So I finally finished Sola after much aggravation with my new computer I might have a memory problem or a motherboard issue. Never buy from ECS they freaking suck any package deals you find involving ECS is simply a ploy to move their bloody inventory. As a result be wary of any bundle including ECS motherboards they are a dime a dozen and unless that processor is greatly discounted don’t bite and if you do buy another motherboard. I am going with Asus for my anime viewing machine. Forgive me Asus for I have sinned in the name of saving a few dollars.

At any rate now that I should have a new motherboard waiting in the wings and a weekend to sort this cluster fuck out, Sola ended. I apologize for my lateness but thankfully I have a laptop back up to get give Sola its last rites.

I will dispense with the summary as I am still in awe of how it ended. It was a forgone conclusion that Matsuri and Yorito were going to expire but the big question was whether or not Aono whould live or get all stabby on herself. I am glad she chose to live and even more glad that Yorito kicked the bucket. Sadly Matsuri is no longer with us though what is still in store on those DVD only eps reamains to be seen.

Now this is how it should have been resolved with nonviolent means.

If I focus hard enough it looks almost like a kissu. Concentrate concentrate…

Still I liked the way they went out Aono and Matsuri looked elegant in their heroic combat. It also helps that Mayuko changes her wardrobe, but most importantly there was a glorious end of show near yuri blow out and fashion show (Tsuruya’s Fang I like fashion shows?). Say what you will for the need to see a tragedy, but there is something to be said for a decent ending over a contrived suicide.

Like me, Mana is not much of morning person. That’s why I like her so much. Is it just me or does she look more moe than usual?

So Mayuko is still crashing in boxes though she lost her goth loli out fit and got what Lord Moyism has rightfully declared as a Souseiseki cos-play out fit. Too bad she had no twin since Takeshi can’t pull it off, not that many of us want to even see him try a goth loli outfit.

As for the final showdown between Aono and Matsuri I must say that it was very well done for an action sequence while the reflections were undoubtedly cheesy I could not help but like every non-Yorito moment. At the end their tender moments I was practically yelling at the screen demanding a kissu if only just one the forehead. Alas it was not to be, though Aono making Matsuri faces held my undivided attention.

This is how every dating sim should end doormat dies and its off to yuri land. I really like how they twisted the rooftop meeting.

May you all live happily ever after.

Thankfully my most favored otome of Sola, Ishizuki Mana, got the ending I best hoped for her. No she did not get one last dayto with Yorito (which is bad really really bad), but she ended up in a loverly yuri triangle. Though I am disappointed that she gave up her waitress job during the fashion show, she did develop a love for photography. Photophiles eat your hear out. It also very nice to see that the characters have retained some aspects for the departed pile of paper.

Takeshi however will never get any and rightfully so for abandoning the not yet of age Sae and staying with the eternal loli that is Mayuko.

Oops sorry and a happy ending to the rest of you. Except Takeshi and Yorito. Loli-cons and paper piles belong in hell. Nothing personal.

So Aono has returned after a year since the passing of Matsuri. I dare say she now sports a selection of lovely outfits and transfers into Mana’s school. Koyori and Mana have forgotten all about the existence of Yorito and Aono though their skills they learned yet remained. Koyori and Aono meet a gain anew in the same manner as their first meeting. They immediately form a strong bond and soon Mana is enlisted to go on field trips before the crack of dawn. Aono has also picked up some Klingon engineering skills to manhandle otome-handle vending machines. Koyori is still has issues addressing Mana and Aono could barely restrain her version of the Mana chop. So the three reconnect and near yuri love ensues. May their newfound friendship prove very fruitful in more ways than one.

Oh and some idiots decided to leave two tomato shuriko cans in the veranda where Yorito and Matsuri claimed as their love nest. How freaking rude. Throw your cans into the recycling bin your worthless litter bugs! Whoever you may be sod off and don’t do it again.

Hey you two just because you are dead don’t mean you can litter.

So in the end Sola was one of my favorite series this during the spring season. If you haven’t given it a go I recommend that you do Yorito is not that bad of a doormat and as emo and angst go it was fairly mild if even that. Besides There is surely one heroine to latch onto and the action is very well executed better than your run of the mill mecha battle. Also Noto-sama has a non-typecast role so support the Noto cause to prevent her from being ingloriously typecast as a silent reserve support character.

