In response to the worsening crime rate, Japan creates Tokyo Butei High, an elite academy where "Butei" or armed detectives hone their deadly skills in hopes of becoming mercenary-like agents of justice. One particular Butei is Kinji Tooyama, an anti-social and curt sophomore dropout who was once a student of the combat-centric Assault Division. Kinji now lives a life of leisure studying logistics in order to cover up his powerful but embarrassing special ability. However, his peaceful days soon come to an end when he becomes the target of the infamous "Butei Killer," and runs into an emotional hurricane and outspoken prodigy of the highest rank, Aria Holmes Kanzaki, who saves Kinji's life and demands that he become her partner after seeing what he is truly capable of.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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kindergraph
There was a time when I, too, had faith in J.C. Staff. I still do, actually. I’m stubborn. But try as I might to cling fondly to the days gone by, to classics like Azumanga Daioh and Excel Saga, even guilty pleasures like Shakugan no Shana, it seems that J.C. Staff is relentless in their efforts to drive me away. An admirable mission, that. So here is Hidan no Aria. I’ll confess. I was excited. I have a soft spot for action harems, loathe though I am to admit it. I’m one of the last cynics in anime fandom who doesn’t completely loathe Rie Kugimiya (she’snot bad, she’s got range; it’s not her fault the squeal is what sells, and everybody’s got to pay the bills). Takashi Watanabe of Boogiepop and Shana was directing, and early promotional artwork looked…well, not promising, but certainly not the worst of the genre. I didn’t get my hopes up, but I expected the kind of show I could guiltily binge on and then tell all my friends I hated to keep up the elabourate façade that I am a man of taste.
All this is just so you know that I gave Aria a fighting chance.
With all that said, it’s bad. I mean it’s really bad. Not Togainu no Chi bad, but nowadays my attention can only be diverted from erotic fanfiction and 80’s movies to tear an especially terrible Japanese cartoon a new arsehole, because I like easy targets. So that’s the terminology we’ll settle on—especially terrible. And it is. It is a new low for J.C. Staff.
But I’ve beat around the bush long enough. Let’s get to the point.
The world of Hidan no Aria is one where the Butei, an elite international martial organisation, trains its members at the high school level. That’s right. In this world, international treaties on child labour are unheard of, and hundreds of parents see no issue with sending their children to a school where the use of firearms is not only commonplace, but required. Furthermore, the students of Tokyo Butei High—quite unlike my high school classmates, most of whom, by the time graduation rolled around, had yet to master the delicate art of pissing straight—perform incredibly well in this environment. Oh, but it’s not just the coursework they have to worry about. Butei High students must apply their lessons to real life when they are targeted by the Butei Killer—a criminal who sends high-speed Saw-esque murder puzzles after the teenage students. This individual has yet to be apprehended, as Butei graduates and all other law enforcement agents have better things to do than bother with a serial criminal with a rigidly-defined M.O. who regularly targets minors, and endangers civilians in the process. Yep.
Now, I wouldn’t still be watching anime if I had issues with suspending my disbelief, but would it really have been so hard to age the cast up four or five years, to college-age? The plot would remain practically untouched, and, really, it’s got nowhere to go but up. But I digress.
The rest of the plot involves a lot of looking at girls’ underwear (whether it is on their bodies or off), and some nonsense about Sherlock Holmes and other fictional characters (and at least one out-of-place historical figure) that is so astonishingly, mind-numbingly stupid that I have no words for it. Aspiring writers, hark! Don’t always stick with the first idea you get, because it is usually righteously fucking ridiculous.
The animators seem to stumble over the character designs despite the fact that they are not terribly complex. Characters are frequently off-model, and their movements are stiff and awkward. Their hair moves bizarrely, even by anime standards: when disturbed it jumps up suddenly at an odd angle and waves around for a while before jumping back into place. Fabric works much the same way. Inbetweens are practically non-existent, leading to movement that looks like jumpy cardboard rather than a fluid transition from one position to the next. Furthermore, all of J.C. Staff’s recent productions have had this weird kind of Gaussian-blur layer over every frame, making the outlines blurry and subdued. The animation isn’t awful, per se, but it’s mediocre at best.
I don’t have much to say on the show’s score. It’s boring. The themes are fast-paced, but forgettable and generic, while most of the background music kind of blurs together. The purpose of a soundtrack is to elicit emotional response and set the mood for a scene. Aria’s music is just kind of there because they had, like, way too much money and thought it would be cool to buy a composer. The vocal work is...well, you know what you’re getting. Rie Kugimiya puts on the sort of performance she is infamous for, Junji Majima is a forgettable harem lead, and the rest of the cast could all switch places and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
The real beauty of Aria (and I mean that in the most bitter, sarcastic, miserable way) lies in its titular character. Aria H. Kanzaki is evil. I really mean it. She is a special kind of sadistic, childish evil, unfettered by the cautious try-hard some authors exhibit when writing adults. She is rotten to the core. She is spoilt, murderously violent, infinitely selfish, and utterly loathsome. If she were the antagonist, I might even be giving this show a positive review. I would be forced to tip my hat to an author so skilled at manipulating his readers that he can craft a character that summons such immediate distaste in everyone. I’m not a violent person, but I’d say she needs a bit of discipline in the form of a high-speed baseball bat to the mouth.
But she’s not the antagonist. She’s not even an easily-overlooked secondary character. Her name’s in the title. And we are supposed to love her. We are supposed to pile our disposable income on Blu-Rays and posters bearing her visage, on models of her likeness to sit precariously upon our shelves so that we can steal a peek at her plastic panties.
Aria H. Kanzaki is really the lowest the tsundere phenomenon can go. I don’t have anything against tsunderes, really. In fact, when written carefully and realistically, they are some of my favourite characters. Aria is not a tsundere. She’s a psychopath and a bully. She is hysterical, she is capricious, she is downright mean—she is everything that might lead a man (were he so inclined) to roll his eyes and scoff and say, “Women! Am I right?”
Which is a good segue into my next point.
I’m not mad at Aria, because she is a fictional character, and that would be silly. I am mad, however—frothingly so—at the author. Chuugaku Akamatsu has written a character who he believes to be a sympathetic woman. The audience is supposed to watch her temper tantrums and violent fits the same way we might watch an angry child, despite the fact that Aria is more than old enough to know better. Her fits of rage aren’t horrifying—they’re cute! This sort of behaviour is just the thing the author—and, he perceives, his audience—expects out of a woman.
Now, we could say that Aria’s temper—and, by extension, the exceedingly childish behaviour of most of the rest of the female cast—is just the author clumsily trying to write a realistically flawed character. People aren’t perfect, after all, and violently temperamental women (and men) do exist!
But I’m not stupid, and, hopefully, neither are you.
The author’s intent matters. The target audience matters. The moe phenomenon matters. Japanese society and its views on women matter. The context matters.
Look. I’m not saying that you’re a bad person if you enjoyed Hidan no Aria. Do what makes you happy. I’m not saying that you’re a bad person if you enjoy any fiction that carries some unfortunate implications in its characterisation of women, people of colour, GLBT people, or any minority—it’s perfectly possible for a story that is otherwise well-written to stumble a bit when it comes to political correctness (and I hate that fucking term, because it implies that treating other people like human beings should be done out of obligation and not common sense), and this is okay, as long as it is discussed. And I’m not trying to take away your titty anime. There are plenty of shows that reward the viewer with gratuitous unmentionables while at the same time sporting a cast of realistic, relatable, well-written female characters. In fact, if Hidan no Aria was a good show that happened to have a horrible female lead, I might not even mention it. Well, maybe in passing.
But Hidan no Aria is bad, and I hate it, and writing this review feels like a weight off my shoulders after nearly five hours wasted on this garbage. So I will mention it. And I did. And I think I’m done now.
Skadi
I really am trying to not become one of those cynical anime watchers who think the best has already come and never will again, but you’re really trying my resolve this year Japan. Hidan no Aria was a show that for whatever reason I had a great deal of excitement and anticipation for. I was won over by the early pre-production artwork without knowing really anything at all about what it was going to be about or the source materials. When I learned the seiyuu cast and the plot synopsis I was pretty sure what I was going to be in storefor. In that sense I probably shouldn't have been disappointed at all.
What Hidan no Aria gives us as a premise is about as generic and played as it comes. A high school boy... sigh why is it I always have to start it with that? Anyway he goes to Butai High School, a place where Japan teaches its youngsters to be assassins, thieves, and super powered shrine maidens. It’s like any other anime high school except the students all carry guns and katanas. No seriously it’s just like every other high school. So from there our hero, Kinji, suitably useless and powerless Japanese male gets involved right off the bat with the more dangerous female classmates who either want his body or him dead or more often both. Of course Kinji is able to tap into a hidden power of his own called "Hysteria Mode" which he enters from being sexually aroused. Really I'm serious here. I can't make this stuff up. Further nonsense ensues from this point and I honestly couldn’t make heads or tails of any of it from the beginning.
