Aquarion MoE Ep 1 Review: A Confusing Start

Alright , it’s that time folks! It’s the return of the modern Getter Robo: Aquarion. This time, we’re getting a series that seems to be even crazier than Logos. Myth of Emotion is basically a half “return to form” for the franchise – with designs going back to the roots of the series – but with an entirely new premise as well as art style. And frankly, it needs to be very good in terms of plot to make up for the visuals.

We got a slight prologue at the start – something about some dude that became a space egg. Which is confusing as hell – but it’s probably one of the myth that has to do with the winged people we saw in the previous trailer. We’ll keep that in mind as we proceed, since this series seems to do more with “space” instead of “time” or “dimension”.

We started with a Symphogear reference – no really, we’re literally starting with a funeral of one of the main cast in the series. Even though the character synopsis before the anime air date mentioned this, we didn’t really know how they were going to make it, but now, we got our answers. The funeral is used to establish 2 things – the main character’s demeanor as well as one the side cast’s, along with some relationship nuance as well. Even from the character design, we can tell that Sakko – the red-haired boy – is a very rebellious, devil-may-care type of character. He likes to go against the norm and stand out, by not wearing school uniform like everyone else as well as using a completely different flower to offer to Ichiki – the girl who “died”. We also get that Rimiya – the blue-haired boy who cried during the funeral, actually didn’t really know Ichiki at all. But he still cry the most at the funeral. So that kinda says something about him. In the OP, we also see the “emotions” that the characters are associated with, and his is “Empathy” – we can deduce that he is the sensitive type that will act empathetic in any situation no matter who is involved.

And then we get a pretty nice Opening – a new rendition of “Sousei no Aquarion” by Jam Project’s Yoshiki Fukuyama and Bless4’s AKINO – the original band that sung the song. The music is much more “rugged” and the instruments aren’t as prominent as the previous edition, but carries more “power” from Nekki Basara’s powerful vocals. This further connects the series to the theme of the original series.

Then we get to the daily school life stuff – to establish the settings and the main cast further. So we get Sakko as the delinquent student that is obsessed with parkour – which he doesn’t seem to know why he’s so passionate about it. This could also be a reference to how Apollo was behaving like a beast in the original show without really knowing why – and turns out the reason is he’s the reincarnation of a dog. So Sakko’s parkour obsession might also be something that is related to his past life – which was the “coward” Priest Nanook.

Then we get the love interest of the main char – well, her reincarnation anyway, Amaha Momohime is one of Sakko’s childhood friend along with Ichiki. Amaha is the reincarnation of Sedna – Nanook’s love interest. In the first ep, Amaha didn’t do much, probably saving her for next ep. It was established that she is a very popular girl due to her looks and demeanor, but she refuses any romantic advances – which points to her only have eyes for Sakko due to their past lives.

And we have Rimiya Tsukishiro – the reincarnation of Sedna’s Sister; Haida – a boy who cried at a random schoolmate funeral. The synopsis said that he lack empathy – but will act sensitive in public to hide the fact that he actually doesn’t feel anything. As the theme of the series suggest, the characters will have to recall the time when they had wings, recall their past lives, to unlock the emotion that they currently do not possess. In Rimiya’s case, it is Empathy. But since he’s also a gender-bent version of Haida, we might see some plot twists if they reveal a complicated relationship between Nanook, Sedna and Haida later on. We’ll see which character is involved in this “triangle”.

And then we get Toshi Hatano – a boy who is quite clumsy and reserved, but possesses a strong curiosity about the world. You can see that is the emotion he was associated with during the OP. He also doesn’t show much yet this episode, but will get established on later.

Then we get to the “girl who died” – Sayo Ichiki. She mysteriously show up as a “ghost” that only the Element students can see – Sakko, Rimiya and Toshi. This reminds me of the anime Asura Cryin’ – which also feature “spirit” character. It seems that she will play a “guidance” role to unlock the past memories of the cast – opening the doors to the mythical era of the “winged people”.

The episode also show some of the “adult” teachers – which is pretty stereotypical for now – we get a caring and gentle female teacher, a mad scientist type, and a strong-looking PE teacher, as well as a very…inhuman principal – which if you watched the first 2 Aquarion – kinda fits Fudo in way with his eccentricity. And the teacher settings remind me of Neo-Deava in EVOL.

But it won’t be a mecha anime if we don’t see any mecha right? That’s why we get our first deployment to act as a “hook” for the series. A mythical beast appeared from a crack in space and the Vectors have to deploy. I really like how they deploy the Vectors in, well, three different Vectors – we got the diagonal Z-axis, then the straight up Y-axis,
and finally, the horizontal X-axis. But one of the thing I wish they showed is the combination sequence of the Aquarion Siegel – since they only show the completed combination after a scene cut. That’s equivalent to the Power Rangers movie with the “how did they combine?” Megazord scene. We kinda have an idea since it’s the equivalent of Solar and Evol, but still, we’d prefer to see it in full.

All in all, the first episode of Myth of Emotion shows us a lot of things – but none of them are particularly “exciting” or “intriguing”. The art style of the character can also throw some people off. So we really need to see more to form an opinion on the series, especially the Mythical Era where they will use full 3DCG to animate the characters. I’d say this is an average start to the series. It has a lot of call-backs to the original, but didn’t really stand out in a meaningful way. Hoping we’ll see more interesting stuff next episode.

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