Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. As some of you may know I’m not exactly a big fan of reviewing spin-off animes. That’s not to say they’re bad, there are some good spin-off animes out there, but the problem is they have a tall bar to reach as everyone expects them to be just as good as the original if not better. The bar is especially high if you’re a spin-off of a good series like today’s anime, Hidan no Aria AA. A spin-off to the underappreciated Hidan no Aria that got started in 2010-2018, the series was written by Shogako Tachibana. The whole point of the anime was to help build up fan support for a possible second season of the original Hidan no Aria that a lot of fans have been crying out for. The anime came out in 2015 under the production of Doga Koba (Koihime series) and was met with disappointment. Fans were hoping for a direct sequel to the original and not the spin off. Also, the spin off wasn’t really all that good. Don’t believe me, well let’s take a look at Hidan no Aria AA.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “Bull’s Eye” by nano. The song is good as it’s sung by nano who always makes good openings for animes, even if they don’t deserve it and this is an anime that doesn’t deserve this opening song. When you hear this opening you think of spies struggling with themselves but working it out with the help of their friends and remembering why they’re here. At the first the opening does seem to fit but after a few episodes the opening slowly begins to feel out of place and misleading. That’s how bad the spinoff gets.
The ending is “Pulse” by Team AA. It’s alright, it does match up well with the anime. There’s an air of peace to the ending which puts you at ease and the VAs Aria and Akari do work each other quite nicely.
Episodes 1-4
We start off with our main character Akari voiced by Ayane Sakura (Nao from Charlotte) a student at Butei who admires and respects Aria and wants to be just like her someday (you have the dere but you don’t have any tsun in you). On her way to school she sees Aria in action stopping some bank robbers trying to escape on a boat in the canal. After this she goes to take her promotion exam where she fails big time (she’s got a long~ way to go). Upset and disappointed by this she does her best to hold back her tears, but they just flow out. In order to cheer her up her friends suggest that Akari try to be Aria’s amica (it’s basically a mentorship program where Aria trains Akari and goes on missions with her. Sort of like a Star Wars padawan thing). Akari decides to go for it and submits a request to be Aria’s amica despite knowing that she’s already turned 10 people down already (she has high standards and only goes for MC characters). To Akari’s surprise Aria appears before her saying she’ll give her a chance to prove herself. Aria takes Akari’s gun and tells her she has until sunset to get it back from her (you expect a first-year student with lousy skills to steal her gun back from a high-ranking skilled student said to be the best in class? You’re on). The test begins as Akari tries to steal the gun back not giving up at all much to Aria’s surprise (she wants what she wants). Their chase moves to on top of a bridge where accomplices of the bank robbers from earlier try to bail their buddies out of jail. Aria springs into action to stop their escape attempt and Akari even saves Aria by pushing her out of the way of a car only to get herself hit but she’s alright (girl’s either strong as hell or a punching bag). She manages to snatch the key from the driver when she got hit thus making him unable to escape as the police show up (5 minutes late again guys). Aria continues her trial with Akari where Akari manages to snatch the gun a way but she loses it quickly and the trial ends with Akari failing but Aria deciding to let her serve as her assistant. She’ll train her but she won’t be allowed to go on missions with Aria until she passes her one-month trial to see if she’s a good match for her.
Episode 2 focuses on one of Akari’s friends Shino a girl who comes from a rich and proper family. Because of this she doesn’t have any friends but one day she met Akari who accepted her and everything. However, this developed a serious complex in Shino’s behavior. Shino is borderline obsessed with Akari (we’re talking Helga from Hey Arnold obsessed here) and is afraid that once Akari officially becomes Aria’s amica their friendship will be over. So, after doing a bit of research, Shino has discovered that if she can defeat Akari behind Aria’s back they’re contract with each other will be nulled and voided because Aria couldn’t protect her. On the day Aria leaves to go on a mission Shino invites Akari to her mansion where she traps Akari in the garden and attacks her (Shino’s gone yandere on us! In hindsight I should have seen this coming. Yanderes usually have black hair). So, the two fight and just when it seems like Shino has Akari, Aria shows up to give her words of inspiration which helps her win the fight. Akari apologizes for being insensitive to Shino’s feelings and the two mend their friendship. The next day Shino becomes the amica of Shirayuki (how fitting a yandere training another yandere).
