[Archon_Wing]

I found out about Sola after one of my friends from AS, Triple_R, reviewed it. I checked it out and found out it's from the writer of Kanon so I expected some random antics and moe girl antics. That didn't really disappoint here for the most part, I'd think.

Visuals: 8/10 It looks good for the most part; mostly the backgrounds but damn, you could probably take someone's eyes out with those chins. The lighting was pretty good, and night scenes are cool! The animation is ok, not particularly good compared to the art, but not bad either.

Audio: 7/10

Spoiler:

The OP to Sola "Colorless Wind" is an excellent tune to say the least. Both the OP and ED fit the show well which automatically puts it above most anime songs. They do the job very well.

I'm not too impressed with the BGM, as I feel like there wasn't much and it seemed I'd hear the same ones over and over again. But the battle ones did amuse me and deserves a mention. It does its work mostly but nothing special.

The voice acting... well there's Mamiko Noto and she certainly made Matsuri come to life very well. Yoko Honda and Ai Shizumu also did a great job with Mana and Koyori; voice suits very well. Yorito... well, enough has been said about that.

For the most part, Sola's audio aspects are competently handled.

Plot and Execution: 5/10

Spoiler:

The sky, the sky, the sky. Sola seems to exhibit an issue with many a half season anime... it starts really slow and then doesn't have time to do the rest. It starts out really slow, and suddenly when everyone's happy and enjoying life we suddenly get a huge wham episode and shit hits the fan. It's completely unfathomable to have a sudden 360 degree turn in events and I just get the feeling that plot twists are there just for the hell of it. That being said, I ended up enjoying the first half more, as I grew increasingly disconnected with characters and events in the second half. The magical plot device sword was also probably the worst example of this and a fairly weak way to intertwine Mayuko and Takeshi with the main story.

Also, the anime seems to have a real difficult time with consistency and continuity. I had to keep double checking if I was on the right episode and I had skipped any. Scene to scene transition was erratic and all over the place. It just couldn't sit still.

There are certain instances where this actually works, like when we're going back to look at people's memories. The way the parts actually came together, piece by piece really did work out.

Sola is strongest at the beginning and near the end. It's strongest at the beginning due to introduction of Matsuri and the hints left around with what's going around the world. It's subtle and while extremely slow, still managed to hold interest. For the most part, it did a good job of showing the characters going about their daily lives and getting to know each other a little bit at a time. The romantic stuff that Yorito and Matsuri is actually quite a step up from what you regularly see in anime; while there are antics, you'd actually get the feeling that something is actually happening.

As for the ending; well, the path to the ending was a pretty big mess but I felt like it concluded the story properly-- the central conflict in the story was simply that the current situation wasn't sustainable; it was all fake and imprisoning everyone involved. Aono is never gonna let go of Yorito, and Matsuri's just very tired of all of this. Naturally there were very explosive and personal emotions involved and finally everyone could be true to themselves. Although it is a very bittersweet ending, I think it worked out fine. I also liked the subtle effects in everyone else after the memory wipe.

Sola's plot is quite the mess, but it does work for the beginning and the end, even with plotholes ahoy.

Characters: 8/10

Spoiler:

Yorito is pretty much your average dull male protagonist guy; with an unhealthy obsession towards the sky that makes him pretty annoying, until you find out his true nature instead; it makes a little sense. I really wished they would have done more for him than have him constantly talking about the sky.

The real result is this story seems to actually be more about Matsuri and Aono. Yorito's really just kinda there. The two girls have much more established motivations and feelings.

Matsuri's a good character for the most part. She takes some of the best elements of moe, but remains playful, charming, and teasing. She's an excellent example of how moe should be handled; it doesn't always have to be a constantly quirky character defined by that quirk. The best aspect of her character is that she's independent and often does what she feels like.

But this same aspect actually leads to the darker part of her character.

She's also reckless and time and again she does things without thinking on a whim. And that has resulted in many people hurt; the worst case being her turning Aono into a Yaka. The same energetic and well meaning person has caused quite a bit of trouble running around and doing as she pleases. And over the years, her playful exterior becomes merely a shield; she's running away from responsibility. Being immortal, she can't run away from these things; they'll haunt her forever.

And keeping this in mind allows you to figure out why she is the way she is, and why she ultimately did what she did. Indeed, her actions at the end were drastic and rash, but that's just how she is. So she's not just moe-bait, she's a very tragic character.

Aono is not that complex of a character, but the conflict becomes pretty easy to figure out. Like Matsuri, she's a character that's very tired of all this, but since she didn't want any of this, she's extremely bitter about it. Unlike Matsuri, she went off with it in a really bitter way and refused to move on; her creation of fake Yorito is her attempt at running away from her problems.

Now, I think the only weakness that Nomad did with her was that her change into yandere mode was a bit too fast. It's not unlikely that she'd become really pissed at Matsuri, but her character just devolved way too quickly as if we just happened to need an antagonist. This weakens her spot as a strong character a little more than it really should have.

Mana and Koyori are excellent supporting characters. They were pretty much the most reliable people you could count on to those that were losing it; and they proved themselves true friends to the very end. It was probably the most heart wrenching part of the anime near the end as they desperately tried to cling on to their disappearing friends without any chance of it working.

They served an important role as the sensible people; with all the craziness that happened in the 2nd half, you could still rely on them. And while they aren't the most important people in this story, they are probably the easiest to relate to. And with the way they kept sanity among the leads; they could have effectively be considered the real heroes of the story.

Mayuko and Takeshi-- Umm, well, episode 9 was definitely their highlight. It seems odd that their romance seems to have more depth than the main one. I saw a stronger relationship in 15 minutes than between Yorito and Matsuri. I just kinda get the feeling they were in the wrong show; but nonetheless they were effective when they appeared though the connections could be better. I guess they were trying to go for some love parallel kind of thing.

Sola's characters are quite well written, though some decisions in the 2nd half leave much to be desired. It's quite odd that the relations between the characters are so well defined except with Yorito and Aono/Matsuri. Certainly, not every story demands a strong romance aspect, but the lack of depth in one of the leads always causes problems. Fortunately, the strong supporting cast can and will cover for these shortcomings; and indeed it is through their actions that we could get a better ending

Enjoyment: 8/10 As I've said earlier, I preferred the first half and the silly antics in there better. The plot twists in the latter off didn't impress me very much, but the characters were usually just good enough to save certain parts. And like I've said above, Mana and Koyori really saved the show for me; and they are the ones that generated the most emotional moments near the end. That being said, the part where Aono and Yorito are picking dolls, and Aono sarcastically points to the old guy made me really lol. And of course Matsuri is fun to watch.

Overall: 7/10 mostly an average anime that merely worked but it pulled together some stuff that makes it into a good show. I felt like they really missed out a lot of potential things, but hey, it was worth the time.