Twelve Moments in Anime 2007 - #6: sola 12

The "12 Days of Christmas" series is a joint feature by some members of the Anime Blogging Collective recognizing twelve moments, twelve series, or just twelve things about anime that we've enjoyed over the past year, that really make us enjoy loving what we do, and that is being an anime fan. Feel free to join in the list-making fun too if you wish. We hope you enjoy this feature.

Sometimes, the best way to say something, is to say nothing.

Any anime, any form of fiction can go on and on in a never-ending monologue about life, the universe, and everything. Sometimes these rants can be quite intriguing; watching a character deconstruct or perhaps devolve allows a close-up, personal, and quite emotional look at events and the inner workings of it all.

So it's understandable that quite a few anime like to embrace the long-winded speech, whether it be a bit of technobabble, a Shakespearean emotional dump, or just a simple an explanation as to why everything is Just As Planned.

But over the my first real year of anime watching, I've found that the moments that really make your skin tingle are the ones that are aren't really moments at all.

A silent moment, a seeming pause in time, can hit hard like a sonic boom after an intense scene. Rather than being told how powerful a moment is, one can simply feel the air crackle with tension, with emotion, with anything and everything that can make a single scene stand out.

In that sense, one part of sola 12, says volumes.


12 Moments of Anime 2007
#6 - sola 12
"The Sound of Silence"

sola, for all the praise it recieved as the surprise of the spring season, seems to have faded quite quickly from the spotlight.

This seems to be the fate for a lot of anime that are heralded as new, exciting, and a vital watch; time stops for no show and as good as any one series can be, inevitably it will be drowned by the onslaught of shows, many equally good, that follow it.

In the visual-novel-style, almost pseudo-harem romance genre, this rule is more apparent than ever; there are too many big names in the industry for an independent storyline - even one penned by masters of the visual novel - to really make a mark. The Da Capos, the Key games, they have their preestablished fans and a reptuation to survive off of for years to come.

It almost seems ironic that a show such as sola, being about a bunch of characters who can never see the light of day, comes along, takes the place by storm, and just as quickly, fades into the night.

But with any show, and like the two tomato juice cans depicted at the end of the series, there will always be the little hints that yes, the show existed, and yes, it did leave its mark.

Maybe it is a bit too high praise for sola, a show that, while dramatically aweinspiring, was rather hole-filled and, like many 1-cour series, quite rushed-feeling. But if there's one worse fate than death it's being forgotten, and with that goal at the forefront I don't mind trying to keep a show that captivated me, at least for a few weeks, from slipping into the mists of time. I'm too much of a packrat to let go of anything.

Existential Torch-esque tangent aside, sola's strength was definitely the movie-like way it was able to keep viewers on the edge of its seats; similar, perhaps, to the more recent School Days or Myself;Yourself, but in a manner that's intended to invoke shock more than disgust or tears.

There were quite a few twists that sola managed to pull off that worked quite well, as the origins and intents of the main trio, Yorito, Aono, and Matsuri, continued to be obscured, revealed, and blurred throughout the show. Matsuri's kiss-and-ditch in episode 6 and Yorito's mind-hack-induced stabbing of Matsuri in 7 stand out, and the nature of the male lead, Yorito, as shown in episode 10, quite possibly might be a premise we never see the likes of again.

It's sort of a pseudo-mix of the Torch concept of Shana and the With Enough Love We Can Make Them Alive Again idea seen around a few places (think astral projection, for one), and the issues that it brings up for all the characters - whether it be coming to grips with the flow of time, the loss of others, or simply themselves, sola was a intriguing show that blended action, romance, and substantial (if not rushed) plot together in a different way.

And the conflict finally coming to a peak between Matsuri and Aono in the penultimate episode of sola is one of the most charged battles of sola that can really say a lot about what this show is.

I won't deny that the scene as a whole is a bit Hollywood Ridiculous. I'm not fully clear the reason that Aono and Matsuri are fighting over Yorito. I'm not fully clear how Aono cranked her hax powers up to 11 for this show.

But, sola is a show with imperfections. It's a show that may not make the most sense, but it doesn't matter, because Screw The Rules, it's a roller-coaster intense ride.

And the double reversal at the end of the episode is that coaster at its peak.

Matsuri and Aono are nearing the end of their epic if not mildly implausible fight, and it looks like Aono has the upper hand. Yorito, the guy made of paper, pinned to the wall by Aono's origami, won't let Aono finish Matsuri, and with a couple poor screams, rips his own arm off pulling himself free.

