Archive for the Aria Category


Yuri Manga: Aria, Volume 7

October 18th, 2005

Since the Aria anime has just started, there’s a fair amount of interest in this series now, so I thought a review of the manga was appropriate.

For refreshers, you can read my reviews of volumes 1,2 and 3, which are available in English and volumes 4,5 and 6 which you can get from Amazon Japan.

The first 6 volumes are sweet, pleasant and not particularly melodramatic slices-of-life about the adventures of Akari, a gondolier in training on Neo-Venezia. If there’s any weakness in this series it is that we don’t go very deep into any of the character’s, well…character.

Volume 7 remedies this.

Our journey this time begins with a story about vanity. Aika, Akari’s fellow trainee and rich girl heiress, has always prided herself on her beautiful long hair, so when it is accidentally burned and has to be cut, she has to face her own self-image – and her dreams about what she wants to be when she grows up. To bring her to the realization that she has to strive to be herself, her mentor Akira has to resort to some tough love.

The rest of the book follows this lead – spending more time on the trainees (Akari, Aika and Alice of the Aria, Hime and Orange companies, respectively) and their relationships with their sempai; Alicia, Akira and Athena. It’s a nice glimpse a little further beneath the surface of the trainees’ endless admiration for the older women. It’s especially nice to get some extended time seeing Alice grow into more of a person. (To her benefit, she is considerably younger than Akari and Aika and we are apt to forget that in the face of her extraordinary skill as an undine. This time we can see Alice the young woman, instead of Alice the trainee. Trust me – it works.)

Alice and Aika spend some quality time together, as well – yet another angle on the kids. We’re so used to Akari’s outlook, that it’s refreshing to see Akari from the outside, and learn a little bit more about all three in the process.

The final chapter does something new yet again – we get a chapter from inside Aika’s head. And her point of view is significantly different from Akari’s. In fact, for once we get to see Akari through her eyes, which is rather amusing. We end as we began – with Aika’s hair. Only this time, it’s all complicated by love. Because although the other women think her new hairdo is spiffy….there’s Al, who hasn’t seen it yet. Of course, he loves it. ^_^ (But then, he thinks the cat looks spiffy too in her clothes…)

We finsh up with a side story about Akatsuki which shows him at 6 – all very funny if I though kids, or cats, were cute. Which I don’t.

In any case, this volume is, by far and away, the *strongest* volume so far for this enjoyable series. It gives me hope that we’ll get the same treatment for the older undines – more exploration of their pasts, their hopes, dreams and the relationships they have with each other.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 9
Story – 8
Yuri – 3 (Aika still has that lingering akogare for Alicia, and the way Akira talks about her….I got give it a few points!)

Overall – 8

A really fine story in the tradition of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. Great characters, fun times that make you smile. A win all the way around.





Aqua Manga Volume 1 and 2

August 1st, 2005


How bizarre…the cover pictures for Aqua on Amano’s website are not the ones on the actual covers.

In any case, my apologies for leaving you so long having to read my whiny, self-indulgent last post. I just didn’t have the energy to write reviews, so I sat around, re-watched Devilman Lady (on the premise that no matter what’s going on in my life, Jun’s problems were infintely worse) and worked on the up-coming Yuri Monogatari 3 which will, gods willing, be premiering at Onna! in October.

But all this has nothing to do with Aqua – which is okay, because Aqua has nothing to do with anything in particular.

Aqua is the two-volume prequel to Aria, which I reviewed in February and May of this year. Aria is being made into an anime which is slated for this fall sometime, for those of you who missed that news on the Yuricon Mailing List.

So, if you are familiar with Aria, then you know exactly what Aqua is like. In these two volumes we meet Akari as she comes to Mars for the first time. Mars, now known as Aqua, has been terraformed and humans have, quite naturally, recreated the same places that they loved on Earth. Or that they destroyed. Either way. :-)

Akari meets and collects almost all of the characters who will return in Aria, so its kind of nice if you want to know about the first time she meets the postman, or Aika. The adventures are sweet and unstressful, there was way too many cats, and everything is pretty.

So, since there’s nothing earth-shaking (or mars-shaking) in the plot, let’s get down to business…Yuri?

Well, Aika’s crush on Alicia is way pronounced, but it is a very schoolgirly crush. So Yuri, no, akogare/admiration, yes. But hey, if you’re desperate, go for it. I don’t care. lol Alicia has, right from the beginning that undefined sensuality that makes her and Akira so much an item later in Aria, and which is probably what Aika is responding to.

So, pretty much, Aqua is more of the same as Aria, or vice versa, since Aqua came first.

It’s not lesbo sex, but its quite pleasant in a back rub kind of way. :-)

Same ratings as Aria.





Aria Manga, Volumes 4, 5 & 6

May 17th, 2005

One of my more happy finds in Tokyo was the last three collected volumes of Aria, this quiet, pleasant side-trip into the quiet, pleasant life of an undine (aka gondolier) on Neo Venesia (New Venice). It is a manga of simple pleasures – a lesson I now and again need to relearn. :-)

I reviewed volumes 1,2 and 3 in February and, as you may remember, in English. Since ADV has not yet released the next three volumes, I was glad to find them in K-Books. (K-Books’ used manga store is one of the many reasons I love Ikebukuro so much. lol)

The story is not much different in the final three volumes than in the first three, but there *is* some character development. Alice, the slightly snotty young trainee does loosen up, by the end of Volume 6 quite considerably, in fact. Enough to admit that she wants to be the best undine ever, and that she has a long way to go.

