“Who knows what happiness is?” said the lighthouse keeper, comforting him. “So long as you’re on the proper road, no matter how trying a thing may be, you’ll be getting closer, one step at a time, up and down the mountain to real happiness.”
In Kenji Miyazawa’s
Night on the Milky Way Railway, Giovanni is given a ticket that,
as Roger Pulvers puts it, “is a free pass for the imagination.” Near the end of Giovanni’s journey, as he is deliberating whether or not to continue on with Campanella, has the above words said to him. So it is with Akari’s journey in
Aria. Last week we saw her, like Giovanni, questioning her ability to bring happiness to other people. This week she is offered a chance to learn the mysteries of the world and must ask if she is prepared to venture into the unknown.
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| Road to the horizon |
The cats of Aqua are never fully explained. We are led to believe that they have evolved with the growth of the planet. Certainly they are more intelligent than current day cats. Is their role in the ecosystem part of the terraforming plan? Intended or not, the special relationship they have with Aqua is given form in the faerie king Cait Sith.
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| Maybe Cait Sith sees Akari as just another cat |
As we see, Cait Sith is as intrigued with Akari as she is with him. Although she’s the only one to have seen him, no one doubts that he is real. The residents of Neo-Venezia have no difficulty seeing the world they live in as a living organism. Is not terraforming nothing more than the Gaia theory put into practice? You can hear it in Alicia’s voice as she encourages Akari to accept the invitation.
As a closing comment, can you believe it took three weeks for us to encounter Aika’s signature line?
Next week’s episode: Aria the Origination #7
In That Gently Passing Time…
