Aria manga to end in early 2008

26 December 2007 at 14:10 | In Anime, Manga, News Tidbits |
Tags: aqua, aria

It really is sad news, but it’s not like Aria could have gone on forever.

From ANN:

The February issue (on sale on December 2 of Mag Garden’s Comic Blade magazine will announce that Kozue Amano’s Aria manga will end in early 2008. The 60th and final magazine installment will run in the April issue (on sale in February), and the 12th and final compiled volume will ship on March 10. The manga’s ending coincides with the 2008 broadcast of Aria the Origination, the third season of the anime adaptation.

The manga’s slice-of-life story follows a teenaged girl named Akari as she strives to become a gondolier in the canals of the planet Aqua, the 24th Century world that was once Mars. ADV Manga released three volumes of the manga in English in 2004 but did not continue the series. Tokyopop acquired the North American rights to the series and will be restarting the series with the first volume on January 8.

Source: Moon Phase Comments

I guess what perks my interest would be how will this affect Aria the Origination, which starts airing in less than 2 weeks. If it runs for 26 episodes like Aria the Natural did, then I could speculate that they could conclude the story in the anime as well. Aria the Origination will be airing while the final chapter of the manga runs, so it could happen. Not saying it will, but the possibility is there.

Most 26+ episode series can get tedious at times, despite how good they are. It’s unavoidable really. People just get burned out watching the same thing for extended periods of time. Many times though the overall enjoyment overrules those tedious episodes. However with Aria, I have never once gotten bored with it and I want more episodes and more story and more goodness from Neo-Venezia. So, I can’t help but feel a bit saddened by the fact that Aria will be coming to an end. It was going to happen sooner or later, so I should savor what is left.

But speaking of the manga, Tokyopop is finally getting around to releasing their version of volume 1 of Aria next month. Won’t do me any good because I’ve had ADV’s versions of volumes 1-3 on my shelf for a couple years now. Maybe by this time next year we’ll finally see a bound version of volume 4 in English. _|-|O… Also, why is Tokyopop releasing volume 2 of Aqua a month after releasing volume 1 of Aria?

7 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

I’m sad to see Aria end, but also perversely happy that it won’t have the chance to drag on forever and go downhill (I’ve had too many former favourites disappoint me in their later volumes).

Comment by Karura — 26 December 2007 #
hey, scott!
you’ve been busy! well, this is good news for me, for I don’t know anything about this manga, and I can look forward to getting it. always looking for “new” manga, especially ones with a moe flavor, to coin a phrase.
on another subject: I’ve been confused by there being mutiple nanohas, and multiple hayates, too. I have some of the “hayate, the combat butler” manga, so I know that one.
well, I’ll try your searchbox, and see what I can find. Tim

Comment by tim — 26 December 2007 #
@Karura: Yeah, I agree with you on that. It’s always good to end on a good note instead of drag things out. For instance, as much as I loved the I”s manga, it could have ended a lot sooner than it did.

@tim: There are 3 season of Nanoha (Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s, and Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS). There are a few manga versions out there (A’s the Comics and StrikerS the Comics), but none of these are out in the US. The first 2 seasons of the anime were licensed by Geneon USA, and although work is apparently still continuing on them, there isn’t any set date when those DVDs get released.

As for Hayate… Hayate the Combat Butler = Hayate no Gotoku. The anime and manga are just differernt versions of the same story.

I mention 2 Hayate’s often, Ayasaki Hayate (from Hayate no Gotoku) and Yagami Hayate (from Nanoha). As for Nanoha. There is only the one White Devil. Hope that clears some of the confusion!

Comment by deftoned — 26 December 2007 #
Yeah, I definitely agree that it’s best to see a good story end while it’s still good, rather than trying to go on until it runs out of gas.

Both the manga and anime have been exceptionally strong so far, so I take this early warning as a good sign that the story will get some measure of an ending and finish off nicely, which is more than I can say for most shows.

And for that matter, it’s had a longer and more successful run than most series get, so it’s not like there’s any shortage of great stories to go back and read/watch on a rainy day.

Comment by 0rion — 26 December 2007 #
Yes, it’s sad but all good things must come to an end, and ARIA is a very VERY good thing!! ^_^

Wonder if they’ll show Akari-tachi as full fledged undines!! ^_^ That would be a great way to end it wouldn’t it??

Comment by 53RG10 — 26 December 2007 #
@0rion: Very true. I may have my favorites, but pretty much any episode of Aria I can go back and enjoy to it’s fullest. I’ve had the raw for the OVA episode sitting around for a long time now and I can still enjoy it.

@53rg10: I wouldn’t want it to end any other way! I haven’t read too far in the manga, but I know about and handful of things that we haven’t seen animated, so I’m looking forward to what Origination brings to the table soon.

Comment by deftoned — 27 December 2007 #
[...] sure how many episodes it will be, but hopefully 26+. The manga has already been scheduled to end soon with sixty chapters in total, so perhaps Aria the Origination will also be the last of the [...]

Pingback by Ruki: The Running Blog » Blog Archive » Ruki’s Winter ‘07/’08 Checklist — 03 January 2008 #