Episode 3 focuses on Akari’s other friend Raika. While the school is doing physicals, we see that Raika is a pretty tomboyish girl with exceptional skills. She’s rather tall for a girl, has good eyesight and CQC skills. Because of this all the boys are turned off by her and put her in last place in their hottest girls poll (they are blind then because so far she’s the prettiest girl in this anime). She pretends it doesn’t bother her but in truth it really does bother her (and it should. You’re a pretty girl and yet people don’t see that). She wants to be girly; she wants to wear frilly dresses and other cute things but she just feels that she’s not cut out for that stuff. Anyway, in the episode a girl from junior high named Shima who is the exact opposite of Raika (she’s short, cute, girly, and wears frilly dresses) wants to be her amica. Raika says no but Shima refuses to give up and when Akari begins to worry about Raika, she and Shima follow her after school where she goes to her favorite place to hangout and cheer herself up, a cosplay store (huh? So this is a thing). Once they see Raika trying on a dress they expose themselves to her where Shima says she’ll stay quiet if Raika has an amica match with her where if she wins Raika has to be her amica but if Raika wins Shima has to leave her alone (that or get a restraining order against her). They have their fight where Raika loses on purpose thus Shima becomes her amica and they all go to a cosplay café cosplaying themselves. In a cool moment in the episode we actually do get to see Kinji talk with Aria where Akari gets jealous and follows him only to get found out quickly. It’s a short scene but it was nice to be him again.
In episode 4 the school is holding the Quartet tournament a tournament where students in teams of 4 fight each other where if you do a good job you’ll rise up a rank. Since Akari is worried that Aria will dismiss her because of her ranking (don’t worry she likes E-rank buteis. Just look at Kinji) she decides to enter the tournament with Shino, Raika, and Shima as her teammates. Their first opponent is a girl by the name of Urara an A rank butei (who has that classic rich girl look) who beat Akari in the first episode and holds a personal grudge against her because Urara tried to be Aria’s amica in the past but failed and now she’s jealous of Akari. On her team are two twins and the ninja girl Fuma who seems to be an associate of Aria. Their match will be held on Monday, so they decide to train at Shino’s house (Akari is actually okay going back to the house of the yandere best friend who tried to kill her?) and get Riko to train them since Shima was originally Riko’s amica. The theme of their first battle is attack by poison where each member will hold a flag. One flag will have the picture of an eye on it which the team must protect. The team that has their attack flag touch the eye first wins. So they begin training with Riko giving each them a job for the game. Shino is to take on the twins, Raika is to guard the flag with the eye, Shima is to practice hand to hand combat, and Akari’s training involves mastering the bull ride (don’t know why she’s doing that but I’m sure it’ll serve a purpose later on). Aria does come by to see her where she tries to get her gun back and fails but Aria does say that her moves have become a lot better. After a weekend of training the day arrives and the tournament begins.
Episodes 5-8
Episode 5 turns into one big disappointment. I was hoping to see some amazing fighting like in the first season but instead the fighting is horrible in this episode. The fights are slow, they use the wrong music, and the characters are standing around staring at each other (it’s as if the animation team behind this anime stopped caring and let me tell you I’m getting there as well). In the episode, Raika and Shima guard the flag on defense while Akari and Shino go on offense. They run into the two twins where Shino takes them on herself (hey, just like we practiced) forcing Akari to go alone (they’re screwed). Raika and Shima gets attacked by Fuma where you would expect be get a pretty good fight between the two but instead it’s just Raika guarding Shima against Fuma in a fog of smoke (yaaaaaaaaaaawn~). Akari reaches the location of Urara’s flag in a construction site where Urara is waiting for her with a pretty cool gun (but not even that cool gun can save this episode from sucking). Urara’s gun is very accurate and keeps Akari at bay and since Akari is using a mini-uzi in a long-range gunfight what’s going to happen Isis?
(Isis): Girlfriend’s gonna get owned~.
(Nitsuj): Just when it seems like Akari has no chance of winning she remembers Aria talking about being flexible on the battlefield and spots a scooter nearby which has their attack flag on it (how did Urara not notice this?). She hightails it towards the scooter and rides to Urara’s flag which is nested on top of a pile of dirt. Shino comes in to disarm Urara and Akari jumps off the scooter to give it the momentum it needs to reach the top of the dirt and hit Urara’s flag. The scooter hits the flag and Akari’s team win (I should be happy but in all honesty this is quite embarrassing). Shocked by her lost Urara falls backwards and gets stuck in the garbage can where a mysterious girl sets off a trap which causes all the scaffolders to begin falling on the girls. Luckily, Aria sensed something was wrong and called in Reki (hey another awesome character I would like to see more. Stop toying with me anime). Reki shoots the scaffolders so they don’t hit anyone but a few fall perfectly around Akari and Urara creating a hut that will collapse on them. Akari gets Urara out of the garbage can by using lightning fist (what the!? When could she do that? I wouldn’t be this shocked about it under normal circumstances but she did it like it was second nature to her and wasn’t the least bit shocked when she did it. No pun intended). Akari rescues Urara (boy how the ignorant have fallen) and she takes her leave without so much as thanking Akari or anything (damn bitch).
