Sola 3: Calm day (オダヤカナヒ)

Before going to school on this calm day, Yorito got an earful of advice from Matsuri. Just as Yorito opens the door to go to school, he is surprised to see Mana standing right in front of his house. After a moment of panic, he calms down when he realize Matsuri has went in before Mana can see her.




Later in the hospital, Aono sulks again when she finds out that Yorito has to leave early. Mana becomes more and more suspicious that Yorito is hiding something because his behavior is somewhat different than usual.



Back at home, Yorito is disgusted with Matsuri's choice of ramen (Avocado ramen!). However, their little chat is interrupted when the door bell is ringing.
Before Matsuri can open the door (apparently she has done that in the day when salesmen of various products came by), Yorito managed to beat her to it only to find a steaming Mana right in front of him. She wants to cook for him (I am sure she wanted to spy on him too:b) and she wouldn't take a no!

Yorito's explanation on why he locks the door only makes Mana more suspicious. His attempt on preventing her cook for him was also spoiled by his uncooperative stomach :b




When Mana starts to cook, she found out that there is no soy sauce, sugar nor salt left in the cupboard, as Matsuri has spill all of them.

As Yorito is forced to go to the supermarket for supplies, Mana wanders around the house to find what Yorito is hiding. Just when she is giving up her search and return to the dining room, she finally meets Matsuri for the first time.

When Yorito is back from the supermarket, his attempted explanations on why he is hiding Matsuri is not helped by Matsuri herself. A lonely cousin that live around the neighborhood that was never been spotted by Mana :b? How about a cat who transformed into a girl, or a person from the future who tried to change Yorito's life?



Obviously Mana is none the happier at these lame attempts. However, somehow Mana is convinced that Matsuri is not a bad person.

This quiet day is not over yet, when Mana panics at the though of Matsuri running away from Yorito's home only to find Matsuri returning with all her belongings. Some funny moments ensue when Matsuri said out her thoughts on Mana and Yorito being a couple. Both denied Matsuri's assumption. After some quarrell with Yorito on who is popular with dates, Mana admitted that the last time someone asked her for a date was during 4th year of primary school.


Impression:
While the day is somewhat calm (no hunter actions), I am sure Yorito's heart is nothing but calm in this episode. Nothing much happened, but I am happy the way the series is progressing.

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Sola 2: Look up at the blue (ミアゲルアオ)

From this year's spring anime lineup that I have seen, Sola, Hayate no Gotoku and Lucky Star are the series I am looking forward to see the most.




Continuing the fight from the first episode, the cornered Matsuri is saved when Yorito makes his appearance. Taking advantage of the distraction, she jumps out from the window to escape the hunter. After another brief fight, Matsuri is hit by the hunter and fell into a forest.
The hunter then warns Yorito not to be involved, as he said Matsuri is not a human, but a "yoru no wazawai"/夜の災い (Calamity of the night), whatever that is.
Despite the warning, Yorito still try to find the injured Matsuri in the forest.

His effort paid off when he found Matsuri fell unconscious on the street among the trees. Thankfully for them, before the hunter can start the pursuit, his loli friend appears. The hunter decides to halt the pursuit for now, because it seems he does not want the girl to know what he is up to.

At Yorito's home, Matsuri is to be able to recover quickly to engage Yorito in some cloud talk. She also thanks Yorito for his help and ask what he wants as a reward. Yorito seems to be dumbfounded and unable to answer. Matsuri concludes that he must thinks something dirty :b



The next day, Yorito does not come to school so that he can accompany Matsuri. It does not take long for Matsuri to wreak havoc in his house, starting with her cooking.
When the microwave oven does not do what Matsuri wants, she tries to kick it like the vending machine. Yorito must be glad he didn't went to school so that he can stop this calamity :)
Afterwards, Matsuri demonstrates that she is weak to the sun and confesses that she is not human. Despite knowing something is different with Matsuri after last night's event, Yorito seems confused how to respond to all this.



Because of her different nature, Matsuri wanted to leave as soon as the sun sets as she can't leave before that. However, Yorito tried to persuade her to stay as he reckons it is not safe for Matsuri to go out when someone is trying to eliminate her. Matsuri thinks it is not Yorito's business, and it will all work out anyway.

In the middle of this argument, Yorito received a phone call from Mana telling him that Aono wanted to go home if Yorito does not come. Before Yorito leaves, he asked Matsuri to promise not to leave before he comes back. At the hospital, as soon as Yorito sees Aono, she wants to eat, and all problems seems to be solved for now.

In the mean time, the hunter is having a conversation with the loli about the event the day before. Despite her suspicion, he hides the fact that he saw a yaka/yoru no wazawai.

When Yorito went home, he panics when he sees all the lights are off. Thinking that Matsuri has left, he is about to look for her when he found out that Matsuri is actually in the 'sky room', looking up at the blue ceiling. She felt it's unfair that in the several hundred years she has been alive, she has never stood under the blue sky...


Impression:
Aside from finding out about Matsuri's identity, it is also confirmed that she is weak against the sun in this episode. I have also seen episode 3, and I think the story is building up quite nicely. There are also a lot of questions that will hopefully be resolved at the end of the series.
Because the anime is only planned for 12 episodes, I wonder what the writers had in mind for the ending. There is also a PS2 game planned and an ongoing manga for Sola, so I hope the anime is not just used for advertising those other merchandise.

Speculation:
The little girl that hangs out with the hunter is the same kind as Matsuri, which is probably why he does not come clean with her about his fight with Matsuri.
Next episode: Quiet day

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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.

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