sola - review
Ok. I’m going to be bluntly honest about this series.
I didn’t like it >_>;;
This is more like a opinion-generated critique than a review, and i’m too lazy to make this anything structured.
Let’s cut to the chase. There are a bunch of aspects of this series that led me to dislike this series, and here it is as follows:
1) This part is kind of not the anime’s fault, but I’ve already seen something like this in Windy Tales. Of course, there are HUGE differences such as characters, they follow the EXACT same theme of the sky and I felt like sola is a rip off of windy tales, despite the fact that windy tales is not nearly as popular as sola.
2) The characters. This is kind of where the anime just fell apart for me. For instance, Yorito. I didn’t like him. At all. He lacked personality, and the girls kept going after him for the weakest reasons. I just couldn’t relate to the whole situation at all. There was so much drama going on, and such intense moments that I couldn’t get into because the characters were like… unappealing to me. And they’re killing and sacrficing their lives over him? That’s the part where it was hard to relate to. I also thought that Aono was potrayed very badly. There are times where her personality changes in the end due to "character development", but it just seemed like she was completly out of character for the sake of appealing fan boys >_>;; I also have to add that all of the characters, appearance wise, feel "out of place". As if they were pulled out from different anime series >_>; Mayuko looks like someone pulled out from Rozen Maiden, Matsuri looks like she was pulled off Da Capo, and Aono looks like someone pulled out of Suika or something @_@; It was a pretty bad mix in my opinion, and again, their appearance had no real meaning. I think they would have looked better as regular school girls rather than cliche harem characters…
3) Terrible attempts at humor… do i need to go any deeper?
4) I didn’t like a lot of the flaws and plot holes. How did Takeshi figure out so much about Matsuri, why do the characters act so immature if they’re over 100 years old, etc..
See…the story and plot was REALLY good and had great potential, but what killed it the most for me was the characters -_-;; That was quite possibly the biggest let down. I also have to comment on the pace… the anime came off extremly… dull for a very long time. And I kind of fell asleep through the series and it took me a while to wake up and realize that the series was getting better.
So Sola wasn’t all that great for me, I guess moe harem characters just don’t appeal to me and practically ruin the whole anime. This happens practically all the time when I watch any anime like this :P
Story……………………………………B-
Production (animation/sound)…… B
Characters…………………………… E
Enjoyment……………………………..D
Overall score: 72/100
July 27, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
Omg, my big apology for recommend this anime to you. I feel like I fail you again T__T
Well, I won’t argue with you, but I personally love this series. I like almost every characters. I thought Yorito suppose to be emotion-less since he is not human. He is just a creation that made from Aono’s imagination. So of course, he won’t have thought like what most human do. Haha, I guess age doesn’t equal to maturity in anime world, Mel. Once again, I’ll try better next time for recommend you anime. Sorry. Oh, BTW, can you guess who is my favorite character in that series and why ??
July 27, 2008 @ 5:19 pm
it’s alright xD i think the main reason i didn’t like sola was the harem genre
but i’m guessing aono is your favorite character? she seems like the type you’d like
July 28, 2008 @ 8:09 am
T_T and T_T and T_T
OMG, you know if you were to asked me about Sola, I would go as far as to say this is one of the best anime in its season.
As for Yorito, I think his lack of personality is fair enough for him since his memories was created by Aono. Well, at least he still remember about the “sky” which is something important to him in the past and the only thing that wasn’t fake.
The most important thing about Sola is about the life of the 3 main characters and the best thing about Sola must be the ending which is how great they handle the ending.
Well I wouldn’t say Sola is the best series ever made but at least it is deserved something better than that T_T
July 28, 2008 @ 2:19 pm
I feel your pain, Siva T__T. It’s partially my false too that I rush her to finish it. Well, at least, Mel like it to a certain degree and she didn’t completely hate it like School Days XD.
July 28, 2008 @ 2:25 pm
Hmmm………I guess you are 1/2 right. Yeah, I like Aono if it’s based on only the look from the outside. However, overall from the look and personality. Mana wins my heart in this one XD.
August 11, 2008 @ 1:05 pm
Sola was one of those animes that you come into expecting great things, and getting disappointed. You’re right on the money about the character development (or lack thereof). The pacing was awful with too much hum-drum mundane life bits and too little exposition on their tragic past. The vampiric-like angst should have been explored more.
This anime could have benefited from being a 2 season series; the Takeshi x Mayuko arc squeezed time away from the main triangle without being sufficiently developed itself.
Then again, 10 years ago and Sola would have trounced stuff like Love Hina. Anime-lovers are getting more sophisticated and the studios gotta keep pace.