Aqua, Volume 1

Aqua #1

by Kozue Amano

Upon her arrival in the gorgeous Martian city of Neo Venitia, Akari lands a job as a gondolier tour guide and begins training to become an Undine, a full-time gondolier, romping around a fantastical planet with her Undine friends.

Genres: Manga, Science Fiction, Comics, Fantasy, Slice Of Life, Graphic Novels, Comics Manga

184 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2001

About the author

Kozue Amano (天野こずえ Amano Kozue) is a female Japanese manga artist. She is widely known as the creator of Aria, which proved to be a best-selling hit, and was adapted into an anime television series consisting of 3 seasons and an OVA.

Reviews

[GiveMeCoffee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aqua for me is one of those short mangas that should be in the list of anyone who binge reads and doesn't discriminate genres. Manga has been evolving quite a lot during this last decade and we can point out where do some tendencies come from.
Slice of life, vocation, soft-scifi and spirit of wonder were quite the popular themes at the start of our current century, but we also started experiencing a strong overload of ecchi and harem.
After the author released the two volumes of Aqua he was offered to serialize and develop more the story of each character in Aria.
Why read Aqua then? Because he didn't need to appeal to the male audience, the story is about young females seeking their way in a fresh environment, there isn't a single mention to ecchi here, there isn't a strong male character is this story. It's just what it is, take it or leave it.
Aqua is here to show us the world imagined by its author, it's not hanging any lures there for you, no cheap tricks, just enjoy the ride even if it's short.

[Valentina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serie completa in 2 volumo

[Aravena · Rating 3 out of 5]

(vol. 1-2 tamat)

Komik yang motor penggerak utamanya adalah latarnya, yaitu kota Venezia yang diberi sentuhan magis dan disulap jadi Neo Venezia dengan tema 'kota air masa depan'. Panel-panel yang menampilkan akses waterway, arsitektur kota yang indah, dan suasana elegan dengan para undine pedayung membuat dunia ini terasa semakin memikat. Saya jadi membayangkan versi animasi atau artbook-nya yang pasti akan semakin indah dengan paduan warna biru laut, biru langit, dan kibaran seragam para undine yang sedang bekerja.

Soal plot dan cerita.... tidak buruk, tapi sejujurnya saya kurang bisa menikmati 'ritme'nya yang terlalu rileks. Walau saya dengan senang hati siap mengimpor para undine ini ke Kali Ciliwung, penokohan dan penjelasan tentang dunia mereka pun terasa kurang mendalam. Saya sampai mengarang-ngarang skenario misteri sendiri dalam kepala:

Kenapa semua undine ini nama depannya harus 'A'? Siapa teman e-mail Akari yang misterius? Apakah ada rahasia mengerikan di balik permukaan air yang terlihat tenang?

Haha, begitulah... ceritanya terasa kurang 'beriak', jadi saya agak sulit mendalami perasaan dan perjuangan para tokoh. Humornya kurang mengena, dan kadang terasa terlalu mengandalkan kemanisan dan keimutan tokoh-tokohnya. Ya, hati saya memang terbuat dari batu...

.....tapi batu juga bisa retak kalau terus-menerus ditetesi air. Setelah membaca Volume 2, saya mulai merasa bahwa kisah-kisah episodik di situ lebih menarik dibandingkan volume 1. Jadi, mungkin memang perlu waktu agar saya semakin kenal dan menyukai para karakter di sini. Namun, di sisi lain saya juga kurang tergugah untuk membaca ulang atau mencari sekuelnya (*saya sangat ragu bisa menikmati ritme dan gaya penceritaan seperti ini sepanjang 12 volume).

Walau begitu, tetap ada sesuatu yang meninggalkan bekas. Saat menghirup wangi tanah yang baru menyerap hujan, atau saat mendengar rintik yang mengetuk kaca jendela, kemungkinan besar saya akan kembali terkenang pada kota yang tergenang air itu dan merasakan keharuan yang sama dengan yang dirasakan Akari.

