless (and losing Baron, obviously). As they start to attack each other, Reika snaps Sirius out of it by reaching him telepathically, and he manages to destroy the power generator (which turns out to be inspired by a rose Sirius left at the scene of a battle), but the team's confidence is severely shaken.

As was I, oddly, and I'm not sure why. I actually found most of the second half of the episode surprisingly effective; I wasn't expecting quite this level of drama from Aquarion, with very little spazzy humour at all (aside from Kurt and Chloe's vibrating sideburns and Apollo's arachnid antics) and some rather good performances from our three leads in particular. We had some interesting hints dropped here about the past, too, which I continue to find particularly intriguing for some reason - I don't think there will be an amazingly epic backstory or anything, but I really like the character designs for Seria and Apollonius so I'm always happy to see more of them.

Bizarrely enough, I completely forgot who Pierre was during this episode, so that when I looked at the next episode preview on the official website I momentarily couldn't remember who he was (and why does it look like he's going to rape Jun?). Perhaps that sums up my opinion of him...

Sousei no Aquarion Episode 6 - To the Other Side of Emotions

The Element Candidates have an Image Power (aka psychic doodad) training session. As Lina monitors their progress, they pair up and attempt to hit each other from a great distance with their powers, all without much success as Gen waffles on about moving mountains and his usual cliched tripe. Sirius and Reika continue to grow closer, much to Silvia's annoyance, while she flashes back to her past life as Seria.

After all this, we have to tie the theme of the episode in with a mecha fight, so this week's Cherubim is able to dodge attacks by running backwards very, very quickly, thus getting out of range - a couple of motivational speeches, some Silvia action and a bit of mecha mocking later, Solar Aquarion deals with it with one of the most amusing mecha weapons I've ever seen - an infinitely extendable punch that ends up socking the Cherubim into the Moon. It even works round corners!

Also - Toma plays with fairies.

I'm not really sure what to say about this episode, to be honest. Aquarion's been in filler mode for a while now, which is fair enough given the point of the series which we're at, and while it's certainly still enjoyable (although possibly on actual merit, rather than sheer spazz - who'd have thunk?), there's not a lot I can say other than commenting on the amazing retardation of some parts of it.

Incidentally, since I am suffering the following mental image afer this episode, I think I should share it with the class - Sirius. As Cupid. In a nappy with little fluffy wings. I NEED A NEW BRAIN NOW.

Sousei no Aquarion Episode 5 - King of the Underground Labyrinth

Apollo keeps having nightmares about Baron, so decides to go off hunting for him by escaping to the Vector Machine hangar. Of course, when his disappearance is discovered, the Element Candidates have to go out searching on Gen's orders. However, he and Sophia have laced the caverns and tunnels of the DEAVA headquarters with death traps. So while his students are teetering on the brink of danger and relationships are deepening, Gen and Sophia take the piss and flirt with each other. Nice.

Anyway, unsurprisingly Apollo makes it to the Vector Machines and launches, with Pierre and Silvia in hot pursuit. Their latest Cherubim foe is hidden beneath the ground, and the infighting between the Element Candidates threatens to wreck their chances of defeating him - however, Pierre's angsty backstory brings them all together once more.

Aaaah, the power of football is transcendental. Unfortunately, this episode dipped a bit in animation quality, but given that the animation is generally stellar I suppose it's not that bad. Otherwise, we must note that yet AGAIN the Aquarion team doesn't complete their mission successfully - despite being ever so nifty and always defeating the Cherubim, they ALWAYS let the harvester units get away! Ah well, it adds angst, and angst is always good - although I hope Apollo gets to face off against Baron relatively quickly, because that's currently his only defining character trait (and pretty much the only word he says most of the time!).

Sousei no Aquarion Episode 4 - Barefoot Soldiers

Apollo reminisces about how he got his name (Baron gave it to him because he's steamy and hot like the Sun. Seriously. Well, about as seriously as Aquarion gets.) while the warriors of Atlantis gather before one of their number, Johannes, who appears to be chained up and demands that they capture the Solar Wing (which pleases Toma no end). Yet this is all subservient to Gen's latest training technique, where he analyses all the Element Candidates through their feet.

