[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Reflections on Aria the Animation, part #1: make a wish, build a world
I love iyashikei anime. It gives a fantastic warm fuzzy feeling inside and is the perfect way to unwind after a long day at the office, in my case with a mug of green tea in one hand and a half-finished box of Jaffa Cakes in the other. Rather than work my brain to a frazzle with complex plotting, trying to keep up with frenetic action or making an effort to stave off the boredom brought on by seeing the same damned tropes and clichés recycled ad infinitum, iyashikei slows it all down and gives me time to reflect and be entertained in a completely different way.
If you could create a paradise from the ground up…
Aria does this better than most but I can’t fully outline its gentle, understated brilliance in the space of one post so be warned that more of this is to follow in the coming days. It’s a very character-driven show but the setting is a significant part I think of what makes it so special. I’m a firm believer in atmosphere when delivering the message that a story like this is trying to convey to the viewer: Aria’s setting is a prime example of how the atmospherics or ‘vibe’ contribute to the show as a whole. So yeah, the characters are fantastic but they deserve a post of their own so bear with me on this one.
Aria is fundamentally a sci-fi piece in that it plays out on a terraformed world; the exact mechanics and theories behind how all this was accomplished are however not explored very fully. However it was done, the end result is the transformation of Mars from a rusty red lump of rock to a clean, picturesque and decidedly water-covered planet; the idea that Earth is nowhere near as clean or picturesque as this is dropped in occasion which gives the impression that Mars, or Aqua is it is now called, is a haven that people who want to get away from the dingier and dirtier ‘manhome’ of Earth.
The first step Aria makes in its aim of creating an iyashikei-style experience of healing escapism is taking the viewer away from the familiar and tiresome world they normally live in and immersing them in a brighter, purer one in which human endeavour has built a whole new living environment from scratch. Aqua is after all a fabricated world, a blank canvas of sorts; it’s an opportunity to create an environment untainted and completely unaffected by where the inhabitants came from. Whatever caused them to leave their home world, they have decided for themselves that it won’t be present here; a strong sense of hope and wide-eyed optimism is what Aqua is built on.
If only Venice really looked this good: another beautiful bit of artwork to break the Wall of Text
Many of the inhabitants of Aqua that Akari meets during her adventures were not born on that planet either. As she had done, they had moved from Earth in search of a better life or, indeed a different kind of life. It takes the daydream many stressed city-dwellers have of moving to the countryside Only Yesterday-style and broadens the scale to planet-sized proportions. Unlike the violent, crime ridden cyberpunk vision of the future Aqua is far-removed and almost dreamlike with no killer robots lurking around every corner; it is surrounded by an aura of peacefulness and the sense of absolute security. There’s the notion that, no matter what, nothing truly bad can happen.
It’s this sense of innocent purity, that I daresay would be naïve in most other contexts, that drew me into the world of Aria. It’s even easy to forget that Aqua is a futuristic world, because the quaint city of Neo-Venezia is so beautifully rendered as a rose-tinted impression of the old Venice that it’s effectively timeless; the main mode of transport is the ubiquitous gondola, which doesn’t seem to have changed in design in centuries. The methods used to create and maintain this world must be high-tech but are either hidden from view or drift far above; we still can’t see how they work but their mere presence is all that’s offered as explanation.
The series focuses on day-to-day events so all we usually see are those gondolas and their beautiful and graceful undines gliding from place to place as if they’d been doing it since the dawn of civilisation itself; as far as Aqua’s concerned, maybe they have. The slow but sure progression from pair to single to fully-fledged undine gives a sense of flow and continuity, that while life doesn’t move very fast, things don’t stand still and stagnate either. The episode in which the girls meet the retired undine Akino gives an additional level of security and nostalgia because it offers a glimpse of the equally idyllic life that comes later.
Slipping out of sci-fi mode and into fantasy was episode #12, in which Akari apparently travels back in time and sees through her own eyes the earliest days of Aqua’s colonisation. The meeting with someone who has recently moved there and is still settling in provides a link between the past and present, summing up the sense of optimism that quells her fears for the future - there’s something about Aqua that makes everyone friendly and unafraid of others, carrying over that sensation of starting afresh and leaving old troubles behind.
A final Gorgeous View to break the wall of text: no reason beyond that, and the fact that it looks stunning
And yet we don’t see the machinery or hard work that must be creating the water that these people were waiting for; instead we get to enjoy seeing the looks on their faces when the channel fills and promises them a new life, filled with hope and fun. The role of technology is extremely downplayed in favour of the mundane yet oddly compelling everyday - it is ironic really that so much time and effort was all in aid of creating a way of life that is so simple, serene and providing so much of that sense of nostalgia.
Watching Akari and Alicia go about their daily business from their simple shoreline home, rowing their gondolas by hand and being content with just hanging out with friends in their spare time, I realised that this is a time where space travel is commonplace and entire planets can be transformed into whatever humanity desires. And yet, life has slowed to a gentle stroll and the peak of our scientific knowledge and industry is the recreation of an old, romantic European city. Strangely, this is the kind of future I’d love to be a part of.
Posted on September 19th, 2008 @ 12:53 am
Ara ara, another person that has stepped into the wonderful world of Aria
IcyStorms last blog post..(Anime - TV) Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch R2 23
Posted on September 19th, 2008 @ 1:21 am
Heh, talk about echoing an idea for an essay that I already had in mind. There’s something about ARIA’s world that hearkens back to a slower time period and serves as an excellent contrast to today’s hectic, technology-fueled world where each additional piece of technology introduced allows us to be more efficient, but because of those increased expectations, we’d have to work even harder. Calvin and Hobbes said it best when Calvin’s dad remarks that if we wanted more leisure time, we’d invent devices that do things less efficiently.
