Pictorial evidence delivered

Birthdays are interesting phenomena, you gather your friends in celebration, congratulations all around for doing absolutely nothing but staving off death for another year, at which point another number is added on to the ticker which inches you closer to your inevitable fate.

But to hell with that, with roneriness a thing of the past, birthdays are awesome and even though mine is still about a month away, mai waifu decided to surprise me with an early present!

After proclaiming ARIA as my favorite series of all time, these art books couldn’t have been a more fitting gift. Also, I’ve always wanted to start collecting art books, but passed up many (including the likes of Shakugan no Shana and Fate/Stay Night) due to their high prices. And damn if these things don’t put a sizable hole in one’s wallet, ringing in at about $30 each, the price nearly doubled once shipping and some good ol’ Canadian customs raep was tagged on.

The books themselves are gorgeous, each of them come encased in a hard plastic sleeve and the quality of the paper/hardcovers feels great.

Despite the covers being ARIA centric, a fair bit of the artwork in the books is from Kozue Amano’s past works like Roman Club and Crescent Noise, as well as some bonus art from extra works.

However, the ARIA art is what it’s all about and even though I don’t know much about art, or at least not enough to do a formal critique, I found the artwork to be absolutely stunning. So much so that after receiving them I spent a good two hours flipping through them multiple times while profusely thanking my girlfriend for such an awesome present.

The only pseudo complaint I have about the books is that the art isn’t well spread over all the characters, there seemed to be a serious lack of Akira and Athena in particular, and not a whole lot of Alicia either. However, this is me forcing myself to pick out something bad to say because the character who got the most attention was Akari, my favorite of the ARIA maidens.

With all the ARIA manga released in hand (except for AQUA 1, which evades me to no end), these art books and the plan to grab the DVD box sets, I fear I will soon be joining the ranks of ARIA addicts. It’s a good thing these figs are out of production.

Well, so ends my brief revival on this blog, back to the daily grind of university life. Once again, thanks to my wonderful waifu for quite literally the best birthday present I have received to date <3 I love you.

~ Shirukii ~

I’m just a little happy…

…and more than a little overwhelmed. The ending of ARIA the ORIGINATION and with it, the ARIA series as a whole, has left me fumbling for words. The words to describe what I felt about the last few episodes, the ending and the series as a whole, have been elusive. However, I’ll try my best to do justice to this amazing work.

I stopped doing episodic posts on ARIA after episode nine because subs fell incredibly far behind, which is okay, subbing slowly is preferred here, etc. But given the time that has passed since the series finished airing, plot summaries at this point feel like an endeavor in wasted effort. But if you require them, head over to Subculture instead: 10, 11, 12, 13.

Episode 10

As lolikit asserted in notdotq, this was a comparatively weak episode, especially when you have to stack it up to its immediate predecessor. Given the powerful scene that was Alice’s promotion, the aftermath was rather tame. Sure we saw Alice coping with the nervousness that came with suddenly becoming a prima, but it was only a fraction of what we knew lay below her emotional instability at the time.

Having been suddenly promoted to prima, not only did Alice have to deal with unassisted guides and the like, but she also had to come to terms that she was now on her own path. A path separate separate from the great water faeries and more importantly, a path separate from Aika and Akari, who she has practiced on an almost daily basis with for over a year now.

Instead we got a rather tangential interlude on the relationship between Aika and Al. In hindsight, this contributed to her overall confidence in the episodes to follow, however at the time felt out of place. The pacing just didn’t match up to the events of late. It’s like the script writers realized that they would have to kick the plot development into overdrive, but before doing so, gave a quick tap on the brakes, the result was rather jarring.

However, it was nice to see Al and Aika finally reconcile their love for each other after two seasons of loose allusions to it.

Episode 11

The true follow up to episode nine, this episode concentrated on the aforementioned feeling of separation that Alice felt when she got promoted ahead Aika and Akari. Alice describes her personality best herself, saying that she’s the type to worry when given the time to think. With her title as Orange Princess and established reputation of the ace of Orange Planet, Alice’s schedule has no shortage of bookings, finding that working late into the night is becoming commonplace.

Accompanying the exhaustion of work comes the realization that she hasn’t been spending much time with Aika and Akari, who just a while ago she used to spend every single day with. Often wanting to go see the two, Alice opts not to do so, either because she believes it’s too late at night to disturb them or not being able to think of a reason to drop by. So imagine her surprise when she returns to her room one day to find them stuffing their faces with food. As it becomes apparent that even though they may be walking different paths, the time they spend together remains unaffected, Alice accidentally voices her concerns about not having the time nor a reason for doing so aloud.

Her worries are quelled by Akari, who tells her that she doesn’t need a reason, Alice herself is enough of a reason for them to get together. Once again, Akari proves her unrivaled ability to phrase things in a wonderfully poetic manner that can warm the heart of even the more hardened cynic.

Along with Alice’s predicament, this episode featured Akira’s challenge to Aika, her prima qualification examination.

Episode 12

I felt this episode suffered a little because Aika’s qualification exam wasn’t shown in full, but rather as a flashback of sorts, an unfortunate consequence of episode ten’s tangent. However, that being said, Akari’s exam compensated, and then some. It was amazing how well they captured Akari’s essence, her very nature, throughout the course of her exam. As she guided Alicia on her modified Neo Venezia tour, she is showered with support on all fronts, from her peers Aika and Alice to her seniors Athena and Akira and all the random passerbys in between. It was a perfect exposition of Akari’s character, her propensity to make friends and the direction that she will guide ARIA Company towards in the future.

