Aika and Alice noticed that Akari seemed to be popular among the other inhabitants. Their curiosity convinced them to stealthily follow Akari to find out the secret to her popularity. Anyone who has watched “ARIA” would already know there really is no secret. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing how Akari set out with errands in mind and ended up getting sidetracked. It’s just like her to do something like that and still finish the day completely at ease. Watching Aika and Alice tailing Akari and trying to figure out her secret was pretty funny, especially when Alice first commented on the puppeteer. Of course, if Aika and Alice had really thought about it they would have known Akari’s secret without ever following her, but it makes for good entertainment this way.

I think this is the first time we get to see Akari give a tour to actual customers.  This episode ended up going in a completely different direction than I had anticipated in the second half.  When we saw Aika and Alice showing new and interesting places to Akari, I thought the entire episode would be dedicated to their little discovery journey.  As it turns out, Akari is afraid of the dark.  Alicia ends up staying over to keep Akari company.  I believe we have never seen Alicia wear glasses until now.  I can’t say I like this look more, but I found it intriguing nevertheless.  Thanks to the absence of light Akari makes many new discoveries, which naturally fills her with joy.  Once again the series manages to pull off an entertaining episode with a seemingly bland premise.

The entire episode was dedicated to Bokkoro’s Day. It’s similar to what we know as Valentine’s Day, except with a few minor differences. As expected, the top Undines Alicia, Athena, and Akira received a lot of roses. Akatsuki ends up dragging Akari along to help him deliver the flowers to Alicia for whole day. They end up bumping into many of the characters. Aika’s story in the episode was short, but I thought it was still fun to watch. We get to see Akari pretend to be Alicia to help Akatsuki which ended up being pretty hilarious. It was just like Alicia for her to misunderstand the situation when she saw Akatsuki together with Akari. Based on her reaction, I guess it truly is unrequited love. I can’t say it has any sort of impact on me since Akatsuki is too minor a character. All in all, this was episode was an entertaining episode just like all the others.

The summer outfits are back! This was almost a continuation of the first episode of this season. I wasn’t expecting another episode involving Cait Sith. I figured it was only a one time deal. If we are to consider what Ai said at the end of the episode, then this may not be the last time we see Cait Sith. I just hope they put some more time in between the next time they include another episode that involves the supernatural. As implausible as it’s supposed to be, it was fun to see Aria-shachou moving about in his own gondola. I probably enjoyed this episode the least out of the entire series so far. That’s not to say this episode was bad of course. The bar is set so high for this series that one episode has to take last place even if it was still entertaining.

I didn’t think there would really be much character development this season, but I was wrong. This episode focused heavily on Alice. It’s a good thing they dedicated this episode to Alice. We don’t know as much about her as we do Akari and Aika. By the end of the episode we get to see a whole new Alice, which I thought was nice. It’s rare to see her smile like that. Surprisingly, Athena had a decent amount of lines in this episode. For someone who’s usually really quiet she spoke quite a bit. Being an Athena fan, I really appreciated how much she appeared in this episode. It was unfortunate Akari had minimal lines, but I guess it was worth it for what we got in return. If they can have a character development episode like this one, I hope they will have a few more this season.

This week’s episode consists of two unrelated vignettes. I think this is the first time where we didn’t get to see any of the other main characters besides Akari and Alicia for an entire episode. The first story includes the series’ unique way of incorporating the supernatural so seamlessly. Then the second story shows us a light hiking trip. If any other series had tried to use these stories I think they would have failed miserably. I don’t think there are any other series with uneventful plots that can be so relaxing to watch, yet feel so entertaining at the same time. It would have been nice to see Akari and Alicia wear something different to add a bit more flavour considering they weren’t working.

In this episode we get to see how the postal system works. This series can seriously make anything entertaining. It was only shown briefly, but we got to see Akari’s signature backwards rowing. It has been a long time since we’ve seen that. I had almost forgotten all about her unique technique. During the wedding scene we got to see Akira and Aika dressed up, which I thought was a nice bonus. It’s not everyday we get to see them wear something other than their uniforms. Their gondola was decorated for the occasion as well, which we haven’t seen before. While watching the last scene between Akari and the postman I couldn’t help but think about Aika’s infamous “hazukashii serifu kinshi” line. It appears that the next episode will be split into two shorter stories.

We’re learning more and more about Aqua. The information may not be all that important, but it helps add more depth to the series. We may have wondered why there were no tall buildings, well now we know. The first time we saw Al was in the first season, but we really didn’t know anything about him. He’s has many scenes in this episode so now we have a better idea of what he’s all about. To add to that, we see that Aika may have some feelings for him. Being the way that she is it must be difficult for her to be straight with her emotions. I was surprised to find out that Al was older than both Aika and Akari. This entire time I had assumed he was younger than all of them, including Alice. There’s really not much to say about the episode itself. It wasn’t all that eventful, but it still provides a lot of entertainment.

Akari, Aika, and Alice embark on a treasure hunt in this episode. Not surprisingly it was highly enjoyable. The outcome of the treasure hunt wasn’t anything unexpected. What they find is exactly what one would guess if they had watched the first season. If there’s any character development to speak of it would only be learning about one of Alice’s hobbies. Considering this is already the second season I’d like to think that we already know the characters pretty well. Thus, I don’t plan on them providing a whole lot more character development in this season. It’s pretty impressive that they can maintain this level of art and animation so consistently. I’ve come to expect great episodes from the “ARIA” series and it has yet to disappoint.

This series is probably the one I was looking forward to the most for this new season. I’m happy to say I was not disappointed at all by this first episode. It retains the same old feeling we’ve come to love from the first season. Even though there are supernatural elements in this episode it is still very easy to watch. We get to see all the characters from season one as well, even if it was only for a short while. It’s good to see that everyone appears the same as before. Their trademark characteristics were evident even in their brief appearance. If it wasn’t for the new opening and ending songs I wouldn’t have guessed this was season two. I think they did a good enough job with this episode that people who have not seen the first season can still enjoy the series.