Akari’s Neo-Venezia: ARIA The Natural

I was about halfway through ARIA: The Natural when my laptop went kaput. But I was inspired to pick up where I left off by Francesco's Venice which was recently repeated on BBC4.

The historical comparision was startling. Francesco da Mosto laid out how Venice was a place of great art and culture but also a latter day Sin City, home of Casanova and syphilis. It was the herat of a mighty trading empire that was laid low overnight by Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope. A third of its population died horribly from the plague. It was stripped of its treasures by Napolean, many of which are still in France. Then the existential threats of the sinking lagoon bed as well as native Venetians being crowded out by tourism.

But da Mosto's exposition also explained how the romantic image of Venice created by the poet Byron and the painter Turner are still with us today. And this legacy is evident in the anime. But by placing it on another planet far into the future, the series has bypassed the grotesque mirage of our own age and successfully created a sci-fi/fantasy world of beauty, grace and love.

Great characters are an essential part of the series' charm. Plus the chibi mode in combination with the humour, deadly effective on me - I was laughing so hard I had to stop the playback when SD-Alice said: 'From the ancient times... Gachapen desu!'