Nice Girls: They Just Can't Win

"No one's going to side with you, you're stark-raving mad!" - Ash Ketchum

"Oh yeah? Just ask your mother..." - Giovanni

"That's all in the past!" - Ash Ketchum

"Listen to me, little boy, nice guys finish last, last...!" - Giovanni

Given the endings of many of the animes with romantic conflicts, that I've recently watched, Giovanni could very well be talking about nice girls instead. Indeed, that could explain why Ash Ketchum keeps moving on from one girl to another to another. Ash is internalizing what he was told by one of his greatest enemies, and hence he's not letting any of the nice girls that he's met end up with him...

A harem-esque Pokemon anime might be a lot of fun... ;)

Sola Review: Part 2

The Beauty of Fan and Promotional Art:
It Need Not Reflect the Actual Plot Whatsoever.

Watching Angel Beats!, True Tears, and Sola over the past few weeks has taught me a lot about anime.

Its taught me about how even short anime series' can do, and often do, a complete and dramatic 180 in overall mood, feel, thematic drive, and plot direction. Indeed, the first half of each of these three anime series bears little resemblance to its second half, aside from the presence of the same characters themselves. And given how drastically many of those characters change (think of Yurippe in the final episode of Angel Beats!, or Yurito in this anime), even this presence of the same characters in name and appearance can provide little sense of continuity or permanence.

How fitting then that Matsuri and Yurito sacrifice a kind of permanence - permanence in the form of immortality - in order to end their lives.

However, that is the only way that their decision seems fitting to me.


I know that many of us anime fans like to think of ourselves as very open and broadminded people. A certain degree of broadmindedness is required to appreciate the heritage, nuances, and inherent differences of a foreign culture, after all. In this case, the foreign culture is the culture of Japan, and it is that culture which gave rise to anime, and hence it is that culture which influences anime as profoundly as Matsuri influenced Yurito in Sola.

But be that what it may, I have to be honest here. The choices made by Matsuri and Yurito in this anime seem insane, if not unbelievable, to me. They go beyond the reaches of how broadly my mind is willing to spread.

The actions and thinking of Matsuri and Yurito in Sola are truly befuddling to me. It is hard to make sense of. Perhaps something is lost in cultural translation, but nonetheless, I am left finding the plot of Sola almost impossible to swallow. This is not because of its metaphysical or Yaka elements. Indeed, that is easy for me to accept compared to what I can only view as severe character derailment.


Consider that near the beginning of Sola we see Matsuri actively struggle for her life against the aggressive Takeshi. Matsuri later tries to avoid being killed by Aono as well.

These are not, of course, the actions of a suicidal person.

Quite the contrary, they're the actions of a person who wishes to survive, and who desires to keep living.

What, over the course of Sola, would lead Matsuri to want to throw away her life? Just what changed along the way? If it was a sense that her love for Yurito would forever go unrequited, then the anime failed to convey that. Aside from that, I see no plausible answer that makes sense to me.

For by all accounts, Matsuri appears content, if not cheerful. She often smiles, and is rarely portrayed as melancholic. Her honest yet subtly flirtatious nature is nothing if not life affirming. There are sources of sadness in her life (primarily her inability to go outside on a clear sunny day), but by all outwards appearances, she copes with it rather well. So why the sudden desire to end her life?

The answer "She wanted to help Aono" can be offered up, but this rings hollow to me. Aono, by her own words, just wanted to keep living a peaceful life alongside her recreation of Yurito. If Matsuri's goal in taking her own life was chiefly to help Aono, then she was taking a rather huge gamble, as her efforts could have backfired, and nastily. The "last time" Yurito died, Aono soon after committed suicide.

Try as I might, I find Matsuri's sudden desire to end her life to be exceptionally difficult to accept. It is such a drastic 180 from Matsuri's earlier attempts to avoid death.


In the case of Yurito Version 2.0... I can understand him undergoing an existential crisis of sorts. It can't be easy to find out that you are both a living puppet, and a clone.

Nonetheless, Yurito Version 2.0 thinks, and therefore he is. Whatever the precise nature of his being may be, he still is his own self. He still is a sentient being. He still has some degree of independence, as his thoughts often run contrary to what Aono would like them to be.

