History YMMV / AriaTheScarletAmmo

** Riko Mine Lupin is generally well liked, even by people who aren't fans of the series for her personality and implied connection to ''Franchise/LupinIII''

* HarsherInHindsight: The plot of Volume 1 of the light novel/the first five episodes of the anime--Kinji and Aria's dealings with the Butei Killer, a [[MadBomber serial bomber]] willing to endanger innocent civilians while targeting the students of Butei High--somehow predicted the events of the Boston Marathon bombings two years later in 2013, with both events coincidentally happening in April.
* HilariousInHindsight: Riko Mine is [[spoiler:the great-granddaughter of Literature/ArseneLupin and her family name is a nod to Fujiko Mine of ''Franchise/LupinIII'' fame]], leading to plenty of speculation as to whether or not Riko is meant to also be [[spoiler:the child of Lupin and Fujiko]]. ([[spoiler:Fujiko [[AdaptationDyeJob being depicted with blonde hair]] every now and then ''would'' help explain Riko's hair color...]]) Fast-forward to 2018 and [[spoiler:''Anime/LupinIIIPart5'', dedicating a large portion of its run to exploring [[RelationshipRevolvingDoor the relationship between Lupin and Fujiko]], reveals that the pair actually wed (and divorced) in the interim between ''[[Anime/LupinIIITheItalianAdventure Part IV]]'' and ''Part 5''. Furthermore, the series ends with [[MaybeEverAfter the possibility]] of the pair having rekindled [[OutlawCouple their romance]], in stark contrast to [[WorkingWithTheEx how frosty the two were towards each other early on]]. For added hilarity, note that ''Part IV'' itself dealt with Lupin's attempts to annul his marriage to series newcomer (and rival thief) Rebecca Rossellini.]]

* {{Sequelitis}}: Spin-off example, though not completely unrelated. ''Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA'' was much less successful than the main series due to a myriad of reasons: its characters were substantially less colourful, its plot was more a SliceOfLife compared to the central ''Aria'' arcs, it came a significant four whole years after the main show, and ultimately--to put it simply--it was not what the fandom wanted. When a new ''Aria'' anime project was announced in 2015, people were excited that they were finally continuing the series, only to find out it was actually an adaptation of a less known spin-off without any weight in the central storyline.

* ViewerGenderConfusion: [[spoiler:By Volume 4 we get introduced to a girl named Kana who is actually Kinji's long dead brother, who crossdresses so he can activate Hysteria Mode at will.]]

%%* EnsembleDarkhorse:

* AmericansHateTingle: Not to an extreme degree, but still notable. The franchise was relatively popular in Japan back at its day, even in midst of strong competition, and its light novel and manga still keep selling surprisingly well there after more than an entire decade, which is a true feat in the shifting light novel market. In the West, mainly in the Anglosphere, however, it never caught so much with either viewers or readers. Fault goes not only to the divisive reception that ShanaClone series have always had in the Anglosphere, but also to the fact that the ''Literature/ShakuganNoShana'' fad itself was already in its twilight when the ''Aria'' anime aired, which granted it far less interest than it would have attracted years before.

* ClicheStorm: A typical complaint among reviewers, even those who liked the concept of a Literature/SherlockHolmes descendant, is that the series plays straight almost every trope related to the {{harem|Series}} genre and ShanaClone archetype. The latter case was even openly exploited by the producers, given that the anime shares its company, director ''and'' [[Creator/RieKugimiya lead voice]] with the original ''Literature/ShakuganNoShana'' -- but this didn't exactly help, especially because ''Aria'' was one of the last SC series to receive an anime adaptation and thus didn't have its predecessors' novelty value. (To be fair, the originality is acknowledged to improve considerably through the light novel series, but as the anime adaptation stopped just after Volume 3, people who didn't follow the novels never got to witness it.)
* CriticalBacklash: Kinji is often accused of being a VanillaProtagonist as most harem protagonists and ShanaClone love interests usually are. Some believe those reviews are focusing only on the superficial, as a case can be made for Kinji actually being a huge improvement over the average Yuuji Clone: unlike many of those, Kinji has his own arc which predates his relationship with Aria, enjoys a powerset both intriguing by itself and unrelated to her, is neither ObliviousToLove nor an ExtremeDoormat, and in later volumes his life stops orbiting fully around Aria; overall, a character who might have starred in their own solo series, something that can be seldom said about his homologues. However, the fact that all those aspects are not overtly emphasized, particularly in the early period of the series the anime adapts, can cause people to overlook them.

