Aquarion Evol is a sequel-of-sorts to 2005’s Aquarion, set some 12,000 years later, those events have fallen to history and myth and the humans of the planet Vega are now being invaded by the Abductors, from the sister planet of Altair. The protagonist, Amata Sora is a teenage boy with a passion for the film Skies of Aquaria which tells the legend of Silvia and Apollo and an ability to float when emotions get the better of him. When he meets Mikono Suzushiro and the two spend the day together, only to end up entangled in a battle between giant robots when Abductors attack and Vega’s defenders from Neo-DEAVA deploy Aquaria to stop the invaders.
Neo-DEAVA operate two seperate, segregated incarnations of Aquaria – One piloted by males and one by females. Amata’s power sees him transported into one of the ‘Vectors’ that combine to form the giant robot, and when combining with the two other female pilots the taboo is broken and Aquarion Evol is born. And thus begins the wacky hijinks as the boys and girls of the acadamy are eventually allowed to intermingle. The antagonists live on a planet where all females have died out due to a mysterious disease, and they are searching Vega for the ‘True Eve”, a woman who will restore their planet. Pretty creepy when you think about it.
Aquarion Evol is pretty silly right out of the gates. The whole thing largely revolves around the various powers the pilots have and the various compromising situations they find themselves in as a result as they pilot what effectively amounts to a love-powered mecha. Like in one episode the usually scantilly clad Zessica Wong finds they can deal with the enemy missiles more effectively if more skin is exposed. so the pilots proceed to tear their clothes off while piloting. Likewise, the rest of the characters are largely over the top, but the silliness is at odds with the more serious tone the series takes towards the end when the battles move to Altair. As silly as the characters can be, the series does a good job of fleshing out the Neo-DEAVA crew as well as the antagonists from Altair, so credit where credit is due there. It’s always good to see a series that manages to characterise a huge ensemble cast so well.
The mecha designs are really nothing special, and don’t expect anything too grand from the battles. This is character driven first and foremost with the battles taking place soley to move the story forward rather than provide any climactic spectacle. That’s not to say they don’t have their moments, but it did disappoint me a little. The discs themselves are nicely presented, with a good spread of extras including commentaries, promo videos, textless songs and a featurette called ‘The Myth of Ten Thousand Years and Two Thousand More Returns’.
No knowledge of the previous Aquarion series is required, though if you’ve seen the original you’ll no doubt notice a number of parallels and references that those new to the franchise will miss. It’s a fun and reasonably satisfying series that is well worth a watch.
A review copy was provided by Madman Entertainment to the author for the purpose of this review.