Out of the three examinations, I’d argue that Akari had the toughest. Alice’s was a simple guided tour and some overlap with the singles qualification exam, and we can only assume that Aika’s was a simulated tour as well, in addition to that, Alicia put Akari through an incredibly tight canal passage that demanded precision gondola control. Which was a little weird actually, since I always thought that Alice was the prodigy when it came to maneuverability.

Episode 13

I’ll make no excuses here, this episode reduced me to tears three times. First, when Akari runs into a snag with book keeping, turns to ask Alicia for help and finds she’s not there. Second, when Alicia passed on her oar to Akari and bowed farewell. And finally, when Akari opened the shutters without Alicia, moving on from the past towards her own ARIA Company.

In particular, Akari’s breakdown in front of Alicia was very moving. Coming from Akari, a character who has continuously proven that she is beyond things like jealousy and is a generally selfless person, it was hard to see her lose herself in her desire for the days she spends with Alicia by her side to never end. It was equally hard to hear Alicia, who has been portrayed as the pinnacle of perfection, admit to Akari that she too was putting off this day as long as she could, even though she knew that Akari had the skills to be a prima long ago.

But of course, Akari is quick to bounce back, take a step back and look at the larger picture. Her monologue about everyone’s paths diverging despite looking like they were all heading in the same direction was an excellent tie up. The split was an inevitable one and was alluded to many times before through reminiscence of the time the three great water faeries were singles, and Akari’s elegant reflection on the past and present as well as her hopes for the future was flawless.

The “Where are they now” type epilogue which jumps ahead into the future and telling us what everyone has been up to isn’t something I usually like, but it worked well this time around. Athena becoming an opera singer was a bit of a surprise, but oddly fitting. I lol’d at Akira claiming the top spot as her two main competitors dropped out or divided their attention, hilariously appropriate given her competitive nature. Alicia taking an administrative position was a little out of place, but we get to see her in megane mode as a result, so all is well. Of course, her sudden engagement was shocking, to say the least, but since we’re actually never shown her soon to be husband, we’re free to imagine whatever we want of him (ie. she married ronery anonymous).

And finally, we come full circle with Akari taking on Ai-chan as her apprentice in the dying moments of the finale, a parallel drawn to her own first days on Aqua, reinforcing the idea that this is by no means an end, but merely the beginning of a new age.

A bit of an aside here, the final scene with Ai-chan becoming Akari’s apprentice is interesting in that Ai-chan is an anime exclusive character for the most part. In the manga, she did come to Aqua to become Akari’s apprentice, but was previously unmentioned. This is a rare case of me liking the anime approach over the manga’s. Seeing as we had prior knowledge of Ai-chan in that she is the recipient of Akari’s frequent letters as well as having stage presence in the form of visits to Aqua, when she comes over to become an undine, the connection to her character is pre-established and heightens the effect. Would Akari’s echoing of Alicia’s words have carried the same weight had Ai-chan been a seemingly random last minute insert character? I can’t help but think not.

Final Impressions

The ARIA series has been an amazing ride, especially if you consider that it was a rather scenic journey. ARIA was a series devoid of any noticeable plot, in the first couple episodes of ANIMATION, the cast and the world of Aqua is introduced, and in the final few episodes, a new age dawns as the next generation of prima are unleashed.

So what’s in between? What fills the gap between introduction and conclusion? Short answer: nothing. Long answer: the slow unraveling of the world of Neo Venezia, the subtleties in beauty and tranquility that defined ARIA as a “healing” anime. There were no distinct power level jumps amongst the cast, the ranks they had at the beginning remained until the end when they were promoted. Instead we were shown their slow, progressive growth, not through countless training episodes and gondola physics, but rather by the day to day experiences that touched upon themes of love, life, the universe and everything.

It’s difficult to explain ARIA to someone I’m trying to recommend it to, ask this blog’s second author, Soda, I’ve been pushing him to watch it for months. I’m often left telling them that: “It’s a calming experience unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. But be warned, it’s boring, but in a good way.” And that’s a pretty lame explanation “boring, but in a good way”? What does that even mean? The defining example of the point I’m trying to get across here is the time I fell asleep while watching an episode of ARIA, woke up sometime later, refreshed and relaxed, and proceeded to watch the episode again. That is the effect that ARIA can have.

However, with this comes a warning. ARIA is not a series that is meant to be marathoned, that is, watched all at once. The way you’ll get the most out of your ARIA experience is to watch it gradually, an episode or two a day after a stressful day at the office or to wind down from a tiring day at school. The slow pacing of the show needs to be matched by a slow pacing of its viewing.

Furthermore, while they’re not really pertinent to a series like ARIA, I feel like I have to touch upon its technical aspects, just for habit’s sake. The animation in ARIA varies, there are some episodes which pay great attention to scenic detail, others that emphasize the beauty and grace of the undines through subtle fluidity in their movements, and others still that fail in both regards and rely far too heavily on chibi animation. However, as a whole, the style fits extremely well, especially when it comes to character designs, each having their own distinct characteristics.

The ARIA soundtrack is absolutely amazing, an aspect of anime which usually gets a resounding “meh” from me, so understand how great it must be for me to have actually gone out of my way to acquire the soundtracks.

No, thank -YOU- ARIA. Thank you for bringing that warm and fuzzy feeling to my heart for 20 minute installations at a time.

With absolute confidence, I crown ARIA as my favourite anime of all time. It may not boast adrenaline fueled action, complex story elements or a touching love story, but ARIA’s atmosphere sucked me into the world of Aqua. Fleshing out its settings and its characters, ARIA evoked emotions I thought my heart was no longer capable of feeling, as corny as that may sound.

