Aria the OVA: Arietta serves as a solid bridge for this franchise to enter the era of the 16:9 aspect ratio. Most aspects of the animation remain just as strong as the previous seasons, but with the addition of more screen real estate, allowing for the scenic cityscapes of Neo-Venezia to become even more prominent. This is also the first time I’ve seen multiple instances of sakuga in an episode of Aria, more likely due to the added resources that come with singular OVA production, though I did also see a slight uptick in CG assets such as weather vanes and flocks of seagulls. Themain story point of this entry centers around Akari’s anxieties about eventually having to part ways with Alicia when she becomes a Prima, furthering Aria’s track record with taking mundane life problems and tackling them with sincere pathos and understanding. It’s simple, yet poignant, exactly as I’d expected from this franchise.
To be honest, however, my main reason for writing this review is to guide you towards which rip of this to watch, or rather guide you away from the one not to watch. I had initially checked out Tenrai-Sensei’s upload due to their name recognition, but found the colors overly saturated and the framerate far too high during panning shots and other instances of movement, leading to an uncanny valley feeling of everything seeming off for some reason. Afterwards, I checked out the Razzzor upload and found it to be of more acceptable quality. It’s only 720 instead of 1080, but doesn’t have the headaches I experienced with Tenrai’s upload.