sola - Episode 9 Discussion / Poll

[Telliamed]

I really wish I had just skipped the first five minutes of this episode. The fight seemed fake and pointless. No tension at all, something that wasn't lacking in Matsuri's encounters with Takeshi. And could someone please introduce the writers to a little thing called "continuity"? (Episode 8: Matsuri walks outside of the train shed and sees Aono standing on the roof. Episode 9: They're inside the shed and Aono is on top of a train car.)

I'm thinking all that time in the hospital, stuck in a bed and staying awake at night... Aono watched a bit too much Aono. We first see her imitating Nagato Yuki. Then Yomiko Readman. And at the end of the fight, it's Kawasumi Mai.

The emotional highlight for me this week was, in fact, Sae taking an umbrella to Takeshi. What a surprise, considering how much I hated her voice at first. I really like her now. She scored quite a few moe-points for calling Matsuri "Yaka-san".

Originally Posted by arkxkra

ya...any1 noe the translation of episdoe 1 opening song/tis episode insert song?

Music thread.

[monir]

Originally Posted by orion

Spoiler:

I thought that the relationship was a good example for Matsuri to see that you can have a relationship with a human and not cause him/her to hate you. But in the end Mayuko will be alone 'cuz Takeshi will eventually die.

To take this observation to one notch further: when Takeshi dies, Mayuko will truly be alone. Imagine the pain that must bring to Takeshi every time he thinks in that tangent. No wonder he is so motivated to kill an Yaka to restore her humanity.

Originally Posted by Owaranai Destiny

Not even sure if anything like that was mentioned, but people tend to go for the 'root' of misfortunes piled upon them and pull them out forcefully.

In a philosophical sense, yeap... agreed! When Takeshi observes near the end of the episode:

Spoiler for dialogue specific from ep 9:

Takeshi: If her life is taken, it will be possible to bring you back as a human being.
Mayuko: No! I don't want my humanity to be restored at the cost of another life.
Takeshi: Even if so.. EVEN IF SO.. how else will it ever be possible to fulfil your wish!?

From that exchange of dialogues, Takeshi seems to be under the assumption that killing a Yaka can restore Mayuko's humanity. That in itself seems to be an interesting fact which seems to hint at how the show might pull down its curtain. Theory time:

Spoiler for more of monir's melodramatic theories, as Cats puts it ^__^:

This show is heading toward an end where one of these Yakas need to give up their lives to restore the humanity in Matsuri/Aono. Matsuri is the most likely candidate who will be spared from the self-sacrificing bit since Yorito has promised Matsuri to show her that sunny blue sky laden with the patches of gray-white cloud. And, as we know, the only way Matsuri will ever get to be under a sunny sky is by becoming a human.

Oh, how I wish Yorito was a Yaka!

Take that Orion.

Originally Posted by wanderingknight

And a final thought on the kindness/cruelness, it all reminded me of yasashii hitogoroshii (Madlax fans... ).

Kind killers nicely reverberate with what Kct said, "Kindness is probably one of the cruelest forms of cruelty." We are now only missing that piece which will explain the motivation behind Matsuri's kindness. As much as it pains me to admit, I'm also in agreement that horribly voiced Yorito is the root of this drama.

[TougeSil80]

It's sooo cliched, I feel like I watched this ep before. But it's very well done, two big battles in one ep, they must've blew a lot of budget on this ep, I'm impressed with the T vs. M battle. Now I have to wonder, who created Mayuko. If killing the Yaka that created her can turn her back to human, then Matsuri might have a chance if she finds out who created her.

[JediNight]

Wow that striking blow of Takeshi's was pretty hax if you ask me. She bounded to the top of that giant crane in seconds, and somehow he climbed to the top of it in like 10 secs? lol... riiiight.

Good camera direction this episode and such, but overall I can't help but feel that a lot of it didn't need to happen. Why didn't Mayuko say a long time ago that she just wants to be with Takeshi like he used to be.

I wonder what other special things there are related to Yaka if you can create a sword that can't be affected by the magic? I assume it's because the sword is polished to such a sheen? Overall I guess we're not supposed to think about why Takeshi's light stuff can harm a Yaka, but no other artificial light seems able to.

