sola - Episode 7 Discussion / Poll

[FreedomMS]

most probably Mana will find out that Aono is a yaka since Aono gave quite a number of hint.. and after watching this.. the chances that Aono revive yorito with her power so she is hospitalize or is a doll created by Aono or is a Clone or recarnation since after Aono go seed mode u can see that yorito has gone seed mode as well. So most probably Aono is controlling yorito action

[Sorrow-K]

Lazy man's spoiler tags: this post has spoilers.

These characters desperately need the following three things: background, background and background. And maybe a bit of background to go with that.

Anyway, I still argue that the characterization in this series is weak, and until the situation with total lack of background is changed, that's how I'll continue to call it (but, given the fact that background will almost certainly be instrumental to the plot, they'd be totally retarded not to deal with it). Nonetheless, this was an interesting, if highly melodramatic episode. As people have mentioned, Aono's case of the stabs is immediately reminiscent of Shuffle's Kaede, with the exception that she actually got background before she went off her case. Aono just happened suddenly, out of the blue, seemingly for almost no reason (past mad jealousy, which I don't buy... there has to be something more to this). Which is why I think there's a chance that

Spoiler for really out-there theory, but bare with me:

Aono isn't responsible for Yorito stabbing Matsuri at all. There are things that don't add up here: the church crumbling so quickly, Matsuri taking care of Mayuko and then the stabs. But the biggest question mark I have are around Matsuri's comments early on in the piece... something along the lines of Yorito shouldn't get close to her. Matsuri knew that if Yorito hung around her long enough some harm (physical or emotional) would come to him. Did Matsuri know that Aono's jealousy would drive her to break them apart? Or, was it Matsuri who somehow forced Yorito to stab her, possibly somehow outside of Matsuri's conscious or normal control.

The flip side is that we may already have the complete story already, but I'd consider that both unlikely and insulting to the audience, since it'd leave us with flat characters, black-and-white motivations and a simplistic, melodramatic story with an obvious antagonist and predictable resolution. Hell, the fact that Aono has been compared to Kaede should make people realize that this is either an overly simplistic story, or we haven't seen the whole picture as of yet (and hopefully the latter is true). They have some six episodes to give these characters background and fill in all the plot-holes and I'd be incredibly disappointed if they didn't. Although, with that said, understanding the fervour for this series still eludes me. I mean, it's a decent story, but it feels like I've seen a hundred that are better....

[felix]

Yorito is broken =(
Considering how he reacts, that's not love or affection, compation or kindness thats just cold hearted obsesion and lust.
Yorito's a stalker, if something were to happen to him then I would probably feel sorry just because all the other characters would be sad. I wonder, if not for the Aono element, would Yorito really have acted in kind? =(

The Kayori scenes were so win this episode. Koyori is a good girl.. yup yup. =]

PastPrime who's Mayuko.. I've never heard the name. Is that the little girl?.. when did Mana meet her?.. when was her name mentioned?

[FreedomMS]

Originally Posted by Cats

Yorito is broken =(
Considering how he reacts, that's not love or affection, compation or kindness thats just cold hearted obsesion and lust.
Yorito's a stalker, if something were to happen to him then I would probably feel sorry just because all the other characters would be sad. I wonder, if not for the Aono element, would Yorito really have acted in kind? =(

The Kayori scenes were so win this episode. Koyori is a good girl.. yup yup. =]

PastPrime who's Mayuko.. I've never heard the name. Is that the little girl?.. when did Mana meet her?.. when was her name mentioned?

remember that mana work in a restaurant? mayuko went there and eat everyday mayuko is that little girl

[Anacone]

Does it really need to be more than very deep bond between Aono and Yorito that they had in past ? Sure non-blood relationship opens one (cliche?) possibility to the story, but I believe that relationship between family members (flesh and blood...or not) can be so deep, that it's even possible to shake your mind, if something happens to family member. (as a bad example movie Psycho )

One small thing to reminds me that it's possible that Aono is not possessive and she's just protective, is the fact that she haven't shown any sign of jealousy against Mana. I'm thinking her going "seed mode" is connected with the fact that we can be quite sure, that Yorito's death had to do something with him trying to cure Matsuri. Maybe in past there were Yaka hunters too and one of these hunters killed him (too simple though) or something just happened when he was trying to find or get cure...

