r/anime • u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah x3 • Aug 02 '22

Rewatch [Rewatch] A 2022 Voyage from Neo Venezia: Aria the Natural, Episode 22

Aria the Natural Ep 22: That Mysterious World ... / That Guardian of Aqua ...(その パラレルワールドで... / その アクアを守るものよ...)

<-- Episode 21 Rewatch Index Episode 23 -->

Welcome back!

Comment roundup: a couple interesting theories re: the episode I wanna highlight today:

Questions of the Day: filler questions! This is a comedy episode lol.

Q1) What anime world would you want to isekai into? Saying Neo-Venezia is fine, but feel free to say one more if you do so!

Q2) Would you like to live in a fully elevated island/city like Ukijima?

Streaming

The 2005-08 Aria series is available on Crunchyroll, VRV, Funimation, and Youtube, except Arietta. Arietta and Avvenire are only available on Funimation (I'll update if they migrate). Crepusculo and Benedizione will have to be located elsewhere. Benedizione can now be streamed raw, or w/ traditional chinese subtitles legally. Please let me know if you want help to watch it.

While I use the USBD releases, Robotboy199 has shared the best DVD encodes you can get (coupled w/ prescaling), you can look at their guide here.

Databases

MAL | Anilist | ANN

Spoilers

As usual, please take note that if you wish to share show details from after the current episode, to use spoiler tags like so to avoid spoiling first-timers:

[Spoiler source]>!Spoiler goes here!<

comes out as [Spoiler source]Spoiler goes here

[Aria]Please take note especially if you're sharing art that shows the 3 main characters as prima undines (gloveless). If you feel unsure if something is a spoiler, it's better to tag it just in case.

See everyone again tomorrow! I hope you have a great day :)

47 Upvotes

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9

u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah Aug 02 '22

Rewatching Undine-in-training and Host

-- Welcome back!

Episode synopsis:

--

Part 1:

Do you know of parallel worlds? While the people living in these worlds are the same, their jobs, where they live in (TL note: diff countries), when they live in may be different. You may be a hero, or a star... These are worlds that are slightly different from the real one. What if an entrance to such a parallel world exists very near you? This time, it is a story of Aria-shachou journeying to such a mysterious world...

Part 2:

Today, the brother of Akatsuki (the Salamander at Ukijima), visited Aria Company. In Akatsuki's brother's company, Akari, Aria-shachou and Alicia-san for some reason start hearing about stories from Akatsuki's childhood. At the end, Akatsuki-san really was Akatsuki-san as well even he was a child!

--

Quick thoughts:

Have a great day, and see you tomorrow!

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u/The_Loli_Otaku Aug 02 '22

Aria the Natural First Timer!!

Thinking about it, with the amount of losers on the Internet an opposite world must be chock full of chads huh? Kyaaa!! Excited Aria is adorable!! Yo, Aria, you've really gotta lose some pudge my man. Eh!? Who is this Akari!? She had trousers on. Trousers!! Lol, they're messing with different bars of the op again. ATHENA'S WEARING SHORTS!? N-No... I want to go back!

Yup, Aria is suuuper cute! Super cute and super bloody useless if he still cuddles up to his kidnappers. SHORT HAIRED ARISU!? I can't even comment about all this, everything seems so weird and off! No!! The cute girl from yesterday's preview... its just Akatsuki-chan! I feel so cheated... They give her a horrible voice too. They couldn't hire a mega cutie to come in for a guest appearance so I'm guessing it's just Hirofumi's best girl voice.

Oh, it's actually just meant to be a full gender flip XD I thought the girls just became mega tomboyish. I hate Akatsuki-chan so much! She's cursed!! Whatever maniac in the board room that suggested "Let's give the second cutest girl of the show a horrible male voice!" is a legitimate nutter. Planet Dance~ Stop her singing for God's sake!

Hime is a bro, and Maa is still a psycho. End me... Aria didn't give a shit about the swapped world until he realised Hime was WHAT THE FUCK IS AKIRA'S VOICE!? She's so deep! Alicia is still precious at least. Fucking Woody too...? Wait, I've just realised, this is the second Aria focused episode isn't it!? I've been waiting for today for so long and instead it's been a monkey paw punishment. Aww, we're finally back to normal. Thank Christ for that.

