If you’ll recall, in my last post on Aria, I said these things:

I went into episode 10 expecting a disappointment.

Anyway, as was kind of expected, the show let me down.

Aria the Origination episode 11 dealt beautifully with Alice’s doubt and depression. I couldn’t have asked for more, and yet here I am, smiling like an idiot at Akira’s megadere worry for Aika’s spirit. Here I am, basking in yet another wonderful episode of Aria. Here I am, pleased beyond belief by this episode—which was, for all intents and purposes, epic.

Right now, I’m at my screen like this:

Episode 11 left me… not shocked, no, so it wasn’t like episode 9, but it definitely left me speechless. Proof: I’m writing this almost twelve hours after watching the episode. Took a while to recover. Now, it seems like all I have for Aria is praise, and this is true… now more than ever. Halfway through 11, I was thinking to myself, “Aha! They’re addressing this after all! <3 Aria staff! But, uh, pacing and story telling order is off—they should have done this BEFORE the Al business.”

And then Aika took Alice’s hand and said that makenai wa yo!! and I realized that the order things were done in was, in fact, optimal. By throwing in the stuff with Al, the show preps us for Aika’s good spirit and happiness and readiness to become a pro. While it might seem tangential, after some reflection I think that her interlocution with the gnome in 10 was very important for her character development—it enhanced her maturity and made her happy. Aika shines when she’s happy (remember the episode in Natural when she fucked her hair?) and I think that her mood is a significant factor in her performance. Unlike Alice who’s hella down and acts kinda robotic, Aika really gets gloomy, and it interferes with the rest of her life… conversely, well, what I said before. Happiness = fish, or something.

Akari of course took the wonderful power cake this episode with an incredibly sutekiiiiii~~~~ line about how Alice brings Alice to the table and that’s more than enough reason to congregate for dinner. Alright, so the point wasn’t really food (it wasn’t food at all, as it happens) but the line was amazing: you’re you, and we want to chill with you because we like you as a person, and there’s no need for any additional excuses. It’d be so fucking great to see real flesh and blood people be more honest and say these kinds of words to each other more often. I think that friendship would be a much more pure and pleasant thing if appreciation were expressed more often.

So long as, of course, you have a healthy dose of

Everything in moderation, right? Get some objections in, get some IRL trolling in, salt the earth a few times, be an asshole to your buddies… and then, at the end of the day, when you’re standing on your porch watching the moon, say something warranting an objection yourself.

Aria, I love you.

P.S. I’m also pleasured out of my mind by a string of devastating victories in Physics class today. Boring class is boring, awesome card game is awesome. Raped tablemate is… well, completely and utterly destroyed.