Well I think first it’s necessary to say hello. I’m FlareKnight and you might have read some of my blog posts on Xebek’s Blog. If not then you have no idea who I am XD. Getting a chance to guest blog Hidan no Aria sounded like a lot of fun so I had to get into this. Hopefully people will enjoy reading what I have to say for this show. I was pretty curious about seeing this series and the first episode didn’t disappoint me, though it did deliver some surprises my way. This episode had swords, guns, explosions, and a male lead with a Hysteria Mode. Those things helped to create a pretty entertaining first episode.

Opinions:

Now of course we have a very familiar voice for our female lead. Even if you knew nothing about the series but the promo images it wouldn’t be a shock to hear that voice. Now I think she actually did a fairly good job and when it comes to embarrassed babble there isn’t much better. There was definitely a couple sides to Aria when watching this episode. When focused she was doing a pretty good job and while I think the parachute tactics were crazy, it was pretty effective. Anyone that will jump into the fray to help save a classmate that they don’t know deserves some credit. Though when embarrassed her character gets pretty flustered and actually tried to kill Kinji a few times there. It’s an important to remember when a girl has guns and katanas that you probably shouldn’t make her mad.

Kinji is almost a tale of two characters himself. You have the normal personality that doesn’t want to get involved and would rather just transfer out of that dangerous school. On the other hand when he goes into ‘Hysteria Mode’ everything changes. He becomes a pretty cocky guy who has the skills to back up the talk. The guy just walked out there and took care of the enemies with ridiculous shooting. He didn’t actually need to shoot into the barels of the guns, but did it anyways. Plus instead of being the type that runs away from a berserk girl, he managed to counter her attacks and walk away without a problem. Of course his normal personality hates the lines that he spouts out in that mode and it’s probably another reason why he wants to leave. I’m curious how that mode is going to affect Aria going forward. His normal personality didn’t want to fight, but his hysteria mode lead to blushing from Aria and also had her trying to kill him. We’ll have to see how their dynamics evolve going forward.

I have to say that’s one dangerous school. Though I guess that’s a given when the school hands out bullet proof uniforms :). Now I assume serial killers aren’t that common, but it hasn’t left a great safety impression. It seems like they are just raising mercenaries here. Now it’s not exactly that and it’s more like extreme cops that have free reign as long as they follow the Butei laws (whatever those are). The Butei seem pretty balanced since they carry guns and bladed weapons at all times. Certainly seems like they can handle themselves whether it’s in close range or long range.

With Aria just waltzing into Kinji’s home it seems like we’ll get some fun interactions. A great reaction should come from Shirayuki when she stops by. That girl is definitely cute, but the type that is already acting like Kinji’s wife. Not sure what to think of someone that just stops by all the time bringing you food and wanting to do your laundry. It’s a nice thing to do, but just a bit scary. I was pretty happy with the first episode for this series. It shouldn’t be lacking excitement and I’m curious to see what we’ll get out of Kinji as the male lead. There is a serious divide between his normal self and his ‘Hysteria Mode’ which will make things complicated.

OP/ED Impressions:

I don’t think this was a bad OP at all. There was quite a bit of focus on Aria and the places she has been. Of course when you have a cute main girl it seems like a fair strategy to focus on her. It wasn’t a very busy OP though with most of the time it focused on either just one character or panning on a few characters that aren’t moving. Still some good energy in the song and should enjoy listening to it most nights.

The ED proves that this series knows to keep it’s main female lead at the forefront of everything. It was a pretty simple OP visually with a lot of still images and slow falling bullets. Now there was some nice symbolism going on with Aria falling near the end and being caught by Kinji. It lined up nicely with the lyrics since it was about how she heard for the first time someone wanting to protect her. It just seems like a song all about her. If I had any complaint about the song itself is that it could have been a bit more powerful vocally. Still it was pretty nice.

Score: A/A