* NeverLiveItDown: The fact that the lead Aria is a ShanaClone voiced by Creator/RieKugimiya is pretty much the most known thing about the series.

** The series is not the first ShanaClone light novel to feature a Holmesian female lead and a Japanese male lead with military training. That would be ''Literature/{{Gosick}}'', which started being published in 2003 (it was the earliest major SC, in fact) and whose anime adaptation premiered mere months before ''Aria'''s.

* AmericansHateTingle: Not to an extreme degree, but still notable. The franchise was relatively popular in Japan back at its day, even in midst of strong competition, and its light novel and manga still keep selling surprisingly well there after more than an entire decade, which is a true feat in the shifting light novel market. In the West, mainly in the Anglosphere, however, it never caught so much with either viewers or readers. Fault goes not only to the divisive reception that ShanaClone series have always had in the Anglosphere, but also to the fact that the ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'' fad itself was already in its twilight when the ''Aria'' anime aired, which granted it far less interest than it would have attracted years before.

* ClicheStorm: A typical complaint among reviewers, even those who liked the concept of a Literature/SherlockHolmes descendant, is that the series plays straight almost every trope related to the {{harem|Series}} genre and ShanaClone archetype. The latter case was even openly exploited by the producers, given that the anime shares its company, director ''and'' [[Creator/RieKugimiya lead voice]] with the original ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'' -- but this didn't exactly help, especially because ''Aria'' was one of the last SC series to receive an anime adaptation and thus didn't have its predecessors' novelty value. (To be fair, the originality is acknowledged to improve considerably through the light novel series, but as the anime adaptation stopped just after Volume 3, people who didn't follow the novels never got to witness it.)

** The series is not the first ShanaClone light novel to feature a Holmesian female lead and a Japanese male lead with military training. That would be ''LightNovel/{{Gosick}}'', which started being published in 2003 (it was the earliest major SC, in fact) and whose anime adaptation premiered mere months before ''Aria'''s.

** ''Aria'' itself later gained its own successor in ''LightNovel/StrikeTheBlood'', another light novel about a high school student with bloodline powers awakened by sexual arousal who fights along an armed {{Tsundere}} with abusive tendencies and attends a school located at an artificial island in Japan, where vampires and superhuman maidens live.

* SugarWiki/{{Funny}}: In Episode 6, Kinji opens a drawer brought in by Shirayuki when she moved in with Kinji and Aria.
-->'''Kinji:''' Shirayuki brought these drawers here. There won't be any hazardous objects lying--\\
[''Kinji opens a drawer and gasps in shock as he discovers Shirayuki's massive collection of black and white underwear before immediately closing it'']\\
'''Kinji:''' There are... and they're hazardous to ''me''.

* AmericansHateTingle: Not to an extreme degree, but still notable. The franchise was relatively popular in Japan back at its day, even in midst of strong competition, and its light novel and manga still keep selling surprisingly well there after more than an entire decade, which is a true feat in the shifting light novel market. In the West, however, it never caught so much with either viewers or readers. Fault goes not only to the divisive reception that ShanaClone series have always had in the Anglosphere, but also to the fact that the ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'' fad itself was already in its twilight when the ''Aria'' anime aired, which granted it far less interest than it would have attracted years before.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Carl Orff's legendary [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWiyKgeGWx0 "O Fortuna"]] movement from his {{cantata}} "Carmina Burana" in Episode 6, after Kinji opens a drawer brought in by Shirayuki when she moved in with Kinji and Aria.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Carl Orff's legendary [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWiyKgeGWx0 "O Fortuna"]] movement from his cantata "Carmina Burana" in Episode 6, after Kinji opens a drawer brought in by Shirayuki when she moved in with Kinji and Aria.

