Aria the Crepuscolo

This movie is a very good addition to the Aria series.

The story told is solid and follows everything built up from the series so far. Additionally, it has flashbacks that make the actions of various characters make more sense.

The art was very well done. the artists and developers did a great job of making the scene, animations, and transitions beautiful without tearing the viewers away from the story. Nothing stood out as off (or weird) and the blending was done properly.

The audio was enjoyable and the music was just as soothing as before. The quality of sound adapted the technology that came out since the ... series was originally launched well to be able to maintain its theme while increasing the quality as well as it did.

The characters were portrayed properly and the inclusion of the new trio was well done. The backstory that was added through flashbacks increased the cohesion of the story for the series as a whole and improved its quality.

I enjoyed the movie and its worth recommending. My personal enjoyment is a 10. With that said, for a majority of anime enthusiasts, the movie and series is too slow and lacks action and adventure elements so I reduced the enjoyment rating to an 8 for the review.

This anime saga or lore is kind of underrated and I would like to explain why I think so: it's too chill and peaceful, there's not "plot" per se. I slowly started to like it since the first season, although some of them where hard to digest without falling asleep. Then, third season (the Origination) arrived and I loved it so much. It's not that the story is bad, is that we need to take a breath from a stressful and frenetic life, we need to get inmersed into it to enjoy it.

I don't like to explain too much so I'll just go straight and ... tell you why I think you should appreciate it and why not:

+Nice animation, nice music, everything is cute and positive.
+It's a different kind of approach to sci-fi.
+There was a nice scene or two and cried a little, not too much.
+It somehow continues the last OVAs.

- They recycled some scenes from the former OVAs as flashbacks. I think this is okay but at the same time it was seen as some filler to reach the hour.
- It seemed to me as a "pretend" sequel rather than a fake one. They focused on two characters but nothing really went on for the rest of them, it was both retrospective and introspective. Nothing went really forward in their lives, really.

I'm not really sure if this will have a real continuation in the years that will come.

Months later, I still can't believe I paid roughly $20 USD to see this in theatres in Japan. Never in my life have I felt so robbed seeing a movie. And I adore the ARIA series.

They recycled frames like I couldn't believe, the audio mixing was beyond atrocious, the plotting was pathetic, and the "location scouting for a birthday party" montage was 6 entire frames, with every one drawn at a time of day to require no shadows be cast by the characters. Shadows incidentally are missing in almost every shot.

Do yourself a favor and avoid this disaster. JC Staff ought to be ashamed.