As with most anime of this type it likes to throw out tons of nonsensical and contradictory terminology and other assorted garbage. While in the beginning it doesn't seem like that much of a stretch it really starts to take a turn for the bizarre after a few episodes. That’s when we start having characters assigned names from other fictional and totally unrelated content. Such as Sherlock Holmes, Lupin IV, Jeane of Arc, and Dracula? It’s a mishmash of themes that have absolutely nothing in common with each other and make no sense when even applied to the story. It’s almost like the author of the story just picked random names from a library shelf and jammed them into his story as if they applied some sort of deeper meaning to it. The names don’t even have any bearing on how the characters act either. Jeane of Arc has ice powers, Dracula is a werewolf, and Holmes is a gun totting, dual katana wielding loli. Wuh? This only further confuses an already pointless and directionless story which doesn't seem to stick to one theme for more than a few episodes before meandering off into another direction. All in all it’s bad... REALLY BAD. Perhaps the worst excuse for a story I have seen in anything to date.
That brings us to the characters which really don’t far much better. Our hero Kinji is barely worth mentioning. Seriously when are they going to just stop giving the guys in anime names or even bother drawing on faces on them anymore? Just go ahead and give in to the otaku pervs and just complete the fantasy by having replacing them with faceless stick figures to allow them to complete their 2D on screen fantasy.
As for the girls the results are bad, even for a harem. Other than Aria the other girls are pretty much unmentionable. Aria is your standard loli tsundere. She says all of the things you would expect of her archetype and is performed brilliant by the undisputed seiyuu queen of this type, Rie Kugimiya. As much of a completely uninspired character or even acting performance that makes Aria up, it is Kugimiya that makes this series even remotely palatable to watch. Sure we have seen her do this role dozens of times before but I for one really never grow tired of it. In that sense it is a thoroughly Kugimiya type performance that is right in her wheel house and one that she completely hits out of the park. The real question is how many people are, unlike me, totally sick and tired of it?
J.C. Staff is usually pretty solid with their animation and production values and that doesn't really change here. But a lot like Kugimiya, I suspect a great many viewers are becoming weary of seeing the same damn thing over and over again. It would be nice to see them try to stretch themselves sometimes and be unafraid to take some risks. The one thing that really did stand out to me was how utterly silly the various girls hid their weapons. Take Aria, who is a tiny girl with an impossibly short skirt yet somehow manages to hid 2 enormous pistols under it and yet not be constantly seen when she is not drawing them. In addition to the even more ridiculous dual katanas she hides, under her blouse. It seems Aria's clothes are a lot like Doctor Who's TARDIS: bigger inside than it appears from the outside. Not that this is the first time anime has played with physics before but this really seemed to stretch the realm of believability.
From an acting and sound standpoint, Hidan no Aria is very good. As mentioned I think Rie Kugimiya was in her element and delivered a very enjoyable performance. The rest of the cast played their parts as expected. The music was pretty exciting and good. I especially enjoyed May'n Scarlet Ballet.
I actually found a great amount of this series to be amusing, mostly because I am a Kugimiya fangirl. As nonsensical and clichéd as everything about this anime was there was plenty of amusement to be found in watching the characters act this way. But at the same time I am fully aware that pretty much everything else about this show is terrible. For that reason I can’t recommend it to anyone.
8thSin
This is bad, guys. I mean, it's really REALLY bad! 'Hidan no Aria' has just about every cliche harem elements in the book. The premise focusing on a special occupation to try to be unique, the characters strip and trip randomly for fan service, violent retribution for accidental infringement, archetype heroines, obvious tsundere stuttering, ordinary high school student with hidden special powers, protagonist is surrounded by girls who are crazy about him for no reason... I can go on and on. The core premise is somewhat interesting. It's set in a school that trains mercenaries, and the students undergo various lethal training and get credits through actualmissions. However, there are also a lot of stupid concepts going on, like all them being "butei" (combat detectives), the Hysteria Mode, and the fact that almost every character is descendent of a famous historical and fictional figures - Lupin the 3rd, Sherlock Holmes, Joan of Arc, Tooyama Kinshirou, Himiko, Count Dracula... it gets embarrassing to watch after a while.
The story consists of one improbable event after another. The character and villain's actions rarely make any sense. It gets so bad that a good guy would point the gun at the bad guy and say something like "there's no escape now", and the bad guy just runs without getting shot. I had no idea why this series needed to be about "detectives" as there were almost zero thinking going on. It's more like charge in first and see what happens next. It's also pretty absurd all the characters were carrying the gun and shoots around in the school campus, and of course, everything is bullet proof so no one gets hurt. The jokes get repetitive, with the protagonist getting into ecchi situation with random girls, and seen by one of the yandere/tsundere heroines and gets "kaza-ana".
Worst of all is the protagonist's "Hysteria Mode", which gets triggered from sexual arousal. This is the stupidest activation trigger I have ever heard, and serves only as a tool for fan service.
Art in this series is decent. The female characters are attractive, though extremely generic design. Character movement is very stiff and apparently low budget, but there are some nice slow motion action scenes that it's at least average quality in terms of animation.
The voicing for Aria is absolutely horrible, a stereotypical tsundere voice with zero distinction. Not only that, it gets seriously annoying after a while. Other characters' seiyuu were average at best. BGM is quite insignificant, and OP/ED were average.
There is nothing in 'Hidan no Aria' that sets it apart from hundreds of other harem series. It's obvious why a certain fansub group would trollsub a series like this, and in fact, the sound effects guys in this series started trolling in latter part of this series, like inserting sheep sounds at the mention of 「執事」, a word meaning "butler" but has similar pronunciation to Japanese word "sheep".
Admittedly, Riko's character was extremely hot both in design and personality, and ecchi in this series was decent. It's one of those series you watch to kill time, and see how bad it gets. B-But it's not like I enjoy watching this series or anything!
DangoSadge
Hysteria Mode... It's like 'Pervergy' (pervert energy) but doesn't make your hair spike up in such ridiculous proportions. Joining me for today's review and providing commentary is none other than Master Yoda. Great to have you with me here today Master Yoda. "To pleasure with you, it is my work" Umm.. I think you mean "It is my pleasure to work with you" but somehow that came out wrong... Anyways, onwards to the review! Hidan no Aria, or by it's English title Aria the Scarlet Ammo was one of the many anticipated anime this year. Heck, even some fanboy/girl even created a page for the series on facebookeven before it started airing, while other fan claim it as "One of the Best Anime of all Time"
Even Master Yoda took the liberty of contributing by subbing a few of the episodes for the series.
"Subbing the anime, enjoy I have..."
Well I'm sure you do. But I can't say much for the audience though...
The concept of the series is quite popular among some factions of the audience in this modern era. An academy for training Butei (mercenaries but with a code of honor). Girls falling from the sky. Strong heroines. Absurd gun fights and explosions. And last but not least, HAREM! Everything an average youthful men wants but fail to achieve due to our constricting ties to reality. The premise itself made an interesting core for the story. But the question is, did it live up to the light novel's expectations?
Art wise, it is far from being perfect but nevertheless is sufficient to provide detail on the author's perspective of what a world that is run by secret organizations, mercenaries and assassins. I have no problem with the sound as well as the BGM composed was befitting of an action genre anime with a tint of comedy.
"Not if anything to say about it, I have! Seen better animation for action I have"
For the last time Yoda, you can't compare your movie animation to an anime animation. That's like comparing a light saber to a banana. But gives you heartburn but a different kind.
List of Characters
Aria H Kanzaki..
Contrary to popular beliefs, the H in Aria's name is Holmes NOT "H" for ECCHI! I'm saying this for the first and last time. I mean, what parent would give their daughter the name, 'Aria Ecchi Kanzaki"? And Holmes is spelled H-O-L-M-E-S not `Olmes. She's not a gangsta. You hear me Yoda?
"Your mother, word to.."
You know when you mix gangsta talk and Yoda talk, it just makes no sense..
Aria is supposedly the 4th generation descendant of Sherlock Holmes. A generic Tsundere (of course will come with an iron board chest) I find nothing particular interesting about her character in the anime. She's as generic as it gets when it comes to Tsundere female lead. Ok, so that covers the Tsundere Flat Chested Girl Fetish audiences. Treating the male lead as a slave, calling him 'idiot' for no apparent reason and of course being such a huge cock blocker. But she is, not, without some positive values. She is portrayed as strong willed and independent. She goes out of her way to prove her mother's innocence as well as following her advice on finding her "Watson" or in other words a partner.
And thus we have Kinji Tooyama, the Watson to Aria's Holmes.