The only remotely negative thing I can say about ARIA on the whole is that I’m sad that it’s over. It’s difficult accepting that no matter how good it is, no matter how much money the DVD sales bring in, we will likely never see anymore ARIA ;_;

So with no hesitation, I recommend the ARIA series as compulsory viewing to any self respecting anime fan. The series is in fact so good that I’m going to break my usual pirate ways, I’m going to buy the ARIA DVDs. Even though I’ve seen the entire thing and I have all the episodes archived on my HDD, it doesn’t matter, a series like this is a rarity and it deserves every cent of support that it will squeeze from my wallet.

~ Shirukii ~

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 ~

Most dramatized banana peel slip, ever

Looks like I’m not the only one getting their butt handed to them by “real life”. But with midterms over (only for finals to appear over the horizon, in about a month) I can play catch up with ARIA, this post running a little over two weeks behind airing schedule, this time to no fault of fansubbers.

The episode itself was slightly different than usual, wherein there was no “suteki” moral lesson to be learned. Though there was some character development that brought an extra dimension to our lovable undine.

During their daily practice, Alice tells Aika and Akari that the following day she’ll be going on a picnic with Athena. The two are surprised, thinking that it may be Athena springing a single promotion test on her, but it turns out Alice was the one who invited Athena, who suggested the plan back in winter. Mapping out their route and preparing snacks and lunch for the picnic, Alice may seem relatively calm, but inside she’s brimming with excitement. After taking a bath she sneaks into Athena’s room to find her sleeping already, probably exhausted from a hard day’s work, she places a written invitation to the picnic by her pillow and heads to bed herself.

Sadly, Alice’s plans go to waste as Athena suddenly gets some work dumped on her lap and can’t make it to the picnic. She rushes back around lunchtime to see if there’s still enough time to carry through with Alice’s plans. Childishly hiding her disappointment, Alice says to forget it for the time being, coldly walking out on her. As Athena goes to chase her, she slips on a conveniently placed banana peel from President Maa’s lunch and faceplants. When she comes to, it appears that Athena has developed a case of acute amnesia, completely unable to recall who Alice is.

Completely in a panic, Alice sends out a “dekkai SOS” to Akari and Alicia, who come over to find Athena not her usual clumsy self and not recognizing them at all. However, as they sit around and talk, Athena starts to play around with President Aria and remembers his name. With a sincere plea and a ridiculously cute head tilt from Alicia, Athena remembers her as well. No such luck with Akari, Alice and President Maa though. Alicia thinks that they should wait it out for a day to see if Athena gets better, if not they’ll take her to the hospital, excusing herself to go to work afterwards.

To help her get her memory back, Alice takes Athena to some familiar places. First stop is the cafe that Athena is a regular at, Alice orders Athena’s usual dish as well as a bunch of others to see if Athena can pick out her favourite. She manages to do so and even regains her memories of President Maa. Next, Alice takes Athena to her gondola and asks her to pick out her usual oar amongst a long lineup of others. She nails it on the first try and regains her memories of Akari at the same time. Although happy that her memories are slowly returning, Alice can’t help but feel down because Athena is remembering everyone but her…

The three head back to ARIA company where Athena has a talk with Alice, asking her what kind of person she was to her. Alice tells her that Athena is her troublesome and clumsy senior, Athena wonders if that means that she hates her, Alice, on the verge of tears at this point, says that it’s the opposite, she loves her Athena-senpai. Breaking up their conversation, Alicia tells Athena that this should be far enough, and so it’s revealed that Athena’s amnesia was all a lie, a ploy to find out how Alice really felt about her. Being clumsy all the time, Athena was afraid that Alice was beginning to hate her and felt that missing the picnic this morning, she may have finally pushed her patience over the edge. Alice tells her that next time she should just ask her directly about these things instead of going at it in such a roundabout way, as that’s the part of Athena she sometimes hates, continuing her rant, Alice tells Athena that if she can seal her clumsiness she should do so all the time, Athena protesting that it takes a lot out of her to do so.

Akari and Alicia see them off, Akari marveling that even Athena, one of the great water faeries can have such worries too. Alicia tells her that they are just normal girls after all, with all the worries that you would expect a normal person to have, especially when it comes to their lovable kouhai. Akari wonders if that means Alicia worries about her that way too, to which Alicia pleads the fifth.

Thoughts

PROTIP: Do not try stunts like this in real life. It may work in Aqua where everyone means well and misunderstandings are dealt with in a calm and rational manner, but playing mind games with your friends, especially ones that bring them to the brink of crying, will not end well. I don’t even know if anyone else but Athena could pull this off in ARIA, everyone knows she would never pull something with the intent of malice, and she does things in the most roundabout ways, so it worked out, along with Alice being a good sport about it. But I suspect if Akari were to pull something like this with Aika, she’d get swift whack in the head with an oar from her kouhai.

That being said, it was fairly obvious that Athena was just putting on an act. First off, how often do you see someone suffering from acute amnesia state it so bluntly like she did. And more obviously, Alicia walked away from the situation to go to work. The most gentle and caring of the three great water faeries abandoning her one of her best childhood friends who might have suffered a bump to the head severe enough to give her amnesia, to go to work? Yea right. I’m surprised Akari didn’t pick up on that, then again, it is Akari, her naiveness and blind trust in her friends are part of her charm.

