we're finally notdotq anymore

I want to say go die, but that wouldn’t really be in the spirit of things. Instead, deftoned, I would like to thank you for dragging me back to Earth. Yes, it is I, returned. Apologies for the shotakit stunt. I’ll try to lay off the emo troll songs. I won’t lay off the Aria.

deftoned insults Aquamarine’s quality. I agree that the quality of Aquamarine’s grammar was not Owen-notch. I agree that it’s pretty pitiful. I would contend, however, that there’s nothing wrong with what they did (in the context of us being people who consume fansubs).

Thank you Aquamarine for ruining 2 very good episodes of Aria with lousy grammar.

I wouldn’t call it ruining. The episodes are still the episodes. You watched the raws, right, deftoned? If you watched the raws, and if you’re discussing the quality of the subs, then you were fine with just the raws, or something, I’m assuming. In that case, these subs affect nothing for you.

Aria deserves better.

It’s going to get better when the boxset comes out in 2009 or 2010. Aquamarine I think released their subs with the intention of getting a quick fix to the people who were left high and dry by Hikari no Kiseki. They didn’t go back and sub episodes 1-11; they clearly were patching a hole. As far as that goes, I think it was pretty suteki or whatever. I was happy to see Aria the Origination 12. I appreciated what they did. I danced around the bad grammar and unnecessary TL notes and I enjoyed the episodes and I was grateful.

This isn’t to make a judgment on HnK—I know they have their reasons for dropping the show and taking down their torrents, it’s a matter of their conception of respect and all that—but yeah, I’m glad that Aquamarine released those subs.

Whether or not they’re native speakers doesn’t matter because the quality of the subs doesn’t matter past a certain point. As far as I could tell—and I’ll have to admit, I’m not the King of Japanese or something—the subs were ‘correct’ and gave a good idea of what was happening. This could by the Nyoro~n subs thing all over again but the circumstances are very different. Nyoro~n was trying to be a fansubbing group while Aquamarine was just trying to fansub something. The circumstances don’t call for easy and poor-quality releases done for releasing’s sake; they call for a product that will satisfy. I understand that Aquamarine failed in that regard at least as far as deftoned and his comment-leavers are concerned, but they succeeded with me.

They succeeded with me, and I am thankful.

deftoned’s vitriolic disregard for Aquamarine’s efforts strikes me as somewhat cold and not particularly well-thought-out. I feel like he could have made a more wonderful post if he had been less harsh and had perhaps offered constructive criticism rather than flames. That said, it is time to thank some people.

You five groups—especially Crystal Nova—have brought to me one of the greatest things of my life. All of you helped in some way to convey the feelings and messages of my new favorite anime to me. Thanks to you all, I have “chotto ureshii dake da yo” echoing in my mind. Thanks to you, I’ve been on the verge of tears almost all day. “Almost,” because I in fact did cry at one point.

For a long time, I said things like “Kannazuki no Miko is my favorite show,” emphasizing the word “show” because I had this gimmick that Interlude was my #0 top anime (it being an OVA). Obviously, Kannazuki no Miko is no longer my favorite show. Also, as should be obvious given my emphasis on wording and the diction of my previous paragraph, Interlude is no longer my top of the top. That’s right—Aria has surpassed it. Aria is officially my best. My top. I don’t know what this does to my Top 5 list and frankly I don’t care. It seems totally inconsequential right now. That’s how good Aria is—it can be my Top 5, all by itself.

A note to anyone who might err and call the ending “rushed” as though that were unexpected or unpleasant or disappointing: any kind of ending for Aria is, by definition, rushed. Let us take a quick look at the story structure of Aria:

The Animation, episode 1: Introduces Akari, Alicia, Aika, Aria, Ai, some side characters, Neo-Venezia. Sets the stage, creates the premise, etc.
The Animation, episode 3: Introduces Alice. Everything has been put in motion.
The Origination, episode 9-13: Promotions! And everything comes full circle.

Notice what’s missing up there? That’s right, 45 episodes of the show! Yes, there’s continuity and character development throughout the entire series, but forty-five episodes go by without having any major points in that overall plot of “Akari becomes a pro.” Forty-five episodes go by slowly, plugging away at the mystique of Aqua, the beauty of life, the power of love. Things change, seasons come and go, but aside from passing references to Akari’s skill improving there’s no real mention of barriers overcome or checkpoints cleared. So yeah, no matter how they paced the ending, so long as they were trying to have Akari reach her goal, things were going to seem rushed.

Rushed, but just as planned.

Rushed, but wonderful.

By the way, who called it? Back with episode 4 I said Akari was Prima-level. Alicia agrees with me:

By the way, Shirukii, you’ve been delinquent in your duties. Where are Aria posts? What happened to our blogs being matching lovers?!

There were so many hard-hitting moments in the last episode of Aria that I don’t know where to start cataloguing them. Aika and Alice visiting Akari and being concerned. Alicia’s news of retirement and marriage. Akari’s panic attack. Alicia’s confession. Alicia’s tears. The boat ride with the mailman. Akari’s Aria Company, and Akari’s Neo-Venezia, and Akari’s Aqua. Alicia’s retirement ceremony. Akari’s memories. The epilogue. Ai-chan as apprentice.

And that last line.

“Chotto ureshii dake da yo.”

I’ve referred to Akari’s wonderful revelations before. The things she’s said that warrant Aika’s objection. The things she’s said that improve people’s lives. Like what she said to the Singles in episode 4 of the Origination, about clean slates and starting over. Those things are all pretty lovely, I’ll admit. But this line… this line that she subconsciously pulled from Alicia’s treasure trove… it may well be the line that takes the cake, the line that will become a mantra for me.

I guess I can’t close this post with, “let’s be together on Aqua again next time,” because there is no next time.

I guess I have to close this post with…

I’m just a little happy.