Beyond that, he has people who intensely love and care for him.

Such as one of the best best friends I've ever seen in anime


This girl is simply phenomenal. If Yurito Morimiya was Ichigo Kurosaki, then Mana would be Chad and Orihime rolled into one. I'm 110% sure that she'd literally take a bullet for Yurito. Then she'd proceed to take a sword slash in place of Yurito. Then she'd proceed to race off to get help for Yurito while bleeding half to death, and she'd make sure that she had reached that help before collapsing. If certain members of the Montreal Canadiens had Mana's heart, dedication, and character, I'd be cheering a Habs Stanley Cup win right about now. You go to war with people like Mana Ishizuki leading or cheering on the cause.

And Yurito is utterly blind to how he has such an incredible friend in Mana. A real friend too, as I think her friendship feelings for Yurito ran even deeper than romance. This is reflected in how she helped Yurito reunite with Matsuri, when Mana suspected that this would mean Yurito and Matsuri becoming boyfriend and girlfriend. Mana didn't care. She just wanted to help out her friend Yurito, no matter what. Again, what an incredible friend.

One of the great tragedies of Sola is that Yurito is beloved by many people, and yet he seems to not care about that at all. He is truly, sincerely, beloved. At some basic level, who cares if he's a clone and a puppet? The people who love him don't care, so why should he?

In a way, I'm actually glad that Mana's memory of Yurito is wiped clean. She doesn't deserve to live a life of anguish and regret over Yurito deciding to get himself killed. She deserves better than that, and thankfully, she did get better than that. Still a bit of a shame that all of her herculean efforts for Yurito's sake came to naught, though.


Just to be clear, I get what Sola is aiming for. The idea is that Aono needs to move on with her life, and not be so obsessed over Yurito (either version). But that doesn't make Matsuri and Yurito's decisions to kill themselves any easier to agree with, and I don't agree with it. Both seemed to be leading fairly happy lives, and in Yurito's case he had a passion in his life that really added a great deal of serenity into his life. It just makes such little if any sense for them to throw it all away. This really does seem like character derailment to me, I have to be frank.


Thankfully, Mana's voice of sanity is added to by at least three others:

These three characters just want to lead full, happy lives while maintaining close friendships.

Takeshi, you're the ultimate hero of this work. You stayed by your close childhood friend, even as you age and she remains a perpetual youth trapped in the darkness. You did almost everything to free her of the Yaka curse. Only she herself refusing the gift caused you to cease your pursuit of freeing her from that curse. I'd love to watch a Sola spin-off focusing on "Dandy Goatee" man, Mayuko, and Mr. Goatee's new waitress girlfriend. ;)

Mayuko, you protected Matsuri from Takeshi even when him slaying her would have freed you from the Yaka curse. Your protection of her was selfless, and caring, without being suicidal.

Koyori, you just wanted everyone to stay together and keep being friends. As such, you are a good girl.


Simply put, I do not think there was any compelling enough reason for Matsuri and Yurito to take their lives as they did. Yes, Sola ultimately ended up happily for Aono, Mana, and Koyori, but who's to say that things wouldn't have been even happier with those three along with Matsuri and Yurito there? Besides, the ending of Sola is a case of writer's fiat, really. It could have very easily been a tragic end for Aono, and a much more lonely one for Koyori and Mana.


Now, my criticisms of the plot resolutions and character derailment aside...

The action scenes of this anime were marvelous. Aono, Matsuri, and Takeshi all looked very impressive and evenly matched in combat. The action felt dramatic, and meaningful, with important outcomes riding on how they were resolved.

Episode 9 in particular was magnificent for the combats therein. I'll probably end up watching that one again, and soon.

The final confrontation between Aono and Matsuri had some excellent scenes in it. I very much liked the portion of the battle that took place in an abandoned movie theater. When the film footage started rolling unexpectedly, only to show scenes of a shimmering sky setting, that was a very nice touch. That was a master stroke, I have to admit. I loved how it stopped Matsuri in her tracks, and broke all the tension in the combat. There were moments of inspired brilliance in the anime.

