we're finally notdotq anymore

What better way to finish off a series of posts like this than to reminisce on my most awing anime experience of the year? On May 7th I woke up to see that Aria the Origination episodes 12 and 13 had been delivered to mplayer. I was nervous about my AP Calculus exam, so I figured I would watch some calming Aria and let it soothe me.

I always liked Aria, from the day I watched the first episode of the Animation more than a year earlier. I’d never for one moment, though, considered that it would break into my Top 10 list. My Top 10 list being riddled with such hits as… Interlude, Kannazuki no Miko, AIR, Loveless, and Saishuuheiki Kanojo.

I cried once during episode 12 of the Origination and I cried four times during episode 13. I cried when Akari cried, I cried when Akari cried again, I cried when Akari woke up the next morning, and I cried when she uttered the last line of the whole show:

“Chotto ureshii dake da yo.”

The moment I heard those words, I understood that Aria was my favorite show of all time. My Top 10 list crumbled like Teppelin, replaced with a single show upon a single pedestal. I cried like a mother at her daughter’s wedding when I heard those words, and then I went to school and kicked the shit out of that Calculus exam’s ass.

P.S. “Only two posts about Aria, lolikit?” Yeah, I could have made every one of these twelve posts be about this show. I tried hard not to. It was a grueling task, but I won in the end. V!

As I announced multiple times, I bought Aria the Animation.

And it’s here! I hope that joy is being brought to lots of Aria fans across the country right now :)

Unfortunately, the cover art is sexualized :(

Spoilers, click to see cover art

Tomorrow, on Friday, August 1st, in conjunction with Minimum Tempo’s icystorm, I will begin an experiment.

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The following post reflects on how beautiful Aria is, how much I’ve changed over the course of the last two and a half years, and how pointlessly dumb Erica Friedman is. (jkjk!) Now that I’ve given an overview that includes a completely uncalled-for insult of a well-loved person, let’s take the plunge! » Continue reading this…

It struck me that though Aria seems slow-paced and gentle, ultimately it mimics an often-mimicked pattern identified by Joseph Campbell as “the Hero’s Journey.” It’s what made mythology survive and it’s what made Star Wars a “saga.” When I think “heroes” and “journeys” I think Lord of the Rings for whatever reason, and I don’t think I’m alone in that: the word conjures the old, the sword-and-spell fantasy, the mythological and grand, the legendary. And yet, after much thought, I have discovered that Aria follows the same pattern. That Akari is a hero. That her time on Aqua, her time that spans three years (seventy-two months) and fifty-two episodes, is a journey.

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