Clue 1: An imposing archway with a canal underneath.
Clue 2: A castle wall.
Clue 3: A causeway across water. This made me route my walk along the northernmost shore of Venice.
Clue 4: Orange Planet is in a tight, built-up area. This actually made me go around Rialto a bit.
Clue 5: In the unaired Epiphania navigation, Alice chases Athena across Venice at night, meaning no Vaporettos come into play, which means Orange Planet is on the main Island.
I came up empty. I have to conclude that the Orange Planet building is pretty much a complete work of fiction. I simply had to post this though, because of the effort involved while I was at Venice.
The closest building in Venice (and it's not even close) to resemble Orange Planet is the old Molino Stucky factory, now restored as the Hilton hotel.
This is easily the most imposing structure I've seen in the whole of Venice (clue 1) and looks a bit like a castle. The jagged design at the top of the building reminds me of the wall shown in ARIA (clue 2). I did not see this kind of design in other parts of Venice.
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Great. I also wondered about the exact location of the companies. Or if they exist in the real Venice. As I thought so, they're not. Despite that I don't remember much now, and I was like a half a day in Venice, I think it would have catched my notice if I see such an enormous, out-of-place building.
> Clue 5: In the unaired Epiphania navigation, Alice chases Athena across Venice at night <
Wow! Is there such a thing? How is one able to see it, if it's unaired?
OK, I get it, I wrote too fast without thinking. You probably meant "unanimated", rather than "unaired", so it's only found in Amano's manga.
(Yunichi Sat and his staff are too experienced to make any episode not good enough to air.
Yet, I heard he got reprimanded for switching the sequence of the train station and cemetary episodes in Natural, compared to the manga original, which created a controversial interpretation.
Origination was to be longer, but the company banned any "shigi" content to feature because of that incident. BTW, Aria the Natural is called so, because Aria the Supernatural was not approved by the company, at least that was on IRC.)
The orange Planet HQ is a non-historical building, which imitates Earth's XVth century castles. It is located at "Neo Frari square 0111" and it was built in 2291AD. The company is owned by the Amadeus investor group and they use 120 gondolas.
This info is contained in an official ARIA drama CD leaflet.
The location "Campo dei Neo-Frari" suggests Orange Planet is located in Neo-Santa Croce, rather than Neo-Castello?
@Tamas Feher
That's a great shame if those rumours about the "shigi" content are indeed true because it did flow rather well, and the fact that it meant the final meeting with Cait Sith was not animated (yes, I meant animated, sorry). The amount of fillers at the start of Origination may have hinted that it was originally meant to contain more episodes.
@baidu baike
Thanks for the info - I did not read the Japanese wiki which contained this info! I have been to Frari Square and it's not even beside a huge area of water as depicted in the anime!
This is the biggest structure at the square.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v390/a340_313x/ARIA/P1010019.jpg
Oops, forgot to fully unfold the CD cover, there is a little more text continued on the inside:
Orange Planet was not founded from scratch, but by purchasing and unifying two smaller undine companies.
That kind of explains how Orange Planet was able to get to the top revenue position and already have a water fairy employed after just ten years in the business. by bbaike
Hello,
Now I think the Orange Planet headquarters, while a piece of fantasy, is possibly modeled after the architecture of the famous Scaliger water castle.
That historic monument is found in the village of Garda-Sirmione, on the shore of the Lake Garda, in the Lombardy province of northern Italy. That region was ruled by the Venetian Republic for over 400 years.
The medieval Scaliger castle has large crenellated walls and towers. The entire structure is surrounded by water. There is a walkway along the wall from where the striking dock can be admired.
I will try to see it in person this year, hopefully!
Sincerely: Tamas Feher from Hungary.
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