Life on Aqua fits the European mode of living rather well and this series presents a certain atmosphere that engages while also soothing.
What They Say:
When Akari Mizunashi travels to the city of Neo-Venezia on the planet of Aqua, the beauty of the city is beyond anything she’s ever seen before. It’s here that Akari hopes to achieve her dream of becoming an “undine” — a female tour guide who navigates the canals of Neo-Venezia on an elegant gondola. As she begins her training with the prestigious Aria Company, will she be up to the challenges that await her on the path to achieve her dream?
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the original Japanese language in stereo while the newly created English language dub gets both a stereo and a 5.1 mix. All three tracks are done via the uncompressed PCM format so they’re all pretty much the real deal in terms of what was recorded for the project. The show is essentially all dialogue driven with little in the way of serious directionality to it and that gives it a very soothing feeling when combined with the generally mellow instrumental music. There isn’t anything aggressive in this show but it all maintains the right kind of atmosphere that it wants to present in order to keep you engaged with it. The music is where things get to stand out a bit more overall but even that’s kept a touch lighter and not as strong as one might think, keeping to the tone and atmosphere of the series itself. In listening to these thirteen episodes, we didn’t have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally airing in 2005, the transfer for this series is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec with it in it its original full-frame aspect ratio. The thirteen episodes are spread across three discs in a five/five/three format and there’s plenty of space to work with on each disc. Animated by Hal Film Maker, the first season has a really nice look to it as it maximizes what it does with little animation in a general sense. This is one of those shows about mood and dialogue, so it’s very relaxed and often with some near-still sequences to allow the atmosphere to seep in. The visual design is great with the backgrounds working a number of appealing designs and the characters look wonderful as well. The high definition presentation for it takes the colors and gives them a more solid and richer look where it can while giving us more detail overall. It’s like the series just has a stronger presence visually because of it and that helps to make all the other smaller elements come across stronger as well. The result is a beautiful show looking even greater.
Packaging:
The packaging for this set brings us a standard-sized Blu-ray case with a hinge inside that holds two of the discs. The front cover gives us a couple of our key characters from Aria Company set outside the business. It’s something that shows off the character and costume design well but also the world design because it doesn’t’ feel like most other shows out there. It’s light with a smaller logo along the lower right that lets the overall design stand out more, especially with the deeper blue of the case itself. The back cover is a little more traditional with lots of white space as we get a small selection of shots from the show along the right. The left gives us a brief but effective summary of the premise while the discs features are clearly listed as well. The technical grid breaks out things along the bottom in far too small a font for most people to read unfortunately and it doesn’t provide clarity to the format either for some aspects of it, which is mildly frustrating. No show related inserts are included nor is there a reversible cover.
Menu:
The menu design for this release is an interesting one as we get an l-shaped bar along the left and bottom with some really nice blue and white elements that has the logo, the city, and some of the boats as well. The navigation is used along the bottom too with the soft waves linework that really is quite appealing. The rest of the screen is given over to the scenes from the show that takes us through the designs of the characters, the boats, and the city itself to highlight the appealing uniqueness of much of it. It’s just odd to get this kind of big block l-shaped design. The navigation loads quickly and works effectively with submenus and setup both as the main menu and as the pop-up menu during playback.
Extras:
Similar to past releases, there are some very enjoyable extras here. We get a few of the basics in the clean ending sequence and a couple of commercials, but the real stuff is in the interviews. There are two parts to the voice cast interview section where they spend one with the younger girls and one with the older ones and they talk about the show and how they all enjoyed it. It’s fluff, but it’s easy to see the characters in these actors. The English dub cast interviews are a lot of fun as well to see how they took on the roles, the enthusiasm for it, and just the enjoyment of the experience.
The best extras for me though were the “I’m Sorry, Venice” segments that have Junichi Sato and others heading to Italy for scouting. There’s a lot of travelogue material here, with it being done with a voiceover by Sato after the fact, which showcases how they spent their time in Venice and how they adapted things they saw into the series. Each of them runs on average about ten minutes and there are six segments across the four volumes. They’re really a lot of fun and further cement Sato as one of my favorite creative people.
Based on the manga series by Kozue Amano, Aria: The Animation is a thirteen-episode series that blends some very interesting ideas into a science fiction setting. Who knew that one could be captivated and amused by a show about women pushing gondola’s around a water world in some far future. This first season was originally broadcast back in 2005 with direction by Junichi Sato, a man who has directed some of my favorite series such as Pretear and Princess Tutu, but who is likely better known for his involvement in Sailor Moon. With animation by Hal Film Maker, which incidentally was used in the two series just mentioned, Aria: The Animation has a very distinct clean look to it that captures the flow and movement of the water on this world quite well. Nozomi has brought this series out a few times since their first licensing of it and I’ve loved every release for a chance to recapture the magic of it. Getting it in high-definition really is hitting the high mark for it and giving the audience its best presentation yet.