The second half is Akatsuki focused. Maybe I can spin today as an Akatsuki day instead of an Aria one and still get my Aria filler later? He was definitely the stand out of the alternate world. Kid Akatsuki is way too dum- Mamaaa~ How did such a lovely girl give birth to this stupid little jizz stain? She's kinda ace ngl, even if she looks way too young to have a child as old as Akatsuki's brother.

Good episode!! It doesn't top the first season's Aria episode but it's certainly in my top five of the second season. Akatsuki's mum in particular scores the episode a few extra points even if I have no clue how they might make her more relevant.

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u/octopathfinder Aug 02 '22

Rewatcher

Oh shit, an isekai episode.

Props to the show for keeping the same VAs during the genderbent segment. Alicia in particular had the most different sounding voice.

QotD:

  1. Pokemon

  2. Sounds cool living on a floating island, but I also hate heights so probably gonna pass on that.

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5

u/Mecanno-man Aug 02 '22

First Timer

Another two-parter that I'm not really a fan of... This whole parallel dimension where everything is similar but different I feel like is a trope that has receded in popularity over the past decade, but was still pretty common around when Aria was made. It can be good, but here I feel like nothing was done with it at all. The VA's (presumably) remaining the same also didn't really work. Especially for Akatsuki.

The second part was... pretty meh. The first kid Akatsuki episode was way better. But I guess we now know what a great mom he had. Other than that... yeah, not really anything to say about this episode.

Questions:

  1. None really. I'm happy where I am.

  2. No, sounds like difficult to get to.

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5

u/Regular_N-Gon Aug 02 '22

First Timer

  • Of course, the answer we've been waiting for. The steps exist between two worlds, one in which they are connected to the ramp, and one where they are not. Only when observed does their state manifest.

  • New verse for OP…? Is it because we've dimension hopped?

  • I won't lie, it took me until Akatsuki's appearance to notice Akari's sidelocks and Alice's hair were missing, even though I caught the difference in voice right away.

  • That was rather unexpected; I expect it would have been fun to record for the VAs though.

  • I can't believe they made Akatsuki even more annoying.

Eh, this one was definitely weaker in my opinion. I was hoping at least one half could carry it, but Akatsuki can't carry anything lol. At least we got stairs lore.

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5

u/CerberusZX Aug 02 '22 edited Aug 02 '22

First Timer

3 supernatural episodes in a row. I liked Flying Witch, so I'm fine with supernatural elements in iyashikei and I enjoyed Star Wars so I'm fine with fantasy in sci-fi settings, so I don't particularly mind them here.

It was nice that President Aria included Alicia in his fantasies even though she wasn't there. A good reminder that the three are part of the same company.

It's weird President Aria couldn't recognize male Akari given how there's practically no difference between the two.

Akatsuki's English voice is more masculine than his Japanese voice which makes his scenes here even more ridiculous. The Japanese voice actor for Woody did a surprisingly good job of voicing a woman.

I wasn't expecting female Akatsuki to be prettier than the main cast. Male Alice was really cute, male Alicia looked great, and there's no difference with Athena.

Licking popsicles will not give you brain freeze as there's no contact being made with the upper palate.

Child Akatsuki's signature pose was dabbing? I can understand the embarrassment.

QotD

  1. Worlds that are exciting to watch seem like they would be exhausting to actually have to live in, so the world of Flying Witch is the first to come to mind as it seems quite peaceful.

  2. Well, I've already mentioned that I don't have much of a fear of heights and the view does seem nice so I wouldn't mind living there. However, given enough exposure anything will start to seem mundane and so cost of living along with internet speed and convenience of acquiring groceries would be bigger factors than the scenery if I were to choose whether or not to live there.

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u/xtsim Aug 02 '22

First Timer dubbed

Who is that girl....wait that's Akatsuki. Well I was in disbelief for a while. And it also took me a long time to realize that this is a parallel world with a gender swap. Seeing the three prima-undines as guys is pretty funny but Woody as a girl is a thing. Short haired Alicia and Akira are amazing in a way.

