Sousei no Aquerion

[Knight26]

Interesting, though I am not a big fan of combiner mecha, just too complicated, The series though does seem to have potential so we will see how that goes.

[Ido]

Awesome visual

[MSW]

Looks okay...sorta a reimagined Getter Robo that could sorta work in toy form (three ships, combineing different ways to make three mechs)

looks like there are some figures in the works...doesn't look like they do the combination thing (the shoulders of one form the legs of another...but in this pic the parts are all distinctly different sculpts...so these figures likely arn't of the "DX" figure that would likely come out eventualy if this show were to be a hit)

[Noyhauser]

... yawn

Macross really represents the edge of my Mecha believability.... This just jumps way over it. I'm WAAAAAAY more excited for the next adaptation of a Yoshiki Tanaka novel (the guy wrote Legend of the Galactic Heroes) Titania. Mikimoto is reportedly doing the character drawings for it.

[Beltane70]

I think I said this in another thread about this series, but I'll say it again. The mecha reminds me a lot of the mecha from the original Dangaio OVA, which Kawamori did do some of the desings.

[Feyd-Rautha]

... yawn

Macross really represents the edge of my Mecha believability.... This just jumps way over it. I'm WAAAAAAY more excited for the next adaptation of a Yoshiki Tanaka novel (the guy wrote Legend of the Galactic Heroes) Titania. Mikimoto is reportedly doing the character drawings for it.

mospeada pushed the envelope too the utter limit..more than macross for me!

artmic all the way man!..

[Renato]

Kawamori really left me with a bitter taste in my mouth after the appalling Macross Zero, so nothing here really grabs me in terms of plot or visuals.

However, I'll watch it because of the Yoko Kanno music.

[bsu legato]

Well that trailer was...odd. That bit with the people being sucked into that wall (or whatever it was) was kind of creepy, and it seems Shoji still likes the operatic music that he used in Ep 5 of Zero. But all in all...I dunno how excited I am about this. I'll give the first couple of episodes a try, just because it's Shoji.

[ogami]

first impression => getter robo...

[Graham]

looks like there are some figures in the works...doesn't look like they do the combination thing (the shoulders of one form the legs of another...but in this pic the parts are all distinctly different sculpts...so these figures likely arn't of the "DX" figure that would likely come out eventualy if this show were to be a hit)

Any idea which company is doing these?

Graham

[Global]

looks like there are some figures in the works...doesn't look like they do the combination thing (the shoulders of one form the legs of another...but in this pic the parts are all distinctly different sculpts...so these figures likely arn't of the "DX" figure that would likely come out eventualy if this show were to be a hit)

Any idea which company is doing these?

Graham

According to animenewsservice...

Bandai has picked up the model rights and HG versions of the lead mecha will be produced under the supervision of Director Shoji Kawamori.

[wolfx]

http://www.aquarion.info/mov_accs/movie/aquarion_pr.asx

Trailer is out. Not really liking the cell shaded CG. The music and special effects look wicked though. Looks like abit of yaoi too.

[Dangard Ace]

Getter Robo Shoji Kawamori style? Guess I'll give it a shot.....and the toys too.

[Fort Max]

Someone posted about this on TFW and I'm gald they did because it looks awesome.

I love the Getter robo's system and to see it completely reimagined by someone with as much expertise as Kawamori is a dream.

If Bandai can do the biz and make a big full function DX toy set that doesn't miss a trick then I will not hesitate to throw my money at them in order to own those mechs.

[wolfx]

A screenshot of this month's Newtype. Are those fully transformable Aquerion toys???

Looks cool...but doesn't quite look like it either. Looks like Temjin from Virtua On. Either that or Kawamori can't transform his own toys....

Edited January 13, 2005 by wolfx

[Graham]

Nope, not toys I think. I'm pretty sure that that those are concept test designs Kawamori made himself using LEGO (or some other similar building block system).

Kawamori is quite famous for doing this when he designs a transforming mecha, just to see if his transformation concept actually works in a 3D medium.

He even occasionally brings these LEGO mecha to show to fans at conventions. I've seen pics of the LEGO SV-51 and VF-17 that he made. I'm pretty sure there are others as well.

Graham

[Renato]

Yep, those are definitely Legos. According to the text it took Kawamori over a year to design these combining mecha, and it is something he wanted to do for a long time. "After 20 years of the Valkyrie, he's finally done it!"

[Dat Pinche Haro!]

Graham...do you have any pictures of any of Kawamori's lego creations? I'm sure many of us here at MW would love to see what he's done. This is actually the first time I see him with a lego figure he constructed himself

[Graham]

Graham...do you have any pictures of any of Kawamori's lego creations? I'm sure many of us here at MW would love to see what he's done. This is actually the first time I see him with a lego figure he constructed himself

Kawamori showed his Lego SV-51 at a convention back in 2003 or 2004. I forget the name of the convention, but there were pics floating around on Macrossworld previously. I just tried to do a search, but wasn't able to find them. Perhaps somebody else will have better luck.

I've definitely also seen a pic of Kawamori with his Lego VF-17. It's in either the VF-X2 gamebooks or perhaps the Mac Plus movie book. Or more likely now I think about it, it may have been shown in the 'Macross's Fastest Liftoff!!' (Macross 7 Preview) TV program.