Monir:

Spoiler:

I'm sure Yorito could arrange becoming a Yaka But I think that he would be the most emotionally crippled out of all of them from that happening. His love for the sky and not being able to see it would be a constant knife in his side.

And I suppose that's another possible ending to the show: Yorito gets mortally wounded near the end of the show and gets revived as a Yaka to be with Matsuri. Not sure where that leaves Aono then though, so ...

[felix]

There's a small chance we might get a new character, one that's well non-conformant to the rest~ small chance though.

There's also the issue with Takeshi. What he knows is obviously correct. And so the kill a Yaka to turn another into a human may be true as well. But I have to wonder, how is it that Takeshi-san found all of this out while being all this time with Mayuko. Somethings fishy~

Also if it ever comes to Matsuri or Aono as sacrifice for the other then it's likely it will be Aono to die :'( since she's the one who committed suicide. It's also interesting how this may be a motive to revive someone. As monir nicely put it: "Kindness is probably one of the cruelest forms of cruelty."

Originally Posted by JediNight

Why didn't Mayuko say a long time ago that she just wants to be with Takeshi like he used to be.

Love~ ♥

[Icerack]

Wow that striking blow of Takeshi's was pretty hax if you ask me. She bounded to the top of that giant crane in seconds, and somehow he climbed to the top of it in like 10 secs? lol... riiiight.

It's anime... stuff like that happens.

[Deathkillz]

Originally Posted by Cats

There's a small chance we might get a new character, one that's well non-conformant to the rest~ small chance though.

There's also the issue with Takeshi. What he knows is obviously correct. And so the kill a Yaka to turn another into a human may be true as well. But I have to wonder, how is it that Takeshi-san found all of this out while being all this time with Mayuko. Somethings fishy~

Also if it ever comes to Matsuri or Aono as sacrifice for the other then it's likely it will be Aono to die :'( since she's the one who committed suicide. It's also interesting how this may be a motive to revive someone. As monir nicely put it: "Kindness is probably one of the cruelest forms of cruelty."


Love~ ♥

small chance you say? introducing a new character so near to the end? you need a cookie if that happened (so im saying that theres no way it will happen) ~

takeshi knows what hes doing is correct? i dont think so...imo he is just disillusioned at the truth...mayuko cannot be human again so intead he is fixated with the fact that all he needed was to kill matsuri inorder to keep his promise (which was the only thing keeping mayuko alive) ~ he needed an aim/goal for her to survive living as a yaka...

and yea...aono doesnt get enough love to stay alive >_<

[felix]

Originally Posted by Deathkillz

takeshi knows what hes doing is correct? i dont think so...imo he is just disillusioned at the truth...mayuko cannot be human again so intead he is fixated with the fact that all he needed was to kill matsuri inorder to keep his promise (which was the only thing keeping mayuko alive) ~ he needed an aim/goal for her to survive living as a yaka...

His weapons and knowledge are just too good. I mean a sword that is not effected by yaka-powers WTF?!~
I'm saying his idea is probably not far from the truth. He and Matsuri are probably the closest to the truth about yaka's in the whole show.

[Mueti]

Finally some background...even though it's still not sure (and imo highly improbable) that Matsuri actually was the yaka who did the killing.
I guess Mayuko wouldn't have stopped Takeshi if she wouldn't have gotten to know Matsuri, even though she says that she doesn't want him to take a life in order to restore her humanity as if it was a principle of hers. She could've said so much earlier in that case and would've spared him a lot of trouble.
And the fight between Aono and Matsuri was kinda lame. Takeshi vs Matsuri had a lot more tension and just "felt" better.

Originally Posted by Telliamed

And could someone please introduce the writers to a little thing called "continuity"? (Episode 8: Matsuri walks outside of the train shed and sees Aono standing on the roof. Episode 9: They're inside the shed and Aono is on top of a train car.)

