Aria the Origination Drama CD1 01 (and Aria in general)

Through a post I recently seen on Natsukashii, I found out about a new fansub group, called Tortoise Fansubs (web/IRC), who are subbing Drama CDs. Excellent! Drama CDs, and especially internet radio shows these days, are so common for anime in Japan. They are perfect for unlocking secrets and explaining nuances from the show that just can’t be picked up through the medium of video alone. Also, and especially in this case for me, it helps with the withdrawal symptoms of shows that have finished, much like Aria.

I absolutely love Aria. I’d heard a bit about it in Neo magazine, it was quite high up the MyAnimeList top anime page, and Right Stuf had recently licensed it in America, so I thought it warranted a checking out. I was hooked. The beautiful drawings of Neo-Venezian life and it’s changes throughout Aqua’s seasons have an ethereal quality and help to draw us in to the world. It is then that Akari Mizunashi’s intoxicating blend of wonderfulness and mystery suddenly makes everything bad in the world go away for half an hour, being replaced by a warm feeling of satisfaction. They should prescribe this show to people on high blood pressure. I’m serious, it would do wonders.

Related to this, IcyStorm of Minimum Tempo and lolikitsune of notdotq recently conducted an experiment to try and act recklessly nice like Akari herself. In this cut-throat world of cynical human beings, that is quite a feat in itself, so I have to congratulate them both for getting through. It’s experiments like this that really show how influential Akari’s character can be. Despite her quiet approach, she is just as powerful as your stereotypical brash female protagonist is. Perhaps this power of hers wrapped up in a wonderful package is what makes her so special.

And so, to the drama CD fansub. I must say, I love the way this has been done – there’s an MKV file with a still picture and subtitles, with the dialogue continuing as normal. Thanks to the powers of the Matroska container, the overall size is only 25.8 MB. As for the episode (track?) itself, I felt the same way I do when I watch an episode of the Aria anime – chilled, nostalgic and just really happy. To paraphrase Akari, you just feel kind of like… ‘wow.’ The image and the feel of Neo-Venezia is apparent in all of the description, but is highlighted even more in the clear expressions and dulcet tones of the voice actresses. Who needs a plot when you have Akari, Aika and Alice doing their combined practice on a cold winter’s night with President Aria as their customer.

I had a bit of trouble trying to find the torrent for the MKV version of this, as the link isn’t up on their website at the moment. Here’s a link to the tracker with the MKV torrent. That’s it for this post. :)