Now with 100% more loli chop!

As much as I hate Aono centric episodes, I have to admit that this one in particular wasn’t all that bad. A lot of plot revelations and an equal amount of questions raised. Riding the momentum from last week, it looks like Sola is starting to capitalize on the massive amounts of potential it’s shown since the beginning.

Episode Rating: 9/10

Days and weeks pass by since Matsuri’s disappearance after her late night date with Yorito, this time not even leaving him with an art defacing “bai bai”. And she’s not the only one who has disappeared without a trace, loli in a garbage can has also ditched Hige, presumably because of his incessant lying.

During their meeting the night Aono left the hospital, Matsuri promised her that she would never show herself in front of her and Yorito again. However, Aono doesn’t tell Yorito about it, instead trying to ease the pain of her leaving by getting rid of anything that reminded him of Matsuri. This pisses Yorito off and he scolds Aono and Koyori, who helps in the redecoration, before running off to the park.

Aono shows up, gives him back his pictures of the sky and apologizes for her actions. They walk around town as Yorito admits that he knows that Matsuri is gone for good, but he wanted to keep even the slightest bit of hope alive.

After a month passes without Matsuri’s return, Aono is getting settled into Yorito’s life once again. Her relationship with Yorito also advances, and one afternoon they decide to go on a date. The date itself mirrors that of the one Yorito and Matsuri went on, to the point where Yorito begins to reminisce about her.

Yorito decides to stop by the convenience store to grab a towel to dry off Aono, who lost her umbrella to a gust of wind. Much to his surprise, Matsuri is there at the same time, casually buying her favourite drink. When she sees Yorito she makes a run for it. When Yorito starts to chase after her, he’s stopped by Aono, who begs him to let her go and stay with her. But Yorito’s feelings for Matsuri are still strong, he shrugs Aono off, apologizes, and continues to chase after her.

Yorito eventually manages to track Matsuri, who’s staying in a run down apartment with loli in a garbage can. He begs her to come back home with him, not knowing that she’s promised Aono to stay out of his life. But it’s too late for that, Yorito obviously loves Matsuri, and in a last ditch attempt, he hugs her and once again asks her to come back.

Meanwhile, Aono, who thought she had Yorito all to herself now, goes into a jealous fit. Using what I can only assume are her yaka powers, she takes over Yorito’s body and forces him to stab Matsuri with a nearby shard of glass.

Thoughts

Aono needs to fucking die in a fire. For such a passive character, she’s quite the attention whore. In any situation that causes her discomfort or inconvenience, she takes one of two actions, she either ignores the problem completely with the silent treatment, or causes physical harm to the object of annoyance. This was all fun and games when she was karate chopping Koyori or kicking Dorito-kun in the shins. But to go as far as stabbing her love rival!? Bitch needs to die!

With that out of my system, there’s still a lot of mysteries surrounding Aono. The above flashback scene confirms what a lot of people were saying last week, that Aono was once human. Meaning that Matsuri’s act of reviving her was what caused her to turn into a yaka.

My guess is that Aono probably guilted Matsuri into leaving her with Dorito-kun, in retribution for having turned her into a monster. But it’s still not explained how Aono and the present day Yorito met, how they became siblings, or how he’s related to the Yorito from the past.

Not that I’m really complaining, but the animation producers seem to have a hair fetish XD Not only this episode, but varying hairstyles have been used for the characters throughout the series so far. If anything, it’s just making their job harder, as they have to develop new character models, but it keeps the animation fresh, so I guess it’s not in vain. And because someone’s going to point it out anyways…*insert comical remark about similarity to the hair scene in Haruhi*

Another question brought up by this episode is how exactly Matsuri and loli in a garbage can ended up in their current situation. Come to think of it, had loli in a garbage can ever seen Matsuri when Hige was hunting her? Either way, after living with her for over a month, I’m pretty sure they’ve sorted out each other’s identity.

Loli in a garbage can remains one of the anomalies in Sola, there hasn’t been much emphasis on her development as a character, but there are enough hints to suggest that she plays a fairly significant role in all this. I demand answers!

But I guess it’ll have to wait for another week, at least.

GTFO

~ Shirukii ~