Aria the Natural

Aria, The Natural. Simple series, as its hardwork trying to portray the beautiful landscape of the fictional world planetary called Aqua, on the city full of water, Neo-Venezia. Its magical began to encounters by young girls act as an apprentice Undine Akari, and her friend, and Senior. Start from the appearance of huge cat named Cait Sith, the leader of the Kingdom of Martisian Cats on the Aqua. Founding the treasure of the hearts of the Neo-Venezia civilization. A romance appearance for Akari's friend, kinda embarased, but hell that was good to watch. A beautiful magic landscapes appear there, on there. The mystery of the ... Kingdom of the cats, and its magic path of labyrinth. Bars of the cat at the summer. Good bye scenes for the Gondola, Ghost appearance, Galaxy train, much events and festival happen with randomic attempt, and so on.

Thats all of the story. Kinda weird saying that much, considering my word can only be classified the series only 10 percentage of all the series. However, this series pretty well get improved from the last season. I find it strange. I never do that before on another franchises. But its different for Aria. Its magic truly make me thing to make a sudden change of view. From bad, to better. From worse, to amazing. All of them come fast in flash, like a thunder on the storm. Hell, idk if thats good or not, or maybe im drunk. Whatever, my decision still clear as crystal. Thats this Natural get my natural good review as my initial judgement for the whole show.

Like i do on every sections of the review, i might give some short summary for every section. So here is mine for the daily reminder for Aria franchises :

Story.
As a story, it keeps a simple thing gone flow as its main progression. If you people kinda a perfectionist, you might find these show as a boredom. However, as the episode come 1 by 1. Each episode got improved and make me enjoying every detail aspect attached to the show. As a story development its way too great, considering my bad point on the last season. Oh, man, i even can write full of thousand words to show how unbeliavable my thought with that progression of the story. But, as my time was short, i keep it as simple as possible.

Great. Thats what i thought for the storyline sections. Even some shitty dialogue may occur, and some random thing had come to minus my point here, 9 shall be enough to close my satisfying. The beauty of the story can be seen clearly from the end of the Cait Sith arc, and continued with the parting gondola arc, Aika's hair cut short model arc, and so on after that. All of them may come so smooth, even to comparing it with the other popular SoL anime on this centuries. Lol.

Character. Following my line on stories section, these row can be classified as a handrighted of the storyline. 9 for it, as my gratitude to Akari development, Aika huge changes, especially with her hair, and Alice great personality added as nice performance to characterization development. Im glad when watching this. Even their interaction with support people like three seas fairies senior, three old guys, and for all of the people in the city, even from others character come from magical world of Aqua. All of them just to great to even realise this is a SoL show.

Music and sounds? Perfect. 9 shall be good. Art. Its okay. No good nor bad. So 8 must be well enough to me. So as well for the enjoyment. This section rather give to 9 or 10. But, at the last attempt 9 must be good for this second season.

Overall, 9 points were enough to my satisfaction, once again at my hundred of the words. I can't say this as a masterpiece candidate, very unfortunate. That was just too much for the SoL standard by me, for happen to 10 points at max. Im sorry for writing this, but that 10 too high for this series to even touched it. Im sorry, Akari, my beloved girl. Ai-cwhan, the best loli i ever met (kidding. Your cute little innocent can not bring my dirty joke into its fullest) Aria Saychou, my best kitty i ever found. To all of them, i feel so sorry.

However, maybe soon, in Origination, my 10 can be introduced to close this franchises. Who know, eh? Thats it, man. A short glance, as always. Even pro can't make this random phrase at his praises. On top of that, Aria the series always be on my heart, to bringing so much joy to my mind. Even to every people who understand the true meaning of this series. Thats for sure, from me.

Aria: The Animation was a slice-of-life anime where the characters were introduced, the music was introduced, and the setting of Neo-Venezia was introduced. The writing for the first season was not particularly good, with the dialogue being somewhat lackluster and the stories being very simple. That first season would get a 7-8/10 from me.

Aria The Natural is a clear step up from the first season. The art, animation, and sound/music don't improve at all, but that's alright: it's easy to fall in love with the music in Aria. The simplistic dialogue does not improve much either. But the writing overall in season 2 is ... clearly better than that of season 1. No, it's not perfect in the sense that everything the episode does contributes to the underlying message, but the storytelling through events is strong enough for each episode to present a meaningful case towards its moral insight (a clear improvement from the first season, where I thought a lot of episodes were quite silly). There were even a couple of episodes here and there where the writing truly shines. In those episodes, I was utterly amazed at how intelligent, insightful, and beautifully tied together they were.

Aria the Natural is a story (or combination of stories?) that teach you to love the world you live in. It's an anime full of insight, and an anime easy to fall in love with. I wholeheartedly recommend this series.

I already made a review for Aria the Animation, and for the most part, Aria the Natural isn’t very different, so both reviews will be very similar and some paragraphs will be the same, but I will also talk about what changed, what improved and what got worse.


