For the athletic and outgoing Yamamoto Yohko, life is all about grabbing her quarters and putting her skills to the test; which is why for her, piloting a space ship is as easy as playing in the arcade! Using a supply closet in their school as a portal through time, Yohko and her friends travel between the years 2000 and 3000, having fun adventures, battling in space, and becoming closer as friends.
Neo Venezia, the pride of planet Aqua, is a quaint city filled with canals and easy-going people. Many companies operate their gondolas on the canals, giving tours to tourists and locals alike, but the most famous of them is the Aria Company. Follow the adventures of Aria's young apprentice, Akari, as she learns the tricks of the trade from her beautiful senior, Alicia. Together with her friends Aika and Alice, apprentices of rival companies, and their seniors Akira and Athena, they train their skills as gondoliers, meeting new people and learning new things about the city each day.
Yamamoto Yohko and ARIA take a fantasy/sci-fi setting and rather than focus on the setting, focus on the characters. Yohko and ARIA both take time to strengthen their cast, especially through chracter interaction. In addition, both shows have a very calm and relaxing atmosphere and tend to switch between happy, fun episodes and more somber, melancholy ones.
Saio Private High School has a long tradition of quality education; however, like many with other schools in this not to far away future its enrollment is falling and its tradition is failing. School is no longer a necessity in the path to quality employment and for that reason, many teenagers are choosing to skip it entirely; this is not the case with the newly transferred Manabi. She may be a whirlwind of humor and vision with her motto of go straight forward, but Manabi has the drive to bring the students of this small school both a new understanding of its purpose, and possibly a new joy in life.
Manabi Straight and Yamamoto Yohko are shows who focus on a small group of girls in their fight to be the best that they can be. Both shows feature a character who brings the group together and helps everyone around them become a better person, and as the group becomes stronger, find themself being helped on all sides by their friends. Both shows have strong characters who continue to evolve over the sourse of the series, and both shows are very tonally similar.