Uknighted Manganime Life is too short to watch bad anime

Apparently, the anime gods have decided that I have suffered enough lately, so they provide me with a double helping of healing salve. Aria is quickly shaping up to be my favorite anime of the year, and today’s episode is certainly no exception. Read on and see for yourselves.

This episode introduces us to the last of the three water fairies, Athena of Orange Planet. Unsurprisingly, Alice plays a large role in this episode. Surprisingly, however, Athena wasn’t…. quite what I expected. Or was she?

There will be spoilers, just so you are warned.

Some of you might remember my short preview of Aria the anime (or my Aria manga review for that matter) where I pretty much sang its praise.

The fourth episode of Aria the animation had me a bit worried when the “next episode preview” rolled around. Why? Read the whole thing and see.

You know, Aria is gowing on me quite alot. The first episode was kind boring, but the next two episodes have been really cute and interesting. They’ve also developed the characters so that we can gain more understanding of them… Well secondary characters. Akari herself still seems at times like a brain dead Miss Teen USA on happy pills, but i mean that in a nice way

The series, a somewhat direct adaptation of the manga by Kozue Amano, takes us to a terraformed Mars and the city of Neo Venezia, where several of our main cast works as Undines — gondola rowers. This is mainly the story of Akari — who wishes to become a full fledged undine herself — and her friends, plus the people she encounters in Neo Venezia, the city of water.

TITLE
Aria
GENRE
Slice of life…. uh, story (can’t very well call it drama. It’s too lighthearted for that.)
VOLUME AND PUBLISHER INFO
Liscensed by ADV manga, put to hold after the release of volume 3.
MANGAKA
Kozue Amano
VERSION
English graphic novel.
READING STATUS
Partial (3/??)
NOTES
Is due out as an anime this month

SYNOPSIS
It is the future, and man has colonized Mars by melting its icecaps. Unfortunately, the process accidentally left too much of the planet’s surface underwater — only 10% of the area is above the surface — which eventually gave the planet the name “the Water planet” or “planet Aqua”.

It is in the city of Neo-Venezia (yes, NEO-Venezia ) that Akari Mizunashi lives, working as a Gondolier (also known as Undines.) Being a trainee, she looks forward to the day when she becomes a full fledged Undine, like her teacher and boss, Alicia.