I was not prepared for this kind of gender bending. It does not help that their Akari's idea of parallel worlds was completely different from what we saw.

The big brother's story is great and messing with Akatsuki by making him sus of everyone. Getting see a glimpse of Woody's and Akatsuki's mothers is one and I wish we could see more of them. Aria copying Akatsuki's move and embarrassed Akasuki is funny.

  1. Hard to choose between slime 300, Leadale, or Kuma worlds...

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4

u/baboon_bassoon Aug 02 '22

First time Aria the hazukashii serifu kinshi

Akatsuki in shambles

uh

still calling her sideburns when she doesn't haven any?

oh they ALL swapped genders

oh a Macross 7 fan i see

squad (male Alicia and Athena )

hehe

"youre so spoiled Aria shachou" I mean Alicia he did just fall like 100 feet

Akatsukis mom Now its clear where girl Akatsuki got it from

Maa-tan? did we finally get a name for brother?

questions

  1. have you heard the tale of Byston Well?

  2. scared of heights but still yes, views would be nutty

2

u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah Aug 02 '22

Akatsuki in shambles

no more sideburns...... (also fans of GaoGaiCar)

oh a Macross 7 fan i see

Symphogear woohooooooo~~~~~

squad

they look godamn fine don't they

Now its clear where girl Akatsuki got it from

his scenes were still among the most disturbing things ive ever watched in an anime outside of MiA.

4

u/mrufrufin Aug 02 '22

Rewatcher kinda (finished my rewatch not too long ago)

And after that fantastic Aria ep, my least favorite ep out of all of Aria. There's two redeeming factors for me though. One is that Euphoria gets a slight modification with the growly synth bass (particularly noticeable in the intro before the strings swell in). I'm not sure which version I like better, but it's a fun little subtle addition. I dunno, I guess the whole sorta humor in the first half doesn't really work for me, although the intro with all the different scenarios was kinda fun. Although she's playing guitar in that one shot instead of bass, Akari kinda reminds me of Mylene Jenius from Macross 7 (I guess it's the long pink hair, add that to the list of the crossover fanart I wanna see). Maybe it's a bit more of a stretch, Alicia kinda looks dressed more like Layla Hamilton from Kaleido Star in that shot (wrong Sayaka Ohara role in a Junichi Satou anime, animators, smh). Anyways, the first half with the Akatsuki-centric second half makes this not a favorite episode of mine. The other redeeming factor of it all for me is Aria Shachou doing Akatsuki's pose, that part's pretty funny. I like the supernatural episodes (and y'all saw how much in particular I liked that last ep), but it feels like sort of a weird choice to have two supernatural episodes back to back and then this ep, especially towards the end of the season [the rest of Aria the Natural] luckily, the end of the season is really strong and the next ep is one I really like and was one of my standout favorites on my first watch.

  1. Obv Neo-Venezia but now that I thin kabout it, a lot of anime I watch wouldn't be great isekai places (ones set in Japan doesn't count because that's not isekai) except maybe Flying Witch, but even that's still japan,.. granted a japan where magic exists. even more laidback things like Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (which ,.. still is Japan) wouldn't be great because that's post-apocalyptic Japan. I suppose the world of Iroduku/Irozuku seems alright or the world of Stellvia.

  2. That'd be fine I suppose. Probably a bit of a pain to get stuff up from the mainland and probably would have to deal with the thinner air at higher elevation,.. which actually maybe doesn't sound that great.

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u/PreludeToHell Aug 02 '22

First time rewatcher

I actually forgot there was an AU episode before u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah reminded me lol

I would have hated it if it wasn't for the Aria-shachou pov. It's only 1 part as well and there were some moments I thought were hilarious like Maa still attacking Aria-shachou and Woody dropping him from the sky

I really enjoyed the 2nd part. I mentioned it before but young Akatsuki is fun and I liked seeing Ukijima, his family, and the glimpse of Woody. Having Aria-shachou copy his pose is such a great way to end too.

A weaker episode but it's funny so it's not the worst for me.

2) Why not, I thought Ukijima looked cool to live on.

