ARIA the ORIGINATION 03, post coming through!
January 31st, 2008 by Shirukii
I wonder if there exists such an optimistic, positively thinking human being on this earth that could rival Akari. Her latent ability to solve the problems of random passerbys (lolikit calls it her “suteki power”) amazes me. In a perfect world, everyone would possess a mere fraction of Akari’s peaceful demeanor and there’d be peace and harmony and all that good stuff.
On a side note, all the Akari screentime is great, but where’s the love for all the other ARIA ladies?
Episode Rating: 8.5/10
It’s another wonderful morning in Neo-Venezia, Akari walks into the dining room to find President Aria reading the morning paper, surprisingly, more in depth than his usual skimming of the comic section. Seems like the Ca’ D’ro, a building originally from Manhome’s (aka Earth) Venice is due for some repair work.
But taking the subject and running with it anyways, Akari brings it up during a study session with Alice and Aika. Apparently it’s not the only building whose original state was preserved and ported over from Manhome, among them being Cafe Florian, the cafe that Akari often visits and whose owner she is good friends with. But despite all that, surprisingly, Akari has never seen the inside of the cafe, well they have to fix that, so the three of them agree to go there for some tea during their break.
On the way to the cafe, the girls start to take note of the buildings being repaired across Neo-Venezia. Alice points out that the drapes used to cover the buildings while under repair were painted by students of Neo-Venezia’s College of Art students, becoming the outer faces of the buildings of Neo-Venezia during repair.
As they near the cafe they notice a crowd gathered around a nearby vendor stand selling chocolates wrapped in cute glass bottles. Aika recognizes the vendor as Anri, the patissier for a hotel named Appresso. Suddenly, one of the children who had just bought some chocolate trips and breaks the bottle, Akari and the others go to cheer up the kid, who is in tears. Akari reaches for the broken bottle but Anri walks over and tells her that it’s dangerous to handle glass, and also hands the kid another bottle of chocolates, free of charge. Akari is happy for him, but at the same time feels sorry for the broken bottle of chocolates that was lost. But there’s not much they can do about it, so they continue on their way to the cafe.
Inside, Akari finds out that each room in the cafe has its own artistic theme, the one they were seated in being the oriental room. While drinking their tea, they run into the cafe’s manager, who is surprised to see them sitting inside on such a nice day until he hears it is Akari’s first time seeing the interior, and is glad to hear that she loves it just as much as the outside.
When the three of them leave the cafe, they’re surprised to see Anri’s chocolate cart gone for the day. At first they think nothing of it, but as the days pass by his cart continues to be absent from San Marco Square. But Anri hasn’t completely disappeared, while the three of them are out practicing Alice spots him watching on as the Ca’ D’ro is being repaired and soon after Akari spots him wandering aimlessly while she is accompanying Alicia on one of her bookings.
Afterwards, Akari has some free time and decides to walk around San Marco Square, where, as she suspected, there’s no sign of chocolate booth. But as she continues on to Cafe Florian she spots Anri going into the cafe. Akari follows him in and the two have a short talk, Anri seems thankful towards her for something and invites her to come to San Marco Square the following day.
As agreed, Akari heads to San Marco Square the next day and is greeted by Anri along with his chocolate vending stand. He tells her that he was touched by Akari’s concern over the wasted chocolate the other day, he thinks that it would be a pity if the chocolate goes to waste before the feelings he put into them were conveyed. So as a solution, he redid the packaging for the chocolates, each of them unique, just like the buildings of Neo-Venezia. He also apologizes for looking so down the times when Akari spotted him, he explains that when his mind draws a blank he walks around the city until he gets tired, which helps him think of ideas. As thanks for her help, he gives Akari and President Aria a bottle of chocolates each and invites them to Cafe Florian for some tea.
As they sit and admire the paintings, they are approached by the cafe’s manager who explains that all of them were originals from when the cafe was brought over from Manhome, they are in their natural place, so to speak. Hearing that, Akari realizes the beauty in the manager’s statement, that all things made by people carry the feelings of those who originally made them, as time passes they become a natural yet cherished part of their surroundings. It doesn’t have to be a large building or a beautiful painting, Anri’s chocolates are surely something that will become such a cherished and natural part of Neo-Venezia. As if reinforcing that point, when the two leave the cafe they run into the boy who Anri had given a free bottle of chocolate to the other day, he’s happy to see Anri again, worried after he had gone missing for a few days.
