neko’s thinkbox

This so-called “review” will most likely turn out to be a complement to what I already have written about the prequel, because bluntly said, almost nothing has changed at all in ARIA the Natural. Actually, I could just stop writing here and simply redirect to my previous entry, but I wouldn’t be neko if I didn’t waste a single drop of e-ink on tl;dr texts, would I? ^^

The story

Not only for the length of this series, but also for the abundant content, ARIA The Natural gave me a bigger sense of satisfaction than ARIA The Animation. Obviously, twenty-six episodes offer more than enough time to show what couldn’t be shown in the rather short thirteen episodes of the prequel.
That having been said, nothing substantially has changed in Neo-Venezia: Akari and Aika are still “singles”, Alice is still a “pair”, and almost every episode begins and ends with either Akari or Ai speaking through the hundreds of mails they exchange every day. Noticeable events of the whole season are the many encounters between Akari and Cait Sith, of which I can clearly see Amano Kozue’s pet preference: cats. What a coincidence, I happen to like cats as well! (Why would I call myself neko if I hated them? lol) So, those episodes totally hit my taste ^^

Other events involve different kind of celebrations, like Aria Company’s new palina for example. Or, even involving two entire episodes, Akari’s new gondola. I’m not saying those episodes were bad – especially the gondola eps had a rather touchy feel to it – but I somewhat felt that it was a bit exaggerated… I mean, who would mourn over their old car like that to get a new car right away? Okay, I never had a gondola, so perhaps it might be different indeed, haha.
There were also a few interesting flashbacks, showing the past of Akatsuki, Woody, Akira, Alicia, etc.
I also had the biggest laugh towards the end of the anime, where suddenly everyone’s gender got switched… hilarious stuff.

I hope I did not spoil too much, because there isn’t really more in this series anyway – most simple Slice of Life. But it is not like the same pattern of all of the episodes is boring as hell, far from that! The natural feel of the series, just like for its predecessor, makes it a light and genuinely pleasant watching experience. Moreover, it makes you utterly and completely addicted, and whilst it is impossible to watch twenty-six episodes of ARIA at once, it definitely makes you want to watch at least an episode a day. I cannot fathom waiting one week for an episode once I caught up with Origination…

The Characters

Luckily, there was more in-depth development of the main characters other than Akari, even though the focus mainly remained on her.

Alice, despite appearing quite often with Akari and Aika, didn’t have many solo adventures. There was only one memorable episode where she set spent whole afternoons following her own rule: only to step on the shadows until she arrived at Orange Company. It was pretty shocking to me because I often do that as well IRL. If there aren’t shadows, then I need to step on the lines on the pavement, or avoid stepping on them, not stepping on colored stones, etc… pretty childish and silly I know xD (However, I don’t make it obvious to others and easily give up on those rules if I fail too much. Guess I have a lot of things yet to learn from Alice ^^)
However, they didn’t need to exaggerate her habit of saying “dekkai” something, it somewhat reminds me of Suiseiseki with her desu… ~desu.

I do like Akira a lot better now, because she’s really down-to-earth and reacts to problems in her usual impulsive but cool fashion. I always thought of her as disagreeable, especially at the end of Aria the Animation, but now it’s totally different. We actually find out that she does care a lot about her juniors despite her bossy behavior. That kind of reverse psychology she uses towards Aika is something I would often use as well (mixed with sarcasm, a bit like House). I also found that Akira smiled a lot more in some episodes than I had expected her to. Somewhat… unsettling, but cute.