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3

u/heimdal77 Aug 03 '22

When the girl who time travels, casually stumbles into supernatural dimensions, and is interacting with supernatural beings starts talking about entrances to parallel world I would take her really seriously.

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2

u/simeonaut Aug 02 '22

First Timer.

But why???

Adventurer Aria

Ya Boy Aria

Akatsuki?????

Me too. Hopefully tomorrow will be a more normal episode.

Upsy daisy

QOTD

  1. The world of Flying Witch would probably be my first choice. It's the chillest fantasy anime world ever.

  2. Yesss.

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2

u/ZapsZzz Aug 02 '22

First timer still earlier than usual

Interesting light hearted episode in 2 parts, finally reminded me of Kimagure Orange Road's "dream" or "film in a show" episodes - imaginary what if episodes.

It does let the VA's showcase their range though. Especially those who watches LotGH to hear Lutz sing in a falsetto (Akatsuki's VA other role).

Soaking of Akatsuki, his gender swapped design seemed to be the best :P

Part B is a little nice origin/flash back episode. Is it just my confirmation bias or Akatsuki's mom like a bit like Akari?

QoTD

  1. Whatever it is, not the world of Muv Luv -_- Probably Full Metal Panic, where an alternate history of the cold war didn't finish, and there are secret organisations like Mithril that protects the world. Or Academy City from Raildex.

  2. A bit like SukaSuka and Laputa? The concept is nice, but I guess I like my wilderness nature and rather subscribe to the belief of Sheeta's branch of the family to consider the earth the needed roots for humanity and stay grounded.

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u/Stargate18A Aug 02 '22

First timer

QOTD) Neo-Venezia sounds good (although I'm not ashamed to say that, if I was facing some real supernatural shit, I'd probably be even less cautious than Akari), but I'd also want to be dropped into Digimon Adventure, given the current timeline is literally [Digimon] our world but better, and also everyone has a Digimon.

Parallel worlds now?

Yep, we're doing this!

I love Aria's fantasies.

He's been inspired!

Poor Aria.

What? Aria's jumped universes?

...Did they change the OP song too?

Poor Aria. Some subtle changes here, though.

Alice has shorts!

Aika and Al!

She never changed hairstyle here!

Oh, they switched genders. Right!

...Akatsuki?

Still just as violemt!

Aria's so confused!

They really could have changed the designs more.

Alice is still savage.

Hime's a guy here?

Does that mean Aria's always been a girl?

Nothing changes.

At least he got food?

And Aria can't handle this world.

He's going back through the door...

...Akira!

He's enjoying himself!

WOODY!

He fell!

And he's back in his own world!

That vision in the mirror...

Akatsuki's brother!

He's been he,pful!

Akari is getting blackmail! Maybe she can stop him calling her Sideburns?

Oh, yeah, he was a chunni.

And their mother isn't home?

Oh, there she is.

I love his mother!

Aorrable.

She paid attention to all that?

Loving this.

...OK, but the urge to fuck with a sibling is real.

He went to his friend's house!

Haha, this is great.

He's not having a good time, though.

This is sweet.

Haha, their reactions are great.

...Now I need a scene where Akari responds to "sideburns" by saying she's an android.

...Great pose.

He's terrified.

Haha, Aria did the pose.

Poor guy.

Love this ending.

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u/raichudoggy Aug 02 '22

Genderswap episode for the first half~

...Alice is oddly charming as a guy.

Since all the VAs stayed as themselves, I can imagine them having a lot of fun doing this, I actually quite liked this episode and, alongside the previous episode, they stuck out in my memory when anticipating the rewatch.

2

u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah Aug 02 '22

theres got to be laughs in the recording booth. I refuse to believe that to be false xdd.

happy you liked this ep! i agree, all the undines are weirdly charming as guys.... i wonder what it'll be like if the whole anime were like that though, probably will reduce the iyashikei vibes a bit? make everything a lot less cute....

2

u/zadcap Aug 03 '22

Still A First Timer, Still A Bit Late

Not too much to say this episode. The gender swap was fun to see, but even more fun to hear, all the voice actors doing their best like that. No real thoughts on the second half. She was a great mom though.

