It's a slice-of-life anime that's set on Mars, now terraformed into a new planet, named Aqua, with LOTS of water. The anime is about three girls (Akari, Aika, Alice - all characters' names start with the letter 'A') who are training to become a prima, a professional tour guide and gondolier, in a city called neo-venezia (new venice). It's about their everyday story of training, episodes, laughs and cries, memories and sometimes mystic fantasies (author likes cats apparently, so lots of cats in the anime/manga).
It doesn't really have a solid story line but that's the charm of it: it's very relaxing and calms ur mind after a long day of work/school/hardship of life. In some countries, this anime is considered a "healing" type of anime, that "purifies" your soul. Not like many modern TV entertainment series that have violence, guns, blood, sex and all other "evil" stuff, ARIA has absolutely none of these stuff but filled with utopian concepts and things that will just make you smile.
The reason why I think it's one of the best anime of all time is that it simply makes you happy, and you don't even know why =). It finds happiness in many of mundane, everyday-life sort of stuff and finds a way to appreciate little things that you take for granted. It makes you re-think/re-evaluate how you live your life and how you look at things, in a positive way. You learn life lessons. You learn to appreciate small things that will make your life happier. You learn to become a happy person.
In the case of manga counterpart, I find that it actually sometimes sounds like poems (well, I don't know about in the original language, but at least in the english version I read). EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER made me go **AAAAAAWWWWWWW** lol Even in anime, I admit, I cried in the last few episodes of the 3rd season.
ARIA is a somewhat unique anime that not a lot of people know about it: nevertheless, its 3rd season is ranked 12th overall on myanimelist.net (as of today). I think it's a hit-or-miss type of anime. You'll love it if you like slow-pace, not much of story line, slice-of-life anime, but that's also the reason why some people do not find it that interesting (lack of action perhaps?). I sometimes think its level is higher than other popular action series so that a lot of people do not understand the beauty of it.
Another selling point of the anime is the superb quality of the sound tracks. Most work done by "Choro Club", and their music makes ARIA soothing and relaxing. It makes you sleepy, in a good way, like a hug from your mom. I've learned a few pieces of their music on the piano as well.
Also, the drawing is VERY detailed and cute (in manga). The colours are very vivid and filled with life.
Anyways, although my reply got a bit long (sorry, I get carried away whenever I talk about ARIA hehe *^.^*), I hope you give it a try as well. You never know, you might become another ARIA-lover like me =P (by the way, I wasn't much of a fan until I watched the 2nd season, so be patient with the 1st season - not that it's bad, but it may take some time for it to grow on you. I rewatched all episodes a few times too =P).
Reference pictures:
What I made:
(ignore structures in the background. they're part of my base/structures I built)
I have more screenshots on my facebook album: (I've added more details later on, so some pictures might not look the same)
https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=168848&id=1657860456&l=632c430f8b
I don't think anyone's done this before except one person that I saw on google image:
from http://runedevros.featheredmelody.com/2010/10/01/settling-in/
Added =)
I'm glad you asked =)
It's a slice-of-life anime that's set on Mars, now terraformed into a new planet, named Aqua, with LOTS of water. The anime is about three girls (Akari, Aika, Alice - all characters' names start with the letter 'A') who are training to become a prima, a professional tour guide and gondolier, in a city called neo-venezia (new venice). It's about their everyday story of training, episodes, laughs and cries, memories and sometimes mystic fantasies (author likes cats apparently, so lots of cats in the anime/manga).
It doesn't really have a solid story line but that's the charm of it: it's very relaxing and calms ur mind after a long day of work/school/hardship of life. In some countries, this anime is considered a "healing" type of anime, that "purifies" your soul. Not like many modern TV entertainment series that have violence, guns, blood, sex and all other "evil" stuff, ARIA has absolutely none of these stuff but filled with utopian concepts and things that will just make you smile.
The reason why I think it's one of the best anime of all time is that it simply makes you happy, and you don't even know why =). It finds happiness in many of mundane, everyday-life sort of stuff and finds a way to appreciate little things that you take for granted. It makes you re-think/re-evaluate how you live your life and how you look at things, in a positive way. You learn life lessons. You learn to appreciate small things that will make your life happier. You learn to become a happy person.
In the case of manga counterpart, I find that it actually sometimes sounds like poems (well, I don't know about in the original language, but at least in the english version I read). EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER made me go **AAAAAAWWWWWWW** lol Even in anime, I admit, I cried in the last few episodes of the 3rd season.
ARIA is a somewhat unique anime that not a lot of people know about it: nevertheless, its 3rd season is ranked 12th overall on myanimelist.net (as of today). I think it's a hit-or-miss type of anime. You'll love it if you like slow-pace, not much of story line, slice-of-life anime, but that's also the reason why some people do not find it that interesting (lack of action perhaps?). I sometimes think its level is higher than other popular action series so that a lot of people do not understand the beauty of it.
Another selling point of the anime is the superb quality of the sound tracks. Most work done by "Choro Club", and their music makes ARIA soothing and relaxing. It makes you sleepy, in a good way, like a hug from your mom. I've learned a few pieces of their music on the piano as well.
Also, the drawing is VERY detailed and cute (in manga). The colours are very vivid and filled with life.
Anyways, although my reply got a bit long (sorry, I get carried away whenever I talk about ARIA hehe *^.^*), I hope you give it a try as well. You never know, you might become another ARIA-lover like me =P (by the way, I wasn't much of a fan until I watched the 2nd season, so be patient with the 1st season - not that it's bad, but it may take some time for it to grow on you. I rewatched all episodes a few times too =P).
I have a simple rendition as well:
Sad, that in 2K2K nobody has created entire Neo Venezia... :C