Kinji Tooyama is conditionally weak and a coward. Oh no. Well this isn't really new. If you're a proud owner of a harem you should be prepared to be stripped of all your dignity and strength. That's the basic foundation of a "Class II Harem" But I said "conditionally weak because he has Hysteria Mode! His urge to protect women causes him to awaken to his the manly and elegant side. He chooses to escape from the Butei world after his elder brother was killed performing his duty but was badmouth by the community. Thus it would take a bomb on a bike, a bomb on a bus and a bomb on a airplane to change his mind and decide to serve as Aria's partner as a Butei.
And what Harem wouldn't be completed without a neglected childhood friend. Shirayuki Hotogi, she's sort of like a miko so yeah I guess that covers the audience with a miko fetish. She is one of the very few characters that possess psychic abilities.
"Within this young one, force is strong..."
Right... So Shirayuki is of course portrayed as the one who showers her unconditional love to our male harem lead. Which could only mean one thing. YANDERE!!! It's been a long time since I've seen a Yandere in a harem. Yanderes serves as an important mechanism in a harem.
It is indeed refreshing to see someone who could do the job for me, killing the main harem lead if he becomes such a nuisance.
So that's it for some of the main characters in the series. Wait, I know what you're thinking..
"THIS ISN'T TORADORA SEASON 3???!!!"
What gave you the slightest idea that it was, Mr.CAPSLOCK Warrior?
"I THOUGHT YOU SAID THIS WAS HAREM ANIME! THERE'S ONLY TWO GIRLS. YOU LIED TO ME! YOU SUCK AS A HAREM KING! STOP TRYING TO BE FUNNY! IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT!!"
Well, I wouldn't want to spoil the best moments in the novel and anime so I guess you have to figure out which other girls are in his harem. But I'm telling you it's not that hard to figure out... Basically any girl who had more than 3 conversation with the male harem lead in a harem genre anime will be automatically (and magically) fall in love with him.
So did the anime live up to it's expectation and hype? I would probably say no. However, it doesn't mean it was a failure. The novel had great aspect and content that if utilized in the anime would make it worth while to watch. Even though the whole youths in combat, mercs and assassins, ability users concept is pretty used many times.
Another interesting aspect about the series is that it follows a common trend in animes is to cameo famous historical figures names as characters. Well I won't spoil to you who appears and not.
But I will tell you who doesn't
-Georgia WashMyThongs
-Christy CallMahBust
-Napoleoni Bonerpart
And other ideas names on historial figures being girly-fied? Feel free to comment on my profile.
"Girl version of my name, Yodarina, it would be..."
I wouldn't be interested in a girl version of you anyways yoda
If you like gun duels, explosions, destruction and of course a follower of the Way of the Harem, all sandwich in supposedly labelled school life type genre? then you might find Hidan no Aria worthwhile. And if you like Yoda's fansub you could also request him to sub other animes.
Thanks for reading!
Haremu Kingu,
Singing Off!
shine_heaven
SPOILERS INSIDE. This is not a show you love or hate. This is a show you’re bound to regret watching. It’s extremely clichéd, mediocre quality and a money-maker, and above all – annoying. But so ridiculously it sometimes is amusing. Still, two things make this series for me: 1. Aria’s hairpin which is sadly gone after a while, 2. Kinji’s Hysteria Mode. Beyond that, there is not much to see here. But then again – what can you expect from a series that was already highly overrated by the Japanese fans even before it aired? I should probably have said otaku instead of Japanese fans, excuse me, but that’s what happened, withthis series being the most anticipated one of Spring 2011 season. Why, yes – in Japan. Don’t they love Kugimiya.
Story- and character-wise, what’s in it? Tsundere (but not the likeable kind, the I-have-seen-this-how-many-times-now kind) female lead – check. Male protagonist being useless 95% of the time – check. Veeeeery unexpected plot twist in early part of the show – check. A bunch of supporting characters that are there just to try to fill us in on the backstory and still fail miserably – check. Great. The two protagonists attend a mostly ridiculous school where teenagers are trained to be detectives - or rather super agents - and so far the plot has been focusing on how cute Aria is. But she is not. She is another Taiga/Louise/Shana clone created just to please the fans. There are moments when she is bearable; yet that is mostly when she is not talking at all. And the Holmes crap? I thought Lupin the 4th was quite funny, but they had to add Holmes the 4th into it. Wow, just wow. UPDATE: they also tossed Jeanne d’Arc in. I thought that nothing could surprise me anymore.
And what about Kinji/Ryûji? The 5% he’s not useless is when in Hysteria Mode, which he is reluctant to enter because it makes him act retarded. In his opinion. It does not.
In terms of visuals J.C. Staff did just reasonably. I like how the opening and ending sequences are animated, plus the fights - the fights are great eye candy. The rest is not something we have not seen yet. I’m just quite surprised that they do not animate the protagonist loli particularly well. Low budget? No way. Laziness? More like it. Little can be said about the art of “Hidan no Aria”. It’s not bad, it’s just nothing spectacular, and given how new anime can look, I’d call it a tad disappointing.
The sound is a different story. Good background music, that’s certain; OP and ED, just fitting for this series, are average; but for once I must complain about the voice actors. Rie Kugimiya – if it was not for Kagura, she could disappear completely from the face of Earth. She does not create her characters. She IS them. Very, very disappointing. She brings nothing new into yet another show. I used to like her voice, but damn, isn’t it annoying. Now it’s just painful. Boring, too. Just remain Kagura, that’s what you do well (and Taiga, for that matter). Going on with the list: Mariya Ise was a good Stocking, but performs just typically as Riko; Junji Majima is Ryûji, end of story.
Somehow I managed to watch the entire thing. SOMEHOW. The second half gets far worse than the first, which, frankly, is an achievement. Just do not watch it. At all.
Very not recommended.
BL2W
Girls with guns and fiery explosions tailing behind. That statement alone should sound pretty awesome, right? ... Right? Unfortunately, this is not the case. Oh, on everything that is sacred, is this not the case. But, it's not enough to say that this is a load of crap that deserves any and every amount of ridicule that it gets; this needs to be broken down, bit by bit, to expose it for the grim piece of bloody, scarlet-colored turd that it really is. With that said, let's begin with the opening song--the thing the audience hears at the start of every episode. I, personally, have nothing against May'n.However, this song began to get annoying after a while due to the immediate pretentiousness that it brings along. The gun and firing sound effects, the cathedral with a picture of (what I assume to be) the birth of Jesus, front-and-center, and then Aria, the heroine of the show, staring at the audience blankly in the face--it speaks for itself.
Oh, and need I remind everyone that Aria's supposed to be the main character here? With all of the sarcasm in every fiber of my being, I don't think the opening made it clear enough! There needs to be even MORE Aria! Her shooting a bullet at the audience's faces? Perfect!
Anyway, what are all of the guns about? Well, let me explain as frankly as I can.
Apparently, in our modern-day world, it's perfectly okay and only natural to give teenagers, who are still going through emotional and psychological development, a vast assortment of armaments and weaponry and virtual access to anywhere in the world. Not only that, they're also taught how to use said weaponry to great detail and are sent on missions that could potentially endanger their lives.
And they're accomplishing all of this... wait for it...
... in a Japanese high school.
Forget all of the legal trouble that would cause, how something as ridiculous as that would even get off the ground, and even the idea that such a thing may be better-off in the hands of ANYONE older by just a few more years; just use your suspension of disbelief, everyone!
The first episode starts us off with the usual Kyon-type character, Kinji Tooyama, who isn't really the main character, but supposed to simply act as support. What is his aspiration for the future? Why, to live a normal, everyday life! Wow, really pushing the limits of characterization here, aren't you, J.C. Staff? I can't wait for him to live out his everyday--no, wait, he gets attacked by the villain of the show before the audience actually gets to know him. Pfft, so much for his goals!
But, when he thinks that he's nearly dead meat, stuck in a death trap that will surely cost him his well-being, there goes the true heroine, Aria H. Kanzaki, to save the day! And this is pretty much the only time that she gets to be cool before becoming the laughing stock of all that is "tsun."
Why? Because the Kyon-type character gets a raging hard-on from seeing Aria in her underwear after saving him and becomes the actual hero, stopping the baddies because he's too cool for school. Really. That happens.
Kinji monologues later that he has a special ability known as "Hysteria Mode" that actually makes him an instantaneous, top-ranked assassin everytime he gets a boner; I'm not even joking. This happens quite a lot throughout the series because Kinji just can't keep it down, and nearly all of the female characters lose their dignity to this because it's the only thing that makes him worth anything in this show.
Hey, it's not like this could be Black Lagoon or Kara no Kyoukai where a woman kept her dignity, was a central character AND completely awesome. Come on, Hidan no Aria! I don't think there are enough breasts flopping around or widescreen panty-shots for the audience!
But, wait! I've spent all of this time talking about Kinji! What about Aria, the shining, tsundere selling-point of the show?