So when things are looking too similar nowadays and because of Yorito in past died by trying to cure Matsuri. Aono does everything to protect their new just began "life" by one way she can...heh...to just notice in next ep that Yorito brings Matsuri and another Yaka to home . And there's still one hunter... and maybe more...

[orion]

Of course, the third possibility is...

Spoiler:

Yorito is a daywalker. He actually did find a way for Yaka to see the sky. Yorito got mad, lost control, went SEED and stabbed Matsuri without any input from Aono. This could also be why Matsuri didn't want him to come near her. She probably just thinks that he's under Aono's control and Aono isn't about to enlighten her.

I also find it suspicious that there aren't any male Yaka so far. There are usually male and female demons.

Aono's hospital stay was because she attempted to seal Yorito's memories and powers and not revive Yorito.

You really can't call Yorito a stalker for holding onto that promise. It worked for Kanon after all. Isn't one of the creators for this the guy who worked on Ayu's scenario?

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by Anacone

One small thing to reminds me that it's possible that Aono is not possessive and she's just protective, is the fact that she haven't shown any sign of jealousy against Mana. I'm thinking her going "seed mode" is connected with the fact that we can be quite sure, that Yorito's death had to do something with him trying to cure Matsuri. Maybe in past there were Yaka hunters too and one of these hunters killed him (too simple though) or something just happened when he was trying to find or get cure...

I am pretty certain it is 100% jealousy on her part. Aono is seeking attention from Yorito - it is as clear as day. Why not Mana ? Well, Yorito met Mana only 3 months ago, while his connection to Matsuri lasts for centuries. In a way, Matsuri probably "took Yorito away" in the past from Aono's perspective, and she fears it happening again. Though it is too late anyway now - Yorito's head is filled with 2 things: Matsuri and Sky (because of Matsuri and his past connection to her).

Aono looked like she needs a therapy, and a heavy duty one. There is one person for Yorito who is above Aono - Matsuri.

No doubt, if asked why she wants Matsuri away she could give the reason you stated as the justification, but that would hold as much water as the reason Matsuri gave Yorito about her leaving. (The speech of Yakas having to live alone and stuff).

Originally Posted by Sorrow-K

These characters desperately need the following three things: background, background and background. And maybe a bit of background to go with that.

Anyway, I still argue that the characterization in this series is weak, and until the situation with total lack of background is changed, that's how I'll continue to call it (but, given the fact that background will almost certainly be instrumental to the plot, they'd be totally retarded not to deal with it). Nonetheless, this was an interesting, if highly melodramatic episode. As people have mentioned, Aono's case of the stabs is immediately reminiscent of Shuffle's Kaede, with the exception that she actually got background before she went off her case. Aono just happened suddenly, out of the blue, seemingly for almost no reason (past mad jealousy, which I don't buy... there has to be something more to this).

Almost all of the mystery in the series rests on the character backgrounds. We have barely passed the halfway point, so it is far too soon to be crying because we are not getting background information Really, all of the characters are mysteries, Yorito being the biggest one of them. Only person's background they could explore without revealing some mysteries prematurely is Mana, but i doubt many of us are interested in that

Basically: wait and see. The whole mystery rests on the characters and their past, so it is understandable why they are slowly feeding us a few bits and chopped flashbacks only.

Originally Posted by Sorrow-K

Hell, the fact that Aono has been compared to Kaede should make people realize that this is either an overly simplistic story, or we haven't seen the whole picture as of yet (and hopefully the latter is true).

Eh... you should know very well that comparing a character to Kaede has nothing to do with story depth, but simply with the fact that one character goes "psycho". Using "going Kaede" has been the replacement for the word "psycho" for a good while now, hasn't it ?

Originally Posted by Sorrow-K

Although, with that said, understanding the fervour for this series still eludes me. I mean, it's a decent story, but it feels like I've seen a hundred that are better....