* AmericansHateTingle: Not to an extreme degree, but still notable. The franchise was relatively popular in Japan back at its day, even in midst of strong competition, and its light novel and manga series still keep selling surprisingly well there after an entire decade - but in the West, it never caught so much with either viewers or readers. Fault goes not only to the divisive reception that ShanaClone series have always had in the Anglosphere, but also to the fact that the ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'' fad itself was already in its twilight when the ''Aria'' anime aired, which granted it far less interest than it would have attracted years before.
* ArcFatigue: Inevitably due to the combination of ''Aria'' being a HaremSeries and a LongRunner, Kinji's relationship with Aria advanced ''very'' slowly through the years. The series seemed to be reaching its conclusion in Volume 22, as the war over the Irokane was stopped, Kanae Kanzaki was finally cleared of all crimes, and Kinji freed Aria from the Scarlet Ammo explicitly through ThePowerOfLove... but despite all of this, the WillTheyOrWontThey question became indefinitely postponed ''again'' with the presence of a new evil super-group screwing things up for Kinji and the appearance of yet another romantic rival to Aria.
* AudienceAlienatingPremise: While amusing in its very Japanese wackiness, the premise of a bread-and-butter HaremSeries led by a Literature/SherlockHolmes descendant (among other famous characters) is not easy to market, especially in western countries. Part of this revolves around [[UncertainAudience target audience]]: Holmesians often find the premise a frivolous cheapening of Holmes, while harem genre fans see it as an average product without anything interesting.

* ClicheStorm: A common complaint among reviewers, even those who liked the concept of a Literature/SherlockHolmes descendant, is that the series plays straight almost every trope related to the {{harem|Series}} genre and ShanaClone archetype. The latter case was even openly exploited by the producers, given that the anime shares its company, director ''and'' [[Creator/RieKugimiya lead voice]] with the original ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'' -- but this doesn't help exactly, especially because ''Aria'' was one of the last SC series to receive an anime adaptation and thus didn't have its predecessors' novelty value. (To be fair, the originality improves considerably through the light novel series, but as the anime adaptation stopped just after Volume 3, people who didn't follow the novels never got to witness it.)

* GeniusBonus: The dialogue bit in which Kinji and Riko mention Aria's fighting style by name is AdaptedOut of the anime, but the viewer can reach the same conclusion as them judging by the judo throw she scores on Kinji during their scuffle at the first episode. It is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartitsu Bartitsu,]] the real-life hybrid martial art of judo, boxing and savate which was used by the original Sherlock Holmes in his fight against Moriarty (though named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baritsu Baritsu]] in [[Creator/ArthurConanDoyle Doyle's]] books).

* HilariousInHindsight: Riko Mine is [[spoiler:the great-granddaughter of Literature/ArseneLupin and her family name is a nod to Fujiko Mine of ''Franchise/LupinIII'' fame]], leading to plenty of speculation as to whether or not Riko is meant to also be [[spoiler:the child of Lupin and Fujiko]]. ([[spoiler:Fujiko [[AdaptationDyeJob being depicted with blonde hair]] every now and then ''would'' help explain Riko's hair color...]]) Fast-forward to 2018 and [[spoiler:''Anime/LupinIIIPart5'', dedicating a large portion of its run to exploring [[RelationshipRevolvingDoor the relationship between Lupin and Fujiko]], reveals that the pair actually wed (and divorced) in the interim between ''[[WesternAnimation/LupinIIITheItalianAdventure Part IV]]'' and ''Part 5''. Furthermore, the series ends with [[MaybeEverAfter the possibility]] of the pair having rekindled [[OutlawCouple their romance]], in stark contrast to [[WorkingWithTheEx how frosty the two were towards each other early on]]. For added hilarity, note that ''Part IV'' itself dealt with Lupin's attempts to annul his marriage to series newcomer (and rival thief) Rebecca Rossellini.]]

** In 2010, only one year before the ''Aria'' anime aired, Creator/JCStaff also produced ''Anime/TanteiOperaMilkyHolmes'', another anime about a female Holmes in a modern setting that features superhuman abilities (as well as a Literature/ArseneLupin character). The same year also saw the premiere of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'', a TV series about a modern day Holmes getting entangled with terrorism. Interestingly, given that the ''Aria'' light novel was published in 2008, the trope also works in reverse towards those works; in fact, although ''Milky Holmes'' was canonically inspired by ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' and ''Anime/GalaxyAngel'', the novel's popularity might have still contributed to its success.

* HarsherInHindsight: The plot of the first five episodes of the anime somehow predict the events of the Boston Marathon bombings two years later in 2013, and it's no coincidence that both happened on April.