Aika turns out to be a damn fine person and an excellent undine. When she first showed, I was convinced she was to be the “hated rival”, mostly because she was dark-haired, but she has consistently been a funny and enjoyable character. For the record, she *does* say, “Embarrasing words prohibited!” which ADV translates slightly differently, but well enough. ^_^

Akari doesn’t change much over the final three volumes but, as she’s one of those sweet and lovable types, there’s really nowhere for her to go. Her adventures remain whimsical and fun, with pretty much no emotional baggage, ever. For this reason alone, Aria is a welcome respite for all the crap that passes as published works these days. Between the lovely art and the lovely characters, unless you crave angst and hate anyone being happy while you yourself suffer so, there’s really nothing to hate in this manga!

There’s no obvious Yuri, either. However, after reading these three volumes, I am convinced, with an unshakable conviction, that Alicia and Akira (Akari’s and Aika’s sempai, respectively) are lovers. They are just always together. They act like lovers in subtle but distinct ways. The Yuri goggle setting for Akira and Alicia is pretty much the exact same one used for Torako and Asagi in Yostubato.  Seriously. I am 100% convinced that they are “together’ and Akari will one day be somewhat surprised to find them in bed together. Alicia will smile and explain that they develop a bond as undine this way and encourage Akari to do the same with Alice (as her kouhai) and send Akari off with a nod of encouragement.  ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 7 (pleasant, but a bit shallow)
Story – 8
Yuri – 3

Overall – 8, because I find a few moments of quiet joy, gorgeous art and simple pleasures to be something really worth experiencing.





Yuri Manga: Aria, Volumes 1,2 and 3 (English)

February 8th, 2005

Today is a first for Okazu. Never before have I reviewed a manga from the translated English version that I haven’t read in the original Japanese at least once. What is this world coming to?

I’d been meaning to get around to Aria for a long time. I’d run into the title a few times on some of the Japanese yuri weblogs I scan, and a few people, notably Mr. Sean Gaffney, had pointed me in its general direction. But until very recently, I simply hadn’t gotten around to it. By the time I did, the first three volumes were translated by ADV Manga (here are links to Volumes 1, 2 and 3 on Amazon), so I just picked it up in English. I know it’s completely snobby-pretentious of me, but I feel like I’m cheating. ^_^

In any case, Aria is, like Yokohama Shopping Log, an “ahhh” story. The little slice-of-life scenes are pretty much all about enjoying the moment. The overall setup of the story works well to help foster this feeling.

The main character of Aria is a gondolier (undine) in training in the town of Neo Venezia. Akari is a sweet girl who appears to enjoy all seasons, and nearly anything life throws at her. She is accompanied for most of her adventures by another trainee, Aika, who in any other series would probably be her rival. Akari’s mentor is an older undine, Alicia, who Aika is crushing on pretty heavily.

In Volume 3, we are introduced to another undine-in-training, a prodigy neophyte named Alice, and she takes up the rival position…for about three seconds, until Akari’s “my pace” personality sucks the will to resist out of her. LOL

In general, the yuri is very low-key, as befits the entire series, with Aika’s schoolgirl crush on Alicia flaring every now and again into a severe case of akogare/desire. And, if we turn the yuri goggles waaaay up, (but keep those rose-colored lenses in place) you can easily see something between Alice and Akari developing. Maybe. One day. ^_^

What really makes Aria work, though, is the sense of whimsy that fills the pages. As Akari takes us on a tour of the canals of Neo Venezia, we see wonderful things and have lovely experiences – moments of magic pop up again and again as we travel along with her. From a fox’s wedding (which was bizarrely appropriate around my house right now, as “we” have acquired a sudden kitsune obsession) to a lone sakura tree illuminated with electricity in a field, every chapter is filled with some moment of life that was totally worth having been there for.

The art is easy on the eyes, the characters are all likeable…which is really creepy. Even the cats don’t bother me. The *only* problem with the book that I can think of is that all the main female characters’ names start with “A” which was moderately confusing, since I started the series with Vol. 3 and it took me sometime to sort everyone out. (Akari, Alice, Aika, Alicia, Akira….I mean really…) To make things a tad more awkward, the character designs are all similar, so Alicia and Akari look kind of alike while Aika is a sort of younger Akira. It all hurt my head, for about ten minutes until they all fell in place.

But I’m really, really stretching. For normal people who are reading these volumes in order, this won’t be a problem. ^_^

The usual rants about translating honorifics…they don’t. “-sama” becomes “Miss” and all the others disappear, which makes me sad. Most of the sound effects are added in near the original Japanese, and some of the asides as well. If it was too hard to cover over, ADV took the easy way out and just put the English close by. Cheaters. Actually, this doesn’t bother me at all, I’m just thinking of the 64,247,897 hours I spent redoing complex backgrounds on Rica ‘tte Kanji!? and I get jealous. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 4
Overall – 8

Nice art, lovely relaxing story, cute chracters, great historical atmosphere and a little light yuri, Aria gets the gold star for English manga this week.

In fact, I liked it so much, I’ll add it to the Yuricon Shop Manga page this week!

And, if you’ve read Aria and want to chat about it (which I would LOVE to do!) don’t forget to join us on the Yuricon Mailing List!