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View Poll Results: Aquarion EVOL - Episode 20 Rating
Perfect 10 7 18.92%
9 out of 10 : Excellent 7 18.92%
8 out of 10 : Very Good 12 32.43%
7 out of 10 : Good 5 13.51%
6 out of 10 : Average 4 10.81%
5 out of 10 : Below Average 0 0%
4 out of 10 : Poor 0 0%
3 out of 10 : Bad 0 0%
2 out of 10 : Very Bad 0 0%
1 out of 10 : Painful 2 5.41%
Voters: 37. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 2012-05-14, 16:14   Link #61
Krytonis
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Okay, just finished this episode. I just thought of many things after watching it and learning all the facts. We now know what happened to the women "Iguras" that were taken from Veda. But what really gets me is that I am starting to think that Kagura is Amata's SISTER because of the Curse of Eve that turns women into men. I just get that feeling!
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Old 2012-05-14, 19:39   Link #62
SolarAquarion
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Originally Posted by Koominator View Post
Okay, just finished this episode. I just thought of many things after watching it and learning all the facts. We now know what happened to the women "Iguras" that were taken from Veda. But what really gets me is that I am starting to think that Kagura is Amata's SISTER because of the Curse of Eve that turns women into men. I just get that feeling!
I had that feel from last episode already. Especially when it concerns the fact that the last reincarnation of Apollonius's lover was split into two... Perhaps Appolon/Appolonius was split in the same way, A boy and a girl?
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Old 2012-05-15, 00:40   Link #63
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i think i know who's behind the curse of Eve, its the reincarnation of Takakazu Abe!!!
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Old 2012-05-15, 00:43   Link #64
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Originally Posted by dragonroots View Post
@Zero i never thought he would be able to make a black hole from the start, though there was foreshadowing for it, i always thought his power was purely earth based, not space based, when i saw him make that mini black hole his power immediately became my favourite in the series so far(and there aint no way Mix(y) can fill a black hole).
Of course there is, if she gets back her big bangs!!

XD sorry couldn't resist.
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Old 2012-05-15, 01:51   Link #65
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What I'm finding with Aquarion EVOL is that the whole is less than the sum of its part.

What I mean by that is that I typically really enjoy each individual Aquarion EVOL episode, but when I stop to think of where they've left us overall, I feel that there's a huge void there.


For example, in this episode - You had some great dramatic scenes, you had Andy going into cool badass mode, you had a tense confrontation between Amata and Izumo that honestly screamed "Star Wars" to me (I so wanted Izumo to say "Amata, I am your father!" just to fully seal the deal ), and the BGM of this episode was particularly great.

But... it's Episode 20, and the main romance is nowhere to be seen really. The love quadrangle that Winged_Memories and kuro are referring to has indeed not been getting the focus it should.

My fear here is that when it comes time for Amata and Mikono to seal the deal and have their big romantic moment, I might not even care any more. It might even feel forced to me given the lack of recent build-up for it.

This is why a part of me honestly hopes that there's a big plot swerve and the main romance is something other than Amata/Mikono, but I kind of doubt that this will happen at this point.


Ah well, like I said before, most individual Aquarion EVOL episodes I really enjoy, and this one is certainly no exception. I'm just worried that this series will leave me with an empty feeling when it's all said and done.

9/10 for Episode 20.
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Old 2012-05-15, 02:47   Link #66
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Originally Posted by Triple_R View Post
This is why a part of me honestly hopes that there's a big plot swerve and the main romance is something other than Amata/Mikono, but I kind of doubt that this will happen at this point.
Well, at this point the main romance is Andy x Mix, so... -_-)
Anyway, such a plot swerve would make me feel the show is trying to insult my intelligence. (Unless it's handled extremely well, but looking at how the show has been handling stuff so far...). Because it's been 20 episodes of Zessica----------->Amata----><--Mikono<-----(>?)Kagura. Zessica has been rejected by Amata and he never showed any romantic interest in her in 20 episodes, so an Amata x Zessica development would be very blatantly forced, and any chances Kagura has with Mikono are hindered by his serious lack of screen time and development in his relationship with Mikono. And if the main romance is not among these four then what was the entire point of having them as characters? (Then again... what is the entire point of having main characters, if you don't ever let them do anything? Other than mope around, in Zessica's case.)