*shrug* for some reason, this series manages to capture my attention like nothing in a good while. This is my no1 pick of the season, and i fully enjoy the atmosphere, and the character interactions.

But hey - tastes differ, and i have come to notice that mine and yours are extremely different when it comes down to what we consider great animes

On a side note: Aono must burn!. Muahahaha! *cough* ... damn, need to work on my evil laugh...

[Anacone]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

I am pretty certain it is 100% jealousy on her part. Aono is seeking attention from Yorito - it is as clear as day. Why not Mana ? Well, Yorito met Mana only 3 months ago, while his connection to Matsuri lasts for centuries. In a way, Matsuri probably "took Yorito away" in the past from Aono's perspective, and she fears it happening again. Though it is too late anyway now - Yorito's head is filled with 2 things: Matsuri and Sky (because of Matsuri and his past connection to her).

I was wrong by using "just protective", because there's always possibility jealousy to come around...but is it because Aono has romantic feelings or not, or she just scared that her beloved brother may die again and one who was partly faulty in past was Matsuri. I say what I didn't said yet that I feel it's more like hatred than jealousy although these two things are often together. Sure thing...dying for someone, is some way looking taking away too.

There's no jealousy against Mana because she haven't killed Aonos brother maybe Aono may even give Mana a chance ... I may again be so wrong that ...

[orion]

There's no jealousy towards Mana because she has flat out said that she's not interested in him. He's also said not interested in Mana.

[Areguzanda]

ooooooooookey....
anyone...just anyone at all...
what the heck just happend?!?!?
MATSURI!!! NOOOOO!!!
AONO!! DIE DIE DIE!!
please someone make a "we-hate-Aono-club" and I'll pay to be a member!!

Sola is really wrecking my nerves.....
why do they do this to me?!?!
and Matsuri hurt...

really..I need to get drunk and forget it all until next eisode or my mind will go ballistic!

and just to finish things of... wtf???

[Anacone]

Originally Posted by orion

There's no jealousy towards Mana because she has flat out said that she's not interested in him. He's also said not interested in Mana.

Have they told that to Aono? Are you really believing what they said?
I wouldn't be so sure about that though . What we saw in the end of third ep, I thought they weren't just admitting it... yes...yes... no clues for us too . I would say that if there wouldn't be Matsuri or even Aono around, friendship might grow something bigger... ok..ok.. 3 months is enough to bring relationship to next level, but still...

[Ascaloth]

Watched the Lunar fansub of Sola 07.....holy shit.

Er...let's see now. Damned, I don't know what to think. Well anyway, gotta start from somewhere, so let's start from the fact that Yorito really scared me this time round, and I'm not even talking about what happened at the end. It's not just poor Koyori-chan who got spooked; as it is, if I didn't know better, I would have found it weird that Aono didn't get spooked too. On the other hand, at least now I have just that bit more respect for the guy; at least he angers like any decent male character should, and is not just a doormat who would only end up being a blemish on an otherwise excellent story. Props to Nobuhiko-san for emoting that blew away what little expectations I had of him; I'll have to make a note to rate him higher for seiyuu performance than I originally intended for the Sola Final Critique.

And some of the background animation for this episode, especially the sequence from 06:17-06:21, almost reaches KyoAni levels of "living world" sakuga quality, and that's going to go a long way in placating my criticisms for their laziness in proper animating for previous episodes. Of course, Nomad will never receive the same kind of praise for sakuga quality that I reserve for KyoAni until the day they figure out how to fine tune the little details like KyoAni does, such as making the bird hitting the water look real enough, of course.

So, on to the meat. Unfortunately, I'm not giving this one the perfect score of the previous episode; I simply don't feel comfortable when the time span of a month flies by within an episode. Putting aside the fact that the game is scheduled to come out AFTER this series ends, let's work from an alternative universe where this Sola anime is an adaptation that comes out after the game; in such a case, Aono supporters would be crying foul over the supposed shafting of their heroine, in the type of phenomenon best exemplified by the Kitto Kitto Kaede movement, and the Nayuki Fanboys movement. Indeed, I can't help but feel like giving just one episode dedicated to AonoXYorito is going to hurt her in the long run, and compared with the many MatsuriXYorito episodes afforded, the relationship links between Aono and Yorito just don't have enough time to establish themselves to make it really count.

