Aria (stylized as ARIA) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kozue Amano. The series was originally titled Aqua (stylized as AQUA) when it was published in Enix's Monthly Stencil magazine in 2001, and retitled when it was transferred to Mag Garden's Comic Blade, where it continued serialization from 2002 to 2008. Aqua was collected in two tankōbon volumes, and Aria was collected in twelve volumes. Hal Film Maker has adapted the manga into several anime television series. A first season was broadcast in 2005, a second season in 2006, an OVA released September 2007, and a third season in 2008 that ended around the same time as the manga serialization. An OVA, titled Aria the Avvenire, was released in the anime series' 10th anniversary Blu-ray box sets between December 2015 and June 2016. A film to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the anime series titled Aria the Crepuscolo premiered on 5 March 2021. A second anime film titled Aria the Benedizione premiered on 3 December 2021. ADV Manga released English translations of the first three volumes of Aria in 2004 before dropping the license. Tokyopop then acquired the English-language rights to Aqua as well as Aria. Tokyopop released the two volumes of Aqua in October 2007 and February 2008 and six volumes of Aria between January 2008 and December 2010. The anime is licensed in North America by The Right Stuf International, which released all three seasons in box sets under its Nozomi Entertainment imprint between 30 September 2008 and 2 March 2010. The series is set in the 24th century on a terraformed Mars, now named Aqua, and follows a young woman named Akari Mizunashi as she trains as an apprentice gondolier (known as Undines). The series has been praised for its calm pacing, optimistic worldview, beautiful art, and for the anime, the quality of the soundtrack.

Story

Aqua and Aria take place in the early 24th century, starting in 2301 AD, in the city of Neo-Venezia (ネオ・ヴェネツィア Neo Venetsia, literally "New Venice") on the planet Aqua (アクア Akua, formerly Mars, sometimes stylized as in the manga with the base text for "Mars" serving as a gloss), which was renamed after being terraformed into a habitable planet covered in oceans around 150 years beforehand. Neo-Venezia, based on Venice in both architecture and atmosphere, is a harbor city of narrow canals instead of streets, traveled by unmotorized gondolas. At the start of Aqua, a young woman named Akari arrives from Manhome [sic] (マンホーム Manhōmu, formerly Earth, sometimes stylized as with the base text for "Earth" serving as a gloss) to become a trainee gondolier with Aria Company, one of the three most prestigious water-guide companies in the city. Her dream is to become an Undine, a gondolier who acts as a tour guide (see Terms below). As she trains, Akari befriends her mentor Alicia, trainees and seniors from rival companies—Aika, Alice, Akira, and Athena—and others in Neo-Venezia. Aqua covers Akari's arrival on Aqua and her early training as a Pair or apprentice. Aria continues her training as a Single, or journeyman, culminating in the graduation of Akari, Aika, and Alice as full Prima Undines. Each chapter is a slice of life episode of Akari's exploration of the worlds of gondoliers, Neo-Venezia, and Aqua itself. Amano frequently uses several pages of lush art to depict an environment, showing the wonder of both everyday activities as well as one-of-a-kind events. It has been described by reviewers as very similar in tone and effect to Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō.

Characters

Aria Company

Aria Company is a small water-guide company that starts with only two employees. Its uniforms are lined with blue, and its president (and namesake) is Aria Pokoteng.

Himeya Company

Himeya Company is the oldest and currently second-ranking water-guide company in Neo-Venezia. It employs 80 Undines, with a uniform lined with red. Its president is Hime Granzchesta.

Orange Planet

Orange Planet is the largest water-guide company in Neo-Venezia, employing 81 Undines (including 20 Primas). Its uniforms are lined with yellow, and its president is Maa.

Cats

Because blue-eyed cats are considered lucky on Aqua, all Undine companies have a blue-eyed cat as a mascot, who is given the title President. Cats on Aqua have been bred to be as intelligent as humans, though they cannot speak.

