Yeah, I’ve skipped over Aria the Natural. See, Aria can flow together without really having an end or beginning when transitioning between seasons. The most noticeable thing is probably a change in the OP song. Because of that and the fact that Aria is just quality gold all over, there’s not too much that distinguishes Aria the Natural from Aria the Animation or Aria the Origination.

Aria the Animation was clearly the beginning of Aria, introducing the characters and setting. Aria the Natural, was just more Aria and very slice-of-life, in that nothing really changed with regards to the characters’ situation. And so, Aria the Origination serves as the end of Aria, something that’s not very slice-of-lifey.

It’s also amazing how Aria makes you care about gondoliers on Mars. And it’s not like the occupation is shoved into the sidelines and we can focus on life in space Venice. The fact that they are gondoliers and rowing around in gondolas plays a huge part and somehow makes the world livelier.

Aria is beautiful in its simplicity. They’re just a bunch of girls training to become awesome gondoliers. Along the way, they meet some people and they just go about living in space Venice on Mars. At the end of the episode, we learn to find happiness in everyday things.

And yet, Aria the Origination is able to deliver an excellent end to the series. It’s funny how an episodic series like Aria can conclude better than many serials. In fact, some of the best episodes of Aria are within the last few episodes of the series, when everything finally comes together. There was even a twist that I didn’t see coming!

I can’t say enough good things about Aria. It’s a very unique series. The only thing I can say is similar to it is Yotsuba&!, and only in mood and style, not subject matter. This is definitely one of those series where I realize moments after finishing that I’m really, really going to miss the journey. This one is solid gold, for sure.

Nanoha is mahou shoujo, or magical girl. For most people, that’s enough to repel them away from the show. There were two things that managed to pique my interest in it enough to actually watch it. The first was the surprising amount of praise that it got and the promise of lasers and GAR that it actually contained. The second was Masaaki Endoh’s cover of ETERNAL BLAZE, the OP for Nanoha A’s.

The story starts fairly typical of these types of things. Nanoha’s a girl in the third grade and runs into magical creature that bestows amazing magical powers to her and she goes around collecting macguffins and sealing evil away. Most people will tell you that the typical-ness of the show goes away by about halfway through the first season.

So what is so great about Nanoha? Once we get past the ‘mahou shoujo’ parts of the show and into the second half, the plot becomes more like shounen. Nanoha’s awesome rival, Fate, is introduced, and they fight it out. Much like Naruto, Nanoha makes friends by beating them into submission. Unlike Naruto, Nanoha does it through superior and excessive firepower. The shounen themes and motifs are accentuated even more in Nanoha A’s.

And firepower. The magic and weapons in Nanoha are like something out of DBZ or Bleach. Crazy weapons, giant lasers, flashes of colour, and huge explosions. I’d heard somewhere that each character in Nanoha is supposed to be derived from some sort of mecha, with Nanoha being the RX-78-2.

Also awesome are the weapons themselves. Nanoha’s Raising Heart is the most awesome, because of its specialty for ridiculously large lasers and its hilarious Engrish: “LET’S SHOOT IT STARLIGHT BREAKER. I CAN BE SHOT. I BELIEVE MASTER. TRUST ME, MY MASTER.” In fact, all the protagonists’ weapons (in A’s) have awesome Engrish, while the antagonists all have awesome German. Other than that, the weapons are just plain cool, with their very mechanical design and operation.

Basically, nine year old girls manage to beat a number of shounen protagonists at being awesome and just wrecking stuff. How long did it take for Naruto or Ichigo to become competent? And how long did it take for Nanoha to be blowing stuff up? That’s what I thought.