Series Review: ARIA the NATURAL
I’m finding it hard to say something new about ARIA that I haven’t said before. It is impossible for my opinion of the series to go any higher, and I have praised it every opportunity I have had to talk about it. It is the epitome of the slice-of-life anime, healing anime. Such is ARIA’s greatness that you might as well just replace both those terms with its name. This is suppose to be a review, but it didn’t quite turn out that way, so just think of it as my fan favings on ARIA.
ARIA the NATURAL is not so much a sequel than a continuation of the first series. It excelled at what the first season introduced: heart warming self-contained stories. I’ve always marveled at the ability of ARIA to tell self-contained yet meaningful stories, whether they be regional folktales, legends, the supernatural, exploring the character’s lives, or just about Neo-Venezia itself. You really feel like you’ve learned something special after watching the show. The characters are all great; pure, yet filled with their own individual quarks. I honestly love all these characters, even the crazy old mailman guy.
The last two episodes were great. 25 was adapted from a manga story I remember, except with Athena and Ai added in. I love how obsessed Alice is with Grandma, and the Ai/President/Athena dance was hilarious. 26 was pretty much just an Akari episode, but it had a nice feeling, like the circle is complete now. Also one of those episodes where you want to go “why the hell can’t I live in Neo-Venezia?” A good ending to the series proper.
So, basically ARIA is one of the greatest “slow” anime ever, and NATURAL is a great continuation of that. Now go watch it you heathens. Now it’s just time to wait for the OVA and marvel at how beautiful and heart-warming it is. One thing I want to see: Alice being promoted to prima. That’d be perfect.
One thing I noticed is, all the names start with A XD
Comment on June 26, 2007 @ 6:47 pm
lol, yeah thats a given XD I think this show has some of the cutest animation ever.
Comment on June 26, 2007 @ 7:44 pm
Yes, you have good taste! Anything Aria is good. I can’t wait for the ova ^.
Comment on June 26, 2007 @ 9:29 pm
still havnt gotten around to watching this…finished Aria a month ago XD
gah, too many shows to watch, so little time
Comment on June 26, 2007 @ 10:21 pm
Still didn’t finish Natural through half due plenty work. I love this series, it calms you down and in all the problems the real world has I can at least forget them for some minutes. In this case Aria really “heals”.
Ah, since I took a little look at episode 26, was Akari a Prima in the end?? (this showing her glove scene).
I’m bit angry at Akibado.com
I bought 3 special Aria magazines from there (the original Undine magazines from the series to be exact^^) and also a nice high quality made in Japan Aria poster.
Paid like 4 weeks ago and send shipping request but still no reply. Moreover I send an email asking for what’s the situation 2 days ago and also no reply, that really sucks, I want my cute Aria merchandise!!!
Comment on June 27, 2007 @ 12:23 am
The newest chapter of ARIA (Navigation 55) was the most delightful plot twist ever, if you know what I’m talking about. Gave me quite a surprise when Kozue Amano would actually do that to the fans of ARIA.
Comment on June 27, 2007 @ 2:50 pm
Yeah, got finaly payment info for my stuff, hope I’ll have it in around 2 weeks~
Comment on June 28, 2007 @ 11:09 am