Sorry for the lateness this time around, finals ftl.

A relatively calm episode, compared to the last two. No action scenes or significant plot development, this week’s installment of Sola was Matsuri fanservice for the masses. From what I got out of it, the whole episode was an attempt to showcase the stupidly naive, innocent, and simple side of Matsuri. In other words, building up her “moe” element.

Episode Rating: 7/10

The episode starts off with the rare occasion of Yorito actually going to school. Apparently he’s been afraid to leave Matsuri alone in fear that he’ll return to a house full of broken appliances. Just as he’s about to leave, Mana shows up on the front porch. Yorito panics and tries to obstruct Mana’s view so she can’t see Matsuri, but little does he know that Matsuri already ninja’d her way upstairs, leaving him looking like an idiot.

Flash forward to after school and one of Yorito’s rare visits to the hospital. He brings another plushie gift for Aono, which is once again tossed aside and ridiculed for bad taste. With Matsuri on his mind, Yorito decides to leave asap, this awakens attention whore Aono, who gives Yorito the silent treatment.

Outside the hospital, Mana questions Yorito on why he’s been so secretive and distant lately. She knows he’s hiding something, and for him to hide it from Aono too, it has to be something big. Yorito profusely denies the accusations and runs off.

Yorito returns home to find that Matsuri went to the convenience store to do some shopping, which to her means buying the cheapest thing available, even if it looks horrible. And so, avocado ramen, which even she can’t deny tastes terrible after trying some.

Being the only decent cook among the cast, this cues Mana’s entrance. Yorito tries to stop her from coming in, in fear that she’ll see Matsuri, but she forces her way through anyways. Luckily Matsuri had the sense to run upstairs and out of sight. As Matsuri prepares dinner, Yorito has a panic attack thinking about what would happen if Mana discovers Matsuri. This is, of course, what Mana has in mind, and with no seasoning for cooking, she uses that as an excuse to get Yorito out of the house.

Mana’s search of the house comes up blank, until she returns to the kitchen to find a hungry Matsuri snacking on her salad. Awkwardness ensues.

The rest of the episode is Yorito trying to explain who Matsuri is, and Matsuri ruining all of his explanations. They finally give up and tell Mana the half-truth, that she’s just a random girl who needed food and a place to stay, so Yorito took her in, like a stray cat. Apparently this explanation is enough to satisfy Mana, and she promises not to tell anyone about her. And so, with her acceptance set in stone, Matsuri goes to fetch her things and settle in for an extended stay.

Thoughts

Word of the day: ayashi~

So this episode was kind of boring. While it was nice to see the interaction between the main characters, it was missing the couple minutes of action sequence that broke up the monotony, like in the previous two episodes.

I thought the plot pacing for Sola would be really fast, seeing as they only have 13 episodes to work with, but it’s going surprisingly slow. The script writers need to decide whether they want to go with the mystery approach using Kyoshiro Zwei and sun fearing creatures of the night, or slice of life romance, because drifting around in the middle leaves me wanting more from each side. Makes me wonder if they’re writing this as they go along, since there is no source material for Sola, the game and manga are apparently in parallel production with the anime.

On a more awesome note: Matsuri’s a freaking ninja. The two times where Mana showed up at the front door, Matsuri had to run through her direct line of sight, up the only set of stairs to the second floor. She does it both times without being seen or heard (I even cranked up my volume and listened for faint footsteps, nothing). And when Mana gets Dorito-kun out of the house and makes her way upstairs, Matsuri ninja’s her way past her to get downstairs, and steals her food. But alas, her gluttony was her undoing, as she lets down her guard to eat and is caught.

But what’s with Matsuri’s change in behaviour this time around. Last time she was all “I’ve lived for ‘n’ centuries and haven’t died yet so STFU human, I can take care of myself” Yet this episode reveals that she can’t do anything for herself and hasn’t exactly adjusted to life in the 21st century just yet. This is just more evidence that the writers seem to be writing as they go along, which can have some iffy results, if normal television is any indication…

…actually “normal” TV bores the hell out of me and I haven’t watched any in about a year, so that’s just a guess.

I won’t comment on the building of Matsuri’s “moe” elements. If lolikit-kun’s posts of late are any indication, he’ll probably mention something about it.

On a less awesome note: Aono is still a childish attention whore and needs to go die in a fire. She wants attention from Dorito-kun, yet when he goes out his way to buy her a present, she tosses it aside and ridicules his bad taste. What ever happened to “It’s the thought that counts”? I wouldn’t want to spend time with her if I was Dorito-kun either. I’m also beginning to think she really does have the same condition as Matsuri, or at least an early stage of it, which would be awesome because I called it, but would also suck because it’s a generic cop out excuse for plot development.

And I usually don’t notice these things, but was there a slight drop in animation quality this week? It might just be because I was tired, but it didn’t seem as awe inspiring this week. Though it also might have been because most of the episode was set indoors and there wasn’t any whoamg light arrows and collapsing scaffolds.

Lastly, I know I was complaining about the amount of soraphaelia in the previous two episodes and begging them to tone it down a bit, but I didn’t want them to cut it out completely! It was the absolute opposite end of the spectrum in this episode, there was barely any mention/gawking of the sky. As much as I struggle against the grip of soraphaelia, I’m a little saddened in its absence =(

And so I’m left wondering where we’re going with Sola, definitely not a good sign. But three episodes in and none of the characters have spawned mecha limbs, so relatively speaking, we’re in good shape.

…These Kyousora references really have to stop. It mars the healing process T_T

~ Shirukii ~