But the biggest surprise was Aika. It occurred to me that I started liking Aika more and more as I was progressing towards the end of the anime, because despite her tough appearance, she is a very sensible person after all (she’s a crybaby! Awww~). I don’t know if this somewhat comes close to the definition of tsundere, but… meh, I might like a tsundere once in a while xD
Anyway, she is actually the only girl who we know for sure she is in love with one of the males in the anime… It somewhat makes me wonder about how naïve the other girls can be sometimes.
Akari is constantly being asked favors and complimented by Akatsuki (who claims to love Alicia ONLY), and she even is offered a rose… unintentionally? For some reason, I do suspect there is more than just wanting to pull on Momiko’s (read: Akari’s) pigtails… But I guess we’ll leave this question to fanfic/doujin authors.
Aika’s new haircut makes her the cutest girl of the anime anyway, she looks so much more woman-like and beautiful without those ugly pigtails.
Trivia: in the last ten episodes, I ALWAYS anticipated her epic “Hazukashii serifu kinshi” line, haha! Down with Akari’s embarrassing remarks! Aika, be my valentine!!! XD

I guess I could go on endlessly about each character, and about how much I can identify myself with some of their habits or behaviors, but I think that would go beyond the scope of this “review”. I just regret that there wasn’t enough Athena footage…

I won’t lose any words on the animation or the design, as nothing has changed there at all, so I’ll immediately move on to the soundtrack.

The Soundtrack

Don’t worry, the soundtrack is as smooth and gentle as always, and both the Opening (Euforia by Makino Yui) and the two Endings (Natsu Machi by ROUND TABLE feat. Nino and Smile Again by Hazuki Erino) are beautiful tunes, although I still do prefer Animation’s OP/ED songs.
I absolutely loved how they used the OP of ARIA The Animation, Undine, at the beginning of two highly emotional episodes. The sudden appearance of that song really gives a strong nostalgic feeling, and even after rewatching that opening, I still get chills down the spine.
The last episode also features Euforia ~Hikigatari a softer version of Euforia which omits the beats, and only has a piano accompanying Makino Yui (I want a Hikigatari version of the whole song!!!).
It goes without saying that I am endlessly looping the soundtracks and the openings because I am obsessed with ARIA music now, especially after finishing the series.

The Rest - random babblings, etc.

Like so many series, there is a lot more to ARIA than just the anime – there is a variety merchandising like figurines (where’s my Alicia-san!), t-shirts and undine dresses, mangas and LOTS of artbooks, a game, music, etc. While I was on my shopping frenzy last month, I came across those ominous Drama CD’s of Animation and Natural (didn’t buy them, luckily).
Ah, those Drama CD’s. I miss listening to those. The last time I actively listened to them was during my Galaxy Angel fandom. The thing with Drama CD’s is, it’s as if you were watching the anime, but without the image… an OVA for blind people! Ok, that analogy sucks ass.
Anyway, you get exactly the same episodic style as in the anime: Ai-Akari mail exchanging pattern, and the everyday life of all the characters, e.g. Woody’s and Akari’s attempts to improve Athena’s appeal or a secret investigation about Akira’s mysterious sighing. So while you can’t watch the anime or you are away from the computer, you can still have your ARIA goodness on your CD or MP3 player to soothe (or fuel) your addiction. The only problem is, you need to know enough Japanese to understand almost everything that is said. Fortunately, I meet that requirement xD

One final word, perhaps on a more personal, serious, or random tone. The first word in the title of this entry is “Utopia”. It was a word that I already had mentioned in my previous review. You know, every time I finished an episode, it felt as if I was waking up after having watched a nice dream. I tried imagining the continuation of that dream, while keeping in mind that there is no such thing as a perfect world that is Aqua… Those moments of reminiscence were quite bittersweet.
Trying to think beyond the paradisiacal scenery of that man-made town of Neo-Venezia, I realized that everything was overly sugarcoated; bad things, e.g. rivalry and greed, hate and discrimination, fights and killings were only hinted. They have effectively all been hidden, to make it look like none of those have ever existed on that planet, like those sunny and colorful traveling ads you can see in magazines and on TV. Mind, I am not saying that they should have shown the misery of society either and I would not have wanted to see it either, but this thought helped me to consider Aqua no longer as a dream-like utopia any longer. Nevertheless, never has an ad fascinated me so much to make me want to visit a place so badly! (HAZUKASHII SERIFU KINSHI!)

Finally done! I’m so looking forward to catch up to ARIA The Origination! But I guess I’ll need to write something about my other current series as well… Anyway, see you soon o/