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One recurring theme that is present within ARIA is the concept of the past,present, and future. With this episode, we once again take a trip back into the past and discover the many other wonders of ARIA Company but not from Alicia’s perspective, but that of her sempai, Anna, and Grandma. I don’t ever recall seeing a chapter where we meet Alicia’s sempai let alone hear her name anywhere in the manga. However for some burning reason Anna resembles Peorth from Ah My Goddess to me, except Anna isn’t floating in mid-air, lol.
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Impressions
Actually one theme that ARIA hasn’t touched on much is the family theme. Though we don’t see much of ARIA character’s families, it’s nice to see that ARIA can bring forth those same feelings of warmth and happiness by bringing in Anna, her husband Albert, and their son Ahito. But the one way we can view the family theme is through ARIA Company itself, with Grandma, Anna, Alicia, and Akari, each being a different generation, and each leading ARIA Company in a different direction. And again, this also brings us the theme of the past, present, and future. As Akari mentioned, there are parts of ARIA Company that she doesn’t know, and the same applies to us the watcher, with each piece being revealed to us as time goes by, and THAT is what I love about this series.
Looking into the past with Grandma and the founding of ARIA Company was definitely a delight. However I do have to admit that the special navigation chapter of this had much more of an impact on me than the animated version. Though that may be because I had such high expectations of this chapter but that isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy this part at all. Despite seeing Aria-shachou’s usual antics that brings us many laughs, seeing him in this kind of light was definitely different, but you could see the seriousness in his eyes as he looked out to the ocean, but as well as appreciate the little things he has in life. That is what Akino learnt from Aria-shachou, and that is what we learn from ARIA, to appreciate the little things in life.
So going from the past to the present, all the ladies definitely can’t wait to see what kind of direction Akari will take ARIA Company, and that is the future. An ARIA Company with Akari in the future, now that is something I would like to see. Anyway, next episode is another chapter from the manga, and it’s the amnesia chapter.
Preview:
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I won’t ask about the Amnesia chapter.. but I will note that, of all the characters there, I can only see Athena pulling it off believably.
As far as this episode goes, if you look at Akino/Grandma at the end - she really does look like Alicia, with that easy-going smile and the joie-de-vivre which characterizes everyone who I’ve seen working at Aria Company so far. You can pretty much see why Alicia took on Akari, with the way they both enjoy life as it is without having to work themselves into a rut in order to ‘appreciate’ things due to their hard work.
Your comments thing was broken or something a few days ago…I think I said something along the lines of:
President Aria’s personality has changed so much, but he’s still awesome.
Amnesida for Athena? How fitting!
Totali’s last blog post..Bamboo Blade - 20
Haesslich: Definitely. There is certainly some kind of bond between the women and it’s passed onto the next generation of undine, and each finding their own way to appreciate both Neo Venezia and the life of an undine.
Totali: Yeah the site has been running pretty crap lately, hopefully it should be fixed. It certainly is weird seeing Aria-shachou all serious.
Adun: I think it’s more that ARIA Company seems to pick its employees based on their outlooks and perspectives, along with their skills… which explains why it’s so small, since girls like Akari and Alicia don’t happen by every day - much less maintain that attitude past early childhood, without either going cynical or else ‘growing out of it’. That simple enjoyment of life, and their ability to share it, is what differentiates those girls and Akino/Grandma from the ‘big two’ companies, which seem more traditionally ‘professional’, although they both end up having a lot more undines who are very competent… but they aren’t apparently all as well known as Akino was, then Alicia after her.
Remember that most undines, and this includes most of the girls at Orange Planet as well as Himeya, have to go to the docks to find their customers… but ARIA Company’s customers tend to come to them. As Akari points out, this is extremely rare, and Alicia is one of the most famous undines on the planet, while her predecessor was widely known in the business as THE best, and before leaving Himeya was its star attraction. It’s this unique perspective, as much as anything, which seems to let the ARIA Company prosper in a business in which they’re pretty outnumbered by everyone else… and perhaps the fact that almost everyone seems to fall in love with their undines, just like they do with the other two Water Sprites.
And I think the reason Aria-souchou was so serious here was because he tends to be so when he’s trying to teach a lesson, or show people things. He plays the role of an idiot well, but… well, there’s definitely something there under the hat.