Sola Episode 3 Summary:

While Yorito prepares to head out for school, he tells Matsuri to not do anything to the appliances around the house and to just behave herself. On his way out, Mana appears in front of his house. He tries his best to keep her from seeing Matsuri. He fails, but Matsuri herself kept away from view and watches the two walk off to school from upstairs.

At the hospital, Yorito presents Aono with another doll, but she rejects it. Koyori tries to make Yorito feel better, but he tells her it’s okay. He decides to leave immediately, and his sister is unhappy about his decision. Outside the hospital, Mana suspects that Yorito is hiding something as he is acting weird.

At the diner Mana works at, the man and Mayuko again are eating there. They talk about what their next move will be. Mana serves them their food and assumes that the two are a daughter/father combo, at the surprise of the man. Mayuko tells her it’s something like that. She continues to embarrass him. Mana’s co-worker has an infatuation with the man. Mana leaves early for work claiming having something to do.

Matsuri shows Yorito a table full of instant avocado-flavored ramen bowls. She bought them while they were on sale, but Yorito doesn’t believe they are edible. Yorito is still worried about Matsuri getting into trouble with what happened at the church. Matsuri tries some of the ramen and realizes how bad the ramen tastes. The door bell rings and Matsuri goes to open it. Yorito stops her and answers the door himself and finds Mana at the door. She’s there to cook him some dinner.

Yorito doesn’t want Mana going in, but she forces herself into the house anyway. She heads straight to the kitchen and finds all the ramen bowls. She starts preparing dinner while Matsuri upstairs wonders if Mana is Yorito’s girlfriend. Mana notices all the seasoning and spices are all gone, so she sends him off to get some. While Yorito heads off, Mana starts looking around the house to see what Yorito’s been hiding, but she finds nothing. When she goes back downstairs, she finds Matsuri eating some of the vegetables in the kitchen and they introduce themselves.

Matsuri and Mana strike up a discussion while waiting for Yorito to return. After he returns and the three are eating, Yorito is pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place. Mana requests that Yorito explain everything that’s going on. He starts making up more lies, and eventually gives up and just tells Mana that he found her outside and she looked hungry, so he let her stay. Mana accepts that explanation and they continue eating dinner.

Mana continues to grill Yorito on why he didn’t tell her from the start. Yorito admits that he didn’t want his sister to know about Matsuri. Mana tells Yorito she won’t tell anyone else about Matsuri and accepts Matsuri. Matsuri heads out of the room, and when Mana goes to talk to her some more, she cannot find Matsuri and is led to believe that she ran off. Yorito tells Mana she’ll be back, but Mana talks Yorito into thinking Matsuri actually ran away. As they are about to run out to look for her, they find her at the door with a bundle of items on her back. She explains she went to get her stuff.

Sola Episode 3 Review:

Another fabulous episode of Sola. This time, it’s all about introducing Mana to Matsuri, albeit in a non-traditional manner. This episode leaned more towards the comic relief side than it did on the serious side. Such moments included Yorito talking about how Matsuri broke a number of appliances in his house from her strategy of using aggression to get things to work. Matsuri, of course, continues to be as care-free as ever as she just smiles and not worry about life.

It would seem this time that this episode took a page out of School Rumble, as misunderstanding after misunderstanding pile on between Yorito and Mana. Well, the odds were stacked against Yorito and though I didn’t expect the meeting between Mana and Matsuri to happen the way it did, I was somewhat relieved that it did happen because all the tension of trying to hide her from Mana was gone and now the love triangle is complete, despite Yorito and Mana both agreeing that they share no interest for each other. We’ll see, won’t we?

The whole scene at dinner was entertaining. Yorito lying about Matsuri turning from a cat into a human or coming from the future to save his life were such horrible lies. Although the setting of this series does allow for supernatural beings, namely Matsuri, the view from Mana’s perspective is of the normal world, free of strange phenomena, and Yorito saying such weird things are obviously not going to work.

