I never thought of ranking episodes of ARIA one over another since I’ve never encountered one that I didn’t like. Aside from the largely arbitrary ratings I sometimes put at the top of my summaries, I’ve enjoyed every episode without comparing them to each other. Not that all the past episodes are fresh in my mind, but if I had to pick a favourite, this would probably be it.

Despite knowing full well from spoilers long ago and skimming over Totali’s post, I spent every second of the episode anxiously waiting for the conclusion, loving every minute of it along the way. Congratulations on your dual graduation Alice!

Coming out of her school graduation ceremony, Alice is approached by two of her juniors who ask her for her second button, soon, Alice is being swarmed by her classmates and ends up with a button-less blazer.

Outside the school, Akari and Aika are waiting for her to offer their congratulations as well. As it’s her last day of classes, Alice adds a challenge to her walk home for the last time, attempting the whole journey walking backwards, unfortunately they spot Athena on the way, so she turns around and YOU JUST LOST THE GAME.

The following day, Alice is unusually lively during practice, raising her usually timid voice to unprecedented levels. Alice says that now that she’s graduated she can practice with Aika and Akari full time, accompanying that freedom is a feelings that she can do anything when she puts her mind to it. Apparently Alice’s confidence radiates, Athena picks up on it and invites her to go on a picnic the following day, from what we saw from Aika and Akari’s reaction to the word picnic last episode, it must be a code name for undine promotion exam or something.

Sure enough, as the two set out for their picnic, Athena suggests that they spend the day with Athena pretending to be Alice’s customer. Although Athena suggestion sounds largely passive, Alice takes it seriously right from the start, treating Athena as any prima would their precious customer.

Giving her a general guide of the city, Athena compliments Alice on her informative and interesting guide skills. Alice asks Athena if there’s any place in particular where Athena would like to visit, Athena takes her up on the offer and they make their way to the narrow bridge that you’ll recognize from when Akari took her single promotion exam. Conveniently enough, the ferry passes by Alice, who skillfully maneuvers out of its way.

The two begin to near their final destination, the familiar water elevator that leads to the vast field of windmills that overlooks Neo-Venezia, as the two enter the elevator a prima from Himeya heading the other way wishes Alice luck, Alice oblivious as to what she may be referring to. On the way up the customer act is temporarily dropped and Athena compliments Alice on her progress lately, Alice thinks she’s a pretty skillful rower and guide, but doesn’t have much confidence in her canzone (singing). Athena tells Alice that what’s important in singing is the love that the performer puts into it, if the singer doesn’t have any confidence in her song, that will be reflected in her voice.

When the elevator reaches the top, Alice spots Akari and Aika in the distance along with several people from the gondola association. Athena thanks Alice for guiding her and requests a song to end the tour. Alice pours her heart into her voice, a performance fit for the apprentice of one of the three great water faeries known as Siren. Afterwards Alice thanks Athena for reminding her of her love for singing. Athena then reaches for Alice’s hand, removing her left glove, the gondola association has long been awaiting her graduation from compulsory schooling, they were slightly worried about her canzone and guiding abilities, but she proved them to be of no concern during the exam. Not finished, Athena continues, reaching for her right hand, Athena congratulates Alice, in light of her remarkable talent that is sure to shine brightly leading the new generation of undine, she removes her second glove and grants her the rank of Prima Undine along with the title Orange Princess.

In tears, Alice hugs Athena and then Aika and Akari, thanking them for everything they’ve done for her.

Thoughts

Wow, never have I anxiously awaited an episode of ARIA as much as I did this one, and never have I literally sat on the edge of my seat while watching one. The whole episode I was waiting for it, and when they got to the water gates I thought “OSHI-, here we go”. The atmosphere of the episode was great, starting with Alice’s graduation from school there was already a celebratory feeling, it then slipped into ARIA’s usual calming lull as Athena and Alice went about their picnic, but with the customer/undine dynamic you could tell something was looming under the surface. Finally, as the gates of the water elevator lifted and all of Neo-Venezia was bathed in a warm orange glow as Athena gave a long speech about the planet’s history, uncharacteristically articulate, the buildup to the climax began. Then came Alice’s calming serenade which sent chills up my spine, and finally the skip over singles promotion straight to prima, a shocking conclusion and yet fitting, as the episode comes full circle with Alice’s graduation as both a student and undine.

Alice’s song was a particularly awesome scene, not only did we get to hear the usually shy and timid girl sing with an air of confidence, the flashes of Alice’s past serve as a reminder as to just how much she’s grown over the seasons. Her voice wasn’t as soothing as Athena’s, but given the context of the scene, I loved her singing just as much. I wonder if it was actually Hirohashi Ryou that sang.

EDIT: Indeed it is, it’s on the OST.

I bring this point up every now and then, about the idealistic mindset of everyone in Neo-Venezia, there just seems to be no hard feelings, ever. Akari and Aika just got leapfrogged over in the race to become prima undine, and show no signs of jealousy at all. I haven’t read the manga yet so I don’t know if this becomes an issue later on, I doubt it really, rather than any animosity towards Alice, Aika will probably just beat herself up for not being good enough and Akari will resign her readiness to Alicia. I think Akira was the only one to show actual signs of jealousy for her peers, and that was quickly taken care of basically by a “Ganbatte ^_^” from loli Aika. Though, to be fair, Alice should have been promoted to a single a loooooong time ago, her skills were on par, if not greater, than Akari and Aika’s.

I really should try to put a rest to my cynical view of human nature while watching ARIA, it’s unsightly. But given that the reality of human nature, it’s hard to shake off.

Looks like next episode we’ll be following Alice around as she struggles with her new duties as a prima. After that I hear we dive into some Aika development and finally Akari. We’ll probably be finishing up the manga series in this season, which is awesome on one hand, but on the other it means that this is the end for the ARIA franchise. ;_;

PROMOTIONS!

~ Shirukii ~