Shelf Life

Age of Aquarion

It's set 12,000 years in the future, and the story of Apollo and Silvia has become nothing more than a legend told to children. The innocent citizens of planet Vega are under constant attack from those of the planet Altair, who use giant robots called "Abductors" to abduct people and wreak general havoc. Luckily, Vega has a secret weapon—an organization called Neo-DEAVA, which operates as a school for teens with superpowers. Separated into a male side and a female side, they're also trained to pilot giant robots called Aquaria, until the characters basically discover those tingly below-the-belt feelings of puberty and unlock the powers of Aquarion.

There are a lot of similarities with the original show—the mechs look similar, the concepts of love are similar, and everything about the setting and characters evokes a feeling of déjà vu, but Aquarion Evol is written in such a way that intimate knowledge about the original isn't really necessary. Since all of the events in the original are presented as "legend," new viewers are given just enough that they have context for further down the line, but aren't required to know everything going in. Of course, it helps knowing what an Aquarion is, and knowledge of the original allows greater contextualization when it comes to the bad guys, but since all of the characters are new, all of that is just extra icing. In fact, everything about Evol is built from scratch, including the character relationships and the way they relate to their environment, so if anything, the show is more like an additional entry in the franchise than a follow-up.

One of the elements most likely to polarize viewers is the comedy in the series. It's not really ha-ha funny, but it is pretty goofy. It ranges from the wink-nudge-wink-nudge of students realizing the delights of "combining" with their opposite gender classmates and how great it feels, to boys pining for a peek at the girls, to awkward field trips where the boys and girls have to do date activities. The jokes seem almost like they're pulled from a romcom, except under the pretense that since they're forbidden from falling in love (this proves to be more interesting as the season develops), it's all for "training." Some people will likely love this type of humor—personally, I found it to be a little trite, and prone to repetition.

For the most part, Aquarion Evol is a pleasant time. The mech scenes are fun to watch, especially for those who like crazy transformation scenes and ridiculous super moves. Overall, though, while the series is a notch above mediocre, I find that the characters aren't particularly riveting. They do start revealing some of their truer colors near the end of the first part, though, so perhaps the second half will be more telling.[TOP]

That having been said, Yuruyuri is a remarkably easy show to get into. There's not much of a learning curve at all, except to figure out which character is which, and who has a crush on whom. Even the latter bit isn't that difficult to figure out; the characters talk about it all the time, since they don't have much else to talk about.

The show is a bit of an acquired taste, but will certainly be palatable to viewers who like their girls-being-wacky school comedies with a heavy hand of (innocent) yuri. There's a fun mix of comedy in there as well. Each episode starts off with one of Akari's wacky daydreams, and by wacky, I mean that sometimes she's a giant robot, sometimes she's a ninja that can throw her hair buns at people, and sometimes she has a super power where she can make her body invisible, leaving behind only her eyes and mouth. It's a good counterpoint for the rest of the show, which is usually more grounded and involves the girls slacking off while doing homework, or fretting over giving each other chocolates. Some of my favorite scenes include clips of the in-show magical girl anime, Mirakurun (who, by the way, has spawned her own real-life figures and accessories), a tongue-in-cheek jab at fanservicey, male-oriented magical girl shows.

Although the girls spend an incredible amount of time goofing off, there are a lot of tender scenes hidden throughout. The girls' romantic interactions are often played for laughs, but are a genuine portrayal of some of the more awkward moments of teenage love. Something as trivial as a stray piece of chocolate can exist as a punch line in one scene, but a sweet callback in another.

Still, I can't help but wish the show was dubbed. While I think the various vignettes inside Yuruyuri are cute and occasionally funny, it's hard to sit down and watch the series for long stretches of time. Nothing really happens, per se, so it's easy to lose focus and interest after some time. Were it dubbed, it'd be the perfect kind of show to toss on in the background while doing other things around the house, or multitasking.

I wasn't terribly enamored with Yuruyuri when I first started watching it, but it grew on me over time. I began to look forward to the quiet moments in between the jokes, which are worth seeking out. I'm not sure how often I'd feel the need to rewatch the series, but I do think that there are some good scenes worth watching at least once.[TOP]