Aquarian Age: Sign for Evolution

Publisher
ADV
Director
Yoshimitsu Ohashi
Production
Broccoli, Madhouse, TV Tokyo, Victor Entertainment
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
13 episodes
Year
2002

Aquarian Age: Sign for Evolution vol 1 (eps 1-5)

By John Huxley
19th Jul 05

As a rule of thumb, I try to avoid anime that revolve around, or simply involve musicians of any kind. They’re just embarrassingly awful. I’m reminded of one particular episode of Excel Saga which featured a scantily clad rock musician who served no purpose whatsoever - his inclusion was simply a vain attempt to fulfil the requisite screaming girl quota. While Excel Saga’s satire was at times a little too heavy-handed for its own good, this particular gag was spot-on; there are few anime outside of Perfect Blue that have managed to escape that shallow, one-dimensional portrayal of musicians. To be fair, this isn’t something that’s entirely unique to anime - Hollywood hasn’t exactly got the best track record when it comes to musical biographies, after all.

Nevertheless, I was quite surprised to learn that Aquarian Age, for all its promise of myths and magic, primarily revolves around the fortunes of the young Kyouta and his fledgling pop group. Balancing his commitments to the group with his school, home and romantic obligations, Kyouta’s hectic schedule is about to get even busier when a representative of top talent agency Cosmopop offers him a deal he can’t refuse. Thrusted into the limelight, Kyouta and his fellow band members Shingo and Junichi are quickly initiated into the dog-eat-dog world of showbiz. While Shingo and Junichi concern themselves with such trivial matters, Kyouta finds himself becoming increasingly embroiled in a bizarre fantasy world in which powerful combatants battle it out for ultimate supremacy in the skies above Japan. Bewildered, he must wonder why these ethereal beings are so interested in his activities despite his apparent lack of similar fantastical abilities. Unbeknownst to him, Kyouta’s girlfriend-to-be and confidant Yoriko holds the key to this mystery - only trouble is she’s not ready to accept her destiny and take her place as the fated ‘Benzaiten’.

The five episodes on this disc largely chronicle Kyouta’s rise to semi-stardom along with his friends Shingo and Junichi. Thankfully the musical aspect of this particular storyline is underplayed, as we’re rarely forced to sit and listen to their droning tunes without some sort of distraction to lessen the damage. And on the few occasions we are forced to actually endure nothing but the band’s music, I found their middle of the road pop sound to be blissfully inoffensive. I’m not going to rush out and buy the album (probably couldn’t even if I wanted to...) but it’s certainly a step-up from many other musical anime efforts.

As a study of the Japanese music industry, Aquarian Age fails abysmally. Though not quite a catastrophe of Excel Saga proportions, its simplified view of the idol phenomena will be awfully familiar to many veteran anime fans. Yet despite the amount of screen time Aquarian Age devotes to Kyouta’s musical career, this shortcoming isn’t nearly as detrimental as it might first appear.

One of the key reasons Aquarian Age succeeds in spite of such flaws is the refreshingly subtle characters that lend its story a more human approach. Taking the onus away from the lacklustre musical aspect of the show, this character-driven narrative relegates it to little more than a backdrop, a catalyst for the show’s increasingly involving character development. In particular, Yoriko and Kyouta’s troubled relationship is given a good deal of attention as the strains of the music industry begin to take their toll. This bitter-sweet storyline may sound hackneyed, but the surprisingly delicate execution is typical of Aquarian Age. Though outwardly unspectacular (even if Kyouta looks a little like Spike from Cowboy Bebop, which is no bad thing), these underplayed characters really draw you towards them, making even the most simple of storylines that much more involving. At this early stage I doubt it’s affecting enough to bring anyone to tears, but the potential is certainly there.

While it lacks a great sense of humour, this is substituted for an great foreboding atmosphere that really suggests Aquarian Age’s is building towards the possibility of a tragic conclusion, one probably bought about by the mysteriously magical happenings. Kyouta, most likely as a result of his late-night lyrics binge, has begun to see floating girls fighting in the sky. As the series progresses we learn these ethereal beings are in fact alter-egos of real world persons somehow attached to Kyouta and Yoriko. Before long he’s inducted into this bizarre alternate world of myth and magic which surrounds and eventually consumes his otherwise peaceful life.

Primarily viewing the story from Kyouta’s eyes, we’re often left feeling as utterly bewildered as he appears to be when it comes to the complexities of Aquarian Age’s mystical mumbo-jumbo. And even when we do get to see ‘behind the scenes’, it’s all so annoyingly cryptic and really leaves us none the wiser. Apparently influenced by Japanese mythology, this world of powerful alter-egos and flying blocks of colour isn’t unique to Aquarian Age, yet it fails to capture some of the immediacy that made shows like DN Angel and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure more appealing and much less confusing. The handy booklet included inside the DVD case does explain a little, so I’d recommend reading that before you find yourself entirely perplexed.

As if to add insult to injury, the fight scenes aren’t merely disappointing, they’re virtually nonexistent. And this isn’t a self-confessed action junkie making something of nothing; Aquarian Age contains plenty of battles, they’re just lacking anything that would really define them as ‘action’. We’re not even talking Yu-Gi-Oh quality of action here. The animation clearly isn’t lacking - it’s just based around a flawed idea that simply doesn’t work - Aquarian Age’s fight sequences mostly consist of blocks of abstract colour flying through the sky, occasionally clashing and a little dialogue from the characters in-between. Dull by anyone’s standards. Thankfully the enjoyable character driven narrative is strong enough for you to largely forget all about the abysmal action sequences.

Ironically, Aquarian Age probably would have been more successful had it concentrated solely on Kyouta’s band. That’s not to say that all this mystical mumbo-jumbo won’t lead somewhere eventually, only that the more personal, down to earth storyline of Kyouta’s band really takes advantage of Aquarian Age’s great strengths. Unless you’re immediately stricken with the prospect, I’d wait and see how the rest of the three-volume series pans out before committing to Aquarian Age. It’s off to a pretty good start, but it could quite easily head in either direction.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English subtitles, English 5.1 and Japanese 2.0 audio, reversible cover, Japanese promotional trailer, clean open/close, production sketches, 8-page production booklet, Behind the Anime: Aquarian Age

Release information: UK: 18/7/2005, ADV

Notes: With a nice composition and plenty of detailed artwork, the cover is fairly pleasing to the eye if a tad unspectacular. Fortunately there’s an impressive double-spread montage printed inside the box - just a pity that’s in the wrong aspect ratio for the front cover. The DVD itself contains a good number of extras. Alongside all the regular trailers and clean open/close there’s a neat extra that takes a look behind the scenes of the US production. Presumably an ongoing feature, this outing takes a look at the interview process as several cast members are grilled in front of camera. Hardly essential viewing, but a nice inclusion nonetheless. Utterly unmissable, however, is the eight-page booklet that includes interviews with cast and crew among other things. It’s neither as inventive or entertaining as Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi’s mock newspaper booklet, but it’s certainly the better of most anime extras you can care to mention.

-- John Huxley 19th Jul 05

Aquarian Age: Sign for Evolution Images