This last weekend, I finished the somewhat unremarkable Sousei no Aquarion. I started watching this show in Amsterdam, about one year ago, and have slowly made it to the end of the story. It is a vibrant, typically well-animated show, with fantastic music by Yoko Kanno. Aquarion takes its cues from Evangelion, Escaflowne, Utena, and RahXephon, and falls somewhere in-between parody and homage. The characters are over-the-top archetypes, and the conflict is familiar. Despite all this, Aquarion made me laugh often, and cheer at the inevitable climaxes (which always featured the opening theme music).
Sorry this review is so half-hearted. It's hard for me to really Write about something that won't affect my life. I won't remember Aquarion in a couple months, and am marking the date in my LJ mostly for reference.
I'm still waiting for Noein to finish. In the meantime, this morning I took up, "Oniisama e," also known as, "Brother, Dear Brother." A show from the early 90's which looks like it was drawn in the 70's, Oniisama E is often credited with being the secondary inspiration for Shoujo Kakumei Utena. Apparently, it is a melodramatic mix of scandalous crushes and gender-bending. Oniisama E is a shoujo-ai series, meaning that the major romances are between girls only. Now, I've only seen the first episode, but since it looks so much like Versailles no Bara (and is paced like a soap-opera), I'll probably watch the whole thing when it downloads.