Aria is a shōnen science-fiction slice-of-life comedy set in the early 24th century in the city of Neo-Venezia on the planet Aqua ― formerly Mars – which was renamed after being terraformed and covered with vast oceans. Neo-Venezia is based on the real-life city of Venice, both architecturally and with a romanticized atmosphere ― for example, it contains motorized gondolas which do not actually exist in the original. Aria is the continuation from the series Aqua which was about a girl, Akari Mizunashi, who traveled from Manhome (Earth) to become a gondolier, specifically an Undine, a gondolier that can act as a tour guide. Aqua deals with the apprentice level training and Aria continues the story with Akari as a journeyman gondolier.
Volume 5 has Akari and the others continue their training. This time she helps a postman deliver letters in one chapter and in another Akira E. Ferrari, one of the Udines from the Himeya Company (Akari is training in the Aria Company) teaches the girls as a guest teacher. Other chapters depict life and events around the city.
Highlights:
Aria is, like its lead character Akari, a seemingly very casually paced title. Some training occurs, but just as much of the manga is devoted to learning about the city of Neo-Venezia. In addition, unlike many shōnen titles, Aria does not have competitions to see who's best. That's not to say there isn't a sense of rivalry, but it takes backstage and it's clear that it's not about who is the best, but how everyone can become better. The chapter where Akira helps with the training emphasizes this point. Given its avant-garde atmosphere, it's understandable that someone could mistake this for a shōjo or seinen science-fiction manga ― I thought it was the latter until I did some research.
One other thing to note about Aria is that the science-fiction setting does not appear to be a complete cop-out by Kozue Amano. When I heard the premise of the story, a story set on Mars in a city resembling Venice, I thought the main reason for moving it would have been because the author (or mangaka in this case) didn't want to go through the trouble of doing research on Venice. With just the few chapters I've seen that is clearly not the case. Detailed historical information and images of historic landmarks and items are described in the book. In addition, the manga describes problems like the effects salt-water has on buildings in the area over time, which is also a problem in Venice; that is something that could have been easily glossed over with most readers none the wiser. It's true that Neo-Venezia isn't the Venice on Earth, even if you have it set in an old fashioned part of the town. Beyond the obvious differences like canal architecture, you have a mix of cultures and futuristic technology with pre-industrial way-of-life.
Overview:
Aria probably won't appeal to the typical shōnen manga western reader. There is no action, no grand adventures, only low-key friendly rivalries, no villain and the romances take second tier for much of the storyline. For those looking for a typical sci-fi story they'll be disappointed as well. Young adult western female audiences would enjoy it, but I feel an older male audience would appreciate it the most given it is sci-fi with an unusual premise, making it a nice artistic piece.
The art style for the most part seems to have more emphasis placed on details for the surrounding architecture than the characters themselves. This isn't to say the character artwork is lacking, it is just strikingly clean and when put up to some of the gorgeously drawn buildings, it makes them stand out. The chapter intro pages ― where mangaka typically put more effort ― are the only places the character artwork rivals the detail of the landscape. This does make it easier to draw the same character multiple times from different angles, but it does contrast it out, especially as Amano has a tendency to let the details slide the more comedic the panel and there is usually plenty of comedy.
Getting into the manga itself was also relatively easy and I did not feel overly lost or confused. While I have seen an episode or two of the anime, I haven't read any of the previous manga. Sure there were some items I didn't quite understand the context of, such as what gnomes were. However, those times were the rare exception; Amano has done a great job making the manga easy to pick up at volume 5.
Aria is one of the greatest avant-garde science-fiction manga to be released ever, especially given its original target audience ― teenage males. This series pushes the boundaries as to what can be done with the science-fiction genre breaking it out of the standard action/adventure mold and the comedy is based on situational comedy more than some wacky invention. In addition it makes one think about how technology could be used in the future without destroying for many people the connections to a simpler life.
ComicsOnline gives Aria volume 5 5 out of 5 Undines.
