[Ascaloth]

“What are the ingredients that go into making a great movie?” – Gary Oldman.

For the final review I will ever give on Sola, I will focus on a number of points, some of which may be divided into subpoints. These points are as follows;

Atmosphere

• Background Music (Elements Garden)
• Art Direction (J.C. Staff)
• Animation (Nomad)

Character Handling

Main Characters

• Shihou Matsuri (Noto Mamiko)
• Morimiya Yorito (Okamoto Nobuhiko)
• Morimiya Aono (Nakahara Mai)

Side Characters

• Ishizuki Mana (Honda Youko)
• Ishizuki Koyori (Shimizu Ai)
• Tsujidou Takeshi (Fujiwara Keiji)
• Kamikawa Mayuko (Kaneda Tomoko)
• Sakura Sae (Koshimizu Ami)

Script

• Storyline Quality
• Pacing
• Internal Consistency

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So there we have it, the basis by which I shall give my review on Sola. Ikuzo!


Atmosphere
”Dramatic lighting!”

A good anime series draws its viewing audience into its own world; to achieve that, it has to set a general mood. To create a certain mood, two things must be achieved; firstly, animation of at least decent quality animation must be present in order not to make the whole thing look too jarring to the viewer's eyes, and secondly, the appropriate set of background music must be selected, in order to convey the general emotions of any particular scene. How did Sola fare on both accounts?

Background Music (Elements Garden)
”A catchy score!”

Spoiler for length:

Apart from one instance where the accompanying BGM for the second Takeshi-Matsuri battle sounded jarringly FFVII-like, it has to be said that the BGM of Sola is one of the better aspects of this series. This is especially so for the piano/guitar pieces that often accompanies the tender Matsuri-Yorito moments; whoever did the compositions for those pieces knows his “mood music”. Which is not to say that the battle BGMs were bad in any way; those too were well-suited whenever they came out, but it is in the “slow” moments of Sola that the uncomplicated, soothing instrumental solos really shined. A wish list of mine is that they would release a piano sheets album of Sola; it is simply that good.

Oh, and “Mellow Melody” and “Sensitive Scenery” by Ceui. How can anyone argue against that?

Rating for Background Music: 9.4/10


Art Direction (J.C. Staff)
“A spectacular location! Or two!”

Spoiler for length:

It can certainly be said that the Sola world boasts a number of nicely detailed settings, each of which adequately captures the respective mood that the various scenes takes place in. The church with its wide open spaces, for example, possessed the proper sense of hollow emptiness which characterizes the inner hollowness of Matsuri’s nomadic life, contrasted with the Morimiya home, which practically radiates a certain coziness and warmth despite Yorito seemingly being the only regular occupant there, characterizing the secure closeness of the “siblings” which was about to be destroyed by chance fate. With light and dark being such an integral part of Sola, each respective setting faithfully portrayed lighting effects according to the mood; the warmth of the restaurant, contrasted with the cold and dark feeling of the railway depot. The cold damp that envelops the city on the Yorito-Aono date. The freedom of being under an open sky. All in all, the Sola world was a thesis into the world of light and dark, and its effects on the atmosphere portrayed at any particular point in time, and J.C. Staff certainly did not disappoint in that regard with their attention to this important detail.

That said, while the art design by J.C. Staff look nice enough, it does looks strangely 2-dimensional, and lacking in depth of perspective; pretty colour palettes and designs, yet apart from the sky shots, the Sola world felt like it was made of cardboard, and the water effects looked like the water was made of some strange gooey substance rather than actual water. Putting aside any comparisons to KyoAni’s works, I felt that the Hantsuki world felt more 3D than the Sola world, and that is only a 6-episode series with clearly less budget put into animation. This strange 2D feeling extends to the character designs and animation too; while pretty enough in their own right, everyone looked like a cardboard cutout, ironic considering that Yorito is the only actual paper doll. As it is, the paper-thin vibes that the construction of the character animations gave out meant that they were somewhat lacking where emoting was concerned; it didn’t entirely destroy some of the better intimate character interactions, but it certainly had some negative effect. And honestly, when the manga design of the Sola world and its inhabitants looks better than the anime design, you know you’ve got a problem there.