* AmericansHateTingle: Not to an extreme degree, but still notable. The franchise was relatively popular in Japan in its day, even with strong competition, and its light novel and manga series kept selling surprisingly well there after an entire decade, but in the West it never caught so much with either viewers or readers. Part of the fault goes not only to the divisive reception that ShanaClone series have always had in the Anglosphere, but also to the fact that the ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'' fad itself was already in its twilight when the ''Aria'' anime aired, which caused its subsequent fanbase to be much smaller than it might have been years before.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: While amusing in its very Japanese wackiness, the premise of a bread-and-butter HaremSeries led by a Literature/SherlockHolmes descendant (among other famous characters) is not easy to market, especially in western countries. Holmesians often find it a frivolous cheapening of Holmes, while harem genre fans see it as an average product without anything interesting.

* ClicheStorm: A common complaint among reviewers, even those who liked the concept of a Literature/SherlockHolmes descendant, is that the series plays painfully straight almost every trope related to the {{harem|Series}} genre and ShanaClone archetype. The latter case is even openly exploited, given that the anime even shares its company, director ''and'' [[Creator/RieKugimiya lead voice]] with the original ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'' -- but this doesn't help exactly, especially because ''Aria'' was one of the last SC series to receive an anime adaptation and thus didn't have its predecessors' novelty value. (To be fair, the originality improves considerably through the light novel series, but as the anime adaptation stopped just after Volume 3, people who didn't follow the novels never got to witness it.)
* CriticalBacklash: Kinji is often accused of being a VanillaProtagonist as most harem protagonists and ShanaClone love interests usually are. It's easy to think those reviews are focusing only on the superficial, as a case can be made for Kinji actually being a huge improvement over the average Yuuji Clone: unlike the original and many of his successors, Kinji has his own arc which predates his relationship with Aria, enjoys a powerset both intriguing by itself and unrelated to her, is neither ObliviousToLove nor an ExtremeDoormat, and in later volumes his life stops orbiting fully around Aria; overall, a character who might have starred in their own solo series, something that can be seldom said about his homologues. However, the fact that all those aspects are not overtly emphasized, particularly in the early period of the series the anime adapts, can cause people to overlook them.

* {{Sequelitis}}: Spin-off example, though not completely unrelated. ''Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA'' was much less successful than the main series due to a myriad of reasons: its characters were substantially less colourful, its plot was more a SliceOfLife compared to the central ''Aria'' arcs, it came a significant four whole years after the main show, and ultimately--to put it simply--it was not what the fandom wanted -- when a new ''Aria'' anime project was announced in 2015, people were excited that they were finally continuing the series, only to find out it was actually an adaptation of a less known spin-off without any weight in the central storyline.

** A series about an ordinary guy with a hyper-competent counter-terrorist SplitPersonality, gained thanks to his family line, who gets involved (in more than one way) with a twin-tailed, pinkish-haired Japanese prodigy agent around his own age, who keeps a persistent BettyAndVeronica situation with another female friend of the main character, all while they work for an organization of juvenile agents? With all those premises, ''Aria'' could be perfectly considered the light novel adaptation of Creator/PeterDavid's comic book series ''ComicBook/SpyBoy''. Even if the latter is relatively obscure, it would be shocking that Chugaku Akamatsu didn't know about it.
** ''Aria'' itself later gained its own successor in ''LightNovel/StrikeTheBlood'', another light novel about a high school student with bloodline powers awakened by sexual arousal who fights along an armed {{Tsundere}} with abusive tendencies and attends a school located at an artificial island in Japan.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The Professor [[spoiler:Sherlock Holmes]] and I-U are defeated as early as the sixth volume. Given that he was related to Aria's personal arc and was in many senses the entire series's ultimate antagonist, it is pretty easy to think he could have been saved for more action.

** [[FamousAncestor Kinji's own descent from a legendary character]] (in this case, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyama_Kagemoto Kinshiro Tohyama]]), is evident yet at the same time never stated, unlike everybody else's lineage. It is unknown whether this will change in the series' future.

