Alternative TitlesEnglish: Aria the Scarlet Ammo Japanese: 緋弾のアリア
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 12
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Apr 15, 2011 to Jul 1, 2011
Duration:
24 min. per episode Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 7.111 (scored by 19780 users)
Ranked: #24452
Popularity: #320
Members: 34,507
Favorites: 232 1 indicates a weighted score
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SynopsisThe story takes place in Tokyo Butei High School, a special school where armed detectives — "Butei" — are trained to use weapons. Kinji Tooyama is a second-year-student who has a special ability, but he keeps it a secret to maintain an ordinary, peaceful life. However, when he gets caught in a bombing on the way to school, he encounters H. Aria Kanzaki, the most powerful S-Rank Butei student in Assault Studies.
(Source: ANN) |
Related AnimeAdaptation: Hidan no Aria, Hidan no Aria
Sequel: Hidan no Aria Special
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
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Skadi
153 of 250 people found this review helpful
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12 of 12 episodes seen
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| Overall |
6 |
| Story |
1 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Character |
2 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
I really am trying to not become one of those cynical anime watchers who think the best has already come and never will again, but you’re really trying my resolve this year Japan. Hidan no Aria was a show that for whatever reason I had a great deal of excitement and anticipation for. I was won over by the early pre-production artwork without knowing really anything at all about what it was going to be about or the source materials. When I learned the seiyuu cast and the plot synopsis I was pretty sure what I was going to be in store for. In that sense I probably shouldn't have been disappointed at all.
What Hidan no Aria gives us as a premise is about as generic and played as it comes. A high school boy... sigh why is it I always have to start it with that? Anyway he goes to Butai High School, a place where Japan teaches its youngsters to be assassins, thieves, and super powered shrine maidens. It’s like any other anime high school except the students all carry guns and katanas. No seriously it’s just like every other high school. So from there our hero, Kinji, suitably useless and powerless Japanese male gets involved right off the bat with the more dangerous female classmates who either want his body or him dead or more often both. Of course Kinji is able to tap into a hidden power of his own called "Hysteria Mode" which he enters from being sexually aroused. Really I'm serious here. I can't make this stuff up. Further nonsense ensues from this point and I honestly couldn’t make heads or tails of any of it from the beginning.
As with most anime of this type it likes to throw out tons of nonsensical and contradictory terminology and other assorted garbage. While in the beginning it doesn't seem like that much of a stretch it really starts to take a turn for the bizarre after a few episodes. That’s when we start having characters assigned names from other fictional and totally unrelated content. Such as Sherlock Holmes, Lupin IV, Jeane of Arc, and Dracula? It’s a mishmash of themes that have absolutely nothing in common with each other and make no sense when even applied to the story. It’s almost like the author of the story just picked random names from a library shelf and jammed them into his story as if they applied some sort of deeper meaning to it. The names don’t even have any bearing on how the characters act either. Jeane of Arc has ice powers, Dracula is a werewolf, and Holmes is a gun totting, dual katana wielding loli. Wuh? This only further confuses an already pointless and directionless story which doesn't seem to stick to one theme for more than a few episodes before meandering off into another direction. All in all it’s bad... REALLY BAD. Perhaps the worst excuse for a story I have seen in anything to date.
That brings us to the characters which really don’t far much better. Our hero Kinji is barely worth mentioning. Seriously when are they going to just stop giving the guys in anime names or even bother drawing on faces on them anymore? Just go ahead and give in to the otaku pervs and just complete the fantasy by having replacing them with faceless stick figures to allow them to complete their 2D on screen fantasy.
As for the girls the results are bad, even for a harem. Other than Aria the other girls are pretty much unmentionable. Aria is your standard loli tsundere. She says all of the things you would expect of her archetype and is performed brilliant by the undisputed seiyuu queen of this type, Rie Kugimiya. As much of a completely uninspired character or even acting performance that makes Aria up, it is Kugimiya that makes this series even remotely palatable to watch. Sure we have seen her do this role dozens of times before but I for one really never grow tired of it. In that sense it is a thoroughly Kugimiya type performance that is right in her wheel house and one that she completely hits out of the park. The real question is how many people are, unlike me, totally sick and tired of it?