Yes, that was a major continuity flaw, I can't imagine they didn't notice it themselves... oO

Originally Posted by Cats

His weapons and knowledge are just too good. I mean a sword that is not effected by yaka-powers WTF?!~
I'm saying his idea is probably not far from the truth. He and Matsuri are probably the closest to the truth about yaka's in the whole show.

I agree. Takeshi would hardly be so sure about his objective if he didn't at least have some clue. He may not be 100% sure about it but he wouldn't go so madly after Matsuri if it was only a crazy idea of his.

Spoiler for ending speculation:

Matsuri will die (under the morning sun -> Yorito keeps his promis), the revelation that Aono did in fact kill Mayuko and her family will come too late, Aono escapes, Yorito suicides, as does Mayuko after Takeshi's natural death.

[orion]

Tsk, tsk ,tsk. All these gloom and doom predictions when this is not a crying game imo.

Spoiler for ending speculation:

Yorito gets his memory back. It turns out that he is a daywalking yaka. He and Takeshi combine knowledge and Aono, Mayuko and Matsuri become daywalkers. Yorito and Matsuri explain it more clearly to Aono that they are not going to abandon her. Matsuri moves in with Yorito and Aono and they all live happily ever after.

Mayuko and Takeshi move into a house that was for sale in the neighborhood. Sae starts running after Takeshi.

[arkxkra]

if end of story never have a solution to turn back to daywalker from yaka....after takeshi die, mayuko will be lonely(since takeshi already accompany her so long)....i cant even imagine that scene..... >.< ...watching some1 die is a type suffer especially the one you love....

nono...i dont wnt to c anymore sad ending....

[Owaranai Destiny]

Originally Posted by orion

Tsk, tsk ,tsk. All these gloom and doom predictions when this is not a crying game imo.

Spoiler for ending speculation:

Yorito gets his memory back. It turns out that he is a daywalking yaka. He and Takeshi combine knowledge and Aono, Mayuko and Matsuri become daywalkers. Yorito and Matsuri explain it more clearly to Aono that they are not going to abandon her. Matsuri moves in with Yorito and Aono and they all live happily ever after.

Mayuko and Takeshi move into a house that was for sale in the neighborhood. Sae starts running after Takeshi.

Ahh...What I wouldn't give for a happy ending. Thing is, Aono's still seems like a character of tragedy. I'm not saying it isn't possible for her to be happy in the end, but that probably means having to make an 'earth-shaking' decision in her case, something which might make her happier in a way than she realised or in the conventional way for her.

Spoiler:

Conventional: Let's talk sacrifice. What happens if Matsuri decides to go instead. Aono would most probably be sad that Yorito WILL be sorrowful, but in the end she gets to live with her precious Otouto.

Of course, if she disappears instead...Well, it's the most probable option right now, though I would rather Orion's scenario occurring. The only thing that remains is how everything thus far gets resolved.

[Icerack]

Spoiler for speculations:

Originally Posted by orion

Tsk, tsk ,tsk. All these gloom and doom predictions when this is not a crying game imo.

Spoiler for ending speculation:

Yorito gets his memory back. It turns out that he is a daywalking yaka. He and Takeshi combine knowledge and Aono, Mayuko and Matsuri become daywalkers. Yorito and Matsuri explain it more clearly to Aono that they are not going to abandon her. Matsuri moves in with Yorito and Aono and they all live happily ever after.

Mayuko and Takeshi move into a house that was for sale in the neighborhood. Sae starts running after Takeshi.

Assuming that Yorito is the daywalking Yaka, I wonder if Aono deliberately erased his memory on how he was able to become one in order to prevent him from showing Matsuri the sky and thus leading to them getting together.

[Telliamed]

Slow week?

I couldn't help but notice that Matsuri has become involved in a sort of yaka arms race. We first see her super-human abilities in the church at the beginning of episode 2. She gets a running start before leaping through the window, and needs to touch an object for it to decay. It takes only a single flash dart to knock her down.

Next Takeshi attacks her in Yorito's house. She's learned to defeat the darts with her decay ability, not needing to touch them. But she can only handle one at a time.

During her encounter with Aono, she's able to wipe out large numbers of paper projectiles, And she jumps around rather easily. Even though she had been weakened by the stab to her abdomen.