Well, that's really all there is to her. Aria is a tsundere to the nth degree. She even initially calls Kinji her "slave" and lives with him, very similarly to ANOTHER show made by J.C. Staff. Heck, she's so tsundere that she becomes unlikable mere seconds after she speaks because of how much a squealing, raging runt that she is, and her gimmick is that she will constantly fire her guns at Kinji while screaming at him that he's either a pervert or stupid. The girl even admits that she doesn't have any friends. Hmm, I wonder why!
Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention that the show tries to be cute by adding in references to fictional detective characters, such as Lupin and Holmes, stating that the "H" in Aria's middle name stands for "Holmes" and that she--a whiny, putrid, pink-haired good-for-nothing--is his descendant.
And by "good-for-nothing", I mean it. Aria is supposed to be a top-ranked assassin--even given the nickname "Aria the Quadra" for her use of four weapons--and yet, she's always needing saving, doesn't have any regard for human life other than her own, and has the attitude of a spoiled, indecisive, quickly-amused child.
Why is she regarded as the "best" again? Why is everyone putting the most difficult missions on her shoulders? Why couldn't the crazy world that this story encompasses just trade her in for a better lead character?
Oh, yes, I almost forgot BECAUSE MERCHANDISING DEMANDS IT.
Not to mention, the audience, as does Kinji, is clearly supposed to find her physically appealing, too. Sorry, but personally, I can't find a hateful, loathsome numb-nut attractive. I'd rather go with the blonde chick who's into eroge and frilly dresses that also appears in this show, thank you.
Moving on, when it comes to the plot itself, it's not even anything worth sneezing at. Many of the plot-twists are those anyone could see coming from a mile away, the characters also pull-off stunts that are near-impossible (if not, completely impossible under human conditions), and some characters appear only once or twice for plot-convenience and are never heard from or seen ever again (i.e., Reki, Jeanne d'Arc, etc.). There are even some points in the story that are barely touched upon, such as the supernatural powers that come forth numerous times.
The art is bland and one-dimensional, and the animation is typically stiff all of the time. The soundtrack is completely unnoticeable for the most part, save for the opening and ending themes, which are simply okay at best.
Overall, without giving too much away about the plot, this was painful--just downright painful. It has a plot and setting that would make Swiss cheese blush and horrible characters that are unsympathetic, stereotypical, and--more than often--outrageously annoying; not to mention, a pretentious presentation of nothing special that is of a (hopefully) dying breed.
If anyone else managed to sit through this garbage until the end (like I did), they deserve a medal. I can only hope that with such a low bar set, J.C. Staff will make their upcoming series, Kamisama no Memochou, an aspiring improvement.
Please don't bother twiddling your thumbs with the possibility of a second season, J.C. Staff; otherwise, I fear the worst--that everyone will just stop caring~
Ara_
Not the best anime, but Hidan No Aria was to me an enjoyable one, and since it is highly criticized, I decided to write a review. The background of the story is attractive, I mean, studying in order to be able to fight criminals sounds nice, and it leads to some nice action scenes. Although the plot isnt that convincing, it is not a boring one. The beginning of the scenario is a commonplace, it starts with a highschool student, at the beginning of yet another year. The highschool not being seen as a true highschool, it can help to forget the number of anime possibilyseen starting like this.
As for the art, it is a recent anime, so it is pretty good overall. For the soundtracks, the openingending, I found them pretty catchy (the singer for the opening is May'n, also known for the opening of Accel World), especially the opening.
And now, the part that contributes the most (as well as the storyline) to Hidan No Aria's bad reception, the characters. Basically, the story revolves around two main characters, one guy (Kinji) and one girl (Aria), a tsundere. Obviously people who dislike the basic concept of tsunderes will probably dislike this anime, since there is a non negligeable part of it around her. She has everything to fits the cliche, she is even voiced by Rie Kugimiya, so your point of view will also depends if you got bored of her tsundere voice or not. Kinji, on the other hand, is less of a stereotype, and is entertaining to watch. He displays ... quite a unique trait.
So, overall, this anime is more of a good distraction than a breathtaking anime, but still, isn't that the point of animes? From my point of view, if you are fine with tsundere/gun or sword fighting, give it a try, in the worst case you'd lose an hour or so.
GonzyChan
Putting any gimmick into your average action show with romantic comedy has been a staple of a tradition for quite some time. Some succeed, and some don’t. Which, in most cases, doesn’t work because it is nothing more than a gimmick in hindsight. So what better way than to plaster guns into your generic romantic comedy in the title and artwork and pray that action fanatics might have some slight interest. Look no further than Hidan no Aria to fill in another entry in the wrong category. Nevertheless, it is not necessarily the shallow spectrum point in the category. For all I know, there are someapparent intentions of becoming a straight-up action show, and it succeeds somewhat in that department. There are some impossible logic drops scattered throughout most of the action. But for a show that is this inept plot-wise, there isn’t any reason to bash it any further. It wants its effort to be flashy and fast-paced. So by those standards, there are plenty of engaging conceptual scenarios they put into them.
Like any show that stars Rie Kugimiya as the main heroine and a tsundere non-surprising, there is bound to be light-hearted comedy thrown in for good measure. When I mention “good measure,” I mean that haphazardly. When the humor is right in Hidan no Aria, it is put together and hilarious to watch Aria’s reactions to anything lewd. But man, when the jokes do not work, they fucking die horribly. It’s not the fact the quips themselves aren’t humorous, but the way they pace it together feels dragged out far too long than it needed to be. There’s even one instance where Aria calls Kinji a baka repeatedly for almost 8 seconds, and it becomes tedious to experience.
These comedic interactions also falter because most of the characters are cardboard cut-out characters of different stereotypes and add nothing significant to them. All we can remember about them is the typical gags written for them. Shirayuki is a creepy childhood friend who has an intense crush on Kinji and gets jealous whenever a girl is close to him. Then there is Riko Mine, who somehow has an attraction towards Kinji that is never given much context as to why she wants him to begin with. No amount of layers upon layers of depth could be seen in any of them because of this fatal flaw. If you're going to show these girls in these positions, that is perfectly fine, but don’t expect someone to latch onto them for just those assets.
I’d put some forward analysis on our male protagonist, Kinji Tooyama, only because there is something that needs to be said about protagonists typically written in these types of shows. We’re all familiar with the general romantic comedy protagonist who gets flustered and becomes idiotic. It is a redundant trope that we have gotten used to over the years; except with Kinji, he is not a character that possesses this trope. You’d think that would lead to him being likable, right? Well, the answer to that is yes and no. Nothing really to him makes him inherently riveting to watch in guiding through the plot, what little there is, to begin with. Just like the main female cast, all we’re shown about him is what his role is in the story and nothing else.
Usually, I’d like to talk about a show’s plot in the first paragraph, but for Hidan no Aria’s sake, I won’t even give it the time of day for that honor. Not only that, but it almost seemed as though the plot was very second nature to the show’s intentions. Even though it looked like it wanted to, based on how it tried to put in a severe tone what seemed to have been a plot, it provides very few attempts to weave in a coherent story. The story is not only uninteresting but also difficult to follow because of the bad transitions to mindless comedic moments.
With Rie Kugimiya on board with the main project, it’s always apparent to at least talk about the voice acting in the show she appears in. However, Aria is not one of the big highlights of her career. I say this from someone who may not be a huge fan, but I at least respect the range and energy she puts into her roles. It’s one of her roles where if you absolutely can’t stand her voice, Aria will not turn you into a new convert for her fanbase. Her iconic “baka” is probably the most thrown out in this show, more than any other show she’s been in, so that right there should signify whether you want to stomach through that or not.
No expectations were any higher than medium when I went into Hidan no Aria. Still, I was surprised to say that its negatives don’t overshadow the positives too much. That, however, can’t make it a recommendation by any stretch. It won’t appeal to the people who want an insightful anime-watching experience. But it’s not going to be an easy sell for the action crowd. Don't expect much from it if you think you can repeatedly handle the screaming “baka” lines and the other nauseating character interactions.
Grade: C-
NeverKnowsBest26
Judging from Hidan no Aria's credentials, it is a safe assumption that it is a run-of-the-mill rom-com with a tsudere at its core and a heaping helping of action. On the other hand it might be a surprise, using genre conventions to its advantage, as Toradora did. As it turns out Hidan no Aria is a surprise... a very unpleasant one. Constantly bombarding the viewer with an endless stream of cliches while throwing in ridiculous plot twists in order to "spice things up", this is a far worse experience than your average generic rom-com. The show seems to be banking on J.C. Staff's previous successes. Itis directed by Takashi Watanabe, who had previously directed the popular Shakugan no Shana; plus has the voice of that show's star, Rie Kugimiya, as the show's heroine Aria. It also has Kugimiya's co-star in the massively successful Toradora, Junji Majima, as the male protagonist Kinji Tooyama. This in of itself feels like a cheap trick in order to win an audience. However, with such considerable talent, you would expect the show to at least be halfway decent.