To summarize, the Sola world looked okay, but it could have looked better than it does now. One point for the argument that Sola needs a KyoAni remake; an anime with as much potential as Sola started out with, could easily benefit from the artistic detail of Kyoto Animation.

Rating for Art Direction: 7.1/10

Animation (Nomad)
“Special effects!”

Spoiler for length:

Let us first dispense with the obvious; it is not KyoAni kami-sakuga class animation.

That said, Nomad did an acceptable job for a 2007 series, although it was not ground-breaking by any means. While there were isolated instances of inspired animation, like Matsuri dissolving into sparkles of light in the presence of sunlight, Nomad’s efforts were unfortunately characterized much more often by the flaws than the exceptional moments. One of the worst sticking points I have is with the way they animated the water effects; honestly, can anyone animate a scene of a bird hitting the water any worse than they did? The water looked like some thick gooey substance, and the bird was just screaming lazy animation. I mean, what was that supposed to be, an amateur effort at a screensaver?

That aside, it is not the only flaw in their animating that one can find; little details here and there, while not very important when isolated, tends to have a cumulative negative impact on the overall experience. Thankfully then, that the battle sequences were at least competently executed; leaps in logical progression aside, at least they provided some nice eye candy, although they didn’t help the plot so much overall.

Nevertheless, where quality of animation is concerned, Nomad weighs in at about average; not horrificably bad, to be sure, but nowhere near the best in terms of “special effects”, either.

Rating for Animation: 6.8/10

To summarize, while the art design and the animation leaves some room for improvement, the music of Sola makes up quite a bit for it; the result being a package that isn’t quite complete, but a nice experience all the same. Kudos to Fujima Hitoshi, the musical director from Elements Garden, for his elegantly simple solo pieces on the piano, for it is mostly through his efforts that the Sola world retains its unique character.

Overall Rating for Atmosphere: 8.2/10

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Character Handling
”All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players!”

A good setting lays the foundation of the world that the story takes place in; however, the characters themselves set the foundation of the story itself; indeed, the storyline of the entire series rises and falls based on how well each and every character is handled; it's a fine line between making an individual character, or indeed the entire cast, look either dull and uninteresting, or over-the-top and lacking the ability to suspend the disbelief of the audience. So how did Sola fare on this account?

Using the same formula with which I rated the Character Handling of Kanon 2006, I will be rating the performance of the seiyuus as part of the Character Handling criteria of Sola.

Main Characters

Shihou Matsuri (Noto Mamiko)
”Witty one-liners!”

Spoiler for length:

Let’s face it, Matsuri was many people’s initial reason for jumping onto the Sola bandwagon. Cute, witty, and moe as all hell, she stole many hearts with the way she practically oozed cuteness in every thing she did, and her somewhat “unique” way of looking at life; who amongst us subscribes to her belief that anything can be fixed with a good, hard kick?
But more than that, Matsuri started off as one of the most unique female characters ever known in anime; cheerful, optimistic and honest, never missing an opportunity to tease Yorito, and most importantly of all, not a stereotype; not a “soft” girl like the roles Mamiko was known of playing, not a tsundere in any way, but quite simply, she was just who she was; herself. And that, more than anything, is what endeared her to so many of us; by any accounts, it was as good a start for a character as any.

Which is why it is particularly upsetting that Nomad all but screwed her up from Episode 7 onwards; having her become, in the course of one episode, a typical angsty self-blamer so different from what she originally was is just not justifiable in any sense of the word, no matter what reasons she may have for it. Almost no build-up or backstory development at all; how are we supposed to sympathize with her plight, if we’re never given an insight into the reasons for it in the first place? It would have been acceptable had Nomad’s storyboarder spent some time building up the angst, but no…..