This means that, for me, the pace just spiked way up, leaving me off-balance; this is the kind of episode that I'd say deserves two episodes' worth of time instead. I'd have liked to see more time spent on the simple things between Aono and Yorito, just like for Matsuri and Yorito before them. Granted, they did have some of that in the earlier Sola episodes, in the subtle form of the doll-play that they engaged in, but given that Yorito is someone who is supposed to be reeling from Matsuri's desertion, seeing him going on a date with Aono in the very next episode without the "buffer time" that I expected makes Aizawa Yuuichi look like a gentleman.

And Sae's voice just creeps me out; I've yet to hear anyone talk in real life with such a spine-chilling drawl. Maybe that kind of drawl fits on a British lady, but not on a Japanese teenager. So she breaks the usual stereotype of ponkotsu-pitch schoolgirls; big deal, at least sound authentic! >_<

However, despite everything I didn't like about this episode, it's not enough to make me vote lower than a 9 for this one. After all, if I didn't like the pace for the way it rushed through the AonoXYorito scenes, at least it worked well as a buildup to a continuation of the mind$%&# that started in the previous episode, and it does serve to push the plot forward. Which may be more important than it seems, considering we only have 5 episodes of airtime left to wrap up the many loose ends still hanging around.

Lighter thoughts:

1) Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Friday.

2) I wonder why Aono doesn't hunger to see the sky as Matsuri does....maybe the present-Yorito was originally taking the sky pictures for Aono, in his own possibly-changed memories, instead of just simply being a mere hobby for himself? Maybe he was originally taking him for his Nee-san, before Matsuri came along...just a thought.

3) 11:30-11:36,

Yorito: "Don't just come here for breakfast everyday because of that."

Excuse me? The girl cooked for you almost every day for three months, and this is the kind of thanks you give her when your own Nee-san decides to repay the favour?

4) Is there someone keeping count of how many times Koyori has gotten Mai-chopped so far?

5) Yorito mentions the promise he made to Aono that he'll take her out for a date "this afternoon", and sure enough, it rains. Do Yakas have the ability to predict the weather, or something?

Of course, it could simply be that Aono read the weather reports, but since we know a weatherman can be wrong 90% of the time and still keep his job...

6) What divine force landed on the church?!

7) Is "Yaka" a common name for Japanese women? Or is it just Sae being her usual dopey self?

Originally Posted by Skyfall

Almost all of the mystery in the series rests on the character backgrounds. We have barely passed the halfway point, so it is far too soon to be crying because we are not getting background information Really, all of the characters are mysteries, Yorito being the biggest one of them. Only person's background they could explore without revealing some mysteries prematurely is Mana, but i doubt many of us are interested in that

Basically: wait and see. The whole mystery rests on the characters and their past, so it is understandable why they are slowly feeding us a few bits and chopped flashbacks only.

I wouldn't be so quick to pass judgement on Mana, Sora-san.
Given how much this series has *ahem*ed around with us already, I almost think I wouldn't be surprised if it throws us a Mana curveball at some point or other.

[orion]

Technically, they have 8 episodes to fill in the blanks, 6 broadcast and 2 DVD only.

[Ascaloth]

Originally Posted by orion

Technically, they have 8 episodes to fill in the blanks, 6 broadcast and 2 DVD only.

I wouldn't think too much about the extra 2 episodes; decency demands that they take no more importance in the overall storyline than the AIR in Summer OVAs for AIR (TV). By which I mean that if the real endings are in these two episodes, someone is going to go .

[PastPrime]

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

6) What divine force landed on the church?!

Given that each time they showed it some more was gone, I would assume that it was just a normal demolition. If not using esplosives, you start at the top and work down.

