Sousei no Aquarion - First Impressions

I just went through the first few episodes (seven episodes, to be exact) of Sousei no Aquarion today, and wanted to share my first impressions of the series. I’m sure quite a number of you have already watched it, but bear with me.

Sousei no Aquarion brings with it a post-apocalyptic background, where much of the human race was destroyed in a disaster - causing the Shadow (or Fallen) Angels to resurface from their destruction 12,000 years back. These Shadow Angels are powerful winged beings that send Mythical Beasts (a.k.a. Cherubim Soldiers) into human cities to “harvest” humans - or more specifically, their Prana (breath of life or life energy).

It is in this backdrop that the Machine Angel Aquarion - a three-part mecha - exists, piloted by those with Element abilities (special powers like telekenesis). Just like in Ultraman, Aquarion is used to defeat the Mythical Beasts - one beast per episode. But Sousei no Aquarion does have an underlying plot - about the ancient civilization of Atlantis, reincarnated warriors that now fight as Aquarion’s pilots and the mystery surrounding the Shadow Angels.

Now, so far, I love the soundtrack and the initial seriousness of the show. Character and mecha designs are good. Production values are high. I also love the fact that I currently absolutely detest our hero of the story, Apollo - the brutish and unsightly reincarnation of the legendary hero, Solar Wing. But then SnA started getting cheeesy on me, absolutely cheesy. Try these and tell me what you think:

1. Episode 7: Jealousy is the voice that calls for the spirit shard. So it calls energy. Jealousy is energy? Live by embracing it, Aquarion!
2. Episode 6: Sirius, the arrow of the heart can reach. If you heart’s arrow pierced my heart, back then…
3. Episode 5: Humans are like crescent moons. But if you join the pieces together, it will become a round moon. A full moon. By pouring in the shard of the moon mising in each of us, we bury the darkness of the heart.

Almost every episode has one of these cheesy moments (also called “the lesson of the week” over at Random Curiosity) and most of them are initiated by the Commander. But what I really lurrrvvvv (Damn, I hope that sounded sarcastic) about the Commander’s lines is this:

But I guess all this was due to my over-high expectations for the series, or perhaps it was just me misreading what kind of series this was supposed to be. If I had read the SnA episode summaries by other bloggers (e.g. tokyojupiter.blog and Random Curiosity) first, I would have realised that SnA wasn’t meant to be serious - at least in the beginning.

P.S.: Now, I found these just a little uhmm… unusual:

P.S. 2: Or am I alone on this one?