Quote:
Originally Posted by MrProphet
So, what, the OVA is serious straight-laced Great Robot style mecha? With MANLYNESS and ANGST?
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Well, no. It's not suddenly turned into GaoGaiGar or anything. It's more like Macross Zero in tone and construction, although without the massive amounts of environmental stuff (although there is a little!). There is a bit of manly screaming, but it's not even particularly overblown or anything now; it's just...serious.
The more I think about Wings of Betrayal (incidentally, the OVA series should really just be called Aquarion - there's a different "sou" kanji in "sousei" which obviously doesn't translate well to English, and the second episode will be called Wings of Glory) the more I like it, actually. It's more like what I expected Aquarion to be when it first started airing; Apollo, for example, isn't really that different a character, but his traits are made to fit in better with the tone of the show. I'm going to have to go into spoilers to really talk about the OVA to try and get across what I mean and how it affects the tone of the show...
Spoiler:
Sirius has died in battle prior to the OVA beginning, so Silvia's onii-chan complex has turned into a desire for vengeance against the Shadow Angels; she is far less immature, and although she clashes with Apollo still it's more because he kidnaps her and Reika and imprisons them...
Apollo himself is now someone who lives in the forest, having been spiritually brought up by Fudou Gen. This is where the "Arjuna" bits come in a little - basically, he refuses to get involved in the fight against the Shadow Angels because of how the battles hurt the uninvolved animals etc., as every time DEAVA fights the mecha squash everything without regard for the fauna etc. As usual for Kawamori, this mostly means bugs, although there's an unintentionally hilarious bit with a monkey trying to swing away through a burning forest when its vine snaps and it falls into the burning undergrowth...
That said, because Apollo is like a hermit his sniffing around makes much more sense as he relies on his nose to hunt prey etc. He has moments where he's not deadly serious, and he still does his manly bit when he's actually piloting the Aquarion because you can't pilot a mecha without a bit of shouting, but everyone is much more restrained than the TV series.
The 12,000 years ago backstory is also changed somewhat by the introduction of Scorpius, who may or may not be Reika's past incarnation (the show is making it a little confusing as to which of Celiane and Scorpius the two girls are; the visual correlation would make sense, but both of them have visions of the past from the other's viewpoint). In this version, Scorpius is a prominent Queen of the human world with Celiane her servant; when Apollonius defects, he eventually falls in love with Celiane and this pisses off Scorpius, which presumably (although we haven't seen the lead up to it) leads her to stabbing Apollonius in the back and killing him. The trailer for Wings of Glory suggests that she wanted to become a Shadow Angel but was spurned by either Apollonius or Toma.
On the angst front, there is obviously some (from Silvia, mainly) but I would actually say there's probably less than there was in the TV series. Admittedly that's probably because this is only the first episode and Wings of Glory looks to be angst-tastic (the storyline where Silvia is infected by one of Toma's feathers is still in the show, for instance) but it's more dramatic than emo, in my opinion.
Perhaps I'm being blinded by my love for all things Kawamori, but I do think it's worth giving the OVA a shot even without the spazz. it's not the same, sure, but I do think it's an interesting take on the Aquarion story and it's far from being a trainwreck.