I’m speechless. This episode was unbelievably amazing. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been bracing myself for what I thought was the inevitable “LOL, MIRACLE!” deux ex machina ending where everyone makes it out alive and well. But it looks as my worries were misplaced as we’re all set up for one EPIC ending.
The episode itself was a back and forth mashing of present day events and flashbacks, rather than cause the summary to become a mess by jumping back and forth between timelines, I’ll separate it into distinct parts.
Episode Rating 10/10
The episode starts off with a flashback to Yorito’s previous life, seemingly hundreds of years ago. The scene depicts Yorito, Aono and Matsuri living together happily, discussing their plans to leave the village together. From the dialog, it seems like this scene takes place before Aono becomes a yaka and Yorito dies, because they talk about the village being suspicious of whether Aono is alive or not and plans for the three to leave together.
Later in the episode, we get a flashback that explains everything. Aono was meant to be a sacrifice to appease the curse of the yaka. However, Aono and Yorito decided to fake it out and keep on living. But superstitions seem to get the better of them, as a torrential flood hits the village, a flood which Yorito falls victim to. Aono blames his death on herself because she didn’t go through with the sacrificial ceremony and so she takes her own life. Matsuri, who had been alone up until then, enjoyed her life with Aono and Yorito and learned of the pain of solitude. Not wanting to be alone, she used her yaka powers, which allow her to turn any dead human into a yaka, to bring Aono back. Aono curses her for forcing her into a world without Yorito, and starts working on her paper mache brother.
Back in the present, Matsuri is determined to reverse her selfish mistake and return everything to the way it should have been. She confronts Aono and baits her to a safer place to fight by telling her the truth, that Yorito has chosen her and won’t keep keep his promise to live on with Aono.
After a brief lull in the action with a rather melancholic fake date between Yorito and Matsuri, the action begins. Aono takes the bait and the fight begins.
Despite my hate for Aono, I have to admit, she’s an awesome battle tactician. Not only is her control over her yaka powers much better than Matsuri, her use of feints and her rapid adaptation to the surrounding environment completely overwhelmed Matsuri, who really sucks at fighting.
Managing to break away from Matsuri assault for a while, Aono has a talk with Yorito. He tells her to stop all this and put an end to this sham, even if it means sacrificing his already meaningless existence. Aono can’t agree to that, not after everything she’s done to be together with him, she refuses to accept his decision. Yorito takes that as the final indication that she doesn’t consider him as human, only as one of her origami creations. The real Yorito did things that made Aono upset and uneasy, but that’s what being human is all about, for her to force existence on him makes him no different from any other paper puppets that she’s created in the past.
Their talk is cut short by Matsuri, who managed to fight through Aono onslaught of paper controlled projectiles. Yorito breaks free from Aono’s binds, tackles her to the ground and holds her there. As an old movie projector lights up the background with a picture of the clear blue sky, Yorito and Matsuri’s resolve is given a final push. Matsuri places her life force into Hige’s sword, which has the power to return a yaka to human if another yaka’s life force is projected. She raises it above the terrified Aono, and…
…damn cliffhangers -_-”
Thoughts
I couldn’t have been happier with this episode, it went exactly as I had hoped Sola’s ending would. It would have been nice to actually see Matsuri stab Aono and put an end to it, but it’s not like I wasn’t expecting the cliffhanger. Though I wouldn’t say we’re out of the woods just yet, this is Kanon’s writer we’re talking about, so it’s entirely possible for him to pull out some crazy ending where everyone manages to life happily every after with no blood shed. However, I’d like to think that at this point, he’d know better than to pull of such a bs ending.
In my naive hopes, I’d like to see the hundred years of aging come back to Aono all in one instant and for her to suffer a painful death as her brother is reduced to a pile of scrap paper right beside her and Matsuri dying from blood loss after having stabbed herself and giving away her life force. An ending like that would boost Sola from an anime which used past techniques effectively to tell a great story to LEGENDARY status. But I think that’s too optimistic, so I’ll be content as long as Yorito disappears, it doesn’t even matter if Aono dies or not, because either way she’ll have to suffer the pain of losing her brother all over again, which is sweet justice in my eyes.
The fighting in this episode was surprisingly good, hell it’s better than anything Bleach or Naruto has come up with in the past couple seasons (an entire episode to break that boulder, wtf!?). Although I was disappointed with the slight overuse of paper bunshin no jutsu, it toyed with my emotions T_T Every time I thought Matsuri had her, but noooo, they were fakes. Ohshi-, did I just sum up every single Naruto fight in the past couple hundred episodes?