I felt really sorry for Alice throughout the whole episode, not only did she look like she was feeling guilty for causing Athena’s face plant by acting childish with the picnic, but added to that Alice was the only one Athena couldn’t “remember”, a crushing blow considering how much she looks up to her, despite not voicing that admiration. When she starting crying I wanted to reach out and give her a hug ;_;

Amazing how ARIA characters bounce back from these things though, any other show would use this as an opportunity to fill an episode with angst and misunderstanding before the two reconcile, yet Alice and Athena were back to normal within minutes.

Also, this episode saw more of Alicia being slowly lowered down from her pedestal of perfection. The closing scene saw her admitting that she has worries that she has to take care of as well and that she’s not always the calm and refined person she projects to the outside world. If you read my spoiler a couple episodes back, you’d understand why this is a necessary process.

Well, that’s it for this week, I’m looking forward to the next episode, seeing as I already know what happens and have been waiting for it for some time now. Hint: Alice’s graduation mentioned in the preview is literal in more ways than one.

Lolikit thinks President Maa would make a good mudkip, I think he’d be a great pac man. MaaaaaNOMNOMNOMNOM.

~ Shirukii ~

Model gondola? DO WANT!

I know it exists, I’m just too poor to buy one.

Another beautiful episode of ARIA, as any fan would come to expect at this point. The message conveyed in this one was a lot more subtle, but when I started to give it more thought, it began to sink deeper. The issue is time and what we make of it. Time is a fickle concept, one that was created by humans as both a means of event recording and setting boundaries on events, yet the most rewarding experiences can be the product of simply letting it all go and living in the moment.

Episode Rating: 9/10

It’s the anniversary of ARIA Company’s creation so Alicia, Akari and President Aria take the day off and take a small trip that has been in the planning for a while now. The three make their way to Neo-Burano, a village famous for its lacemaking, a product of the island’s reliance on its fishing industry, the weaving of fishing nets gave birth to the artform. As they admire the scenery, Alicia tells Akari a bit more about Anna, her senpai who they will be visiting, who in her prime was an even more popular undine than Alicia is now (so modest).

The two soon meet up with Anna and her cheeky son Ahito, over some afternoon tea Alicia and Anna reminisce about the past. When Anna was working at ARIA Company, a fisherman, now her husband, came to visit Neo-Venezia, the two fell in love and Anna left ARIA Company to live with the man. While Alicia and Grandma were sad to see her leave, they were happy that she found her own path in life to walk and that she was moving forward to her own happiness. While she was indeed happy, Anna went through some hardships as well, with her husband out fishing much of the time and being new to the island, she didn’t connect with the islanders very well. It was the island’s tradition of lacemaking that eventually united her with the people of the Neo-Burano, showing Akari and Alicia a piece that she has been working on with four other people, Akari noting that her part, the bridge that connected each of the separate parts, was the metaphorical bridge that connected her with the others, impressing Anna with her way with words.

After all the talk of the past Anna begins to wonder how Grandma is doing these days. So much to her surprise when none other than grandma herself shows up at her door along with her husband Albert, her invitation handled by Alicia. With all the members of ARIA Company, past and present, and a huge haul of fish, a feast that was almost drool inducing is cooked and enjoyed by all.

After dinner, Akari, Alicia, Anna and Grandma sit down to talk, Akari saying that there is so much about ARIA Company’s past that she doesn’t know about, though she’s happy enough for the miracle of its founding that allowed them to all be together. Anna also thanks grandma for starting ARIA Company, since it led her to Albert and Ahito. Surprisingly, grandma reveals that if she were to credit someone with the founding of ARIA Company, it would probably be President Aria. Flashback tiem!

Back when she was working as an undine at Himeya, grandma was known as the company’s ace, the greatest water fairy of her time. However, that popularity came at a price, grandma was always very busy, with numerous bookings each day. One day, as she was finishing one of her tours, she spotted a cat who we now know as President Aria, sitting at the shoreline staring out to the horizon. Seeing this cat, who sat admiring the scenery, rain or shine, night or day, made grandma realize how precious time is, that she was often so busy that time would fly by, leaving her thinking “what a waste” knowing that there are so many wonderful things in the world that she wanted to cherish to their full extent. President Aria’s help in making grandma realize that she was pushing herself too much was what led to the founding of ARIA Company, for she wanted to see the wonderful world, just as it was reflected in the bright blue eyes of this patient and calm little cat.

And as the years pass, it will soon be Akari’s turn to take over ARIA Company and make it her own. Alicia, Grandma, and Anna, they’re all eagerly awaiting the day that Akari will show them an ARIA Company that only she can, an ARIA Company that has no one has seen before.

Thoughts

Time is an interesting concept, an arbitrarily created system that has become a prevalent presence in the lives of everyone around the world. Time itself doesn’t really exist, it’s merely a human construct to quantify the passage of events, all breaking down to cellular division and decay. Yet this construct follows very rigidly bound concepts of physics, for example, time slows down when considered in a reference frame traveling near the speed of light. The relativity of time is well summed up by a quote from Einstein in which he stated: “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT’S relativity.”

Why all my emphasis on time? Because as Grandma noted in this episode, it’s such a waste, that we let our lives fly by like we do. For the majority of us, each day we live is a slight variation on the last, the days, weeks, months and years pass by as we go through the daily grind of work or school. Meanwhile, the experiences that can be had in any single one of those days is infinite. Society has placed boundaries on how we spend our time, how we live our lives, and it’s a damn shame.