J.C. Staff is usually pretty solid with their animation and production values and that doesn't really change here. But a lot like Kugimiya, I suspect a great many viewers are becoming weary of seeing the same damn thing over and over again. It would be nice to see them try to stretch themselves sometimes and be unafraid to take some risks. The one thing that really did stand out to me was how utterly silly the various girls hid their weapons. Take Aria, who is a tiny girl with an impossibly short skirt yet somehow manages to hid 2 enormous pistols under it and yet not be constantly seen when she is not drawing them. In addition to the even more ridiculous dual katanas she hides, under her blouse. It seems Aria's clothes are a lot like Doctor Who's TARDIS: bigger inside than it appears from the outside. Not that this is the first time anime has played with physics before but this really seemed to stretch the realm of believability.
From an acting and sound standpoint, Hidan no Aria is very good. As mentioned I think Rie Kugimiya was in her element and delivered a very enjoyable performance. The rest of the cast played their parts as expected. The music was pretty exciting and good. I especially enjoyed May'n Scarlet Ballet.
I actually found a great amount of this series to be amusing, mostly because I am a Kugimiya fangirl. As nonsensical and clichéd as everything about this anime was there was plenty of amusement to be found in watching the characters act this way. But at the same time I am fully aware that pretty much everything else about this show is terrible. For that reason I can’t recommend it to anyone.
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Don_Don_Kun
70 of 123 people found this review helpful
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12 of 12 episodes seen
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| Overall |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
Time after time, the age-old question of what the best anime ever made comes up. Many would probably say either Neon Genesis Evangelion or the Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. But very few would even consider the newest masterpiece from renowned animation studio, J.C Staff. As an often vastly underrated piece, Hidan no Aria proves that there are still great minds in what many would consider a dying industry.
I’ll be perfectly honest, I really wasn’t sure what to think of Hidan no Aria at first. From the various negative comments and reviews that I had read, most people were just passing it off as another generic tsundere show. It is unfortunate that Hidan no Aria receives such a label, as it causes many people to not even bother watching this exemplarily facet in anime history. To simply play devil’s advocate, most people have probably just set their standards high. This is understandable, especially after the previous masterpieces that J.C Staff produced, such as Shakugan no Shana and Zero no Tsukaima. And while it is always good to look at past successes, it can sometimes cloud one’s opinion towards new innovations.
Hidan no Aria is yet another adaptation of a light novel series of the same name. The story follows the protagonist, Kinji, and his first encounter with Aria H. Kanzaki, the most powerful S-Rank Butei student in assault studies. Now while this may seem like a very typical set-up on the surface, it is part of what leads to Hidan no Aria’s unpredictable and creative plot. That being said, most of the focus is given to the protagonist Kinji and the moral and interpersonal battles that he fights against himself rather than the external plot. In one of the most original plot devices that we have seen in years since the Geass, Kinji possesses a unique ability called “Hysteria mode”. When Kinji becomes sexually aroused, it causes all of his battle abilities to rise tenfold, thus giving him super-human strength. While this may seem like a cheap plot device to simply place Kinji in what some might call, perverted situations, I would like to make it clear as to why this is an incorrect point of view. Constantly, Kinji is faced with the dilemma of giving into his desire and lust for Aria or trying to remain dutiful, even in the face of danger. And while Kinji must fight this personal battle time after time, it simply helps to reiterate and drive home the theme of the ongoing struggle that man has fought since its advent.
While it may seem as though Kinji never develops over the course of the show, this was purely intentional on the part of J.C Staff. A second and unfortunately overlooked point that I would like to point out is that the interpersonal trials that Kinji continuously has to overcome is also what makes him a very relatable and ultimately realistic character. Many young men that have trouble suppressing their sexual desires will find great comfort in watching Kinji’s character struggle. While many might argue that similar conflicts were faced by Yuji from Shakugan no Shana and Saito from Zero no Tsukaima, those were simply prior models that have allowed J.C staff to create and mold the finished product which we see here today.
Hidan no Aria’s other protagonist is none other than the fiery Aria H. Kanzaki. One way to describe her is that she fits almost perfectly into the tsundere character mold, especially since she is voiced by Kugimiya Rie. And while it is easy to simply pass her off as another Shana or Louise rip-off, this would be an incorrect assumption. You see, J.C Staff intended Aria to pay homage to the tsundere characters of the past. Everything from her twin-tail hairstyle, to demeanour to body-type are there to let long time tsundere fans reminisce about one of the most original character archetypes created.