Nothing much to say about episode 6. Everyone goes out to celebrate Team Akari’s victory and Akari’s promotion to D rank (good. Now go up four more ranks and I might start to care about you). Even Urara comes by to congratulate Akari and thank her for saving her life (she’s still a wench). After that we focus on Raika and Shima (can we stop focusing on the lesbian relationships and instead focus on the main story which honestly seems to be going nowhere) who are both worried about their relationship with each other. Raika is worried that Shima will go back to Riko because she’s much prettier and girlier than her and Shima is jealous of the fact that Raika is friendlier with Akari than her (you both are worrying over nothing). After talking about her worries with Riko, Shima asks Raika to teach her and a few other students in CVR some gun practices. At first Raika refuses but after a little bit of convincing from Akari (got to find some way to put her in the story) Raika agrees to teach the girls in CVR (or as I like to call them, future side characters for harem animes). Right now all the girls love her and after the training session Shima takes Raika to the CVR training room where the CVR students push her down on a bed (alright a possible hentai scene. Maybe this episode wasn’t a waste. Oh who am I kidding it is a waste) and she gets overwhelmed by their cuteness (hey I just realized something, this is dumb). She tells them to let her go but Shima says she’ll only let her go if she confesses that Shima is her bride. Having no choice in the matter Raika confesses and Shima’s worries are put to rest.
More lesbianism in episode 7 as Urara has come to developed feelings for Akari (you’re joking?) and now wants to be friends with her (too bad her idea of friendship is on the same lines as Shino. Akari should really think about getting new friends. Ones that aren’t crazy stalkers). In order to become Akari’s friend Urara invites Akari to her place where Shino spies on her in secret (really, you’re spying on her. Okay seriously, you need help. And a restraining order put against you) sees this and takes action. The next day Akari goes to Urara’s place (man she’s being awfully open and trusting to someone who picked on her so much in the past) where they have a small party and do become friends. No longer able to contain herself, Urara attacks Akari (this is not what friends do Urara). Shino busts in through the window and challenges Urara to a duel where the winner will become Akari’s friend. The next day after school, Shino and Urara have a sword fight in the school’s abandoned training building where for most of the match Urara has Shino on the fences (I thought sword fighting was your specialty Shino?). As the two fight they start to connect with each other about their unhealthy obsession with Akari (seriously, what do you guys see in her?) when all of a sudden some students from CVR hear the fight and come to check it out where they’re told to leave (return to your rooms and cuddle your pedobears). One of them takes a misstep and falls down a hole but Akari jumps to save her where she gets saved by Shino who gets pulled up and saved by Urara. The match is declared a draw and Akari convinces them to all be friends (yeah we can be friends, just don’t stalk and rape me).
In episode 8 Urara invites Akari to her family’s new indoor spa resort which she gladly accepts but Shino, Raika, and Shima overhear the conversation and decide to join them at the resort along with their friends from CVR, Aria, Riko, and Reki. We see that Urara has a plan to get close to Akari which involves having her wear a swimsuit that when exposed to water will shrink slowly until it finally falls off and then she and Urara will have some fun time in Urara’s spa of love (I just hope the water is changed on a daily bases). So the next day they all go to the spa giving us plenty of fanservice. Urara’s servants Yaya and Yuyu accidently get the swimsuits mixed up so Urara has the shrinking swimsuit while Akari has the normal swimsuit (well if we’re doing fanservice we might as well use the one with the most sex appeal. Riko~). As the day goes on Urara’s swimsuit continues to shrink (how she does not notice this is beyond me it’s pretty obvious) until finally Shino notices it and tries to warn her along with Yaya and Yuyu but she accidently sets off her final trap where she and Shino fall into the spa of love together and Urara’s swimsuit completely falls apart. Despite this everyone else had a good time especially Aria who decides to spend more time with Akari and plans a house visit.
Episodes 9-12
Episode 9 starts off with Aria coming over to Akari and Nonoka’s (her little sister) house where she’ll be staying for a while because of recent attacks against Butei students. Akari is excited for this and when she tells the others Shino and Urara are anything but happy for her. Eventually everybody comes over to Akari’s house where they have a sleepover and we see that Aria follows Saitama’s training regimen to get stronger (too bad she doesn’t do it everyday). One day when Aria and Akari are walking home, Aria notices a white van following them and sends Akari on an errand so she won’t get involved in the fight. Aria leads them to an abandoned warehouse district (classic shooting area) where we see the people chasing her are just regular robbers and gunmen hired by Riko. Aria takes down the first wave easily but becomes surrounded by the second and third wave (this is what you get for snitching Aria). Luckily, Shino and Urara were stalking the two earlier (I would honestly get a straining order against them), told Akari what happened, and gather all of their friends together to save Aria. They manage to defeat a majority of the hired guns but Aria gets pinned down and it’s up to Akari to save her by shooting the gunman but she’s too afraid to shoot him (didn’t seem to bother you all that much in episode 5) so Reki takes the shot for her (thanks Reki). After everything settles down Aria hands Akari back her gun saying that she won’t make Akari her amica for a number of reasons (after what happened today it’s understandable). First off, Akari works better in a team than by herself. Akari wants to be like Aria but Aria is a lone wolf, she doesn’t depend on others in fights or rather she doesn’t need others to help her fight (however she does need a Kinji to keep her in line). Akari can’t be like Aria because she always depends on others to make up for her weaknesses. Second, she hesitates in the field. Akari had a clear shot and didn’t fire leaving Aria high and dry which is something that cannot happen out in the field. Finally, but most importantly Akari is OP (no BS). Aria takes her to the shooting range and forces her to fire on a mannequin where Akari not looking at all fires 5 shots and all the shots were fatal (the girl is a trained killer). This is why Akari hesitated to shoot earlier, she knew in her heart that if she fired she would of killed the gunmen which is something she didn’t want to do.