What’s worse is the change that came over her, yet again, in Episode 11; what justification could there possibly be for her suddenly deciding that she knows what’s best, out of practically nowhere at all? How is this Matsuri at all related to the Matsuri we knew and loved in the beginning half of the series? Unfortunately, it seemed as if Nomad had decided to shuck character development by the wayside in favour of increasingly-questionable plot twists, and Sola is therefore all the poorer for it. It is a downright pity; Matsuri could have been such a memorable character, yet she devolved into little more than a standard angst-ridden whiner, forgettable in her sameness with many other angst-ridden whiners that have plagued the existence of literature since time immemorial. Kudos then to Noto Mamiko for making the best of what she had to work with; she truly shined in the slow moments of the first half, yet ultimately even she could not save Matsuri from her downward spiral into mediocrity.

Rating for Shihou Matsuri: 6.7/10
Rating for Noto Mamiko: 7.8/10


Morimiya Yorito (Okamoto Nobuhiko)
”Something to shoot it with…and a leading man.”

Spoiler for length:

Again, let us dispense with the obvious; Yorito’s no Yuuichi.

That said, Morimiya Yorito came off at first as a fairly likable, if not particularly outstanding male lead. At least, for the first six episodes of Sola, he wasn’t really a loser; he shows the typical signs of a fairly bland personality in the first half of Sola, true, but at the very least he wasn’t a born loser like so many male anime leads tend to be. Moreover, he had a lot of redeeming value as a character, from his protectiveness of Matsuri to his innate sibling understanding of Aono’s temper. Therefore, though he started off as something of a blank slate, at least it looked like a solid foundation from which something great could have been built.

At least, that is what it seemed like. For like Matsuri, Yorito ended up becoming something that he originally wasn’t; I know that there can’t be many people who could handle well the kind of revelation about themselves that Yorito had to suffer, but honestly, Nomad didn’t handle the transition well at all. His personality just seemed to change completely within the blink of an eye, without enough time spent on handling his transition, and at the end, I could hardly recognize Yorito as the same person who started off as the bland, but otherwise likable sora-baka at the beginning of the series. Again, little to no build-up or backstory at all. Who is this Yorito who ends up moping around about his existence, and gets a sudden urge to commit suicide at the very last moment? Where did all the good points in him go to?

Okamoto does Yorito no favours as well; apart from being steady but not particularly outstanding, his freak-outs are some of the worst examples of screeching I have ever heard, and that’s saying quite a bit. Okamoto is apparently the rookie amongst the seiyuu cast, and he certainly shows it in particular during those scenes.

Even so, I doubt a more accomplished seiyuu could have saved Yorito from what he had become; a character so paper-thin in development that it almost comes off as a delicious irony that he’s little more than a paper doll in the story. Which is a pity, for like Matsuri, Yorito had the potential to be so much more than he eventually became.

Rating for Morimiya Yorito: 6.2/10
Rating for Okamoto Nobuhiko: 6.4/10


Morimiya Aono (Nakahara Mai)
”Unresolved sexual tension.”

Spoiler for length:

Being the secondary poster girl of Sola (after Matsuri), one would think that she would be largely instrumental to the plot. Which is why for some time, many viewers were puzzled by her apparent lack of presence in the early episodes, while Matsuri stole the show for the most part. And therein lies Nomad’s fundamental flaw in their treatment of Aono; to have her languish in an impenetrable Nagato-cloak, leaving her inaccessible to the general audience, while her foil steals the limelight with her cheerfully brilliant personality, means that only the very few can actually care about her in the beginning. Let’s face it; it may work for Yuki in SHnY, but it doesn’t always work, and it sure didn’t work as well as the former did this time. Especially not when there’s someone else in the cast who’s far more lovable; Episode 4 was a step in the right direction where the character development for Aono is concerned, but it’s not enough to concentrate all the initial Aono-Koyori love in one episode; this is the sort of thing that has to be delivered in small but regular doses, not in one whole chunk.

Episode 6 was a step in the right direction though, with finally some long-overdue exploration on Aono’s thoughts; it was a pretty well-executed setting up for the forthcoming rivalry with Matsuri, as well as for the foundation for introducing the heavier content. Episode 7 too was as good as it gets, with finally some real Aono-love afforded to her. If anything, it would be the first episode where the viewers would have a real chance to start loving Aono for who she is.

