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NEWS: Full First Episode of English Aquarion Streamed




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Kyouki-Kamikawa



Joined: 12 Jan 2008
Posts: 33
PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 8:47 pm Reply with quote
ughs , i tried to watch that anime but it reminded me of hentai without nudity , opening song is awesome tho
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PurpleM



Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 21
PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:39 pm Reply with quote
I just watched the first episode. It doesn't seem to be my type of show, but like Kyouki-Kamikawa, I looooooove that opening song (it's inserted near the end of this first episode). Lord knows I've listened to it hundreds of times on nico-dou. Thanks for not dubbing over it, Funimation! As for the episode... the colors are really bright and vibrant, there's a lot of action (mostly mechanical-related), and the dubbing seems all right. Some of the lines and the delivery are a little silly. I've never watched the Japanese version, so I can't make a comparison. The original Japanese credits in the opening scenes are left alone (always a good choice!). The low-res version loaded pretty quickly, but the high-res is, um, still loading even after I watched the low-res version. ^_^;
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BladeDragoonZETA



Joined: 31 Jan 2008
Posts: 586
PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:33 am Reply with quote
seems interesting I saw a bit of Getter, some Raideen and a splash of Macross in the series

could be promising

and a sound track by Yoko Kanno is usually a good thing
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 7:53 am Reply with quote
BladeDragoonZETA wrote:
seems interesting I saw a bit of Getter, some Raideen and a splash of Macross in the series
Hmm, I saw bits of Evangelion, Fafner, Rahxephon, The Matrix, Ghost in the Shell, Stellvia, Bleach, and DragonballZ, as well as 70s/80s combining robot anime. I could hardly wait for them to bring out the Gekigan Beam. For those who have seen this series, I just have to ask: is this a parody? Should I have been laughing as much as I did (and not just at the orgasmic merging scenes) ? I just can't seem to take Aquarion as seriously as it wants to take itself.

But beyond the unintentional comedy, there were some other things that just stood out as plain bad to me. I can understand that Aquarion wants to be an epic "teens pilot mecha against supernatural adversary" series on the lines of Rahxephon, Evangelion, and Fafner. Nothing wrong with that; after all, originality is a rare and valuable commodity, and it's not absolutely necessary for a series to be entertaining or well-made. Still, I didn't like the "exposition overload" in this first episode. In Eva/RX/Fafner, there was an air of mystery as the viewers got introduced to a main character in a normal "baseline" status, followed by some complicating events in the form of [enemy] launching an attack, and then the introduction of the defense organization, the mecha, the other characters and so forth. Aquarion spends its opening scene explaining every little detail about the plight of the world and the workings of the Aquarion units. And that's not the only "exposition overload," as later in the episode, spoiler[that guy busts into the command center and one of the subordinates cries out, "Oh my, you're that presumed missing legendary historical figure who did this and this and that!"] It'd be like Misato from Evangelion explaining in the first episode, "Shinji, I'd like you to meet Ritsuko Akagi. She's spoiler[the daughter of a famous programmer who designed our computer system. Her mother imbued Gaspar, Belthasar, and Melchior with her three selves as a wife, woman, and mother. The names come from the 3 Magi in the Christian Bible, by the way. Anyway, her mother committed suicide because she was in love with your father and got jealous over his affections for Rei Ayanami. So yeah, Ritsuko has some issues over that, and she might have the hots for my on-and-off boyfriend Kaji.]" I might have some details wrong, but seriously, where's the intrigue in that? If Aquarion is going to be so derivative of its predecessors, the least it could do is execute the formula decently.

Even so, I probably will get Aquarion at some point. After all, I did like Fafner, Evangelion, and (begrudgingly) RahXephon. I just won't go out of my way to get it anytime soon.

At the very least though, Funimation's dubbing sounded just fine to me. I haven't seen the Japanese version for comparison, but there's no reason to judge the English track on an arbitrary "how inferior is this to the Japanese?" criterion. I wonder why Funi didn't use the song/sign subtitles as hardcoded subs for this streaming version, the way ADV did with Kanon.
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Veoryn87



Joined: 14 Nov 2006
Posts: 808
PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:26 am Reply with quote
I thought the dub was pretty good. The art and animation was better. But the whole thing was kinda ridiculous (in an entertaining way sometimes). Yet another anime where the main character suddenly powers up and kicks ass in a mech that he's never used before.
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Westlo



Joined: 03 Oct 2002
Posts: 1684
PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:50 pm Reply with quote
Zalis116 wrote:
For those who have seen this series, I just have to ask: is this a parody? Should I have been laughing as much as I did (and not just at the orgasmic merging scenes) ? I just can't seem to take Aquarion as seriously as it wants to take itself.


I've only seen the first eight episodes of Aquarion back when it came out in 2005 but from what I've seen you should be laughing. Just wait to you see some stuff that happens in the later episodes, more lol moments. I think it does get a lot more serious later on but a lot of the time it just doesn't take itself seriously. My one "hope" for Macross Frontier is that for it Kawamori finds the right balance between Macross Zero and Aquarion.

