Remember: this is the franchise that replaced #ARIAtheANIMATION as the page image (if not the quote) on the Iyashikei (or “healing anime”) trope.

The show is almost as stressful as the image suggests.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Iyashikei

Aria the Animation is a fantasy, sci-fi, slice of life anime about gondoliers in the city of Neo Venezia on the planet Aqua.

🔗 https://doublesama.com/aria-the-animation/

#Aria #AriaTheAnimation #Anime #AnimeReview #SliceOfLife

I often skip episode 12 of #ARIAtheANIMATION because it’s a magical time travel episode and I usually find that episode to not be what I want from ARIA.

In fact even as I’m watching it now I’m finding an urge to skip to the final episode of the season which I enjoy a lot more.

Time for the Onsen episode with the censorship towels (because TV) and the prevalence of Japanese cultural customs in a futuristic Neo-Venezia. #ARIAtheANIMATION

I think it was @rdm who did a panel at #SwanCon one year on the theme of “gentle apocalypses”, with Yokohama Shopping Trip as a key part of it. But #ARIAtheANIMATION probably fits as well, even though we never really see Manhome at all. I think @leece might have been involved as well.

Aika comically misunderstanding what’s going on with Grandma is hilarious #ARIAtheANIMATION

Meanwhile this is one of the episodes that makes you wonder just HOW bad things are back on Manhome given how ignorant of nature Akari is sometimes…

And because we’re at/past the halfway point of the season we get the second verse of Undine as the OP. 🥰 #ARIAtheANIMATION

Especially since the next episode is “That Starlike Fairy…” which introduces Grandma, one of the coolest old ladies in anime. #ARIAtheANIMATION

And skipping the next episode. There are two characters in #ARIAtheANIMATION I have very little time for: Akatsuki.. and President Aria. This is a President Aria episode so… meh.

I’ll listen to the OP, because Undine is such a pretty song. Ditto the ED. But the rest can go.

Akira: “There’s no point in scolding people who try their best and reflect on what they do.”

So much this. #ARIAtheANIMATION.

So, Alice, would you like to tell us exactly where a middle schooler learned to pick locks? #ARIAtheANIMATION

Next #ARIAtheANIMATION is an Akira Ferrari episode, and one that I adore. Alice may be my favourite of the apprentices, but Akira and Aika have the richest relationship as Teacher and Apprentice. And it makes the Akira episodes sing.

I do love the gap between Alice’s perceptions of Athena and the reality of Athena. #ARIAtheANIMATION.

I’m always reminded in this episode in particular that both the original singing and dialogue voices of Athena Glory have sadly passed away, far too soon. #ARIAtheANIMATION

Tomoko Kawakami (who also voiced Utena IIRC) for dialogue & Eri Kawai for her songs. :(

Time for some #ARIAtheANIMATION in glorious* 4:3 aspect ratio. This is an Alice episode and fabulous as a result.

* Contains #sarcasm

And that wraps up the first disc of #ARIAtheANIMATION, I’ll watch some more next week.

I do love the context of this line of dialogue when there’s a freaking SPACESHIP with running lights in the background. #ARIAtheANIMATION

The next episode, “To That Place that Shouldn’t Exist…” is one of my favourites, and that’s ***despite*** it being a beach episode. #ARIAtheANIMATION

Ai-chan was also an addition to the anime, and the framing device of Akari sending emails to her replaced the more generic blog entries of the manga. It worked well enough that Ai ended up as a Canon Immigrant to the manga later, and a featured character in later instalments like #ARIAtheAVVENIRE.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/CanonImmigrant/AnimeAndManga

#ARIAtheANIMATION

It’s not that I object to magic/supernatural elements in anime per se - see also my general adoration of Studio Ghibli & also #FlyingWitch.

I only tend to object to it when it doesn’t, or shouldn’t, fit the setting.

I’m fine with it in #DragonPilot, very much NOT fine with it in #RocketGirls.

Anyway, diversionary mini rant over, back to #ARIAtheANIMATION.