While Aria does exhibit similar behaviour to other tsundere characters at times, there are some discreet differences that separates her from the rest of the pack. Take the first episode for example. Kinji and Aria get knocked back by a beautifully rendered CG explosion into a storage barrack. In one of the most profound and confusing plot twists since the ending of Evangelion, Kinji finds himself face to face with Aria’s chest. This causes Aria to erupt in a fit of rage and consequently attempt to shoot at Kinji with guns and artillery. Let’s take a step back and look at Louise from Zero no Tsukaima for a second. Whenever she found Saito committing adultery against his will, she proceeded to beat him with a whip. As you can see, there is a clear progression in the degree of ruthlessness from Louise to Aria. This not only shows how far J.C Staff has come as a studio, but also how Louise just served as a prototype for Aria’s character. A final point I would like to point out about Aria, is that her entire character is just full of symbolic imagery that sadly most viewers would probably miss completely. Take her middle name for example, which begins with an ‘H’. Some would probably think it stands for hentai or harem, since that is how the show is often labelled. The ‘H’ actually stands for ‘Holmes’, as in the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. As you can full well see, J.C Staff is paying tribute to literary classics without our knowing. Another subtle symbol that J.C Staff has masterfully slipped into Aria’s character is her pink hair. It is the same colour as a flower that we all know and love, the rose. The deep and profound imagery that we see in the opening video shows that Aria’s hair colour symbolizes that she is like a rose; beautiful but full of thorns. I would like to point out that this is just my interpretation of one of many symbols that J.C Staff has carefully placed into this show. The beauty of Hidan no Aria is that another viewer might have a completely different interpretation of the symbols present.
The supporting cast of Hidan no Aria doesn’t stand out quite as much as it’s dynamic duo, but they are still part of the foundation that leads to the show’s success. Let’s take Kinji’s childhood friend, Shirayuki, for example. Like many of the other female protagonists in the show, she secretly harbours feelings of love for Kinji. To get closer to him, she visits his dorm to bring him home-made meals. While many people believe Shirayuki to be a useless, or dare I say fanservice character, there is a greater meaning to her presence. Since Shirayuki is yet another possible love interest for Kinji, she serves as a catalyst towards Kinji and Aria’s relationship. As if it wasn’t tough enough for Kinji to repress his sexual lust for Aria, now he has to choose between two girls! The viewer is always left on his seat, eagerly waiting to see if Kinji will fall victim to his desires and choose Shirayuki, or remain faithful and stay with Aria.
The sound and animation are yet another strong point in Hidan no Aria. The locations are based off of many familiar settings in Japan such as a high-school and student dorm. One thing that stood out to me in particular was that Hidan no Aria specifically used low-quality animation and poor CG rendering to give the show an antique feel. Even the visual highlights of the show, the action scenes, are given special care to look like a low-budget B-movie. Again, this was purely intentional on J.C Staff’s part as it shows how something that looks like a low-budget B-movie can be elevated to a high art form given the proper care. The soundtrack is also one of the most original that I have heard in years, being filled with J-Pop tracks and electronic music.
While it is not apparent at first, Hidan no Aria possesses qualities that make it an instant classic. The plot may seem like it takes a back seat at times, but this is only to further flesh out the characters. Each character in HNA is complex and full of profound imagery. The amount of references that J.C Staff makes to classic literature is also outstanding in a day and age where most people have forgotten such tales. And while the animation does seem a bit dated, it only serves to make this masterpiece a timeless classic. Hidan no Aria is a show that I would highly recommend to anyone that calls his or herself a connoisseur of anime. A word of caution though, there is another series that has Aria in its name. I would just like to make it clear that that series should never be viewed. It is simply a boring show about girls rowing boats. The worst part is that nothing ever happens and there is far too much natural character development. The show even tries to develop the world in which the characters live in, which is just horribly contrived.
I hope that you have learned something about one of the most overlooked and underrated shows of this year. I thank you for taking the time to read my review and to not forget your sarcasm and sense of humour on the way out.