Contrast to that, once again we’re shown the ideal, almost Utopian nature of the world of Aqua. Alicia, Akari, Grandma and Anna have all lived their lives to the fullest, some days may have flown by and other may seem like they’ve grinded to a halt, but I don’t think any of them would regret how they’ve spent their time. The experiences they’ve accumulated throughout their lives have shaped their personalities, their ability to look fondly in their past, live their lives to the fullest in the present and look straight ahead to a bright future is something that I can only pray to feel one day.

Another thing I loved about this episode was the scene where Anna calls Akari on her adeptness with words. Truly, Akari’s speech can be almost poetic at times, as it to be expected as the recipient of Aika’s many “Embarrassing comments are forbidden”. Her speeches may touch upon well covered and sometimes perhaps even obvious life lessons, but through her powerful metaphors, earnest personality and naively cute demeanor, the impact of her words can often be awe inspiring.

Well, that’s all for this week, after going on a tangent about the relativity of time and the futility of the modern grind, there’s little else to say. Seems like next episode is going to be an Alice and Athena centric one, the greatest comedy pair in ARIA.

I can see forever

~ Shirukii ~

A mainly Alicia and Alice centric episode and a rare glimpse at the what lies underneath Alicia’s always happy “Ara ara~ hehehe” exterior. She’s always portrayed as the most perfect and gracious of the three water faeries, it was nice seeing the human side of her and the philosophies that make her character.

Episode Rating: 9/10

Akari, Aika and Alice go about their normal training routine when Akari starts to goof off with President Aria, earning her a nice scolding from Aika. Which makes Alice think, what is Alicia like when she scolds Akari? Never having thought about it before, it dawns on Akari that Alicia has never scolded her, actually, Akari can’t even recall and instance where she’s ever gotten angry. Turning the tables, Akari notes that she’s never seen Athena scold Alice before, to which she replies that it’s quite the opposite, she ends up scolding the clumsy Athena instead. Which makes Alice even more curious, if she can scold Athena, one of the great water faeries, why doesn’t Alicia scold Akari?

Not satisfied by mere speculation, Alice starts to spy on Akari and Alicia, wanting to confirm that Akari never gets scolded and the reasoning behind it. Unfortunately, she’s no Solid Snake, and it’s not long before she’s spotted.

But Alice is a persistent one, and keeps observing the two to see how Alicia manages to stay calm all the time. As Akari makes countless mistakes, everything from dropping eggshells into the frying pan, dropping her oar in a moment of distraction, Alicia says nothing. Even when Akari breaks Alicia’s favourite tea cup, all she says is that she was glad no one was hurt. Her kindness even extends to Akari’s duties as an undine, when Akari’s gondola goes floating away in the middle of the night, something that an experienced undine should never let happen, Alicia doesn’t get angry, calmly surveys the situation long enough to see the anchoring rope was cut a foreign object.

Alice continues to wrack her brain trying to think of a way to understand Alicia’s mentality or force her into a position where she would have to scold Akari, but is distracted by the lure of a ice cream parfait at a nearby cafe. Coincidentally, Alicia happens to be having some coffee with President Aria at the same cafe, after joining her, Alicia notes that despite knowing each other for a long time now, this is the first time they have been alone together. After a bit of an awkward silence, Alicia asks Alice if she has something to ask her, saying that she’s noticed her watching her for the past little while. With it out in the open, Alice decides to go ahead and spill it, asking Alicia why she never scolds anyone and never gets angry.

Rather than answer her directly, Alicia decides to go the metaphorical route. She gives President Aria a piece of candy and asks him to deliver it to a girl sitting nearby, while he gets the job done, he plays around on the way, wasting time chasing birds and weaving through the scenery. Alicia congratulates him on a job well done nevertheless and asks him to deliver another candy, this time to a boy sitting nearby, which he does promptly, without any detours.

Alicia explains to Alice that scolding people isn’t her style, if she were to use negative reinforcement with her juniors, they would begin to fear making mistakes, which would most likely lead them to make even more. She goes on to explain that teaching someone and being taught are very similar, through teaching she learns how to become a better teacher, reflecting on her own lack of skill in certain areas as she and Akari progress together, so that at the end, they’ll be able to share their happiness.

Their conversation is cut there as they’re spotted by Akari and Aika, who is rather annoyed at her kouhai for sneaking away for a walk with Alicia. Before their time alone ends, Alicia asks Alice to keep their conversation a secret between them, as it was quite embarrassing, but Alice thinks that there’s no need to hide it, after all, Alicia and Akari are so similar that simply looking at them is enough to make you feel embarrassed. Right after those words escape from her mouth, Alice apologizes for saying something so disrespectful, and asks to be scolded, to which Alicia just smiles.

Thoughts

Alicia-sannnn <3

Another great episode of ARIA based around a simple yet profound moral. The idea that negative reinforcement may cause a person to freeze up in fear of failure is an interesting assertion. Alicia is smart for using such a tactic on Akari, as you can tell by her usual self that if Akari were indeed scolded her clumsiness would intensity tenfold. But I don’t think it’s a method that works for everyone, there are certain people who thrive under pressure and whose true talents are born under the fear of failure. Alicia applies her passive philosophy to everyone, so I think she’s a little flawed in that aspect, but myself belonging to the former of these two character types, I still love her nonetheless.

This episode also gave us quite a bit of background on Alice as well, and her natural curiosity. I didn’t find it much of an attractive point though, she was seriously considering setting up Akari for a huge blunder just to see if Alicia would react to it. Regardless of the fact that Alicia wouldn’t have gotten mad at Akari, she would have been disappointed at herself, had Akari made a huge mistake, nothing good would have come out of it, or at least nothing that would balance out the satisfying of Alice’s curiosity.

