Aria is awesome.

Recently (and by recently, I mean in the last couple of months) I spent some time watching the slice-of-life epic known as Aria. 

Aria was a pleasant surprise from day one. I’m not personally a big slice-of-life fan, but there was just some feeling that impressed upon me through every single episode. Aria is the type of show where you can kick back and watch after having a lousy day at work and come out of it twenty-two minutes later feeling like a better person and having hope for the future. A future with SPACE VENICE and blue-eyed cats.

Aria takes place on a planet called Aqua (formerly known as Mars before it was terraformed) and is entirely centered around the three main characters and their apprenticeships to become undine, women who slowly row boats on guided tours for tourists coming to Aqua on vacation. A very simple concept, like any slice-of-life show. However, Aria is not about breaking the mold. Aria, by the final season, perfects what I feel slice of life is to me. The stunning visuals, the sense of grandeur, the well developed characters, the interactions, the music, and the circular structure of the story all come together to form an absolute masterpiece.

The characters of Aria and the way they interact with each other is perhaps the most important part of its success. The main perspective of Aria is a teenaged girl named Akari Mizunashi. She hails from a planet called Manhome (formerly known as Earth), and works at Aria Company. Akari means well in everything she does, but she has no shame in her exceedingly goofy ways of expressing her happiness, which sometimes gets on the nerve of friend and “rival”, Aika Granzchesta. Aika works for another company, Himeya, which is a much larger operation than Aria. However, competition or not Aika and Akari train together and do their best together. Aika is a lot more insular than Akari, and quite a bit more pessimistic. She gets upset easily and is known to yell at Akari whenever she makes a very corny statement (“Hazukashii serifu kinshi!” – Embarrassing remarks are not allowed!). A younger trainee, named Alice, is introduced a few episodes in. Alice works for Orange Planet, the biggest of the undine companies on Aqua. She is a natural at being an undine, despite being a few years younger than Akari and Aika. She has a very quiet voice and tends to be pouty and immature at times, as well as extraordinarily self-righteous. Despite this, she is kind at heart and is doing her best alongside Aika and Akari.

There are several plot threads that stretch throughout the series and develop further and further until the final season. One of the best parts of Aria is the fact that it does not leave any question unanswered. We find out whether everyone becomes an undine. We find out if Aika is going to be able to confess to her crush, Al. We find out if Alicia will ever pay attention to Akatsuki. We also find out what becomes of Ai, Akari’s penpal living on Manhome (are you noticing a pattern with the character names?).

The gorgeous locales of Neo-Venezia and the slow, gentle music may be called boring by some, but to me they were spectacular. The detail in the backgrounds and the flow of the music work together to set an atmosphere unlike any other I’ve seen in anime. In a way, Aria could have taken place in Venice centuries ago. The mundanity of most of the situations really does not need to be on a terraformed Mars. But frankly, I feel that that is part of the charm. There is a very “real” feeling to how technology is treated. Sometimes the science fiction element of Aria can just be forgotten, but when Akari pulls out her laptop and sends emails through space instantaneously, it is just short of jarring. And this is a good thing. In a future where high technology is available, the characters of Aria decide to enjoy a more simple lifestyle, setting aside the developments of several hundreds of years. It thematically makes sense, as Aria again and again focuses on the little things that make life beautiful. 

There is a lesson in this for all of us, I think. Aria is a world I wish I could one day visit and live in. This was probably what it was going for. If you enjoy slice-of-life series, or even are just not adamantly opposed to them, you might like Aria. It is not, as I see it, “boring”. Probably the best way to describe it is “tranquil”. If you are feeling let down or sad, take a few small doses of Aria and you’ll get that cleared up right away. It’s just what the doctor (well, actually, I) ordered.