Sola - 13 (Final)
Sola ends strong. My final impression is included.
Short Summary:
Matsuri fails to strike Aono because of her wound. Aono prepares to attack her, but Yorito stands in her way. Aono escapes, giving Matsuri and Yorito enough time to talk to each other one last time. Matsuri leaves Yorito, seeing that he is falling apart due to Aono’s losing of power. As Aono and Matsuri walk toward each other for their last fight, they remember the happy times they spent together in the past. They thank each other, but this does not shake their resolve. Aono gains the upper hand against Matsuri, despite her losing of power. However, when she goes to kill Matsuri with her own sword, Yorito takes the blow instead. Matsuri comforts a despairing Aono as Yorito’s remains fly into the sky, and slowly stabs her with the sword. As the sun rises, Matsuri remembers when Aono and Yorito promised that she would see the real sky one day.
One year later, Mayuko and Takeshi meet as usual. Mana meets her friends in the family restaurant, where Sae is still depressed about losing sight of Takeshi. After meeting her in the bookstore, Koyori does origami with Aono outside. Before leaving, Aono reintroduces herself to Koyori. Later, while Mana returns to the school to get a notebook she forgot, she goes to the rooftop to observe the sky. She is surprised to find that someone is already there, a transfer student. Mana tells Aono how much she likes the sky, without knowing why. Mana screams out her love for the sky, and runs out hand in hand with Aono afterwards. Later, Mana and Koyori wake up early to meet Aono in the same spot Yorito met Matsuri. Mana prepares to take a picture of the sunrise, while Koyori has trouble with the vending machine. Aono helps her in the same way Matsuri would, and they look up at the benches where two cans of tomato juice are sitting.
Impression:
Ok this was a perfect ending in my opinion. The one year skip really helped to tie things together, and I loved the personality changes. Mana takes up Yorito’s love of the sky and old habits to make up for her loss, and Koyori does the same for Aono. Probably in the same way, Aono has become cheerful like Matsuri was. Aono lives happily without her brother the way she should have, with the friends that loved her before they lost their memories. Yorito did show Matsuri the true sky, even if it cost them both their lives. I was not expecting that, but I’m glad it happened that way. The ending was strong. If the ending had ended with both of them living, it would have been ridiculous. I mean, Yorito was a paper doll. Now all that’s left is the two dvd episodes. Next up is my overall impression of the series.
Sola is a show that I have a lot of mixed feelings about. It started out very strong, but did a quick turn around with episode 3, giving us quite a few mediocre episodes. To me, the show is far too inconsistent. It has many strong points, but the negative points seem to cancel those out quick. The story is predictable, and hardly memorable. Although the animation is good, I was never too crazy about the art style. It was ridiculously easy to point out the huge chins in episode 12 (My eyes!!!). The use of the sky was an artistic point that drew me in early in the show, but it quickly got very old. Not only that, but they pushed this concept to the side in favor of the silly yaka story.
Honestly, I may be comparing Sola to Air and Kanon too much, but I don’t see why I shouldn’t. From looking at the show, it’s pretty easy to see that it draws influences from both. Air and Kanon are masterpieces. Sola is not. Sola has a ridiculous amount of fans, and I don’t know why. Sure, it’s a pretty good watch, but when people are calling it “the best anime of the season” and giving episodes 10 out of 10 ratings, I get confused. The series is average at best, and I’ll have to call it overrated. I guess I could say I’m glad I watched Sola, but it would never make my favorites list. I will probably watch the two dvd episodes for the sake of watching them, but I don’t suspect that they will be anything amazing.
Before everyone flames me, I don’t hate Sola. I managed to blog all of it after all. I would have dropped it a long time ago if I couldn’t stand it. Oh, and if you want to hear Mamiko Noto in a non-stereotypical role, watch Keroro Gunsou or something. Actually, her role in Narue no Sekai is a lot like her role in Sola (No that doesn’t mean I’m recommending it lol).
Also see Owen’s review for similar opinions on this series. He also does a much better job than me at describing its flaws, and will be writing a follow up.
8 Comments so far
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sola wasn’t a great anime, but it was a very good one, in my opinion. Some episodes did deserve 10s, in my opinion. The fact that you could blog the whole thing while still thinking that you didn’t like it should tell you something. It was better than the sum of its parts. It had some sweet emotion and some sweet mystery, whether or not it all added up in a rational way, and whether or not it took us very deeply into the emotions. A bit disappointing, perhaps, but I knew early on that it wasn’t Kanon. I found AIR’s emotions to be a little bogus myself, so I think it might approach that — animation aside.
I don’t know about Mamiko’s Matsuri role being similar to Narue’s (which is incidentally what made me a fan of her). Narue doesn’t have the same emotion and variety in her voice that Matsuri does and it’s not really the same type of role.