I think the end of the episode with Matsuri grabbing her belongings was like a taste of reality. I just assumed all she had on her was some money and the clothes she was wearing. This element at least added some realism to the series. Didn’t I say this was a fabulous episode?

Sola Episode 2 Summary:

Continuing off from the first episode, Yorito is looking at the scene in front of him as he recognizes Matsuri. The man turns around to get a better look at who just entered the church, and Matsuri takes that moment to mount a getaway, by grabbing a candle staff and running towards the exit. The man throws his sword at Matsuri, but she jumps over the sword and flies towards the glass window above the church doors. She looks down at Yorito while in the air and recognizes who he is. She then throws the staff through the window to break the spotlight and in the process flies through the same window to the outside of the church.

Then roll the opening sequence that was missing from the first episode. The song is called Colorless Wind by Aira Yuki and you can find the song and the opening scene on my site too. Very catchy song. Alright, back to the episode.

Outside, the strange girl that was in the cardboard box is headed to the church. The bearded man goes out to chase down Matsuri. He finds her catching her breath outside towards some construction platforms and runs towards her. Matsuri uses her hand to corrode the structure, causing it to collapse. With the distraction, Matsuri disappears into the surrounding trees and bushes. Yorito runs out and the man asks him if he’s related to the “Yaka” (night woe). He tells him to not get involved if he’s not.

The man continues with his search for Matsuri. He notices her in the bushes and throws a metal rod he picked up from the rubble. She jumps out into the air and the man throws another one of his “flash bangs” at her. This time it’s a direct hit, sending her flying downhill. Yorito goes down the hill to chase after Matsuri. He runs past the girl in the cardboard box as she’s walking up the stairs to the church. The man puts his sword away when he sees her and identifies her as Mayuko.

Down the hill, Yorito spots Matsuri’s beret and then spots an unconscious Matsuri. He takes her back to his home and rests her on a bed. He touches an ashy gray spot on Matsuri’s hand and it starts crumbling, which freaks him out. Later that morning, he finds Matsuri awake with all the curtains drawn as she is looking at all the pictures of the sky on the wall. Matsuri thanks Yorito for saving her and asks if there’s anything she could do for him. The look Yorito displays upon that request gave Matsuri the impression that he had something perverted in mind. She decides to repay him by cooking him a meal.

Matsuri grabs a random assortment of food and starts jamming everything into the microwave. She doesn’t know how to program the machine so she takes a couple of steps back and prepares to give it a good kick. Yorito quickly stops her before she ends up breaking it. Yorito takes the day off to learn more about Matsuri. Matsuri shows him why she’s not human by placing her finger into the sunlight resulting in some slight distenegration happening.

At the hospital, Aono is unhappy that Yorito’s not there. Back at Yorito’s home, Matsuri explains she’s lived for centuries without being exposed to the sun. Matsuri decides to leave as the sun has gone down. At the same time, the bearded man finds Mayuko in another box as she is waking up. Yorito tries his best to persuade Matsuri to stay at his house. Matsuri tells him it just can’t happen because he’ll end up hating her. Their conversation is cut short as Mana calls in telling him that Aono is heading home if he doesn’t come see her at the hospital. Yorito sets out to leave for the hospital to make sure his sister stays there and makes Matsuri promise him that she doesn’t leave during that time. After he leaves, she says goodbye.

Afterward, Mana leaves the hospital and arrives at the diner she works at. There at the diner, Mayuko and the man are eating there. The man tells her that there was no Yaka, only Yorito. Yorito returns home and notices that all the lights in his house are off. He finds a short goodbye message written on one of the picture frames on the wall. He starts to run out when he hears a sound upstairs. He finds Matsuri on his bed looking at his ceiling, which is a large picture of the sky. Yorito tells her he’ll show her the real sky someday.

