Anime Review: Hidan no Aria

Want more Kugamiya Rie? Fang-Tans or pigtails your "thing?"  Then you might consider watching this anime...though I warn you...don't look around at reviews before watching...

Hidan no Aria was published by JC Staff, the same guys who did the anime for Shakugan no Shana and the "Toaru" projects. You can tell by some familiar action animations as well as the parodies they use in this anime. Like the Shana, Index, and Railgun anime, Aria is of the action genre, but it's also of the ecchi comedy genre. Reason being is because ecchiness plays somewhat of a role in the main male protagonist's state of being a badass arrogant hero.

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The main male protagonist is Tooyama, Kinji. A guy who goes to Tokyo Butei High School who actually wants to drop out of Butei High. Butei are practically detectives, and each student is allowed to arm themselves with a gun when they reach a certain grade level. The only reason why Kinji is in Butei High was because his older deceased brother went there when he himself was a "Butei." Unfortunately back then, Kinji's brother died in an incident saving innocents from someone dubbed the "Butei Killer." And Kinji is enrolled because he wants to find and stop the Butei Killer from striking again. Unfortunately for him there really was no progress on the search, but instead a bombing occurs on his way to school. On top of that, a girl with pink pigtails is falling from a building right in front of him. What's a guy to do, huh?!

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Hidan no Aria is what you get when you combine the humor of Kamijou, Touma's (Index) misfortune with action from Shana, excluding the fireworks. Though considering this takes place in a detective school, there's a sliver of crime fighting in the mix. I'd like to note that the reason ecchi plays a role in Kinji's heroism is because Kinji had an inhereted gene that allowed him to go into something to what he called "Hysteria Mode." A mode where he pretty much acts like Nanaya Shiki (Melty Blood, Tsukihime) for about an hour or so. In order for this "mode" to activate. He has to see things or be in situations that would make a guy sexually excited. Then he's pretty much a killing machine, which is pretty funny. The storyline is well categorized, though 12 episodes is too short for an anime like this.

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Now the problem with this anime is either you like it, or you hate it. There are a ton of manga extremists out there who hate the anime because of the little things of the anime. Me being unbiased on most anime, it's not a problem, but if you already read the manga, I heard that people didn't like it because Aria (female protagonist) didn't have the hairpin and they looked her down on the anime by not making like the manga or something. I was reading another anime review that gave it an extremely low rating saying the worst stuff about it. All I got to say is..unfortunately sex sells in shows. It's the books that tell the story.

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Of course the best artist IN THE WORLD.

For this season, I think it's one of the shows to really check out. There will be a special eventually out as well. Unfortunately, no details if there will be a second season at all due to the insufficient sales of the blu-ray versions..but that doesn't mean entirely that there won't be a second season...at least not yet. I myself hope there will be. Reccomendation is totally up to the persons tastes in anime here (I mean whether you're biased or unbiased...) I give it a 9 out of 10.

- Nathan Maruyama

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