Other characters

Terms

Several terms of the world of Aqua are derived from elemental mythology:

Development

According to her original afterword to Aqua volume 2, Kozue Amano's goal in writing the series was to have readers find happiness in small things and to not focus on their failures. In another afterword, she stated that writing Aria has forced her to pay attention to the four seasons and that she hopes the series shows her appreciation for them. Amano developed a 24-month calendar system for Aqua, based on Mars's real orbital period of 668.6 local days (see Timekeeping on Mars), making every season 6 months long. Amano marked the passage of time and the seasons throughout the series through such means as Akari explicitly telling her correspondent the time of year and depicting seasonal observances such as fireworks at the end of summer (Aqua volume 2, Navigation 9 and Aria volume 4, Navigation 20), New Year's Eve (Aria volume 2, Navigation 9), or birthdays of characters (Aria volume 10, Navigation 46). In the universe of Aqua and Aria, Neo-Venezia's builders modeled it after the city of Venice before its demise in the 21st century, including counterparts to such public landmarks as the Piazza San Marco and the Bridge of Sighs. In creating Neo-Venezia, Amano also based some of the fictional locations of the series on real Venetian locations. Examples include: Other locations on Aqua that Amano based on real places include the Japanese shrine visited in Aria volume 1, based on Fushimi Inari-taisha near Kyoto.

Adaptation as an anime

As part of the preparations for the first season of the anime adaptation, the production crew led by director Jun'ichi Satō made a trip to Venice for location research. As a result of filming the movements of gondoliers sculling, they had to redraw the animation of Undines rowing in the first episodes to make it realistic. Satō said that seeing a gondolier use his paddle to toss a bottle out of the water inspired the scene in episode 11 of Aria the Animation where Alicia does the same with a ball, which was not in the manga. As part of the production company's commitment to adapting the manga faithfully and gesture of consideration toward the voice actors, they provided the collected volumes of Aqua and Aria to date, rather than requiring them to purchase their own or giving stacks of photocopies. According to Jun'ichi Satō, it was a struggle to fit the available material into the 13 episodes of the first season, which focused closely on Akari. The title of the second season, Aria the Natural, came about because he had 26 episodes to work with, letting him treat the story in a more "natural" manner, allowing the series to develop other characters more. Choro Club and Takeshi Senoo composed 30 works of music for the first season of the anime and 15 for the second. Jun'ichi Satō and sound designer Yasuno Satō assigned Choro Club and Takeshi Senoo abstract themes instead of plot points, which was an unfamiliar method for the composers who did not have much experience working for anime shows. Takeshi Senoo and the three members of Choro Club make a cameo appearance as musicians in episode 23 of Aria the Natural. Jun'ichi Satō has commented that the lyrics for the songs "Barracole" and "Coccolo", sung by Eri Kawai as the voice of Athena Glory, were gibberish. The lyrics for the first two seasons' theme songs were also initially meant to be gibberish, but after reading the manga Eri Kawai decided to write Japanese lyrics: "I read the original manga and wrote the lyrics, using my image of Neo-Venezia as a starting point. Then did my best to match words that flowed with the melody." Kawai made demo recordings for Yui Makino as a guide for her performance of the theme songs. Takeshi Senoo has described "Smile Again", the second ending theme song of Aria the Natural, as a song about the end of summer, and envisioned it being sung by Erino Hazuki as Akari.