The story itself starts off decently enough, though quite predictable. Kinji finds himself in a life-endangering predicament and is saved by the petite but fierce Aria; a bond is formed between them as to be expected. The settings of the story are actually pretty interesting, with Kinji being enrolled in a school for armed forces, which explains why there are such heavily armed teenagers, albeit a rather silly explanation. Kinji himself has an entertaining gimmick with his "Hysteria Mode" which turns him from low-key and cynical to smooth-talking and arrogant. However, that is about the extent of praise that can be given, even this early into the show. Aria is the most annoying tsundere imaginable, falling straight into the pitfalls of the character type, and capturing none of its charm. Not even the queen of tsuderes herself, Rie Kugimiya, can safe this poorly constructed excuse of a character. Outside of hysteria mode, Kinji is just a typical, boring male lead. The rest of the cast is equally unimpressive, consisting of tired archetypes such as the possessive childhood friend, the stoic sniper girl, the impish antagonist, etc.
What really makes this show a stinker, though, is the completely asinine plot. It is not just horribly written, it is actually insulting to the viewers' intelligence. Characters' motives are poorly justified, often cliche or just plain stupid. Sub-plots pop up right and left, just to come to train-wreak conclusions, or remain unresolved. The big bad crime syndicate, called the I-U, seems to be a group of gung-ho individuals who claim to be associated with each other, but show no coherent signs of being so. Really, it is more of a gigantic nonsensical mess than a plot. Most criminal of all is the shows use of historic figures and classic fictional characters as the reason behind everything; the list of names disgraced include Sherlock Homes, Arsene Lupin, Joan of Arc, and Count Dracula. All whom are concerned must be rolling around in their graves.
The show's technical merits are the aspect most worthy of praise. Takashi Watanabe does his damn best to try and make this dreck entertaining, and to some degree succeeds. The actions scenes are generally exciting and the comedy scenes, while hardly ever working, at least feel like there was some effort put in by the production staff. The artwork itself is bland and generic; yawn-worthy, really. The music pumps up the excitement of the action scenes, but is otherwise pretty unnoticeable. This is the high-point of the show, and honestly... it is not all that high.
The preview of the final episode features an in-joke, in which Aria seemingly forgets Kinji's name and calls him by Yuugi, Saito, and finally Ryuuji. Yes, this is a cute and funny in-joke for all who get it... but it is also a reminder of why shows like this are even created. It seems the modern anime fan is happy to consume just about anything, so long as it has established names attached to it. Really, why else would such drivel even be conceived?
Plinius
If they decide to make a 2º season (they should, because the 1º season has lots of material to make a 2º) I think it will have some development on the romance area. But still, I shall say this anime was entertaining, was it worth watching? Yes, because 12 episodes isn't that much, and the anime has its original side. Famous people references, gun / swords fight, great art and motion. But for me, a LovCom fan, I still enjoyed the anime, but was a bit sad at the ending, because the ending its like: "Wait for the 2º Season" Story 8/10: The Story...a School forsome kind of "SWAT" students, to fight crime and escort civilians, those kinds of stuff. But the catch comes when most of them have special powers, or important grandfathers. You will get some kind of romance, but nothing special, why? Because of the power of the main character, where he gets on rampage/boss/assassin/master mode (its the best side of the story, where he gets f*cking badass) when he thinks/makes dirty stuff, or (OFC) when he looks to Aria (main female), here it starts some kind of "romance".
Art 10/10: The art/motion its the best on the anime, you can see the really good drawn action time, the fights, the reload animation, the characters and the ambient.
Sound 9/10: I normally don't mind about the sound, but when I do. Are on the fight scenes, I don't understand much about music, but it made me pumped while I watch it.
Character 7/10: Well..You have one guy that gets OP when he gets excited whit girls, one girl (secondary) that doesn't talk much but its OP :D, another girl that gets embarrassed when he thinks about dirty things, another that only loves dirty things, and for the last, (drums) a girl that wants to marry the main male protagonist. Nothing from another world. In my opinion this is a typical Harem.
Enjoyment 9/10: Yes, this is f*cking funny, and awesome. Nice gun/powers/swords fights. And yes, there are some echii sceens. Nothing too much. Light Etchii.
Overall 8/10
----
So my opinion about the anime:
1º Watch it if you like funny/harem style
2º If you like Light romance between 2 main characters
3º If you want an Harem where the male makes something useful for the girls (not a useless f*ck)
4º Its small, easy to watch, and it doesn't need to much brain effort to watch it
The only bad thing in the anime was the first episode, it was too GOOD, why? Well when he gets on "Hysteria Mode" it was f*cking badass (best hysteria mode you will see on the anime), the way he talks to the girl, the way he "kills" the enemy...too Good for a first episode.
CoolBreeze
Story-6 Art-9 Sound-7 Character-6 Enjoyment-8 ____________ Overall-7 Now, I've read some of the reviews before watching this and after reading some of them they basically left the impression that this anime is really bad. Now that I've finished watching it I have to say this anime really is bad. It did have some very good potential but the creators couldn't quite grasp it. Hidan no Aria had a good foundation, which is a high school that changes its students into mercenaries, but even though they had a good foundation in the end they didn't build the house as nice as they should have been (I hope you guys get this analogy).There was a lot of foolish mistake made in this and for starters there was no story. The episode started with action right off the bat, with little explanation, then the creators decided to let the main character/narrator explain what was going on.
Another mistake they made, which was really bad were the characters. There was little character development and a few of the characters for some reason had nicknames of Historic people, for no apparent reason. I honestly don't even know where the creators were going with this, but I think it was supposedly suppose to contribute to the 'story' some how.
I noticed while watching this, the characters repeatedly kept referring to an article that I guess the school came up with. I think it was Article 2, "Trust your friends and help when they need it". Lolwut, is this the best they got? I honestly feel that the creators came up with the mercenaries idea, and after that they just rushed into it. Also the whole bullet proof clothes thing really did ruin this anime. If the creators allowed wounding and blood, this would have been a whole lot better. Hidan no Aria really suffered because of the creators, the name doesn't even have any meaning!
One thing I noticed some people were throwing around in they're reviews was that there was a harem going on throughout this, and I have to say I completely disagree. I feel people feel if there's even one girl that likes the main character for no apparent reason then that's a harem, wrong!
Here's the definition that I strongly believe in for a Harem; Harem= when 3 or more girls have been confirmed to like the main character or have a strong fascination over him for no apparent reason or a not good enough reason.
Two girls liking the main character at the same time is just coincidence and not a harem, so in Hidan no Aria's case, there was no harem, there was only one girl that confirmed she liked Kinji.
But aside from all that, the art was pretty good, the characters were drawn well and so were the guns. The background were also drawn well, the art is probably one of the only good things about this show (yikes!).
The sound was alright, the opening and ending themes could have been better. As for the voice actors, there were probably only two I felt fit the characters they were voice acting, which is Aria and Riko.
Despite all that, I did enjoy this show. It entertained me, despite the nonsense it had. I really feel this show should be given a chance by everyone, although most people who reviewed it either said "it sucked" or "it's okay", I think everyone should give it a shot.
chu-san
I've seen many "this anime is crap" reviews for Hidan no Aria, and felt that I, as a person who enjoyed this show should give his point of view about it. Before I start... I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who enjoyed this since the average rating for this show is in the 7s This can be seen as a typical harem anime at a few glances, which is true. However, that's not all of it. As you can predict from all the guns, this does involve a lot of (gun) fighting too. Story: I think the story line is great (note: I have no problems watchingsame things over and over). The problem might be for some people is that this is a typical harem anime with all those typical females and the "I avoid girls" male.
The setting is a bit unrealistic, involving high schoolers who carry guns and swords with them during school (also note that on average, 3% of the students die during their courses (only for the harshest course, but I mean, highschoolers dieing??)) However, this slight unrealistic part of the setting really does allow all of the crazy things to at least fit in (still sticks out like a sore thumb in my opinion).
The second problem I had with the story is that the story is too spread apart, such as psychic abilities, a special item that artificially creates psychic abilities, and most of all, the characters (which I'll explain later)
tl;dr?
1.This is a typical harem anime with all the typical females.
2.Setting unrealistic (which I really enjoyed)
Art: I'll keep this short since I'm not an art critic, and I personally don't see that much of a difference of art in most animes.
Since this anime is already unrealistic, the art does fit well with Hidan no Aria.
But I do see many problems with it: (naming the major ones)
1. Too unrealistic (people manage to hide a gun about 1.5x their hand under their very short skirt.
2. Again, too unrealistic (their hair moves really awkwardly in mid-air.
3. Many Unnecessary ecchi moments which is not in the light novel
Sound: I enjoyed the sound, that's all I can say.
all the voice actors fit in with the character, especially Shirayuki.