When she fights Takeshi again, she has that wound, plus nearly being killed by Aono, not to mention winded having run from the train stop to the docks. Yet she had no problem doing a standing backflip-and-kick. Then turns around and pulls an Elric on Takeshi. Finally leaps to the top of a large crane where a flash dart only distracts her momentarily.

Anyone get the sense that, as far as the abilities of a yaka are concerned, the writers are making it up as they go along. It doesn't seem to me that there are any rules to what Matsuri can or can't do. Nor does her ability to fight reflect her physical condition.

I'm also not sure if I like the idea of her disintegrating things without touching them. Although being able to stop just a single dart versus dozens of origami paper at once can be explained by the difference in mass

But it bothers me a little that the action-oriented aspects of the show aren't being as well thought-out as the emotional elements. If they were consistent and well executed, I could enjoy the fighting. Instead, it's just distracting to me; I want the fights to end quickly so I can watch more personal interaction. It's like they only scripted it to appease a certain type of viewer: in other words, gratuitous.

[kct]

Spoiler for The fights:

I don't see this fight as something which would be done to please the crowd in any way, rather, as a personification, or a way of showing to what extent the other party would do to eliminate Matsuri.

Remember, the fights grow more intense with every encounter. The first fight we see is just crazy, but the last fight we see between Takeshi and Matsuri, he is hell bent on finishing her off at ll costs (which includes, the 'forbidden attack from the rear').

[felix]

Originally Posted by Icerack

Spoiler for speculations:

Assuming that Yorito is the daywalking Yaka, I wonder if Aono deliberately erased his memory on how he was able to become one in order to prevent him from showing Matsuri the sky and thus leading to them getting together.

Spoiler for Reply:

And supposing so ~ she didn't use that knowledge on herself because........

Originally Posted by Telliamed

Anyone get the sense that, as far as the abilities of a yaka are concerned, the writers are making it up as they go along. It doesn't seem to me that there are any rules to what Matsuri can or can't do. Nor does her ability to fight reflect her physical condition.

But it bothers me a little that the action-oriented aspects of the show aren't being as well thought-out as the emotional elements. If they were consistent and well executed, I could enjoy the fighting. Instead, it's just distracting to me; I want the fights to end quickly so I can watch more personal interaction. It's like they only scripted it to appease a certain type of viewer: in other words, gratuitous.

Well that's fine by me ~ and I think most people that watch the show for the emotional bit like it like it is too.
If I want to see or analyse fights then I'll just go watch some shonen.
I agree with what you said though =)

Originally Posted by Telliamed

I'm also not sure if I like the idea of her disintegrating things without touching them. Although being able to stop just a single dart versus dozens of origami paper at once can be explained by the difference in mass

No, it more the difference in nature,
The paper origami weren't made out of paper.. not normal paper anyway.
Remember she materialised them at will ~

[Boukenxha]

Originally Posted by Telliamed

Anyone get the sense that, as far as the abilities of a yaka are concerned, the writers are making it up as they go along. It doesn't seem to me that there are any rules to what Matsuri can or can't do. Nor does her ability to fight reflect her physical condition.

Yeah I sense that too. The show seems to focus exclusively on the character relationships and their dynamics, while the Yaka physiology is offered but never quite elaborated on the details. This also led me to the same suspicion that they were not fully thought out and perhaps made up as the story progress of some convenience.

Spoiler for ep 9 example:

Just this episode, they throws us this bombshell that is probably the biggest one yet... killing a Yaka to let another return to human is a seriously flawed concept if there are no restrictions in place. Assuming that every Yaka can sire a Yaka just by giving their blood, it will be an exploitable flaw to make a new Yaka and then kill it off to return oneself to a human. Restictions such as a ritual, special way of death such as a fatal blow from Takeshi's sword, or an absolute requirement to kill one's "parent" should be present to make it a balanced concept.

