▪	RELEASED BY:		FUNIMATION ENTERTAINMENT
		▪	ASPECT RATIO:		16:9 ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN
		▪	AUDIO:		ENGLISH DD 5.1 AND JAPANESE DD 2.0
		▪	RUNNING TIME:		650 MIN
		▪	RATING:		TV MA
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		06/09/2009
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		06/20//2009
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		DAVEY C. JONES

There is hope, However – Mechanical Angel Aquarion!

Powered by three souls intertwined, a rare breed of pilot takes the controls. Known as Elements, one among them must rise if mankind is to survive. Prophecy is being fulfilled as the end of the world approaches…through a swirling cloud of love, betrayal, loss and destiny, the last hope for the new century arrives and takes flight!

REVIEW:
Aquarion has brilliant mecha animation from the director/writer of Macross and Escaflowne, Director Shoji Kawamori, an incredible score thanks to Yoko Kanno, and all the staples of a high quality mecha anime with some stunner curve balls throw in!

Some of this stuff sounds like your regular mecha anime formula. There’s a guy who’s the bright and shiny chosen one who is the last best hope to pilot the mega mecha Aquarion. Apollo has no idea about his destiny, but the organization that has formed to battle the Shadow Angels and use Aquarion know that this wild child is one of the few who can pilot a Vector and be one of the three to form the big mecha that can down the Cherubim mecha of the enemies.

There’s friction between Apollo and the princely and arrogant, perfectly manicured beauty boy prince Sirius. There’s a love triangle involving Sirius’s sister and fellow pilot and equally bratty Silvia. What keeps pulling these three together is their hatred of the enemy and a prophecy that spans 12,000 years.

So, pretty standard mecha story right? So we think, then the curve balls come.  First, it isn’t your standard version of ships converging to form a giant mecha. Only three ships with three pilots that are Elements can do that. What’s more, the three pilots merge not only their ships, but their minds, hearts and souls together. The three become one in order to pilot Aquarion. And there aren’t only those three. DEAVA employs a unique, never before seen in mecha anime, use of backup pilots. Other Elements use a transporter to phase in when one of the three gets out of synch due to injury or instability. Pretty nifty. Because of this, the anime establishes a broader and more in depth supporting cast and goes into various back stories about nearly each of them. In fact, for the first half of the anime, even a little bit more, the main drive to the story sort of falters and the supporting cast is built up better and faster than the main trio. Crazy but true.  In particular the girl who thinks she’s misfortune incarnate, Reina, steals the show and garners the most sympathy. It’s not until the latter half that the story gets more into what’s going on with the main trio.

And what a trio these hot messes of people are! Apollo isn’t just a gifted Element. It looks like he’s the reincarnation of the Shadow Angel Apollonius who sided with the humans in the original war 12,000 years ago. More still, Silvia might be the reincarnation of his human beloved Seliane! It gets into the weird when it turns out that Silvia has a super obsessive crush on her brother Sirius who she, he, and everyone else thought was the reincarnation of the heroic Apollonius, that is, until Apollo showed up and mucked of the works. It gets really screwy when it turns out that the head of the Shadow Angels, big blond and obsessive Toma, was once Apollonius’ lover. After 12,000 years he’s still burned at the way he was dumped for a ‘lowly’ human female. He’s ready to destroy the entire human race because of it. Sure he spouts philosophy and a need to save the world for his kind and all, but at heart it’s the wrath of a dude scorned that gets Apollo and the rest in trouble, especially when Toma starts messing with their heads!

The natural target is pretty boy Sirius with a big chip on his shoulder over being left out in the cold. As far as he’s concerned, his beautiful stately manner has earned him the right to be the reincarnated hero. Apparently the dude has never heard of karma. He buys Toma’s BS hook, line, and sinker, betrays his fellow pilots and is suddenly piloting a Cherubim. It’s all way dastardly. By this time the show is gearing up for the big finale and Silvia has to choose which guy to go for – Apollo or her brother, and all of DEAVA has to deal with the betrayal of one of their finest in a last dash battle to save humanity from one of their own. Or is he? Seems Sirius and his lil’ sis have hidden a pretty big secret from everyone and it’s a big whammy that could dovetail this final fight.

The end will set you back on your keister. You find out, or at least get a pretty strong clue, as to who is really the reincarnated what. The realizations make for a muddled love...quadrangle. And it’s going to be a showdown of love over hatred that will decide the day and the rest of life as we know it.

The animation…wow. The production is by Statelight. It’s done Macross Zero, Macross Frontier (both also worked on by Shoji Kawamori), Hellsing Ultimate, Noein, Aria Origination, etc, etc. All are big top notch sci-fi anime except Hellsing Ultimate which is a stunner of a horror. The mecha battles in Aquarion are exceedingly cool. The movements are lighting fast and dynamic to watch. The Cherubim in particular have lethal combat skills and you see it in their nearly faster than the eye ballets of death against DEAVA and Aquarion. 

If you enjoyed the music of Escaflowne, you’ll love Aquarion’s scoring done by legendary Yoko Kanno who did both anime series. Aquarion’s opening “Sousei no Aquarion” and second opening “GO TIGHT” both sung by AKINO, are catchy with deeper musical underpinnings often found in Kanno’s sophisticated compositions. The score during the anime range from soaring orchestral to more operatic choral music, reminiscent but not identical to Escaflowne.  Aquarion has its own sound and it sounds superb.

EXTRAS:
Extra goodies include trailers of other anime titles along with clean opening and closing animation.

IN SUMMARY:
A mecha anime with some brilliant new takes on mecha and some mature and complicated relationship conflicts brewing! Aquarion is one dynamic series!