The show being a slice-of-life, it doesn’t have an actual plot. It is episodic and the story of each individual episode is an excuse to show the characters doing things in a more tranquil version of Venice (IRL Venice is full of tourists and much more noisy) with a few SF and fantasy elements here and there. ... The planet Aqua is a Utopian world. There are no antagonists, no conflicts or anything of the sort, only good emotions and happy people. The universe is not really developed either. But this isn’t that much of a problem, as the point of the series isn’t the story or the relationships between the characters but the peaceful and relaxing atmosphere.


Aria is a pure slice-of-life: no drama, no psychological or physical violence, just the peaceful and slow-paced daily lives of young women training to become Undines (aka female gondoliers – there doesn’t seem to be any male ones) in the beautiful scenery of an animated Venice. Everything in this anime is purposely made as relaxing and comfy as possible: the slow movement of the gondolas on water, the satisfying dialogues delivered by a very nice voice acting, the sound of the water, the seagulls cry, the relaxing background music, the simple and innocent comedy… In short, this anime is ASMR.


The animation is slow but there are very few to no static images. The character designs and the clothing are pretty original. The face designs, particularly the eyes, are very detailed. The backgrounds and the landscapes are very detailed, and Venice is beautifully recreated. In this second season there were a few episodes where the faces where inconsistent, but overall, the animation was of the same quality as the first season.


At first, this show seems like the usual “girls doing things” type of anime – well, it mostly is, but it manages to avoid most of the cliches and irritating tropes associated with the medium. Contrary to the vast majority of anime, there is no sexualization of the characters, and the show doesn’t shove naked minors with huge anime breasts into your face with the only objective of appealing to the horny teenage males and the pedophiles in denial that constitutes a big chunk of the modern anime community.


All gondola companies have a cat as their company “president” – they’re more like mascots. The show introduces us to three of them, as the 3 main girls all work in different companies. The cat that appears the most on the screen is Aria (hence the name of the series), “president” of the Aria company. This cat with a disproportionate head and unusually big eyes follows the main girls in most of their whereabouts, and he is constantly doing things in the background while the characters are talking, or paddling the Venetian Canals in their gondolas. His presence adds to the comfy atmosphere, particularly when he does funny uncharacteristic cat noises.


However, this show can also be seen as boring. It is slow-paced, has no plot and focuses on mundane stuff like sleepovers, taking care of a cat in secret, a day off at a grandma’s house, new years celebration… People expecting plot progression will get tired of the episodic format very quickly. The dialogues can be very sappy, which doesn’t really help. The thing is, you’re not supposed to focus on the dialogues or the story, but on the atmosphere.


So, what changed in this second season?

While all the episodes of the first season had Akari as the main character, in this new season secondary characters got a lot more screen time. Some episodes’ stories focus entirely on one particular character, such as Aika or Alice, whereas some others consist in flashbacks with characters that were pretty much useless in the first season, like Akatsuki for example. These episodes were pretty pleasant to watch and they made the secondary cast more likable.


One of the good sides of Aria the Animation was that it had no romance. Unfortunately, this new season made the mistake of putting boring romance stories in some episodes.

Remember Al? The completely useless background character that Aika seemingly had no interest in? Well now she’s so madly in love with him she can’t help blushing and stuttering every time she sees him. That’s alright, you’d think, after all the first season did the same with Akatsuki and Alicia. However, this is not the same. In this season there are entire scenes, sometimes even entire episodes, about Aika not being able to confess her feelings. That’s just plain repetitive and predictable and I doubt anyone would enjoy watching a romance between a cute anime girl and a gnome that makes cringey puns.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that all romance is bad. But in a series like this it feels out of place, as it breaks the relaxing atmosphere, which is supposed to be Aria’s strong point. That’s not enough to make the show bad, but this still means that there are some episodes that are just plain boring.


Coming back to the cats, in this second season there’s a whole army of them. A kingdom, even. Well, it’s not an actual kingdom, but a set of secret places found all across Neo-Venezia. In several episodes, Akari encounters its leading figure Caith Sith, a giant cat with a gentle look that stands on his feet like a human, and is allowed to catch a glimpse of this mysterious and hidden other world. There are also a lot of episodes about other mysterious places, sometimes even ghosts, which aren’t scary at all but are interesting to watch. Those were easily the best episodes of this second season.


To conclude, this second season of Aria is on par with the first. Some aspects of the series, such as the secondary characters, improved, while some others got worse. If you enjoyed the first season, you will most likely enjoy this one as well.