Aono doesn't let this faze her, saying 'it will all be over soon', and moves to stab Matsuri when Yorito tackles her to the ground. Matsuri, now in control, is momentarily stunned but moves to action when Yorito urges her on.

On her executioner walk, though, the projector in the abandoned theater clicks on, and a picture of a blue sky, something Aono and Matsuri both wanted to see again, gets displayed on the screen.

There is a pause as all characters stop, entranced, with only the sound of the projector in the background. It's enough to give you goosebumps.

Apparently this gives Matsuri a change of heart, flashing back to Takeshi's quote that "you can transfer life onto this katana." With this in mind, she stabs herself - another stop - and moves to bring the katana down onto Aono.

Cut to black.

It's one of those moments that can make your heart stop. Sudden twists - especially ones that involve sacrifices like this - are a favorite of mind, even if they are a little improbable, and this scene is one that is one of the most memorable, in a series that you can never be sure of until the end.

It's a shining example of how silence, as the cliche goes, can be golden. That sudden stop lets the full force of the moment can finally sink in, lets the abrupt lack of sound and motion highlight and frame the events preceding.

If actions can speak louder than words, inaction can speak louder than action.

-CCY

sola revisited: An Open End

Going through a rewatch of sola, one of the more appealing animes of the spring 2007 season - at least to a Kanon-type-phile like me - and let me put this simply.

I don't get it anymore.

The events that happen in the final few episodes are great for shock value, but now I'm trying to dissect them, and, I'm just not seeing the connection. I have one particular thing in mind, which revolves around episode 12 - so obviously, if you haven't watched sola, stay far far away, and whatnot.

So, anyway. Episode 12. Huge epic fight scene between Aono and Matsuri. Lots of stabbing and papering ensues. Now, the fight scenes I can grasp. It's a bit ridiculous at times - two paper clones, Aono? - but sola has never held up very strong in the fight scenes. But those aren't expressly the main point of this.

It's not even the deux ex projector that stops everyone in their tracks. It's not quite that Matsuri, after trying to stab Aono for so long, turns the sword on herself. That's a great plot twist in itself. But the question lies in the first half of that sentence.

Why was Matsuri trying to kill Aono?

It doesn't really make sense if you look at it. Before, in the previous episode, Yorito was talking to Matsuri, about how they should "change Aono back to normal".

Now, how are we going to do that by stabbing her? It seems like the only viable plan is what ended up finally happening at the end of the episode and in 13; Matsuri stabbing herself, and then transferring her power through the sword into Aono. So what I really don't understand, is all the epic fighting that occurred in the first 20-odd minutes of 12.

Was Matsuri just breaking with Yorito's plan in the beginning; the whole "Give me Yorito" thing? But, if Matsuri killed Aono, Yorito would dissipate as well. I don't think that sword works on paper people as well.

Somehow it's just not adding up. All that fighting seemed to be just to work towards the strange plot twist of Matsuri suddenly turning the sword on herself; unless Matsuri was trying to tire Aono out so she wouldn't resist (which she ended up doing anyway). I mean, this way it makes for more of an epic final battle conflict thing...but not much sense.

But then again, that's not something sola is famous for making.

-CCY

Separated at Birth: The sky and the AIR

Another new miniseries here, dealing with something that seems to be far too common among the anime community, and that is comparisons. Why isn't Series X more like Y? Series Z is such a rip off of series S. Series W set the bar, and A, B, and C don't come close to matching the original. Feel free to fill in the blanks.

Now, the question here is: are those comparisons justified? Are the claims of copying fact or fiction? It's time to put that to the test.

First up to the line is a pair of series that at least to me seem rather similar, and maybe justifiably so - the story of sola was written by Naoki Hisaya, a man who worked on Kanon as well, so there certainly is reason for a lot of Key-sounding stuff to happen. But, AIR and Kanon are pretty dissimilar on their own, so that shouldn't be a reason for too many similarities.

But you never know. There are many things which sola and AIR have in common. You might be surprised. (By the way, huge ending spoilers and whatnot for sola and AIR after the jump)


The character list, to go with the objective first, reads out suprisingly the same. For essentially harem-esque shows (although they don't act like 95% of harem shows), the cast is suprisingly small. The harem consists of three core characters in each: AIR has Misuzu, Minagi, and Kano, while sola's consists of Matsuri, Aono, and Mana. I use the word harem very loosely in this sense, which I'll touch on later. The main character is also one of the few males in the series: Both Yukito (AIR) and Yorito (sola) lack the typical Harem Runner Up Guy (y'know, the pathetic one), not to mention a lack of male characters even in the background, really.