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Recommendations
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They both have the "boy-meet-girl" trend. They both feature a tsudere, shorty, and powerful (in terms of battles) character voiced by Rie Kugimiya. Both produced by J.C. Staff.
I bet you love watching the same anime twice, right? Right. I bet you love watching the same anime twice, except the second anime is 11 episodes shorter and even more poorly written right? Right. I bet you :love: when a studio releases the same anime under the title of another, waters it down, and deconstructs the already poorly crafted characters they had to begin with to create more profit with minimum effort right? RIGHT.
If you hate one series, then be prepared because you'll hate the other too! The cliches and uncreative writing will be sure to impress you to a new level of rage. How does J.C. manage to keep churning out the same anime? Just... how?
The female leads in both of these shows are almost exactly the same. Both shows have a couple of girls around the main lead, although it's obvious who is going to win. Both anime revolve around the main female and male fighting together. The main male character is quite a bit better in Hidan no Aria than in Shakugan no Shana, in my opinion.
its so painfully obvious that these two are similar in every way possible.
Same type of 'Tsundere' female lead
A lot of action involved in the two. Both has really fiesty yet cute Tsundere girls in them. If you are looking for some action combined with romance,comedy or maybe even moe,this anime may be a good choice for you.
Shakugan no Shana, Zero no Tsukaima, Hidan no Aria, and Toradora are exactly the same. character wise.
Louise, Shana, Aria, and Taiga are all girls with a petite figure but are set on making the male protagonist, Saito, Yuji, Kinji, and Ryuji their 'slave'.
Hidan no Aria and Shakugan no Shana both involve fighting and missions.
Toradora and Zero no Tsukaima both are more focused on school life and shoujo. However, I am sure, you will find that ALL of them are the same because of the protagonist, and all four anime are INCREDIBLY AMAZING.
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Both female leads are tsunderes. The female and male leads in both of these anime have the same seiyuus. Basically, Hidan no Aria (Aria the Scarlet Ammo) is Toradora with guns.
Same production staff, similar plot, hell even the exact same seiyuu for both main characters as Toradora. Plus lolis and guns, who could not like that?
By request of a complainer I will go in depth into my analysis of how they are similar, Also, make a correction since I was in a hurry when I posted originally, you have a protagonist being pursued by three similar girls, one who avidly denies attraction or has no attraction from the beginning (Aria/Taiga) One who is well mannered and is similar to the Yamamoto Nadeshiko character (Minori/Shirayuki)
and then you have a cute acting character that has a darkside (Ami/Riko). Further on in both Ryuji/Kinji ends up providing meals for Aria/Taiga and is treated like a slave. End Recommendation
The main female characters are both Tsundere. Toradora and Hidan no Aria have a Rie and Junji tandem making them sounds like Ryuuji and Taiga. They are aslo created both by J.C. Staff
Same seiyuu, both have loli heroine
Both Have The Same Seiyu , and the protagonists have a feeling for each other =D
This anime follows the genre tsundere and features the the voice actor Kugimiya Rie A.K.A the queen of tsundere all anime with Rie as the main usually have almost identical moods and character types so of u liked tordora you'll love hidan no aria and many of her other her other animes including: zero no tsukaima,Shakugan no shana,Dragon Crisis,Hayate combat butler.
And some that don't feature Rie but have characters identical to taiga,shana,Louise
The are: gosick,C3,the mystic archives of dantalian,Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase
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Opening Theme"Scarlet Ballet" by May'n
Ending Theme"Kameria no Hitomi (カメリアの瞳)" by Aiko Nakano
Fansubbing Groups
Which fansubbers do you like the best? Click + to approve of their subs for this show. Click - if you don't think they did such a great job.
Related ClubsHidan no Aria FC, LOLI DEFENSE ARMY, The Anime's Couple Club, Swordswomen of Anime FC, :3 , Think and Look into Details Club, Power House, Kugimiya as Aria Kanzaki, MAL TEAM OF HATRED , Girls With Guns FC, Claim a tsundere!, Anime Girl Lover, HURRAY BOOBIES!!, Yandere & Yangire, Harem Club, Vampire No Sparkle, ✩ Aria H. Kanzaki FC! ✩, Akihabara Knights, The ~Official~ Reki Fanclub
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