Hidan no Aria – 06-12 [END]

Things just start making less and less sense…

I’m horrible, I know. This post consists of seven episodes. I fell majorly behind with this show. I have no excuse. ‘OTL Oh well, it should serve as a nice little recap! Back to episode 6 we go! xD

Right from the start Shirayuki unleashes hell unto Aria for supposedly “defiling” Kinji. Fortunately, Aria has the skills to fight back but it’s still a huge totally unnecessary fight and poor Kinji’s house is entirely trashed. Shirayuki is revealed to be a Choutei; a Butei with special powers. She’s is a shrine maiden from the Hotogi Shrine and shrine maidens there are apparently shrine ninjas. Huh. That’s a new one and as bamf as she is, I still find her extremely annoying. Riko is a Choutei as well (if you consider creepy mobile hair a special power…*shudders*).

Shirayuki, distressed at the thought that Aria and Kinji have been having any sort of romantic relations, continues to fight Aria until Kinji manages to calm her down by explaining that they’re merely partners. When she is relieved that they have not kissed or anything of the sort they both look guilty and totally give it away. But, Aria comes to the rescue by assuring Shirayuki that she didn’t get pregnant from the kiss. Dear LORD. Aria!  Are you serious!? Please, give me a couple seconds to regain my composure – this was too much for me. xD

The next day at school, students at the Butei Academy are getting ready for the Adseard school festival. After class, Aria meets Kinji outside for special training. She’s figured that he has some sort of split personality but she thinks that it’s triggered by the stress of battle. They hear a teacher call for Shirayuki and Aria takes this chance to find out Shirayuki’s weaknesses. As they listen in on the conversation between Shirayuki and her teacher, they find out that some “Durandal” figure might be after Shirayuki. Aria comes up with the BRILLIANT plan that she become her 24 hours bodyguard! …Why do I feel as though this is not going to work out too well? T_T

Of course, Shirayuki only agrees to this plan on the conditions that (1) Kinji be her bodyguard as well and that (2) she gets to live at his place. Naturally, it DOESN’T work out too well as Shirayuki and Aria do not get along AT ALL.  Kinji and Shirayuki have been friends since childhood and she does not want to lose him to Aria. One night, while Kinji is in the shower, Shirayuki receives a phone call from him where he seems to be in distress. She rushes into the bathroom and finds him to be perfectly fine. After a little while, she realizes that he’s undressed and freaks out. She attempts to undress herself so that it’s “fair” but Kinji tries to stop her. Aria walks in to find them in such a compromising position and flips out while Kinji ends up jumping into the Tokyo Bay in the resulting skirmish. xD

At the start of Episode 7 Kinji is sick in bed. Aria brings in some cough medicine while he’s asleep which Kinji mistakenly believes was brought by Shirayuki. At school, Aria and Kinji get into a fight because he won’t believe her about Durandal actually existing without any proof. She quits as Shirayuki’s bodyguard so Kinji does the job himself. Later on, Shirayuki is working on her own as Student Council President and, when asked why she is by herself, she says that all the other members are at a fireworks show. She’s not allowed to go because she is a shrine maiden, but Kinji takes her anyways.

After getting dressed up, Kinji and Shirayuki arrive at the fireworks show to find that it has already ended. While Kinji runs off to get fireworks, Shirayuki receives a text message on her phone that seems to disturb her. After Kinji comes back, she admits that he seems to be happier ever since Aria arrived and, for once, she wants him to look at just her. With this, she asks for a kiss and, surprised, Kinji almost kisses her before they are interrupted by fireworks.

The school festival begins and Kinji keeps watch over Shirayuki; things seem to be going well. He leaves to do his duties until Shirayuki’s teacher runs up to him in a panic, asking where Shirayuki has gone. With Reki’s help, Kinji manages to find Shirayuki where she has been taken hostage by Durandal in exchange for everybody’s safety. The text that she received had been a threat from Durandal. Episode 8 begins as Aria arrives to save Kinji and help him save Shirayuki.

Durandal locks up Shirayuki and lets loose a lot of water which practically drowns them all. Kinji tries releasing Shirayuki and is forced to kiss her to get into Hysteria Mode. Later on, they find Durandal who is revealed to be a descendent of Joan d’Arc (who apparently did NOT die after all. Good lord).  She has crazy ice powers and Shirayuki takes her on with super-shrine-maiden-fire. Finally, with cooperation, Shirayuki, Aria and Kinji are able to defeat the Durandal. Relations between Shirayuki and Aria seem to be on the mend, especially when Shirayuki reveals that it was Aria who brought the cought medicine for Kinji. Awww.

Episode 9 starts off with the return of Riko. She lures Kinji to her place under the guise of Aria inviting him over. By strategically placing her boobage in his face, she triggers Kinji’s Hysteria Mode. Aria busts in to save him from Riko’s clutches but, in the end; Riko ends up requesting their assistance. Vlad, the second in command of the EU, has stolen one of her most precious possessions; a rosary given to her by her mother. Kinji has to deal with Riko’s shenanigans as she insists upon being his girlfriend (much to Shirayuki’s displeasure) as well.

