It may be over a week and a half since it’s original broadcasting, but in the spirit of ARIA, slowness is preferred here (no excuse for subbers though, you guys need to pick up the pace).

I had pretty high expectations of ARIA the ORIGINATION considering how much I loved the first two, and it didn’t disappoint in the least. The series was exactly as I remembered it, with a level up in the visuals, and that’s very much so a good thing, you do not screw with perfection, which is exactly what the ARIA series is.

As I said, nothing much has changed from the first two seasons of ARIA, so if you loved them, which the majority of people do, you’ll feel a warm sense of nostalgia watching ORIGINATION. The first episode throws you back into the world of Neo-Venezia and reintroduces all our favourite characters from the main cast of Alicia, Akira and Athena and their juniors Akari, Aika and Alice, as well as side characters like Al-kun, Akatsuki, Woody and the ever lovable trio of feline presidents.

Any veteran ARIA fan will tell you that the series is not known for it’s intricate plot lines, and that won’t change any time soon. This episode shows the slow days after the winter carnivale on Neo-Venezia, a time where the city shows its true calmness after the festivities and rush of tourists and vacationers dies down. Alicia and Akari receive a gift from one of their customers during the festival, some cherry jam and tea, and decide to invite everyone over, since it’s been a while since they’ve last gotten together.

After a day of shopping and baking, the group arrives and talks shift to various times in the carnivale when the great water faeries showed their prowess as undine, making Akari, Aika and Alice realize how much further they have to catch up. But Akira reminds them that they too have much to learn, that one must always strive to better themselves day by day, so having the long road of improvement ahead of them is only natural.

With that in mind the three undine reaffirm their motivation to continue to get better and better, knowing that one day they’ll have juniors who look up to them, while in the background the three water faeries wonder what kind of primas they will become and begin to lament the fact that one day they’ll no longer be under their wings.

First Impressions

Couldn’t have asked for more, it was all I had hoped for from the continuation of the ARIA series. The characters and the overall feel of the series were just as I remembered them with improvements in both voice acting and animation (ws aspect ratio!).

I’m not really sure what more I can say to convince the few people that haven’t watched the series to give it a shot, it’s one of those things that must be experienced first hand to know what others are on about. ARIA is the epitome of slice of life series, characters develop, sure, but there is no overlying plot, just the day to day events of the world of Neo-Venezia, and I suppose this is what scares off some people, it’s essentially a show about nothing. I have watched episodes of ARIA that calmed me to the point of falling asleep, only for me to wake up later, completely refreshed and watch the episode all over again. It’s inexplicable, but an amazing feeling.

I suppose if I were to select a focal point of the ARIA series it would be the characters and their unique personalities. Although you could lump the girls of ARIA into archetypes, they wouldn’t suffice in describing them. Each with their own quirks, habits and sayings, the cast of ARIA are an unrealistically optimistic bunch, but a joy to watch get along with each other. And no matter how many episodes I’ve watched, I’ve never gotten tired of hearing the catchphrases, from “Ara ara” to “Hazukashii serifu kinshi”, and all backed up by a stellar seiyuu cast. Bonus points to Athena this episode for her hilarious facial expressions (which I was sure I had a gif of, but I seem to have lost it ;_;)

Technicals weren’t anything mindblowingly awesome, but perfect for the feel of the series. The animation has gotten quite a bit better this time around, subtle movements being much more fluid. Character designs are largely the same with some minor tweaking to the SD forms. Music was as relaxing as ever, an ideal mood setter, the ED in particular was very good this time around, I’ve been listening to it while writing this entry.

Sooo…I guess that’s enough fanboying for this week. But seriously, ARIA = awesome, a series that any self respecting anime fan should treat themselves to. Hell, even lolikit, the ultimate troll blogger can only describe ARIA as “suteki”.

And now I’m left with the impossible task of narrowing down my blogging schedule from:

i. ARIA the ORIGINATION
ii. Spice and Wolf
iii.True Tears

To a combination of any two, argh, this is proving to be an annoyingly hard decision.

Dekkai pinch desu

~ Shirukii ~