neko’s thinkbox

OH MY GOD.

I am literally shocked at what I saw in this episode. It so was not as I expected things to happen. And it’s so intense, it drove me crazy. Still does, even.

GREAT! Just as I was about to post this entry, the database dies………. For once that I could have been one of the first to blog ep 09, ahead of anyone… Sigh. Not even after 3 hours.

Spoilerific content ahead, read at your own risk.

Episode summary:

I’ll keep it short, for the news is small, but very intense. Well then!
It was exactly as the preview of episode 08 had implied, Alice has graduated from school. While her juniors are raiding her dress buttons, Akari and Aika are waiting for her in front of the school. So far so good.
In the evening, Athena invites Alice to catch up on their failed picnic of episode 08 the next day.

So they depart the next day, and after some short guidance through the city, Athena leads Alice towards the Hill of Hope. In the watergate, Athena praises Alice’s skills, but Alice shows some doubts about her own singing. Athena provides her providence, and here we are, the Hill of Hope…

Akari and Aika are there, as well as the higher-ups of the gondola company. Athena thanks Alice for the ride, but asks one last thing: a song. And guess what……….. Alice SINGS! Well… Soon after, Athena congratulates Alice, and… darn, I don’t want to say it… takes the left glove off Alice’s hand. And after praising her overall skills plus Alice’s singing skills… she also takes off the right glove, thus promoting Alice straight to a Prima Undine.

Nuff said, I’m bursting.

Neko’s Thinkbox

Breath-taking and… so solemn.

[moderation off] OMFGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG! [/moderation on]

So, as I was saying, I so did not expect this to happen. It’s epic awesome on so many levels. I already experienced my first majors hock when Alice started singing.

Holy cow, that must’ve been the most beautiful moment of this whole series yet. Combine this with the gorgeous but solemn orange sunset on that hill… It is an epic and highly intense moment of bliss, if I do say so myself. She sings much better than Athena, on top of that! Guess she has a cuter voice after all (she looks much cuter than Athena as well…)

Now, the second shock. TWO GLOVES OFF! AT ONCE! …I knew from the beginning on that Alice would at least be promoted to a Single, because, yeah it simply had to happen, but… immediately promoted to Prima!! I bawwed and screamed and jumped and laughed and… even shed a tear. The emotion was so intensely magnified by the solemnity of the moment and the flashback images that were shown… I simply couldn’t hold back anymore. For many people, I might be overreacting, but I am so fucking glad I didn’t spoil myself on the manga, even if some retards already hinted it in the IRC channel.

Anyway. On a second thought, it sounds logical though. I was assuming that Alice would be promoted to Single, and Akari and Aika would then be Primas by the end of the anime. But this wouldn’t have been fair to Alice I guess. Yes, it was just logical she had to become Prima as well, but… I could, nor did I even want to imagine something like that happening, that would have been so… surrealistic, too immense of a happening. But in this case, she would have been promoted to Single long ago, to finally be Prima now…. Uffff I’m spent.

So far for this week’s HUGE surprise. Really, I’m glad. But… it’s an ambiguous feeling. This ambiguosity grows more and more as we progress towards the end of the season, yes, it will be inevitably the end of ARIA, yes, I need to point it out every time because I CAN’T GET THIS DAMNED THOUGHT OUT OF MY HEAD!!! It will be only a matter of time before Aika, and eventually Akari will be promoted as well. I am so looking forward to those happenings, but at the same time, I dread them. Anxiety… it’s so horrible.

At this point I realized how much I loved this series.

By the way, the preview of Episode 10 is all the more mortifying. At the bottom of a dried-up well (or so it seems), Aika is alone with Al………….

Anyway. Here are the screens now, that you must’ve seen a few hours ago already. GG database.

Dekkai Prima desu

I hate you, Al. T_T