Sola Episode 2 Review:

This episode is where things start to pick up. Episode one took care of the introductions while this episode is starting to give insight on what’s going on. I just want to know if Matsuri is really a vampire since she likes tomato juice and turns ashy upon contact with sunlight. Probably not though, but she sure does share similar properties. Then again, who’s to say what kind of properties vampires truly have?

Despite the imminent danger that Matsuri is in, she still seems to be very care-free as she’s rather upbeat while at Yorito’s house trying to make him food and talking about who she is. I’m sure anyone watching the show would find it humorous that Matsuri would resolve to kicking as a method of getting things to work. However, sometimes hitting machinery and electronics do get things to work, but that’s a whole different story for some other day.

In particular anime series, there’s always some kind of annoying, liability-type character. In regards to this show, I’m going to have to point my finger at Yorito’s older sister Aono. She is straight up annoying in my opinion. She lacks emotion in her speech and appears to be very needy and pushy. An example of this type of character is Kazumi Yoshida from Shakugan no Shana who pretty much gets in the way of the storyline and serves no benefitting purpose to the overall series. Another example is Koishi Herikawa from Onegai Teacher. A rather annoying character. So in prospect, Aono is going to cause a lot of problems for Yorito. As for Mana, she’s close to that, but she’s more likeable.

After watching this episode, it’s confirmed that Mayuko also cannot be in contact with sunlight. She also seems to be ageless just like Matsuri. Unfortunately for her, she’s stuck at an age that requires her to have someone pretend to be her guardian. It’s also rather convenient that Mana works at the same diner Mayuko and company are eating at. I find it weird, however, that the guy didn’t tell Mayuko the truth about finding Matsuri. I’m guessing he’s scared of what Mayuko would do to him if she knew that he found her but let her get away.

As for Matsuri, she’s the star of this episode as a good amount of background information and personality is revealed about her. I did believe that she was going to run away the moment Yorito left for the hospital, considering she said bye and left a message. I was surprised to find her still in the house when Yorito left. Another hint at what kind of person she is. I was even more surprised at the obsession Yorito had with skies with the image of the sky in his room.

Overall, this episode was great. There was a lot of character development with the main characters and the episode ends with a feeling that Yorito just opened a very large can of worms by being acquainted with Matsuri, which means a really good series for this series. Please let this be 26 episodes long. I’m tired of 12 to 13 episode series.

Sola Episode 1 Summary:

A teenage boy grabs a camera and heads out into the dark early morning and starts biking through the city towards a pier. He’s preparing his camera to take pictures of the sunrise when he hears some noise behind him. Here he meets a girl kicking at a vending machine trying to get a drink out after the machine ate her money. Their eyes meet and the two feel somewhat of a connection. The girl asks what he’s doing and he explains that he’s waiting for dawn to take a picture of the moment the dark sky turns blue.

He helps the girl kick the machine and a can drops out (a tomato juice drink). He turns around to give it to her, but she’s already gone. The scene changes to show some kids playing outside, while a girl stands inside a cave away from the light. Then there is a person in a cloak struggling through some barren landscape.

Back at the highschool of the teenager, he is on the rooftop of his school with a digital camera looking at the sky with through the LCD screen while talking to a female friend about the girl he met earlier. His friend is astounded by how much interest he has in taking images of the sky. She also mentions to him about having to buy a present, in which he counters by telling her he already bought one.

He shows her the present in class, which is a rather bizarre looking stuffed doll, but she doesn’t think it’s a good idea. He tells her girls like that kind of thing, but when shown to the other girls in the class, they share her opinion of how bad the present is. After school, they ride the trolley to a hospital.

At the hospital, we find this girl in a bed while a younger girl is sitting next to her. The older girl is impressing the other girl with some origami tricks when the two other characters walk in. The younger girl jumps off the chair to meet them. She identifies the teenage girl as Mana, but Mana tells her to refer her as “onee-chan”. The little girl identifies herself as Koyori and the guy as Yorito. It turns out that Yorito is here to visit his older sister, who is the girl in the bed.