I loved the OP, and I skipped the EP, so I don't know.
I felt that the bgms fit in with the situation, since I didn't realize of the BGM's presence until I looked back.
Character: The characters itself are so good I might of rated it a 9 or 10... if not for the random historical/fictional names that usually makes no sense.
The main character, Tooyama Kinji is a Butei that no longer wishes to stay as one, following an incident regarding his brother, who is also a Butei being bad mouthed by media after "losing" his life while saving the passengers on a cruise "accident".
He carries this special genetic trait,"Hysteria Mode" that allows him to be about 30x stronger and smarter when he becomes sexually aroused, but tries his best to avoid "using" it(hence avoiding females).
The main female character, Kanzaki Holmes Aria is one of the top Buteis in the school. She is the typical tsundere, cruel character who treats Kinji as a slave and decides to beat him around when she is mad or when she sees Kinji with another girl.
Another important female character, Shirayuki is a shrine maiden (miko) with psychic abilities. She is a great addition to Hidan no Aria, and helps create many comedy moments. She is the childhood friend of Kinji, who basically is in love with him. She is a yandere, nuf said.
Now the part which I mainly dislike, the naming of the characters:
Tooyama Kinji: I'm actually fine with this, but some of my friends aren't. He is based off Tooyama Kin-san, a historical Japanese cop (I think) in the Edo era.
Kanzaki Holmes Aria: This is obvious, she's related to Sherlock Holmes. She is the Fourth Generation Holmes. The problem is that she has absolutely no deducing abilities, unlike Sherlock Holmes.
Mine Riko Lupin (4th): Lupin the Fourth. I think her character fits Lupin, but the part that I don't get, is that she is sort of friends with Aria. Lupin and Holmes as best friends anyone?
Joanne the Arc (twenty-something generation): This naming has nothing to do with the character, so I dislike this.
It's getting long, so I'm gonna stop here, but there are so many historical character's decendents gathered in one highschool, which makes it really awkward and forced.
Overall: I liked the anime, but I felt that the anime should of been a little more loyal to the light novel, since I felt that the light novel is better. If you enjoyed the anime, try reading the novel (not sure if there are english versions, but if you can read Japanese, go for it) and you will enjoy it.
If you can handle all the contradictions and unrealistic things in the anime, go for it. I'm pretty sure it'll be worth your 6 ~ 7 hours.
If you read the whole thing, thanks!
KetsuekiRyuuji
Hidan no Aria ... Aria the Scarlett ammo ... In my opinion this has been a very enjoyable anime. The story revolves around our male protagonist Tohyama Kinji. The events that happen are in a good and logical sequence, very similar to the light novel. Also in my opninion the story of Hidan no Aria (I like the name better in Japanese) is not just an ordinary story. Yes of course, it is about a dude attending a high school, but that's not what this anime is about. Especially when you have read the light novel you know this is true. Also for the people that have read thelight novel, I do recommend to watch this anime :) .
So, if you are interested in Action and Comedy you should definitely watch this anime! The balance between Action and Comedy is very well done (I think more animes should balance their genres better). . . . (8)
About sound and art ...
Let's just put these subjects together.
The art good. But I mean, come on, who cares that much about art if you just have a nice story with good development?
The sceneries are always well done, but are not really the parts you need to worry about. Sometimes the backgrounds are a little empty and need more people there, but that's all, really.
The sound fits the sceneries and the voices fit the characters, which of course is always hard to decide ... I think they thought this out pretty good. . . . (7)
On to the characters :)
The characters are very surprising, really.
They definitely are not the kind of characters you would expect in these kind of genres. But putting the expectations aside, the characters do fit the events very well and I very much enjoyed the personalities processed in the characters.
In the beginning there isn't much character development, but as the story progresses also do the characters and they start to mature a little bit more after each event. This is what I liked very much. . . . (8)
I don't think I have more to tell about the story, sound and art and characters
I really enjoyed the anime and the light novel so I recommend both of them, though I know there are people out there who don't like reading :P.
I you really don't like reading, try the manga, that's also awesome.
I definitely liked them myself and told a lot of my friends, who also watch anime, to watch Hidan no Aria.
But in the end this is all my opinion, haha. If you want to confirm my opinions you should watch the anime yourself and submit a review for other potential watchers!
But long story short:
Good anime, nice balance between genres, nice story, good art and sound, unexpected personalities and good development. Very enjoyable :D
. . . (8)
Reckoner
It's one thing to produce an anime that turns out badly, but it's another thing entirely to produce an anime that showcases a complete lack of effort put into production. Hidan no Aria is merely but another step into failure by the largely hit or miss JC Staff, but what really manages to tick me off as a viewer is the complete lack of care and effort put into the production of this anime. Now listen. I had nothing against the initial setup of this anime, I originally started watching it (And kept doing so for who knows what reason) merely because the premise seemed tobe fun, although ridiculous. It was something for me to just watch for the shits and giggles, a guilty pleasure if you will.
I never expected tons of depth or complexity in this anime, but I did expect to be entertained. I wanted to see an anime that would be almost the equivalent of a summer blockbuster action flick, which while certainly the highest quality entertainment out there, it still manages to be a fun little experience.
Clearly, JC Staff had other things in mind. Instead of just trying to provide straight forward entertainment, Hidan no Aria was very roundabout with its approach. An incredible amount of the show's time was devoted completely to fanservice and the usual anime tropes. Ranging from the main heroine Aria, who is yet another Kugerie Rie voiced loli tsundere from JC staff, who does nothing but treats the half spineless male lead like a slave, to the yandere childhood friend Shirayuki who dots on the main protagonist in a severely annoying manner, there was almost no character here that felt genuine or likable. I say the male lead is half spineless because supposedly whenever he gets a boner for one of the other girls he enters "Hysteria mode" and changes into some super skilled fighter with an arrogant, charismatic, and overbearing attitude. No joke here either.
Honestly, I feel like I'm writing about some action comedy, but the worst part about it all is that this plot takes itself fully seriously. There are several supposed "dramatic" moments in the series where we are expected to sympathize with each girl in the main character's little harem, especially Aria. There are several times in this series where one will be subjected to Aria's toddler tantrums because of things not going her way, and we are expected to sympathize with her when all she does is slave driver the main lead with a leash.
But hey, even if the characters suck, maybe the action and plot is entertaining... Well one of the major facets of the plot is how these famous people in the world are often direct descendants of famous figures like Holmes, Dracula, Lupin, etc. Each of them bears their own pasts and problems, but really, it's just really, really stupid. I think by the end when you see that the Dracula descendant is a werewolf you will also realize just how stupid this plot line is.
The action itself is often very lackluster. JC Staff's continual budget slashing just makes the show look like utter crap. Nothing about it stands out, and there's not enough of it at all. Not to mention that tons of of the action scenes are marred by again, fanservice since our main lead needs a boner to do anything productive. For some reason he is also relegated to support roles as well.
But I digress. What's clear to me, is that there is a clear lack of effort put forth by JC Staff that is pervasive throughout the entire anime. The fanservice is hardly stimulating, especially when most of it is from a loli pink haired girl. The action lacks punch, and there is far too little of it. And worst of all, each and every character is an anime archetype or trope executed in a very uninspiring manner.
If the creators of the show aren't even trying to make me like this, why should I?
