Aria The Natural Episode 1

The first episode of Aria the Natural series was a nice start, picking up from where they had stopped in the first Aria series. The same production values seemed to be in place here, with the OP and ED still fitting to how the series had portrayed itself. I must admit that the OP and ED for the first series were more enjoyable but I guess the OP and ED might stick to me because it felt like something that might be to my liking if I listened more of it.

This first episode talked about courage and the belief to spread your hands out during uncertainty. Yet another story of life, something that completely followed the style of storytelling that I have become accustomed to from this light-hearted slice of life series. I believe that the production value of this series would at least match up with the first series and I await with bated breath until I catch up with the current episode that had been subbed (namely episode 12 from crystalnova).

Onwards for summary and thoughts….

It was the time for the carnival as Ai-chan came to Aria company. Ai-chan was able to arrive here due to the fact that it was in fact holidays in Man-home and she was allowed to stay until the whole carnival ended. She had stayed in Aria company and was helping Akari and Alicia to do some work in the company as payment to stay and serving tea to customers.

We then see the rest of the crew at their work place, dealing with customers as they went through idyllic scenery, with their Gondolas moving along the river bed. The focus shifted back to Aria, who left the house with a small package. Akari noted to Ai that Aria always left the house before the ceremony, as though it had some gathering to do. Akari then accounted the tale of Cait Sith, the king of cats that often gathered all the cats together for a ceremony. It was just a tale but it might be true, as the two gals were keen to find out whether the tale was just a myth.

As they went for the carnival, they saw Aika and was told that Hime was also not with her as Hime had actually left somewhere as well. That made Akari and Ai even more suspicious and curious about the myth. They finally reached the place of the carnival as Akari started to explain about the stand in front of them. During the carnival, everyone would wear a Bauta (mask) and a Tabarro (large black mantle) as part of the celebrations.

The other seniors arrived at the scene and Ai was shocked by the scary mask of Akira before she took it off. Aika’s evil comment that Akira was scary even without the mask was a nice touch as I laughed rather smugly that the chemistry between the two of them were still there for sure. Athena, with her common zoned-out sense of humor, had a really queer mask. Alicia then arrived at the scene, with Akatsuki and Woody noticing them from a distance. Akatsuki wanted to join the ceremony but his break was only up to lunch, as he stammered through talking to Alicia.

It was then that the Casanova, a giant figure appeared with small child attendants playing the music around. Casanova in this anime was an 18th century figure that was an idol of the town, with his romantic behavior being part of history of Aqua. No one ever knew much about him and it was said that the person inside had lived for a few hundred years.

As the procession ended for a while, the three junior Undines rest on a table along with Ai, with Ai and Akari looking visibly listless as they were thinking about the tale of Cait Sith. It was then that they noticed one of the child attendants that had followed Casanova and all four of them gave chase. They went through various terrains, backalleys and the likes. Aika warned Ai and Akari to fall back if they were seperated and of course, they did seperate.

Akari and Ai were attracted by a strong light that was along one of the narrow pathways and it was there that they met Casanova. One of the child attendants passed them each a musical instrument and indicated that they were allowed to join the procession as Casanova continued to play. Akari and Ai joined the merry group as they humed and hit the bell and caratet that they were given, as they moved along, dancing with happiness around.

They suddenly were stopped at a certain point of time, with Casanova giving them white flowers in exchange for their instruments. They wanted to continue following Casanova but one of the child attendants pulled them on the dress, telling them that they can’t. The attendant in fact was Aria, giving the two a big shock. As they turned around back to Casanova, the figure had already climbed up the stairs and it showed the face of a giant cat. The tale of Cait Sith might just be true. The two girls got back as they sat down at a bench, thinking of the events that had just passed. The rest of the crew arrived at the scene as they were searching for the girls and Alicia remarked that they had jasmine flowers on their hands. Jasmine perfume were Casanova’s favourite scent. They were then questioned about the identity of Casanova. All they said was this.

“It’s a fairy.”. They smiled as the episode ends peacefully.

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Episode thoughts

A very normal episode. I am still rather hung over from the awesomeness of episode 11 and 13 of the previous series. This episode however, did keep up with the high standards of storytelling, even though we did not get much character development for this episode. It was just a simple tale of having the courage to follow.

If Akari and Ai did not have the courage to follow Casanova, an unknown identity, they would not have enjoyed such a beautiful journey around the town. I guess it was a nice little story to tell us that if we only dared to spread our hands out to receive things that we have uncertainty about, wonderful things would definitely happen.

It was also great for me to see Aika and Akira back to normal loggerheads with each other. More of them were always good and the fact that i see the silliness of Athena made me smile as well. Her unique sense of humor was always good for a good laugh and seeing Alicia is always great. I am just a tad disappointed that Alice did not get enough action since I really liked this well-developed character but it was clearly compensated by Ai’s appearance. No, i am not loli but she’s just very cute.

All right, i probably watch episode 2 tomorrow or something. Now to take a little break as I wait along to see if i can find that Haruhi game and praying that Shadow Dreams would fansub episode 10 of saiunkoku monogatari soon. Ja ne~