[Kensuke]

There are times when I'm very happy that I don't read these threads until I have seen the episode. Talk about I didn't see that coming... If this keeps up who knows what will come in the second half of this series?

I just hope that the there isn't any "reset buttons" in this series, if Matsuri just heals herself and Yorito doesn't remember a thing... there are no words how disappointed I would be. So come on, I want some drama!

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

6) What divine force landed on the church?!

I think they are just taking the church down.
Edit: like PastPrime said.

[Ascaloth]

Originally Posted by PastPrime

Given that each time they showed it some more was gone, I would assume that it was just a normal demolition. If not using esplosives, you start at the top and work down.

Oh, right; I forgot that a week has passed by at that point in the episode. Silly me.

[felix]

Originally Posted by Areguzanda

ooooooooookey....
anyone...just anyone at all...
what the heck just happend?!?!?
MATSURI!!! NOOOOO!!!
AONO!! DIE DIE DIE!!
please someone make a "we-hate-Aono-club" and I'll pay to be a member!!

Really and what did Aono do. Besides bring back her brother. It's obvious that Matsuri didn't just accidentally end up in that shop. I think she is a little to blame. And Yorito isn't exactly the angel of the story.

In all of this what did exactly Aono do. I'm sure you presume that Aono is the one that lost it, but could it be it's Yorito that lost it. We all know Aono is powerful but really to be that powerful to know this and that from kilometers away is a little of a stretch. After all she didn't know this and that when she was in the hospital. I say Yorito lost it, and Aono suffered the effect. =P

----
But lets presume she did loose it. Can you blame her?

[Kaoru Chujo]

1. Church demolition. I think a month had passed by the time it had turned into bare ground. In the next scene, with Sae, Mana thinks to herself that a month has passed since Matsuri left.

2. I think Koshimizu Ami is doing a fabulous job with Sae. In a few seconds an episode, she makes a compelling character. That slow voice isn't mature, it's loopy and fey.

3. Because of the way their eyes went, I think it's pretty certain that Aono was controlling Takito at the end, possibly unconsciously, but probably consciously.

4. I disagree with Ascaloth in that I think this ep was even better than the last one, but I agree that the time lapse was not that well handled. I think a time lapse within an episode is okay, but just mentioning it in passing is clearly not enough to make us feel it.

5. I think that Aono has her own version of longing for the sky. She was so poetic, looking out over the city from the high ground.

6. I can't blame Matsuri yet for "appearing before" Yorito and Aono, despite her promise. She was staying in that city because of Mayuko, it appears. I believe that Mayuko will repay the favor by reviving her from the dead, perhaps as she did Mayuko before, when Mayuko and her family were killed (?, by Aono?).

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

I wouldn't be so quick to pass judgement on Mana, Sora-san.
Given how much this series has *ahem*ed around with us already, I almost think I wouldn't be surprised if it throws us a Mana curveball at some point or other.

Hehe, believe it or not - i considered that angle as well But i really doubt that Mana will be anything special. We need one normal person in the show Then again... my accuracy with predictions hasn't been as low as it is with Sola since.... forever, so who knows

Crazy thought: Since we are speculating that Aono created Yorito 3 months ago, how about this: She "created" Mana as well, as a person who would look after Yorito while she was in hospital

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

2) I wonder why Aono doesn't hunger to see the sky as Matsuri does....maybe the present-Yorito was originally taking the sky pictures for Aono, in his own possibly-changed memories, instead of just simply being a mere hobby for himself? Maybe he was originally taking him for his Nee-san, before Matsuri came along...just a thought.

Doubt it - Aono wasn't exactly pleased when Yorito was more interested with taking the pictures of sky instead of spending time with her in the hospital. Most likely his obsession with the sky comes from his past desire to show the sky to Matsuri.

Originally Posted by Cats

But lets presume she did loose it. Can you blame her?

Watch me

*pulls out a sunlight-imbued axe while laughing Maniacally and orders a plane ticket to Japan*

Just like Yorito's feelings for Matsuri remains unchanged despite the flow of time and possibly death, so shall my dislike for this little demon...