* AmericansHateTingle: Not to an extreme degree, but still notable. The franchise was relatively popular in Japan in its day, even with strong competence, and its light novel and manga series keep selling surprisingly well there after an entire decade, but in the West it never caught so much with either viewers or readers. Part of the fault goes not only to the divisive reception that ShanaClone series have always had in the Anglosphere, but also to the fact that the ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'' fad itself was already in its twilight when the ''Aria'' anime aired, which caused its subsequent fanbase to be much smaller than it might have been years before.
* ArcFatigue: Inevitably due to the combination of ''Aria'' being a HaremSeries and a LongRunner, Kinji's relationship with Aria has advanced ''very'' slowly through the years. The series seemed to be reaching its conclusion in Volume 22, as the war over the Irokane was stopped, Kanae Kanzaki was finally cleared of all crimes, and Kinji freed Aria from the Scarlet Ammo explicitly through ThePowerOfLove... but despite all of this, the WillTheyOrWontThey question became indifinitely postponed ''again'' with the presence of a new evil super-group screwing things up for Kinji and the appearance of yet another romantic rival to Aria.

* BizarroEpisode: The OVA. While initially a regular HotSpringsEpisode, it soon turns into a weird ghost story where time and space start unraveling while the group chases a spirit that seems to be wanting to tell them ''something''. However, nothing of this is clarified, as it turns out to have been AllJustADream... only that the entire gang dreamed it together, and things that they learned in the dream happen to be real things they couldn't know before. And ''then'' it turns out the ghost is real after all and is observing them. Maybe the episode's point is that there are things that not even Sherlock Holmes could understand?
* ClicheStorm: A common complaint among reviewers, even those who liked the concept of a Literature/SherlockHolmes descendant, is that the series plays painfully straight almost every trope related to the HaremSeries and ShanaClone genres. The latter case is even openly exploited, given that the anime even shares its company, director ''and'' lead voice with the original ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'' - but this doesn't help exactly, especially because ''Aria'' was one of the last SC series to receive an anime adaptation and thus didn't have its predecessors' novelty value. (To be fair, the originality improves considerably through the light novel series, but as the anime adaptation stopped just after Volume 3, people who don't follow the novels never got to witness it.)
* CriticalBacklash: Kinji is often accused of being a VanillaProtagonist as most harem protagonists and ShanaClone love interests usually are. It easy to think those reviews are focusing only on the superficial, however, because it can be made the case of Kinji being actually a huge improvement over the average Yuuji Clone. Unlike the original one and most of his sucessors, Kinji has his own arc which predate his relationship with Aria, enjoys a powerset both intriguing by itself and unrelated to her, is neither ObliviousToLove nor an ExtremeDoormat, and in later volumes his life stops orbiting fully about Aria; overall, a character who might have starred in its own solo series, something that can be seldom said about his homologues. However, the fact that all those aspects are not overtly emphasized, partially in to the early period of the series the anime adapts, can cause people to overlook it.

* GeniusBonus: The dialogue bit in which Kinji and Riko mention Aria's fighting style by name is AdaptedOut of the anime, but the viewer can reach the same conclussion as them judging by the judo throw she scores on Kinji during their scuffle at the first episode. It is Bartitsu, the real life hybrid martial art of judo, boxing and savate which was used by the original Sherlock Holmes in his fight against Moriarty.
* HilariousInHindsight: Riko Mine is [[spoiler:the great-granddaughter of Literature/ArseneLupin and her family name is a nod to Fujiko Mine of ''Franchise/LupinIII'' fame]], leading to plenty of speculation as to whether or not Riko is meant to also be [[spoiler:the child of Lupin and Fujiko]]. Fast-forward to 2018 and [[spoiler:''Anime/LupinIIIPart5'', dedicating a large portion of its run to exploring [[RelationshipRevolvingDoor the relationship between Lupin and Fujiko]], reveals that the pair actually wed (and divorced) in the interim between ''[[WesternAnimation/LupinIIITheItalianAdventure Part IV]]'' and ''Part 5''. Furthermore, the series ends with [[MaybeEverAfter the possibility]] of the pair having rekindled [[OutlawCouple their romance]], in stark contrast to [[WorkingWithTheEx how frosty the two were towards each other early on]]. For added hilarity, note that ''Part IV'' itself dealt with Lupin's attempts to annul his marriage to series newcomer (and rival thief) Rebecca Rossellini.]]
* ItsShortSoItSucks: The arc of the I-U was solved rather quick in the novel series, with the Professor being defeated at just the sixth volume (which in terms of adaptation means that, had the anime been 24 episodes long, this battle would have been its finale). Although many other storylines branch away from it due to the in-story collapse of the I-U, there are fans who believe the organization, or at least its founder, should have not been defeated so soon.

