This review is only over the first half of Aria the Scarlet Ammo
or known as Hidan No Aria in Japan.
This Originated as a light-novel first published by media factory and written
by Chūgaku Akamatsu In August 2008. The Light-Novel is still on going as
of now which already has nine volumes out so far that, have sold an
estimated 1.9 million copies as of April 2011. A manga is also in publication
which started in September 26th 2009 that have only 2 volumes out so far and
is also published by Media Factory. The manga is being illustrated by
Yoshino Koyoka. The anime adaptation is being done by J.C.Staff and currently
only has twelve episodes slated for spring 2011. An ova has also been announced for release on December 21st 2011.
Now here is a brief summary of what I've watched so far. The plot heavily focuses on a high-school Student named Kinji Tōyama that wants to quit his job at the Butei. Kinji just wants to live a
normal life without chaos and ever day mayhem. Kinji lives alone in the boy’s dormitory number three off of
Butei high-school campus and he is often visited by his Child-Hood
Friend named Shirayuki Hotogi that has a pretty calm/cool
personality. Hotogi is willing to cook, clean and do all "sorts of things
for Kinji if you catch my drift."
 |
| Keep Your Loli In Place |
Despite Kinji being another dense character when it comes to woman's feelings, there is one thing Kinji knows about Hotogi.
She is prone to extreme jealousy if Hotogi looks at or happens to be around any other females. As you can guess
this is going to fun, due in part because of our other feisty red headed female lead Aria. Now Aria happens to meet our male lead in the
second half of episode. She runs into Kinji while he is being hunted down an
unknown terrorist group known as the butei-killer. They send out use mounted machine
guns that are controlled remotely on a segway?! These mounted guns are capable of shooting 10 rounds a second putting Kinji in a real tough spot, until he is saved by Aria who happens to be the top ace of
the assault division.
These said divisions of the
butei are allowed to use fire arms to take down offenders and arrest criminals
. "This is a huge
plus in my book".
When Aria and
Kinji are corned in a school gym equipment room it's here where Aria see's
Kinji's true power thanks to her flat-chest and is able to get rid
of the hacked machine like it was nothing. Aria then happens to get pissed off at Kinji for touching her chest. Hilarity is insured next in a three minute quarrel where Kinji shows her up and pisses her off even more. Now you would think they would go there
separate ways after arguing, like this but guess what it's not going to happen. Aria tells Kinji to meet her outside by the school in quotation marks says, "become my slave Kinji". So aria is going to be our typical Tsundere character that j.c. staff loves to turn out every season.
Now the two female leads Aria and Hotogi
are pretty spot on to their source counterparts but this isn't enough to save
the show from just being average. Sure there are guns/explosions, suspenseful
moments but none of it really amounts to anything so far. With six episodes of
show are already done the show is already half over. Now they have at least
introduced the main villain, Kinji does grow a small pair and stays with his
job to protect Aria from harm. In episode six the two love rivals are
introduced in thus bringing it down back down. There is no problem with
introducing two love rivals in any art form but they way it was executed, sadly this series does poorly
When Aria and
Hotogi first meet they get in to a Huge ass cat fight thus tearing up Kinji's dorm room. The break his table in half, throw sword through his TV, ripping his bed in half and many other possessions.
Then to make up for it Hotogi is willing to jump on his dick right then and there, to show that she is sorry for upsetting him. This was
just a poor/childish execution to do and no means warrants any good cause to do
so. To make it cynical/funny Kinji does not even a love interest in any female
as of yet so the bitch fight was for nothing but I suppose they needed to mark
their territory all over his dorm room.
Now Personally I have just seen this happen way to
much from J.C Staff's adoption's of light novels and manga as of late. By no
means do I hate J.C. Staff they have produced some really good shows like Index
and Excel-Saga. I really wish they would stop pandering to hard-core fans just
to sell the series. The only other thing that pisses me off is that Kinji will confess to Aria on the
tenth or eleventh episode. Thus making the series go in to full romance drama
that will most likely end in a cliff hanger that will hinder on getting a second season based on bluray/dvd sales alone.
Despite all of these gripes I have pointed
out Aria is still worth watching if you like loli/tsundere trope. I will admit
to being a little a harsh, however I am getting to be an older anime fan so
pick/choosing what I watch is no different from any other form of media. There
is still something enjoyable to be found among the clichéd ridden writing apically the whole girls with guns aspect. I will admit to being a sucker for
that type of set-up since I love guns and I love cute anime girls. However it does stop this series from being a cliché
ridden mess, which still has some charm to it.
Age Rating: 13+
Music: 3/5
Animation: 3/5
Story: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Overall Rating: 3/5
Aria Legal Stream
-Cecil The Dark Knight
