Anime Review: Sousei no Aquarion

I finished watching the anime Sousei no Aquarion yesterday. Sousei no Aquarion, translated as Holy Genesis Aquarion in English is a 26 part anime of my 2nd least favourite genre: mech (you know, giant robots. My least favourite anime genre is the Sailor Moon type). I was attracted to watching Aquarion due to the 5 minute trailer: I love the art style, and I like the animation.

The story is almost exactly like Neon Genesis Evangelion (read: complete rip off). Listen to this: Aquarion is about a group of kids (check), belonging to the military (check), who pilot mechs (check), fighting "angels" (check), to prevent the end of the world (check!) This anime has hindu mysticism, vampires, ESP, reincarnation, angels (why do the angels have to fight using mechs too?), world destruction, Atlantis, "manly love", sibling love and Japanese kanji as the underlying themes.

Although the hand drawn art and animation are wonderful, the CG animation is abit stiff and unimpressive. I also like how the weapon system of the Aquarion is infinitely flexible as the Aquarion amplifies the emotions and psychic powers of the pilots so a new attack is created every few episodes or so.My favourite parts are when they are about to combine to form the robot hehehe, it's hilarious! The anime is worth watching just for those parts :)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Further info: www.mahou.org/projects/aquarion
More pictures: http://www.aquarion.info/chara_mecha/mechanics.html