Aria The Natural Episode 2

Sometimes, the most beautiful treasure is displayed right in front of you. With the frantic lifestyle that we are all used to, all these supposedly open treasures have been hidden away from us, deep in our hearts. They only wished to appear out of the living lights one day, when the day has come for them to reappear from the shadows. Things, simple things that might not seem significant, will one day be beautiful memories right in front of you.

This episode was a treasure hunt, even though it turned out to be a very special treasure that waited our heroines in this series. According to Enz, this would probably rivalled episode 11 of the first series. To be honest, i beg to differ on that but it was definitely up there as one of the top few episodes that I have watched. It’s really nice.

En Garde! Time for my episode summary + insanity thoughts (lil this time @_@)

It was still winter. However, training was still at usual, with the warm air starting to come in. Pink leaves (seemingly sakura trees that bloomed in the spring season) flew down from the trees onto their gondolas. As they went past an alleyway, Aika suddenly asked to stop as she found a suspicious door. She opened the door and found a box that contained a treasure map of likes. Aika wanted to ignore the whole thing, thinking that it’s a hoax but the two girls were like “T-R-E-A-S-U-R-E M-A-P” until she had to agree with it as well.

The first clue was that it was near the Leather Boot calle (lane). They went over on foot while munching on some sweets (i want those sweets now!). Many Calles in Aqua were named accordingly to the shop or conveninent store near it. As they tried to find it, they had no luck but it seemed that Alice had an extensive knowledge of lanes in Aqua. Alice explained that it was due to the fact that she often liked walking around to find out about lanes and Aika said that it was an old man’s hobby. Alice, with her greatness, simply said “You’re really nosy!”. That was when Akari had the most absurd idea to ask the pigeon as she imitated the calls of the pigeon and surprisingly found the next box that had another map.

There’s yet another area, where the magic lamp was in a compo (Courtyard). The magic lamp was in fact a general electrical application store and it was there where Alice found the box under a caged door. There, there was another map that said something about following the shadow of the Cafe aroma. All three were initially confused about the hint but Alice found it out as she invited the two to a drink at the San Marco Square.

The San Marco Square Cafe was one of the longest cafe that ever established itself. It had been here for 580 years and the caffe latte was said to be one of the more famous drinks in this cafe. As they sat down to think about the plan, Alice and Aika asked if Akari could figure out the clue. Akari, in her obviously clueless mode, was unable to figure it out as the other two gals went to find the clue. It was there where Akari was given a free coffee by an old man that simply smiled.

Akari made her usual silly face as she offered some sweets to the old man as a gift. He laughed back, seemingly liking the little gift that Akari gave. Suddenly, everyone started to leave and the old man came over, telling her that they had to follow the shadows. This was to prevent the wine from being spoiled and in fact, they had switched places for 4 times today already.

The old man was here almost everyday in San Marco square and Akari was surprised as she called the old man an expert (I love how she often overbrands others). As the shadow continued to move, she saw a shining tile that was beaming in the light. It was in fact the clue to the riddle given as they opened up the tile to find yet another treasure box. The next hint was the black cat at Murderous Calle but strangely enough, there had been no murders there. It did look creepy enough to have some form of murder soon though!

They found it and they were led to a treasure hunt that had brought them to various places, before they hit a clue where they would be able to see the world in the sky. They did not see any stairs until Aria rolled down the slope of one of the alleyways and found a hidden dark door. Aika was skeptical but Akari simply rushed in as the two other gals followed. They rushed through the stairs and found themselves in an area where they were able to survey the whole town and the Ukijima above. On the walls wrote:” Treasure is in your heart”. After admiring the place, they left, bringing back the boxes to their original places. It also seemed that others have found these maps and placed them back in the same order as well. As the heroines found their treasure, they passed by the cafe where they met Alicia and the old man who was in fact the manager of the cafe.

He congraulated the three for finding the treasure as he smiled. Case closed for the Undine alliance!

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Episode thoughts

I must say this that the theme is in fact what i had mentioned at the start. Sometimes, we always rush in our daily activities that we are unable to appreciate the things that are right around us. What is the last time you sat down to admire the calming breeze, to gaze at the beautiful architecture surrounding you or simply the wonderful people that you have been surrounded by? True, isn’t it? The treasure hunt was something to symbolise (at least for me) intangible things that can never be gotten unless you try.

The treasure hunt also had another meaning for me. It was persistence and skepticalism. How many things have we given up on things even before we reach the treasure? Many of us would have, as it seems sometimes that we do not seem to be that close to it when in fact, the next turn might be your treasure. Aika was clearly the skeptical one that often went like “are we going to find it?”. However, with the support of friends, any treasure can be found and I found the part where the three of them rushed together with hands held to support each other on the dark stairs to be a rather derived symbolism from me.

A beautiful episode, even though nothing can really rival Athena’s antics in episode 11. I NEED MORE ATHENA, even though having more alice in the episode was always good for me. The graphics had been beautiful, especially the opening scenes with the leaves falling in tandem. I loved that scene a lot.

Yea, time for episode 3 tonite after i am back from school-dom~