Unfortunately, the anime also has several holes and weaknesses to it.


For what it's worth to 0utf0xZer0, this ending didn't sadden me as much as True Tears' ending did. Nobody was hurt in the conclusion of Sola who didn't bring that hurt upon themselves. Memory wipes tend to be very intellectually unsatisfying to me, but they're not as emotionally jarring as seeing Noe go through what she did in True Tears. And in this case, if not for the mind wipe, Mana would probably have been as hurt as much as Noe was.

But I do feel that the tale of Sola is a hard one to swallow at a basic believability level, and hence, like the picture that I opened up this blog with, I will dwell more on the characters as how I think they should have turned out than how they actually did in this anime.


7/10 for a memorable ride, but no more than that due to how the plot ultimately unfolded.

Sola Review: Part 1

0utf0xZer0 was right. I have already begun to soften on True Tears a bit. So much so that I very recently asked 0utf0xZer0 if he could recommend any other anime to me that was very similar to True Tears. And, amongst a few other titles, he pointed me into the direction of Sola.

One way in which Sola compares favorably to True Tears for me, is that I strongly doubt it will leave me loathing the eventual resolution of a love triangle. I like both of these two characters about equally well:


And it is these two characters that seem to have the greatest likelihood of winning over our airheaded male lead Yorito Morimiya. And I don't say "airheaded" in an entirely derogatory sense here, but largely as a reflection on how Yorito's "head" is constantly focused on the "air" above him. In other words, he is thoroughly enamored with the sky itself, and loves taking pictures of different sky settings.

To completely grasp how deep Yorito's obsession with the sky runs, it is useful to ask "What is Yorito focusing mostly on in this scene?":


Most guys would take notice of the cute girl staring down at him with the puzzled look on her face. But for Yorito, there's nothing as pleasing to the eye as that curvaceous cumulus cloud up there, and the sun peaking out over its cleavage. ;)

And Yorito's love of the sky on days without rain is a constant point of reference in this anime, at least after six episodes in. And, as with my last two series reviews, this one is also done in two parts: Part 1 after six episodes, and Part 2 after the full series. So when reading this review, please keep in mind that it is only for the first six episodes, and that I have yet to see the entire series. Again, I kindly request any comments left in reply to this blog entry to refrain from spoiling me on post-Episode Six developments in the anime. ^_^;;


So, what do I think of Sola so far?

Sola starts up a bit slowly, as many animes of the slice of life or school life variety tend to do. But in Sola's case, this slow start at least adds to the overall sense of mystery and intrigue that gradually grows through out the anime. The slow start also serves well to introduce us to the seven central characters of this anime, and to flesh out four of them: Yorito Morimiya, Matsuri Shihou, Mana Ishizuki, and Koyori Ishizuki.

As of episode six, the other three central characters of Aono Morimiya, Takeshi Tsujidou, and Mayuko Kamikawa are still somewhat shrouded in mystery. Episode six makes some startling revelations pertaining to Aono, and her connection to Matsuri. As such, it is also episode six that managed to perk my interest back up in the overall plot line of Sola.


Sola's plot, in the early going, proceeds at an almost meandering pace, it has to be said. The anime expects patience on the part of its viewer. Thankfully, the characters are intriguing enough that I do not find it particularly difficult to summon forth that necessary patience. It certainly helps that you get a couple of cool combative confrontations between Matsuri and Takeshi early on in the anime.


As far as I can tell, Takeshi is a modern day Simon Belmont, and Matsuri is a "woe of the night", which apparently is meant to indicate that she is not a human, but rather is a little bit like the western conception of a vampire. Matsuri has yet to bare her fangs or feed on human blood, but she sure does love that tomato juice which Yurito thinks tastes horrible. Makes me wonder if she's drinking tomato juice as a less harmful substitute to drinking human blood?

In any event, Matsuri is similar to the traditional vampire in that she is immortal, and in that sunlight burns her. Matsuri also has a strange power that enables her to inflict a sort of rapid necrosis on any object or living thing.

