I had a chance to watch this anime over the last week. Coming into it, I really had no idea what to expect from it, but having finished it I can only say I wasn’t disappointed in the least.

ARIA is actually really difficult to classify. There’s a tiny bit of sci-fi (it takes place on a different planet), a slight bit of fantasy (a bit of time-travel to the past), some laughter – but I really can’t place it into a sci-fi, fantasy or comedy genre. Officially it’s classified as science fiction though.

ARIA takes place on the planet of Mars in the 24th Century. Mars has now been transformed into a water-planet and is named Aqua. A young girl, Mizunashi Akari, lives on Aqua to become a trainee undine (female gondolier and tour guide) in the Aria Company. During her training she befriends some other trainees and workers in Neo-Venezia (the city where the majority of the story takes place).

ARIA is a very laid back series which I can best describe as a slice-of-life – following Akari on her day to day activities and training, and exploring the world around her as well as the relationships between her, her friends and her seniors.

ARIA the Animation was adapted from a manga series by the same name created by Amano Kozue (天野 こずえ). When the manga was originally serialized it was named Aqua – and follows Akari’s arrival on Aqua and the initial phase of her training. Aqua comprises of two volumes.

Aqua was followed by ARIA, and takes up the story where where Aqua left off. Currently it comprises of 11 volumes and is still ongoing. ARIA the Animation starts off at the same point where the ARIA manga starts, skipping Aqua – and consists of 13 episodes. This in turn was followed by ARIA the Natural, a sequel of 26 episodes, ARIA the OVA ~Arietta~ with the 3rd season (ARIA the Origination) airing in Japan this year.

My personal impression? Easy to say. I loved it. If I had to choose one word to apply to the series as a whole, it would probably be “gentle”. Everything about the series had a decidedly soft feel to it – the art and animation was beautiful, each of the episodes had an interesting storyline, the comedy had a very easygoing feel to it and the music, to say the least, was outstanding. Aria the Animation is a shoujo anime that definitely targets the female teenager group and the manga has consistently reach the bestseller lists in Japan.

If you’re into action and slapstick comedy, you’ll probably want to give this a miss, but if you’re in the mood for a nice easygoing story thats fun, relaxing and easy to follow, you’ll want to give this one a look. It might sound unlikely, but fans of Card Captor Sakura would probably enjoy this one :)