In order to get Kinji and Aria ready to steal back her mother’s gift, Riko wants to dress them in maid and butler outfits so they can sneak in as part of the staff. Later on, Riko asks Kinji to meet her in a classroom. On his way there, he meets Durandal who tells him about Riko’s past – she had been taken captive by Vlad and forced to live in a jail cell – and gives him tips on how to defeat Vlad. Afterwards, Kinji makes it to the classroom and waits for Riko. All of a sudden, a bunch of girls come in for their physicals and he realizes that Riko has set him up! He jumps into a closet only to find Mutou already there to peek on the girls as they change.  Ah man…I didn’t think he’d be such a perv. As they peep, Kinji’s finds that his Hysteria Mode is triggered by Aria undressing. xD

All of a sudden, Reki opens up the closet to expose Kinji and Mutou. Before they can get beat up too badly for peeping, a huge wolf bursts in through the window! It tries to attack them, but escapes so Kinji and Reki give chase. Reki manages to paralyze and tame it.

Episode 11 begins as Aria and Kinji have completed training for working at Vlad’s house. They get ready to go and Riko arrives disguised as Kana, somebody Kinji seems to know. They get to Vlad’s mansion only to find Sayonaki-sensei who apparently does his research there. His place of research happens to be the same place that the rosary is kept, under high security. Thus, the plan to retrieve it is to have Aria distract Sayonaki-sensei for a short amount of time while Kinji steals it back. Their plan is a success and Aria and Kinji return the rosary to Riko…only to have her turn around and betray them!

In the final episode, the rosary is shown to be a Lupin family heirloom that gives Riko super powers. She will still defeat Aria to prove that she’s not simply the “fourth.” All of a sudden, she’s taken down by none other than Sayonaki-sensei! He reveals that, after testing her genes, Riko did not inherit any superior abilities and proceeds to beat her up. Her sounds of pain are a means to summon Vlad and Sayonaki-sensei himself is an outer shell created by Vlad. He then transforms into Vlad who turns out to also be none other than Count Dracula!

In the ensuing fight, Aria and Kinji try to aim for Vlad’s weak points, but only know three out of the four and in order to defeat him they must hit all four at the same time. With Riko’s help, Kinji manages to get back into Hysteria Mode and figures that the last of Vlad’s weak points is in his mouth. They all have one shot left, so they fire all at once and manage to kill Vlad. Yay teamwork! We have a pretty happy ending as Riko testifies that she helped to set up Aria’s mother much to Aria’s glee.

End Thoughts:

Alright, I’m just going to come out and say it: I did not like this show. It was very hard for me to watch at times. For one, the “fanservice” was pretty awful (though I never really appreciate fanservice in my shows). The plot was messy and didn’t make sense at times.  Also, all those allusions to different characters just made no sense whatsoever (and were ENTIRELY unnecessary) while the art was iffy for me as well. We also never found out what the EU was which made the plot even more pointless to me. And don’t even get me started on the characters:  Aria was an over-the-top tsundere who acted like a second grader with an irrational fear of cooties and Shirayuki was a whiney, simpering ridiculously love struck and practically useless character. Though Riko’s reasoning made a little more sense after her past was revealed, she was still straight up annoying. Kinji and Reki were the only characters who I had any fun with and the latter of the two didn’t get enough screen time at all.

While I did not enjoy this show, it did have its redeeming points. First off, I have to admit, Hidan no Aria was HILARIOUS. There were moments that were meant to be funny and moments that weren’t, but overall I found myself giggling and grinning quite a bit. Also, the fighting scenes were pretty legit and the entire notion of Kinji’s Hysteria Mode where getting turned on produces super abilities was pretty brilliant. xD

Speaking of hilarious, VLAD WAS SO FUNNY. From what I’ve read, his character was a lot more sinister and intimidating in the light novels but he was just so funny to me. Also, please explain to me why Count Dracula managed to look like a WEREWOLF. Does that even make ANY sense whatsoever?! I was so confused! The real question is how Aria figured that he would even be a vampire when he pretty much looks like a werewolf and grizzly bear mated and produced a mutated offspring. Also, DID YOU HEAR HIS LAUGH!?!?!?! OH MY GOD. I completely lost it when he started laughing. He’s just like “HURRRDURRRDURRR” and I couldn’t breathe from laughing so hard. It completely ruined the fight scene for me. I wasn’t surprised that he was Sayonaki-sensei because, from the start, that guy seemed pretty fishy to me.

I’m pretty certain that there’s going to be a second season of Hidan no Aria. As mentioned before, we didn’t find out what the EU was and they seem pretty central to the plot. Also, with the appearance of this Kana person, there’s clearly more to the whole plot. Not to mention, the author reported that, in order for there to be a second season, there need to be more DVD sales. Hopefully, if there is a second season, it’s much better than this first one.

About Zabobinator

Doesn't get enough sleep. Dork with a rather eclectic taste in manga and anime. Adores Studio Ghibli films.