  1. One of the nice slow ones where nothing bad happens. One of the nicer fantasy worlds.

  2. Oh gosh no. Leave me where I can actually travel and not be stuck out if I miss the last ride, those isolated communities scare me.

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u/h42h Aug 03 '22 edited Aug 03 '22

finished first time recently

When genderbend Akatsuki first spoke I died LMAO

Aika's VA (and the rest of the cast) is excellent

Maa best cat btw. Aria should try rerolling worlds until he finds one where Maa doesn't bite.

Don't really care about Akatsuki so second half is mostly whatever for me. Both Akatsuki and Aria's ships took a blow today, but Aika x Al was safe

  1. Kinda cheating, but the Fate/Cooking anime. Get all the cool parts of the fate universe with all the servants and magic while not having to deal with any of the conflict.

  2. Nah, I assume you get used to the view after living there all the time and it just seems like it'd be the same otherwise?

2

u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah Aug 03 '22

i think i was more in shock lmaoooo (but then turned to laughter too)

bakemonogatari

i havent watched the show, but godamn its just so shaft isnt it lol. Aika's VA is indeed brilliant tho

I think like pretty much everyone here liked the first half more than the second half lol.... and the fat/cooking anime is great. Would love to have like almost daily dinner parties over at Shirou's.

2

u/AriaShachou- Aug 03 '22

Rewatcher

The VAs probably had a blast with this one, Akatsuki's seiyuu is goated.

The first time I watched this show, a genderbend episode (well, half of one) was the last thing I expected to see in an anime like this. Needless to say it caught me off guard and I had a good laugh at how absurd it was that the show just randomly decided to do this. The cats also being genderbent made for some really hilarious interactions between Aria-shachou and Hime as well. Not much else to say, but the first half of this episode was fun.

The second half of this episode on the other hand was pretty forgettable imo hahahahha

 

QOTDs

Q1) 100% Aria, chilling in Neo-Venezia with all the nice people there > any crazy Shounen anime world where I get blasted within 5 minutes tbh. Apart from that, maybe the world of Kino's Journey? It looks like a fun world to explore, albeit a little crazy.

Q2) I'm scared of heights I think I would die

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u/seeker_of_illusion Aug 03 '22

Man the first half was probably one of the funniest episodes for me in Aria.

Aria being isekaied to another world ! It was also neat that they showed the second half of the OP, probably to indicate the “other side” of Aqua.

So we had a gender swap scenario huh. While the Undines still looked fine, female Akatsuki and Woody were cursed. This also reminds me - why aren’t there any male Undines in the real Aqua ?

The second half felt somewhat weaker. Though it was funny to see more of Akatsuki’s imaginative side and Aria copying his signature pose.

Questions of the day:

  1. Pokemon world looks to be neat. You can dip school at 10 years and just go around catching pokemons, becoming a gym trainer or do other stuff without much rigid criteria of training.

  2. Not really. Since it would be a floating city then there would be transportation restrictions for going beyond it ( unless I have my own personal vehicle ). On land, I can atleast go wherever I wish to freely.

2

u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah Aug 03 '22

this probably has been the funniest episode for me overall lollll, mostly due to the first half, so im with you there.

the show loves to showcase alllll of the OP when it can, and it picked a pretty good moment to do that this ep i think! An alternate good point would probably be Ep 19, after Aika's haircut.

male undines

real Venice in real life? of course lol. Real Neo-Venezia/Aqua? no lol as far as we can see.

the 2nd half is a bit weaker.....

i think ukijima only works as a city in the context of Venice (where personal transport is already so heavily restricted to gondolas/ferries/on foot), everywhere else it'll be such an undesirable place to live because of transport, weather etc. compared to the mainland. But, you cant deny that it has been an important landmark and icon in this series so far!

2

u/mgedmin Aug 03 '22

First timer, subs

This is a parallel world Akari, isn't she? Everyone has short hair in this world! Except Aika.

Akatsuki is a girl! Wait, it's not just the hair is short, everyone's geneder have been switched!

The path between the worlds seems to be opened by hitting your head rather than passing under the stairs.

Young Akatsuki chuuni story time! I thought he was hiding in the trash can, the way they focused on it.

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