If Matsuri's character is inspired by vampire lore, I like how her creator Naoki Hisoya opted to pick and choose specific vampiric elements to incorporate into her, and not just the beneficial elements like a certain famous novel and movie chose to do with its vampires. ;)

For this makes Matsuri an interesting twist on the classic vampire character model, while still maintaining the tragic and hence compelling elements of that model. Matsuri longs to see the daylight sky and its sun, yet is tragically prevented from doing so due to her inherent nature. This unrealized longing serves as a very effective and believable catalyst for the relationship between Matsuri and our sky-loving friend Yurito.

Matsuri longs to see the daylight sky, while Yurito is utterly enthralled by it and loves taking pictures of it. The two are clearly a match made in Heaven... or, at the very least, a match made in the sky. ;)


Aside from Matsuri's character being inspired by vampire lore, I think I can see some definite anime inspirations for her. Consider the following:



Scared now, good reader? ;)


In all seriousness, though, it does appear that Matsuri and Aono may have been inspired slightly by Ryoko Asakura and Yuki Nagato, respectively. Matsuri is very similar to what Ryoko would be like if Ryoko's fraudulent superficial personality was her real one. And just as Ryoko and Yuki appear to be like normal teenage girls but are actually extraordinary beings, the same holds true for Matsuri and Aono.

Aono's character design, and her ever calm and monotonously soft-spoken nature, reflects that of Yuki Nagato quite a bit as well.

But The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is not the only anime that appears to serve as a source of inspiration for Sola. Mayuko Kamikawa is practically a homage to Rozen Maiden, while I see slight traces of Maho Shojo Lyrical Nanoha in this anime as well. Yurito's personality reminds me a bit of Yuuno Scrya, while Mana's character design and personality reminds me a bit of Hayate Yagami.

I like Mana's take-charge personality, and how she has clearly taken a bit of a liking to Yurito but doesn't want to fully admit it. Mana is a well-meaning and responsible soul, but perhaps a bit too bossy and intrusive. Altogether, though, I like her a fair bit.

Mana's younger sister Koyori is a substantially humorous and moe character, much in the vein of Fuko-chan from Clannad. As a Marvel and DC comics fan, I used to associate speaking in the third person with megalomaniacal villainy.

Dr. Doom: Doom likes bitter wine!

But thanks to the world of anime, I'm now starting to view speaking in the third person in a very different and rather moe light. Perhaps Victor could peacefully bring his feud with Richards to a close if only he could come to grips with his Koyori side.

Admit it, Doom! You actually like moe!

Koyori's ever apologetic and third person self helps to provide some nice humor in this anime.

This anime in general takes itself fairly seriously, but its humor bits are nonetheless of great quality. They almost always manage to get a loud chuckle or laugh from me. For example, the whole discussion over what Yurito was doing with Matsuri on the futon was truly hilarious for me. Anime tends to do such comedy a lot, but for some reason, it really hit the funny bone with me this time. Perhaps its because the dialogue in this anime often feels very natural, and rarely forced, and this includes comedic moments as well.

What also resonates with me is the sky focus of this anime. Yurito is not a particularly impressive male lead, but I easily relate to him. I very much like brilliantly bright blue skies as well. I also like gazing up at the clouds on sunny days as well. I also tend to dislike long stretches of rain due to how it prevents me from seeing those blue skies and those sunny days. The weather has always affected my moods. There is something about clear blue skies with a few clouds on a sunny day that just feels very life affirming to me. And so Yurito's focus on that, and Matsuri's desire for that, makes it very easy for me to get into this anime. And it's part of what kept me watching through the somewhat slow paced episodes 3 through 5.


One final specific point I'll make concerning this anime is that I like its use of settings in general. The large abandoned church setting really adds to the occasional gothic feel to this anime. It also made for a great place for the first onscreen combat between Matsuri and Takeshi.

The hospital and school settings are both familiar ones for anime as well, and it can help the viewer feel greater sympathy for a sick character if that character is forced to stay in a hospital. As for the school setting, I felt it was nicely utilized in Yurito and Matsuri's late evening, after hours, trek through the school.


All in all, Sola is a solid slice of life anime. A good watch. My one critique is that it can seem a bit meandering at times in the early going, but I have hope that it'll pick up considerably in its second half.

8/10 overall.