They have 6 episodes to focus on the main characters and finally do something with the romance, plus tie up the plotlines. It should be enough for any decent writer, I really wonder how Okada & team will handle it.* (It's not a good sign that they've sort of written themselves into a corner with Andy... -_-)

*Well, have handled it, in any case - rumors say they recorded the final episodes last week.

Last edited by kuromitsu; 2012-05-15 at 06:20.
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Old 2012-05-15, 04:56   Link #67
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Originally Posted by Triple_R View Post

This is why a part of me honestly hopes that there's a big plot swerve and the main romance is something other than Amata/Mikono, but I kind of doubt that this will happen at this point.

.
I certainly hope so.

The first OP at least gives me hope Amata Mikono is going to get trolled hard.

It's how bad it is.

It still puzzles me wtf did Kagura and Zessica got dragged through it though. Unless they are the means by which the trolling is going to be delivered, thanks to you Mikage.

They present it at some sort of triangle quadrangle but I just don't see it considering the outsiders have not a lick of a chance to begin with.

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Old 2012-05-15, 06:53   Link #68
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Well, I really can't see any main lead having a last-minute change of heart. It would be really far fetched. I guess that basically they will go through the abduction->mourning marriage as final stage. End.
The problem is that now I'm not interested by how they'll handle the main couple. I hope Okada will relight the flame
Surely my opinion is that starting a series/romance with a reciprocal love is never a good idea. You writer have to be really good to not let it down at some point. In this case Kagura was a really good antagonist, but they screwed it (at least so far)
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Old 2012-05-15, 08:12   Link #69
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Originally Posted by kuromitsu View Post
Well, at this point the main romance is Andy x Mix, so... -_-)
Anyway, such a plot swerve would make me feel the show is trying to insult my intelligence. (Unless it's handled extremely well, but looking at how the show has been handling stuff so far...).
I see your point, but this anime has two things going on that opens up all sorts of possibilities:

1) You have this reincarnation thing going on.

2) People go from girls to guys on Altair.

I could accept either as a romantic "game-changer"... as long as it's handled well, of course. One good thing is that if either or both ends up being a "game-changer", at least the narrative has already made a big deal out of both (and have had the characters make a big deal out of both - as demonstrated by Zessica/Amata focusing so much on this reincarnation/"fated lovers" thing and by "Black Hole" Andy's response to Mix-y ).


But mind you, I don't expect this. I expect Amata/Mikono. And if they actually give that pairing the attention it deserves, then I'm fine without any romantic plot swerve. But they don't have much time left to give it the attention it deserves, so they better start at it soon, imo.
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Old 2012-05-15, 08:12   Link #70
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Surely my opinion is that starting a series/romance with a reciprocal love is never a good idea. You writer have to be really good to not let it down at some point. In this case Kagura was a really good antagonist, but they screwed it (at least so far)
It's not necessarily a bad idea. Thing is, with any kind of romance that's meant to be dragged out through an entire series, be it 13 or 26 eps long, you have to work on it. Which means, having the characters interact regularly, create some difficulties, introducing some conflict, having the characters work out the conflict, etc. In Evol the writers created some difficulties (for Amata, anyway: Mikono's whole appreciative but vague behavior), introduced some conflict, but then avoided the hell out of the characters discussing it or trying to work it out in any way for no reason other than it wouldn't have been convenient for the writers. They were pushed into the background way too often and weren't shown to interact in a significant way, and when they did it often had the subtlety and grace of a rhino, see the whole "randomly worried about Kagura" scene that came after long episodes of them not even thinking about Kagura. (Though this, again, is something that plagues the entire story.) Which is not to say they didn't have incredbly cute and sweet scenes, too, but those were few and far between. :/ In the meanwhile they weren't even doing anything as main characters, most of the time.* And this is just Amata & Mikono, I haven't even touched on Zessica and Kagura.

