“Perched above the yet oceanless ocean, there was once a dreamer. The dreamer dreamed about all the things in the world.” A beautifully illustrated creation myth of sorts begins to unfold. The dreamer became a stone. The stone became an egg. Cue the opening, which shows us realistic characters with insect-like wings portrayed as silhouettes (a man, a woman, and a tree? Hmm!), and suddenly, chibi characters in neon colors and eyes with… interesting white pupils. We go back and forth, and end up in chibi reality: welcome to Sayo Ichiki’s funeral. As her classmates gather before her coffin, word on the street is that somebody killed her. Since this happens to be an Evangelion-style secret base-cum-school, conspiracy theories run wild. A loon (or is he?) warns of the oncoming apocalypse. Model student Tsukishiro feels emotional. Bookworm Toshi spoke to her once, at the library. And lastly, parkour-loving Sakko Otori descends from the roof, making the teacher mad, and comes in to say goodbye. But the very next day, as they are together in the library, Sayo appears before them, talking as if nothing had happened, then disappears again. That evening, the school informs the three of them that they will be secretly trained as mecha pilots to save the Universe, even if each is missing a different part of his heart. Come again?

Far too much is going on in this opening salvo of the fourth installment in the Aquarion franchise, the brainchild of Shoji Kawamori, of Macross and Escaflowne fame. Not that the ideas are necessarily bad or uninteresting, mind you, but they would have benefited from a far more gradual approach. Creation myths, clashing animation styles, military secrets, the end of the universe, childhood friendships, missing heart pieces, murder mysteries, interdimensional battles, rewriting History, “how it felt to have wings.” Like the Cook in Alice in Wonderland, the show throws every ingredient and tool in the kitchen at you. It then becomes an Evangelion-esque story featuring three boys with distinct personalities, a Schrödinger girl who might be dead, alive, or somewhere in between, and battles against gigantic cell beings that presumably will help the boys get back the missing heart pieces and return to the creation myth state. So, is it interesting? Somewhat. I think I could get invested in the story of the three chibi kids if it slows down a little, but I’m not a fan of the pulpy-looking glimpses of the “wings” world: the clash in styles is quite jarring, and the 3D fights could be improved. Cool music, though. If I’m feeling generous, I might give it another episode.

Aquarion: Myth of Emotions can be streamed on Crunchyroll.