Otakuism

…or not.

Ok, this is getting kind of freaky

Ah, ARIA, how I’ve missed you. Where else can I gut such beautiful stories and chibi humor? Episode 20 ranks up there with one of the best episodes ever. It has everything: mood, humor, Alice, etc. Episode 20 is basically horror story done ARIA style. It’s the middle of summer and scorching hot, so the girls start telling ghost stories to each other. Apparently ghost stories are supposed to make you feel cool. Must be a japanese thing. The main story is how the ghost of an executed woman appears in all black at night to wary gondoliers, and asks them to take her to San Michele, the graveyard island. Once there, she spirits away the gondolier’s souls. But wait, didn’t Akari see a woman in black earlier? On her way home late at night, Akari predictably runs into the woman in black she saw earlier, who asks her to take her to San Michele. At first Akari refuses, so the woman gets up to leave, but Akari relents and takes the passenger on. Akari has just made the first mistake of any horror story: don’t accept strangers. Ever. At all.

Holy shi-! She has no face! Akari is going to die!

So Akari takes the woman to graveyard island. The atmosphere here is great, with just Akari in her gondola out on the ocean at night. You can feel her tension as she second-guess’s herself and wonders if the woman is a ghost. At San Michele the woman gets off and a relieved Akari begins to leave. That is, until the woman grabs her and forces her out and begins running madly through the graveyard. She wants Akari to stay with her. Forever *cue lightning*. Again, awesome visuals here. The woman drags Akari through a maze of tombstones with purple flowers flying in the air wildly against the moon. A beautiful and somewhat terrifying image. Eventually they stop and Akari realizes the woman is truly a ghost when her veil blows off to reveal she has no head. A great ” wtf! ” moment. Fortunately Cait Sith appears to save the day, banishing the evil spirit away with a single look. I never thought I’d see a headless woman running in ARIA. Akari and Cait Sith have an ” Awww~ ” moment as Akari releases her terror. She is later taken back to the safety of Alicia.

Why is there a giant cat now! Is it going to eat the ghost?

I can’t really say how much I loved this episode. The atmosphere was just perfect, from Neo-Venezia at night to the graveyard. And, of course, who couldn’t love Aika’s and Alice’s reaction to the whole thing? It is true. Akari seems to attract supernatural phenomena easily. The same thing happens in episode 21 when she encounters the Galaxy Railway and meets Cait Sith again. That was kind of weird though, seeing as how Akari seems to think of Cait Sith as more of a forbidden lover instead of a cat god. Some very odd innuendo involved. Again, Aika and Alice made the whole thing a millions time better when they tried to guess who the man Akari was talking about was. I don’t know why they thought of the eighty-year-old mailman. Do they think Akari is involved in enjo kosai? Need more ARIA goodness soon to feed my addiction.

ARIA has the best chibi’s ever, bar none.