Teenagers at school fight in giant robots by harnessing the power of three-man sexual unions.

When this first came out, I dropped it in the middle of the first episode. But I ended up giving the show a second chance, and it quickly grew on me. It’s dumb, but it has a lot of heart and it’s very self-aware of how stupid it is. For example, every episode has some character shouting “____ Union! Go, Aquarion!!!” Then the three parts of the robot combine, and we see the three characters naked screaming about how good it feels. It’s all very formulaic, and extraordinarily ridiculous, but I grew to love it.

I think for the rest of the review, it may be instructive to have a dialogue with myself and compare my final thoughts to my initial impressions.

Why, Japan, why?! You could have made any anime you wanted. And you decided to make a sequel to GENESIS OF AQUARION?!!! What the hell were you thinking?!

I still don’t get it. The original Genesis of Aquarion falls in my list of the worst anime of all time. (If you were inspired to by Evol, DO NOT watch the original, you will regret it!) Out of all the anime they could have chosen, why make a sequel to this?

I guess that in the end, part of the reason making a sequel to Aquarion worked is that no one hated themselves enough to sit through the entirety of the original. So the mentions of the past seem mysterious and cryptic to the uninitiated, and retained the setting’s aura of mystery. (For me, on the other hand, when they brought back flashbacks of Sylvie and Apollo I wanted to bash those two’s brains in.)

Mikono is a walking sack of clingy whininess.

I still never really liked her by the series’ end. She never did much of anything except play the damsel in distress. Perhaps towards the end of the show I would replace “clingy” with “jealous and disloyal”?

Amata has less personality than a pile of horse manure.

I grew to like him. I still wouldn’t call him a strong character by any stretch of the imagination, but I can definitely sympathize with him more by the show’s end, particularly with how he doesn’t care about fate.

I have no bloody clue who anyone else is, even though it seems like I’m supposed to. 

This was just the first episode having us hit the ground running. Things soon start to make sense.

Mikono and Amata’s “relationship” is pretty much the corniest thing imaginable.

Yes. But I came to love how corny Aquarion Evol is. It’s at the heart of the show.

One last thing, piloting robots in the universe of Aquarion involves participation in an orgy. Except the people in this show act like kindergartners who think they’ll get cooties if they talk to boys / girls and don’t wear their chastity stones.

This was really annoying, but they get over the cooties pretty quickly.

I guess that all of the individual elements of Aquarion Evol were pretty stupid. But the way they come together is magical. This show is full of hot-blooded passionate love. It even made me think occasionally. Go, Aquarion!

• Storytelling – B – Exciting and passionate, although the story itself is nothing to write home about.
• Voice – A – So dumb yet so awesome.
• Characters – B – Mikono and Amata were pretty lacking as characters. The remaining characters had a single defining characteristic, but still managed to capture the viewers’ hearts (prime example: Andy and Mix, who dig holes and fill holes, respectively).
• Attention Grab – B – Making people scream passionately and taking off all their clothes is certainly one way to grab attention.
• Production – A – Looking pretty good! Definitely an improvement here over the original…
• Overall – B

Recommendations – Star Driver, Bounen no Xamdou, Eureka Seven