2007-01-25, 16:14
|
Link #102 | |
|
Banned
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Neither Here nor There
Age: 39
 |
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
2007-09-05, 18:52
|
Link #103 |
|
Snobby Gentleman
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Monterrey, México
Age: 43
|
Wings of Betrayal - Episode 1. First Impressions
If anyone has had seen the first episode to the OVA and already opened a thread for the OVA, then please redirect my post there.
I am just feeling happy and nostalgic because one of my most desired anime title made its comeback again, and I'm talking about Sousei no Aquarion - Wings of Betrayal. The wait was worth it absolutely. My first impressions about the 3-D CGI animation on the TV series for the first episodes were low due that the design and construction, including the movements, for the vectors and united Aquarion seemed too mechanic and polygonal. It is astonishing how the quality rate skyrockets exponentially when large budgets are pumped into OVAs. The animation and CGI effects for Aquarion and the Cherubim were practically flawless, and I as well give praise and claps to the staff for reintroducing again the beautiful soundtrack of the TV series into the OVAs. I have a hunch that maybe Kawamori's head was full with lots and lots of stuff that not all were able to make it into the TV series due to maybe budget, time or scheduling constraints. I am speculating upon this because the OVA: Spoiler:
|
|
|
|
|
2010-02-18, 02:31
|
Link #105 |
|
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2009
|
Rise from your grave!!! , I'll give my thoughts on this show, I liked it a lot. I liked that they had different combinations. With the powers and what not this reminds me of Dangiaoh, and what that show would have been like if it was fleshed out into a full series. The variety of attacks was great, even if they did have some silly names.
It took me a bit but I really got into the opening theme, more so when I heard the full version, Though I liked the ending song right away, very catchy tune. I liked most of the characters, though not so much Sirius, I found Rena to be an intriguing character, and liked her featured episode, and anytime she would help out in the fight, especially in the last episode, a pleasant surprise. Apollo reminded me a bit of Naruto, with a touch of Wolverine. I watched the dubbed version, which I thought was quite well done. Well now I need to see the OVAs I guess.
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
2010-03-29, 22:24
|
Link #108 |
|
Absolute Haruhist!
 ArtistJoin Date: Mar 2006
Age: 36
|
Aquarion is a parody of the entire mecha genre, both Super and Real Robots.
But if there's one mecha that's referenced more prominently, it would be Getter Robo, the original combination mecha, with 3 planes combining into 3 forms, Aquarion is directly referencing that. Also Aquarion being an ancient godly mecha kept underground for 12000 years is directly referencing the original ancient godly mecha Raideen.
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
2010-05-09, 16:22
|
Link #109 | |
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Galt's Gulch
Age: 44
  |
Quote:
The OVA was much better, but the ending left me hanging.
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
|
2010-06-29, 13:04
|
Link #111 |
|
Major Lurker
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: <clap> <clap> <clap> <clap> Deep in the Heart of Texas
|
You're not looking very hard.
The day of the world’s beginning The bottom of life’s feelings The two of us together heard The distant reverberations of whales' voices All things are lost All the things we loved We hold in this hand.. Where does the present go wandering? The hidden answer of the sun of amber If we don't find it... You could be the angel of slaughter An immortal, twinkling soul Please don't hurt my wings Were born in order to know this feeling I've been loving you for 12,000 years 8,000 years time has passed since then, and you’ve become empty 100 million and 2000 years after, I’ll still love you I knew you that day because there was undying music in my hell Before the world ends Before life ends Undo your sleeping sighs I want to hold on to your fragrance I heard the memories of Neptune We stand, exhausted, in rare disappointment; the beautiful moon comes… Revived The liquid light that never dries And is never polluted Your dream Prayer Has given birth to it Becoming the adult, you repeat, Many times, many times, ‘Go into the distance’ Watch over me, I can’t sleep; assuming that I became crumpled In order to sing your name… I've been loving you for 12,000 years 8,000 years time has passed since then, and you’ve become empty 100 million and 2000 years after, I’ll still love you I knew you that day 12,000 years ago I loved you 8,000 years time has passed since then, and you’ve become empty 100 million and 2000 years may pass, still I’ll love you I knew you that day because there was undying music in my hell…
__________________
Last edited by drobertbaker; 2010-06-29 at 13:44. |
|
|
|
|
2010-10-07, 00:48
|
Link #113 | |
|
Anachro-Romeo
Join Date: Apr 2010
|
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
2010-12-10, 17:40
|
Link #114 |
|
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Thessaloniki - Greece
|
REVIEW TIME!
