Characters designed by Naru Nanao, Check
One of the writers from Kanon the game, Check
Charming slow paced romance, Check
Mamiko Noto playing an energetic, rain loving, zettai ryouki wielding character, Check!
Perfectly consistent and plot-hole free?...ok, I guess not
I guess I’ll start with my complaints with the series. Sola started very slowly with an almost slice of life feel. The premise is quite typical of the romance genre. You have your typical boy meets interesting girl and both fall in love. The way the characters interacted was very charming as well as having an overall happy mood with a sense of sadness/intrigue in the backgrounds. That intrigue comes from the fantasy elements, in particular, yakas. This isn’t what bothered me, in fact I liked the inclusion of fantasy elements, its just that Sola doesn’t know what it wants to do. First we have the nice calming slice of life aspect, which characterizes the beginning of the series. However, the 2nd half, was dominated by the fantasy/action elements, which was distinctly different and will probably alienate those initially watched Sola for the slice of life aspect. While this was a perfectly normal setup the transition wasn’t very smooth. How else can I easily categorize this anime into 2 distinct parts, first half and 2nd half?
Also, I felt that quite a few characters were neglected. Mana and Koyori really felt like token friends and didn’t contribute much after the 1st half. This was quite a shame as I much rather liked Mana, unfortunately (or is it fortunately?) she was a perfectly normal person. Takeshi and Mayuko in the end fell in to a smaller and smaller role, especially when their background was explained. In addition, there were several aspects that I felt they should have really expanded on/explained. For example, the sword that Takashi wielded. Even worst there were a few character inconsistencies especially near the end, something I won’t delve into as to avoid spoilers. In general, I thought the writing was weak.
Structure-wise, once again had a poor transition between the 1st half and the 2nd half. Also, I really hated that fact that they explained so much near the end. While we can infer most of what happened, I felt that it could have been better if they simply told us what happened earlier. I must admit that it was quite interesting to discover the source of conflict juxtaposed with the falling action during the 2nd to last episode.
Ok enough of the bad…
During the first half the way the characters interacted was quite charming. In particular, I loved the exchanges between Matsuri and Yorito. Their growing love for each other was nice to watch. In addition, there are scenes of immense beauty and serenity. The 2nd half, the story started to hit and when it hit, it really went. Each episode was fast paced and exciting. Also, they torture the viewer each week with a cliffhanger, this is something that should be marathoned. Not only should it be marathoned for the painful cliffhangers, it should be marathoned due to the fact that Sola breaks down under scrutiny, as evident of the above paragraphs. However, what made me rate this an 8 is that when I was watching I was quite entertained. I just wished that I had watched it when the series had ended instead of watching weekly.
As for the technical aspects, there isn’t much to talk about. The music was very serene and overall quite nice. VA work in particular was very good, especially Matsuri and Aono. Although, I wasn’t really fond of Yorito’s VA, everyone else was pretty good. Animation-wise was above average and featured some nice fight scenes and beautiful scenery. While I love Naru Nanao’s artwork I felt that Sola didn’t do as good a job with converting CG art to anime art. Where as I though Da Capo and ef ~A Tale of Memories~ did a much better job.
In the end Sola probably won’t stick with me for a very long time, I hate to say it but it was a bit forgettable. Also, there were a few problems with the structure and the story itself as well as consistency. However, that won’t change the fact that when I was very entertained when watching. Just remember to marathon the series.
