The first half of Aria the Origination is pretty much the same as Aria the Natural, perhaps with a bit more focus on the characters and a little less on the setting. It was pretty much as good as it always was, but I still was left wondering why this series was held with such a high regard. Then the second half came, and I understood. Talk about saving the best for last.
The main purpose of Aria the Origination is to take all of the build-up that the previous Aria seasons put into the characters, and make everything come together. It’s here where the character-development really starts to become apparent, and it couldn’t have closed off this franchise in a better way. It’s only thirteen episodes long, and yet it contains some of the best Aria Episodes you’re going to run into.
Oh, and the graphics also got a bit of an upgrade: the animation is quite a bit more detailed and fluid throughout the series and you can easily see that the creators got themselves a bigger budget for this one, although it has to be said that the animators do try a tad too hard during the dramatic scenes. That’s about the only real complaint I have about Aria’s Origination.
Looking back, as a franchise Aria is neither the best slice of life or Sato Junichi series I’ve seen: I still think that I liked Windy Tales (which pretty much did everything Aria did in one fourth of the same time), Kaleido Star and Strange Dawn (both emotional roller-coasters) better. But still it stands out as a really good and charming series with excellent characterization that just gets better as it goes on. Aria the Origination remains a wonderful conclusion that deserves to be watched.
| Storytelling: | 9/10 – Brings a ton of build-up together wonderfully with morals that tie in really well with the characters. |
| Characters: | 9/10 – Origination is all about the characters, and they give the series a wonderful conclusion. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – Even better, though the animators try a tad to hard during a few dramatic scenes. |
| Setting: | 8/10 – Much less of a focus compared to Natural, but still it’s a solid backdrop for the characters. |
Suggestions:
– Windy Tales
– Honey and Clover
– Beck – Mongolian Chop Squad
Hm,in my opinion ,a good slice of life series doesn’t have to contain any emotional roller costers,but the most important is it have its own “spirit” or the feels that “something was going on/passing through the character’s life”…
I don’t know why,but I prefers a quiet slice of life series like this one (or Sketchbook Fullcolors or Yotsuba manga or Yokohama Kikou) over comedic (Hidamari Sketch, Azumanga etc but both are good) or realistic (Windy Tales) or dramatic (Kaleido Star,Umi Mono),or even more interesting exploration of these (Bartender,Rispara,Hataraki Man,etc)
I am really waiting to see Aria since long!After hearing the nice reviews everywhere I can’t wait for it 🙂
The highlights for me were always Aika and Akira’s relationship, and the reveal that Alicia was too attached to the younger version of herself to let Akari actually grow up. I was always surprised by how many different angles on the whole “passing the torch” concept Aria was tackling.
My only real problem with Aria was the extreme focus on the least-evolving character: Akari.
Everything was about her inability to grow up, but they did the worst job portraying that of all the other premises of the show.
In the manga, the final reveal of who her “penpal” was at least brought us full-circle and showed that she had “grown up” a little – in the anime I keep suspecting that would enjoy seeing her struggles and growth AFTER the ending more than how she got there.
my eyes were showing some manly tears when I watched the emotional part of the final episode.
Totally love the BGM’s. I listen to it atleast 4-5 times a week( not an exaggeration) .
Aria was a series that felt was better than the sum of it’s parts, it doesn’t have the most amazing animation, the most original story or such.
But at it’s length and pace it is a series I first merely enjoyed but slowly grew to love as I got used to the characters and setting.
Though I have to admit it requires from the viewer more patience for slow pace than most other series of it’s kind in order to fully enjoy it.