But I suppose the end result is what matters, and thankfully Alice didn’t go through with her plan. She’s a great character, everyone in ARIA is, but she can be a little socially awkward at times.

As for the episode itself, without a doubt, the most entertaining scene was the OP scene with Athena and Alice. As soon as I saw the ice cream piling up I knew that Athena would drop it, I lol’d hard when she somehow managed to drop the pizza too.

On that note, the SD certainly was strong in this episode. Alice’s SD face > all, but an Alicia and Akari are fine too. Don’t like Aika’s all that much, probably because of the :3 and its overuse of late.

Well, that’s all for this week. Until next time! (Only a week behind now!)

I can’t believe she Show ▼

~ Shirukii ~

Aww, Aika was such a cute and innocent loli, I wonder what happened. I suppose all employees of Himeya eventually become brash and sarcastic beings, which is fine too, Akira and Aika wouldn’t be themselves without their straightforward attitudes.

Episode Rating: 8.5/10

Akari, Aika and Alice are wandering around a market looking for a bakery that just opened in the area. Suddenly they hear a familiar and beautiful voice, Athena passes through with her trademark song serenading everyone into a state of blissful calm. Right after she passes by a gust of wind blows a young girl’s hat away, luckily Alicia happens to be passing by, smoothly reverses the direction of her gondola and glides alongside the hat until its within an arm’s reach, all to the applause of everyone looking on.

Akari et al. eventually find the bakery and when they sit down to eat the conversation quickly turns to how amazing Alicia and Athena are, Aika noting that if they had skills like theirs they’d be primas in no time. But Alice reminds her that Athena’s singing voice and Alicia’s grace are not something anyone can achieve, they’re genius traits that they were born with. This gets Aika thinking, what about Akira, who doesn’t possess any unique god given gifts…

It doesn’t help Aika’s mood when she starts to draw a parallel to her very own situation, seeing Alice’s natural aptitude for gondola maneuvering and Akari’s natural ability to befriend anyone and anyone. Contrast to herself, what natural talents does she possess?

When she returns to Himeya’s dorm she finds Akari cleaning, something she’s been doing for the past couple days without much progress apparently. More forcibly than of her own free will, Aika starts to help out. In the midst of the mess she finds an old photo album of Akira’s. Flipping through the pages she notices a picture where Alicia and Athena were primas but Akira was still a single. The photo album a major nostalgia bomb, Akira laughs it up, but Aika asks her how she can laugh about it, the same Akira she knows who hates to lose, laughing over such a picture.

Akira tells her that she just needed more time than the others to become a prima, that’s all. Sure it was painful to be the only one left a single, but Alicia and Athena were her friends and were behind her the whole time. Aika still doesn’t understand how she managed to stay so strong back then and persevere.

It was soon after Athena had become a prima, despite putting up a front, Akira was pained inside, feeling isolated from the Alicia and Athena. Sitting by a garden she noticed a bed of clovers, just normal three leaf clovers, no special four leaf ones, just like her, normal, nothing special, no exceptional talents. Suddenly, a young Aika, with no idea who she is, comes up to her asking if she’s looking for four leaf clovers. After looking for a second, Aika gives up, instead doing something rather surprising, she makes her own. Taking a petal from a nearby rose, she joins it with a three leaf clover and tells Akira that if you can’t find something, just make it yourself. Innocent these words may have sounded to the young Aika, but Akira realized her situation is the same, that even if she doesn’t have any god given talents, hard work can cultivate genius.

Tearing up at the beautiful story, Aika has no idea that the young girl was none other than herself. The special four leaf clover that she made was pressed and turned into a bookmark, Akira tells Aika that she can have it, it’s her prized possession and also a charm for becoming a prima. As a bonus, Aika notices the rose petal and figures that’s how Akira got her nickname, the crimson rose.

The next day, Aika is back to her usual energetic self during practice, leaving Akira and Alice thoroughly confused, but happy nonetheless.

Thoughts

Well, I certainly was hoping for some episodes concentrating on some other characters, so I’m happy in that sense, getting some background on Aika and Akira was awesome in its own right. But the moral of this episode was kinda lame, my reasoning for thinking so is kinda stupid, but it’s not an easy one to shake. Out of all anime, this episode reminded me of Naruto. Yea…you heard me.

You know back when it didn’t suck as hard as it did now, in the Chuunin arc, Neji and Naruto had the whole conversation of predetermined fate and set skill levels, and it was echoed later on with Neji and Lee. It may sound like a trivial comparison, but the fact that ARIA echoed a moral lesson done in Naruto put me off quite a bit.

Aside from that, it was great, exactly what I expect of ARIA. It was awesome hearing Athena’s song again, now I don’t have to dig up my NATURAL dvds just to hear her sing anymore! Alicia was absolutely amazing this episode too, the exaggeration of the subtle movements she used to turn the gondola around like that were awe inspiring, much like how they portrayed Akari’s rowing last episode. Alicia, more than any of the other undine, makes me want to fly out to Venice and experience a gondola ride first hand, just to see how it compares.

On that note, Alice has some pretty crazy skills herself. Look at the angle she had to work with in the shot above! That’s madness, there’s barely any clearance. We need more Alice centric episodes, she’s my third favourite undine, just below Alicia, there is a serious lack of her SD faces and “dekkai _____ desu” catchphrase.

And finally, Akari, as wonderful as ever this episode, showcasing her befriending skills that, dare I say, surpass Nanoha’s (since, you know, she doesn’t beat them into submission first). I also loved the bit about her uniform change becoming a part of summer in Neo Venezia, a nice throwback to her sentiments in episode three.