So after a Sola marathon I have been basking in all the stabbiness over a pile of paper. Thus far I have not been disappointed in the pacing and I have a vague idea of where we are headed though I am not making any bets. To those of you have yet to give Sola a try I recommend it if only for the blood spilled for a flimsy doormat. Getting over the obsession with the sky is about the only real challenge as we get to hear the doormat scream in some well deserved anguish over his/its misdeeds.

With the series coming to a close its time declare which of these wretched souls and ghouls end up being reviled or celebrated. For the purposes of this post I will be using a points system and give each a title based off my most studied conflict, political correctness and math be damned.

Spoiler Alert

Morimiya “the Shreiker” Yorito

My life is just like a dark abyss. Its so dark and grips me so tight, tighter than a pair of Nee-san’s jeans. They look great on me by the way.

Assessment:

• +20 Cool kick ass nee-san
• -10,000 Doormat
• -100,000 Blue balled hentai
• +10 Easily toyed with by Mana, Aono, and Matsuri
• -10 Dogged insistence on doing something that means the death of another being
• +20 Ditches school and gets away with it
• +60 Two dates with Matsuri
• +50 One date with Aono
• -1,000 Ditching Aono in the middle of a dayto
• -100 Not dating Mana
• -500 Made Aono cry
• -500 Made Matsuri cry
• -500 Made Mana cry
• -10 Can’t scream for troll snot, he shrieks instead
• +10 Doormat shriek that is music to my ears
• -10 Stabs Matsuri
• +100 Gets impaled by Matsuri
• +100 Flammable

Final Score: -112,260

Rank: Vichy French mongrel, he is a bigger tool than Biggs Darklighter. Somebody hold him to a flame he needs to burn! He’s a doormat, nothing more to be said. Though I get a strong suicide lovers vibe from this douche bag. I hope he burns alone. I hated every love suicide story I was forced to read, real crappy literature of people choosing to be fucked and doing stupid shit and then asking why after the fact…and they can’t even kill themselves properly.

Verdict: Pretender

Moriyimiya “das Paper” Aono

This not the face of killer, she could never harm any one. Nope Aono-san is just a simple origami master, who happens to like rainy days…

Assessment:

• +1000 Tier one fighter
• +100 Paper based weaponry
• +50 Cute loyal sidekick
• -100 Likes doormat
• +10,000 Pink dress
• +10,000 Different hairstyles
• +500 Steadfast foe
• +20 Plushie aesthetics
• -100 Committed suicide
• +100 Goes straight for the kill
• +100 Can cook
• +1,000 Ribbons
• +100 Sickly for a reason
• +1,000 Unrequited love
• +500 Stabbed Matsuri
• +2,000 Used Yorito to do it
• +300 Onee-san
• +30 Level 3 Tragic Aura

Final Score: 26,600

Centuries of mastering hair indeed. So that’s how she went on undetected…Superb camouflage, bravo.

Rank: Prussian Panzer Grenadier of Lehr Divsion with Iron Cross with oak leaves, swords, and diamonds. Seeks to destroy her enemy with out compromise. How she wins the heart of doormat is irrelevant if there is only one choice. Methodical planning is her modus operandi backed up with formidable martial prowess, without the tether of sanity that is the pile of paper she would be dangerous indeed. Too bad she won’t win the war, since there is always something to befuddle her plans. I hope she gets over her fixation with Yorito, the douche is already dead what’s once more around the same block. Besides it is a waste of trees to build another. Aono should just buddy up with Mana and adopt Koyori as a younger sibling. Then given a few years we can have hawt yuri-sis-con. Its the de facto situation anyways. As for people being irreplaceable, doormats are expendable and Yorito is a doormat. Plus Koyori refers to herself in the third person, very cute.

Yeah she needs a miracle to pull off an upset. Though I sympathize with much of her plight having her paper brother simply run into Matsuri’s arms because of some lousy promise. Living that long must have been hard though I have to wonder if she just built her home out of paper or since being a paper master she made her own money…

Verdict: Contender

Shiho “Klingon” Matsuri

Mr. Clean eat your heart out. Now I feel like doing some laundry…

Assessment:

• -10 Promised girl status
• +100 Witty
• +200 Strings along Yorito
• +1,000 Impales Yorito
• +10,000 Non-uber quiet Noto role
• +10,000 Changes her hairstyle
• +1000 Tier one fighter
• +750 Level 20 Klingon engineer
• +10,000 Multiple outfits
• +100 Cute goth-loli sidekick
• +10 Choker
• -500 Shares Yorito’s plushie aesthetic
• +10 Tomato juice habit
• -100 Queen of sparkly moments
• +500 Thigh highs
• +20 Level 2 Tragic Aura
• -200 Requited love

Final Score: 33,800

Take her home tonight, don’t you let her go till you see the light. Be her little Yaka, be her little Yaka ohhhh…yeah yeah.

