It’s another sleepover at Orange Planet for Akari. This time, Alice isn’t embarrassed for her friends to be wearing their own uniforms. She’s much more comfortable around them than before, but just as uncomfortable with the other undines in her own company. Of course she’s shy, but it’s compounded by being younger than her classmates while also more advanced than them.
So Alice suffers from being “alone in the crowd,” and Orange Planet is a very large crowd. She probably wishes that she could be in the more prestigious Himeya, or receiving personal attention from Alicia at Aria Company. Either one would be easier for her to manage. Easier, however, is not better. She’d still be the same timid Alice no matter where she was being taught. For the sake of her growth, she needs to be made uncomfortable and learn to overcome her shyness. That makes Orange Planet ideal for her, where she is forced to interact with many girls her own age.
It’s also the perfect place for Athena, who frequently depends on the support of others to make up for her mistakes. Orange Planet provides a large social safety net to fall back on. She repays the company with her sensitivity to other peoples’ feelings. Athena speaks little and sees much, so she understands Alice’s anxiety without needing to be told. It must look like magic to have someone read your mind that way, and even more impressive because of her usual hands-off teaching style.
Well, this episode felt a little short. So I’ll add in another one of the Aria the Origination picture dramas. This is one I should’ve watched right after That Guardian Of Aqua, Picture Drama #6: Akatsukin-chan.
Of course, this is a play on Little Red Riding Hood, or “Akazukin” in Japan. That Akatsuki’s personality is more like the wolf is an irony not lost on anyone. And everything is resolved thanks to Goddess Alicia. Ara-ara.
The next episode is Aria the Animation #3: With That Transparent Young Girl…, here on Orange Planet Thursdays.
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