First Look: Hidan no Aria

Title: Hidan no Aria
Genre: Action, Comedy

Summary: The story takes place in Tokyo Butei High School, a special school where armed detectives — “Butei” — are trained to use weapons. Kinji Tooyama is a second-year-student who has a special ability, but he keeps it a secret to maintain an ordinary, peaceful life. However, when he gets caught in a bombing on the way to school, he encounters H. Aria Kanzaki, the most powerful S-Rank Butei student in Assault Studies.

First Look: Oh another Tiaga? Wait no. Just another short, fiesty tsundere as the female lead. Could have fool me with the hair, voice, and general body physique. But enough of that, let’s get down to business, what exactly do I think of this anime so far? Nothing much really. It doesn’t seem like one of those anime that will have a big impact this season, and probably wont be all that memorable. At the same time it isn’t one of those anime that you should throw in the gutter because it does at least bring some change. Although I’m a huge fan of girls with guns, Hidan no Aria isn’t quite satisfying that craving. It’s like it gets close, then pulls away with dialogue instead of guns-a-blazin’. Four episodes in and there haven’t been any really good fight scenes. Sure they have the typical explosions and life threatening situations, but whatever happened to good ol’ fashioned gun fights? At this point I think it is pretty obvious to you guys that I am very disappointed with the lack of guns in this anime.

The opening and ending seem very promising if any of you have checked them out already. They make the anime seems hardcore and action packed. I’m not saying it has no action, but it sure isn’t what I expected. I think its something about high school kids wielding guns that just doesn’t seem to fit right. It’s kind of cool that they basically have a high school that trains kids for the military (or in this case extremely bad-ass cops). The characters aren’t bad and I would say most of them have at least one redeeming quality to them.  However, as the series progressing I’m starting to care less and less about them. There is a background story to the two main roles that we have yet to hear about (which I’m sure will unfold in the next couple episodes), but I don’t think I will actually care to hear it. The story doesn’t seem to be progressing in a good manner because four episodes in and I still don’t have much interest. Aria, the best shooter in Butei, doesn’t seem to be the ace solider I original thought her to be. Especially when she goes to seek out Kinji who only has the power of owning face when he is turned on. Yeah strange how “Hyper mode” only activates during very sexually tense situations. I kind of see why he wanted to keep that a secret, because let’s be honest a power that is only activated when he starts getting intimate can be a bit awkward to explain. I could just imagine him taking the testing and saying “Well can I first get a girl to sit on my lap? That would help a ton. Really.”. Even though I understand his dislike of activating his secret powers, it kind of leads to a boring story. Most anime generally have a strong protagonist or one with “hidden potential”, but this isn’t what I had in mind. I would say that it leads to a more unique story, but even that is stretching it. The actual story doesn’t seem to be much better though. In case anyone plans to watch the series I wont spoil anything, but let’s just say the bad guys motivation is really half-hearted. I hope anyone who has watched as far as I have backs me up on this. I just don’t think that an anger stemming from people not calling you by a certain name is kind of lame. It kind of makes me wonder how the rest of the series is going to be. It’s clear from the opening that this isn’t going to be the only arc, but if they are as boring as this one then I kind of don’t want to watch them. The latest action scene was going great until someone’s super powers were the ability to control their hair. Where the heck did that come from? I’m not looking for 100% realism but I had some standards. So with a pretty boring story and not so much action the series isn’t looking that great.

Probably the best thing about the anime is the art, and that isn’t saying too much. While I do like the art it isn’t top quality. It gets the job done and there have been some great scenes, but for the most part it is only slightly above average. The action scenes are well drawn and choreographed, and the character models are kind of neat. The details they put into the guns is pretty cool too. I’m pretty sure they based Aria’s guns after specific models (burettes most likely). 

Final statements: The series is really just starting so I don’t want to make any pre-judgments quite yet. I don’t think you should put it on your watch list for this season until the final review. I’ll be keeping it on watch because it does have a lot of potential. Although it hasn’t hooked me quite yet there have been plenty of series that doesn’t start off great, but end beautifully. And of course it’s partially for the girls/guns combo.