Aaand Mikono, you fail at being a romantic love interest for Aquarion Evol. This was supposed to be your chance: this episode delivered all of the background for this series. This was your chance to be relevant. But no, you’re just mentioned once in the entire story as a sort-of afterthought. Your role as a damsel in distress got upstaged by Zessica at the end of the episode, and beyond that the only thing you did was… feel sorry for Kagura.
Apart from that though: this was solid back-story. And to imagine that the big twist of the original Aquarion… was a dog. That was just as crazy. The commander really stole the show in this episode with his trolling, and Shrade also shined here. It’s completely camp and over the top, but good entertainment.
I do wonder, though: if the world split in two, and only men can survive in Vega… then what are they doing on Altair? Based on that same logic we should have an entire female cast.
Rating: *+ (Great)
AKB0048 was about that really strange phenomenon known as “hand shake events”, together with unreasonable fans. I again like the focus on the darker sides of being an idol (having young girls like that listen to death threats like that), but the creators did miss a few opportunities. I mean, this episode did focus on the good fans, but we saw little of the really creepy fans; there was only one scene of that: the obsessed grown man who kept clinging. That could be a hint for things to come though. What probably won’t be treated is the whole commercial farce that idols can be, since with this series, the characters actually have a justifiable reason to get as much exposure as possible.
Also those battles still make no sense!
Rating: * (Good)
Altair is probably okay because the original Aquarion is there
I thought that AKB0048 was quite interesting until they ruined it in the last 5 minutes. The whole ‘creepy stalker fan inspires me to do better’ was just lame. It was like the writers were doing a critical review of the darker side of the fandom and then the exec’s stepped in saying ‘you can’t say bad things about the fans!’. I would have preferred the creepy kid not shop up at the handshake event.
And yeah .. the battles don’t make sense, but I burst out laughing when some of the fan airbrushed cars turned into mecha’s and joined in the fight. It was so stupid that it was good!
No, the kid wasn’t a stalker. He was a fan of the former idol, who Orine wanted to replace. He was just bitter because the idol he loved retired.
PS: The Ota… were so cheesy and bad that it became awesome. I mean, who WOULDN’T want to join in a macha battle?
Yeah stalker is probably the wrong word .. crazed fan is better. Still it’s the dark side of the industry and it’s a pity that they decided to play it safe.
I hate to say it, but they’re probably playing AKB0048 safe because it’s a “pandering” show (as far as their target audience goes). If they were to say anything bad about the people who go to their concerts and buy their stuff, that would be a direct insult to their fans. Regardless of how bad something can get, or how much they might hate it, no producer is allowed to risk that kind of thing without a popular, mainstream incentive.
Meaning, they can’t even try it, even if they want to. And from what I’ve heard, many of the idols and producers really want to. They’re getting a growing incentive due to the gradual change in their demographic audience (older men and idol fans to young girls and other children in the digital age), but… 1) this change isn’t that great yet… and 2) putting creepy older men in a children-targeted show would have to be cheesy and comedic rather than serious or they might risk scaring the little kids.
It’s a shame, too. I can see they’re going about as far as they can go, but they’d have to be working on an entirely original show to take it any further. Of course, that’s a great idea, but this show only exists because of AKB48’s managing company’s funding, so… beggers can’t be choosers.
I still am enjoying the charm, though. =3
You know with all the imagery especially in the Aquarion Movie, with Apollo being a reincarnation of Apollonius it turns out he was really Apollonius “winged pet”, it totally ruined the whole even if absurd premise of the damn show, especially what with Gen now Zen being the real reincarnation. Really??