They present her with a birthday cake and that her name is Aono. He presents her with the present, but she discards it to a pile of similar looking stuffed dolls. While they light up candles and turn off the lights, they hear the church bells ringing, which Koyori points out as broken and that they are working on fixing it. Yorito opens the curtains slightly to take a look when Aono tells him to stop. He is about to close them when he notices something outside and he runs off to the rooftop. He pulls out his camera and takes a picture of the sun setting with the church to the side.

At the church, we find the girl Yorito met earlier that day. Back at Yorito’s home, Mana is making dinner for him. She chastizes him for running out to take pictures instead of spending time with his sister. While making dinner, Mana notices she needs ginger and sends Yorito out to buy some. Elsewhere, a bearded man with glasses is out searching for something when it starts to rain.

Yorito gets out of the rain when he notices the same girl at the same vending machine, again kicking at it. Her umbrella is blown out of her hands into the air and Yorito notices that the inside of the umbrella is a picture of the sky. The two meet again and Yorito hands back the umbrella. He goes to help her get her drink out again. He tells her that her drink doesn’t look very tasty. She tells him to stand aside as she takes several steps back and starts running at the machine. He sees what’s happening and instinctively runs in to stop her and the two end up knocking heads. The drink rolls out afterward.

She tells Yorito that the drink is good and that he should drink it by pretending he fell for her lie. He drinks it and says he fell for it. She brings up the topic of the sky and she shows him a picture of the one picture of the sky that she has. The picture, however, looks exactly like the image Yorito took at the hospital. Yorito goes on naming a number of different cloud formations. She thinks about the different clouds and imagines herself in a field with white clouds and a blue sky. The imagination disappears and a stream of tears is on her face. She thanks him for the information and tells him to keep the umbrella as she runs off. Before she could, Yorito asks for her name. She tells him it’s Shihou Matsuri after finding out his name. She then runs off.

Back with the bearded man, he finds a cardboard box and when he opens it, he finds what he’s looking for, which is a girl inside, who tells him she’s hungry. The next day, Yorito does not go to visit his sister, as Mana explains to Aono that he told her that he had something to do. The man brings food to the girl, and she asks him if he’s found “her”. He tells her he has a good idea of where she is.

At Yorito’s home, he recalls the image that Matsuri showed him. He pulls out his camera and scans his pictures and finds out that it’s the same picture he took with the church. At the church again, Matsuri is awoken by one of the doors being opened. She looks outside, but finds nothing. As she closes the door, the bearded man appears. The man goes on the attack throwing objects at Matsuri. He activates light to shine through the windows, while Matsuri tries her best to avoid the light. He then pulls out a sword when Yorito opens the door and everyone is at a standstill.

Sola Episode 1 Review:

As I mentioned on my First Impressions post, this anime started out as a simple, normal life type of show with some person with a hobby of taking pictures of the sky. And it’s pretty evident that the show is about skies as the title of the anime literally means, well, sky.

Like almost all shows, this episode serves to introduce all the main characters. Here we have Yorito, the main character; Matsuri, the other main character; Mana, who is Yorito’s friend; Koyori, Mana’s sister; Aono, Yorito’s sister; and the bearded man and the child he’s taking care of, although she’s probably not a child in terms of age.

After all that, this series could have been as boring as staring into space, but it’s saving grace is Matsuri who has some qualities that might deem her as a vampire. In the ending scenes, we see that Matsuri cannot be exposed to sunlight or anything similar. And then we have Yorito who loves daylight. There’s the mismatch, the love interest, and the ensuing dilemmas waiting to happen. Now that’s a good series to follow. Not to mention, the animation quality is very nice. Everything is drawn in all seriousness, so there’s no over-exaggerated faces.

There was no opening sequence for this first episode. Instead, there was an insert song to take its place. But you can tell that there was an opening sequence song ready for use as the show takes time out to introduce their sponsors.

