Oh god, I'm totally going to get cancelled for not liking this iyashikei classic.
ARIA, by Kozue Amano. First published in 2002 and first published in North America in 2004.
PLOT:
It is the 24th century and Mars has been transformed into a watery paradise. Its prime attraction is Neo-Venezia, where the undines guide their gondolas through the canals to ferry people across the city. We follow the newest trainee, Akari Mizunashi, as she meets new people, enjoys the everyday pleasures of life, and grows ever closer to becoming a full-fledged undine.
STORY:
I know this series has a following (mostly because of its anime adaptation) but I have to be completely honest: Aria does absolutely nothing for me.
I get that this was never meant to be a series driven by big, dramatic plots and characters. Aria is meant to be a mood piece, as pleasant and serene as a sunny day. It's just not what I look for in a manga and I found its commitment to aimless pleasantness to be interminably dull.
Just take our heroine Akari, for example. She's easily amused by things like falling leaves and bubbles, and her inner monologue is all about how much she loves Neo-Venezia, her coworkers, and all the mundane things about her job. She is moe personified. She's seemingly never had a negative thought in her life and it makes her unnerving instead of endearing. At least her friend Aika is allowed to indulge in the occasional power trip, or otherwise I would start to suspect that the undines were part of some brainwashing cult.
The same sort of bland, toothless pleasantry that Akari exemplifies can be found throughout this book. There's no continuous plot here, just random interludes in the life of Akari. She meets with tourists and shows them the simple pleasures of the city (which tend to be rather Japanese in origin despite Neo-Venezia's Italian trappings). Sometimes she has to do gondola maintenance or takes trips with her friends on their days off. No matter what Akari and company are up to, there's no conflict, little in the way of humor, and it all comes off as deep as a puddle. After a while, I wondered why Amano even bothered with the sci-fi terraforming conceit because it doesn't play into the story at all. It's just a manga about how things are nice when people are nice and having a nice time together and I couldn't be any less relaxed reading it.
ART:
I'll give Amano some credit as an artist. His character designs are kind of bland, but the undine uniforms are pretty and professional-looking. The backgrounds are clearly referenced (if not outright traced) from real-world references, but he renders them well and the panels are spacious enough to truly show them off. There's just one visual that I truly could not stand.
So apparently every undine company has a "president," who is more of a mascot than anything else. They are these super-deformed, vaguely cat-like creatures with blank, staring eyes. It does ostensibly cute things in the background and is meant to be merchandising-friendly but I found it utterly hideous. It makes my skin crawl in the same way those horrible robot "dogs" do. It has come straight from the uncanny valley and every time I saw it I wanted to cleanse it with fire if simply to make it go away.
PRESENTATION:
I only read the first Tokyopop release, so I cannot tell you how the translation compares to either the previous ADV release or Tokyopop's more recent omnibuses. Considering how slight the conversation tends to be, though, I doubt there's a lot of nuance lost between them.
RATING:
This series is currently published by Tokyopop and previously by ADV Manga. This series is complete in Japan with 12 volumes available. ADV published 3 volumes which are currently out of print. Tokyopop's previous 6 single volume release is out of print. The entirety of the series has since been published in 7 omnibuses, which are currently in print.
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