ARIA 1
Akari Mizunashi (wearing a nekomimi cap) wakes up to yet another beautiful day on Aqua (Mars), along with an odd cat-like creature that I'll call Ariashachou -- so called because it's the shachou "president", of the Aria Company that Akari works for. I'm not kidding ;) After seeing off Aishia, a call comes in from one Akatsuki-san. He wanted to hear Aishia's voice but got Momiko instead -- he calls Akari Momiko because of her pigtails. He's busy so he's got no time for chatting so he hangs up... Akari's second summer on Aqua in the city of Neo-Venice is almost here. She came there to become an Undine, one who guides people around the canals of the city on a gondola... Another phone call comes in, this time from a little girl. She says she wants to ride in Alicia's gondola, but there's no time. She says that anybody else would be fine, but Akari can't take people out by herself as only an apprentice. Akari heads out to practice with Ariashachou and finds that girl that just called in her gondola, asking for a ride. Well,not asking, more like demanding -- or else she'll scream that she's been kidnapped. Akari doesn't have much a choice, then...
Akari takes the girl out on her gondola as she practices to keep the gondola steady. The girl notes that she's not doing a good job of it... Akari asks the girl if she likes gondolas. Not really... the girl's come from Earth so things on Aqua are rather inconvinient. Akari tells the girl her name and the girl tells Akari her name, Ai. While going around the canals Akari and Ai-chan run into Akari's best friend, Aika (Chiwa!). Aika tells Ai-chan to get off, no free rides and such, then Ai-chan asks who's the best. Aika says she is, so Ai-chan tells her to row, since she's her friend. Akari suggests they go see Alicia so they all get on one gondola and head out -- Aika apparently likes Alicia quite a bit. Ai-chan notes once again, this time with Aika rowing, that the gondola's rocking... Akari starts doing her thing as a guide, telling Ai-chan about the history of Aqua. It's been about 150 years since people started living on Aqua after it was terraformed, and Neo-Venice was built based on the city of Venice on Earth... Aika says Akari can't give the tour for free, but Akari wants Ai-chan to like Neo-Venice when she goes back. Akari loves the city, the inconvinience, the slow pace of things... it's like a miracle. That the two of them met might be a miracle as well. Aika jumps in -- no embarassing lines! ;)
They come upon a shop selling baked potatoes so Akari suggests they stop and have some. Ai-chan doesn't eat at first.. pretty big potato. But after having a bite she seems to really like it, telling the person running the shop that it was pretty good :) But where's Ariashachou? Ai-chan spots it floating out in the water. They rush back to the gondola where Akari takes over rowing using her patented backwards rowing. As they approach Ariashachou a flying vehicles comes inbetween, but Alicia is there on the other side and flips Ariashachou out of the water with her oar. After chatting with Alicia they head on back. Ai-chan says Alicia was wonderful..
Ai-chan didn't really like Aqua or Neo-Venice before. Her sister had been there on her honeymoon and was always talking about it, and she didn't really like her sister being rather boastful about it, so she came to not like it. She's here now since she asked her parents to take her there to see if she would like it herself, but all the places they went to were boring. She wanted to ride Alicia's gondola since her sister had said it was the best, but that didn't happen.. but she's happy that she got to ride with Akari and Aika :) Akari says that Ai-chan's sister wasn't bragging or anything -- she just wanted to tell Ai-chan about Aqua. Ai-chan's come to like it now. Aika says coming to like something you've hated is a miracle -- ooops... she said one of those embarassing lines ;)
Back at Aria Company Ai-chan's parents are there to take her home. She is going home the next day.. Akari was going to ask Alicia to take Ai-chan out, but that'll have to wait for the next time. But Ai-chan wants to ride in Akari's gondola next time she comes.
アイちゃんかわいいよアイちゃん！
Ai-chan kawaii yo Ai-chan! (if you won't know what that means look here)
So Akari better become a full-fledged Undine soon. She'll do her best ;) Ai-chan gives Akari something to give to Alicia and they go on their way... Akari gives Alicia the envelope from Ai-chan, and inside it is a picture of Ai-chan's sister. Alicia remembers them -- newlyweds who began fighting on her gondola once they saw some of the not so great parts of each other, but they made up with each other. To come to like aspects that you've hated of someone takes some effort -- but if you do that then that person you like will become someone precious to you. Ai-chan herself wanted to like her sister more, so that's why such a miracle could happen for her.
I originally had an interest in ARIA since I saw that Jun'ichi Satou would be the director, somebody responsible for some shows I've really liked (Kaleido Star and Futago Hime to name a couple). I picked up the first volume of the manga at AWA and read through it and really enjoyed it, especially the atmosphere. There's no big story here, no action or anything, just stories of discovery and finding joy in the little things of life. Very much right down my alley so I was looking forward to the anime even more. And the anime seems to be doing a good job of recreating that laid back "healing" atmosphere so far, though with a good share of changes even in this first episode. The biggest one would be that the old guy in the manga was replaced by Ai-chan, but the basic idea wasn't changed so no complaints here, especially since Ai-chan was really cute (and Kaori Mizuhashi made her even cuter with her voice). Hopefully this won't be the last we see of Ai-chan. I would think we'd see more of her since her character profile on the site said she would be in the story from episode 1 [onward]. Akari, Aika, and Alicia are pretty much as I thought they'd be after reading the manga with fitting seiyuu for each. Yet another show with Chiwa Saitou added to my list now ;)
Animation looks to be fitting for this type of show, with nice backgrounds and nice water. Character designs aren't quite as detailed as in the manga, but they're still plenty good. Not too worried about things since HAL is handling the animation. Next week it looks like we'll be getting an Aika main episode, so I'm looking forward to it :)
wow,it look's like a good anime.I hope to see it soon!
Hey, its Aria. I was reading the manga prior to leaving for Australia to study. Its a rather nice series.
Two words for this story, Junichi Sato.
Yeah this is one of the anime I am really looking forward to this season.
Very nice background music by Choro Club. It reminds me of soundtracks for Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou OVA2, also by Choro Club.
Such a relaxing anime.
Aria is awesome. Beyond words.