Here is a tip for all you scriptwriter wannabes out there: IT’S NOT THAT EASY! Aquarion was basically trying to be a more light Neon Genesis, with a lot less seriousness and a lot more fan service. Story: 4 (The world is at stake so let’s go for beers) Its core story is quite the typical mecha one, albeit full of anime-only terminologies that they never seem to be directly explained to you. This element could work as a plus, since you are supposed to pay attention and slowly learn what is going on with the world and those weird sounding names. The problem is presentation. IT SUCKS! You are never told what is going on in-series to the most part. So ok, Neon Genesis did the same. Only there, the answers would leave you amazed, while here they will only make you think “What? That was all of it? Big deal!” The plot is done in media res fashion, that is starting not from the beginning but from a point later, where you are supposed to find out what happened in the past. That could also work as a great plus. But presentation once again ruins all the fun, as most of the episodes are random fillers that only manage to confuse you with irrelevant happenings and character self-realization that by the next episode has totally been forgotten. So here you are keeping notes for a hundred things, only to realize in the end that most were just smokescreen and that the actual plot could easily fit in 6 episodes. The idea behind the story is actually very good on paper. It is about a destroyed world that awaits rebirth through unearthly means, blurring reality with dreams, and Greek mythology with fringe science. And adding to the lot, battles with giant mecha, past lives, and orgasmic fusions between characters … yeah; it’s weird. I jive a thumbs up to all that and even a small boost in the story for being completely wacky. Under different directing all that could make another Neon Genesis indeed. Too bad they didn’t because of LAME PRESENTATION! How could all this work out? Well, less filler would definitely work to its advantage. By the time the finale kicked in, you have lost interest. And less humor too. Most fillers aim at comedy and when we are back into the core story, it is supposed to be dramatic as heck. The feeling of the fillers was so alienating; it was severing you from the feeling of the meaningful parts. Too bad I wasn’t in the writing team; I could save this from disaster with my oh-so-basic-literature-skills-you-suckers-at-the-drawing-boards-lack. Characters: 3 (Ooooh, stick that big, hard mind of yours deep inside my wet dream) The cast is the usual bunch we find in all classic mecha stories (Don’t make me mention them; it’s a waste of time if you don’t know what I mean just from that). The story tried to spice them up by throwing a super hot spice to the soup of mediocrity by giving them past lives, ties with mythology, and the need to realize stuff through dreams in order to save the day. That leaves room for a lot of character development and could create a heck of a cast, just like it did in Neon Genesis. Only thing, this is no Ne… (and sorry to keep mentioning that anime but it is the best way to explain the faults). Most of the supposed development the characters get does not matter. It happens in one episode, helps to materialize some weird special attack and it is forgotten by the next episode. This reset button ruins most of the actual liking you could have with them. Then it’s the idea of merging. In order to summon the mecha and fight, the characters need to merge their mind, a procedure that feels like they are having an orgasm. Yeah, gives the term “mindfuck” a whole new meaning. Now, I’m not against the idea itself; I actually liked the hentai possibilities to this idea. The thing is, it is used so many times in almost the exact way all the time that as the episodes go by you only see it as a running joke. The characters lose their seriousness and are seen just as sex material or comic relief, blasting away the tragedy of their past lives and their final battle at the end. And may I remind you, this is not purely a comedy to begin with, so overdoing the funny part destroys the sad part. Thus, presentation once more ruins the anime, just like the Gods ruined the world of the series. Art & Music: 7 (I will punish you in the name of Apollo) Um, yeah, the above meta-joke refers to the repeating clips used during special attacks and intercourse … er, I mean merging. It is a cheap way to waste airing time and eventually gets to your nerves (lol, NERV, another reference to Neon Genesis). But other than that the rest of the quality in artwork and character design is actually quite nice. The way the destroyed world is depicted and the psychedelic situations the characters are thrown in show some hints of brilliance. But not too