[Kira · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to row a gondala
I want to go to Venice
I really really want eat at a cafe in Venice!!!! =)

[Ludic93 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esta es la primera reseña de manga que escribo, la obra se lo merece. Releo este manga que editó ivrea hace más de 10 años, y me encuentro con una lectura muy relajante, fresca y original. A pesar de tener bastante tiempo tiene un dibujo increible, y te transmite una tranquilidad inmensa. La historia trata la vida de una joven,Akari, que se muda a nueva-venecia, una ciudad en una marte terraformada (en la que más del 90% de la superficie del planeta es agua), y nos cuenta como comienza a formarse para ser gondolera en la compañia ARIA. En definitiva es un manga como ya he dicho muy acogedor, con un dibujo increible, la pena es que tanto esta serie como su secuela ARIA están descatalogadísimas y de segunda mano casi nadie las vende.
Os dejo algunas imagenes del arte de esta joyita:


No es un dibujo tan recargado, pero en conjunto es genial. Aqui va otra que me ha encantado:

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. This was just ok. I really like the world and the setting however the plot was nonexistent.

[Rocío García · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un poco pan sin sal, la verdad. Me lo acabaré porque son solo 2 partes, pero... Meh.

El dibujo muy bonito, eso sí.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

Perhaps because I was never into sweet but vapid slice of life stories, Aqua did absolutely nothing for me (except bored me to sleep). We have beautiful drawings of incredibly stupid girls doing pretty much pointless things for really meaningless reasons. What am I missing here that makes Aqua/Aria so popular? This is a prequel story so I guess it is better suited for those who have seen/read Aria?

Story: Akari arrives on Aqua - a Mars that has been terraformed to be a nouveau Venice. All she wants is to be an Undine - a canal boat rower. She will go through special training along with the other undines in the hopes of someday being a rower herself! Cue the owner of the business, a sentient cat who eats too much and tests her in weird ways. Add in more vapid but cute girls.

Soooooo...... canal boat rowers as a professional to tirelessly train for and aspire to? Because we are talking about bus drivers on water and I'm pretty sure it's a nice job but not one that a young girl fantasizes about becoming the very best in doing? And of course, only pretty girls apply for the job, even though it's serious business and I find it hard to believe these tiny girls are physically powerful enough to row upstream. Yes, sure, this is manga we are talking about. But really - what is the point here?

The art is serviceable and kind of reminds me of Angelic Layer by CLAMP. And the author does a nice job of setting up a tranquil atmosphere. There are no sharp edges here - life is about adventure and being the best you can be; in this case, prowess with a pole on a boat. Drama is clearly for other manga stories.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

For ages I've been aware of Aria the Animation as one of the so-called greats in the slice-of-life genre of anime. Indeed, I'd even had most of the series (that is, including later seasons) downloaded on an external hard-drive for years, sitting there untouched, just because I kept watching other things. Recently, I've discovered the webstore Right Stuf Anime, which (not to shill the site) has a handful of otherwise out-of-print TOKYOPOP-published manga in stock, including not only the two Aqua manga volumes, but also half of the proper Aria manga series. So I spent a wee bit of money to purchase both volumes of Aqua (volume 1 was clearly a little over-priced for its age).

Anyway, this manga is pretty great, but you have to accept that it takes the concept of "slice-of-life" extremely close to heart - that is, nothing overly dramatic ever happens in this volume. Furthermore, even written lines teetering on overt romanticism are shot down (with fun-poking humor) at main character Akari by her friend Aika, who makes that claim "no sappy lines allowed!" Instead, the manga sticks quite firmly to the idea of relating Akari's time on the planet Aqua (a terraformed Mars) and her time spent training as an Undine (tour guide gondoliers). Actually, that's hardly true, as this volume mostly focuses on goings-on outside the realm of Undine activity, focusing a little more on life on Aqua, the culture of the city of Neo Venezia, and the people Akari meets during her time in the city, all punctuated by little emails summing up each event, framed as a sort of journal for Akari herself. Throughout this volume, Akari meets feline president of the Aria Company of Undines, Aria himself, as well as esteemed Undine Alicia, and fellow apprentice Aika, of rival company Himeya. The only event of any real consequence/gravity is after Aika received a promotion from "apprentice" to "journeyman," followed shortly thereafter by Alicia and Aria taking Akari on what appears to be an aimless journey throughout Aqua but which really turns out to be the exam for Undine promotion.