** Also Riko Mine. From losing her parents to spending years as Vlad's undernourished prisoner, to being used as one of his pawns, to having her rosary (the only keepsake she has left of her mother) stolen by Vlad (who knew perfectly well how much it meant to her), to ending up being tortured by him after she tries to get it back. You can't help but feel sorry for her, despite her psycho side and initial desire to kill Aria to prove herself.
* {{Narm}}: The gurgling, growling, laughing noises that [[spoiler: Vampire!Werewolf!Vlad]] makes in the final episode of the anime make him difficult to take seriously.

* NeverLiveItDown: The fact that the lead Aria is a ShanaClone voiced by Creator/RieKugimiya is pretty much the most known thing about the series.

* {{Sequelitis}}: Spin-off example, though not completely unrelated. ''Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA'' was much less successful than the main series due to a myriad of reasons: its characters were substantially less colourful, its plot was more a SliceOfLife compared to the central ''Aria'' arcs, it came a significant four whole years after the main show, and ultimately, to put it simple, it was not what the fandom wanted -- when a new ''Aria'' anime project was announced in 2015, people were excited that they were finally continuing the series, only to find out it was actually an adaptation of a less known spin-off without any weight in the central storyline.

** A series about an ordinary guy with a hyper-competent counter-terrorist SplitPersonality, gained thanks to his family line, who gets involved (in more of then one way) with a twintailed, pinkish-haired Japanese prodigy agent around his own age, who keeps a persistent BettyAndVeronica situation with another female friend of the main character, all while they work for an organization of juvenile agents? With all those premises, ''Aria'' could be perfectly considered the light novel adaptation of Creator/PeterDavid's comic book series ''ComicBook/SpyBoy''. Even if the latter is relatively obscure, it would be shocking that Chugaku Akamatsu didn't know about it.
** ''Aria'' itself later gained its own successor in ''LightNovel/StrikeTheBlood'', another light novel about a highschool student with bloodline powers awakened by sexual arousal who fights along an armed {{Tsundere}} with abusive tendencies and attends a school in an artificial island in Japan.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The Professor [[spoiler:Sherlock Holmes]] and I-U are defeated only in the sixth volume. Given that he was related to Aria's personal arc and was in many senses the entire series's ultimate antagonist, it is pretty easy to think he could have been saved for more action.

** Many reviews point out that a series about a SherlockHolmes female descendant paired with a male student with a badass SplitPersonality, in a juvenile police-mercenary school and among descendants of some other famous characters, sounds pretty awesome on paper. In this case, sadly, said premise is mostly spent in trite harem shenanigans led by a questionable light novel stereotype, all of which has admittedly its own audience, but is nowhere near how good could it have been.
** Kinji's own descent from a legendary character, Kinshiro Tohyama, is evident yet at the same time never stated, unlike everybody else's. It is unknown whether it will be in the series' future.

* AmericansHateTingle: Not to an extreme degree, but still notable. The franchise was relatively popular in Japan at its day, even with strong competence, and its light novel and manga series keep selling surprisingly well there after an entire decade, but in the West it never caught so much with either viewers or readers. Part of the fault goes not only to the divisive reception that ShanaClone series have always had on the Anglosphere, but also to the fact that the ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'' fad itself was already in its twilight when the ''Aria'' anime aired, which caused its subsequent fanbase to be much smaller than it might have been years before.

* HilariousInHindsight: Riko Mine is [[spoiler:the great-granddaughter of Literature/ArseneLupin and her family name is a nod to Fujiko Mine of ''Franchise/LupinIII'' fame]], leading to plenty of speculation as to whether or not Riko is meant to also be [[spoiler:the child of Lupin and Fujiko]]. Fast-forward to 2018 and [[spoiler:''Anime/LupinIIIPart5'', dedicating a large portion of its run to exploring the relationship between Lupin and Fujiko, reveals that the pair actually wed (and divorced) in the interim between ''[[WesternAnimation/LupinIIITheItalianAdventure Part IV]]'' and ''Part 5''. Furthermore, the series ends with [[MaybeEverAfter the possibility]] of the pair having rekindled [[OutlawCouple their romance]], in stark contrast to [[WorkingWithTheEx how frosty the two were towards each other early on]]. For added hilarity, note that ''Part IV'' itself dealt with Lupin's attempts to annul his marriage to series newcomer (and rival thief) Rebecca Rossellini.]]

