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I refuse to score this but want to write my thoughts, but why do reviews do the counterintuitive thing and make you score it…

The story boarding/layout/storytelling doesn’t even hold a candle to the originals and even a simple ova (arietta) was so much better than this 1 hour movie we got. Aria was known for its subtlety, epitomizing eloquent show not tell storytelling that was not highbrow and easily understood by all(accessible). These 3 installments were the opposite: all about telling through exposition dumps and explaining rather than showing their feelings. The setup was waayy to long, this could’ve been chopped down to 30-40 mins ... and nothing would’ve been lost.

There were some continuity issues, the biggest being middle school Aika having short hair in middle school while she stated in series that growing her hair out to be long like Alicia’s was her goal since meeting her. Which is why middle school aika should’ve had long hair. Her whole arc in animation>natural was realizing she could never be a prima like Alicia and would begin carving out her own path as an undine which was metaphorically shown by the length of her hair. Also, it was so unlikely that she didn’t know Alicia and didn’t visit her until akira introduced her. Being a daughter of a gondola conglomerate she must’ve known about Aria company and should’ve recognized Alicia by the uniform.

What made up for these minor gripes was showing how aika’s prima exam went. Ngl, I teared up watching that part lol. Brought back so many memories of the tv series and being able to see how Aika passed and that last scene of Akira taking off her glove was so emotional. Reliving memories of Aika growing up lol. Makes me want to rewatch the original all over again except I have no time to cries.

To be honest, what I wish these 3 installments were about was seeing the 3 girls growth as primas and mentoring the newbs. And seeing from their perspective how hard it was for their mentors to mentor them. That would’ve completed the cycle of mentor-mentee and would’ve been a much more satisfying end to the series imo. Oh wells, it is what it is, just sad that this is an actual end to aria as they’re prob not going continue making spin offs anymore. This is not Eva after all and won’t attract new anime fans to watch it as it is a pretty underrated hidden gem of an anime.

Sadly they don’t make iyashikei like this anymore and doubt anything that comes up in the next 25 years will be able to top this. Should prob buy the blue rays if they still exist lol, prob the better move in the long run. A treasure like this must be preserved for decades to come.

Sincerely,
Your average Aria enjoyer who rewatched the original 4+ times.