Ah well, we don't know what they're planning so we might as well wait and see. I really, really hope they'll finally focus on the main four, what with the reincarnation game finally drawing to a close. And I'm pretty sure there are going to be some huge twists here and there (definitely about the reincarnations). But I'm worried that the fact that they couldn't get Mix(y) back will just keep Andy in the focus. :/


*(Especially poor Amata, and this is where it gets really irritating for me. Because if he was actually useless (wangsty, mopey, cowardly, etc.) that would be one thing, but he's not, he would be perfectly capable of doing stuff that the other characters do, and yet he's been rarely ever given the opportunity, god only knows why. Well, I do know - the writers' inability to handle the cast.)

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Originally Posted by Triple_R View Post
I could accept either as a romantic "game-changer"... as long as it's handled well, of course. One good thing is that if either or both ends up being a "game-changer", at least the narrative has already made a big deal out of both (and have had the characters make a big deal out of both - as demonstrated by Zessica/Amata focusing so much on this reincarnation/"fated lovers" thing and by "Black Hole" Andy's response to Mix-y ).
Well yeah, but making a big deal out of something doesn't necessarily mean actual development. :/ As much as the "fated lovers" thing was made into a big deal, Kagura and Mikono had one (1) scene of actual, meaningful interaction in 20 eps. I suppose there will be some more in future eps, but... yeah.

Anyway, I agree that if they want to do anything with the romance aspect they need to start doing it now. :/

Last edited by kuromitsu; 2012-05-15 at 08:38.
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Old 2012-05-15, 08:22   Link #71
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"Less than the sum of its parts": pithy, but apt. I like this as a summary so-far.

This has lots and lots of great parts, but for reasons we've discussed to death those parts aren't really adding up as well as it seems like they could've. This is especially a pity when there's a lot of cool stuff to look forward to:

Will Yunoha keep swearing? Will Donar get his promised rematch with Mykage? What's going to happen back on Altair? Will Amata ever talk to Alisia? Just what was Alisia's elemental ability? What's going to happen with MIX? With Andy? What's going on with Neo-Kowloon and the flower outbreak? What're Zen and Mikono going to do? What's going to happen with Zessica? How's Schrade's health? How will Cayenne express his concern for Schrade? Brusquely? Tenderly? Why didn't Cayenne see Schrade coming, anyways? Just what gender is Shu-Shu? What's the deal with Kagura? What's the deal with Kagura's demonwolf form? If Zen is Gen then what happened to Touma? Just who or what is Mykage, anyways, and what is his true objective?

I'd think I'd be more excited than I am with all that in the cards. This is still a show I'm looking forward to each week and having fun discussing, but for whatever reason the parts don't add up as much as they could or should.
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Old 2012-05-15, 08:29   Link #72
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Just what was Alisia's elemental ability?
Actually, we do know that with a 90% certainity: flight. That's what made Mykage and Izumo notice Amata.

Also, in the preview Zessica's boobs are back so probably Yunoha is back to her old self as well.
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Old 2012-05-15, 08:43   Link #73
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Actually, we do know that with a 90% certainity: flight. That's what made Mykage and Izumo notice Amata.
This I'm not convinced on 100%. I'd guess they both manifest wings and thus can fly (Izumo tends to describe Amata as "having wings", only rarely just flight). I could still see something wherein the flight ability is due to shadow angel heritage and they might separately have some other conventional elemental abilities (which'd naturally manifest at the exact point needed for a plot twist...sigh). But yeah, you're right it's the wings and corresponding flight that piqued the both of their interest.

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Originally Posted by kuromitsu View Post
Also, in the preview Zessica's boobs are back so probably Yunoha is back to her old self as well.
Back? I didn't notice them going anywhere, just her clutching her chest. Maybe I should look more closely.
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Old 2012-05-15, 08:52   Link #74
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Back? I didn't notice them going anywhere, just her clutching her chest. Maybe I should look more closely.
From what I saw they kind of started shrinking, she had a nearly flat chest toward the end of the ep. But maybe it was just me...
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Old 2012-05-15, 09:30   Link #75
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This episode was a mixed bag of things I liked and things I didn't. Overall it was good, though.