Rank: MI-6 operative. Good infiltration skills marred by love for flammable paper product. Like all British spies she is very charming and has everything in her favor. Likes her tomato juice shaken not stirred. Second wielder of the sword “Doormat killa,” forged on the dawn of last Thursday all who wield it are marked for epic maneuvers. Landslide victory predicted. I still hold out hope that the lover suicide scenario does not play out, its the cheapest way to try and make a tragedy. She does have a way with machines though.

I like Matsuri for trying to extricate herself from hurricane Aono, and for impaling Yorito. Still for having superhuman powers I cannot help but wonder why she never became a super hero. After all as being strictly nocturnal she could have created quite a legend for herself. Since there are other Yaka why do they remain alone? More over since Matsuri is not gainfully employed how did she earn money to begin with?

Verdict: Contender

Ishizuki “the Choppa” Mana

First one to make a cucumber joke dies! Still Mana is love, though she needs to give Yorito a Mana Chop. Ah, a happy Mana is the most endearing Mana.

Assessment:

• +100 Best friend
• +1,000 Mana scowl
• +1,000 Mana chop
• -10 One hairstyle
• +10,000 Multiple outfits
• +1,000 Quirky friends
• +300 Onee-san
• +10,000 Helped doll up Matsuri
• +500 Seifku
• +500 Waitress outfit
• +10,000 Working member of society
• +500 Kawaii imouto
• +900 Excellent powers of deduction
• +1,000 Gets along with all other girls
• +50 No dates with Yorito
• +1,000 Unrequited love
• -100 Likes Yorito
• +750 Most apron scenes
• +100 Can cook
• +40 Excellent sense of plushie aesthetics
• +500 Shared bed with kawaii imouto
• +700 Never had a chance
• +100 Mere mortal

Final Score: 40,180

So I heard that Yorito is into lolis. Oh really? Get away from the hentai Koyori, yes slowly. Slowly almost there…

Rank: Allied Supreme Commander. The great mediator of the Sola clique, though marred by loyalties to a mere scrap of paper she is the unsung hero of series. Her contributions to the series cannot be over looked. Without her Yorito might not have been pushed to learn that he is flammable. Nor would we be graced with a dolled up Matsuri with pony tail and twin tails. It is a great tragedy that we were Mana screwed (nerdgasm from old M:TG gamer). With the least amount of screen time devoted to her she was unduly shafted for being the nice girl. As for getting the last confession in the 4th grade I suspect that yorito has been sabotaging her suitors, no freaking way is an independent lady with intelligence over looked. At the very least boys would be lining up for homework help.

At least Mana and Sae can run off to Yuri-land in the wake of the Yorito burning. If I had the means she would get her own series where she is the heroine. Given the similarities with Mikuru-ran’s combat waitress outfit with her work clothes, they can be a team in a SHnY spin-off, here’s one for wishful thinking. I just hope she gets a good happy ending.

Verdict: Unjustly sidelined, though any come back will be epic.

Why I like Mana: she has a harem, has her patented Loli-chop, and is willing to kill the doormat.

Ah this is the life. I got me a goth-loli and a twelve pack of beer. Life is good. Oh shit the Feds…

I have no idea what the heck this is about but the Engrishy title peaked my interest since I was hoping for some Zero Wing class dialog. Since Mamiko Noto was part of the cast and applying her voice to something more quirky and spunky than Hecate (almost as good as Hecate-tan though) I figured why not. Suffice to say I was drawn in. This will probably be a really crappy post since anger, outrage, and disdain are vital ingredients in my other writings, but thus far I feel more fuzzy and confused at the moment. So if you have had a bad day feel free to tear me a new one. I just found out how little I actually have to do to be able to make E-5 so right now: ain’t nothing gonna break’a my stride, Impz ain’t gonna slow me down. Oh no, I got to keep on writing…

So some dude named Yorito goes about his days leisurely taking pictures of the sky for Haruhi-sama knows why. One day he wakes up at roughly 0400 (earlier than me, orz) to take a picture of a sunrise (not the studio). He then notices a Noto character some chick a girl fighting against a vending machine for her drink. Sadly she was lacking her urban warfare kit and had neither a mallet, battering ram, or a crowbar to claim victory over the machine.