Hmm…looks like my thoughts are being preempted, judging from the preview, next episode looks to be an Alice centric one. Until next week, or whenever subs come out ;_;

“I have a ponytail moe”

~ Shirukii ~

Aaaand, we’re back. Sorry for the downtime, seems like all of animeblogger.net hosted blogs were down for most of the day. To make up for it, ARIA post! Almost a full two weeks late…meh.

Episode Rating: 9.5/10

Things are starting to get busy at ARIA Company, Alicia getting so many bookings that it seems like a free day is a far off dream for her. It makes Akari start to wonder how much help she’s being to ARIA Company. Alicia insists she’s helping her a lot already, but Akari wants to do more, but unfortunately can’t help as much as she’d like as a single. Alicia asks how her practice is going, Akari says that Aika and Alice are busy the next day so they’re taking it off. With a free day, Alicia suggests that Akari try rowing a traghetto, basically a large gondola that acts as a ferry, taking two undines to row it.

The next day, Akari arrives at the place where they assign traghetto routes to undines, excited, she spaces out during roll call, snapping out of it just in time to meet the team she’ll be working with: Atora and Anzu from Orange Planet and Ayumi from Himeya.

Since it’s Akari first time rowing a traghetto, the other three decide to let her watch as they do the first rounds, one of them staying back to explain things. But rather than explaining the workings of the traghetto, the conversations begin to drift to talks of becoming a prima.

Atora is the first to stay back and explains that Anzu, who has been acting a little depressed, just failed her Prima promotion test a while ago, and it’s not the first time she’s done so. Prima tests are carried out by a direct senior, so everyone’s is different, the test is on a completely different level than the one to become a single, and the senior in charge of Anzu and Atora is particularly strict.

Next to stay back is Ayumi, who also starts to talk about how hard becoming a Prima looks to be. But it’s not particularly important for her, since she plans on staying a single and continue to specialize in traghetto rowing. Usually it’s a backup for singles who are unable to become prima, but Ayumi loves the traghetto and how it’s just as good for getting involved in the city and its people, plus the money it pays isn’t bad.

And finally, Anzu is rotated out and has a talk with Akari, starting off as a long awkward silence but soon trailing off into talks of becoming a prima. She’s disappointed that she failed the prima promotion test again, but says that she’ll get over it, train hard and keep trying over and over again. She then wonders about Akari and her goals, she tells Anzu that she’s no different and wants to become a prima as well, but thinks she doesn’t have the skill to do so yet, since Alicia hasn’t brought up the promotion test. But one thing she is sure of, when the day comes, if she happens to fail it, she will continue to challenge it over and over again, just like Anzu.

Finally, it’s Akari’s turn to row the traghetto, although a little nervous at first, she calms herself down and begins to row. The other three are surprised, Anzu, who is rowing with her and even Ayumi and Atora off to the sides immediately recognize her skill. The dayflies by, customers coming and going, the four of them rotating turns, having a fun time rowing and mixing with the locals.

As the day winds down and the traghetto route closes, the four finish up by sending the day’s earnings back to the main office and cleaning the gondola. Akari is happy to see that, like her, they respect and take good care of the gondola. But nevermind that, everyone else is amazed at how skillful Akari was, despite it being her first time rowing a traghetto. Regardless of how many passengers they carried she was always able to maintain balance and keep the ride steady and stable. Akari modestly thanks them for the praise, in which they go as far as saying Akari may be a prima by the time they next meet. Anzu is jealous, but congratulates her all the same.

Then, Atora starts to wonder if she and Anzu will ever become primas under the guide of such a strict senior who doesn’t acknowledge them no matter how hard they practice. She wonders if she should just become specialized in traghetto rowing like Ayumi, but Ayumi won’t have it, she knows how much Atora wants to become a prima and guide people around the city. Anzu says she understands how Atora feels, the sadness that comes after failing the exam, but knows that she can’t give up, that she has to continue working hard to get better, because that’s all she can do, you can’t change other people so all that’s left is doing your best to change yourself. Akari agrees, saying it’s never too late to pick yourself up and try again, and that it’s only over when you yourself give up.

As the four of them head home and part ways, Akari thinks over the things the events of the day, her brief experience with rowing a traghetto, which is training to some and a full time job to others as well as her meeting with three new friends, who are all walking forward in their own ways. Becoming a prima may be a difficult path, but she’ll keep walking forward, no matter how far off the goal, it’ll be fine as long as she keeps moving towards it. And so she returns to ARIA Company, greeting Alicia and President Aria, her usual cheerful self.

Thoughts

Yet another episode that shows off Akari’s latent ability to help people, with plenty of her super deformed faces and “Hai~” catchphrase along the way.

I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but once again I’m amazed at how different human interaction is in the ARIA universe. A common cause of loathing in this world comes from gaps in skill, I’m sure many of you had the experience of trying your hardest at something only to have someone come along and completely one up you, seemingly effortlessly. In high school I was the guy doing the one upping and in university when the bar was raised, I got to experience the opposite, it’s quite frustrating. And that’s exactly what happened in this episode, Anzu, Ayumi and Atora are experienced undines, far more so than Akari when it comes to the traghetto, yet the difference in skill became apparent seconds after she took to the oar. Yet, no bitterness, the three of them were genuinely impressed and happy for Akari. Mind boggling.

