Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA Review: A Disappointing Spin-Off

Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA

Do you have someone you want to be acknowledged by, no matter what? Perhaps that person is a parent, sibling, life partner, teacher, friend, idol, or anyone really. There may be a variety of reasons as to why we have chosen this one person specifically, but in the end, we all want to make sure they aren’t disappointed in us. Their praise means the world to us, and nobody else’s words would hold equal weight in that regard; thus, this (perhaps unhealthy) obsession drives us towards a goal. Once you look back on your life, this may have been the major decisive factor that led us to achieve our dreams!

“Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA," also known as “Hidan no Aria AA” or “Hidan no Aria Double A," is a 12-episode TV anime series that aired from the 6th of October until the 22nd of December in Fall 2015. Studio Doga Kobo brought it to life after receiving a license from Funimation, AT-X, flying DOG, Kadokawa, and Fujishouji. The main staff behind it include Justin Cook {Funimation}, Shinpei Yamashita, and Hajime Kamata as producers, and WEST GROUND on theme song composition and theme song arrangement. It features the genres of action and comedy, alongside the theme of school, and is targeted at the Seinen demographic. This stretch of 23-minute episodes earned a rating of PG-13 for teenagers 13 years of age or older.

Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA is based on the manga titled “Hidan no Aria AA''. It ran for a total of 14 volumes from the 5th of November 2010 up until the 18th of May 2018, featuring the genres of action, comedy, and supernatural. It was the work of author Akamatsu Chuugaku and artist Tachibana Shogako, which got serialized in Young Gangan. The parent story for the anime is the “Hidan no Aria” (Aria the Scarlet Ammo) series, which is another 12-episode TV anime that aired from the 15th of April until the 1st of July in spring 2011.

It was produced by Media Factory, TBS, Magic Capsule, and flying DOG, licensed by Funimation, and brought to life by Studio J.C.Staff. It is based on the light novel “Hidan no Aria," which featured the genres of action, comedy, romance, and ecchi, alongside the themes of harem and school. This string of 24-minute episodes also earned a rating of PG-13.

The story is centered around protagonist Akari Mamiya, who is a first-year student at Tokyo Butei High School. She too has someone she idolizes above all else in her life, and that person is the series titular character, Aria Holmes Kanzaki, who is a S-rank Butei. No matter how much she wishes to follow in Aria’s footsteps, she is merely an inept E-rank Butei; regardless, her resolve to grow and improve remains as strong as ever.

Fate takes a turn when the opportunity to establish an Amica contract with her idol appears, which is essentially a senior-student mentorship program for juniors. Akari proceeds to submit a request form, hoping to finally connect with Aria, but nobody around her expects her to be accepted since Aria typically has a very strict selection process. To everyone’s utter surprise, Aria actually decides to give her a chance via a test, which she passes by some miracle! But our MC is not in the clear just yet, because Aria will not officially make Akari her Amica until she meets her pretty high standards.

It goes without saying that training under “The Legendary” Aria is no easy feat, and to make matters worse, she must manage her personal life at the same time, especially her relationships with her friends. So the question remains: will Akari successfully walk down the same path as her idol, or will she fail miserably?

Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA is very average, and the biggest reason would be the direction it took with a non-titular character in the spotlight. If you are a fan of the prequel Parent Story, you will most likely be disappointed because most of its likable traits have been lost here. On the other hand, if you found the older series to be bad as well, there’s no way you’d like this one. The ending it left behind was incomplete and felt empty, so fans had hoped for a sequel to fill the void and make things right.

But this series does none of that. Even though her name is in the title, Aria is just the mentor to a much less alluring MC and feels like a background character most of the time. As such, we are forced to digest the life of a clumsy underachiever striving to be like Aria. The story mostly builds around her relationship with Aria, her circle of friends, and the mystery surrounding the MC herself, none of which hit home nor are borderline enjoyable.

Even if you take this series for what it is, it performs pretty badly. It is just a parallel tale to the prequel, which somehow robbed it of everything fun, alluring, and entertaining about it. The first episode does a decent job of drawing viewers in, but it descends fast to become garbage.