Akari herself is kind of airheaded, the sort of character one might expect for a slice-of-life story set in a world so different from our own: she needs to be so naive in order to be so impressed with Neo Venezia's way of life, to better reflect the readers' own awe at everything she experiences on planet Aqua. Akari's character fits snugly into a somewhat generic archetype, but it works well for her, and one shouldn't really expect too much from manga anyway - I personally look forward to seeing how certain series reflect certain anime/manga norms. Akari's design is okay, but it's hard to judge too much, since her clothing is the same as Alicia's and basically the same as Aika's. Her personality comes out in her hairstyle, a somewhat brash short cut kept in check by two lightly-childish locks that fall before her ears like overlong sideburns.

Alicia is clearly meant to be the most mature and graceful of the main girls, and suffers the same flaws as any similar character: she has no real personality other than smiling at Akari's naivete and constantly saying "oh, my!" As with many similar characters (Miyuki from Lucky Star, as a somewhat popular example), I still really enjoy/respect the character, but I really cannot expect anything too interesting to come from her existence. Most importantly, she's just cute. It's probably more accurate to use a word like "beautiful," but I guess I'm just "normie" enough to think that is a bit of a stretch w/r/t 2D. Anyway, her figure isn't too different from Akari's, but her posture makes her stand out a bit in contrast. The back of her hair has a twisty look to it, like the "drill" hairstyle commonly seen in the twintails of "ojou" types in other manga, perhaps helping to establish her aura of affluence, but it could just be simply a counterpart to the choppy style of the back of Akari's head.

Aika's just cute as fuck. It seems, despite the details in Akari and Alicia's hair, Aika excels with a more simplistic style of pure black color and thin braids on either side of her head, a hairdo that makes her look explicitly East Asian, with a sense of Chinese ancestry, betraying her very Japanese-sounding name (in Volume 2, she is seen to wear a shirt styled like a cheongsam, to further this motif). The majority of her characterization is based on a) acting as straight-man to Akari's naivete, and sometimes b) fawning over Alicia in a near-yuri-teasing manner. Indeed, her character would suggest Aqua/Aria numbers among the many manga that focus so much on cute girl characters they seem to forget the existence of men (not that this is a bad thing, by any means - I quite love XY-less slice-of-life, preferring, as a man, to maximize the presence of cute 2D girls), if not for the introduction of Akatsuki in Volume 2. Her yuri-adjacent lust for Alicia balances with her tsundere-adjacent friendship with Akari, and these facets of her personality combine with her physical appearance in such a way that speaks directly to my penis (figuratively, of course).

The best stories in this volume are the one with Akari and Aria wandering among the lightly flooded streets of Venezia, and especially the chapter with Akari and Aika tailing Aria into the kingdom of cats, the latter being of quality significant enough to launch this volume (and the manga overall) to the upper echelons of the medium. The chapter with the promotion exam is brilliant, too, but I think I just subjectively prefer those tales which most reject the importance of the Undine element of the plot synopsis. Not that the gondolier thing is bad, and I actually might enjoy an episodic series about Akari and friends giving rides for various colorful Neo Venezia citizens, but Aqua establishes a level of slice-of-life too pure even for something like that, following the life outside of Akari's work, rather than merely using her job as an actual basis for the narrative.

As a last note, I find the designs of the Undine uniforms so ridiculously lewd. Something about how tight the dress is around the waist and torso, contrasting with the billowing skirt and the loose shirt-thing atop the chest. Also the fingerless gloves are kinda nice, particularly when Akari loses one as part of her promotion.

