an otaku fan of all things moé
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Well this episode had certainly taken me by surprise as we see both Otome and Yume joining Yoshiyuki and friends on their ski trip. This never happened in the game, but with the focus of this series on the two sisters, it’s actually a nice welcome. Although it’s a shame that they didn’t have the scene of Yoshiyuki and Wataru trying to peekat the girls taking a bath and then getting caught by Nanaka, as that was one of the funniest parts of the ski trip in the game.
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Finally we’re introduced to another character in this series. Saki is the typical ojou-sama figure in the series but I must vertainly say, she seems more reserved than I thought she would be. Personally I thought she would be a bit more wicked when she got angry, but with Kawasumi Ayako as the voice, I can’t really imagine her voicing some wicked. Being sly I can see it, but wicked, not at all. But she certainly has played the role well but it’s a shame Saki doesn’t appear all that often in the series.
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Now I know this is only an anime, but seeing how stupid everyone in a class can be is kind of ridiculous. I have some friends who were pretty stupid during high school but not to the point of where they couldn’t understand anything of a math problem. And my impression of a Japanese schooling system should be of a pretty high standard in terms of quality to ensure most people can see some kind of logic in the problem. That aside, the stupidity of the class did bring about some laughs. Especially stuff like Jinko’s little outburst and the whole class begging Kotoko to ask Naoki to tutor them.
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This episode would have to be one of my favourites so far as it covers the puppet show as this is one of the best events earlier on in the game. Though when I played the game, I had a pretty good understanding of the storyline but watching it anime form is still pretty good on it’s own. Having Otome take on Sheryl’s role was just so awesome especially seeing her all nervous. But Yoshiyuki did well in reminding her that they are one together and it calmed her down. Though Otome cried during the play, it makes me wonder if Yume knows more than she’s letting on.
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Throughout the first half of this episode, I thought we’d get something pretty standard where girls learns to cook for her loved one. But if anything, this episode taught me not to expect anything from this series as it dropped an absolute bombshell, and not in a good way. Seriously just as I thought Lala was going to make something for Rito, 3D octopus aliens! Of course given that this series focus is fanservice, I could see what was coming and I just sat here going through whilst diverting my attention to other things until the ending credits.
The journey in ARIA may be over for a lot of us, but it’s definitely a new beginning for many to come. This is something that I was hoping for and it’s finally here. ARIA has been licensed. Of course it’s not just the first season, ARIA The Animation, but it includes ARIA The Natural, ARIA The OVA ~Arietta~, and the third season ARIA The Origination. Oh happy days~~
One of the bets things about the news of this release is that TRSI will be releasing this as a complete boxset rather than individual volumes but as well as only having Japanese audio track and English subtitles. I must say this is certainly good news as I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to handle hearing an English dub of my all time favourite series. The first boxset will be released in September 2008, luckily it’s after my Japan trip, but now that I know there is a US release inbound, it makes me wonder if I should still buy the Japanese DVDs.
So once again, I shall make the trip to Neo-Venezia this year, thank you TRSI and Nozomi Entertainment.
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