Unfortunately, as we all know by now, Episode 7 is where everything started going down the drain; instead of the deeper treatment which Aono fully deserved and could plausibly have gotten, she became little more than a Kaede-clone; somewhat better than a Nagato-clone, perhaps, but not by much. Truly, this is where the general lack of character development by Nomad for all the main characters really bit hard; with a deeper insight into the reasons behind the motivations for Aono to go Kaede, she might have become a truly sympathetic character for most of us. As it is, though, how is she any different from your standard cookie-cutter psycho-moe? And that’s not even going into her h@x-level paper-mastery...

Even so, it has to be said that Aono became the most-developed and sympathetic amongst the 3 main characters, though that isn’t saying much to be honest. Nakahara Mai, forced to suppress herself for the large part behind the Nagato-cloak, was finally given the chance to properly emote in the second half, especially in Episode 10 where she beseeched Yorito to be content with what he has; it’s practically the first instance in Sola where I could see for the first time why she had the credentials to be the seiyuu for one of KEY’s trademark female leads, specifically Furukawa Nagisa of CLANNAD. Even so, without a proper development of her backstory, the extent to which the viewers can sympathize with her situation was ultimately limited.

Therefore, Aono may have gotten the best deal in terms of character development amongst the 3 leads, but it’s still not enough for her to be a particularly outstanding character.

Rating for Morimiya Aono: 7.2/10
Rating for Nakahara Mai: 7.8/10


Side Characters
”A great supporting cast!”

Ishizuki Mana (Honda Youko)

Spoiler for length:

For a character who’s ostensibly a supporting character, the objective of her presence mainly to assist in advancing the plot and act as a foil to the male lead, Mana ended up as the best-developed character of the whole series. Granted, this is more a symptom of the otherwise generally lackluster character development on Nomad’s part more than anything particularly outstanding specifically on Mana’s part, but nevertheless Mana is still, IMHO, the best-developed character in Sola. And all this for a normal girl who was merely caught up by chance in a supernatural chain of events involving supernatural beings, undead hunters, and paper golems.

Despite clearly being in over her head, Mana is clearly most admirable for a character of her type, being able to handle all the startling revelations she was subject to, and still acting according to what she thought best. Although her capacity to accept these revelations with seemingly nary a thought seemed unrealistic at times, it has to be said that she is the most consistent character in Sola; always proactive in trying to figure out the situation, always sticking by Yorito and assisting him to the best of her ability, always solid and dependable. And the character development bestowed upon her, in contrast to the three leads, was such a steady progession throughout the entire series, such that her near-confession in Episode 11 felt so natural. And in a series where the execution has been jerky at best and ill-planned at worst, Mana comes as a breath of fresh relief every time she comes on screen. So although the lack of proper character development for the three leads is a stain on Sola, Mana partially makes up for it somewhat with solid consistency in what has been otherwise an inconsistent series. Honda Youko puts in a fine performance here too, delivering some of the most delightful lines of Sola after Mamiko Noto, and generally giving the best performance of all the seiyuus, in my opinion.

Rating for Ishizuki Mana: 8.5/10
Rating for Honda Youko: 8.6/10


Ishizuki Koyori (Shimizu Ai)

Spoiler for length:

The younger Ishizuki sister, and made of every bit of the same excellent stock as Mana-san…


*chop*


Mana: “Oneechan, deshou?!”
Me: “Itai…..sumimase…..”

Ahem…..as I was saying, made of every bit of the same solid, dependable stock as Oneechan, despite her tender years. Which is honestly the only beef I really have with Koyori, if it could even be considered a valid beef; to me, she seems a little young to be fixating on someone of Aono’s age as an irreplaceable friend. It would be somewhat understandable if Koyori was one of those tragic terminal cases with no knowledge of the world outside the hospital, and no other friends, but Koyori clearly wasn’t such a case. Personally, I would have expected a young girl of Koyori’s age to all but forget about the friend she made at hospital once she got out of hospital and made her own friends of the same age at school, which makes her dependence on Aono all the stranger.