[Maksim Prokopiuk · Rating 2 out of 5]

К мангам я отношусь нормально, у меня нет предубеждений, а некоторые даже Очень понравились. Но проблема в том, что это больше "мужские" манги или "топовые", например, Prison School (тема секса в безумной сатире), Gantz (жестокая игра за выживание), Holyland (про уличного бойца), Death Note (тетрадь смерти, топовая попса) ... ну и т.д.
И вот теперь, учитывая сказанное: манга не понравилась. Причина №1 - короткая (конечно, я не ожидал объем Наруто, но...маловато будет). Причина №2 - нет для меня экшена или философии. Т.е. это достаточно красивая коротенькая манга. Кому хочется слегка отвлечься, отвлечься на тему романтической Венеции, то да, верный выбор. В любом случае, хорошо, что в челенджах не забывают про манги и "светят". Я решил прочитать именно из-за того, что в челендже указали мангу как жанр.

[Guguk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hadiah dari seorang gadis-manis-berhati-emas (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) bless you, dear~!!

Gambar : 4.5 bintang...gambar yang sangat luar biasa! Aku yang belum bisa renang ini bisa-bisanya sampe pengen nyebur ke gambarnya, saking terlihat menggiurkan~ (^..^)
Gambarnya juga menyejukkan hati.., terasa tenang dan adem~

Cerita : 4.5 bintang...aku suka konsep dunianya! o(≧▽≦)o Interaksi para karakternya yang menimbulkan perasaan sayang itu juga menyenangkan dan menenangkan...

Dibulatkan ke atas untuk kasih sayang orang-orang!! (っ˘▽˘)(˘▽˘)˘▽˘ς)

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

About 150 years in the future, the planet Mars is now known as Aqua because of all the water that covers the surface. Akari arrives in Neo-Venezia, a replica of Venice, to become a apprentice Undine, a gondolier who transports tourists around the city. I thought it was an interesting premise, but the stories fell flat for me. Also, Akari is a little too naive, the girl she is eager to befriend is pretty meant to her, and I couldn't get past the Mars cat that runs the business.

[Ana Lelis · Rating 2 out of 5]

The drawing is great and the charecters are cut, don't get me wrong. But that's all the good on it. I love water but still... They didn't explained how Mars turned into Aqua. I mean, a good and more detailed explanation and the story is just boring. I'm glad they just have two volumes because I don't know if I would be able to read more than that. I didn't hate but I didn't like it.

[Starbubbles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really good. I mean, really, really good. It invoked a sense of calm and peace, the sound of the wind, the sound of the waves, and the smell of the water. It was full of cute stories and clean art. I loved it.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un manga à la fois léger et calme, contemplatif. Ce 1er tome manquait toutefois un peu de développement à mon sens: je n'ai pas vraiment eu le temps d'accrocher aux personnages ou de me sentir concernée par l'intrigue.

[Ami · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really cute.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blast from the past, it's been many MANY years since I've read this, and is also my first time doing it in Japanese. Like with my other Japanese book reviews, I'll start with the plot.

It's the future, and Earth (known as Manhome) has expanded to Mars (now known as Aqua), which was terraformed into a habitable planet (with a LOT of water, haha). We follow Akari on her adventures in learning how to be an Undine, a tour guide for visitors to the city of Neo Venezia. It's slice of life, very innocent and cute, with wonderful artwork to boot! There's quite a bit of humor too, as we all explore this new world together with Akari.

There's a soft air of mystery, mostly stemming from our ignorance of the world, and an interesting bit with cats. (I won't spoil ;)) It's a gentle read, and I'm excited to reread the next volume :)

If you're wanting a relaxing read, one where you can just sit outside and breathe for a moment, this is the book for you. Put down those smart phones for a second and get lost in Aqua.

For Japanese Learning:

Guess what, it's a kids manga, you know what that means, right? Furigana! x'D (Though I'm reaching the point where it can hurt more than it helps, haha!)

I'd say this book is fairly close to Detective Conan in terms of formalities and language level. Unlike Inuyasha and Nichijou, who were both VERY informal and had other quirks that made things more difficult, I'd say this one was much more approachable. If Detective Conan is too word-loaded for ya', this one is a nice alternative, as the verbiage is pretty light.

