Sola

Synopsis:

Yorito Morimiya is a photographer at heart, but he especially loves taking pictures of the sky any time of the day at any time of the year. While taking more pictures of the sky very early in the morning Yorito notices a strange girl trying to get a can of tomato juice out of a vending machine. Yorito helps her while trying to strike up a conversation with her but by the time he gets the juice out of the machine he turns to notice that the girl is mysteriously gone. Yorito manages to run into the strange girl a few more times during the night over the next few days and learns that her name is Matsuri Shihou. But when he decides to go looking for her he finds that she has been taking shelter in an abandoned church only to happen upon a confrontation between her and a man weilding a sword.


Reviewer: Endosanity
Number of episodes watched: 15


Review:

Ah yes, the "sudden girlfriend" genre of anime. It never gets old. Why? Because we all wish it would happen. But, Sola takes a different approach to this tried and true plot device and puts a little spin on things that are not apparent at first but as the story progresses you see the overall impact of it's outcome. Sola adds an extra level of complexity to it's tale by leading the viewer along a predetermined path that you practically feel that you've been down before and know what to expect. However, your predictions are cast aside when Sola goes off in a completely different direction from what you had thought leaving you saying to yourself "This wasn't supposed to happen... " With it's minor but impacting plot changes it takes the audience away from it's comfort zone and leaving them wondering what is really going to happen now?

This is what I liked about Sola as I was being set up from the beginning and at the end I was thrown the emotional curve-ball and I was shown that not all anime in the same genre follow the same path. The animation is done well, the plot may seem typical, but don't be fooled by Sola's apparent simplicity. There's another side to the story that you're just not seeing until it's too late and the series comes to an open ended yet, satisfying close.

Sola (opening)

Recommendation: |Above Average|

Media type: DVD
From: Bandai Entertainment
Spoken languages: Japanese
Subtitles: English