At the moment, we still do not have enough information to be sure if this method is just a myth which Takeshi picked up during his travels. We can only deduce that Takeshi had never gotten so close to killing a Yaka before, else Mayuko would have turned back to human, or he would have found out that it's really a myth or Mayuko would have stopped Takeshi in an earlier time and make her wish known to Takeshi. I'm still giving them the benefit of the doubt that they will try to provide some overdued explanations to this and some other mysteries from previous ep. Likely I'll be a little disappointed if the writer choose to smoke out on the details, but it's something I can try to bear with provided they can deliver on other aspects. Well I just think sola can at the least pull off an enjoyable conclusion based on its other strengths. Sorry sounds like I'm ranting off on my own.

That said, ep 9 showed again what sola is good at, though only for the second part. I shed tears during the Takeshi x Mayuko flashback with binkan na fuukei playing in the back. That part was really poignant and well presented, Takeshi's appearance of anguish and desperation in the fight is still etched in my mind as I type, ditto the scene where small fires start to ignite on Mayuko as she steps into the sunlight.

Originally Posted by JediNight

Good camera direction this episode and such, but overall I can't help but feel that a lot of it didn't need to happen. Why didn't Mayuko say a long time ago that she just wants to be with Takeshi like he used to be.

The cliche reply to that would be that Mayuko has insecurities and is afraid of changes, that Takeshi might leave her if there isn't a reason for him to fight for. But yeah you have a point there.

[PastPrime]

Originally Posted by Manatsu

Quote:
Originally Posted by JediNight
Good camera direction this episode and such, but overall I can't help but feel that a lot of it didn't need to happen. Why didn't Mayuko say a long time ago that she just wants to be with Takeshi like he used to be.




The cliche reply to that would be that Mayuko has insecurities and is afraid of changes, that Takeshi might leave her if there isn't a reason for him to fight for. But yeah you have a point there.

I think that she probably didn't know what he was planning to be able to tell him. It seems that she thought that they were going to talk to Matsuri, not kill her. When she started to get an idea of what he was trying to do was when she ran away and ended up with Matsuri.

[monir]

Originally Posted by JediNight

Good camera direction this episode and such, but overall I can't help but feel that a lot of it didn't need to happen. Why didn't Mayuko say a long time ago that she just wants to be with Takeshi like he used to be.

But Takeshi has always been with her! I think this particular exchange of dialogue makes it clear that Mayuko hasn't known what exactly Takeshi has been up to. She knows that he is looking for someone, but she didn't seem to have the answer behind the question "why he is looking for another Yaka?" until now. In this scene Mayuko seems to be assuring Takeshi that he doesn't need to burden himself to the extent where he is ready to take another life to restore Mayuko's, and reminds him that having him by her side is enough. Besides, Takeshi is risking his life too. If Takeshi's target Yaka was Aono instead of Matsuri, I'm sure Aono wouldn't have been so accommodating at taking so much beating from someone who is so intent on killing her.

Monir:

Spoiler:

I'm sure Yorito could arrange becoming a Yaka

Are you hinting that... oh man.. I'll cookie you out of sheer joy if Yorito is bummed off. I'm hoping Matsuri has saved that piece of glass to return the favor to Yorito.

Spoiler:

But I think that he would be the most emotionally crippled out of all of them from that happening. His love for the sky and not being able to see it would be a constant knife in his side.

Fortunately, my loathing for his character doesn't allow me much sympathy for his would-be emotional state if he is turned into a Yaka. I just want to see him suffer a terrible terrible death, preferably by an injury that happens somewhere in the region of the vocal chord, for being voiced by this awful VA.

Spoiler:

And I suppose that's another possible ending to the show: Yorito gets mortally wounded near the end of the show and gets revived as a Yaka to be with Matsuri. Not sure where that leaves Aono then though, so ...

Yes.. it isn't looking very good for Aono in any outcome, let it be a sad ending or a happy one.

Originally Posted by Cats

As monir nicely put it: "Kindness is probably one of the cruelest forms of cruelty."

While I really would like to take the credit for the quoted sentence, it's Kct who said it first.

[felix]

Originally Posted by ppbonbon

WHERE CAN I WATCH EPISODE 9 OF SOLA ONLINE?? I CAN'T FIND IT ANYWHERE!

You are not allowed to ask us where to find RAWs, sorry