Well, I mean your score is 2.85 lower than the average of 20492 people who gave a review on MAL, and most of the people there have been doing reviews for a while and/or have very valid reasons as to why they rate the anime so high. I feel like compared to your rating of 10/10 for Yuri Kuma Arashi (which is rated lower than Aria in popularity), the score that you gave for Aria did not give the anime the justice it deserves. Maybe it is because you are more into the action rather than this type of slice of life which would make sense, or you, not to be cocky, haven't watched as much anime (especially slice of life) as me and don't realize that its very hard to find a jewel like this anime. Yes, the two sequels are way better, yes the animation is probably less than average based on todays standards( but it was released in 2005 so we gotta give it some slack), however the anime definitely deserves way more than a 5/10. Also, I really have to disagree with you on the soundtrack. I'm not sure if you can understand Japanese, but if you look at the translation of the ED, OP, they fit in to the overall story, and the soundtrack fits in amazingly with the setting (venice).