sola – 01

Summary:

Early one morning, Morimiya Yorito leaves home and bikes to the waterfront so that he can take pictures of the first light of day. While it’s still dark, he notices that there’s a girl nearby kicking a vending machine because it ate her money. Yorito succeeds in getting a drink by kicking the machine, but by the time he does so, the girl is gone and the sun is coming up. Later that day, Yorito heads to the hospital with his friend Ishizuki Mana to bring his older sister Aono a birthday cake and a present. Nevertheless, when Yorito catches sight of the beautiful sunset outside, he races to the rooftop to take a picture of it and manages to get one with the nearby church in the foreground. Mana lectures him about it when they get home because it was his sister’s birthday and Yorito’s the only family Aono has left. She thinks that the sunsets are all the same, but Yorito disagrees because no two skies are the same. He ends up going on an errand for Mana, but on the way back, he gets caught in the rain. Yorito takes refuge by the waterfront near the same vending machine from earlier and by chance happens to see the same girl kicking it again. When a strong wind blows her umbrella away, Yorito notices that the inside of it is painted to look like the sky.

After the girl recognizes him, the two return to the vending machine where she attempts to charge to get it to dispense her drink. Yorito manages to get in the way, so she runs right into him instead. When the drink comes out anyway, the two have a good laugh about it. Afterwards, she asks him if he likes the rain, he admits to loving the sky. The girl is very interested in the photos Yorito has taken of the sky and shows him the picture she’s carrying of the sunset with a church in the foreground. Recognizing the rosy clouds in her photo, Yorito proceeds to tell her all about clouds. He then sees the girl standing as if she’s in a green field under a blue sky, and when his sight of her returns to normal, there appears to be a tear running down her face. After thanking him, she turns to go, so Yorito stops her to find out her name. The girl gets him to tell him his name first before she finally introduces herself as Shihou Matsuri. The next day, Yorito remembers how Matsuri looked like she was crying and the photo she had shown him. This reminds him of the photo he had taken before from the roof of the hospital since hers had the same church in the foreground.

That church is where Matsuri is staying, and on this very night, Matsuri wakes up to hear someone opening the front door. When she goes to check it out, there’s no one there, but when she turns back around, a man appears in the darkness and starts attacking her with dart-like objects that spew bright light. Matsuri manages to dodge the beams and heads for the windows, but the man is prepared with high-powered lights outside shining into the church. He corners Matsuri at the alter and draws his sword, but the entire scene gets interrupted by the arrival of Yorito.

ED Sequence

ED: 「mellow melody」 by Ceui
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2
The opening for this first episode wasn’t the real OP but rather a soft song that plays while the main character Yorito is biking to the park early in the morning. I assume the real OP will start next week, though it is already being streamed on the official sola website. The ED was okay, but not that great (I have yet to really like a Ceui song).

Most of this introduction episode was quiet and pretty to look at with all the sky and sunset imagery, and I originally hadn’t expected this to be anywhere near action-oriented. Thus, the end of this episode came as a bit of a surprise because all of the sudden Noto Mamiko‘s character was jumping around avoiding a guy armed with bright lights and a sword. It adds an interesting element to the story, along with all the hints of Matsuri not being human since she never shows up outside during the daytime and she has to avoid bright light.
Overall, with the good animation quality, interesting premise, and strong voice cast including Noto Mamiko, Nakahara Mai, and Shimizu Ai, I enjoyed the first episode and plan to watch/blog at least a little more of sola.

38 Comments

  1. dita

    yaay, i was waiting for you to blog this. I’m about to watch it myself, the screens look decent 😀

  2. Alastor

    so, there is fights on this one?
    when i first read your preview, i wasnt very exited, i’m more of the action type guy, and i usualy hate those type of shows, but the last escene on this one makes me want to watch a few more episodes, just to see where this is going to

  3. Asrialys

    I loved the animation for Da Capo Second Season and hoped to see something like that again in another good anime. I hope this series turns out well.

  4. Karis

    It came out interesting as I expected, but lets hope it stays that way. And Murder Princess was kinda good too, an I love the Ending song of it.

  5. AznSoulBoy

    It looks like a good anime

  6. lulu

    the first ep was great!
    as expected of J.C.

    hopefully it’ll get even more interesting by the next few eps

  7. Rasmiel

    How cliched is that bunny doll design…-_-;

  8. hk

    i got to watch this anime

  9. Furuba

    Wow looks good and it’s only 13 eps, coolies!

  10. Baka-Kun

    Is this shoujo?

  11. Angelina

    i dont know if i should watch this or not…

  12. Syaoran Li

    It’s only 12 episodes run, not 13.

    Just saw the RAW, looks pretty interesting so far. Mamiko Noto-sama on a liding role, a good change for her after Enma Ai in JS.

  13. Sailor Enlil

    Mana (the childhood friend/possible non-blood related sister) gives me both Da Capo and Lamune vibes (especially the fish hairclip).

  14. mewmew

    this looks just intriguing enough for me to follow through. ^^ oh what the heck, i dont have enough anime to follow this season, so why not ^^;

  15. Asrialys

    I can’t explain it, but I’ve never wanted an anime subbed more than this one…

  16. Vexx

    The fighting caught me by surprise…. I was expecting a good deal more moody and atmospheric set up before any violence. Hopefully, thats not a trend as I’m looking for atmospherics here (did I mention I love rain? 🙂 ).

  17. shh227

    I believe this is a bishoujo because it is in the Dengeki Daioh so it is a senin.

  18. Rem~

    The animation quality looks top notch! The main gal look like tenma chan!

  19. JS

    Yeah, caught me by surprise too. I sense a vampire x human kind of situation.

  20. Cyrusbunny

    you blogged it i’m so happy!XD

  21. tails

    didn’t get to taste any foie gras onigiri on my last visit to j xD

  22. Rinkun

    sorry for my noob question but is this suppose to be a manga or H-game or something?

  23. Skane

    It’s an anime.

    Cheers.

  24. Rinkun

    nono sorry i confuse u i meant is this like adopt from an manga or something^_^. i know this is an anime lol

  25. looks solid, going to need to struggle through this one with my half assed Japanese skills as well.

    Hopefully a sub group will pick it up.

  26. captainchoc

    no i dont want an answer >

  27. Jacqueline

    I’m looking forward to watching this animation in my city.

  28. eric

    looks interesting, and like others, the ending really caught me by surprise

  29. Sasuke

    Ooii minaaa!!

    can someone upload sola in youtube.com or video.google.com???

    or if possible send me the side from where u donwload it please(onegai shi mas)or somthing like that:D

  30. reem

    i watch it and at first i feel board but after that i love so much and you can not no the end you must match it

  31. reem

    i watch it and at first i feel board but after that i love so much , and you cannt know the end , you must watch it……..

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