much to deserve more than that. Also, the music is just nice, no dialogues or songs are that good despite their mystical overtones. Value & Enjoyment: 3 (Was it as good for you as it was for me? … What? You had better???) Sorry fellas, this doesn’t work in the longrun. The initial feeling of mystery and epicness fades away after the second repeating merging clip, while the smokescreened info and the dead time just killing your interest with a pickaxe. The only thing worth remembering is the orgasmic merging, which is not a good note on its resume. Just stick to that other anime I mentioned a dozen times already. It has no orgasms while merging but instead has a guy masturbating over a comatose girl. Priceless! There are some things money can’t buy. For all the rest, there is Mindfucard. And sorry for all these deprived jokes but this series is so asking for it. AVERAGE: 4.5/10 |
|
|
|
|
2010-12-10, 23:03
|
Link #115 |
|
Anachro-Romeo
Join Date: Apr 2010
|
Despite my last post being enamored with the series, my ending impression of the anime was actually a lot worse. I mean, they made all the right moves in the beginning by introducing us to the characters, giving them some initial development to grow on and make us care about them. Gen was actually pretty cool at first, with the whole tough and spirited sensei persona. The production values and animation were all really good, as were the music and character models. When you say "presentation", this is the stuff I think about.
What really turned me off in the end, however, was the fucking retarded plot. They kept trying to do too much at once, and somewhere along the line, it's like the anime stopped paying attention to its own development. There are those "one-episode character development" moments you've rightfully called attention to, but some of my major issues happen to be a little more specific. First off, that entire conflict with the Shadow Angel kid. Oh man, what were they thinking? They give him an innocent character the audience can empathize with, then they have our hero organization capture, torture, and outright kill him without anyone so much as batting an eyelid? I expected Apollo, Silvia, or Pierre to flip shit about it, seeing as he was a kid and all and really didn't have any idea what he was doing, and they were all clearly aware of it, but put up no resistance whatsoever and barely even mention it in passing. That was probably the lowest point in the series for me. Every second spent with Tsugumi and Jun was a waste of time. Jun is a failure every time he pilots and doesn't get any better, while Tsugumi spends basically the entire anime screaming (I'd recommend watching it in Japanese so you don't have to go through what I did), chasing after her lesbo crush, and whining about how much of a failure she is. Whose idea was it to put them in the series? Sirius's betrayal was random, unnecessary, and basically removes all significance, relevance, and character he'd spent the entire anime developing. And it kind of pissed me off because he was probably my favorite character up until that point. His self-sacrifice at the end doesn't even come close to making up for what he did. All in all, they start off teasing you with cool visuals, excellent artwork and and that nice opening theme (I have no idea why they decided to switch to something worse 20 episodes in), but then they punish you with filler bombardment, a messy, convoluted plot, and rabid character deconstruction all across the board. And they honestly weren't even worth writing home about to begin with. It's just disgusting how much potential there was here, and to have it all blown away for naught makes you really feel it wasn't worth your time at all. |
|
|
|
|
2010-12-11, 05:35
|
Link #117 |
|
Anachro-Romeo
Join Date: Apr 2010
|
Must not have been a very good one, since it's not funny and they don't allude to it being one at any point. It starts off serious and keeps that tone all throughout the series. The idea of this anime being a parody rather than a really bad story ranks fairly high on my bullshit meter, but if we suppose what you're saying is true, it's still mediocre on all accounts.
And holy tits, it's in Super Robot Wars Z. Did anyone else not know this or was I the only one in the dark? |
|
|
|
|
2010-12-11, 17:37
|
Link #118 | |
|
Crazy Devout Fanboy
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: 1st Ra Cailum-class battleship Ra Cailum, port-side officer's bunks
|
Quote:
 It's also in Another Century's Episode R, SRW's action/shooter counterpart. And imo, despite some obvious flaws (like animation art in some episodes....) I thought Aquarion was nice. Not awesome, mind you, but nice. The OVA is pretty good though.
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| Thread Tools | |
|
|