The OP song which was used as an insert song near the end is one of my fav anime theme songs ever. It's the main reason I watched another 7 episodes of Aquarion... Oh yeah this has the best Gattai sequence ever. "IKUU!!!!!!!!!!!"
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LordPrometheus





PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 3:50 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Hmm, I saw bits of Evangelion, Fafner, Rahxephon, The Matrix, Ghost in the Shell, Stellvia, Bleach, and DragonballZ, as well as 70s/80s combining robot anime. I could hardly wait for them to bring out the Gekigan Beam. For those who have seen this series, I just have to ask: is this a parody? Should I have been laughing as much as I did (and not just at the orgasmic merging scenes) ? I just can't seem to take Aquarion as seriously as it wants to take itself.

But beyond the unintentional comedy, there were some other things that just stood out as plain bad to me. I can understand that Aquarion wants to be an epic "teens pilot mecha against supernatural adversary" series on the lines of Rahxephon, Evangelion, and Fafner. Nothing wrong with that; after all, originality is a rare and valuable commodity, and it's not absolutely necessary for a series to be entertaining or well-made. Still, I didn't like the "exposition overload" in this first episode.


I agree. I wanted to take it seriously, and it was entertaining in its own way, but just way too much yammering and not enough mystery or fighting. The story seemed like a mishmash of about twelve different shows. It would probably make more sense if it WAS a parody. Razz
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MagusGuardian



Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Posts: 593
PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:07 pm Reply with quote
I've seen the whole serries in japanese with english subs and it's pretty good it gets serious about half way into the anime but there are still plenty of laughing moments
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Veoryn87



Joined: 14 Nov 2006
Posts: 808
PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:10 pm Reply with quote
So are the production values relatively consistent or are there huge quality breakdowns in some episodes?
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MagusGuardian



Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Posts: 593
PostPosted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 9:44 pm Reply with quote
Veoryn87 wrote:
So are the production values relatively consistent or are there huge quality breakdowns in some episodes?
production value in my opinion pretty much stays constant cept for one episode where they use a REALLY old animation style but it makes sense why they used it half way into the episode other then that it pretty much stays constant
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Vicserr



Joined: 26 Apr 2004
Posts: 480
Location: Carolina, Puerto Rico USA
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 2:56 pm Reply with quote
I liked it. it has the appeal of Classic Giant Robot shows like Getter Robo with a bit of the Eva mindset blended in but this in execution is closer to the 70's Giant Robot shows, an in my opinion, there is nothing wrong with that.

And about the exposition, that's a standard trait of the genre, the line between the good and evil characters explicitly drawn. the mech action was cool, and with mecha design by Kawamori, what do you expect?....

I'm in it for the long haul, that I got the 1st set Super cheap from BestBuy.com was a bonus . Cool
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8JF



Joined: 02 Nov 2007
Posts: 88
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 4:51 pm Reply with quote
After watching that episode I don't think I'll enjoy the series. It's pretty, flashy and very vibrant but also heavy with the dumb fun. I was hoping for another show that wants to mess with my head and pull out the pseudo-mythological technobabble.

Is the orgasmic merge scene the gimmick here like the the sky surfing in E7? Laughing


Last edited by 8JF on Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:07 am; edited 1 time in total
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Keonyn
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Joined: 25 May 2005
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Location: Coon Rapids, MN
PostPosted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 6:38 pm Reply with quote
I found the series interesting when I first saw mention of it, but honestly the episode just didn't do it for me. I don't know, but it just didn't seem like the kind of show it first seemed like it was going to be when I first heard about it.

Zalis touched on a few of my gripes as well in his comments so I won't go in to great detail. I'm a big E7 fan and honestly I really enjoyed that the series kept a lot of what was going on a mystery until the time was right to bring it in. While I don't expect a series to constantly apply a sense of mystery to that degree, I really do despise a series that thinks they need to spoon feed me every bit of information, especially right at the very start.

8JF wrote:
Is the orgasmic the merge scene the gimmick here like the the sky surfing in E7?


Gimmick is such a cruel way of saying it, heh. But Gimmick or not I thought E7 pulled it off great, especially since it was used as a vital plot element instead of just an excuse to let them fly. Nothing wrong with applying a unique twist or "gimmick", as long as it is used effectively.
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 3:28 am Reply with quote
According to something I read on the AoD forums, it's possible that the opening exposition scene was "tacked on" for this streaming release. If true, that would improve my view of Aquarion to some extent. Time to go verify it for myself.
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8JF



Joined: 02 Nov 2007
Posts: 88
PostPosted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:18 am Reply with quote
Keonyn wrote:
Gimmick is such a cruel way of saying it, heh. But Gimmick or not I thought E7 pulled it off great, especially since it was used as a vital plot element instead of just an excuse to let them fly. Nothing wrong with applying a unique twist or "gimmick", as long as it is used effectively.


I'll have to take your word for it. I only watched the first few episodes on disc 1 and lost interest in the series. I've probably missed several good series by being turned off by the early episodes.
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