Things I didn't like:

- This ep, the characters on Altair only found out things the audience already knew. I mean really, Izumo didn't even say anything new before being cut off. They could have thrown us something.
- Zen's obsession with doughnuts is getting old. Sorry, Zen.
- The way that the show is still dwelling on the Jin/Yunoha romance despite it being totally resolved, unlike almost all the rest of the show. Unless we're going to get a zombie or vampire Jin rising from the grave at the end of the series, in which case I approve. But when all the staff can do is a once-an-episode flashback of Jin and Yunoha mentioning him in a one liner, it's really boring.
- Amata didn't get to do anything this ep. Or say anything much, either. And he's our main character. I can't even blame him for not being charismatic, because it really wasn't his fault: he had zero opportunity to do anything interesting. The writers have really been neglecting him, and they had better step up.
- Yunoha's slips into sounding like a rough boy were funny, but I found it hard to believe that she'd have an instant, inadvertent language shift just from her brain slipping into maleness. On the other hand, this is Aquarion. Suspension of disbelief is required sometimes.
- Mixy doesn't seem to be questioning why there's some girl around with a name just the same as his minus one letter.
- And speaking of Mixy, his face is more or less the same as when he was Mix. Same sort of build, minus big bangs and some curves. The Curse of Eve only goes as far as turning girls into slender bishie boys? We should have seen a much manlier Mixy!
- I'm really missing the old op and end sequences.

Stuff I did like:

- Mikono is showing a lot of promise! I can't wait to see the next ep. Zen's stalkage of her was also pretty funny. At least Mikono has had okay character development throughout the series, despite the problems with the writing which have been dogging the series and almost all the characters. At this point, out of the main characters she's the only one I think will be able to carry the series, unless the others improve really really quickly.
- Finally, confirmation of who Zen is! Outright confirmation of one character at least.
- The things Zen said suggest that we're going to be going back further in time than the original Aquarion series. We're not just re-hashing things but putting things into a wider story, hopefully.
- Andy was pretty cool this episode, and he got some good action scenes. I'm not sure that I like his implication that he'd be merrily opening up holes in people's heads if his powers would work on living things.
- The black hole of Andy angst which Shrade could suddenly play? Hilarious.
- I just can't help liking Izumo. He may go around making bad decisions like promoting the kidnapping of women at risk of their death or turning into guys, but aside from that he seems like a decent guy. In the earlier eps he seemed willing to talk things over reasonably, and this ep he just wanted to tell Amata what the plot is, even though he got thwarted. But that's how EVOL runs, unfortunately: artificially dragging things out.

The dragging out has been such a problem in this series. I think Kagura and Amata have suffered the most from it, but the whole reincarnation plot has been a pain. I'm fond of Mikono/Amata, but the whole thing could have been happily resolved by, eh, episode 5 or so. The writing has been very lazy.

On a different note, it would be fun if Donar got reunited with his girlfriend (now boyfriend?) at the end of the series!
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Old 2012-05-15, 10:49   Link #76
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i think it would be pretty hilarious if we found out that Jin was originally born as female......
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Old 2012-05-15, 11:50   Link #77
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Originally Posted by kuromitsu View Post
It's not necessarily a bad idea. Thing is, with any kind of romance that's meant to be dragged out through an entire series, be it 13 or 26 eps long, you have to work on it. Which means, having the characters interact regularly, create some difficulties, introducing some conflict, having the characters work out the conflict, etc. In Evol the writers created some difficulties (for Amata, anyway: Mikono's whole appreciative but vague behavior), introduced some conflict, but then avoided the hell out of the characters discussing it or trying to work it out in any way for no reason other than it wouldn't have been convenient for the writers. They were pushed into the background way too often and weren't shown to interact in a significant way, and when they did it often had the subtlety and grace of a rhino, see the whole "randomly worried about Kagura" scene that came after long episodes of them not even thinking about Kagura. (Though this, again, is something that plagues the entire story.) Which is not to say they didn't have incredbly cute and sweet scenes, too, but those were few and far between. :/ In the meanwhile they weren't even doing anything as main characters, most of the time.* And this is just Amata & Mikono, I haven't even touched on Zessica and Kagura.