Media

Manga

The manga was written and illustrated by Kozue Amano and has a complicated publishing history. Aqua was originally published by Enix in Monthly Stencil magazine from January to September of 2001 and collected in two tankōbon volumes. When the series moved to Mag Garden's Comic Blade magazine in February 2002, the title changed to Aria. Mag Garden later re-released the two volumes of Aqua with additional material and new covers. Serialization completed in February 2008. In all, the 70 serialized chapters of Aqua and Aria were collected in 14 tankōbon volumes, each volume containing five chapters covering a season of the year. Each volume is called a "voyage," and each chapter a "navigation." In English, Aria (but not Aqua) was originally licensed by ADV Manga, who dropped the license after publishing three volumes. The North American license for Aqua and Aria was picked up by Tokyopop, which began releasing the series starting with the first volume of Aqua. The series has been licensed in France by Kami, in Germany by Tokyopop Germany, in Italy by Star Comics, in Indonesia by M&C Comics, in South Korea by Bookbox, in Spain by Editorial Ivrea, in Taiwan by Tong Li Comics, and in Thailand by Bongkoch Comics.

Anime

Aqua and Aria were adapted by Hal Film Maker as a 54-episode anime television series comprising two seasons titled Aria the Animation and Aria the Natural, an original video animation (OVA) titled Aria the OVA: Arietta, and a third season titled Aria the Origination. The series was directed by Junichi Sato with character designs by Makoto Koga, and broadcast on the TV Tokyo Network between 2005 and 2008. All three seasons have been released on DVD in Japan. A special OVA series, Aria the Avvenire, received an event screening on 26 September 2015. It was animated by TYO Animations. The series is licensed in North America by The Right Stuf International. A DVD box set of the English subtitled first season was released on 30 September 2008 under its Nozomi Entertainment imprint. The second season was released in two box sets on 29 January and 24 March 2009. The third season box set, including the Arietta OVA and the bonus episode numbered 5.5, was released on 2 March 2010. On 12 August 2017, Right Stuf launched a Kickstarter campaign to produce an English dub and a Blu-ray release for the first season of the series, which ended on 11 September 2017 with a total of $595,676 raised, which is $230,000 over the final stretch goal of dubbing the entire franchise, including the 10th Anniversary special OVA series, Avvenire. The series is licensed in Australia by Siren Visual. The series has been licensed in the United Kingdom by MVM Entertainment, and was released on Blu-ray on 25 October 2021. The series is licensed in Korea by Animax Asia, in Taiwan by Muse Communications, in France by Kaze, and in Italy by Yamato Video. The series was also broadcast in Italy on the Rai 4.

Films

It was announced on 14 April 2020 that the franchise would debut a new work scheduled for winter 2020 in celebration of the series' 15th anniversary. On 22 July 2020, it was announced that the new work would be an anime film titled Aria the Crepuscolo, which premiered on 5 March 2021. The film was produced by J.C.Staff and directed by Takahiro Natori, with the main staff members reprising their roles. After the film Aria the Crepuscolo's release, a new anime project titled Aria the Benedizione was announced, which would serve as the third and final installment of the "Blue Curtain Call" trilogy. On 21 March 2021, it was announced that the anime project is a film that will premiere in winter 2021. The cast and staff from the previous film reprised their roles. On 10 August 2021, two new cast members were revealed and the release date of 3 December 2021 was announced.

Soundtracks

Several soundtrack albums were released for Aria, including an album for each of the three seasons of the anime, two piano music collections, a song collection, and a tribute album. Singles were released for the opening and closing themes for all three anime seasons, the OVA, and the two visual novel adaptations. Most of the releases charted on the Oricon charts, with the highest ranking album being Aria the Natural Vocal Song Collection at 30th, and the highest ranking single being "Euforia", the opening theme for Aria the Natural, at 18th.

Drama CDs

Four series of drama CDs have been released. The first series was produced before the anime began and uses different voice actors; the other three were produced in conjunction with the three seasons of the anime, using the anime voice actors. Additional drama CDs were included as bonus materials for each volume of Aria Perfect Guide.

Radio CDs

An Aria radio show called Aria the Station was broadcast on the internet through onsen.ag and Animate throughout November 2006 in conjunction with the three seasons of the anime. The 115 episodes were later compiled on "radio CDs" released in three seasons. Each volume contains a CD-ROM with the radio episodes in MP3 format plus an audio CD containing additional material. The radio show starred Erino Hazuki as Akari Mizunashi and Chinami Nishimura as President Aria Pokoteng, with other voice actors from the anime as guests reprising their respective roles.