zeroevade
Now this anime isn't anything particularly special, but I wouldn't dismiss it easily. This is a very cliche Shana (main female protaganist is a loli tsundere with powers basically) lesque harem anime, but it has its good points too. There are a few twists and turns and the anime is kept at a brisk pace to back it up as well. The story is an albeit comicly overcomplicated world that isn't very well gone into detail. It takes place with the protaganist, who when sexually aroused changes from an introverted weakling tothe opposite in so called Hysteria Mode, extroadinary powers, control, and well basically he can do everything humanly possible. Yeah, see that target 300 yards away? It now has a bullet hole in it's center. He leaves his house with breakfast prepared by the obvious childhood friend flag character, Shirayuki Hoto, to a military school described in little detail where he then would resume training for, uh capturing criminals and stuff (bear with it, the anime gets better!). Anyways, suddenly he then gets attacked by a thingy ma bobby contraption best described as a machine gun on a scooter where he frantically tries to avoid losing his life (don't worry hes the main character he's probably not dieing in the first episode), and dadadada! (Stein's gate reference) he is saved by a myserious short underdeveloped character with bright pink hair that is safe to assume to be the Shana character of this anime otherwise known as Aria Kanazaki. He then goes into hysteria mode when fanservice is accidently given to him and he then shows off to the girl with a few impressive moves and a cool attitude. She of course gets interested in him, and the rest is history they team up, meet a few more interesting characters, have little tamper tantrums where she beats up on the protaganist throughout and the anime continues from there. 6
I can't say too much about the art as it is decent quality in 2010 with maybe wanting a little more on the backgrounds and perhaps some of the city strips, but otherwise it is just what the anime needed. A nice, smooth, relaxed art that is to show all of the Tsundereish things Aria does.9
I liked the sound alot as well, if your a Rie Kugima fan you will probably like the main female character. The rest of the voices are pretty average especially the main character who sounds all depressed if hes not Mr. fantastic mode. The opening(s), I don't remember if it had more than one, were great and fitted the anime well. The ending had a beautiful tone to it as well and contrasted the sunnier opening well. The bgm throughought was used appropriately, but sometimes felt you wanting more. Either way it was better that most anime of this genre. 9
Okay, well the characters did get a little annoying. The main guy protagonist, Kinji, is kind of a depressed guy who only slowly starts to realize what hes got (the imaginary harem none have). I have never been a personal fan of the loli tsundere chacter really but if that is your thing Aria is the eptiome of it and you will love her and the gun's she produces at inappropriate times when she is embarassed. The childhood friend Shirayuki has some pretty funny lines and is very likeable, as long as you can tolerate the relationship she has with Kinji where she literally throws herself at him. A happy go lucky girl character,Rico, is very interesting and develops pretty well as the anime goes on. My favorite character and the saving grace of this cast of misfits is Reki who is a sniper at the military school/ cop school/ everything.whatever who is a quiet shy little girl and you only barely see her start to come out of her shell, but when you do it is rewarding. In total the characters blend averagely and form a pretty varied cast, hopefully some don't get too much on your nerves.You will also join some later characters whose names I am not going to spoil, but aren't gone into depth much anyways. 6
For some reason, despite all these flaws, I really did enjoy this anime. When there was a funny scene it was downright hilarious. I encourage you even if you don't want to watch this anime to youtube Hidan no aria- I didn't get pregnant! because its one of the funnier scenes in anime I've scene and doesn't really need to be seen too much in context. Also, I plainly enjoy watching the girls fall over a guy like this in different ways that he doesn't deserve even if it is really unrealistic, it is just entertaining, and better than I think most harem portray it. The fight scenes were pretty average and relatively short, but it did shine a better light on the characters and their personalities under pressure. Also shows that the main character's two sides in contrast rather well ( if you can stand either side that is). Either way I enjoyed this series more than I expected with the combination of awkward bits of romance, comedy, stiff battle scenes, and well fan service. 8
Overall this anime is a worthy watch, but I wouldn't make it a top priority, Take a break watch some TV finish that really good series you haven't had time to watch yet and when a break comes, try to fit this series in comfortably because it will be worthwhile to do so, hope you like bright pink hair and a bright red face with twin guns because you will be seeing a lot of it. 7
BeebopJazzAttack
Aria The Scarlet Ammo, a anime made in 2011 is a prime example I think, of how Anime as a whole over the course of three years has gone down hill. Sure, you can find a few here and there that stand out above the crowed, but most are mediocre and that's where ARIA THE SCARLET AMMO comes in. It might actually be lower than mediocre. The story is so cliche and so over used, that I was totally put off by it and stayed for the characters through the last four episodes. Boy meets, girl, she likes him he might like her, other girlslike him and they shoot people. Even people who hate anime know about this kind of anime, its so over done in so many anime. Kenji himself is somewhat unique, in the sense that he has a split persona that can only be released through looking at a women's panties or bra. Typical perverted character that only becomes awesome when he is perverted! The girl, Aria from which the show is named after is also a cliche, a little bratty kid who calls every guy a pervert that looks at her and wants to pump them full of holes (a line that gets tediously old after like the second time she says it)
The only real development she gets is that she is a decedent of Sherlock Holmes and her arch enemy is, of course, another decedent of a master sleuth, this time being Lupin the 3rd. Throwing other characters names into the mix and calling them the great granddaughters of these guys feels like the creators of the show couldn't come up with clever names themselves so instead took the names of two of the most famous fictional characters in all of entertainment.
The story itself skips between one bad guy after another. Not really giving much insight to who they are our what their true evil plan is, Aria and Kenji defeat them all with ease. The final "true" villain is so uninteresting and has so little time in the show that I didn't really care if they killed him or he killed them, I just wanted it to be done! The only returning characters are the chick that is the decedent of Lupin, who's just a stupid loli that has nothing cool to do, a sniper chick who has about twenty minutes in the whole show and a Buti with magical powers that ALSO GET THIS GUYS!!! has the hots for Kenji! But she also has no time in the show at all either.
ARIA THE SCARLET AMMO probably needed more episodes to be called an actual show. But I don't think I could of watched a full 24 or 26 episode show of this. Its just so uninteresting and boring. The music is nice, going from fast pace to melancholy drama. The opening song has a nice beat and plays a lot through out each episode. I do think once Kenji goes into hysteria mode his other persona (minus the perversion) is a slick, well done detective-esc character, who does come up with interesting ways to get out of situations. Maybe a spin off show with him instead of Aria? I'd watch that.
theDeva
Hidan no Aria or Aria the Scarlet Ammo is hardly an anime that could be judged by its name or by the genres mentioned here. To put it straight the anime does have action and comedy and school but its hardly the main part of it, its all about girls and guns (and swords) and the cliched over-used recycled gibberish scenarios (hence the G-shock). As a matter of fact, neither girls nor guns nor both put together made the anime any good but a lot of us (including me) are sucker for these types and thus the popularity. The plot is set in a school thatgrants special students permission to take up missions and engage in combat using arms and ammunition. So you get talented snipers, gunmen, sword masters and special ability users produced by the school. Our protagonist, Tooyama Kinji, after a sad incident has decided to quit the combat division and live a normal life when suddenly he gets involved with a killing incident, a girl falls from sky, and activates his 'Ero-super-mode/ Hysteria mode' by contact with the flat-breasted Aria to set off the new course for his life.. so you can see :
1-sudden accident
2-girl falls from sky (special girl=cloud, these days)
3-perversion=power and
4-rescue heroine :all 100% checked for predictability.
After being persistently sought after for his Hysteria mode (activated by ecchi stimulation and heightens his senses out of his urge to protect females) he decides to help Aria absolve her mother from false accusations.
The protagonist is surrounded by a flat chested tsundere, a plump yandere childhood friend and a femme fatale as a starting dose to his harem, hopefully the other female encounters will also enter into harem cruise if they dare to make a sequel. The plot throughout is quite predictable and strewn with your usual harem scenarios, depth and mystery are hardly much of a factor and most scenarios are mediocre or dumb or both. Therefore, as an intellectual facade to give a perception of depth and mystery they decided to use the offsprings of famous characters- Holmes IV, Lupin IV, Jeanne de Arc (was it 38th ?) and the Dracula himself who was generously available due to his immortality. Except that Holmes IV has more intution than deduction abilities, Lupin IV has to use others to steal, Joan of Arc 38th can use ice and of course! all of them are girls. By the way, Dracula is a 'stupid cur with black-and-white fur' (a werewolf like creature with white spots on his otherwise brown skin to mark 3 of his 4 weak spots --FYI that's so you can kill him easily). If they thought that they could create a masterpiece by stuffing something from everywhere they couldn't have been more wrong.
Seriously, the story could hardly have been good when the basis itself is flawed. I regard the story as mediocre and generously award it a 6/10.
[spoiler.. on a side note the last episode really pissed me off; Vlad, the EU no.2, great villain, is actually a dumb wolf, defeated in less than one episode. At last, at long last they f***ing ruined their own credibility.]
The animation is not so good. The character sketches are good for the most part, the coloring scheme is good. But, the animation fares poorly, for one the scenes are not so fluid, they seem cut-off sometimes and another the angles are definitely not the best they could have given. I don't think they spent much in the animation department cause although the guns and characters are well made the action scenes don't come out as great. The backgrounds aren't spectacular either.
The sound department is fairly better than the others. I don't have very sharp ears to analyze the quality of voice-acting and BGM and grade it qualitatively but I consider most of the voice acting as good and the BGM nice though not spectacular. The OP seemed good to me, the ED was good and had a great accompanying animated scene.
The character zone is also starved and plagued with stagnation and cliches . Kinji, the male lead is a retarded and weak student with a hidden potential due to which he is either coveted by or recklessly thrown in the midst of dangerous women. A masculine instinct to protect females gives him the strength to survive. The female leads include a flat-chested tsundere loli Aria with the greatest potential to sexually excite the hero, a yandere childhood friend madly in love with him and a dangerous seductress bent upon using him for her own devious schemes. The rest of the characters are also derived and hardly have a hint of originality. The development follows - the predictable route to a classic harem. Well, since Aria plays a greater in the plot, her development is comparably better.