I'd put this at an N4+ level, as per most manga books. I definitely saw some N3 grammar, but nothing wildly difficult. Like per usual, most all of it comes down to vocabulary, more so than anything else. (Jisho is your friend!)

One thing I did struggle with, probably more so than anything, was the katakana furigana, of all things! The font was very small and tricky to decipher. Luckily I could read the kanji, so I knew what word(s) they were referring to, but it was difficult to read what exactly they were saying katakana wise. (As an example: 地球 (ちきゅう) which means Earth is referred to as　マンホーム with the furigana, telling us, the readers, that Earth is now called "Manhome" canonically. Quite a few words use English equivalents with katakana, despite having actual kanji.)

The only other thing I had trouble with was the smaller hand-written looking characters in the panels. These were not in speech bubbles, and were often internal thoughts or comments on the situation by the characters (or author, perhaps?). The hand writing was difficult to read, and some kanji way too difficult for me to even figure out what they were to look up. These also didn't have furigana, which adds another layer of hardship on top. On the upside, they don't really make/break the story, so it's not a bad thing to skip a few, if you have to.

A thing to note: I have mentioned in previous reviews that fan translations can often be very helpful, this is one of those instances where they could hurt :/ At least for the one I found, there were a few glaring mistakes. On the up side, this was a manga released in English officially, which is probably a much safer one to use as reference. Just bear in mind, some things might be changed due to language/cultural differences.

In the end, great book to practice with! And onto the next one ;)

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Teenaged Akari has finally achieved her goal of being a trainee Undine--a girl gondolier--and has made her way from "Manhome" (Earth) to Neo-Venezia on terraformed Mars. She joins the Aria Company, a tiny organization that has just senior Undine Alicia as an employee, and herself as an apprentice. Aria Company is run by an uplifted cat named President Aria, who has human-level intelligence but cannot speak.

The first couple of chapters of this manga didn't impress me all that much. I'm not sure what happened in between chapters 2 and 3, but the manga came to life with episodes full of atmosphere and a sense of wonder. One episode featuring the King of Cats felt like a glimpse into a fantasy realm.

With this story, you can't worry about the worldbuilding all that much. It isn't science fiction, despite the space travel and terraforming. It's a fantasia of a gentle world of waterways, free of poverty or any kind of want, where everyone is a good neighbor, everyone is perfectly suited to their work, and nothing bad happens to anyone: not even minor arguments, much less danger or injury. The reader is encouraged to just take in the scenery and enjoy watching the Undines at work and play.

This series has a couple of minor setbacks for me. If you aren't the target audience for "cute girls doing cute things"-type stories with minor fanservice--and I absolutely am not--you aren't going to get a lot out of seeing these homogenously young and slender one-note characters guiding their gondolas around in snug-fitting Undine outfits.

And then there's President Aria. (shudder) I have trouble thinking a huge-headed blob of a cat with vacant round eyes, that shows its butthole every other panel it's in, is intended to be cute. And he's in every single episode. The King of Cats episode demonstrates that Amano can draw cute kitties, she just decided not to in this case, to my disappointment.

These uncongenial aspects make it too difficult for me to fully fall into this world, which is a shame.

[Ahmedxx]

