(I got into the manga first, ARIA then the prequel Aqua, and the anime I’m finding slow to get into because I get too impatient. XD;;;; 2nd season was apparently pretty bad, esp. since they ‘changed’ the continuity to have EVERYONE there, including Ai-chan who doesn’t show up until last Navigation/chapter in the manga.

It also kind of defeats the point of Navigation 46 in vol. 10, where the whole point of you not seeing the three Water Fairies altogether often is because their schedules are so busy, they tended to have only free days 2/3 to get together … so the Anime really missed the mark on that, having Athena, Akira, and Alice showing up MUCH earlier than their manga appearances.

Though that’s probably a bonus for characters like Woody, who was I think the last of the love interests to appear, he’d get slipped into the various festivals/events in the anime even before his actual appearance!)

The canonical insinuated pairings are Al + Aika, Akatsuki + Akari (tho Akari’s STILL oblivious about it by the end of the manga …), and Woody + Alice. (Alice’s crush apparently first started because she noticed his resemblance to her fav. mascot critter Mu-kun) XDD

On Martian cats, it’s said as an infodump on the prequel manga Aqua that there are Martian Cats that have higher intelligence, but it’s never elaborated on whether they’re a created breed or just some sort of spontaneous mutation once cats bred amongst themselves after a few generations.

Maa is listed as a full-Martian Cat in her data (printed on the manga vol under the coverslip), so … her intelligence is expected, esp. w/ her first appearance being a kitten that’s only slightly past-weaning. (on solid foods when Alice was sneaking food to her)

President Aria is also full-Martian Cat.

President Hime, however, is an earth cat. I’ve seen unofficial sources (wikipedia comes to mind) saying she’s a mixed breed of earth and mars cats, but since the official manga cover data says earth, I’m assuming she’s just a more intelligent earth cat.

Also, in one of the manga navigations (Aria, the one on the 7 wonders of neo-venezuala), according to Athena, the old earth Venezuala had a lot of cats imported to catch mice, but such is not the case on Aqua – so the presence (apparently since colonization post full-terraform) of so many cats in Neo-Venezula has always been a puzzle.
The local legend is apparently that there are so many cats because Cait Sith, the Faerie King of Cats is patron guardian of Neo-Venezula.

I’m on the fence on whether to buy the Aqua/Aria manga. I’m finishing up GALS! right now (and I’m really enjoyed the first two chapters of book ten so far), so I’ll be about ready for a new series to read soon.

Alicia says something similar in the first volume of Aqua as well. I don’t remember the anime saying anything about it, though.

Is it touched upon in a later animated series about Aria being a Martian breed of cat? Or in the comic series? Or was this information revealed in an interview on the side somewhere? The part that had me curious with what you say is how President Himeya has dialogue attributed to her via the thought dialogue in this episode, and of course her actions and reactions in episodes.

On the subject of cats, Aria is a special Martian breed of cat. They’re supposed to have the same level of intelligence as a human child, although they obviously can’t talk. Both Hime and Maa are simply blue-eyed cats from Earth breeds, and so are on the same level as typical house-cats.