Ah well, we don't know what they're planning so we might as well wait and see. I really, really hope they'll finally focus on the main four, what with the reincarnation game finally drawing to a close. And I'm pretty sure there are going to be some huge twists here and there (definitely about the reincarnations). But I'm worried that the fact that they couldn't get Mix(y) back will just keep Andy in the focus. :/


*(Especially poor Amata, and this is where it gets really irritating for me. Because if he was actually useless (wangsty, mopey, cowardly, etc.) that would be one thing, but he's not, he would be perfectly capable of doing stuff that the other characters do, and yet he's been rarely ever given the opportunity, god only knows why. Well, I do know - the writers' inability to handle the cast.)
I agree with you more or less on everything. And I guess generally speaking that are the basis. Now, what made Okada and Kawamori think otherwise?

More in general anyways I find harder writing/developing a story of two lovers that have already feeling for each other than a story that describe the falling in love (not that I tried myself). To the point that I hardly can remember an anime that did a good job with the former setting. (this is my personal opinion obviously, that is highly biased by my personal taste).
So from that in mind my previous comment was to say that if they had kept Mikono and Amata relationship at a greener phase in the beginning they would have had less criticism. At least. Because as you have pointed out there are many other flaws But with a less *supposed close* relationship other things would have been less evident too. (and maybe Kagura's role would have been more consistent).

Well, we just have to wait and see.
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Old 2012-05-15, 12:44   Link #78
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Quote:
Originally Posted by miketyson View Post
"Less than the sum of its parts": pithy, but apt. I like this as a summary so-far.
Thanks.


Quote:

This has lots and lots of great parts, but for reasons we've discussed to death those parts aren't really adding up as well as it seems like they could've. This is especially a pity when there's a lot of cool stuff to look forward to:

Will Yunoha keep swearing? Will Donar get his promised rematch with Mykage? What's going to happen back on Altair? Will Amata ever talk to Alisia? Just what was Alisia's elemental ability? What's going to happen with MIX? With Andy? What's going on with Neo-Kowloon and the flower outbreak? What're Zen and Mikono going to do? What's going to happen with Zessica? How's Schrade's health? How will Cayenne express his concern for Schrade? Brusquely? Tenderly? Why didn't Cayenne see Schrade coming, anyways? Just what gender is Shu-Shu? What's the deal with Kagura? What's the deal with Kagura's demonwolf form? If Zen is Gen then what happened to Touma? Just who or what is Mykage, anyways, and what is his true objective?
When you lay it all out there like that, it honestly seems pretty impressive that there's so many interesting subplots and character arcs going on at the same time.

But I actually think that might tie into the problem here - There's too many questions, and not enough answers. The balance is off, so it leaves people more perplexed than intrigued. We probably should know more than we do at this point.

I think that Aquarion EVOL is falling into the trap of leaving almost all of its best cards/revelations for the final two acts. The problem with that is that it can make things seem rushed/forced at the end, while leaving viewers feeling like their being stiffed a bit by the plot until you get to the end (like GoldenLand said, the plot should throw the audience a nice, fresh bone every so often).

This is much of the same problem that beguiled Guilty Crown, imo.


Quote:
This is still a show I'm looking forward to each week and having fun discussing, but for whatever reason the parts don't add up as much as they could or should.
Same here.


Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldenLand View Post
This episode was a mixed bag of things I liked and things I didn't. Overall it was good, though.

Things I didn't like:

- This ep, the characters on Altair only found out things the audience already knew. I mean really, Izumo didn't even say anything new before being cut off. They could have thrown us something.
Agreed.


