ARIA The ORIGINATION – Picture Drama 04

「ネオ・ヴェネツィアの屈辱」 (Neo Venetsia no Kutsujoku)
“Neo Venezia’s Disgrace”

At a Glance:
“Neo Venezia, the water covered capital of light and darkness — today we reveal the history of the war between the undines! First there was glorious Empire of Himeya, which was expected to win the war from the beginning due to its plentiful funds and large number of forces. HOWEVER, succumbed to the effects of repeated battles, their undine Akira, started a war against the miraculous and wonderful religious organization, Aria Company. Despite being a small organization with only one undine, Aria Company possessed the ardent believer, the seventh undine to be named one of the Three Great Water Warriors, FLORENCE ALICIA!!! “Ara Ara!” Time passes on and before the Empire of Himeya and Aria Company appears a new rite—Orange Planet. In a blink of an eye, Orange Planet’s rising influence spread across Neo Venezia, and thus began the violent battle between the Empire of Himeya, Aria Company, and Orange Planet! The Three Great Water Warriors — Akira, Alicia, and Athena — together with their single warrior juniors took part in the decisive battle.”

With Aika being the successor to the Empire of Himeya, Akira sends her out to finish off their enemies. Alicia on the other hand feels that everyone seeking miracles will prostrate themselves before Aria Company, and Akari decides to follow her leader wherever she goes. Alice tells Athena that she’s spotted the tiny undine worms though, so they decide to crush them. Noticing that the other two sides are getting fired up, Akari starts to worry and asks Alicia if she has a plan. Revealing that she does, Alicia lures Aika over to their side by inviting her to have tea, which Aika initially resists by returning to Akira, who’s shocked to find out that her junior admires the enemy. Alicia releases her calming, healing aura on Aika though, bringing her to their side for good.

Feeling that her junior was deceived, Akira attacks Alicia with her Crimson Rose Bomb, but ends up killing Athena instead. Seeking revenge, Alice unleashes her own attack on Akira, which leads to an all out war where everyone perishes except Alicia. In death, Akari admires the sight of their victory, feeling that it’s like a blessing, which prompts Aika to tell her that spouting embarrassing lines like that are forbidden. With everyone dead as angels, they gather to have tea with the new ruler of Neo Venezia—Alicia. Akatsuki joins in as well, after mentioning how the fighting may have continued on forever if this didn’t happen.

Impressions:
Ara ara, that was possibly the most epic thing I’ve ever seen with the ARIA cast. I mean, who would’ve thought that Neo Venezia had a dark history of bloodshed like this! While it was merely a parody blown out of proportion as much as possible, I loved how they presented the whole thing with Akatsuki’s narration. I tried to retain as much of the same feel as possible in the first paragraph above, which is why it’s more of a translation of the dialogue than a summary. I did cut out the part where Akatsuki got really excited following Alicia’s introduction, but I’m sure listening to him go off on a tangent screaming, “Alicia’s the best!” and “Alicia’s magnificent!” before choking on his own saliva speaks for itself.

Other than that, I found it funny how they purposely pronounced everyone’s name oddly, stressing vowels you normally wouldn’t in an attempt to sound silly and archaic. They also called Orange Planet, “Oo-renji Wakusei”, where “wakusei” (惑星) simply means “planet” in Japanese. It was also amusing to hear them twist the “Three Great Water Fairies” into the “Three Great Water Warriors” and give Akira an attack named after her “Crimson Rose” alias. Anyway, I hope reading the above and watching the episode yourself is as entertaining for you as it was for me. As per the last picture drama, I uploaded a full copy of the episode, so enjoy!

“Tsuwa… Tsuwa… TSUWA!!!”

Cast:
– Akari (灯里) / Hazuki Erino (葉月 絵理乃)
– Aika (藍華) / Saitou Chiwa (斎藤 千和)
– Alice (アリス) / Hirohashi Ryou (広橋 涼)
– Alicia (アリシア) / Oohara Sayaka (大原 さやか)
– Akira (晃) / Minagawa Junko (皆川 純子)
– Athena (アテナ) / Kawakami Tomoko (川上 とも子)
– Akatsuki (暁) / Nojima Hirofumi (野島 裕史)