12 Days of Anime – #1 Aria the Avvenire 3 and Looking Ahead

This year’s 12 Days of Anime starts with my favorite world, the music of which accompanied my walk down the aisle (I think only one guest recognized the song). While I watched the last episode of Aria the Avvenire back in June, I never got around to talking about the finale of the three-part special since there was work and all the wedding craziness zapping away my willpower to do anything else. Now that both are out of the way (yes, both!) and I can finally focus on blogging, writing, and cooking, we return to Aqua.

Aria the Avvenire OVA 2: Encounters and Farewells

It has actually been a couple of weeks since I finally watched the second Aria the Avvenire, but the images and emotions still resonate even now thinking back on it. “That Warm Goodbye…” follows a central figure, Neo Venezia’s Cait Sith. Also know as Carnival’s “Casanova,” conductor of the Galaxy Express, and the spirit of Aqua, he is a mysterious presence very few people have seen, much less communicated with. Akari is one of the special few. Perhaps Ai will be next?

Aria the Avvenire OVA 1: Bittersweet Reunion

Earlier last year, the second-to-best announcement I could have hoped for was made: an OVA for my favorite anime series of all time would be produced. Then came even better news! We would receive three OVAs in the Avvenire story line. The only way they could have improved my already sunny mood would be to announce a full season.

But then, I forgot all about it. My excitement lasted all of a month, then vanished in the face of an already full plate. I was reminded once again of Avvenire with the release of the first OVA, “For You, Whom I Longed to Meet.”

[Carnival: The Impact They Had on Us] Marina’s Influential Anime

I didn’t begin watching anime until my undergrad years, something I briefly touched on in the About page of this blog. But in participation with Ayame’s carnival, below are the memorable anime that influenced me greatly into the person I am today.

[Remembering Love] Aria the Natural and Neo Venezia’s Cat Kingdom

Aqua is a world where each day moves slowly and where every encounter with a new person or place feels like coming home.  And yet there are plenty of experiences that emphasize how many mysteries still shroud the city of Neo Venezia.  You could spend your whole life there and never even delve beneath its surface of water canals and cobbled lanes.  Aria the Natural, the second series in the franchise, features both Neo Venezia’s secrets and the very special undine who comes closer than many others do in discovering them.  Among the several supernatural events, my favorites always include the border along the kingdom of cats, a world supposedly ruled by a cat larger than two humans stacked together.  Akari’s strange ability to both see and interact with Cait Sith and other cats in the border between worlds conveys the depth to which she has come to understand and love this city entrenched in the past.

Marina’s Favorite 5 – Heroines

After watching as much anime as I have, it’s inevitable that favorites will soon emerge.  These are the girls who grabbed my affections and wiggled their ways into my heart.  These are the girls who made me wish I could be their friend and ring them up for some hanging out.  These are the girls who I admire and respect, and at times, who I wish I could be like.  Thank you for your sweetness, mischievousness, courage, and fortitude.