Aria the Natural is at least twice the length of both the prequel and sequel that followed it. Production wise, it's about the same, but what makes it an improvement in comparison to the original is a stronger sense of focus. As I stated in the previous review, Animation was the foundation as it introduced the characters and setting while Natural builds upon those ideas and creates a stronger narrative. While it's also mostly episodic, it does have compelling character arcs and explores the supernatural elements of the series. The wonderful city of miracles Neo-Venenzia gets explored more as opposed to the original work, and there are some very strong character arcs to accompany those adventures, mainly focusing on Akari and Aika as far as character arcs are concerned. Now, I would recommend reading the Animation review first, as I talked about the characters for the most part in the review. This one is more focused on the episodes and the character arcs that emerge from them. Now, with that said, let's begin!
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Aria the Natural

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The world of Aqua is given a greater focus in this season, and it becomes clear that there's more to the city of Neo-Venenzia than meets the eye. The first episode makes this clear, as the Carnevale festival begins and Ai makes a return to the city to visit during this time. Before it happens, President Aria disappears, and Akari explains that he leaves every time this festival occurs. Everyone, aside from the main characters, wears masks for the festivals (not the kind we have to wear, lmao), and the Cat King is mentioned and houses secret meetings for cats. When Akari and Ai both follow a small creature with a robe and a mask, and they meet the Cat King or Cassanova as a result. A massive black cat that can stand on his two legs. He gives them both flowers, and the Cat King, or Cait Sith, and his followers disappear. This is what shows us and Akari and Ai that there are wondrous secrets in Neo-Venenzia. Honestly, I believed that Cait Sith would be a one off appearance, but he makes a lot of appearances in the show than you would expect. He's a crucial character to the show and helps Akari grow to love the city even more than before. This season is far more focused on building the world of Aqua than the other two seasons.

Before we get into that, I must talk about two characters. First, there's a new character named Albery Pitt, who was actually introduced in the last episode of Animation, but he's more present here. He's usually just called AL and he's a childhood friend for Akatsuki. He's an apprentice gnome and he works to help maintain Aqua's gravity levels. Aika is also shown to have a major crush on him, although this is mostly a background element until one particular episode towards the end of the season. There are a few episodes focusing on this crush. Another thing worth noting about him is that he likes to make "old man jokes", much to Aika's annoyance and the other's confusion. He appears to be much younger than everyone else, but he's actually 19, so about as old as Alicia and Akatsuki. This is due to his growth being slowed by the gravitational forces underneath Aqua, but he's still capable of growing despite his age. He's intelligent and knowledgeable about space.

The second character I'll mention is the guy I should've talked more about last time, President Aria. He's Akari's goofy cat companion who is often present in many of Akari's misadventures around the city. What's interesting about Aria and other Aqua cats like President Hime from the HImeya company and President Maa of Orange Planet is that they seem to understand what humans are saying to them, and Aria is a very intelligent cat in particular. He not only can fully comprehend what everyone else is saying, but he also can stand on two legs, and move his other two like arms. He makes strange noises to respond to his friends. Another thing worth noting is that he seems to be very old for a cat. Grandma was the one who founded the Aria company and named it after him, and he looked just like he did in the show, but that's a detail I'll get to in Origination. And he was around back when Alicia was Grandma's apprentice, until the present. It looks like he hasn't aged a day. He's like Will Smith. Aside from that, he also gets some interactions with the other cats, like President Hime, who he tries to flirt with, but she doesn't seem to care, and President Maa only seems interested in biting his chubby belly as a running gag. Finally, as a cat, he seems to be a part of this cat group alongside Cait Sith and other cats.

Back to the more supernatural bits, what's interesting is like the sci-fi elements, it's never really explained because that's not the point of the show, it's the sense of wonder that they bring Akari and the viewers. Unlike the sci-fi elements, however, we do get glimpses of this fantastical world. The frequent appearances of Cait Sith and his group of cats are the main supernatural element. The main thing about the supernatural elements is that Akari is the one who experiences them, and she usually experiences them alone. Such as the headless ghost lady, and the fox. While episodes like those have ominous connotations to them, they end with a nice resolution and some reflection of the episode. The cat group shows up in different locations and Akari sees them in at different points in the story. There was this one episode where Aika and Akari try to follow Aria to find out where he's going, but after getting lost in a Legend of Zelda lost woods kind of scenario (Not literally in a forest, mind you), Aria leads them out of the abandoned building area and Akari catches a glimpse of the group of cats before they leave. There are other times where they show up and that reaches a head in episode 19, where they leave and never show up in Neo-Venenzia. Cait Sith only reveals himself to people like Akari, who has this constant sense of wonder and admiration for the city, and their encounters only reinforce that core idea.

The supernatural elements are more of a background element, however. The main thing about Natural is the stronger sense of community that the city presents. We are shown far more locations, and we meet all kinds of different people throughout the season. We see all the different activities and festivals that these people participate in, like the Carnevale festival or the Night Shine Chime festival, where they make sounds and emit light in the darkness. People take boats to the water and gather around to show off the lights before they burn and fall into the ocean. They say "Tante Grazie" or "Many Thanks" after it falls into the endless abyss that is the ocean. Akari's light falls into the ocean but leaves behind a night shine crystal, symbolizing Akari's sentimentality and attachment to the city and friends.

