How to Survive Aria the Natural
It’s Summer again, soon.
This is part 1 of a series of Aria-inspired posts. Hopefully I can address the problem about not being able to watch Aria the Natural in this installment, and may it be an inspiration and reminder to help you finish this unique journey from wetness to dryness. That is right, everybody, we are going to watch paint dry.
But even so, we have things like episode four of Aria the Origination. It’s stuff like that sends me to heaven and back and I have to remind myself that I’m still on earth. It’s exciting in a very strange, violent-less, fanservice-less way.
Still, Aria the Origination is not exactly representative of the series on the whole, being just the best, highest-production-value segment of 53 episodes. Although I could still see why people like him likes Aria, even if these kinds of episodes doesn’t appear on a regular basis.
And the reality is that these episodes don’t appear on a regular basis; it’s not a series for everyone. In fact, if you can call skipping episodes of Aria as cheating, I would almost recommend it as the way to go. Much of Aria the Natural is skippable material that didn’t do much for me either way. It kept me from finishing the series for a long time as I had a hard time motivating myself to continue through the dragging 26-episode series. Sure, watching Aria isn’t suppose to do a lot for you, but it didn’t even satisfy me when I didn’t really expect anything out of it. Even if we can write Aria off as an exercise of watching paint dry (nothing wrong with that by the way), there are good paint-drying and not-so-good paint-drying that I could be watching. Not all of Aria is the same, smooth experience.
Nonetheless I already knew Origination is orgasmic in more ways than just episode 4, and I figured I owe it the respect by watching its lesser prequel first. The exercise isn’t moot either, as a handful of episodes are more than salvageable, on top of the Hope Hill episode involving, well, the paint actually drying (to avoid spelling out the spoiler).
But when it comes time to vote for my wallet, I wish there was a best-of 2-disc set for Natural so I can skip some of the episodes that didn’t do anything for me.
Perhaps having sunk my time watching all of Natural (and as of publishing this post, all of Origination as well), I ought to just make the best of it. Still, here are a few tips for you to survive a trip to Neo Venezia:
1. Don’t be afraid to skip around; my favorite episodes from Natural are probably the “progression” oriented episodes, not counting the “Secret Shopper” one, a few of the first 12, and the very last two. Fall in love with Neo Venezia first, then worry about the plot or story or some tradition of watching anime in order. It’s okay if people talk to you about the ghost island episode and you have no clue what it was about, because who cares? If you are a fan of fat cats, great, go watch them; if you don’t, you’re not really missing much either by not watching those episodes.
To that end, the wikipedia episode guide is a helpful aid. The episodes that have no descriptions are probably left that way so to not spoil you.
2. But at the same time, do watch all of Aria the Animation (season 1). Remember we are still watching paint dry; it’s not for everybody. If you can survive (and even enjoy) the first set of Aria episodes, you can be fairly certain that you will find the rest enjoyable. I went ga-ga over the first season, after all.
3. Pay attention to detail. The way Akari lives and approaches life are the central focus of the entire series. In fact, the most attractive thing about Aria is not how it paints a picture of Neo Venezia or a nod to the real Venezia, nor is the iyashikei effects and mood–it’s how it uses Akari, her relationships, and her perspective to achieve all these things. I mean, you are watching paint dry, you have no excuse to gloss over these things, right? Aria is praiseworthy because we are really seeing the unfolding of a beautiful thing, rather than just the beautiful thing in itself. Plus, it’s these kinds of …action that gets me going:
In my book, there is never a good excuse to skimp on your animation. Show them what you’ve got, YunoAnzu!
I will DEFINITELLY take your advice if I ever get to natural. Seeing as how I’m like 6 eps into the Animation which I started almost a year ago, I don’t know if I’ll ever get there, but I do intend to.
Haha, the thing about Aria for me is that, I know I like it (based on the what, 8 eps I’ve watched?), and I know that the things I liked about it are there to say, hence I’ll like the rest of the series (wmost likely), but the sheer amount of episodes to go coupled with the ‘hey, take your time, enjoy the ride’ somehow lulled me into an ‘okay, I’ll watch the next episode… eventually’ mode that’s persisted till now. Hence my “is it okay to jump episodes” question, but apparently I should finish the first season first..
Perhaps one day I get stabler internet and become less obssessed with what’s currently airing I’ll drift back to Neo Venezia again.
“Aria is praiseworthy because we are really seeing the unfolding of a beautiful thing, rather than just the beautiful thing in itself.”
Embarrassing remarks are prohibited!
I’m a big slice-of-life monger and I have a lot of patience in me. I used to draw a lot and I sew, and you need a lot of patience to enjoy those kinds of hobbies, let alone succeed in any way with them. I watched ARIA as my feel-good series — when I feel stressed or sad, the show cheers me up. Maybe I’m a sucker for embarrassing lines, but the art itself is pretty serene (especially Origination). Since I read the manga, I also get a kick out of the voicing in the series.
I agree on falling in love with Neo-Venezia first. Probably the reason why I’ve stayed with the series so long is the setting of a utopian-like place, and the very likable (female) characters helped, too. My big tip for viewing ARIA is to be awake. Like, completely awake. Too many times have I dozed off in mid-episode, despite my love for the show.
Being awake is a good call. But at the same time I fell asleep only when watching Natural episodes…
>> Embarrassing remarks are prohibited!
Heh, it’s not that embarrassing!
Yeah, get a cup of coffee when watching Natural. Preferrably with some warm doughnuts and a fuzzy blanket too. The Cait Sith stories were dreadfully boring and I must admit that the only episode from the season that I remember off the top of my head is the Aika hair one.
I knew from the start that Origination would very likely eclipse everything that went before it, given my expectations of a wonderfully fluffy ending that still brings a lump to my throat when I think about it now. But it was definitely episode 4 that made my heart soar…
Again, it’s mad helpful to spread out your ARIA watching, like an ARIA episode once in a while. It took me about a year/year and a half to finish up NATURAL with a couple of weeks in between each episode (or at least a couple of days for some chunks), and I never felt bored or disinterested with what was there. Then again, I apparently seem to have more tolerance with that sort of thing. Did you have trouble with watching it like that, omo? Or was it more of the “this episode’s not really giving me anything” sort of thing?