Other than that, though, she was every bit as consistent a character as Mana was; except where Mana is the foil for Yorito, Koyori was Aono’s foil, which is too bad since Aono didn’t play off her enough at first. And putting aside her apparent most-loli status amongst the cast, she actually undergoes almost as much character development as Oneechan does, being in the same in-over-her-head situation as the latter. It’s actually pretty touching to see the concern she has for Aono’s well-being, and how she, like Oneechan, tries to do her best to make things right when they go wrong to the best of her ability, despite knowing she’s in over her head. In fact, she actually comes across as one of the most likable characters I’ve ever seen, being one of the rare breed of lolis who can get me to buy her saccharine-sweet personality as a wholesome truthfulness, instead of a Kogami Akira-class manipulation. Granted, a large part of this is because Koyori IS the age she looks instead of being an actual “loli”, but still. Actually, perhaps that IS the reason why they made Koyori the age she is, but still. Shimizu Ai does an excellent job here as well, managing to pull off a certain sadness in Koyori’s voice while still being compatible with Koyori’s apparent age. And seeing how melancholy is so rarely paired with a young voice, it has to be said that Shimizu’s efforts is no mean feat.

In any case, Koyori serves her purpose as well as Oneechan does, and despite having only marginal influence on the main plotline, she truly shines in the slice-of-life segments, bringing out the best in Aono like she was supposed to do as best as she can.

Rating for Ishizuki Koyori: 8.3/10
Rating for Shimizu Ai: 8.5/10


Tsujidou Takeshi (Fujiwara Keiji)

Spoiler for length:

Initially the obvious antagonist of Sola, but probably the only character in the cast whose character development was actually assisted by the many twists in the plot of the series. Yet, because of this, Takeshi became probably the third-best developed character after the Ishizuki sisters. Alternating between a badass-mode and a Yuuichi-mode for the most part of his appearances in Sola, Takeshi was by far the more interesting of the only two male presences in the series. If anything, despite his side-character status, he probably deserved to be a male lead more than Yorito ever did. Kudos to Fujiwara Keiji for his efforts in making Takeshi such an interesting character.

It has to be said that I ended up sympathizing with Takeshi more than I ever did with the three leads; as far as I saw it, the latters’ story was simply a horrible mistake leading up to a domino effect of more and more mistakes, eventually coming full circle. Tragic, to be sure, but it didn’t work with the inadequate treatment of the three leads’ background story, as well as the seemingly illogical decisions all three of them made respectively. What little time was afforded to the building of Takeshi’s background story, on the other hand, was so well-used, it stood out as a beacon of great execution in otherwise mediocre direction; even though

In fact, the presence of Takeshi in Sola could have been a very important one, for it afforded him a position from which he could have greatly influenced how Sola eventually turned out, in the end. There were so many ways Nomad could have made use of him, but alas… he ended up bowing out with Mayuko just before the end, having done little to influence the eventual outcome. What a waste of potential.

Rating for Tsujidou Takeshi: 8.3/10
Rating for Fujiwara Keiji: 8.0/10


Kamikawa Mayuko (Kaneda Tomoko)

Spoiler for length:

I’m rather ambivalent towards her, to be honest. And a large part of this would be that Nomad hardly paid any attention to the Rozen Maiden at all, where her part in the larger scheme of things is limited basically to the latter half of Episode 9. That was when she truly shined with her tale of sorrow, setting up Takeshi’s story at the same time.

While she received nearly no character development at all, I don’t find her as much of a negative point at all, on the other hand; she’s basically a side character after all, and a side character whose main purpose in the storyline is to set up the background story of another side character, at that. And in that particular purpose, she doesn’t exactly disappoint; so if she’s done her job, how can I possibly castigate her for not doing more? Of course, it would have been great if she HAD done more to influence the plot of Sola, but as things stand, I suppose I should be fairly satisfied with what was done with her. Still, because of the rather ambivalent attitude I have towards her as a result of Nomad’s ambivalent attitude towards her character development, I don’t feel like rating Kaneda Tomoko’s voice acting; any rating I could give simply wouldn’t be an accurate measure of her ability.