While we had originally a long time ago watched the first episode through a sampler, it’s surprising how much of the series was really set by that single story. The first season ran for thirteen episodes and the second one for twenty-six certainly, something that paints a positive picture about it since many thirteen-episode series never make it past that with another season. Toss in an OVA and a third season and it gives one all the more reason to take pause and pay closer attention to it. This is made even more evident when you start with this set and realize that what you get early on is what you get for this entire season really. It’s very laid back nature, the way it seemingly glides through what it wants to tell, and introduces you to a number of the basic but important concepts.
Aria: The Animation takes place on the world of Aqua and specifically in the city of Neo Venezia. It’s been some one hundred and fifty years since the planet was terraformed and essentially was turned into a world of water where hardly any landmass can be found. The people who came to live here took Venice as its model and have carved out a very ancient-looking city but one that is brimming with life and character. People who live here from birth are obviously quite adjusted to it, with its lack of roads and mainland transportation, and find moving about its small streets and using gondolas as something that is extremely natural. For those who come from Manhome, and interesting naming convention for Earth apparently, it’s often quite jarring for them and it turns into a love it or hate it kind of relationship depending on the person.
In this world, we come to know the characters rather quickly as we’re introduced to Akari who is being trained to operate the gondolas for the Aria Company. With her level of skill since coming here from Manhome, she’s not able to take customers out on her own yet. The company, owned by an amusing little dog-like creature named Aria, is quite popular because of Alicia, an attractive and highly skilled gondola operator, or undine. Both girls have a very laid back personality from what we see of them and the opening episode is very pleasant in that Akari takes on a “friend” during a practice run and through her we get to see the basics of the city and life as an undine-in-training. That includes her meeting up with Aika, another undine in training who works for the Himeya Company.
The cultural side of the series is one that I definitely find the most interesting when it gets explored because the place is a tourist destination but it also has a lot of things that are unique. The annual flooding in the second episode is one of those things that brings everything to a standstill and is engaging to watch. There are tales about undines past, such as Grandma Akino, and I like the spoken-history that’s taught to the younger undines in order to educate them. And a good chunk of the show really does just go through the simple training by experience to be an undine. With the cast expanding slowly, the personalities are fun and familiar but slot into this world well, from Aika to Alice, giving us more company types to look at and some nods to the oddness of the cats that are quietly intelligent and sometimes goofy as both presidents and mascots.
This is a series where when we get some of the basics as to what the nature of the show is like and the core cast of characters, it’s easy to map things out from there. Visually, there is a whole lot to like about this show if it keeps up with this kind of style and pacing. It’s very laid back, much like many representations of Venice life is like. I’ve long adored water based series and I’ll even admit to liking Waterworld, even as bad as that film is. Aria is obviously nothing like that but they take the concept of a water-filled world and give it a very rich and classic feel to it. With the mild science fiction aspects given in to it to help explain some of the origins and backgrounds of it, as well as why people view the world the way they do, it opens up a large realm of possible stories to tell.
As of this writing, there are sixty-five episodes across three seasons and an OVA produced. Obviously very little can be told about all of that from this first episode. Yet there is plenty that can be told from it if you look closely. The animation isn’t top tier but it’s solid and it’s filled with designs that take familiar things and tweaks them nicely. That Akari and Aika wear sailor uniforms would be a problem if they were kept normal, but here they’re elongated in an elegant way and given more formality and beauty to them. The pacing of the series, in general, is likely to mirror what is shown here since you tend to lead with stories and characters that will define a show. And the animation is solid throughout with a few really nice mild amusement aspects placed here and there, notably surrounding Aria himself. What this first episode does for me is to say, “Yes, you’re going to like this. Come and explore more of Neo Venezia.”
In Summary:
While the first season of Aria may not be my favorite of the works overall, it’s the one that started everything as it adapted the original work and breathed this kind of life into it. With so much anime focusing on worlds with problems, dangers, evils, and despair, a show focusing on the beauty of the world, the magic of working a job you love that benefits others, and a group of young women that are finding themselves and their friendships along the way is thoroughly enjoyable. While this Blu-ray edition doesn’t have the strength of those first limited edition DVD box sets years ago, it delivers where it truly counts. A great show presented beautifully, a bilingual presentation we’ve never had before, and a slate of strong extras to give it a lot of added-value. The end result is a fantastic release that is completely upgrade-worthy or trying sight unseen.
Features:
Japanese 2.0 Language, English 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Apprentice Undine’s Interview Part 1 & 2, English Cast Commentaries, Prima’s Interview Part 1 & 2, SATOJUN’s “Venice. I’m Sorry!” Part 1-6, Commercial Collection, U.S. Season 1 Trailer, Clean Endings, Season 2 Preview.
Content Grade: A
Audio Grade: A-
Video Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: B+
Released By: Nozomi Entertainment
Release Date: March 3rd, 2020
MSRP: $49.99
Running Time: 325 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
