Actually, Aria has been for me one of the most difficult characters to pin down. For the longest time her primary purpose in the story was to be one half of the main romantic couple, and that was about it. She was sweet and even-tempered and a bit shy and… dull as a butter knife, I eventually realized. I told myself that this was OK, that it made her a good neutral voice for the narrator of the story, but let’s be honest– when your lead character is boring, your story is in trouble. So I tried to flesh her out a little with objects, such as (in the early days of the comic)giving her a pet cat and a collection of books that resemble the ones on my own shelf. These helped somewhat. But even though I’ve worked with this character for 25 years, I still have a tough time getting inside her head. Maybe it’s because she is the one I identify with the most. Go figure. More!
She looks a bit like Nova/Yuki Moro from “Starblazers”/”Space Battleship Yamato”. Intentional?
I’d say it was unintentionally intentional, back then. For better or for worse, Star Blazers was one of my biggest influences. In fact, if you go look at the very first drawing of Aria, you’ll see the name I initially chose for the character was just a wee bit of a giveaway.
Hey, I’m not judging. I *LOVE* that show, and I can’t wait to see the new series — assuming, of course, that someone has the smarts to bring it to our shores…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF4WPlSb0dA