For the initial and middle parts of the show, I felt like they were forcing Yuri down my throat in a way that I could only describe as unnecessary pandering; you know it's bad when there are around 2-3 episodes showcasing how Aria’s “friend” is trying to come onto her. Then there is Akari's friend Raiko, who genuinely had a half-decent personality and abilities but who suffered from her relationships with those around her, including her "friends."

Giving credit where it’s due, the series gets much better towards the end, which is when the actual plot comes into play alongside a proper antagonist. This is also when the bland set of characters finally receives some much-needed development and stays true to the original premise. These people are supposed to be fighters, after all! Sadly, all the terrible filler episodes we have to go through to get to the good parts throw off most people, and it arrives too late to make people care.

Outside the plot that stalls too long, the characters are the biggest pitfall of the series. It’s like the creators just did not know how to use the characters from the parent story or make the new ones work. If you have watched the older series, then the character dynamics between Aria and Kinji, Kinji and Riko, and their combined rivalry must have been among your favorite aspects.

This show somehow threw all of that in the gutter, reducing most of them to mere cameo characters instead of effectively using them to brighten the present. Despite being the very important mentor figure, Aria herself doesn’t get enough attention, and even her impressive combat prowess seems to have sunk; the only exception is the opening scene, which I bet they used to build hype from fans of the prequel.

Even while ignoring the old cast, the creators have done nothing to develop the new characters or make them likable. None of them are distinctive nor go with the show’s vibe, with the sole exception being Raiko. Among a group of cute girls with guns who don't do much for the majority of the runtime, she was the only one who at least appeared combat-ready. Considering the setting is a School made to train capable combatants, this is just sad…

While the art and animation department is mostly similar to what we saw in the parent story, it feels like some luster was lost along the way. Aria’s character design remains the same, but her animations don't appear quite as crisp and sharp as before.

As for Akari, her design is rather bland, and it looks like a cheap knock-off of Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. While the Tokyo Butei High School uniforms look nice in general, the choice of accessories, including footwear, on certain characters was blatantly mismatched and ruined the whole image at times. The animation in general is not satisfactory, and this is huge for a show of the action genre; it goes without saying that the battles are just lacking and don’t really get the audience pumped.

Moving onto the sound and music department, hats off to the voice actors for doing an amazing job. All the VAs from the Parent series reprise their roles and keep it consistent for every word uttered. Meanwhile, big names in the industry have taken on the newer characters to give them as much life as they are allowed to. There are also fairly new VAs thrown into the mix to form a nice balance of talent who serve to elevate the show on audio alone.

As much as I admire Sakura Ayane's work, her portrayal of this seemingly hopeless MC really confused me, and it felt like a misapplication of her divine talent. A character like Akari having a voice like that sounds annoying at times, and they really could’ve used her for a different character owing to her amazing range as a VA.

The music is decent, with OSTs that neither improve nor degrade the scenes, and none of them are particularly memorable. The opening theme, "Bull's Eye," by nano is a great song that I really enjoyed and listened to for quite a while. Akari Mamiya (Ayane Sakura) and Aria Holmes Kanzaki (Rie Kugimiya) sing "Pulse" by Team AA as the closing theme. This is an adorable piece, but you will most likely skip it after a few runs.

Overall, Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA is pretty average at best, or just disappointing. It’s not the kind of show you’d eagerly look forward to at the end of each episode, and there’s a good chance you’ll drop it before the plot even gets going near the end.

This series could've been so much more if it was done as a continuation to the parent story, but what we got was a very washed-down side story with characters we couldn’t care less about. Even if they took the Akari route, they still could’ve done better if they utilized their tested and proven formula from the older series, but it is what it is. By the end, I felt like some of the respect I had for the Aria franchise had actually dissipated, even if the few final episodes were good.

If you are a fan of Hidan no Aria, it is not recommended that you watch this unless you are extremely curious. If you experience disappointment afterward, you should cease watching immediately. I do not generally recommend this program to anyone unless you are entirely comfortable with the idea of watching a group of attractive women with firearms engage in a series of mostly meaningless activities for the majority of the program.