You can go on and on about ARIA’s peaceful, serene setting, but it wouldn’t be complete without the slow-paced, easygoing nature of the environment. Such a life, I think, is something to dream for, and most people lose sight of that given how fast-paced the world in real life moves.
zzeroparticles last blog post..Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) - San Francisco Screening
Posted on September 19th, 2008 @ 1:27 am
I’ve always considered it a minor miracle that ARIA managed to invoke the perfect combination of atmosphere, charm and simplicity that it was able to be as innocent and sentimental as it was without it feeling didactic or unnatural or overwrought at any stage. It’s so ironic, but it’s so sweet and disarming that I rue to use a word as terse as “irony” to describe it. It’s down-to-earth with its character development but completely fanciful and idealistic with its setting. It’s a bizarre juxtaposition that somehow works brilliantly. I’ve never completely understood how it pulled it off, but I loved just about every minute of it.
Have you seen the sequels? I thought that each series managed to be better than the last. Very rare for an anime franchise.
Posted on September 19th, 2008 @ 5:24 am
I’ve seen very little of Aria, manga or anime, but each time I do I feel charmed. Maybe that’s the reason I don’t view more: it’s something to calm everything down, and I go to it when things are rough. Okay, not true. I go to Azumanga, actually. But there are a couple unwatched eps I have that I just can’t bear to erase, because I might need them someday.
I think the best part is nothing really happens, and sometimes you need that.
Of course in reality a terraformed paradise world put together by mighty powers would probably be close to a Millennium/Disney/SuperCongolmerate theme park with underpaid underclass workers and lots of bad taste.
Posted on September 19th, 2008 @ 2:11 pm
I keep a stash of iyashikei anime around specifically to act as a nightcap after a stressful day. The three Aria series are on the list, along with both of the Hidamari Sketches, Sketchbook ~Full Color’s~ (the engrish in that title bothers me, but that’s the title), Binchou-tan, etc.
Probably my one regret in this genre is that nobody had the nerve to make a series out of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. There are two OAVs, but there are probably three seasons worth of material in the manga that will never be animated. If Aria makes a good anime, so would YKK.
And in reference to Peter S’s last comment, I’d agree, except that Aria assumes that the terraforming didn’t go as planned. I suspect the ‘vacation planet’ theme was a fall-back when the primary scheme derailed after too much water was released. Aqua is operated on a shoestring and has a low level of automation and optimization because of its small population of mostly service workers and subsistence farmers. Every time Earth is mentioned, it’s described as being very automated and regimented - much more like Disney World or, perhaps more accurately - like life in Wall-E.
One thing that is never addressed is the cost of an extraterrestrial vacation. It appears that visiting Aqua is for the wealthy; regular visits are for the very wealthy. Nothing like horrendous travel costs to keep the riff-raff out…
senile_seinens last blog post..ha ha only serious
Posted on September 19th, 2008 @ 2:59 pm
What I do like is the idea that the future is the past. But it also makes me wonder why going back in time was a better option than trying to see how far technology could go. Is it because of a connotation of advancement being too hectic for people?
TheBigNs last blog post..Thoughts on Hidamari Sketch x365 Episode 8: Fly Like An Eagle
Posted on September 20th, 2008 @ 5:26 pm
This pretty much summed up what I found wonderful in Aria - the iyashikei-like qualities, the peaceful setting, and the pureness of the atmosphere and characters all make for one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.
Zeroblades last blog post..Megami Deluxe Vol. 10
Posted on September 21st, 2008 @ 11:42 pm
@Icystorm: yep. And I have my eye on the series 1 box set too. It means an import, but I think it’ll be worth it!
@zzeroparticle: I often think that technology just makes things go wrong faster so maybe it’s undertandable that people would want to escape to a slower pace of life. I know I would! As long as Aqua has a decent internet connection…
@Sorrow-kun:
Couldn’t have put it better myself. (: I haven’t seen the sequels, but since the first one is on R1 DVD I’m hoping the rest will follow in the coming months. There’s the manga too of course, but I have quite a lengthy to-buy list in that department too!
@Peter S: I like to have something like this on stand-by for a really lousy day when I need to unwind. I think Aqua is as close to a real-life paradise as we *could* get but like you I’m too cynical to believe it’s likely to turn out that way!
@Senile_seinen: I have Sketchbook Full Colors on my to-watch list but will endeavour to find YKK. Only two episodes, but it sounds like the dystopian equivalent to Aria and I’d probably enjoy it as much. Hidamari Sketch is great - I’m watching x365 on widescreen actually. I’d like to learn more about Aqua itself though - hopefully the second series and OAVs will explain it since the worldview is so vibrant and convincing.
@TheBigN: I suspect Aqua is intended to be the opposite of ‘Man-Home’, which I assume is very industrialised with not much sunshine or clean water at the time when the series is set. Perhaps technology didn’t provide the solutions humanity was looking for, so went ‘back to basics’. I just love the way that complex processes and ideas are used to maintain an environment of beautiful simplicity.
@Zeroblade: I’ll try to write a character-centric post next - every one of them is memorable. I just have trouble remembering their names!
Posted on September 27th, 2008 @ 12:52 am
I’d go as far as to say that Neo-Venezia is a character itself, and the most essential one. Nice post, at any rate. It’s very hard for me to pinpoint exactly why Aria works when it should be a wheel of cheese, but you do manage to be insightful as usual.
otou-sans last blog post..New site announcement
Posted on October 11th, 2008 @ 12:54 am
After a heart-rending, nerve-wracking space opera in Frontier, I heard about Aria from you and found the first episode. A little saccharine at times, but all in all it was a breath of fresh air; and there’s definitely something refreshing about it, in any case. Of course, I’ll have to watch more (there’s 52 episodes of this!) to form a better opinion, but I like what I see so far.