Anime/Hidan no Aria (Aria the Scarlet Ammo)

She's in everything.

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

Not even close.

Okay, did not like this one. I guess it could get better, but I'm not holding my breath.

Have you posted in every single anime thread saying "you dont like it"?

Anyway I think everyone is forgetting about Nagi-chan...

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

Nagi isn't notable in any sense.

This show has no Remilia. Not picking it

Besides, pigeonholed voicing is pigeonholed. You'd think the 'industry' would cut Rie some slack and get creative and hire another young sounding girl but Nooooo

What profit is it to a man, when he gains his money, but loses his internet? Anonymous 16:26 I believe...

To an extent, they are pushing this as a Toradora reunion.

Honestly, this is the first character of the type she's played in a while (since Toradora, in fact), so I'm not really up in arms about it.

Well she was Rose in Dragon Crisis but that was more Dere Tsun, She has been in quite a few non-standard roles lately.

Nena Trinity in Gundam00, Yukimura Sanada Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls, Rise Persona 4, Cassie Lockhart in Freezing, Tsukuyomi in Negima (If they ever get to the part where she speaks more than one line this will be epic lyrical dissonance.} Chika in Hidamari Sketch.

edited 17th Apr '11 5:27:05 AM by Raso

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

Raso: So far I just don't have much to say about any of the shows thus far, since most of them haven't passed beyond establishing the premise.

Wait...you won't watch this series for not having a Touhou character in it?

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

It has Scarlet in its name, giving it a standard to live up to. I would assume.

Yeah, thats a connection I wouldn't have made.

Well that's only the english translation...the show's real name is Hidan No Aria...

You might as well connect it with Naruto and Aria.

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Great, now I'm picturing Remilia shooting Aria out of a cannon

Well, 2nd episode totally debunked my theory as if his explanations weren't enough... but I needed visual confirmation.

I think I did something last night...

It's probably locked now and buried on page 53 of A&M, but I did actually start an Aria thread over a year ago when the light novels were first released where I live.

At that time there was no mention of an anime adaptation, but given the style of writing and the saturation of it with every otaku-bait device we have a trope for, I think it's pretty safe to say that it's something the author (Chugoku Akamatsu) was gunning for before he even put pen to paper.

Not to flog a dead horse, but Aria's original character design more or less determined which would eventually voice her, and consequently the studio that would pick it up. (I have actually encountered people who appear to be genuinely surprised at the casting choice. I do not understand this.) There's nothing in Aria that hasn't been intentionally designed to reap the maximum amount of interest from its intended demographic.

Having said that, I loved the books: cheap, guilty thrills, the literary equivalent of franchised sushi. It remains to be seen how faithful to source material the anime will continue to be, but there *are* some really sweet moments later on, and the two leads do get some opportunities to demonstrate genuine affection for the other.

It also goes in certain directions that can't be automatically intuited from the early chapters/episodes: superficially, the word most commonly bandied about to describe the series so far is "generic", but by Vol. 3 "The Honey-Coloured Trap", it transcends the concept of "generic". It's almost "super-generic": it's not that it appropriates most of the elements of Akiba culture, it's that more that it appropriates ALL of them. Everything you've ever seen (either explicitly or referenced) in Cool Japan pop-culture media will make a plot-relevant appearance here. It's like a masterclass in fanservice, if you will, of all varieties:

At 12 episodes, they're obviously not going to cover all six (or it seven?) books, so I'm guessing at one episode a chapter, we're essentially going to see the anime of the first novel. Which is fine: the novel ends with a decent action climax, and there's a nice Callback at the end.

Hidan No Aria is clearly never going to be lauded as a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, but the franchise's current popularity (across all three of its incarnations) all but ensures that it's going to be pretty critic-proof. To be fair, it does what it sets out to do rather flawlessly: disposable, escapist entertainment.

Where I do think it succeeds in its own right is the author's original approach to the work's, uh, unoriginality: the well-worn devices are all present and accounted for, but how he manages to fit them in and lead from one to another can be imaginative and often very amusing.

edited 28th Apr '11 12:49:18 AM by zeroplusalpha

Play Again? Y/N

Now that I think about...what works nowadays even consitutes as "heartbreaking work of staggering genius" anymore? From what I can tell, in all parts of the world, nothing ever becomes something like that anymore.

If it's "entertaining", then the pretentious members of the audience will scoff at it and call it audience pandering drivel. If it tries really hard to be high art and throws in copious amounts of symbolism and hidden depths to appeal to that crowd, then the other people in the crowd will scoff at it for being "overly complicated pretentious garbage no one understands".