Thoughts
While it’s really calming watching the ARIA series take place in the almost Utopian Neo-Venezia, it’s also a little saddening at the same time, knowing that such a place could never exist. No matter where in the world you go, there is always conflict and unrest, which, in modern society are pretty much byproducts of human existence, it’s only natural. Which is why I’m thankful for slice of life series like ARIA, a means of escape from the stark contrast of the realities of the real world.
As for the episode itself, not much to say, plenty of Akari love, being my favourite character, this is always welcome. Though I do wish we got to see more of her interacting with Aika and Alice rather than doing her own thing helping out random townspeople. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice thing to see, but when she’s with her group of friends is when she seems the most natural and at ease. Plus, Aika serves as a great comedic compliment to her wishy washy personality, as she does with Alice’s stoic personality.
I could also go for some episodes centered on the water fairies, so far Akira and Athena have only gotten small cameo appearances in ORIGINATION. I got so desperate to hear Athena’s voice again that I dug up my NATURAL DVDs and looped her singing, then I realized that there are far more convenient methods, but that’s besides the point.
Anyways, to sum up. ARIA is as good as ever, and I’m loving Akari tiem, but the rest of the cast deserves some attention as well.
And so begins the wait for the next episode, which is even more painful than other series ongoing this season because there’s never a set time when they’ll be released ;_;
Dekkai okojama desu
~ Shirukii ~
Aside* WHAT THE HELL BANDAI?! Nearly $300 for 13 episodes of True Tears, and you’re not even going to bother trying to dub them? Are they insane?
17 Responses to “ARIA the ORIGINATION 03, post coming through!”
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Bandai is crazy…on a side note: CALL MY SHIRUKII MY OCZ RAM IS NOT WORKING =)
It’s amazing how even after I all but quit the community and kill my blog and stop watching anime, your posts are still just echos of mine. I love you, Shirukii.
>>patissiere
Lawl, Anri is female now? Drop the trailing e, French-noob.
lol, oshi-
fix’d
>> your posts are still just echos of mine
I’m not sure whether to take that as a criticism or compliment for continuously unconsciously mirroring your thoughts. Oh, well, either way <3
A lot of error in the translation
“Ultimately, Akari finds out that President Aria was reading an unrelated article about the comic strip he follows, much more like him.”
ARIA sachou was reading the news. Akari later told him about a new tourist guide and it danced.
“Alice points out that the drapes used to cover the buildings while under repair were painted by students of Neo-Venezia’s College of Art students, they were selected through a competition among student designs, competition was rumored to have been pretty fierce as the drapes become the outer face of the buildings of Neo-Venezia during repair.”
Completely out .. there’s no indication from the anime that say a fierce competition. Bad translation
“As they near the cafe they notice a crowd gathered around a nearby vendor stand selling chocolates wrapped in cute glass bottles. Aika recognizes the vendor as Anri, the patissier for one of the hotels affiliated with Himeya. ”
The restaurant is named Appresso but it is NOT affliated with Himeya. Bad assumption!
U better read some other blog on their translation, much more accurate.
@ ARIAfans: Thanks for the corrections. But for the record, these aren’t -my- interpretations, I’m not watching ARIA raw lol. I’m basing my summaries off of fansubs, who aren’t always perfect in their translations.
But those were some pretty big differences, clarification much appreciated.
>>I’m not sure whether to take that as a criticism or compliment for continuously unconsciously mirroring your thoughts.
You should count yourself lucky and privileged to be allowed to think the same things as me. Also, lawl for not dismissing my joke instantly? :P
Aside* :)
Basicly this news make happy a little I mean i have buying something and using all of it. I’ve never turned on the English audio of my anime DVD. I get the feeling of not using something that I paid for. And the fact that the series will be released almost two months after the JP release make feel that BANDAI are planning something. if these two successed in selling view that’s mean that we can even get DVDs with English sub faster.
@ lolikit: There are no jokes on the internet, serious business all the time :3
@ PCgamer: What’s wrong here isn’t the lack of dubs or speed of the release, those are welcome changes. What’s stupid is the price, $39.99 for one DVD, six of which have two episodes and the last has one. Think about that, $40.00 for ONE episode of anime, that’s ridiculous. I’ve seen DVD boxsets of full 26 episode series for like…$49.99 before.
