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Terraforming is a somewhat common elements of works of science-fiction: even in the mediums of anime and manga, it appears in Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. But it is rare for these terraformed vistas of Europa and other moons and planets to be themselves explored. More often than not, we find, they are merely the backdrop for some sweeping space opera epic.

But Aria is different in this respect. The world of Aqua, the terraformed Mars, is explored with depth, precision and beauty. In many ways the story’s home city of Neo-Venezia is itself a part of the cast of characters. It has a personality, small features ... here and there that define it as unique and distinct. Neo-Venezia is based heavily on the city of Venice, and in-universe some parts of the real Venice have been transported to Mars and built into the city. This provides an interesting fusion of concisely researched and well documented history, and the majestic inventiveness of Kozue Amano for transforming the everyday mundane occurrence into an affirmation of the beauty of life – and this is what gives Aria a lot of it’s flair and wonder.

Neo-Venezia and Aqua are the driving force behind the story. For the residents, the everyday mundane is exactly that. But that is not so for us, nor for our protagonist, Akari, a new resident to Aqua who begins to train as an apprentice undine, one of Neo-Venezia’s gondoliers. Akari is a naturally curious girl, and finds amazement in even the most normal events – and Neo-Venezia is host to many amazing, yet normal events. Aria follows Akari as she explores the world of Aqua, and we explore it with her. We are introduced to the functions of the postal service, the (literal) music of the ordered inner-workings of the planet, and the stunning festivities of Neo-Venezia, both historical and fantastical.

Alongside the exploration of Aqua, we explore the lives of our characters, how they interact, and how they work fervently towards their hopes and dreams. The life of each and every character is touched by Akari and Neo-Venezia. We see them grow, mature and develop, move closer and drift further apart. We don’t see them involved in a world-spanning adventure or a complex crime story; we see them live, every mundane day, in the world of Aqua.

And Amane constructs the terraformed planet with immeasurable wonder. There is a constant contrast between the grand advance of technology and the humanity of Aquas inhabitants. Neo-Venezia is drawn with care and precision, and each page features a detailed insight into the personality of the city – for Neo-Venezia is not alive merely in the sense of its centrality to the story, but in that we are witness to every corner and cranny of the city. By the end of Aria, we are as attached to Aqua as are its residents. It is not only the people, the characters with whom we can connect and relate, but it is the setting itself that we grow attached to because we are there with the characters, with Akari, Alicia and President Aria.

We are given a direct look into a frighteningly wonderful world. And that is what makes Aria so stunning.

Whenever I watch anime, I try to keep a critical mindset. This doesn't mean I examine and inspect every aspect of the show, but that I try to discern the things it does well and the things it doesn't do well so that I may develop an informed opinion of it. Sometimes, however, I don't really want to bother with that, and I just want to sit back and enjoy myself without having to worry too much about reading through the lines, and usually I'll reserve moeblob anime such A-Channel or Hidamari Sketch for this role. This time, however, I decided to go with a ... harem.

And it was not a good decision.

Infinite Stratos has a standard harem setting: the slow, kind, and incredibly normal male main character, Orimura Ichika, transfers into an all-girls military academy that trains teenagers to pilot 'IS', highly advanced power suits which can be piloted only by women and, mysteriously, our male hero. Okay, so maybe that's not very standard, but it certainly isn't as awesome as it sounds. The all-girls setting naturally paves the way for a harem (though pretty much the whole school wants to shag Ichika), this particular one consisting of five main archety-COUGH I mean 'characters': the tsundere childhood friend, the posh foreigner, the genre-savvy bishoujo (well they're all bishoujos, really), the stoic social retard, and a second tsundere childhood friend.

None of these characters are developed particularly well, any development being completely cliché or just simply not existing – this is particularly evident in the case of our main character, Ichika, who remains constantly stupid, hard-headed, overly-optimistic and COMPLETELY oblivious to his harem throughout the entirety of the show. No, I don't like him, why do you ask?

