Aria 1
February 2, 2008
What happened in this volume? I feel like I can’t really say much different from what I already said about Aqua. There was a lot of riding around in boats. The last chapter is just Akari participating in a boat race. Obviously the fastest contestant wins, but she keeps getting sidetracked by little things in Neo-Venezia while competing and winds up enjoying herself a lot more because of it. Her teacher approves.
She is now at the stage in her apprenticeship where she can give tours as long as her teacher is in the boat with her. There is one chapter where she tries to force a cranky old man to appreciate the beauty in nature and doing things by hand (as opposed to what I assume is a rather industrial, automatic way of life where he is from), and one chapter where she discusses the history of Venice and Neo-Venezia with someone who was apparently a former customer. They pass an afternoon waiting on people who take hours to show. Apparently things like this were common before cellphones.
Another chapter is entirely focused on Akari and her friend cleaning their gondolas, playing around while doing so, and then at the very end, riding in their clean gondolas. I liked that chapter too. The only other story I haven’t really talked about yet has the characters going to an environment set up to mimic Japan. Akari works hard at not getting lost and led away to the world of demons by the fox spirit.
They all do a very good job at being calm and relaxing, and are some of the only stories I’ve read that are totally successful at having zero plot. I love reading them, because I love watching the joy the main character seems to take from simply rowing around and looking at the scenery. It’s so nice, and it helps break up the drama between the other series I love so much.