Although I’ve been picking on the script writers for the past couple episodes, I have to admit that their pacing of this episode was really well done. They placed comedic relief well, the fake date scene between Yorito and Matsuri served as a perfect “calm before the storm” moment, and it reminded me that even the most basic of literary techniques can surpass even the most complex JUST AS PLANNED scenarios if done right.
Of course, Matsuri love contributed to the overall win of that scene too. Noto Mamiko voicing her is a perfect fit, her high pitched childlike tone is a joy to listen to and does well in easing the tension when needed. But when she switches to her deeper, serious voice the resolution and determination in her voice comes through clearly and you forget about her moeblob alter ego.
Normally, I don’t pay much attention to seiyuu, but the sheer amount of Noto series I’ve been watching lately, as well as Soda being a huge fanboy of hers, has made me into somewhat of a Noto fanboy myself. But Rie Kugimiya still stands atop my favourite seiyuu list, my love for Shana is eternal.
So with one episode left I’m shaking with anticipation, if everything follows through on this amazing set up, this is going to be one hell of an ending. But on the other hand, if the “Miracle’s really do happen” card were to be played at this point, the whole series would collapse into a pile of wasted potential and hypocritical character development.
Pleeeeease don’t let them fuck this up!
~ Shirukii ~
18 Responses to “Sola 12”
Leave a Reply
Please use [spoiler] [/spoiler] tags for spoilers.
Loading ...
The fact that they didn’t end this episode with showing us Aono’s impaled corpse, and the fact that they didn’t end the show with this episode, indicate that they will fuck it up. T_T
The fighting was so good…
“I’d like to see the hundred years of aging come back to Aono all in one instant and for her to suffer a painful death as her brother is reduced to a pile of scrap paper right beside her and Matsuri dying from blood loss after having stabbed herself and giving away her life force.”
Jeepers, that’s pretty bloodthirsty. Do you need a hug or something?
Personally I’d like to see origami Yorito become a real boy; and then maybe a threesome.
>>1
If you think that’s going to happen, you need to pay more attention to takeshi’s explanation of the sword’s powers >.>
あと、 Yorito \(^o^)/ ｵﾜﾀ
@ lolikit: Shh, don’t introduce doubt into my idealistic world, you’ll crush it!
@ Bakaboy: I’ve had my fix of happily ever after anime, Sola is one of the few series that can end badly and still be awesome. Admittedly, that paragraph was a little bit sadistic, but as I said, as long as Yorito goes down, it’s awwwwwright.
@ bd_: Remember, this is anime we’re talking about. That sword could suddenly react to the sheer will power of Matsuri and turn them all into humans. Though if that were to happen I’d have to kill someone.
God this episode was so amazing.
I really want a happy ending. But I really can’t tell what’s going to happen. I wasn’t sure about the explanation of the sword, so it could mean the end of Matsuri, or maybe Aono… >____
It was a hell of an episode!! I think it will end with only Aono surviving, cause Matsuri will give her “life” to Aona by stabing her through Yorito, and with that, Yorito will di (e) sappear. A good ending, also it’s sad, but life isn’t always a happy end right? :D
Epic battle scenes :) Totally what I wanted from this episode!!! :)
It’s a shame that Matsuri sucks at fighting, I really wanted to see Aono get her ass kicked seven ways to Sunday :)
What Matsuri lacks in battle skills, her moe-ness more than makes up for it! :)
@ Shirukii:
“In my naive hopes, I’d like to see the hundred years of aging come back to Aono all in one instant and for her to suffer a painful death as her brother is reduced to a pile of scrap paper right beside her and Matsuri dying from blood loss after having stabbed herself and giving away her life force”
———–> You are one dark and twisted individual :)……That would be a legendary ending for sure!
Agreed, Shirukii, the episode rocked. I don’t rule out a miracle bullshit happy ending though, they’ve got an audience to pander to after all, and if Yorito gets his threesome GOOD END there’s going to be more incentive to buy the DVDs. Probably.
@ cornpopsicle: The sword supposedly takes Matsuri’s life force and uses it to convert another yaka, in this case Aono, into a human. So if everything goes as planned, Matsuri should die, Aono should become human and Yorito will disappear because Aono’s yaka powers aren’t holding him together.
@ Karurosu: That’s exactly what I’m hoping for, but the ways they can screw it up are numerous =(
@ Kanon_fan82: It’s the Noto =P
And compared to some of the endings out there, my ideal one isn’t -THAT- sadistic…is it?