At the center of all of these events is Akari, who allows the audience to see the setting unfold alongside her. She's still an Undine in training, so she believes that she has a lot to learn, but it feels like all of these supernatural or otherwise normal events are often happening around her. It might be because of her kind and caring demeanor, or it might be because of her sense of wonder like I pointed out before, but regardless, she's a charming lense to the audience. Take episode 10 for example. Aika and Alice are following Akari around because she draws people in due to her friendly and sociable nature. There was this one guy she meets that Aika and Alice both find suspicious, so they decide to follow them. It was later revealed that he is a street performer, and he has Akari help him in his show to entertain kids. Or take episode 4 for example, where she travels with the mailman around the city because his gondola was broken, and Akari would share one with him to travel around. They meet up with a boy named Sora (who's also voiced by Mokoto Kumai, who also voiced Syaoran from Cardcaptor Sakura. Seriously, they sound the same, lmao), who wrote a letter to apologize to his teacher for saying that he was glad that she was gone. She was leaving because she was getting married, and they took him there to give the letter to her directly. Akari, using her backward paddling skills (It makes her go faster), was able to get there on time. There are also the two gondola episodes, where she must get a new one because of how old her gondola is, and Alicia and Akari reminisce about all of the good memories they had with it. Things like this show that Akari is willing to help others without anything in return, and it's a joy seeing her interact with other characters, or learning more about Neo-Venenzia.

Alice's arc isn't as focused on as Akari's or Aika's, but it does show her slowly try to get out of her bubble that she puts herself in. The episode where she invites Akari and AIka to Orange Planet would be the first example. She's invited by the other pairs to a party, but she looks like she's going to decline via the letter they gave her. This is because she believes they don't like her and that she's afraid they wouldn't have anything to talk about together. Athena starts combing her hair after their hot bath, and she says that people are like mirrors. If you smile, they smile. If you're nervous, they're nervous. President Maa climbing her bed to bite President Aria's stomach also ironically inspired her to become more socially active and also more expressive. Another example is when Alice is trying to give herself bizarre rules, like when she wants it to make it all the way to Orange Planet from her school by jumping on shadows. What sounds like a really weird and childish episode ends on a really sweet note to teach Alice to realize that it's ok to lean on others and ask for help. This arc culminates into a grand finale in Origination, but more on that in that review.

Finally, there's Aika. Her arc is more pronounced than the other two, as, after an accident, she goes through a bit of an identity crisis, and she wanted to be just like Alicia, and while Akari and Alice try to cheer her up, but it doesn't really work. Akira shows up and tries to cheer up Akira in her way. After what she said, Aika goes through a transformation, regaining her sense of pride and competitive spirit. She still has more episodes focused on her, like when she gets sick and worries that Alice and Akari don't need her, or when Aika goes for a different style but is worried about how AL will react. Stuff like that helps flesh her character out and makes her more relatable to the viewer. She's a really solid character that you do want to see succeed because she's trying her best to and helps Akari and Alice as well. Like Alice, Aika's arc gets resolved later on in Origination.

To wrap up, all of the characters meet up for a party on a large boat and the three main leads organize it themselves. Ai goes silent in the emails for a while due to personal reasons, so Akari is worried that she wouldn't make it for Redentore. A festival based on a festival in Venice where they would go on boats and party till the sun came up to celebrate the beginning of Fall. Akira and the other Water Fairies make the girls organize it as a test. They have to have food and entertainment. As the party is set up and is about to leave, they decide to start leaving, but Ai just barely makes it on time. So they meet up, and they all go on this boat. The last episode focuses on just Akari and Alicia, where they make this giant snowball, and other townspeople help them push it around. Akari asks Alicia why she chose her for her student. Alicia doesn't give her a direct answer, but she does tell her that the same thing happened to her when she was a kid in regards to the snowball when she was younger, I won't go into the exact ending after that, but it is a fitting end to a heartfelt sequel that improves upon Animation. But before we close off, let's talk about the OVA about Alicia.

Arietta

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One thing that becomes obvious right away is the sheer spike in quality as far as animation is concerned. Hal Film Maker received a lot more money for the series after Natural, so they had the resources to improve on the animation. For one, the 4:3 aspect ratio that was used for Animation and Natural is gone, going for a fullscreen that would be present for the rest of the show. The other thing is that the character designs are more lively and are crisper as opposed to the previous seasons, while still maintaining the charm of the designs. Backgrounds look even more stunning than before, and so many screenshots can be taken. Origination would stick to this look and Avvenire would make it even better.

Then there's the story, which starts off with Akari dreaming about being a Prima Undine and Alicia not being there. It even has Ai over there in the dream, as a bit of foreshadowing. As Akari tells Alicia this, she tells her that she felt sad when Grandma left and tells Akari about a backstory regarding Campanile. I won't go into more detail to avoid spoilers, but it's a nice transition to Origination. It foreshadows the end of Origination quite well.
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All and all, Natural is a vast improvement to Animation. It does a much better job of exploring the characters and setting while also setting up Origination as well. It's just a pleasant ride through and through, and Origination is an even better experience, but we'll save that for the next one.