Episode 10 starts off with Aria getting injured from the bus scene in episode 3 from the first season (so it is a prequel to the original series). Akari is shocked to see her idol injured and down for the count (she may be down but she’s not out). As Akari watches Aria get taken away by the ambulance she gets approached by Kyochikutou a member of IU who wants Akari to become her puppet (I swear Akari is a lesbian magnet). Akari says no but Kyochikutou isn’t concerned because she knows Akari will come to her. Why? Because 2 years ago she poisoned Nonoka with a poison that will take her eyesight and eventually her other senses killing her slowly and painfully 2 years at a time. We finally find out that Akari comes from a clan of ninjas that used to work as informants for the shogunate during the Sengoku era. They developed a technique that allowed them to crush their opponents with ease but as time went on they hid themselves from the world and pass their knowledge down to the next generation as a way to defend themselves. IU wanted to know their secrets but they refused to cooperate, so IU attacked the village and killed everyone except Akari and Nonoka where Kyochikutou injected Nonoka with the poison. Fuma tells them that the only way to neutralize the poison is to get the antidote from Kyochikutou so Akari decides to go and face Kyouchikutou alone (no, that is a terrible idea doomed to fail). But before she can leave Aria stops her and tells her she doesn’t have to do it alone (you know, all that friendship and stuff. Ironic coming from the lone wolf). So the Akari squad rolls out (yes, I’m calling them that now) and go to face Kyouchikutou at the hotel she’s staying at.
The battle between Kyouchikutou and the Akari squad begins in episode 11 where Kyouchikutou buries everyone (oh hey I didn’t know Triple H was her father). She takes down Fuma, Raika, Urara, and Shino one by one using her various poisons and a Gatling gun until Akari is the only one left to face her. Finally accepting the skills that were taught to her by her family unleashes the family secret technique and defeats Kyouchikutou. Just as she’s being arrested, Aria shows up to tell her that there’s another member of IU after them and just as the episode ends she appears (you just had to make it stupid).
So in the final episode we see Suimitsutou the sister of Kyouchikutou (why are their names so long and hard to say? Couldn’t they have had simpler names?) comes out and attacks in an exoskeleton mech suit (that’s right folks. A character who we have never seen, heard of, and had no build up to whatsoever is the final boss. What a disappointment). Through an okay plan they manage to take her down and have her arrested (well that was easy and disappointing). Kyouchikutou takes a plea bargain and tells Butei the antidote to her poison so Nonoka is safe (and a totally unnecessary character in the story). Once everything is settled, Aria decides to leave telling Akari to find someone else to be her amica but Akari still wants Aria as her amica (weren’t you listening to what she said earlier? Aria, lion, strong and independent by herself. You, zebra, you work better in a group then by yourself) and takes Aria’s test once again only this time Aria fights her head on (the kid gloves are off). They have their fight where despite Aria countering all of her attacks Akari manages to get her gun back and officially becomes Aria’s amica (great. So how does she fit into the main series and when does she fall for Kinji?).
Final Thoughts
I’m sorry, I like Hidan no Aria but this spin off sucked. The characters are weak and uninteresting for a majority of the anime, they overplay the yuri card, and the story throughout a majority of the anime is non-existent and when you finally do get story it’s uninteresting, doesn’t have enough build-up, and is rushed. Akari is just bland and forgetful and the other characters are the same who either fawn over Akari or each other. The only thing I will say I enjoyed about this anime is the animation is slightly better than the original. It’s more vibrant and cuter which matches the series and while the music is good, nothing really stands out to me personally.
Final Score
Hidan no Aria AA earns a 3/10. An uninteresting anime that you honestly have to force yourself to finish as you watch because of how boring and uninteresting it is. I hate to say it, but you’re better off not watching this anime and instead picking up the original light novel. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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