On the other hand, she does present a unique opportunity for a further exploration of the world of Sola, specifically by telling in more detail the story of how her plight came to be, and her life with Takeshi. I certainly do hope justice is done to her background story in the near future; Takeshi and Mayuko deserve more than what they’ve gotten thus far.

Rating for Kamikawa Mayuko: 7.0/10
Rating for Kaneda Tomoko: N/A


Sakura Sae (Koshimizu Ami)

Spoiler for length:

*edited as per suggestion ~ Ascaloth*

Seriously, she’s just way too distracting, and I mean in the worst sense possible, that I can’t possibly just relegate her to the third tier along with Chisato and Touko, and by so doing ignore her altogether. She is about as fake as Koyori is genuine, and her voice and mannerisms have earned her the dubious distinction of being only the third female anime character I’ve actually ever wanted to punch in the face, the other two being Kogami Akira of Lucky Star, and Fllay Allster of Gundam Seed. Gawd, why did Koshimizu Ami even wanted to take up this role? It’s a disgrace, it is.

If Sakura’s presence is Sola is really nothing more than an in-joke of Nomad’s, I don’t find it funny at all.

Rating for Sakura Sae: 2.3/10
Rating for Koshimizu Ami 1.7/10

In conclusion, while the side characters were portrayed quite nicely in themselves, the fact remains that the plot centres around the main characters....and thus, the viewer is supposed to care mostly for the main characters. However, if the character development of the main characters fails by comparison, how can good handling of the side characters be of any help?

Overall Rating for Character Handling: 6.3/10

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Script
” Love. Intrigue. Conflict. Mystery. Drama.”

A good story; that is what an audience expects, regardless of whether the medium is a book, TV, a movie, or even in this case, an anime. And to get a good story, you need a promising premise, a logical yet appetizing plot, and most importantly of all, inspired direction to make the story really shine amongst its peers. Well then, was Sola the great story we were all hoping for?

Storyline Quality
”An unexpected twist!”

Spoiler for length:

How shall we define the quality of a story? Shall we define it by the unexpected twists that it dumps on us, the audience, leaving us gaping in shock and wonderment as we ponder how we could have not seen it coming earlier? If that is indeed the standard by which one is to judge how good a story is, then indeed, Sola does not disappoint in this regard.

In fact, if anything, Sola’s plot is characterized by the numerous twists where they are least expected; almost right from the very beginning, we are given an indication that all is not as it seems when the first Matsuri-Takeshi battle begins out of nowhere. And from the way the twists kept coming one after the other, it was no wonder that Sola quickly gained a reputation amongst its viewers for being the most unpredictable. Certainly the twists did achieve what they were meant to achieve; to keep its viewers on the edge of their seats, guessing wildly about what is going to happen next, and therefore maintaining a high level of interest. So, if the quality of Sola’s storyline is to be judged based on that criteria alone, it would score really high.

Unfortunately, it’s not.

Because, let’s face it…the true strength of Sola’s story was not in the big picture, but in the quiet slice-of-life scenes, the intimate interactions between the characters. And most unfortunately, the many twists in Sola’s plot meant that the tradeoff was a shortage of these really important scenes, for these are the scenes that endear the characters to the viewers, that allows the viewers to empathize and love the characters for who they are. In short, the “unimportant” slice-of-life portions are what makes the viewers really care for the characters, and as such, the relative lack of such scenes, especially in the second half of the series, was detrimental to the experience as a whole.

As it is, while we’re treated to a respectable dosage of Matsuri-Yorito love in the first half of the series, at the same time it’s rather hard to care about any of the other characters, what with the relative scarcity of insight into the thought processes of the characters that made them behave the way they did. Especially for Matsuri and Yorito, how can we care for them when they started behaving so differently towards the latter part of the series? And Aono; without a full insight on the anguish that she is supposedly feeling about the reappearance of Matsuri, how can anyone see her as anything more than a Kaede-clone, at least in the beginning? And the flashback sequences of the feudal era were too few, too far between, to have much of an impact; granted it was necessary in the beginning to keep the viewers guessing, but at the end, these were still too fragmented to give much insight into the past of the main characters, and by association an insight into their motivations in the present day. This relative scarcity of slice-of-life scenes is Sola’s Achilles’ heel, the fatal weakness that condemned it to being decent instead of the great story it had all the potential to become.