@Shirukii well I don’t find it much of problem actually. if you buy it in Japanese without subs it’s cost about 5000 yens which in U$ cost about $46 and is actually more than the $40 that Bandai are going to sell them. I don’t say the price is not high in general. but all released by know was released years after the start of the anime. and if a box set of sigufomi is a released it wont be $300. the box sets are cheaper because they are cut version of the original 2 episode boxes. and I’m 90% sure that few months after the last DVD is released Bandai will launch a All DVD in a set for lower price.
btw any particular reason to write PCGamer instead of PCgamer ?
If you are a gamer in general, you should know that video games these days are $40 or higher. Which would you guys say take up more production time and production cost; anime or a moderate to AAA retail video game? I would say a video game but im not sure what exactly goes on in anime production other than behind the scene videos at Ghibli.
I wonder how much it costs to manufacture each disc and what percentage of the profit goes to whom…
Since Japanese boxed copies cost $46 each? One would hope that the average income of a Japanese family/student/individual is enough to sustain the hobby o_O
As for myself, I usually end up buying boxed sets over here during sales that I know of.
Dang… $300 for True Tears? It makes me La’crymoar…there better be more shoes to justify that price. Maybe the boxart for the first three DVDs should be Shoes, a Roach and then Raigomaru RIP.
EDIT: Suzuran responded below, so I’ll just let his post say what I said here.
Hello, HnK’s translator here.
Someone brought ARIAfans comment to my attention so I’ll just reply to please that certain someone.
“Ultimately, Akari finds out that President Aria was reading an unrelated article about the comic strip he follows, much more like him.”
In our subs we didn’t say in anyway that Akari finds it out that President Aria (let’s talk English and not use shachou) is actually reading the Nyan Nyan Pu article. This is solely the bloggers interpretation.
—————–
“Alice points out that the drapes used to cover the buildings while under repair were painted by students of Neo-Venezia’s College of Art students, they were selected through a competition among student designs, competition was rumored to have been pretty fierce as the drapes become the outer face of the buildings of Neo-Venezia during repair.”
Completely out .. there’s no indication from the anime that say a fierce competition. Bad translation
—–
Alice says “dekkai kyousouritsu takairashii desu”
dekkai = total (as we tl, some may decide to use “really”)
kyousouritsu = competition
takai = high
rashii = supposedly/seems/appears to be
We translated the line as “There was supposed to totally be a lot of competition.”
The translation is completely correct.
———
The restaurant is named Appresso but it is NOT affliated with Himeya. Bad assumption!
“himeya to gyoumo teikeishiteru hoteru nano”
goyumo = business
teikei=partnership
Our subs has: “That hotel is one of Himeya’s business partners.”
Guess what? The translation is spot on.
@ StarCreator/ Suzuran: True about the first scene, that was my interpretation of it, although, after watching it again, I must say that I feel my original sentiments about it were correct.
No excuse about the second two though, sorry for doubting your subs, it was wrong of me to assume that you guys were the ones who made the mistake without checking myself.
Thanks for taking the time to clear that up, good to know that you guys are on top of things and care enough to follow along with blogs and go as far as to jump into the discussion. Thumbs up d(o.o)b
@ PCgamer/Servbot: First of all, the capital ‘G’ was just me holding shift down one character too long, lol.
As for the whole Bandai thing, I am aware that the prices of anime DVDs in Japan are high. But the North American market will not react in the same manner as Japan’s, I don’t think the high prices will fly with consumers here, and that’s a good thing, because if they did, it would set a precedent and anime prices in general would skyrocket.
And the worst thing about it, when it fails Bandai is probably going to cry about piracy being at fault, instead of their stupid pricing. In any case, I don’t think it really matters, Japan isn’t too vested in the North American anime market anyways, most of their money is made domestically.
I lurv sempai….so caring towards the community. =)
Akari is the main character! Of course she is going to get the most screen time! I agree there needs to be more for the others though…..especially…like……..AIKA!!!!
Man, all of the characters in Aria, Ai-chan only get about 10 sec for each episode T_T. After hearing her voice even living in Hell can be feel like Heaven too.
$300 for 13 episodes is not that bad for a collection but isn’t it a little bit too much for every fans?
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