The story is a really sweet and beautiful one with the blossoming romance of two of the main characters. The beginning is slow. It helped to build the characters as who they are in the present and helps the watcher (you) get attached to them. This slow start may have the unfortunate side-effect of turning away those who go into it more casually, as the story doesn't pick up until about episode 5 and even then, slowly. The second half, however, has action and drama and backstory... and confusion. Everything makes sense on the surface, but if you look deeper, some things are just never explained. Sola has very well written characters, but stumbles a little in world building. The focal character changes in the last 2 or 3 episodes to add to a mysterious tone and for story reasons, but I personally was not fond of that
The art in Sola is wonderful. Which is to be expected when the characters and story find the beauty of the sky so important. I wasn't a fan of the actual photography that is prevalent in the ending credits, but I understand it's use. The action scenes are gorgeous and the character kept moving through space during it. In some anime, as soon as the battle is in the air, they just seem to float there when they fight. Sola doesn't have that, and that was very nice to see. The character designs are very good, especially on Matsuri. You can tell that a lot of effort was put into designing her, and I'm not one who normally finds anime girls beautiful, but I found her extremely so. Yorito has an emphasis on his normalcy, even in art. He's a good character, and the fact that he's so normal looking is of sharp contrast to the two female leads. Aoko is very very similar in both design and personality to Angel from Angel Beats or Rei from Neon Genesis Evangeleon. So that's kinda meh.
The soundtrack is absolutely beautiful. It wasn't perfect or outstanding, but it was really nice. Special emphasis on the opening theme for both capturing the allure the show, and to somehow remind me of the peacefulness and turmoil the sky always has.
The three main characters are... good. Again, Matsuri seems to have been spent the most time on. Her character is complicated without being confusing, and the fact that she can still be a source of humour and fun, made her a very enjoyable character to have on screen. I really liked Yorito's character, as he was normal without being bland, and he's not just our way into a more fantastic world, as he can still hold his own. His motivations are simple yet, anyone who's been in love can understand his occasionally rash behaviour. Aono's personality, however, was a draw on the show's emotional energy at some of the more intense scene's but it wasn't overpowering. It was especially refreshing the few times she breaks her emotional distance.
I loved the show. It made me laugh, it made me gasp in fear, it made me cry. It's something that's really hard to put down once the initial establishing character lull was over. There was one really odd thing with my enjoyment, though. While it was really hard to put down, it was also extremely hard to pick back up once I had. I marathoned it in three sittings... over the course of more than a month. I decided that I was going to write this review as soon as I had finished it, as Sola has the interesting trait that I kept forgetting how good it was and how much I loved it. It got to the point in which I'd skip over it for weeks at a time and have to almost force myself to pick it back up. But I have no idea why! I have no idea why it was so easy to forget the quality of this show, but maybe someone else had the same experience and can tell me why.
Overall, really, really good. It has its flaws, and even though I may have to remind myself repeatedly that I loved it, I still did.