@ Owen S: Usually the endings where they cater to fans are popular h-game adaptations and shounen shows, wherein character development is strongly based on popularity polls. Whether or not this is the case with Sola will probably make or break the ending.
I think Sola is a manga adaption, not an h-game….could be wrong though…..
Actually, Sola’s three mediums are being done in parallel. The manga began serialization in January, the anime in April, and a ps2 game is currently in development.
One last thing….Yorito always calls Aono “Nee-san” which I’m assuming is short for sister (Onee)…..
does that mean that the original Yorito was Aono’s brother??? If so, she really shouldn’t feel that threatned by Matsuri’s romantic interest in him……..
Yep, judging from the flashbacks they were brother and sister. However, that’s never stopped romantic interest from developing between siblings in the past, ie. siscon.
Some siscon series: Da Capo, Koi Kaze, Onegai Twins, Canvas2, Gift ~ Eternal Rainbow ~, the list goes on =P
Siscon ftw!
@Kanon_fan82 : Kanon, u must be missing something about Matsuri. Do u know that Matsuri has a power that she never ever want to used? How many times did u see her want to fight against some1 and how many times did u see her want to use that power or practice her skill?
@Shirukii : lol, Why do u so happy to see that kind of ur ending and why do u hate Aono so much? lol, u dont have to show ur emotion that much.
Back to topic: it is just like what Shirukii said, the ending might end up just like what he has state above. But for one whole episode just to show 1 small plot like that? Did u guy missing something? Do u know who is the Yaka who turn Mayuko to yaka? What do u expected for Mayuko and Takeshi end up like? 1 died and the other suffer for the rest of her life? Why do u expect so much for Matsuri and Yorito to disappeared?
And the last , do u know that Sola serie had 2 more OVAs?
It’s not so much that we don’t notice these things…….just that the cliche endings are somewhat boring :P
And I don’t know about Matsuri’s “special power”….unless you are referring to her ability to paralyze/kill objects with a focus of her powers….like she did with Takeshi’s arm…..She wouldn’t use that power on Aono anyway because she sees her as a friend……
in any case, please don’t spoil it :)
My only beef is that Matsuri is the one who made Aono into a yaka and should–in all probability–have more combat skills (ie. master being stronger than a student)
And as far as OVA’s go…..they are more add-ons to the original plot/ending……I have yet to see an OVA which I’ve throughly enjoyed :P
I knew about the 2 episode DVD OVA, but the way things are going they’ll probably wrap up the main storyline here and the OVA will be either a separate story involving side characters, or an epilogue.
As for why I want the series to end with at least one death, it’s because I’m sick of endings that are set up to end that way on a bittersweet note, but then back out at the last minute with a happy ending. Such an ending is why I can’t say Mai HiME is one of my favourite anime and I don’t want to see it happen again. Sola is set up for an ending where someone has to die, I just want to see them finish what they started =P
As for Aono, I’ve hated her from the beginning, I don’t exactly know why, I just do =D As for showing my emotions through my writing, it’s something I can’t really help, I try to balance both rationality and emotion, but the scale isn’t perfect. Sorry if it offends you ^^
The yaka who turned Mayuko into a yaka was Matsuri o.o who else could it have been? Matsuri knows that she’s made mistake after mistake bringing people back to life against their will, that’s why she’s trying to put things back to the way they’re meant to be with Aono.
Why must Aono die?
—–> She’s just damn annoying lol :P
I dont think Matsuri is the one who turn Mayuko into a yaka, because Mayuko didnt seen to recognized Matsuri at all from the beginning, i believe that Mayuko remember the person who turn her into a yaka.
We know that Matsuri knows that she’s made a mistake by bringging people back to life against their will, but did she intended to kill Aono from the beginning? I guess No. I though the only reason she did that was because Yorito asked her that he want to disappeared with her, forever i guess, and the only way to make him disappeared forever is to stop Aono from being using her power or killed her. But there is one big problem that i dont understand, why she stabbed herself after seeing the blue sky? or did she thinks that im finally able stand under the blue sky and i have no regret at all after standing under the blue sky and disappear with Yorito? I believe that Matsuri knew if she did so then Aono will be the one who suffer the most, and i believe that Matsuri has no that kind of intention at all and it doesnt fit at all with the reason she want to be a sacrifice.
@Kanon_fan82, Annoying doesnt mean she had to died. lol am i right?