Yes. That's right. He analyses their balance and personalities through their poise and bearing. Cue lots of people falling over, Gen's Cheesy Theme of the Week (this week, it's learning to run before you can walk and babies and stuff) and Rina revealing that Gen has such perfect balance that she sees him as a "pillar of light". So of course, to tie all this together, the Cherubim this time round uses special shockwave attacks to unbalance the Aquarion when Pierre is in control, but Apollo manages to resonate with the Earth (it's Arjuna all over again - watch out for the bit with the CG ants and their musical footsteps too!) and stand up straight and tall, thus overcoming this obstacle and defeating the Cherubim.

Okay, the minute we see Gen write the kanji for "naked" at the beginning of this episode we know something's up. Although poor Apollo appears to have no genitals, which is a sad fate indeed, this matters little in the grand scheme of things as I'm left just wondering what the HELL I was just watching. The secret to perfect balance is wearing no shoes? I was half expecting everyone to be walking around with books on their heads...

Utterly, utterly insane. Just quite what the production staff are smoking I have no idea. But I think I want some.

I've been trying to work out which bits of the music are by Yoko Kanno and which by Hisaaki Hogari - I'm really not familiar with the latter's style (having only recently got into Akino Arai's music) but I'm pretty sure that the music during this episode's fight was by him. Personally, though, I'm dying for a copy of the soundtrack just for the next episode preview music - crazy chanting ahoy!

I've taken down the OP now, I'm sure that you can either buy the CD yourself or go a-hunting for the MP3.

Sousei no Aquarion Episode 3 - Element School

OP - Sousei no Aquarion (AKINO) - the song is awesome, the animation...I'm not sure. There's a few bits of footage from the first episode and so on which slightly spoil the effect, but there are some great moments in there.

Two new Element Candidates, Tsugumi and Jun, arrive at DEAVA headquarters and settle in to classes at the Element School - Apollo joins in at the same time, however, and things get off to a bad start when their first pilot simulation session goes completely bonkers. Afterwards, as Sophia attempts to penetrate Apollo's wild exterior as Silvia eavesdrops, another Cherubim attack forces Reika, Sirius and Silvia into action - with Apollo along for the ride in Silvia's Vector Machine. When Reika flashbacks once more, Pierre is called in to replace her, and the three combine to form Aquarion Mars (with Sirius at the head wielding a sword). While they defeat one Cherubim, another escapes with its harvest of humans, reminding the Candidates that reality and simulation are not the same thing.

Oh, who cares about the stupid moral of the episode. This episode is just filled with incredible levels of idiotic dorkiness and coolness alternating throughout. To go with the shounen ai we've now got some yuri vibes between Tsugumi (who fulfils the meganekko quota for the series...is there a male term for blokes wearing glasses in anime?) and Reika, the whole simulation scene cracked me up something rotten (even if it was terribly predictable) and the cheesy goodness of the mecha battles ("MOERUUUUUUUU!". Pierre is an idiot.) thrills me silly, and on the flipside we got some interesting character development for a lot of the cast alongside the usual awesome animation.

Needless to say, I seem to be able to turn all the fundamentally awful things about Aquarion into positive aspects in my head - mainly because it makes me laugh so much. The show is settling down a bit - Silvia is getting less annoying, a big plus point - but there's still so much dorkiness it's really not for everyone. But hey, I love it, and that's all that counts for me. Plus I defy you not to laugh at Sirius throughout most of this episode - "Formation Codename - Form of Beauty!" *hairflick*.

Sousei no Aquarion Episode 2 - The Beast of Darkness

Still no OP, but we do have an ED - Omna Magni (Yui Makino) - how...odd. Makino's singing voice sounds just like Gabriela Robin (who wrote the lyrics), so we have a slightly baby-ish, strangely melodic music-box tune set to Da Vinci-esque drawings. It's growing on me.