Graham

[chowyunskinny]

here you go:

1

[chowyunskinny]

2

[chowyunskinny]

3

[Beltane70]

The LEGO SV-51 looks a bit funny with the actual SV-51 wings. I guess it just goes to show that there are some things LEGO can't do!

[wolfx]

The LEGO SV-51 looks a bit funny with the actual SV-51 wings. I guess it just goes to show that there are some things LEGO can't do!

That's just a rough prototype for conceptualisation purposes. I'm sure anyone with enough patience could make something uber like this:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=10006

[Renato]

Looks okay...sorta a reimagined Getter Robo that could sorta work in toy form (three ships, combineing different ways to make three mechs)

looks like there are some figures in the works...doesn't look like they do the combination thing (the shoulders of one form the legs of another...but in this pic the parts are all distinctly different sculpts...so these figures likely arn't of the "DX" figure that would likely come out eventualy if this show were to be a hit)

No, you're right. The ones shown here are Gashapons, at Y200 a pop. No doubt there are toys in the works, though. And if not, WHY NOT??

[Neova]

Mech Design - Check

Combiners - Check

Vampires- Check

Spiritia - er.... check I guess...

Feels like Getto Robo meets Final Fantasy... not a bad thing but need to get used to the concept.

I am much more excited about Titania though!

[Aegis!]

This is a quote with info from animenfo on the plot of the series:

Human race had lost 2/3 of the world´s population because of a random act of nature. The ice on the Antarctica melted, and Atlantis appeared. It was the civilization ruined 12,000 years ago. Because of this, the Fallen Angels got revived. They were a race of humans with wings and they sent biomechanical weapons called  ¨Mythical Beasts ¨  into cities to capture people in order to drain them of biological energy called ¨Purana¨.

The human were excavating the ruins on the bottom of the sea to look for fighter planes, ¨Vector Machines¨. They were the weapon that was said to run the Fallen Angels. Vector Machines combine together and turn into ¨Machine Angel Aquerion¨.

In order to operate Aquerion, a person with the Element ability only could be compatible with the system; they gathered teenagers for candidates to be pilots.

Then, the day came when ¨Machine Angle Aquerion¨ appeared.

It seems this time Kawamori has finally gotten the chance to do his ultimate anime series since Aquarion appears to gather elements from his other works i.e. Nature punishes Human race/ Arjuna , Mithological reference/escaflowne , people with angel´s wings / escaflowne , Comnining mecha / can´t remeber the name but he did a series in this line , Purana energy / spirita from macross.

I have no negative bias against all this elements even though I wasn´t a great fan of Escaflowne nor Arjuna , but Aquarion seems to trully be a gem of an anime from sound and looks of it, so it seems this time at least , Kawamori will finally synthesize all his alternative ideas and theories that he has unnecessarily integrated into his recent works in an attempt to release these personal ideas.

What Aquarion may bring to us all is the opportunity for Kawamori to finally spend all his ideas into ONE anime series and put an end to this trend in his works ( not that it´s bad or that I don´t like it , but it kinda deviates on his overall career) and maybe , just maybe give him the necessary time to dedicate his talent to a new Macross series , maybe a continuation of Zero , maybe a VF-X2 kinda series , maybe something completely unexpected.

Either way , I´ll definetively watch this series for its own merits there´s no doubt about it.

Edited February 3, 2005 by Aegis!

[Final Vegeta]

Human race had lost 2/3 of the world´s population because of a random act of nature. The ice on the Antarctica melted, and Atlantis appeared. It was the civilization ruined 12,000 years ago. Because of this, the Fallen Angels got revived. They were a race of humans with wings and they sent biomechanical weapons called  ¨Mythical Beasts ¨  into cities to capture people in order to drain them of biological energy called ¨Purana¨.

It should be "prana", not purana. It's the Hindu equivalent of Polynesian Mana or Chinese Chi (in Japanese it's called Ki or Reiki).

Kawamori got a lot of Hindu inspiration. Have you seen this Gabil?

It seems this time Kawamori has finally gotten the chance to do his ultimate anime series since Aquarion appears to gather elements from his other works

This is true, but even Macross Zero was something of that kind. For istance Nora's V-51 has the colours of Macross 7's Elgerzorene, and even the SV-51 Battroid was based on the design of the Elgerzorene.

I expect the last monster of Aquarion to be huge

i.e. Nature punishes Human race/ Arjuna

Actually, that was not the sense of Arjuna. The pole shift is a recurring Japanese idea (because they fear earthquakes) that legends connected to Atlantis.

In Arjuna the Human race is Nature. This is a subtle difference from most of other works like those of Miyazaki.

Comnining mecha / can´t remeber the name but he did a series in this line

Dangaioh, although he was only the mecha designer.

I have no negative bias against all this elements even though I wasn´t a great fan of Escaflowne  nor Arjuna , but Aquarion seems to trully be a gem of an anime from sound and looks of it, so it seems this time at least , Kawamori will finally synthesize all his alternative ideas and theories that he has unnecessarily integrated into his recent works in an attempt to release these personal ideas.

I doubt he will "release" He will keep inserting them in every work, trying to do everytime a better anime. The characters seem to be called "deava". "Deva" means "god" in Hindu. There are Hindu references in almost all his works since Macross 7.

FV

Edited February 8, 2005 by Final Vegeta