About the Mangaka

Not a lot of information available on Amano Kozue unfortunately. While she’s now famous for her Aria and Aqua creation, she also worked on a number of other manga, including Mukuukai – Amano Kozue Tanpenshu 1 a one volume one-hot, Roman Club which ran for six volumes, and Sora no Uta – Amano Kozue Tanpenshu 2 another single volume one-shot. All of which were done before Aqua and Aria, and all of which are still unlicensed. She has a website with a gallery showing off concept art from the Aria world, find it here.

About the Manga

I’ve turned the cover on it’s side so as you can appreciate just how awesome the art is!!

There’s only one word to describe my feelings for Aria, and that Love. I love this series to bits, and have all the volumes in the original Japanese, as well as the scanlations.

Amano-sensei is a goddess and should be worshipped, her skills with the pen are mind blowing to say the least. I usually find that the first few volumes of a series, even by well established mangaka, lack a bit of polish. In part I think because it takes them a volume or so to get into the mood of the series.

However with Amano-sensei this goes out the window. From the outset her art is mind blowingly beautiful. The panoramic visuals she draws are stunning to behold, and could easily qualify as works of art in their own right.

She perfectly balances the comedy side of the series with the actual story and beauty. The chibi characters she draws have never, in all of the volumes I’ve read (and I’ve sadly read them all now), feel out of place or over used.

What makes Aria special however is that for a series with nothing going on, it never feels boring. Rather the lack of anything happening feels like a driving force. For example in this volume  one of the chapters deals with a huge race. You’d be forgiven for feeling like your in for some action, but the result is very different. The race is forgotten and it carries on at a slow and sedated pace.

However one of my favourite chapters is ‘Navigation 4′, where Alicia, Akari and Aria go and visit a small island that holds a Japanese shrine. The basic story of the day is the old Japanese myth of the ‘Fox Wedding’, and I love how Amano-sensei melds the old myth into the story. What’s more is that this chapter holds some of the most stunning art of the volume.

Sadly, Tokyopop had to mess with things a bit. I do not like the sci-fi font used in the title, in fact it gives a false impression of the contents. I much prefer the original font, and wish they had stuck with it. (see below)

However, unlike with Aqua, TP have left the original colour page intact. I guess they learnt that you can’t just leech the colour from a image and expect it to look as good as the coloured version.

However the colours do seem muted, and not as vibrant or as alive as the original:

Translation wise TP did a fairly decent job, up to one point. I’ve no idea what the QC’ers were doing when they okayed the script, but at one point it’s totally wrong. And that’s when Akari is waiting with Akatsuki. She refers to him as ‘President’. Yet in the early volume of Aqua it’s revealed that he’s an apprentice, the same as Akari.

People that have read Aqua will not have a problem with it really, (beyond being a pit peeved over such an inconsistency getting through the QC), however newcomers who find Aria first will be later thrown when his status is revealed. Unless of course TP plan to make him the President regardless of what the original says.

The paper quality is the same old crappy stuff they’ve been using all along. However because of the style Amano-sensei uses in this series it doesn’t hinder in any way. Rather the art makes the paper look whiter than it is because it’s such a ‘light’ art style. As in, the art is full of light, with very little black used, and when it is used the contrast is all the more potent, because of it’s rarity.

However on white paper, I can only imagine how stunning this series would have been.

Needless to say this series makes it onto my Essential Read list, silly to even ask really

However it will be interesting to see if this title has made it past TP’s recent cut back’s on manga. Several titles, which have yet to be announced, have been cancelled. Though I think picking up a series another company has cancelled, then cancelling it yourselves, would have disastrous effects for TP.

Where to Buy

As always the Book Depository is the place to go!!