Toma, the sleeping Shadow Angel, awakens to the news of the return of the Solar Wing. Meanwhile, Apollo is forcibly interrogated by Gen, the leader of DEAVA (the organisation in charge of the Vector Machines and the Elements) before the mysteriously vampiric Rina quizzes him as to his true nature. While the Element candidates deal with the fallout of last week's episode, Reika goes out in a team with Sirius and Silvia to fend off the next Shadow Angel attack. However, Reika suffers debilitating flashbacks, such that Apollo forcibly takes her place to fight the Cherubim. While they successfully defeat it, Otoha uses her song to transfer Toma's soul inside the Cherubim, with disastrous consequences for Apollo...

Remember what I said about not watching any more raws? Well, seems that was a lie.

Aquarion was a bit iffy when I first watched it, you may recall. Then I found myself rewatching the "SOUSEI GATTAI!!!" sequence from the first episode over and over again - I chalked this up to listening to what will eventually be the opening song. Now I find myself sitting with a dictionary on hand puzzling over vocab and actively considering where all this is going after two episodes. Basically, I'm hooked.

We've basically got all the elements I look for in a decent mecha show now we've got past the initial inordinate amounts of cheese (it's still fairly cheesy - the white rose scene and the 2001-esque fight between Aquarion and Thoma in particular are very, very silly - but I don't really care). Angsty character dynamics, gorgeous animation (say what you like about the CG, I think it's great), kickass music and a properly intriguing plot - if Sirius isn't the Solar Wing, who is his past incarnation? Why is Toma so obsessed with Apollonius (fangirls at the ready)? Why is Pierre a flaming footballer? (the last of these may not be so interesting).

I know it's derivative, I know it's stupid, but I can't wait for the next episode. I just hope there's a bloody opening sequence next time!

Sousei no Aquarion Episode 1 - Memories of an Angel

No OP and ED yet (I don't think, the ED has no music credit so I don't think it's permanent).

Genesis Year 11, after a great disaster of some kind. The Earth is under attack from "Fallen Angels", who use their hypnotic powers to harvest and control human beings. The only line of defense are the "Element Candidates", youths with special powers and a shield against this hypnosis. They work in groups of three, piloting Vector Machines which are able to combine to form an "Aquarion", a giant robot. After a mysterious prophecy that the "Wings of the Sun", the hero of Atlantis, has awakened in a town of ice, two of the Elements, Silvia and Pierre, check this out, and discover the feral Apollo, who scavenges on the streets. When the town is attacked by the Fallen Angels, however, his true colours are revealed in the nick of time, and together with Silvia and her older brother Sirius they fight back against the invading Fallen Angel. However, Silvia and Apollo appear to have some kind of special connection, and the Fallen Angels are aware of his existence...

Prior to going in to Aquarion, I'd already heard that it was absolutely terrible. However, since this was without doubt the one show I was looking forward to the most this season, and I am a huge Kawamori fanboy, I still was willing to give it a chance. While I fear it hasn't lived up to my (ludicrous) expectations, I certainly wouldn't say it was awful, although it has its share of flaws.

Basically, Aquarion is INCREDIBLY cliched. It really is just like every other mecha show imaginable, with lame cheesey attack names being called out all the time, an annoyingly cocky (yet amazingly talented) lead character, teenage pilots only suitable because of their "purity of heart, body and spirit" (*retch*), a cookie-cutter cast (Silvia has a crush on her brother, there's a goth loli vampire psychic, etc. etc.) and fairly standard angst and comedy.

Yet for some reason, these don't annoy me as much as they ought to. The animation is simply incredible throughout (it must be going to drop in quality from here, though), the music is pretty decent (unsurprisingly, and we haven't really heard the OP or ED yet!), and...well, I'm an absolute sucker for psychic powers, anything with angels and funky mecha combat. I may well change my tune upon seeing a subbed version of the show, I'm assuming the dialogue is pretty dire, but as it stands while Aquarion looks to offer absolutely nothing new as yet, the production values are strong enough that I can hope things will improve - the villainous Fallen Angels look promising, and I hope a decent plot will ensue somewhere along the line. Besides, I stuck through Fafner where most faltered from the cliches, and I was definitely well rewarded for the effort there. We'll see how it goes.