Aria the Origination #8: The Memories of That Precious Person…

Greetings from Comic Market 84

Two weeks ago, we saw Athena helping Alice build her confidence. This time, it’s Athena’s turn to feel unsure of herself. She knows that Alice’s graduation from pair is close at hand. She may already be thinking about advancing her immediately to prima. Then they would be peers instead of teacher and student. If Alice doesn’t trust Athena, that could be a problem for their relationship. Perhaps it would be better for Athena to change into someone Alice would like better. So after their argument, a fortuitous bump to the head gives her an idea.

Alicia knows Athena too well to be fooled. She uses her “goddess smile” to draw out the truth, but doesn’t reveal what she knows to the younger girls. Just as Alice walked through the shadows, Alicia allows Athena to play her game long enough for those two to come to terms. She understands their feelings both as a friend, and as someone who also worries about her apprentice’s future.

After this is Alice’s promotion. We know that Athena mentioned going on a picnic a while ago. This is the code word for promoting someone from pair to single. Why did she wait so long? Well, at the end of this episode, and the beginning of the next, the sun sets with an orange glow. I don’t know if she meant for it to be that way from the start, but her patience made a spectacular backdrop for the Orange Princess.

Next week I’ll be watching Aria the Natural #24: Those Undines of Tomorrow…, and also Aria the Origination Picture Drama #4.

Aria the Origination #6: That Wonderful Extracurricular Lesson…

Ara-ara

Alice in Wonderland is a frequent source of inspiration for anime. Neo-Venezia can be described as a wonderland, although it doesn’t have the same sinister contradictions of Lewis Carroll’s creation. And it would be Akari who has fallen down the rabbit hole. This Alice is a child of Aqua, the world of dreams, who has found herself living among humans. Nevertheless, the junior undine still shares with her namesake a wild imagination and stubborn curiosity.

Through the looking glass

The lesson here is one of patience, something that Alicia has in abundance. Of course she gets a completely different answer than if she had asked Akira or Athena. But they each have their specialties that the girls can learn from, such as the strength exercises during the island camping trip. No one person is qualified to teach everything. It’s the encounters with many different people, and persistent learning that comes from it that makes a complete education.

That smile is more intimidating than any scolding

What makes Alice charming is that she has the intelligence to understand this, but the willfulness to ignore it. In the end, she just wanted to see Alicia get angry. So she had to try one more time to test her patience, even though she knew it wouldn’t work.

Ufuu-fuu

Next episode is Aria the Animation #6: That Which You Want to Protect…