متأكد ان الشعور رح يكون مختلف تماما لما تقرا مانغا اكوا بعد ما تخلص قراءة اريا ، او تخلص متابعة السلسلة ، شي جميل انك تشوف ديناميكية التفاعل بين الشخصيات و الأحداث و المواقف اللي خلت عالعلاقة بين الشخصيات تسير نحو الاتجاه اللي شهدناه طوال فترة عرض السلسلة ، كل عمل جانبي منها و كل دقائق متابعة تخلني اتعلق فيها اكثر و اكثر و ما اظني انجذبت لأي عمل اخر بحياتي زي ما تعلقت بأريا
سو رأيي بأكوا انها ما تقل عظمة عن بقية اريا ، بل فيه بناء و تقديم للعالم ، و طبيعة عمل الاوندين و حياة الناس في اكوا و نيو فينيزيا ، لا يحاول العمل تقديم محتوى يخرج عن اطار افكار الانمي الرئيسية و هي تقديم الشخصيات الرئيسية و تقديم مزيج من عرض التجارب التي تخوضها الشخصيات مع تطور في علاقاتهم مع بعضهم و لا ننسى التصوير الاكثر من رائع لعالم اكوا و لعله الواجهة الابرز لأعمال الشريحة من الحياة مع افتقاره لعناصر الدراما المبالغة و الرومنسية الطاغية على الاجواء مع لمسة من الكوميديا الخفيفة وهذا ماركزت عليه مانغا اكوا اكثر من التعرف على نشاطات الاوندين و فترات التدريب ، الحياة في اكوا الثقافات المختلفة في نيو فينزيا و الاشخاص الذين قابلتهم اكاري بعد وصولها من كوكب الارض الى اكوا . وتأطير يومياتها كذكريات جميلة تعيشها يوميا ، هذا ما ارتكزت عليها المانغا القصيرة ذات المجلدين ،

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a reread, for the first time in Japanese. Recently I was in the mood for some light, slice-of-life fantastic story, and I remembered I still didn't own a physical copy of Aqua 1 & 2 (they have been very hard to find for years). So glad I finally fixed this.
What can I say about this manga? If you like slice-of-life, low SFF edging on magical realism, this is for you. I love Aqua and its sequel Aria in the same way I love Japanese wind chimes. They are simple and yet masterfully crafted little things that fill me with a quiet, restful but bubbly kind of joy. I felt all of these feelings once again as I reread the first volume of Aqua. And the art, especially the two-pages drawings of Neo-Venice, are so beautiful they made me exclaim in awe more than once, just like the protagonist Akari.

[T. Renee Doty · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Aria anime is one of my favorite finds of this year. Due to that, I wanted to try the original format. Aqua is a two volume prequel of the Aria stories. Aqua is the name of a future terraformed Mars. This planet is designed to emulate Venice, and the capital is called Neo Venezia. I love the lore and research of this series, but I do have mixed thoughts.

The art is absolutely gorgeous! I can not stress that enough. However, the translation reads as very simple writing and often feels clunky to me. I am comparing this to the subtitles of the anime, which are very well-written in my opinion. I think if Tokyopop had gone with a different translator, I would enjoy reading this a lot more than I did.

[Juniperus · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was about 10 years old I checked out all the Aria volumes from the library and since then it's been a favorite of mine, but I'm not sure how I ever missed Aqua. I blame the publishers for making it confusing as to which order to read them in. So I assumed the story started en medias res, but this one has a little bit of Akari arriving on Mars which was interesting. I'm not sure if Aqua is a prequel or if it was written before Aria, but the art style seemed a little more immature than the later ones I remember, and there's less focus on the landscapes which is what I really come here for.

[Gabriel Gonçalves de Oliveira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aqua, o planeta da esperança
É difícil descrever a sensação de aconchego e pureza que essa obra trás, Kozue Amano foi genial na concepção desse mangá tão querido e tão desconhecido na nossa terra verde e amarela. Este mangá trás um pouco do backstory do anime, tendo algumas histórias que não estão presentes no show.

Recomendo muito ler e assistir, as ilustrações são fantásticas, o show é leve e aconchegante, ideal pra relaxar depois de um dia complicado e limpar a cabeça das confusões do dia a dia.

Essa obra nos ajuda a lembrar de como o mundo pode ser belo.

[Skye (Skye's Scribblings) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really sweet, interesting and imaginative sci-fi! I wish someone would finish publishing the series over here. :'(

[Silverin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read Aria first!

[Ana Laguna · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5

[Ebrahim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Distant worlds, ideas and expressions explored through sublime art and tranquillity has to be a genre of its own.

[Caroline O'Neal · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was adorable! The Aqua and Aria books need to be easier to get ahold of because I need more of this

[MyBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just love how this was also my first of ever…

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, so cute. And a little plot too!