Quote:
- Zen's obsession with doughnuts is getting old. Sorry, Zen.
I don't know. Zen's obsession with doughnuts is a bit funny to me. Imagine Zen and Homer Simpson waxing philosophical over doughnuts. You know it's funny.


Quote:
- The way that the show is still dwelling on the Jin/Yunoha romance despite it being totally resolved, unlike almost all the rest of the show. Unless we're going to get a zombie or vampire Jin rising from the grave at the end of the series, in which case I approve. But when all the staff can do is a once-an-episode flashback of Jin and Yunoha mentioning him in a one liner, it's really boring.
- Amata didn't get to do anything this ep. Or say anything much, either. And he's our main character. I can't even blame him for not being charismatic, because it really wasn't his fault: he had zero opportunity to do anything interesting. The writers have really been neglecting him, and they had better step up.
- Yunoha's slips into sounding like a rough boy were funny, but I found it hard to believe that she'd have an instant, inadvertent language shift just from her brain slipping into maleness. On the other hand, this is Aquarion. Suspension of disbelief is required sometimes.
I agree with all of these. Well-said. Jin/Yunoha was really cute, but Jin's long-dead now. I like Yunoha, but she's had her moments in the spotlight. If instead of her scenes of dwelling about Jin we had more scenes of Amata/Mikono dwelling on each other, that would really help the problem that many of us are talking about.


Quote:
- And speaking of Mixy, his face is more or less the same as when he was Mix. Same sort of build, minus big bangs and some curves. The Curse of Eve only goes as far as turning girls into slender bishie boys? We should have seen a much manlier Mixy!
I myself had been hoping for a manlier Mixy. I think that would have made the situation even more poignant, for both Mix and Andy.

Still, at least this way it seems less magical. Apparently, the girls who go to Altair simply change/lose sex organs. That's probably more realistic than those girls also growing a few inches taller, and gaining added muscle mass.


Quote:
- I'm really missing the old op and end sequences.
I much perfered the first ED to the second ED, but I like both OPs.


Quote:

Stuff I did like:

- Mikono is showing a lot of promise! I can't wait to see the next ep. Zen's stalkage of her was also pretty funny. At least Mikono has had okay character development throughout the series, despite the problems with the writing which have been dogging the series and almost all the characters. At this point, out of the main characters she's the only one I think will be able to carry the series, unless the others improve really really quickly.
Mikono is a very well-rounded character. She's probably been the best fleshed-out of the main four. That romance she's in hasn't been handled well, but she herself has been developed well.


Quote:
- Andy was pretty cool this episode, and he got some good action scenes. I'm not sure that I like his implication that he'd be merrily opening up holes in people's heads if his powers would work on living things.
- The black hole of Andy angst which Shrade could suddenly play? Hilarious.
- I just can't help liking Izumo. He may go around making bad decisions like promoting the kidnapping of women at risk of their death or turning into guys, but aside from that he seems like a decent guy. In the earlier eps he seemed willing to talk things over reasonably, and this ep he just wanted to tell Amata what the plot is, even though he got thwarted. But that's how EVOL runs, unfortunately: artificially dragging things out.
I largely agree with all of this too.

The only thing is that I might even be more sympathetic towards Izumo than you are. The man is facing nothing less than the death of his people and his world. Given the rather bleak and desperate situation he's facing, I can't fault him too much.

The only thing I can really critique Izumo for is not trying diplomacy way back at Episode 2 or 3. But then if he did that, we probably wouldn't have a two cour story to tell, now would we?


Quote:
On a different note, it would be fun if Donar got reunited with his girlfriend (now boyfriend?) at the end of the series!
That's a neat thought.
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Old 2012-05-15, 13:14   Link #79
kuromitsu
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Originally Posted by Arya View Post
I agree with you more or less on everything. And I guess generally speaking that are the basis. Now, what made Okada and Kawamori think otherwise?
I don't think they actually "thought otherwise" - I think they just botched it. For one, it's getting very obvious that Okada (and I'm going to blame her for all this because she is the head writer) just can't keep focus, definitely not among the cast. Maybe she really wanted to do an ensemble cast. Maybe she wanted to be subtle and ended up being too subtle, I don't know. (Actually, there are a number of pretty well-done "subtle" scenes, the problem is that they rarely ever have any follow-up that is not completely disconnected. :/ ) And two, there are all other problems that we've discussed about a million times. ^^;;

