As has been done in the past with the Da Capo series, there’s no better time to get into a long-running franchise than when another season of it is on the way, and with a third season of Aria announced, I figured it was time to get on the bandgondola.

To be honest, Aria is another one of those shows with a very weird lead-in to it; I’ve watched shows before based on other blogger’s ravings, on forumite ravings, on the random shouting of “Gao~” and “Uguu~” in forums, but Aria got onto the ‘to-watch’ list simply because the one anime-related clan in a non-anime-related game I play (BATRacer, if that means anything to you.) was called, yup, the “Aria Company Team”.

Knowing very little about this quite successful slice-of-life anime, I decided to pick it up for myself.

The first thing that’s apparent about Aria, that sticks out to anyone who watches it for the first time, is that it’s very much an anime where Nothing Happens.

I mean, there’s slow.
There’s “Syaoran confessing to Sakura” slow.
There’s “Moe Mizukoshi talking” slow.
There’s “Akiha Tohno’s breasts growing” slow.

And then there’s Aria.

Perhaps that sounds a bit mean but that little exaggeration is mean to exemplify the fact that if you’re watching Aria with the intent of actually seeing something ‘exciting’ happen, you’re in the wrong place.

All slice-of-life shows can be termed ’slow’ in a sense, since none of them really have a lasting plot that drives the characters and the show. But Aria is different in that it doesn’t have a large focus, like other shows, on making jokes, per se.

Its music is fairly constant without aural gags, with mellow violin music rather than upbeat “hey look, we’re talking” or “character’s theme” riffs. There isn’t really any buildup in the show, the ‘hey look a gag is coming’, nor any time period for jokes to sink in.

Aria is very much a show that’s ‘there’, for better and for worse.
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