Aria Volume 1

Imagine this...the year is 2301 AD. You are a gondolier-in-training in Neo-Venezia (A city made to look like our Venice, Italy), or what people on the planet Aqua (terra-formed Mars) call "undine". You wake up to a bright and sunny morning. You get dressed and admire yourself in the mirror. Tugging on your trainee glove, you grab your laptop diary and leave to meet your best friend. Such is the beginning of every day for Miss Akari Mizunashi, a carefree undine trainee who just moved to Aqua. To her, everything is an adventure, be it from showing the Bridge of Sighs to an impatient young man and helping an old man relocate his daughter to scrubbing gondolas and witnessing the wedding procession of an inari fox bride. Kozue Amano does a wonderful job on the beautiful scenery, loveable characters, and a fun, simple outlook on a simple life. I love the way Akari works her charm on even the toughest of customers (like the old man and Akatsuki). In my opinion it's not violent nor is it "shoujo manga" (girl's comic), so this is a great manga to turn to if you feel you need to take a break from a lot of the more "hardcore stuff".

Wow . . .what a GREAT manga! It is set in a city on Aqua (a terra-formed Mars) called Neo-Venezia. This city was built to be like Venice on Earth, which exixted until 2050. Just moved from Man-Home, or Earth, is Akari Minuzashi. She is an undine (like a gondeleir) in this beautiful city. This story tells her every day life in such a way that every fine detail, from cleaning gondolas to eating cake, becomes a beautiful memoir to be cherished forever. True, nothing very exciting happens. No blood is spilt or kisses exchanged. But that just makes the book more enjoyable. It gives you that funny feeling you get when a beautifully calm, peaceful moment happens. I promise you'll be smiling the whole way through.

This is a great manga. It's about the closest manga I've ever seen to Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou - in that it's paced very calmly, accomplishing much through small actions. I had no idea what it was about, to be quite honest, when I picked it up. I thought the premise and art were intriguing, and by the time I was done reading, I wanted the next one! I highly recommend this one to all YKK fans and to those who love reading manga with a slice-of-life feel to it.

(Out of 5)Story: 5Cover:5Artwork: 5Characters: 4Extras?: Full Color (beautiful) first pageThe story isn't totally brand-new (terra-forming Mars) but it's still very interesting. When Mars was terraformed, the polar ice caps were melted too much and this resulted in covering the surface of the planet with 99% water, that's why it's now called Aqua. The planet is also a little behind in technology, so the lifestyle is more laid-back and relaxed. That's where Akari comes in. She's an undine, and her job is to travel along the channels of Neo-Velenzia (much like modern day Venice) giving people tours of the grand city. She enjoys her job, and is a very happy girl. She loves to meet new people and man her gondola.This is one of the first manga that I have ever seen with the cover flipped. It makes the volume both eye-catching and intriguing.The artwork is clean, detailed, and utterly breathtaking.The characters only got a 4 out of 5 because we're really only introduced to the main character, Akari Mizunashi. Her friends and fellow undines are mentioned and shown, but very little background is given. (This is only the first volume though.)So far there's only 4 volumes planned for publishing by ADV Manga, but hopefully more volumes will be picked up of this wonderful new series.

Aria belongs to what I like to call "slice of life manga" - that is, it does not posess complicated plot, but rather follows a character and shows all the little things that happen to him/her during their days. So it is with Aria, which follows its main character, Akari. In a future Mars which has been terraformed into a planet with an earth-like environment but too much water, and renamed Aqua, Akari lives in Neo-Venezia, a recreation of earth's Venice. She is an apprentice gandolier, called undine in the world of Neo-Venezia. The manga has a slow, dreamlike pace. It shows all the little, wonderfull things that happen during our lives. You know the statement "life is what happens while we are busy doing other things"? Akari washes her gondola and notices that the spray from her hose forms a rainbow. She guides a grumpy old man on her boat through the beautiful canals of Neo-Venezia in autumn, leaves drifting gently from the trees. She meets an aquaintence and they both wait for their mutual friends on a bridge, and feed the ducks below. She goes on a trip to another island that has a japanese shrine on it and witnesses an unusual wedding.The art is beautiful, full of joy and good at conveying the quiet (or sometimes raucus) beauty of the surroundings. The production of the manga is very good - the paper is of good quality, there is a color insert, the sound effects are in original Japanese with a subtitle in English below them. The translation seems good, without any "Americanisms", and there is a page of translator's notes in the back.Overall, I liked this manga quite a bit. If you are looking for action, a fast moiving plot, or lots of emotional angst in your manga, this is not for you. But if you are the type that likes to stop and smell the roses, you will like this as well :)