As it is, the storyline of Sola comes across as a bit disjointed, as if it doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. The first half was a nicely done slice-of-life with bits of action thrown in to spice things up, but it seemed as if Nomad lost the plot midway through the series, and turned what could have been a great slice-of-life into a merely decent action flick. And just in case anyone mistakes that for a complement, I have this to say; decent does not do justice to what could have been great. Sola is a story that started off with a great premise, but suffered from poor execution in the end.

Rating for Storyline Quality: 6.4/10

Pacing
”Clear directions!”

Spoiler for length:

Although it is only a 13-episode series, one would think that there should be no issues with pacing; after all, as so many of us has been so eager to remind the others, Nomad does not face the pressures of having to make a “faithful adaptation” to a game like KyoAni did with Kanon 2006. After all, since the anime is coming before the game, that should mean that Nomad faces no expectations from fanboys who demands proper treatment of their favourite heroine, and is free to storyboard the material as they saw fit, to fit it best with the time that they have available to them.

Sad to say, Nomad blew it.

Honestly, the pacing of the story is just not good at all. I initially faced the fragmented treatment of the feudal era flashbacks with an open mind, since I was sure that Nomad was just teasing us with tidbits, and would satisfy us eventually with a coherent summary of the events leading up to the present situation near the end; somewhat like the Summer Arc of AIR (TV). It would have been a good treatment of the material in many ways, laying out the stories behind the main characters, and tying up all the loose ends in preparation for the final few episodes. Unfortunately, it never happened, and all we were left with are fragments that raised more questions than it answered. What happened, Nomad?

That aside, there are so many other instances of pacing problems in Nomad’s treatment of Sola, that I probably can’t recall them all even if I tried. Let’s just go with those that I can remember, then;

- Episode 7 is an example all in itself; I mean, just mentioning that a month has passed in the story’s timeline isn’t adequate treatment. We need to FEEL the time passing, guys.
- Double battle in Episode 9. It’s too much of a stretch of the imagination to believe Matsuri has the stamina to fend off back-to-back battles without taking more damage than she already has.
- Episode 10 & 11, with regards to Yorito. His personality changes WAY too fast; granted, the revelation of his true self is not something that’s easy to take, but it felt like he grew suicidal and pessimistic way too easily, a total 180 degrees turn from what he was before, without the difficulties being explored fully in between. That is not character development, that is character butchering.
- Matsuri as she was in Episodes 12-13, contrasted with how she was in Episodes 7-11, in turn contrasted with how she originally was in Episodes 1-6. Too little rationale to explain why she underwent two such overwhelming personality transformations in so little time; she was hardly the Matsuri almost everyone loved at first, by the end of Sola. If there had been better character development prior to the changes, it would have been fine, but as we all know….
- Nagato-Aono from Episodes 1-6, to Kaede-Aono from Episodes 7-13, with smatterings of dere-Aono in between. Just like the previous two points, too many personality changes in too little time, with inadequate rationale for such drastic changes. Again, lack of viewer empathy due to character development being shafted in favour of action-packed sequences that did little overall to advance the storyline or set the foundations.
- Matsuri’s last minute change in decision at Episode 12. Oh bejesus….
- The fact that Matsuri and Yorito seems to come too quickly to the agreement that they know what’s best, without trying to consult Aono. Jeez, who are these people…? They’re not the Matsuri and Yorito of the first half of the series….
- Aono coming to terms with her fate too quickly in Episode 13. From hysterical to acceptance in less than a minute? Matsuri must be one hell of a miracle-maker, ‘cause that sure as any is a record.

Do I have to say any more? Poor planning by Nomad; at this rate, they’re accumulating so many negatives as a studio from their treatment of Sola, that I’m all but ready to throw them into the “trash” category along with Toei and $unrise. Just how did they produce something like Rozen Maiden anyway, and since I never saw that one, if I may ask; is Rozen Maiden really that good a series, and if so, how did Nomad sink to a low with Sola?