And just like a good number of anime series, the first episode ends in a cliffhanger of sorts that make you stay tuned in for the next episode. As I’m writing this, I’m anxiously waiting for the next episode like everyone else.

Overall, this episode does a good job introducing the characters, while leaving enough ambiguity to start making assumptions and deductions on what’s going to happen. For me, from what I can tell from this first episode is that Yorito and Matsuri will fall for each other, but Matsuri’s need to avoid sunlight will cause a big dilemma down the line. Yorito’s sister Aono seems to be the same as Matsuri. Mana will probably admit that she has feelings for Yorito and the love triangle will begin and someone’s going to get their feelings hurt, probably Mana’s. The bearded guy will probably end up as an ally while the girl he’s helping is someone also afraid of the light and needs something from Matsuri. And Matsuri is probably going to die by the end of the series. Sad, but it’s leaning towards that direction.

Due to sudden popularity with this song, here’s a streaming version of the song for you all.

Here’s the song used in the opening sequence of Sola
Opening Sequence Video

And here’s where you can download the full song.
Colorless Wind by Aira Yuki (Full Song)

For those who don’t know, this song is the opening song for the anime Sola, which seems to be gaining a lot of popularity and momentum from anime viewers. Me included. I don’t have lyrics or a translation yet, but I’ll find some eventually. In the meantime, enjoy the song.

I finally found some lyrics for this song. Here are two sources:

Well, I’m just going to assume the Kanji is the same throughout. Only the translations vary.

First, here’s the Kanji:

hane ga shiroku hikari mabushiku tonde yuku
kokoro dake nosete hoshii no ni

tsumetai te wo nobasu todokanai… shitteru
dakedo ima furetai kimi ni

natsukashii kaze ni wa ano koro no fune
maboroshi ga omoide wo miseta

‘wasurenai’ dareka no koe ga setsunaku hibiku
hajimaru yokan ni furuete
‘wasuretai’ negau jibun ga wakaranai
matte iru yurarenagara yume hitotsu wo

toozakaru hito nara nani mo tsuge wa shinai
kanashimi wa watashi dake no mono

sakasama no kimochi ga sawaideru… shitteta
mune kogasu hitosuji no honoo

kioku ni nagasarete musubarenu mama
nando demo meguru sadame nara

‘aimashou’ itoshiki hibi no tsuzuki ga mitai
memai ni tomadou mamonaku
‘aeru deshou?’ hikareau no wa tsumi desu ka
tomadoi ga sasou toki no hazama e yuku

‘wasurenai’ dareka no koe ga setsunaku hibiku
hajimaru yokan ni furuete
‘wasuretai’ negau jibun ga wakaranai
matte iru kodoku no naka
‘aimashou’ itoshiki hibi no tsuzuki ga kowai
memai ni tomadou futari ga
‘aeru deshou?’ hikareau no wa tsumi desu ka
tomadoi mo keshite shimau yume hitotsu de

Here’s the translation from Anime Lyrics:

The feathers gleam in white and are flying dazzlingly
Though only my heart wants to ride them

I held out my cold hand I know I can’t reach you…
But I want to touch you now

The boat that day is inside the nostalgic wind
Its illusion showed me memories

“I won’t forget” said somebody’s voice, painfully resonating
And trembling inside the signs of a beginning
“I want to forget” I wish, but I don’t know myself anymore
I’m waiting while being shaken for my one dream

Distant people aren’t able to tell anything
I made sadness my own

I knew it, this upturned feeling is getting louder…
My heart burns an earnest flame

Flown in memory, but still unbound with each other
If this is our revolving, repeating destiny

“Let’s meet” I want our precious days to continue
But soon I am perplexed in this dizziness
“We can, can’t we?” Is mutual attraction such a sin?
This pause adds to the length of time of my answer*

“I won’t forget” said somebody’s voice, painfully resonating
And trembling inside the signs of a beginning
“I want to forget” I wish, but I don’t know myself anymore
I’m waiting inside this loneliness
“Let’s meet” I’m afraid of our precious days to continue
Both of us are perplexed in this dizziness
“We can, can’t we?” Is mutual attraction such a sin?
This pause is also inside my one dream that has vanished

And here’s one from some other site:

Dazzlingly, the gleaming white feathers fly away,
Though I had wanted to set just my heart on them.