* {{Sequelitis}}: Spin-off example, though not completely unrelated. ''Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA'' was much less successful than the main series due to a myriad of reasons: its characters were substantially less colourful, its plot was more a SliceOfLife compared to the central ''Aria'' arcs, it came a significant four whole years after the main show, and ultimately, to put it simple, it was not what the fandom wanted - when a new ''Aria'' anime project was announced in 2015, people were excited that they were finally continuing the series, only to find out it was actually an adaptation of a less known spin-off without any weight in the central storyline.

** ''Aria'' itself later gained its own sucessor in ''LightNovel/StrikeTheBlood'', another light novel about a highschool student with bloodline powers awakened by sexual arousal who fights along an armed {{Tsundere}} with abusive tendencies and attends a school in an artificial island in Japan.

** Kinji's own descendance from a legendary character, Kinshiro Tohyama, is evident yet at the same time never stated, unlike everybody else's. It is unknown whether it will be in the series' future.

* ViewerGenderConfusion: [[spoiler:By Volume 4 we get introduced to a girl named Kana who is actually Kinji's long dead brother, who cross dresses so he can activate Hysteria Mode at will.]]

* ArcFatigue: Inevitably due to the combination of ''Aria'' being a HaremSeries and a LongRunner, Kinji's relationship with Aria has advanced very slowly through the years. The series seemed to be reaching its conclusion in Volume 22, as the war over the Irokane was stopped, Kanae Kanzaki was finally cleared of all crimes, and Kinji freed Aria from the Scarlet Ammo explicitly through ThePowerOfLove... but despite all of this, the WillTheyOrWontThey question became indifinitely postponed ''again'' with the presence of a new evil super-group screwing things up for Kinji and the appearance of yet another romantic rival to Aria.

* ItsSoShortItSucks: The arc of the I-U was solved rather quick in the novel series, with the Professor being defeated at just the sixth volume (which in terms of adaptation means that, had the anime been 24 episodes long, this battle would have been its finale). Although many other storylines branch away from it due to the in-story collapse of the I-U, there are fans who believe the organization, or at least its founder, should have not been defeated so soon.

** The series is not the first ShanaClone light novel to feature a Holmesian female lead and a Japanese male lead with military training. That would be ''LightNovel/{{Gosick}}'', which started being published in 2003 (it is the earliest major SC series, in fact) and whose adaptation premiered months before ''Aria'''s.

* OlderThanTheyThink: In 2010, only one year before the ''Aria'' anime aired, Creator/JCStaff also produced ''Anime/TanteiOperaMilkyHolmes'', another anime about a female Holmes in a modern setting that features superhuman abilities (as well as a Literature/ArseneLupin character). The same year also saw the premiere of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'', a TV series about a modern day Holmes getting entangled with terrorism. Interestingly, given that the ''Aria'' light novel was published in 2008, the trope also works in reverse towards those works; in fact, although ''Milky Holmes'' was canonically inspired by ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' and ''Anime/GalaxyAngel'', the novel's popularity might have still contributed to its success.

** Many reviews point out that a series about a SherlockHolmes female descendant paired with a male student with a badass SplitPersonality, in a juvenile police-mercenary school and among descendants of some other famous characters, sounds pretty awesome on paper. In this case, sadly, said premise is mostly spent in trite harem shenanigans led by a questionable light novel stereotype, all of which has admittedly its own audience, but is nowhere near how good should have been.

* SpiritualAdaptation: A series about an ordinary guy with a hyper-competent counter-terrorist SplitPersonality, gained thanks to his family line, who gets involved (in more of then one way) with a twintailed, pinkish-haired Japanese prodigy agent around his own age, who keeps a persistent BettyAndVeronica situation with another female friend of the main character, all while they work for an organization of juvenile agents? With all those premises, ''Aria'' could be perfectly considered the light novel adaptation of Creator/PeterDavid's comic book series ''ComicBook/SpyBoy''. Even if the latter is relatively obscure, it would be shocking that Chugaku Akamatsu didn't know about it.