Just watched the Lunar fansub of Sola 05.....
The Pros:
1)
2) VERY good character development on the part of Takeshi. As much as I detest him when he started getting on Matsuri's case again, I can't find it within myself to hate him entirely. It's almost like he's as much a victim of circumstances as Matsuri was....
3) Especially liked the date scene. Unfortunately, I liked it so much, it became a victim of its own success...I'll expound on this in the Cons.
4) On the other hand, I like the Takeshi-Mayuko exchanges almost as much as I like the Yorito-Matsuri exchanges. They're very well-developed characters, that's for sure, not your usual two-bit villain cardboard cutouts.
5) Nice switching of the scenes of Takeshi hunting Matsuri, with those of Yorito waiting idly for the next tram. A fairly standard technique for building up the tension, but hey, it works, yes?
The Cons:
1) The end-game of the Takeshi-Matsuri action scenes. The music sounds like something out of an early, pre-FFVII RPG game; NOT suitable for a 2007 anime. The music for the slice-of-life portions were done well, but if they keep up with this sort of stuff for the action scenes, that's a big cut out of the BGM portion of my Final Critique of Sola, for me.
2) I mentioned the date scene being a con as well as a pro, didn't I? Well, here's why; too bleedin' little of it before we're back to the action stuff. Maybe I just got used to the relaxed pace Kanon 2006 took with its development of relationship between characters, but I really would have given this kind of development the whole episode, instead of just half of it.
3) Matsuri hugging Koyori-chan on the stairs. The proportions just don't look right, no matter how I look at it.....the latter just seems too small.
4)
CAUGHT: Animation Error from 09:41-09:42 of the Lunar sub!!! And it's very simple; if Matsuri is standing on the boat, how come she's static while the boat is bobbing up and down on the waves of the lake?!
Nomad is no KyoAni, that's for sure. For one thing, the latter would not have been anywhere near this lazy. Yes, I said lazy. I hardly think this is an oversight as much as it is just the animators not giving a damn.
5) The inconsistency of the Episode 5 action scenes, contrasted with that of Episode 2 & 3. Am I supposed to believe that the light darts lose like 80% of their potency in daytime?! Because it certainly seems that way since Matsuri takes a shitload of light this time around, while she can barely tolerate the power of one dart in Episode 3! And what's the deal with Takeshi freezing once Matsuri grabs his
wrist?!
All in all, I'm forced to do this; give one rating for the first half, and another for the second half.
First half: 9/10
Second half: 5/10
Taking the average, it's a 7/10. And I'm someone who tends to give high scores; therefore, a 7/10 indicates some serious problems here.