You can see how much of a hypocrite I am since, despite all the scorn and cynicism, I still gave the enjoyment a 7/10. That's because, even though it's full of shortcomings, I still like the anime because of its comedy-harem nature (not that i watch every harem but I do watch a lot of them).
As an overall opinion, if you're into it because of mystery or action or something new, I suggest you drop it and watch better ones. On the other hand, die hard fans of harem are always welcome.. come friends, no matter what happens if it has an H its a Must-Have, if its a Harem its a Must WatcH.
AceStar
If you don't like reading and just wish to know my opinion on whether or not you should watch this anime, my candid answer would be: "No, No, No, don't fall for the trap i did and just watch something else because Hidan no Aria is mind-blowingly bad". You're still here? Well then, lets get into the nitty gritty. By the way, there will be SPOILERS HERE, I know I'm not supposed to, but I can't write a review on how bad the anime was without 'em, so TEEHEE So, lets start with the characters, There is the VERY average anime male(Kinji), who holds the typical traits ofan anime male, who is the protagonist, which is rare because in most anime he'd be 20 feet from the camera and is rendered blurry cause he ain't worth attention. Now, he is exceptionally normal except for the fact he has a specially ability which I call the "boner ability". When he achieves a boner, he basically bones all enemies and becomes super smart, super brave, and super duper duper stuff.
There is the short girl(Aria), who plays the average short girl routine which is embarrassed about her height and bra size, and is apparently licensed to shoot anything without repercussion because she doesn't hesitate to dual-shoot anything. Also she is somewhat related to Sherlock Holmes but it give her anything.
Then there is the rest of the characters, few male companions of Kinji who are also very average, Riko, Hotogi, the sniper, jeanne, and vlad. none of which were important till the end.
Now the worst bit- the story
I liked where the story was headed(which is why I watched the whole thing) but it ended in another direction which got me disappointed and wilted.
All the characters are part of Butei a school for free lance police that fight terrorists.
-But seeing that the terrorists are aimed at the Butei, and Butei shooting up and bombard areas just shows how they improve their society which is to say of a negative effect.
But never-the-less they are fighting crime, which is till ep 6 where Aria decides to use the Butei for her personal gain and try to free her imprisoned mother who is sentenced to 900 some years(no im not kidding).
Then we find out that Riko is Lupin(which gives her the ability to use her hair like hands) and Aria is Holmes(nothing) and they must fight because fictional English books affect Japanese anime in more than just humor.
Somewhere here Aria and Kinji meet Jeanne - Joan of Arc's relative which gives her the power of ice, which makes even more sense because history and fiction go hand in hand.
Also around here is when Aria agrees to work with Riko who previously hijacked a plane to kill her, (which makes sense because you would work with people that tried to kill you with a plane) to steal something that Riko wants so that Riko can testify to clear her mother and go to jail herself - a fool proof plan indeed.
Ending- Riko betrays them attempts to kill Aria(again), then gets stopped by Butei teacher, Vlad aka. count dracula who is also a werewolf. If you are drawing a big (WTF) around here its because I did too. Anyway Riko teams up with Aria and Kinji who have memories of goldfish and forgives Riko and takes down Vlad by shooting weak points marked out in nice white paint as if he was a first boss in a RPG game.
Now if you are outraged that I didn't mention Hotogi- screw you, she wasn't important and all.
Also if you thought my summary of how poorly written Hidan no Aria was somewhat confusing in any manner, then for you, watching Hidan no Aria will be like giving birth to a 30 lb. baby.
DeSwitch
Tokyo Butei High School—It’s a special school where armed detectives, also known as "Butei", armed detectives in training are being brought up. Tohyama Kinji is a junior student who has the unique body which activates a Hysteria Mode. It’s supposedly a genetic condition, when Kinji gets sexually aroused. He turns into a “mega playboy” with superhuman judgment and reflexes. The end result is an extremely suave change in personality. He tries to hide it to others in order to live a peaceful life. But trouble comes to find him when he becomes a victim of a bombing incident, where he meets the Butei high "Assault"department elite, Aria H. Kanzaki.
Story & Characters (1/10)
In the near future Japan, teenagers learn to be a Butei, an elite force that specializes in arms and hand-to-hand combat, at Tokyo Butei High. Toyama Kinji is a Butei, but he doesn't want to be. Just as he makes up his mind to leave, however, he stumbles across an anti-Butei Killer and needs a rescue from the fiery, gun-toting Aria. She's tiny, she's skilled, yet she has the temper of a little brat, and after seeing Kinji "transforms" into his hysteria mode, which is a flirtatious, damsel-rescuing prince, to turn the table and rescue her, she wants him to be her partner. Together they battle the Butei Killer, go to school, and get tangled up with other forces who have evil plans.
A little hope can be a dangerous thing. Take Aria the Scarlet Ammo. Its first episode had a few glimmers of interest, so we spend the next six hoping that something will come of them, only to be crushed at every available opportunity by brainless fluff plots and excruciating harem capers. Genre tropes aren't bad by nature, but the way a few series carry and blow them into something unexpected is worth watching. Bad ones use tropes as crutches, to allow them to hobble without doing the work of manufacturing their own appeal. This anime is one of those. One minute Kinji declines Aria's offer of partnership, then a childhood friend who hopelessly mewls over him bursting in to create one of those must-have-harem-comedy, then the next Aria's spouting she's a direct descendant of some badass historical figure. Wow, talk about another facepalm. Wait a few moments and Kinji playing a center idiot in the harem, and suddenly he's a retro hero with the allergic cool look and professional womanizing skills. The entire anime is littered with the corpses of failed harem adaptations; Aria isn't making canny use of its tropes; it simply is them, blown up until they can't be ignored... or enjoyed.
And then there's the main characters; like any show that names itself after its main character, it's fair to say that everything should be laying on the shoulder of its main character. However, Aria isn't a tactical role. She has a frail moe look contrasts to the great skills she possesses, and is indeed indeed to any of Kugimiya Rie's many diminutive tsunderes, but only a resemblance. She has none of the genuine traits or any of the depth of Kugimiya's heartbreaking character; she's a parody, and not a funny one. Her anti-Kinji personality is a typical trait to reveal the insecure, cute and cuddly girl tacked onto the end like a particularly phony afterthought, and somewhere in there there's a few scenes in which she's desperately in need of rescuing despite she claims to be the best Butei at school helps absolute nothing.
Aria is clearly an action series mixed with harem, which itself should sound a warning bell. Kinji is a straightforward harem lead, who has the personalities of one and acts like one. His hysteria mode, though is a funny one, is still a cheap trick. The other two heroines are shy miko Shirayuki and lust-addled (gentlewoman?) thief Riko. They're all superior martial artists, and all hopelessly smitten with him. Turns out they're all descendants of some historical figures like Aria, and lousy ones, too. Each represents a superior harem trait, and they aren't just a string of pointless rumbles, but an oddball of tale.
Art (4/10)
It's the strategic focus of the fights, however, that really gives one hope. They're part of a battle, which despite its controlled nature and lethal weapons, still has many of the opportunities for strategy, betrayal and trickery that a real battle would have. Aria and Kinji's battles are good action showcases, pumped up with nice visuals to portrait the daily battle in the life of a Butei. Unfortunately it isn't all there is to the episode. There are characters to introduce, which generally involves a big dramatic entrance and a quick survey of each girl's loli-flavored character design.
The only sign of life is the show's dumb slight of gags, which is admittedly spotty but also contains hints of fanservice. When Riko makes her escape by using her own uniform as parachute, revealing her busty body, or a matter of concern about Aria's flat chest or screeching at Kinji for being a pervert, are all a silly joke and a mean to pique the interest of the people who would enjoy things like, well, small girls with big eyes.
Sound (6/10)
Tsundere specialist Kugimiya Rie returns to voice the character type that she specializes, but she was just simply reprising her role for Shana, and to be paired with Majima Junji, who she has chemistry since Toradora! and whose characters are just a mere copy of the old one proves to be weaker. They are veterans enough, however, to confine them mostly to invisible supporting roles, so you're unlikely to notice unless you're specifically listening for them. The music score does try its best to pump up the pace and energy, but it feels worn-out like a half-hearted effort.
Overall (3/10)
You hear it a lot, you watch it a lot, and you facepalm because of it a lot. It takes a while for the series' amusement at its own genre-pandering, trope-plundering ridiculousness to register, though. There's very little in the way of humor during the first episode, and the way it lunges from one cliche to the next, taking little care to properly connect them, makes it much easier to cringe at the towering derivation of it all than to laugh at it, much less laugh good-naturedly. Oh, and just to kill things a little more dead, the villains are both random and really, really annoying.
Some series fail because of a lack of anything fresh to work with; others fail because of deficiencies in execution. Aria the Scarlet Ammo squarely falls into the former category. It doesn't have any good ideas and does not do anything to make a new start, and is not sexy enough in the way it does them, to be entertaining as anything more than an ignorance.
