Sousei no Aquarion – 20

Short Summary:
Apollo, Silvia, and Sirius are sent into battle to fight an army of shadow angels. After forming Aquarion, they hear the sound of a feather, then that of a child. It turns out to be Futaba, the shadow angel who’s been in the past couple of episodes. He’s using a feather’s power to jump from shadow angel mecha to shadow angel mecha, sometimes blowing them up for the fun of it. DEAVA dispatches a carrier plane with six special drones and the intent to capture their opponent. Apollo pulls off a variation of the Mugen punch, ejecting Futaba right into the net formed by the drones. The battle over, they escort the carrier to the New United Nations Army base. That night, our pilots can hear the cries of Futaba while he’s being experimented on. The military machines cut off his wings, silencing him. While the shadow angels mourn the loss of their comarade, Toma is furious and calls forth his own special mecha.

I can feel a who’s the real bad guy conflict coming. Maybe. If nothing else, then this episode really made me notice the gross difference in technological development between the shadow angels and the humans. The shadow angels use a lot of organic materials, while everything the military (and DEAVA) uses is distinctly metallic. Ultimately, I don’t think the Aquarion team will switch sides, but there might be some serious questions raised, especially since it felt like they are trying to make the pilots feel sympathetic towards Futaba at the end.
Aquarion continues on it’s relatively good streak. I was hesitant about this episode when I first started watching, as the beginning feels like it is using a lot of stock footage. But the direction of the story, or maybe the fact that there is direction in the story, impressed me. Toma is turning into such a badass with his own mecha rising out of the water to end the episode. We’ll get to see it in action next week, with lots of sword fighting shown in the preview.
There was also an insert song this episode that played around the end of the first half. The credits don’t list the insert songs, and I didn’t recognize this song as part of the first OST, so I assume it’ll be on an upcoming OST. It sounds like AKINO singing, but I don’t believe it’ll be on the Go Tight! single.