SUB-SCORE EXPLANATION:

Animation: good character designs; good backgrounds; a few episodes with face inconsistencies → 8/10

Sound: good and relaxing BGM; very nice VA; good sound effects; decent OP → 8/10

Story: no plot progression; mundane things; some episodes had interesting stories → 4/10

Characters: good and likable characters; secondary characters got a lot of development → 8/10

Enjoyment: most of the episodes were enjoyable, except the ones with boring romance; some episodes can be re-watched; some sentimental value → 6/10

Overall: 7/10

In season 2, actually there are not many changes from season 1, but I don't think it's that important because this anime has its own distinctive style to make the audience enjoy it. And I think it's a good thing to maintain this characteristic because not many anime have an atmosphere like this Aria.
The view of the city of Neo Venezia, the friendliness of the people, the songs that soothe the heart, the fun everyday, the conflicts between the characters and the light story as well as the funny behavior of Aria Shacou are the things that I enjoy while watching this anime.
The slight difference ... in season 1 that stands out the most as far as I've seen is the supernatural. For those of you who have seen season 1, you must be familiar with Cat Sith. In this season he often appears and interacts with Akari. Not only cat sith, but also other creatures that appear in this season. In addition to the supernatural, it is also reported that Woody, Akatsuki, Akira, and Ara-ara one-san's first childhood encounters were here.
And also when Akari just entered the Aria Company, it was told in this season. In the last episode there will be something unexpected that makes Akari surprised as well as me, so that makes me curious about the continuation of the story in the next season.

So....Aria the Natural..Is it me or does it sound like a cheesy title taken straight outta Pornhub?Like Pink haired natural titties etc etc?

But unlike the porn movie this has...Not so many things going for it i'm afraid.In fact after i saw the 1st season i was so bored out of my mind and pissed off at myself for watching something as lifeless as Kim Kardashian that i stopped watching anime off all kinds for 1 month or so.But i have a finishing fetish so i was bound to come back and see the rest of the series..And sure enough here i am trying to decipher ... that phenomenon called Aria.

If you're not too bored check my 1st season review..I really couldn't understand the appeal of this anime.I was dumpfounded by the fact that this was such a big hit that it continued on and on for 2 more fucking seasons.It wasn't anything special,the story wasn't something written by the goddess of poetry..So what in the name of all that's holy possesed Japan to make this a success..Wwwwweeeeeellllll it's the moe disease.If any anime has moe in it that's it as far as some fellow anime fans are concerned.Has it got moe girls making cute noises and stupid as fuck things?It's a great anime..Has it got moe animals that make stupid noises and act like someone fed them 2 bags of LSD?It's a great anime and deserves a religion of its' own.

Cause other than the fact that it's moe i cannot possibly find a reason for this being such a big hit.Sure many people say that it's a slice of life so what did i expect?SOME SIGNS OF LIFE DAMN IT.Something to make me go wow this is the shit.Moe isn't the be all end all.

So what did they do with this 2nd installment?Did they improve it?Yes and no.You see the first one was some kind of intro for us to learn about Neo-Venezia and who the characters are.I want this to sink in before i go on..13 eps of intro..So they made a 2nd one to explore the rest of this world...So let me get this right..They couldn't do that in,say,the 1st one?Was it so jammed packed with many many things that exploring a fraction of this world was out of the question?No...Not even slightly..Anime is a bussiness after all they saw the hordes of moe lovers coming and wanted to rob them of their money and dignity.If i were them i'd do the same thing.It's easy money after all.

Anywho,like i said this season is more..26 eps more to be exact.But as far as i can tell this could easily be half the bulk because half the eps are spent making you watch the same things again and again.Many things that you saw in the 1st season or even things that you see in this season are being recycled.But at least some of the eps have some good things going on as well.We get some development from the characters and some nice-ish moments.Then again we have some supernatural shit going on which make no sense at all and aren't being explained..Nobody is even bothered by the fact that a huge cat is capable of using magic to exclude humans from their cat meetings..And sure enough Alicia is still going "My my my" all the time which makes me want to punch a hole through my pc's screen and Aika going "no sappy lines allowed" all the time..Recycling is a good thing..If we're talking garbage but when talking anime..No sorry i won't have that.That there is a prime example of how shitty this anime is.Recycled ideas,characters that know how to say one line only and the same "comedic" moments they show us for the entirety of this show.

Sticking with the characters..Once again there are 4 of them.1 pinked hair gal who is is the new employee with dreams,the blonde hair who is the kind boss and says mymymy like ALOT,the blue haired gal who is the friend of the pinked haired who works for another company and last but least the green haired girl is some kind of wonder gal.The cat is like Pikachu but fatter.

Animation was the same as the 1st season's.Very nice depiction of the world of Neo-Venezia and still some weird CG moments that clash with the rest of the traditional animation.

Soundwise it's pink and fluffy and VAs are good and deliver their parts.

So aside from some new and fresh ideas that were very good indeed the rest of the show is more or less the same stagnant crap we got from the 1st season.And i'm sorry but 7 good eps from the 26 in total is not floating my goat.When i watch an anime i want it to amaze me.This made me bored and sleepy which kind of defeats the purpose of entertainment.Unless you count sleep as entertaining.