Vampire Knight is one of the shows I am enjoying this season. But it is a little hard to keep the various members of the "night class" straight. So I have translated the official site's characters page, adding a pic of each seiyuu.Click here or on the image to go to the full page:I don't want to put too much emphasis on this, but it struck me as I looked at the official site that all the main creative staff on this show are women. The director is Sayama Kiyoko. This is her first full series, but she did storyboarding and direction for episodes of Princess Tutu, Saber Marionette J, Blood+, Aria the Natural, etc. The lead writer is Okada Mari, who did work on Simoun, and was lead writer on true tears, Sketchbook, Kodomo no Jikan, etc. The mangaka is Hino Matsuri. And the character designer is Nishida Asako, who was character designer/animation director on Fate/Stay Night, Simoun, and Touka Gettan. Check out her home page, especially the gallery.One more staff note: the sound director is Gouda Houzumi, who also is the VA for the headmaster. It seems Studio Deen likes VAs as sound directors: Tsujitani Kouji was sound director of Simoun and F/SN (he was Tanda in Seirei no Moribito).
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Back in ARIA The NATURAL, we were always treated when an episode contains two stories, and now we finally get it in ARIA The ORIGINATION. The first half we have a Akira and Aika focused episode with Akira concerned about Aika’s feelings of Alice being promoted to Prima. In a master and apprentice relationship, usually [...]
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The most beautiful ARIA episode for me to date is definitely from ARIA The Natural when Akari said goodbye to her gondola. It still stands at the number 1 spot and I never had a number 2…… until now. Really, I could not help myself but smile throughout this entire episode knowing what was to [...]
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This so-called “review” will most likely turn out to be a complement to what I already have written about the prequel, because bluntly said, almost nothing has changed at all in ARIA the Natural. Actually, I could just stop writing here and simply redirect to my previous entry, but I wouldn’t be neko if I [...]
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First off sorry to all my readers for the lack of entries. I was cutting preposterous amounts of slack lately because I can’t seem to complete my ARIA The Natural review, and this backlogs everything including watching anime and blogging, etc. Perhaps I might finish it tomorrow, maybe even tonight, and I might already tell [...]
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Rating: 8.3/10 Impressions: Damn…this show is good. True Tears was on the top of my most-anticipated list for this season (Aria wasn’t really included since I simply saw it as a continuing to Aria the Natural, which is a nice show to watch when you feel like it, but not something you would really want to see [...]
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Episode 1 That Meeting at the Carnivale...Ai-chan is visiting from Manhome for the biggest holiday on Aqua, Carnivale, she's staying with Akari and Alicia, and will be helping out around the Aria Company during the day. But President Aria leaves, Akari explains to Ai that he leaves right before Carnivale for what might be a cat assembly, called for by Cait Sith.Aria the Natural is twice as good as Aria the Animation. People always make grand statements on the internet about shows that they love, but rarely can they provide any proof that their opinion is anything more then just that. I will now offer mathematical proof that the Natural is twice as good as the Animation. The Animation released in 2005 was 13 episodes long. The Natural released in 2006 was 26 episodes long. 13 X 2 = 26, mathematical proof that it's twice as good. If you liked Aria the Animation I can almost guarantee that you'll like this even more. As deftoned pointed out in a comment on my post on the Animation if you liked To Heart, Hidamari Sketch or Sketchbook ~Full Color~ you'll really enjoy this show. I'd gush even more about this anime but "Embarrassing Lines are Prohibited"Download the entire first and second season along with the OVA of Crystalnova's fansub from their tracker here.
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Episode 1 That Lovely MiracleAira is based on the manga by mangaka by Kozue Amano, it’s just started airing it’s third season titled Aria the Origination, this first season was a short 13 episode series that was first broadcast in the autumn of 2005 titled Aria the Animation, then in the spring of 2006 a second season was aired it’s title was Aria the Natural, also last September a single episode OVA was released Aria ~ Arietta~.As he anime begins, the main character Mizunashi Akari is talking to the cat, President Aria Pokoteng, president of the Aria Company. Aria is the gondola company that fifteen year old Akari is apprenticed to; the only other member of the company is nineteen year old Alicia who’s the most popular undine. Undine’s is a term for the gondoliers who act as tour guides in the city of Neo-Venezia. Neo-Venezia is located on the terra formed planet, Mars now called Aqua which is appropriate for a planet with so much water. It’s set in the twenty fourth century but aside from weather and gravity control it’s pretty retro as most things are done by hand, unlike Manhome the new name for Earth. Neo-Venezia is modeled on Earth’s Venice with a very similar layout, including buildings, squares and bridges. Akari is a new immigrant to Aqua from Manhome and the series explores the world of Aqua, the city and the characters that she meets as each episode she discovers something new about her new home.I think that at least the first two series along with the OVA are the best slice of life anime I’ve seen and that is one of my favorite genre’s of anime. I would highly recommend this series to slice of life fans who enjoyed Hidamari Sketch or Kamichu!, both of them, animes that I also loved. Tea Shop BeLoved has an excellent post comparing the ADV release of the Aria manga with the Tokyopop release.Download the entire first and second season along with the OVA of Crystalnova's fansub from their tracker here.
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I am one of the happiest anime bloggers when Aria returns with a third season. It is always a bit empty when I do not have a new episode of the tranquil Aria the Natural to enjoy. Aria the Origination really brings back everything that is good about the series: extremely cute and cool ladies [...]
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A normal day at Azure Flame. It’s been a year of ups and downs, of anime gems and utter disappointments- a year when I’ve alternated between craving more and feeling utterly fed up with the continuing deluge of episodes that take no account of the fact that people might have other things to do than stay [...]
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