When I look at the writing in Evol so far on a characters level, there are two words that keep coming to my mind, and they're "Star Driver". Star Driver had the exact same issues (less atrociuos, though): it started strong, built a nice settei with the three main charas in an interesting relationship... and then eventually the focus of the writing started to meander, getting caught up in side characters (very interesting side charas, but side charas nonetheless), and in the meanwhile the main trio, even the main character himself, did pretty much nothing of particular interest. And so when the end came around and the writers came to their senses it was too late, most people were emotionally uninvested in the main trio, the revelations felt rushed and inconsequential. It was fabulous, though. ^^;; And Star Driver was written by Enokido Youji, the guy who had also written Utena and Ouran Host Club and has my eternal respect for both. Star Driver had so much potential and ended up mediocre because of these issues.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Arya View Post
More in general anyways I find harder writing/developing a story of two lovers that have already feeling for each other than a story that describe the falling in love (not that I tried myself). ... So from that in mind my previous comment was to say that if they had kept Mikono and Amata relationship at a greener phase in the beginning they would have had less criticism.
I dunno, I think they were pretty green? It's not like they were raburabu from the start (hell, they had exactly two moments of being even near to raburabu level, one was ruined by Kagura and the other involved Shushu trying to poke Amata's eyes out ^^;; and then was ruined by Kagura) Their relationship for most of the first half of the story was Amata pursuing Mikono, and Mikono being, well, Mikono about it. Then stuff happened and Amata got uncertain and took some steps back, while Mikono was confused and tried to figure herself out. And right now we're at the point of Mikono having figured herself out, mostly, but we don't know for certain what she decided; meanwhile Amata, being left alone, has no idea where he stands with Mikono anymore, and so is still struggling with his uncertainities. I think this is a pretty good progression that could have a nice resolution either way - it's just the overall execution that's been lacking, and this is where lack of focus and bad pacing comes into the picture. :/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R View Post
But I actually think that might tie into the problem here - There's too many questions, and not enough answers. The balance is off, so it leaves people more perplexed than intrigued. We probably should know more than we do at this point.
Unless, of course, they're planning to do the trendy thing and finish the story off in movies. In which case I'll go and quietly bang my head against a wall. ^^;;

Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R View Post
I think that Aquarion EVOL is falling into the trap of leaving almost all of its best cards/revelations for the final two acts. The problem with that is that it can make things seem rushed/forced at the end, while leaving viewers feeling like their being stiffed a bit by the plot until you get to the end (like GoldenLand said, the plot should throw the audience a nice, fresh bone every so often).
I agree with this - with the addition that this, again, would not necessarily be a problem if there was some well-handled foreshadowing. And there isn't, not really. (Random cryptic asides don't count as foreshadowing...)


...whoa, look at this wall of text....

Last edited by kuromitsu; 2012-05-15 at 13:46.
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Old 2012-05-15, 13:34   Link #80
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kuromitsu View Post
I don't think they actually "thought otherwise" - I think they just botched it. For one, it's getting very obvious that Okada (and I'm going to blame her for all this because she is the head writer) just can't keep focus, definitely not among the cast.
I'm pretty convinced at this point that Okada just isn't meant for large casts. She ran into similar problems (though less severe there) with Hanasaku Iroha. Hanasaku Iroha was (in)famous for its second half being absolutely loaded with "Supporting Cast Member of the Day" episodes and arcs. This is fine for a brief detour, but Okada doesn't seem to know where to draw the line. Meanwhile, her writing was much tighter in AnoHana and True Tears - In both cases, smaller casts.

My impression is that in Okada's mind she considers it poor writing to not develop every supporting cast member to his/her full potential. While such a thing sounds great in theory, it's only great in practice if it doesn't come at the expense of the main characters.
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