You know, it never really occurred to me until now, but the cast of Aria is young. They’re all teenagers, if not a few years past twenty by the end of the series. The funny thing is, with the exception of Alice, whose great talent despite her young age is an ongoing plot point, the series doesn’t make much fuss about the age of its characters. Without the appropriate background, one could just as well assume that Akari and Aika are both several years older than they actually are.
Even more surprising is the fact that the Water Fairies are just as young. This, despite being the premier Undines in Neo-Venezia and mentors to three girls only a few years their junior. We know from Grandma’s long career that Undines aren’t exactly the Martian tourist trade’s version of the Japanese office lady, keeping busy until they can find a man to marry. But I can’t think of a single instance in the entire series where we meet an Undine who is clearly over the age of twenty-five. I guess they all moved up to middle management.
Of course, this is par for the course when it comes to anime. Even anime series that address the lives of adults, such as Patlabor and You’re Under Arrest, are stocked with characters younger than myself. And many of their viewers. An appeal to nostalgia is fine, too… I guess.
Now get your giant robot off my damn lawn, you little punk.
Who wants middle-aged office ladies touring you around Neo-Venezia when you can have moe-moe Alice? Clearly the age differences are a stunning business strategy, and probably an effective one at that.
Is Aria all that of a good show? A lot of bloggers like you and a few others seem to bring in up often. Should I watch it?
If the prospect of watching a show with bare minimal animation and where absolutley nothing happens for 52 episodes arouses you, then by all means, yes.
Now, if you would excuse me while I go write this petition for them to make a 4th season around the potentially glorious future mishaps of the Ai/Akari duo.
Aria is pretty much the epitome of “iyashikei” and/or slice-of-life anime, and if you’re really in to that sort of thing, it’s better than sex. If you’re not in to that sort of thing, however, you might find it to be the most pointless anime series ever made.
So, it’s a bit difficult to recommend without knowing more about a person’s tastes. Looking at your list of watched anime, Koji Oe, all I can really say is, “you might like it”. But you might not. If you’re genuinely curious, I think it’s worth checking out.
Just be forewarned, however: I’ve seen a lot of “just curious” viewers transform into raging Aria fanboys overnight. And don’t be frightened by Muey’s “bare minimal animation” comment. Indeed, the first season was a little on the low budget side, but the second season looked fairly nice. And the third season is spectacular (in every way).
I turned into a raging Aria fanboy overnight xD
I mean with the amazing characters, and amazing music, and amazing scenery how couldn’t I?
“Just be forewarned, however: I’ve seen a lot of “just curious” viewers transform into raging Aria fanboys overnight.”
Interesting because I first experianced that with Gurren Lagann and that is definitely a strange feeling that hasn’t really popped up much in my 13 years of watching anime. I suppose I’ll give it a whirl.
There also wasn’t much talk of anything past middle school, in the Aria world.
President Aria’s age is another story altogether. God knows how old he is.
I also found it interesting how they managed to give every Undine they introduced a name that started with an “A.” Having a name starting with “A” seems be the most important thing about becoming an Undine.
Oh so there is a point to that having a name starting with “A”? I noticed that watching the first episode but I thought it was just my imagination.
The “A” is intentional by the mangaka and if you noticed harder, EVERYONE that is part of the main cast’s names starts with “A” , undine or not. There’s Akatsutki, Al and the elderly mailman, Anno. Woody’s name isn’t “A”. Not sure why.
I enjoy ARIA for what it is but i’m no fanboy for it. It just doesn’t hold you for long and i find no motivation to watch the next episode after i finish one…and only find myself returning on one of those “slice-of-life-mood” days.
I’m with Muey in wishing that there would be more ARIA produced. But alas. I’m tempted to just grab the raws of the last four episodes and watch them while waiting for subs. Then watch them over again. And over again.
And sorry for asking, but do you have a larger version of the picture in your post?
I guess old people wouldn’t really strike a chord with the anime-watching crowd in Japan, which is composed of well (not counting the otaku), high-schoolers and young adults. Placing old middle aged people in every anime wouldn’t give them anyone to properly relate to. At least, that’s my theory on it.
I’ve read that Woody -does- follow the naming scheme as well, as Woody is only a nickname. His real name is Ayanokouji.
In any case, there is definitely a bit of age stasis/time warping in the series - while not as bad as the manga, the anime still suffers from an impossible timeline. The credit page to the manga seems to suggest the whole series took place in the span of two Earth years - even though this would be only one Aqua year. It was simply a sacrifice made to be able to tell their story without such limits.
Now’s as good a time as any to say it:
Damn you, Jeff. I’m through The Animation and partway into The Natural now, and am wholly hooked. I blame you for this.
Here’s a larger version, TheBigN.
A Captain Goto is fine, too?
Jeff, you could be watching….. Master Keaton? And the crew of the Black Lagoon are of indeterminate age, but Dutch could be your age, I suppose. It could be worse. You could be looking at Tsukuyomi Moon Phase’s Ryuuhei Midou as a contemporary (Elfriede is no mere consolation prize).
Jeff, I’ve noticed the same thing, while I love Aria, and many other “slice of life” anime, the whole age stasis is a little unbelievable. Take one of my faves from last years, Lucky Star, I watched the main girls go through all three years of high school, go from ages 14-15 to ages 17-18 and they never really changed neither physically or emotionally, that can be a good reassuring thing but it can lessen the overall impact of the series.
In many ways that is one of the reasons I prefer a lot of classic shojo anime series like Candy Candy, Rose of Versailles, and Daddy Long Legs, the main characters in these series go from young girls to teen girls to women, with all the accompanying increases in maturity and experiences that one would find in real life.
But don’t feel too bad because I’m most likely a lot older than you and the closest characters to my age are the likes of Gendo Ikari from NGE, and Ken-Goh from Eureka Seven.
Just when I had almost managed to get over my Aria withdrawl, you had to wave it in front of my face again.
*sigh* I’ll just have to work on my next installment of “Bad Crossover Ideas”…
Somethings I never understood (perhaps wasn’t paying attention) - why must Alicia leave once Akari becomes a prima…to go and marry off to some freaken husband and throw her job away? And why can’t she stay at Aria Company after she gets married? Why can’t there be primas older than 25? Why does Aria Company have to stay duo (trio, if you count the fat cat)?
ASDF, for god’s sake, watch the darn spoilers, will ya?!?!
I wondered if Muey’s post could be considered a spoiler as well, if we didn’t all just know that this was going to be the outcome.
Good point. Then again, it’s the obvious outcome.
Anyway, I’ll leave the spoilerish comments, simply because, 1) the train has already left the station, and 2) the series technically finished airing a month ago. My apologies, everyone.
Wonderduck: oops, sowwy, I thought everyone SHOULD have finished the series at this point… oh well (actually, they shouldn’t be counted as spoilers… not anything unexpected happens anyway… everything is very predicable).
I haven’t finished the series, as it’s one of very few shows that I can enjoy slowly. Kind of like saving the best for last. I was going to start Origination this week, but now that it’s licensed in R1, I’ll probably try to wait for the DVDs.
The age issue with Aria is possibly the only aspect I don’t like about the show. My initial assumption was that the water fairies were around late twenties. It takes something away from some of the flashbacks to realize that they only happened a few years ago or less. I wish they had never been assigned ages. Unfortunately, having relevant characters over a certain age seems to be a taboo in many anime and manga. Anime in general often seems to think that people in their twenties are “old and middle-aged”. So, (for example) it’s good to see Oda add older main characters to One Piece and rare gems like Hataraki Man appear.