Once again sola's charm is in its twists. That last one at the end caught me by surprise.
I'm going to try to be fair. This show ended up being more about Aono than anyone else, which I should have noticed before (I now better appreciate why most of the promos/logos focus on Aono and Matsuri). Unfortunately I just don't think it was portrayed very well; rather than her reaching her own end, it was forced upon her. The effect of that is that Matsuri/Yorito come off more as antagonists. I simply have no sympathy for either of them, since ultimately the role they decided to take on was one purely based on what they wanted; what they thought was best.
Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way, but I still have issue with Yorito. Even though he isn't the Yorito that Aono knows, he still has an integral connection with her. His insensitivity to Aono's own suffering shocked me; as if, after finding out the truth, all prior ties were cut save for Matsuri's.
Speaking of Matsuri, I've come to dislike her as well. She's managed to turn Aono's life upside down literally three times: once for herself, once unknowingly, and once where she thought she knew what was best. Given Aono's state at the time (and how she tends to be overall), Matsuri could have been _dead wrong_. That Aono didn't waste her chance at being human again is, at least in my opinion, lucky. At that point she was back to nothing, so between the choice of rebuilding her prior relationships (with Koyori/Mana) or giving up entirely, she decided to go with the former--she could have just as likely killed herself though.
I like how prior relationships are still solidly represented by the end. That Mana's taken to the same habit as Yorito (as an apparent side-effect to the amnesia) is touching to me. It really shows how strong her affection toward him is. Likewise for Koyori although less so. Also, the scene where Mana explores the rooftop was very clever. The camera work was done in such a way that you'd expect Yorito to have been right around the corner; I think they pulled that move something like 3 times before showing the viewer that it's Aono who is on the rooftop this time.
Just some random additional notes:
-Yorito showing Matsuri the sky was brought to conclusion, but indirectly. In the end she was able to see the real sky, and it was through Yorito, but probably not as either of them had originally intended.
-The "hint" that past Yorito mentions in the cave was completely tossed. It probably shouldn't be viewed as an important point but as an introduction to the fact that both Yorito and Aono had a past relationship with Matsuri.
-The notion that Yorito would come to hate Matsuri (she says this in the second episode) came to pass. It was probably explored as a plot point and also eventually thrown out.
-In relation to the last point, early on people were speculating over exactly what Matsuri's power is. In the end, this ended up not mattering. Actually, powers in general seem to be of relatively minor importance.
-Takeshi seems to still be able to recall Yorito and Matsuri. It might have been a matter of being out of range of the amnesia effect that took place in episode 11, but it's still curious.
There's a direction that I'd like to have had sola go in, but I haven't quite thought it through yet. I'll try to transcribe it later.
Lastly, I'm still all for a Mayuko/Takeshi spin-off/OVA. If done correctly, I could see myself liking it more than sola itself. A very serious take on how Takeshi's feelings evolve over time (including as he approaches old age) would be great.
