This review will also cover all three seasons of Aria.
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Imagine a scenario where there are two people sitting at a table together. One of them gets up and rummages through the freezer. He then finds a large container of vanilla ice cream. He takes said vanilla ice cream and gives it to his friend to eat. He then explains to his friend that this particular vanilla ice cream is one of the best, if not the best vanilla ice cream ever made. One of a few things will happen in this scenario. 1.) His friend will say "Yeah, but it's still just vanilla ice cream" and might eat a bite or two and he'll stop eating it. 2.) His friend will say "Villa ice cream is great and all... but where's the chocolate chips? Where's the Smarties" Where's anything besides the vanilla?" His friend will probably eat his fill and then put it away. 3.) His friend does like vanilla ice cream but it’s not his favorite kind to eat. He then tries the vanilla ice cream and is blown away by how much better it is than other vanilla ice cream he has had before. He will likely either eat until he is full and finish the rest later, or will finish the entire container right there. And lastly 4.) His friend likes vanilla ice cream so much he is basically jerking it to how much he likes eating vanilla ice cream while eating said vanilla ice cream.
The above scenario describes the entire Aria series quite well in my opinion. As you can see the friend started off at regular intervals of the "do I like it or do I hate it" line. In each point though he slowly started drifting towards one of the extremes. In points 1 and 2, he hated/disliked the ice cream. In points 3 and 4, he drifted towards liking it or even loving it. I've come to find out that this happens all too often with Aria.
Aria, by nature, is a very simple anime. A simple, calming, soothing, relaxing type of show. Not much happens to be quite honest. It's a straight slice of life anime with little comedy, and little romance; and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Aria, the series as a whole, is literally the closest thing you will EVER find a "perfect" anime. Let me explain.
Story - This is a quote from the synopsis for Aria the Origination... "In Neo Venezia, Akari, Aika, and Alice continue to work diligently toward the day they become full-fledged Prima Undine (a professional tour guide gondolier)." That's it. That's pretty much sums up 50+ episodes of what you're getting yourself into. As I said earlier, the theme of this show would be to say is that is it calming and relaxing. A gentle ride so to say. What is calming and soothing? Slow rowing, gondolier tour guides... of VENICE. You don't get much more relaxing and easy going than that.
Art - The art style is... fitting. It's not necessarily great, and it's not bad either. It’s walking a nice line where it's on par with the other categories such as the characters, and the story, and the soundtrack. It doesn't distract you by being too good and you being able to say "well, if only the 'X' could be as good as the animations". Nor is it bad where you can pick at it and complain about how it takes away from the show. It's not bad, it's not good. It's just where it should be for this type of show. It fits.
Sound - Again, like I said earlier, it's fitting. I'm sure you can probably figure out the rest of this review out at this point but I’ll keep going. What does this anime, Aria, need from its soundtrack? Calm and relaxing music... And boy does it deliver. The soundtrack fits the mood of each scene, and the anime as a whole, extremely well. I cannot think of a single track that was out of place that entire anime, nor can I think of a track that I just didn't like. They even went as far as to have seagull's noises in the background to emphasize the scenario they are in. The soundtrack was, simply put, flawless.
Characters - I'm going to start sounding redundant at this point, but yeah, the characters were quite fitting as well. I won't go into too much detail but the characters did their jobs. They had minimal character development, but honestly, they didn't need it. The thing I liked about Aria's characters, as opposed to many other shows characters, is that you don't think of Aria's characters as individuals, you think of them as a group, a bunch of friends having fun together, sharing memories, laughing, smiling together. THAT is why the characters fit the atmosphere of the show so well.
Overall - This show is wonderful. I true masterpiece in all its glory. The creator of this show really knew what he wanted. He knew exactly, right from the get-go what his over arcing idea and mood of this show was going to be. This entire show, from start to finish, was very clearly well thought-out, in every detail. From the animations, to the characters, all the way to the soundtrack, everything flowed together so very well and worked off of each other to make something beautiful.
However; with all that being said, the show is very straight forward and a simple, like I said earlier. What the show does, it does amazingly well. However; that's why I said "this particular vanilla ice cream is one of the best, if not the best vanilla ice cream ever made". At the end of the day, it's just fucking vanilla ice cream. If you can appreciate this show for what it is, you'll love it. If you can honestly just sit back, and enjoy the ride, you'll love it. If you're looking for more, those extra sprinkles on top, those chocolate chips for extra flavor, you're going to be disappointed.
If you are able to sit back and accept the show for what it is, you'll love it.
