Sola

I would be in complete awe if I get to see the night sky merged with the final hues of the blue sky...

These days are creeping up on me and time can never settle for anybody. Heading back to the classroom scene on Monday and my compiled High School Freshman Advice has been heavily postponed (tryna get this posted before Sunday evening).
   A summer of about 80 days has brought anxiety, Facebook browsing, self-loathing, procrastination, tons of sleep (till this month when I stayed up day after day..), karaoke, cramming, and more anxiety. I only touched my violin for an hour within three days. And guess whose metronome-tuner is missing?

Sola/ sora, "sky" in Japanese
13x21 mins
2007 
Drama, Supernatural, Romance

Yorito likes photographing the sky. He becomes entranced by Matsuri, a girl who's never been under the sky. Meanwhile, his hospitalized sister realizes that she has found no joy in her life, until Matsuri encounters her. 

First half is expositional. Preferred Watching Sequence: eps 6-12. Whether the show's slow pace is to imitate the shifting changes in the sky or not, there is a small set of characters, three of whom are to be the main focus in the second half.
   The series is intended to sway viewers to avoid the larger-than-life grief of long episodes of not letting go, or suffering, to an extreme.she was saved from her own death. Matsuri is a supernatural being, a Yaka, who burns in sunlight, leaps and jumps pretty high, and likes tomato juice. Considering herself not human, her romantic feelings for Yorito arouse a new spirit for the centuries-old creature. Her character is split between charity and self-driven authority. I don't believe that the main characters are angsty or insane at times, but rather displaying the power of our desires and thoughts. To tamper with somebody's mind or being nosy, there are bound to be retaliations.

With a metaphor of paper representing the human attachment of longing, the show's MC could arguably be Yorito's sister, Morimiya Aono, who does origami as a pastime, a symbol of whatever natural forces toy with lifespans or even being an extension of her desire to break free from herself, because

    I couldn't help but think of School Days while I was watching. The character design, two girls battling medieval-style, the classroom setting. Surprisingly, School Days was produced a month after Sola finished airing. The two series share many similarities, but of course, there are gonna be differences. Gonna be on the lookout for knit hats and anime screamss!

  On a rainy Saturday, maybe tapping into the final couple episodes wouldn't hurt. This does not hit it hard as a romance, but I got thrown off with what I know by the here-and-there flashbacks. Yorito either sounds a tad softspoken or his eyes got a girl's sparkle; I think this anime made me forget that there are brothers and sisters who are simply fond of each other's presence. Interestingly, Yorito and his sister, Aono, switch gender roles in a way. In Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, Crooks says,"A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody." Ah, when you get a bigger scoop of wisdom or understanding after a reread.

SWEATPANTS
Sequence	5
Well-Casted	5
Enjoyment	6.5
Ability to be Binged	6
Theme Song/ Animation is Present	6
Personalities Differ Among Characters	5.5
Alternating Viewpoints/ Camera Work	6
Nice! There's Character Development	4
Title	6
Suspense/ Surprise	5
Total	5.5

Sola: the manga
2 Volumes

For aesthetics and coloriffic reasons, this manga would make some decent OVAs. The manga reveals Yorito and Matsuri's comfort with each other (awkwardness is nonexistent between them) and pans around to other characters, as the anime did so. I can't say if the manga is more enjoyable than the anime and vice versa, but the manga is organized and clear about everything.
Rating: 6/10