Knowing they won’t reach you, I stretched out my cold hands –
Because I want to touch you now.

A boat from back then, in that nostalgic wind –
An illusion showed me my memories.

“I won’t forget.” A voice filled with pain rang out,
Wavering in the premonition that had just begun to unfold.
“I want to forget.” Though I had wished for that, I no longer know myself.
I’ll be waiting for that one dream, while trembling.

If it’s to people who’re going far away, I’m not telling anything –
For this sadness belongs only to me.

Knowing my reversed feelings are fermenting,
My heart is scorched by a determined flame.

If it is our recurring destiny to be
Swept around in our memories, unable to be together, so be it.

“Let’s meet.” I want to see our precious days continue,
But just as I begin to hesitate in my dizziness, you asked,
“We can, can’t we?” Is it a sin that we should be attracted to each other?
In confusion, I couldn’t give you a reply.
　
　
“I won’t forget.” A voice filled with pain rang out,
Wavering in the premonition that had just begun to unfold.
“I want to forget.” I had wished for that, but I no longer know myself.
I’ll be waiting, in this loneliness.
“Let’s meet.” Afraid of what would follow those precious days,
We hesitated in our dizziness.
“We can, can’t we?” Is it a sin that we should be attracted to each other?
Along with that one dream of mine, confusion has vanished.

Sola Opening Sequence

Song: Colorless Wind
Artist: Aira Yuki

So far from all the new anime shows flowing out from Japan, Sola’s opening sequence is the one that has appealed to me the most. It’s a nice song, but it took a while before I considered it a good song. The opening verse of the song was great, but the chorus was not. After hearing it some more, I started to like it in its entirety. So I’ll be waiting for the full song to become available in the next couple of months. In the meantime, I’ll just have to settle for this.

Go here to listen to the full song.
http://www.ninenines.net/ninesblog/index.php/favorites/2007/colorless-wind/

Anime: Sola
Genre: Fantasy

Initial Thoughts:

It’s somewhat hard to categorize this anime. It’s like a mix of fantasy and fiction, but not quite science fiction. This show did start out relatively slow. All the characters are introduced throughout the first episode and of course, nothing is really explained fully. We have the main character, Yorito, who likes to take pictures of the sky and then we have this mysterious girl who he finds early in the morning before sunrise named Matsuri trying to get drinks out of a vending machine. The show goes on with the daily activities of Yorito. We find out that he has an ill sister in the hospital that he visits daily. The show doesn’t reveal what it’s all about until the end of the first episode when Matsuri is sleeping inside a church undergoing construction as another character goes on the attack with a sword and activating lights to shine through the stained glass. Immediately, I figured that Matsuri does not favor light and we find out in the next episode she is not human and cannot survive in sunlight.

So here we have two characters: one who loves the sky and one who cannot experience a blue sky in fear of getting destroyed by sunlight. So there’s the dilemma and I’m sure the situation is only going to get worse and the two are going to fall for each other. So it’s a fantasy/fiction/slice of life/romance themed anime. Not too shabby.

So what do I think?

I think it’s worth watching. I like the characters so far, except for Yorito’s sister because she lacks any emotion whatsoever. And it’s just really annoying. I hate those types of characters. Most likely though, this will be a short anime series. I do hope that it’s longer, but for some reason, a good chunk of anime that I favor always seem to end after 12-13 episodes. Very frustrating. Anyway, animation quality is nice and the opening song is pretty good too. So it’s another anime to start watching.