Akari’s modesty is another thing I found interesting in this episode. She seemed genuinely unaware of her current skill level. Perhaps it’s because she’s only trained with Aika and Alice, undines under the instruction of the other two great water faeries, but Akari seemed veritably oblivious of how good she is. And I realized that the reason for this is one that was echoed way back in episode one, when everyone was over at ARIA company the juniors commented at how long the path to catching up to the water faeries was, and they responded by saying that the path is endless, since they will always be striving to improve, as they should.

The logic can be modeled mathematically, a typical learning curve begins gradually, then suddenly increases exponentially, inflects, decreases exponentially and trails off asymptotically. The reason why Anzu and Atora are having trouble is because they set an end point, their ultimate goal is to become prima, and with that mentality, they would have stopped there, which acts as a boundary to the curve. Contrast to that, Akari just practices, Alicia never brought up the prima test so the thought never even crossed her mind. The result is that Akari’s learning curve is boundless, she won’t experience a sudden epiphany of skill, rather her progress will be more gradual, but it will not be impeded by an end point.

Lolikit put it more elegantly by saying that

It’s about being better. Akari’s focus on being (rather than getting promoted) is apparent in her skill level—she is much more skilled than the other three, yet she hasn’t yet considered taking the test.

tl;dr: Akari is awesome.

Next episode looks like we’ll finally be getting some Aika and Alice screen time. Although it’ll be a little saddening to not have as much Akari, the other characters in ARIA are amazing in their own ways and I look forward to seeing them again.

Aika-chaaan. Wait, what?

~ 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?

Accurate depiction of myself after an episode of ARIA

Only a week behind this time, I’m catching up!

Another wonderfully calming episode of ARIA, just what I needed to relieve the stress of Mondays and the daily grind of everyday life in general.

Episode Rating: 9/10

We’re treated to some individual character development this week as Akari receives a job request through ARIA, despite being a single. Apparently it’s been a while since she’s been in charge of a guide so she spends the whole night mapping out her route and researching various trivia about Neo-Venezia. The next day she first heads out for her daily practice with Alice and Aika, who are surprised, to say the least, that Akari received a job request all of a sudden. They begin to worry that the customer may be a troublemaker who enjoys toying with singles or perhaps one of the rumored surprise inspectors who gauge the skills of singles and demote them to pairs if they fail to meet expectations.

Those fears are mostly laid to rest, however, when the customer turns out to be a pleasant looking old lady, Amaranta, who carries a friendly demeanor. But still, Aika and Alice take it upon themselves to follow Akari on her job, more out of curiosity than anything, Alicia is also invited to accompany Akira and Amaranta on their tour. The entire tour route is left up to Akari’s discretion, Amaranta asking her to show her a Neo-Venezia only she is capable of portraying. However, as Akari’s checklists of hidden gems in Neo-Venezia get checked off one by one, she is continuously surprised by Amaranta, who has already seen most of her unique attractions, often one upping Akari by showing her something new in the area she wasn’t aware of.

As their time together winds down, Akari shows Amaranta one last place, a beautiful back garden of a monastery which had been submerged after the planet’s water level rose and continued to grow despite being unattended.

But yet again, Akari is outdone as Amaranta leads her through a nearby passageway to a clearing between buildings draped by wisteria flowers, which are usually not in bloom yet, but due to the area being bathed in sunlight and shielded from wind, grow earlier than usual. Aika and Alice stumble into the clearing soon after and are quickly spotted by Akari and her customer.

Afterwards, Akari feels a little depressed that Amaranta had already seen the places she brought her to, and apologizes. But Amaranta isn’t disappointed at all, despite having been to all the sites before, she enjoyed her time with Akari and will always remember her tour because it was one prepared with all of Akari’s heart and brought out her love for Neo-Venezia. Amaranta then reveals that she has always enjoyed riding with singles, seeing the new generation of undine growing up. Alicia admits that when she was a single she guided Amaranta once as well, she’s even been with Athena and Arika too.

Akari thanks Amaranta for the opportunity to be her guide and asks that she let her guide her once more when she becomes a full fledged prima. After seeing her off she Akari turns to Alicia and says that she will continue to work hard to become a good prima and thanks Aqua for watching over her today.

Thoughts

Huh…I thought singles weren’t allowed to take on paying customers? Or…am I just imagining things. I could have sworn that it was a point made during one of the first two seasons that only primas were allowed to guide customers. Meh, oh well, whether it’s another case of my terrible memory or the first time I’ve seen retconning in the ARIA series, doesn’t really matter.

It never ceases to amaze me how nice the people in Neo-Venezia are. On Amaranta’s side of things, if I went on a tour expecting to be shown a unique side of a town, I’d be pretty annoyed if I were shown the same old scenes I’ve seen before. But I suppose there’s not much to be said on this side, the woman was well versed in Neo-Venezia, she even gave Alicia some surprises. Akari sure took things in stride though, I consider myself a pretty patient person, but if I had been in her position I would have thrown in the towel halfway through and offered Amaranta my job.

Then again, Neo-Venezia has continuously been depicted as a place with non-existent crime rate and a general lack of anger in general. I bet if you left your gondola unguarded outside, you’d come back to find it covered with flowers and a friendly note reminding you to cherish your belongings, instead of…you know, theft. It’s like the entire city is high on morphine or something, I wish there existed such a place in modern society.

Anyways, great to see some individual character development for Akari, who is my favourite character of the ARIA cast. With the manga finished, I wonder how far ARIA the ORIGINATION will go in terms of developing the story, it’s only 13 episodes so I doubt they’ll be able to finish it. Though they might get to the part where Show ▼

I’m hoping they don’t finish it so we can get another season, because there can never be enough ARIA. Ever.

Dekkai hazukashi desu

~ Shirukii ~