Japanese Title: Aria the Animation

 

Related: Aria the Animation; Aria the Natural (season 2 – included in review)

Aria the OVA: Arietta (included in review)

Aria the Origination (season 3 – included in review)

Similar: Sketchbook: Full Color’s

 

Watched in: Japanese

Genre: Slice of Life Fantasy (-ish)

Length: Season one – 13 episodes; Season two – 26 episodes; 1 OVA; Season three – 13 episodes.

 

Positives:

• Nice Venetian architecture.
• Beautiful water effects and reflections.

Negatives:

• No tension, excitement, or danger.
• Little plot to speak of with no progression.
• Poor twists.
• Too long and slow all the way.

With three seasons and a special, you would expect Aria the Animation to be something good, if not great, to garner so much support. It didn’t deserve such patronage. Now, it isn’t bad, I just can’t fathom how this got renewed after the first season. This story has no substance. It is difficult to place the genre. There is no relationship conflict to be a drama, not enough humour to be comedy, no action, not enough fantasy or science fiction, and no romance. I had to check the genre online, the first time I’ve ever needed to.

The story takes place on Aqua, formerly known as Mars until they filled it with water one-hundred and fifty years ago, in the city of Neo-Venice, a replica of Earth Venice. The recreation of Venice is one of the things I do like about Aria. They took care to include famous Venetian landmarks such as the St Mark’s Basilica, the island of Burano, and Plaza San Marco. The architecture and feel of the place is accurate, although it is much cleaner than real-Venice – if you have been there you’ll know the water is more green than blue. However, you have to suspend disbelief since filling Mars with water won’t make it function exactly like Earth.

Akari, the young resident of Neo-Venice dreams of being a professional gondolier (pilot of the boats Venice is famous for) under the tuition of Alicia, the blond-haired lady of the Aria Gondola Company who says ‘my, my,’ a lot. She becomes fast friends with other gondolier women: Aika, the apprentice with blue hair, her bossy teacher Akira, and the studious Alice – far too many similar names. The best character is the cat/teddy creature they have as the company mascot. He is fun to watch when he’s trying to charm the cat mascot of another company.

Each episode follows some unimaginative plot with no excitement, danger, drama, or tension. They are small adventures everyone has seen in one form or another. It would be like making an anime about someone going to the store to buy some milk before returning, and the largest conflict is the lack of exact change, therefore having to break a tenner. Nothing to hold your interest, essentially. No more needs to be said in regards to the story other than it’s pleasant but without substance. The only outright bad things are the twists that happen at random. Let’s time travel! No foreshadowing, no clues, no explanations, they just…happen.

Season 2 is a slight improvement to the first. The adventures they go on each episode actually have an unknown element that drives them to the end – don’t get excited, as it still isn’t anything interesting. On the negative, it’s twenty-six episodes long so you have to sit through twice as much. I guess if you’ve bothered with continuing after the first season, you must like it anyway. Finally, the OVA and season three have another small increment in quality with more shading and layers in the art, but the story is more of the same.

Unfortunately, little good can be said about Aria, and yet, little that is outright bad. It’s just…eh. I simply don’t understand what prompted so many seasons. I can only recommend it if you want to watch something that takes no thought or analysis on your part as you glide over the pleasant waters of Venice.

Art – High

The architecture and water carry the visuals. The wavering reflections of Neo-Venice look nice. Characters have the standard anime look, other than the elegant designs of their gondolier outfits, interspersed with morphs into the adult chibi.

Sound – Medium

Solid guitar tunes take up the majority of the compositions, an apt choice for a gondola ride.

Story – Low

A slow gondola ride through Venice with no conflict, no drama to experience. Sit back, and sleep.

Overall Quality – Low

Recommendation: Meh. Watch it if you just want to give your mind a rest. How did Aria receive so many seasons?

(Request reviews here. Find out more about the rating system here.)

 

Awards: (hover mouse over each award to see descriptions; click award for more recipients)

Positive: None

Negative: