Sola 1:The blue-sky colored umbrella

Sola is of the those series where nothing much happened, yet enjoyable to watch.



The main character, Yorito has a fondness of the sky and taking pictures of it, especially during dusk and dawn. Today is another such day, when he wake up early to catch the sunrise. At the observation point, he met a strange girl struggling to get a tomato drink from the vending machine. Before they can talk for long, she already disappeared.




We found out that Yorito has a sister, Aono, who is currently hospitalised. Mana, Yorito's friend, and Koyori, Mana's younger sister, helps him to look after Aono. Despite being the only relative left, Yorito often leave Aono to gaze and take pictures of the sky. Mana scolds Yorito for this, saying that the sky is the same everyday. However, Yorito thinks differently, saying that the sky never looks the same :)



On another night, when Yorito happens to be out on his bike to get some things, he met the strange tomato juice girl again, now struggling yet again to get her delicious drink. This time, they managed to have a longer conversation. Yorito is intrigued by the blue sky-colored umbrella that the girl carries, and the girl is interested when she heard Yorito has many pictures of the sky. After Yorito elaborated on the various kinds of clouds, the girl takes her leave again. This time, Yorito managed to find out the girl's name,Matsuri.

Up to this point it feels like this is another slice-of life high school drama series.
This changed abruptly towards the end of the episode when a bespectacled guy appears at the church and proceeds to attack Matsuri. When he is about to finish her off, Yorito suddenly appears, and we have to wait another week to see what is going to happen.



The speculation here is that Matsuri is a vampire, because she never appear during the day throughout the episode. This also explains why she is so interested in the blue sky. I am curious on how they are going to expand the story from here, and whether Matsuri or the bespectacled guy, or neither, is the bad guy.

Sola official site
Opening theme song:Colorless Wind by Aira Yuki
Ending theme song: mellow melody by Ceui


Impression:
The wonderful songs and the sky theme of the series pretty much makes me want to see the rest of sola. I also share Yorito's fondness of looking at the sky, especially during dusk and dawn.

Note:
While 'sky' is 'sora' in the Japanese language, there is no doubt this is what the title of the anime means. As they often change the 'r' into 'l' in general, the decision not to use 'sora' might purely due to artistic values.