Rating for Pacing: 4.3/10

Internal Consistency

Spoiler for length:

Another one of the bugbears which plagued Sola, and another symptom of poor storyboarding by Nomad. As if trading in excellent slice-of-life for merely decent action and twists was not enough, they also failed to be logical for a large part, large enough to be noticeable, which only mars the experience further. Let’s list them down:

- Matsuri power-leveling. But hey, she wasn’t actually that bad; at least she gives off the vibe of someone who’s merely getting used to her powers, and as yet unable to unleash her full potential…besides, she still gets the crap beaten out of her all the time anyway, so this is almost a non-issue.
- Takeshi power-leveling. Like Matsuri, not too bad at all given his circumstances, although his split-second teleportation trick in Episode 9 begs some stretching of the imagination…
- Aono h@x. Regular exercising of her powers aside, I still find it hard to believe that she can exceed Matsuri’s capabilities by such an exponential amount. I’ll summarize with an AoMM-inspired quote; “I don’t care anymore. Just shoot me. No way Aono has any justification for being so h@x. None. I won’t accept it.”
- Mana. Let’s face it, despite her being my favourite character at the end of Sola, she’s way too much of a saint. Keeping a straight face and casual demeanour even after learning that a girl her classmate is keeping at home is some kind of undead being, learning that said classmate’s oneesan is also the same kind as said girl, and learning that said classmate may be nothing more than just an illusion? She’s just too much of a saint to be believable.
- The roller-coaster changes in the three mains’ personalities throughout the series, particularly from Episode 7 onwards. I could hardly recognize any of the three anymore, by a certain point.
- Yorito coming out of nowhere to take the blow for Matsuri not once, not twice, but as Telliamed counted it, 6 times. Obviously Takeshi must have been taking teleportation lessons from Yorigami..
- Matsuri getting the crap beaten out of her, and still being able to function at almost-optimal levels afterwards regardless. Episode 13 was just the worst of them…and it applies to Aono as well.
- Who was the Yaka who turned Mayuko into one?
- How did Takeshi and Mayuko survive 17 years of wandering without an obvious income? For that matter, how did Matsuri do the same over centuries? But Aono I’ll exclude from this, since she probably has the ability to forge her own currency, after all.

There’s probably quite a few more I could nitpick on, if I were of such a mind. But honestly, I’m not about to make Sola sound worse than it really is, since the inconsistencies actually didn’t mar the experience all that much. At least Yorito doesn’t play the “GSD-defect” games between the two girls the way Asuran does…..wait, didn’t he tell Aono that they should leave the city, just before hooking right back up with Matsuri again? OH SHI-

Rating for Internal Consistency: 6.2/10

To summarize, Sola started off strongly with a strong premise, but managed to squander a large part of that potential through an unfortunate mixture of logical inconsistencies, jerky pacing, and an unbalanced bias for the action side of the equation in contrast to the slice-of-life side. All the blame for this falls solely on the shoulders of Nomad; in their attempt to cram as much as they could in the latter half of the series, they overbalanced and left the latter half of Sola a bit of an unresolved mess. Which is a damned pity, for the first half was really quite excellent.

In conclusion, I’ll recommend Sola Episodes 1-6, but no more than that.

Overall Rating for Script: 5.7/10

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Overall Execution

Overall, I felt that Sola started off with a great premise and a lot of potential, but Nomad’s subpar handling eventually disappointed me. Perhaps the name of Hisaya Naoki inflated my expectations to an unrealistically high level, but the fact remains that I found Sola to fall below my expectations, and thus, it would never be one of my favourites.

Even so though, I still have to say that Sola’s premise still retains its great promise, and hopefully they’re make a better job out of it in the manga and/or the game. Or, God willing, a 24-episode KyoAni remake.

Final Rating for Sola: 6.4/10. Rounded down to: 6/10

”Aaaaaaand cut!” – Gary Oldman

P.S.

Originally Posted by Skyfall

But in the end i am a bit disappointed, because "good" is not doing justice to something that had the potential to be great.

Oh, thy villainy! Thou hast stolen mine line, thy craven cur!!!