In any case, regardless of the characterisation, the story doesn't very much help to relieve it: the opening sequence shows the group battling a mysterious IS, with heavy hints at a bigger plot in the background being dropped all over the show, with a major one presenting itself roughly halfway though. The thing is, though... that this 'secret and dark background plot' never actually happens. All the introduced implications are completely ignored by the finale and never dealt with, leaving one with a bitter taste regarding the last few episodes due to its nature as a random 'monster of the week' crisis, and whilst the 'harem' plot shows some development, it is quickly shunted back to square one.

As such, the majority of the series focuses on Ichika's school life and the various perverted situations he finds himself caught up in. But, as a general rule, this rarely works very well, and Infinite Stratos is no different, eventually becoming outright annoying due to Ichika's obliviousness to everything. And its not exactly as if the aesthetics help matters much: the animation is low quality and in some areas, outright shoddy, using some weak form of 3D CGI for the IS suits that doesn't work very well and can be very jarring to switch to; the audio is, frankly, completely forgettable.

Infinite Stratos is an anime that achieves at, basically, absolutely nothing. Everything about it is completely standard, and represents exactly the issues the anime industry is facing with harem-based romantic-comedies. Nothing whatsoever is resolved by the conclusion, and the show just pissed me off more than anything else. As you have probably gotten by now, I don't recommend watching this in the least. 2 out of motherfucking 10.

PoPoLoCrois Monogatari is a video game series I rarely see mentioned. It was initially released in Japan in 1995 (based on an earlier manga series, which I hear isn't very good), but was passed up for localisation in favour of Beyond the Beyond due to the latter's psuedo-3D battle engine, preferable over PoPoLoCrois' (albeit absolutely beautiful) 2D isometric sprite based play. It spawned numerous sequels, and the first two titles (as well as a specially made scenario) were eventually ported to the PSP and brought to the Western world. The two titles were heavily edited (over half the content was removed from the first game) ... due to Sony's completely illogical viewpoint of having 'shorter' 30-hour quests for their portable system (which I really cannot understand, at fucking all. Usually I'll see some logic in this kind of decision, but I really don't see any at all (yes, I'm extremely butthurt)). Despite being highly inferior to the original PS1 games, the PSP version is still a very good game for JRPG fans (if buggy and somewhat easy). Those who appreciate light-hearted children's fantasy are doubtless to fall in love with this game, as I have, as the games focus on the adventures of Pietro Pakapuka, Prince of PoPoLoCrois, as he attempts to save his mother's spirit from the ominous Ice Demon.

Two anime series were also created: PoPoLoCrois Monogatari which takes place between the first PoPoLoCrois Monogatari game and PPLCMII, and PoPoLoCrois, which adapts the PlayStation 2 games that chronicle the adventure's of Pietro's son, Pinon. Whilst both are very good (the latter including some surprisingly dark moment), I feel the former is the better series - hell, I think it's a fucking masterpiece!

PoPoLoCrois Monogatari tells the story of a mysterious girl named Hyuu who somehow appears on PoPoLoCrois. She soon befriend Pietro, and the majority of the series focuses on their relationship, how Hyuu copes with being in an unfamiliar world, and the mystery surrounded where she came from. The series starts out rather small-scale initially (despite a rather large opening, but grows to be almost an epic by its finale.

Despite being a children's series, PoPoLoCrois Monogatari places a massive emphasis on character development, deeply exploring the thoughts and feelings of the main characters. So much emphasis is placed that the plot effectively stops half way through and then shifts into a series of stories and encounters that have no real bearing to the main plot but greatly develop the main characters, and the story does not pick up again properly until the last three or four episodes. Character development is done in a way that shows that the protagonists are still children yet does not trivialise or tone down the drama.

The only real problem with the series is that the aforementioned plot-hiatus can make the show seem to drag out a little, but honestly I didn't find this detracting from the overall experience one bit.

The series has great animation with a very unique (and pretty) artstyle, and one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard in anime. It is not required to play the games to enjoy the series, but you'll understand certain characters' relationships more and recognise references/callbacks to the first game. I'd highly recommend watching this series, it's quite tragic that it's so obscure despite being so fantastic.