Video games

The Alchemist company produced two visual novel video games for the PS2 based on Aria. Both were released in regular and special editions on the same day.

Other books

Art books

Four art books were published by Mag Garden containing drawings and sketches for Aqua and Aria by Kozue Amano: Mag Garden published a fifth art book containing additional artwork used in the anime, video games, drama CDs, and merchandising: In addition, three poster books have been published, each containing ten A2-format posters:

Guide books

Four guide books to Aria have been released by Mag Garden: Additionally, Shinkigesha published guide books for each of Alchemist's two Aria video games, containing background materials, character profiles, and plot summaries covering all outcomes of the game:

Novels

Aria has also been adapted as series of light novels published by Mag Garden, with two released as of March 2023:

Monthly Undine

Monthly Undine is a spin-off facsimile of the Undine-focused magazine mentioned in the Aria universe. Six issues of Monthly Undine have been released as of March 2023 with a different character on each cover, each containing a collectible item. The first three magazines contain toy house parts with Himeya Company's Akira and Aika, toy house parts with Aria Company's Alicia and Akari, and toy house parts with Orange Planet's Athena and Alice respectively. When the three magazines' collectible items (toy house parts) are combined, they form a miniature "ARIA Company" building.

The President Cat Picture books

In March 2007, Mag Garden published a series of three Aria picture books. Each hardcover book contains a full-color short manga story focused on a cat president, and includes an additional collectible item written and illustrated by Amano Kozue.

Sheet Music

Shinko Music published a selection of sheet music called Aria the Best Selection (ISBN 978-4-401-02030-0) in July 2008. It contained the themes from the three anime seasons of Aria.

Reception

In Japan, new volumes of Aria routinely reached the best-seller list for manga, and had sold over 3 million copies as of July 2007, representing 11% of all manga volumes ever sold by its publisher to date. In 2009, this number increased to 4 million. The English translation of the Aria manga was described by a reviewer at The Comics Journal as "quite conceivably the best comics series ever created for elementary-school girls," calling it "a masterpiece of storytelling and illustration, gorgeous to look at and a feast for the young imagination in its ability to present an inviting, fully realized world." Aqua and Aria together have been praised for their joyful calm, vividly depicted futuristic world, moments of magic, and sense of whimsy. Amano's artwork is praised for her crisp lines and details, especially in the backgrounds and landscapes. Amano has also been criticized for confusingly giving every character a name that begins with A, for letting some slice-of-life stories "drift too far out," and for making Akari's character too sweet and effusive. In 2006, the anime of Aria was ranked in the top 100 animated television series of all time in a poll by TV Asahi. As of June 2007, the first two seasons of the anime adaptation had sold more than 300,000 DVDs. The anime has been praised for its quiet atmosphere, beautiful visuals —especially the backgrounds and character designs —and exceptional soundtrack. Anime News Network described the first season as "a gorgeous future fantasy populated with loveable characters", where "each episode is a finely fashioned tone poem steeped in a love of the slow rhythms of everyday life and told with an elegant self-possession that places it light-years beyond the vulgar moralizing of most "uplifting" stories." IGN contrasted Aria with Maria-sama ga Miteru as another series where not much happens, noting that "Maria-sama ratchets up the tension level whenever possible, though, and never mind that all the drama revolves around something completely inconsequential. Aria, on the other hand, is calm and relaxed. It freely admits that the plot is not the point." Several reviewers cited the characters as key to the appeal of the series, though some criticized the characters as unrealistic; the voice acting of Erino Hazuki (Akari) and Junko Minagawa (Akira) were particularly praised. Several reviewers point out that the series does not fit all tastes, being a slow-paced drama with an optimistic outlook.