The Original Engrish

After a bit of flirting friendly banter she asks him why he is here. Yorito explains why he has a camera, however while he goes on and on about what he does the girl disappears and with her any chance of a dayto leaving him with a free drink (tomato juice?). Later he goes where every anime character has to go, the school roof top where he stares weak and weary while something rapped upon his chamber door at the sky. His friend that is a girl, Mana asks him why he stares at the sky. After boring me for a minute he remarks that he can see Mana’s pantsu though thankfully, by the grace of Haruhi-sama, I can’t.

After tarrying upon the school roof he goes to class to show off his gift for someone. Suffice to say the lad has a strange sense of what constitutes as cute though he gushes and hugs the object of cuteness much in the same way I would. Mana being my hero grabs his freak flag and waves it for the whole peanut gallery to see. All concur that it is a terrible gift and may as well get a pet rock instead. That way the gift receiver can have something to throw in his general direction without much hassle. Mana and Yorito then leave school together (kyaa…) and buy a cake.

Vending machine 1, creature of the night 0. This is why I never bought into vampires they are no match for cold steel. You need to rock the machine not kick it dear…

They then go to a hospital where a Mana’s imouto Koyori is taking care of Yorito’s imouto, Aono. Aono is a confined to her hospital bed and has an aversion to light. While peaking outside Yorito sees something that he must get on camera. So he takes his picture while ditching his sickly imouto onee-sama (EDIT, Thanks Skane, at least one of us has his head out of his ass) and failed to collectively eat cake with her. Back at the commune barracks the home of Mana and Yorito dinner is being prepared and with no ginger and nary a parent in sight Yorito is sent off on a quest to Angband to wrest the Silmarils Morgoth’s crown get ginger.

Cut to some well dressed homeless guy who is collecting cans; it suddenly begins to rain. Since Yorito will melt in water he takes refuge under some picnic overhead. And lo! He saw the same girl as before fighting the same vending machine. She then loses her umbrella, which has a sky pattern underneath, only for it to fall before Yorito. After Yorito lies to his wifey Mana and shuts off his cell phone he and this girl have another friendly banter about clouds. After drinking some crappy beer and sharing an indirect kissu the girl disappears and Yorito is left to find solace in a series of tubes. Fortunately the girl left her name, and adroitly not her number, with Yorito and more significantly I can now refer to her as Matsuri. Such was Matsuri’s ninja prowess that she leaves behind her umbrella and a picture of a sunset, for Yorito to sniff her sweet scent to keep as a memento.

I am the bone of my sword. I use cancer sticks and Fedex goth-lolis to this guy.

Cut to the same homeless guy we saw before he finds his loli under a bridge and we find out the guy is actually a troll. While Yorito is staring at the umbrella and Matsuri, Mana stoically does the right thing and keeps the sickly Aono company while asking for leniency for that cheater Yorito. We then go back to the loli and troll while they eat fois gras onigiri. Later that night Yorito has has some sort of vision and promptly heads to the local church after comparing Matsuri’s picture with one of his. Sadly because he is and infidel he does not go for mass.

We later learn that Matsuri is also destitute, lives in an abandoned church, and is soon visited by the troll who attacks her with light. However the troll is no match for Matsuri who dodges most of his attacks as she is the heir to Ecthelion of the Fountain. Soon she finds herself cornered when Yorito makes his entrance…

Digital camera, 250 dollars. Using Windows 98 on your new computer, zero dollars. Getting Mana to scowl, priceless. There are somethings money can’t buy, but for everything else there is moyism financial irresponsibility flexibility.

Impressions: Well it was a rather leisurely build up and it certainly captured my interest. I suppose that both Aono and Matsuri are both vampires of sorts since both hate the light and one seems to have a predisposition to red clothing and tomato juice. The loli and troll seem to be hunters of sorts though if they disappear I probably would not notice. I have not a clue on where this may be going and I honestly don’t care. I have taken a liking to Mana and Matsuri. Both have a certain charm about them that I can’t quite describe though I do want to cheer them onto the bitter end. Yorito hasn’t gotten on my nerves yet so he can banter all day about clouds if he so chooses. I also found out that the writer may be the the same guy who was the main writer for Kanon and if true can’t be that bad. This one looks to be a keeper, I just hope that it is not descended from an h-game.

It is a bit interesting to note that sola in Latin means roughly “only” or “just.” Perhaps this could indicate something more, or it could just be Engrish at is best.