Matsuri also has many more lines than Narue does, though that’s mostly because of sola putting Matsuri far above every other character, which is one of many flaws of sola.
And Angol Moa sounds like every non-tragic/mysterious Mamiko character ever, so I don’t know what you’re talking about. :p
hashihime > yea, my final impression probably makes it look like I’m hating on sola. I actually liked it. I mean, I really liked some episodes. For example, this one. It’s just that I don’t think its “the best anime ever” or anything, like most other people are putting it off as.
As far as Air goes, I actually rated it higher than Kanon. Maybe the emotion was kind of out there, but I thought it was powerful. Like, I think I moved to tears when I watched it back then.
Link > I was comparing Matsuri’s cheerfulness to Narue’s, because I think that’s what most people think stand out. I mentioned Moa because when most people think of Mamiko Noto, they think of Ai or Yakumo type roles. People were freaking out about Mamiko Noto’s “new” type of role, when she has played a lot of different types in the past.
Totali — I guess I’d better rewatch AIR. Maybe I was in the wrong mood or something. Or maybe I can “see” anime better now than I could then.
#1. I believe Air and Kanon 2006 to be little overrated as well.
#2. Air and Kanon 2006 have their share of plot holes in my opinion.
#3. What Sola really excelled at was its use of cliffhangers at end of episodes to keep the viewers hooked. The careful control of pacing and timing of the events had many viewers entranced, thus more prone to rate the series much higher than it deserves.
#4. Another this Sola really did well was hitting the MOE button. Every episode had at least two moments where many otakus around the world would scream “Moe!”. Koyori was so cute, someone could have attacked me for becoming a lolicon. Many post like “Ponytail FTW” was made in comments for Sola. I wonder if this was more of commercial choice, or producer’s desire to have Sola character win in various SaiMoe tournament soon to be held in Japan and Korea.
#5. Sola also knew how to use the cliches well. In world of art, in order to succeed, either you try the original path, or use the cliches very well. Sola definitely took the latter path, but sometimes, if enough cliches were used well, that becomes like a something new. In hindsight, not much originality may be found in Sola, but seldom you think about ” Haven’t I seen this before? ” at the first viewing, and sometimes you have to see it multiple times or think about it for a while before realizing that it is reusing something famous from the past.
#6. One original path I wish they had explored was the issue of whether a person is an island or not. In the beginning, the series raised possibility of all the relations featured in it having serious issues and much mental conflicts. They could have went into more psychological thriller like show and delved further into how characters interacts in tough situations and the thoughts that precedes or comes after the event. Obviously, that is what you expect from 900 page novel or serious theater play, not an anime series. Still, I could dream, can’t I?
#7. Sola has many failings which I am well aware of. Despite that, this was the most gripping and rewatchable series since Koi Kaze for me.(hmmm, another incest story? wait! before Koi Kaze, it was Banner of Stars). On memorability, Sola tied Solty Rei for the top spot ( I am a father of a child, thus subject of parent-child relationship interests me more than most other anime fans ) I have no idea how to make the ending episode better, but, if it was better, I would have placed Sola as the most memorable anime series of the decade for me. It just has to settle for the most memorable anime series of past 48 month as the things currently stands, unless they do something extraordinary in the two DVD episodes, which is very possible.
maglor >
1. Well, probably. I think Suzumiya Haruhi was the most overrated show ever, but I still liked it a lot.
2. Maybe. The difference between those two and Sola was that I could actually get attached to the characters, Air more in particular.
3. I can agree with that. But, because of that, people look past the obvious flaws. I see that as a trick to keep people watching, not something that makes a great show.
4. This may be one reason I couldn’t enjoy Sola as much. None of the characters’ “moe points” really got to me. Sure, I liked Koyori, but not because she was a loli. I only liked her because her seiyu was Ai Shimizu xD.
5. To me, the cliches got old. Quick.
6. And they didn’t. I agree though.
7. I can’t see how Sola can be put on the same level as Koi Kaze. I couldn’t get into Solty Rei and haven’t seen Banner of Stars yet, so I can’t say much about that. I still don’t see Sola as being memorable, but everyone has different tastes.
and I’m guessing that the two dvd episodes will feature stories from the past, because we haven’t seen enough of it. It would make the most sense. We would see how the real Matsuri and Yorito got along, and things like that. If not, maybe more Takeshi and Mayuko development or more Mana, Koyori, and Aono living together. Maybe both. There are going to be two after all.
I gave Sola a higher rating than Kanon 2006 because though it had a few flaws, it still managed to pull off a memorable and good ending. I gave AIR the highest rating than I gave any of the anime that I’ve watched.
Totali, the only reason why I watched Solty Rei was because Rose was awesome.