The only way a random work today will ever qualify as a work of genius is by trampling over it and letting it sit there for hundreds/thousands of years and let people in the future discover them after the words and pictures are all faded and old...that is, assuming language, mediums, and methods of storytelling changes drastically in the future, to the point where our ways of storytelling becomes alien to them. So yes...there might be a ever so small chance that Epic Movie will become the Citizen Kane of the future if a copy of it is found in the ruins of an ancient abandoned theatre.

In my opinion, as entertainment such as novels, movies, films, animation, etc. becomes more widespread, the harder it is for new works to become "heartbreaking work of genius", mostly thanks to the fact that the variation in mileage increases as the audience size increases.

---

...wow that was an unexpectedly long random rant about story telling quality that I just thought to let out...

...

...

oh right, Hidan No Aria. So I wonder if she will ever appear in the crossover fanarts that's all over Gelbooru...theres already plenty of Nagi/Louise/Taiga/Shana/Al crossover fanarts already. With the new roles she's been playing...I wonder when will Rose, Astarotte, and Aria join the group...

...and why do they attach Uzis to segways of all things.

edited 27th Apr '11 10:40:55 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

I am absolutely positive that in the author's original notes for this project, Aria's profile has a (cv: Kugimiya Rie) notation on it.

I sincerely hope not...>_<

Surely, but surely a rhetorical question, no? :p

Well, I don't know about everybody else, but I found this absolutely hilarious, especially in tandem with the Speed pastiche of the bomb going off on Kinji's bike if he attempts to stop or slow down. In the novel (which benefits from Kinji's personal observations afforded by the first-person narration), his disbelief at the absurdity of the situation- "Kuso! Why is this happening to me?!! This is TOO abnormal!" - makes for fair comedy.

edited 27th Apr '11 11:34:23 PM by zeroplusalpha

Play Again? Y/N

Pretty decent, so far. I think I'll stick with this. The second episode makes the entire thing sound reminiscent of To Aru Majutsu No Index, though. I mean, freeloader Big Eater loli that gets the protagonist dragged into crazy stuff...

"If I touch my enemy, it's over, so I don't need to put effort in destroying them."

NB: Those whose only knowledge of Aria comes from the anime as it's being broadcast and not the novels or the works page are advised against highlighting any the following spoilers.

I've always thought that Aria and Riko's ancestry suggests that the Aria-verse is really set in alternative reality, much like Read Or Die.

Holmes and Lupin are fictional characters, after all, yet the series treats them as being bona fide historical figures....

She's still a veritable badass. She only gets her ass handed to her by Kinji because:

• Everybody gets their asses handed to them by Hysteria Mode Kinji.
• She's very flustered in that scene, and isn't really performing at her best. She has a tendency to let her emotions get the better of her on many occasions, but there aren't a whole load of other characters who can touch her in raw combat ability.

There's a reason for her hairstyle, length , and colour, and it's preposterous (in a good way). That happens waaaaay later on, though, in vol 4, which extends beyond the anime.

edited 28th Apr '11 4:36:48 AM by zeroplusalpha

Play Again? Y/N

Now that I think about...what works nowadays even consitutes as "heartbreaking work of staggering genius" anymore? From what I can tell, in all parts of the world, nothing ever becomes something like that anymore.

Sure it does. It just takes a significant amount of time.

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

Not saying whether it can be done with reasonably good amount of luck, but saying whether they EXIST at all...

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Weeelll...

I think Hidan is/should be interesting to follow because although it IS a Sn S copypasta, it IS set in a scenario with guns and bombs, and that makes everything better. Also the Alternate history sherlock holmes/arsene Lupin stuff gives it a nice twist, although it's lloking like that stuff won't make it to the anime.

People who say "This is a Rie vehicle" I don't think it is, at least not as much as Rotte no Omocha will be. I mean, Holy shit, Omocha is like the ULTIMATE rie fanservice excuse plot EVER. loli succubi, seriously?

Also, Hidan includes (in Ep. 2 no less!) a freaking bomb disposal via helicopter-riding kuudere sniper. holy shit that qualifies it in my books. as long the action sequences kepp strong and the series doesn't deteriorate into a Rie vehicle, then it's fine in my books.

This is probably the first anime adaptation that makes me WANT to go read the source fully. Even Inf Strat didn't do that for me (Though that was me being unusually uncomfortable with the whole "Males are now obsolete in society" schtick. Seriously, I never question background in fanservice animes, but that REALLY unsettled me.

BYOON~!

Episode 3

This is easily the most ridiculous show of the season. That sniper shot was just...I don't even have words for how nuts that was.

I quite like Aria, though it would maybe help if she'd tell Kinji why she needs him, instead of getting into a huff that he can't read her mind. But, of course, Tsundere.

Kinji's still pretty meh. Not horrible, just...not very special. At least he's not Touma though!