Earth has been devastated in the Great Catastrophe, at their moment of greatest weakness and after 12000, in the Holy Genesis year 0011, the Shadows Angels of Atlandia have arisen to attack mankind. Mans only hope lays in the mecha machine ‘Angel Aquarion’ a multi-part craft that when joined together creates a powerful robot. But to make the machine work its pilots have to merge their souls with the machinery...

Aquarion: Volume Two (2005) continues the mecha science fiction show. The show remains impressive to look at, but the story remains variable which is an odd improvement over most mecha shows where the story usually stinks. Volume two contains a further seven episodes

Episode seven, Knight of the Crimson Rose, and Apollo is up against the bookish Sirius who distrusts Apollo and disbelieves prophecies. Partially this is an intellectual stance, but mostly it’s because he has feelings for Silvia, who is believed to be the reincarnation of Apollo’s lover. This three way love affair is doomed from the start.

Episode eight, The First Merge, and new pilots have concerns about the sensual nature of the merge which the pilots have to undergo in order to create Aquarion.

Episode nine, The Path to Dreams, and attacks can come on many levels. This time the bad guys take a leaf out of Freddy’s book and are attacking children through their dreams. But mankind’s defenders are resourceful and Apollo leads a counter attack through a nightmare.

Episode ten, Stars in the Sky, Flowers on the Ground: Moroha fearing that the Solar Wing may pose a real risk creates another Cherubim soldier, but his fears are not realized as Apollo and Sirius’s rivalry is creating problems with their fighting ability. When they face up against the new threat their discord leave Silvia injured.

Episode eleven, Happiness is at the Bottom of the Lake, and the stories are starting to become predicable. This time around the team has to confront a beast which has arisen from its lake to threaten children.

Episode twelve, The Time of Amber, and a sacred relic has been found - a relic from the last war against the shadow angels. Of course our heroes try to get closer to this object whilst the angels worry that the humans may be defiling one of their relics.

Episode thirteen, A 12,000-Year-Old Love Letter, and the Angels are unwilling to allow the humans to continue to hold their relic, so Toma attacks; it’s a battle which only one side can win.

After the impressive showing of extras on the first volume it was disappointing to see that this volume has no extras at all, but then it does have an extra episode compared to volume one, so that kind of balances out.

The presentation of the disc remains the same as volume one. The show is presented in its original 1.78:1 anamorphic aspect ratio with a choice of either a pretty good English 5.1 or the original Japanese 2.0 audio track, with subtitles.

So it’s better than most mecha shows even if a couple of the episodes feel a bit like filler.

7

Charles Packer