Aria Episode 12

“Don’t tell me you just ate the only cabbage roll left in the house.” – Akiko

This episode, after the magnificent episode 11, was a little down. My expectations were probably too high after the greatness of episode 11, but no. 12 does have its moments and I actually learned just a little bit more. The past is a set up for the future. The future does not exist without a past.

Episode summary and thoughts below as usual~

Winter was in full blown fury as Akari and Alicia were busy shovelling off the snow that was collecting around the company. However, it is a futile task as the snow starts to fall once again. Akari was curious about the old bridge that was an interesting attraction in the past. No one had the interest of going to the old bridge as it was just that, an old bridge, as Alicia remarked. However, Akari was interested and Alicia gave her the day off to enjoy the day.

The next day, Akari went with Aria to go to the bridge and it was covered with snow. As she walked through the bridge, she found that the snow had mysteriously disappeared and it seemed as though she had gone through to a totally different place. There, she met up with a clumsy photographer called Akiko, who was capturing photos of the river (that was dry).

Akiko then invited Akari to her house, as Aria played with the cat Pete in Akiko’s house. They talked about how similiar they were actually in character (and i see the same annoying similiarities). They then went out to the balcony, where Akiko had set up a “sunny cafe”, a small corner for her to serve up some food. Akiko then mentioned about having cabbage rolls for lunch while Akari leaned back on one of the walls. However, she fell as Akiko’s structure was not stable.

As Akiko tried to fix it, she fell instead while trying to test the structure. It was then that they smelt something turning bad. It was the cabbage roll getting burnt. However, the bread that was baked by Akiko was well done. Akiko then showed Akari a data card that was associated with the past. She was shocked because it was as though Akiko had this like a new item and Akari remembered about the card incident in episode 3 (or was it 4?). Akari then noticed that the Ukijima also looked slightly different.

Akiko was in fact a school teacher, as she asked Akari to join her to the bridge. Today was the day where water would be released to the waterway. Many people were waiting at the bridge, anticipating the water. Some were excited, some were apathetic about it. However, the water was slowly coming as the signal came. Water started to flow slowly in the waterway, with everyone finally glad that it had happened after so long. Water was the way to connect others from one to another.

With that, Akari had to go and Akiko mentioned that cats were like mediums from the past to the future. As Akari left, Akiko probably knew that Akari was from the future and simply said.

“Farewell, my Avvenire” – which means my future.

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Episode thoughts

The episode simply talks about the past connecting to the future. In this episode, we see Akari travelling back in time to see how the old aqua was. When there was water in the future, the water was scarce and people actually had this appreciation for water. In a way, the people in Aqua have taken water for granted, so as to speak. The thing was that in the present, we often tend to take things for granted, because they always exist. Only when they disppear, we start to miss such things.

It was ironic of humans but it’s always true, no?

I particularly liked the line that the planet, Aqua, was “a planet made with hands, sweat and the feelings of the people that lived in this planet”. It is true. A landscape is nothing without the people. Without people, every place would be the same, hollow and untouched. That is why places are built around people, that is what i feel as well.

Anyway, can’t wait to watch the end of the first series, episode 13. For now, so long ~