Shopping Guide
Manga series Aria and its predecessor Aqua by Kozue Amano ran a total of approximately eight years following its first serialization in 2001. At first glance, this story set in the city of Neo-Venezia, a tourist city on the planet Mars of a faraway future, may sound like your typical science fiction. In actuality, this slice-of-life series invites readers into a wonderfully gentle world depicting the picturesque daily life surrounding main heroine Akari. So far the total number of tankobon volumes printed lies at 4.2 million.
The first anime title, Aria the Animation aired in 2005 and was a huge hit. Following its success the series continued with Aria the Natural in 2006, Aria the OVA ~ Arietta in 2007, and Aria the Origination in 2008 to become a fairly long franchise.
With the original manga series having ended in the same year, until now 2008 was the last time an anime title for the series happened. However, a brand new anime is now in the works and has been announced for 2015.
This announcement stated that anime Aria the Avvenire was green-lit for production and scheduled for an event screening of the anime on Sept. 26. This seems to be only one part of a larger project named “Ao no Curtain Call” celebrating the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the Aria anime series.
An official Twitter and website for the project were opened on Feb. 6 unveiling the announcement for a Blu-ray Box to include all Aria series in honor of its 10th anniversary.
What is so far a mystery is the actual content of the new anime Aria the Avvenire. We shall have to wait for further announcements on whether the anime will be material adapted from the manga, remakes of past anime episodes, or even an entirely new anime.
Meanwhile, Junichi Sato ( Kaleido Star, Sgt. Frog, Tamayura), the director of all past Aria series, will return to reprise his role. Also returning are scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida and character designer Masayuki Onji. Succeeding the role of Hal Film Maker, which was in charge of production of the previous anime titles, will be TYO Animations, a most assuring staff lineup for fans of the series. With the first screening listed for Sept. 26, it seems this will be the point of climax for 2015’s year of Aria.
- Comment from Kozue Amano (Creator):
“In 2015, I was honestly surprised at how much time had past since the first season of the anime aired 10 years ago. The series Aria was actually only supposed to end carefreely as a single volume work. I had only decided to draw freely things that I thought were fun, yet the work grew to become a long serialization that broke my past record of most manga volumes printed, and was made into anime many times…
“At the time I did not even think that the series would be poised to become a work that I would charge forward with as if it were the work of my lifetime. Even now I earnestly feel that it was quite the mystery.
“Not only am I now able to reunite with Aria through the plans for the Blu-ray HD release, I hold the unexpected joy of finding out that a new anime will be made deep in my heart and want to share with everyone my feelings of happiness to cheer on together.”
Comment from Junichi Sato (Director):
“On top of being able to bring the past footage to a more beautiful condition, how fortunate it is that I will be able to go to Neo-Venezia once more.
“In hindsight, this work has really brought so many miraculously joyful things into my life. During the first season, even though at first I desperately tried to figure out how to conclude the story with the limitation of 13 episodes, I ended up being able to make 4 cours worth. Although I do not deny having thought that they should have just let me do that in the first place, I was very happy. It seems that the making of Aria simply came down to having a great time with all my fellow staff despite all the struggles. I am certain that even those who regretfully will not be returning this time around are just as happy for this project as we are.
Welcome again, to the world of Aria. Let’s have a wonderful time together!”
Aria the Avvenire Official Site
Kozue Amano Aria Published by (Blade Comics / Mag Garden)
Director/Series Composition: Junichi Sato
Script: Reiko Yoshida
Character Design: Masayuki Onji
Production: TYO Animations
Source: animeanime