The side characters, though, are a bit different, as sola has a bonus loli (Koyori and Mayuko to AIR's Michiru) and a second guy in the story, Takeshi. AIR has adults (Kana's older sister and Misuzu's mother), which really barely exist at all in sola, which is sort of creepy.

So in the casting department there are striking similarities but overall enough differences to make the two quite separable.

And for being eroge/harem anime (the 'heavy harem' genre I discussed earlier) with romantic touches, there's a lack of lovey-dovey in the anime, with no real confessions in either of the two. (No, Mana's at the end of sola doesn't count) It's part of a trend, or so it seems, in a lot of these anime that romance is implied rather than explicitly stated - and I like this style a lot more. I don't mind missing the full body blushes, sparkles, flowers, and romantic violin music. sola, still, has the edge over AIR here, as the relationship between Mayuko and Takeshi, as well as Matsuri planting two kisses on Yorito, is a thousand times more than AIR ever had...I think, one moment, where Yukito notices he always just wanted to be with Misuzu.

The main girls in the story share some commonalities, as neither Misuzu nor Matsuri are anywhere close to normal. Both are in a sense 'cursed', and not allowed to build close relationships with people. Yet despite it all both have very friendly personalities, and almost a sense of naivety, since both lack experience in the world, since neither really can go out and explore on their own (whether it be Matsuri's weakness to sunlight or Misuzu's weakness in general).

Oh, and they both die, which kind of sucks.

The lead males are much like the lead females, in that there's some underlying similarities between the two. Their personalities feel very different - Yorito is portrayed more of a quitter (oh no, I'm made of paper, I'm going to go get myself stabbed by Matsuri now kthx) and not quite the ideal lead male in general, as opposed to Yukito, who is a sharp, self-sufficient guy, if not a bit of a loner. But what's interesting is that these two are different than most harem lead males, who usually are just outside observers to the sad tales of many girls. No, these two actually have a lot of weird stuff happen to them. Yorito happens to be a paper golem. Yukito turns into a crow. That's not what we call 'ordinary', and as such this makes these two quite distinctive, as neither of them are in human form at the end of the story (so far as we know).

The endings are of similar feel, to continue on that tangent. It's a bittersweet ending of sorts, the type to maybe make you cry, but at the end of it all the story really wants to end on a happy note despite all the sadness. In both the lead male and lead female are technically nonexistent (Misuzu, Yorito and Matsuri die, supposedly, while Yukito gets turned into a crow), but the side characters, if they can be called that, move on from their ties to the deceased and vow to live a happy, independent life. Both have a sense of 'reincarnation' or continuation to it, as Yukito's search for the 'girl in the sky' continues in crow form in AIR, while in sola Mana takes up the hobby that Yorito loved, and perhaps Aono as well. It shows that while the characters they cared for might not physically be the same anymore, their impact is still felt, and they certainly did have an existence in that world.

One might get a different taste in their mouth from each ending, as sola's ending has been criticized (rightfully) for being a bit abrupt, and AIR's is definitely more of a tearjerker (Misuzu's death walk...), but if one analyzes the endings a bit a lot of similarities can be discovered.

OK, so there are similarities between the two. So what? Some are deep similarities while others are less important. Everything has similarities. What about the differences?

Certainly sola has much, much more conflicts than AIR. With the presence of Takeshi, an Evil Type Guy unmatched in AIR, there is plenty of fighting between him and Matsuri, and later on between Matsuri and Aono. sola definitely does have a lot of action in it, as opposed to AIR, where any conflicts are against invisible forces - Misuzu's impending death, Kano's...trance...thing that makes her want to cut herself (or whatever it was - to be honest it's been a year since I watched AIR), Michiru's essential lack of existence. sola's conflicts are very real and very physical in comparison.

In a lighter sense, but perhaps more important to many, the moe content of both series is different. sola doesn't really deal moe in spades like most Key series do. Rather, most of sola is based on drama and action, with the moe scenes almost sprinkled in superfluously (Aono's dress up, Matsuri vs. the vending machine, Koyori head chop action). Technically, you could take it out and sola would still run. AIR is somewhat the same in that it can function without all the moe in it, but there definitely is more raw adorability (you'd be surprised what the odd shiny-look or gao~ can do for that), especially in some of the character-to-character interaction compared to sola. Kanna, Michiru, and Misuzu (plus her mother) all rank in high on that regard.

To be honest AIR is still pretty low on the overall 'so moe I'm gonna die' scale, especially compared to relatives like Kanon and other KyoAni works, but that's not entirely a bad thing, either. Too much of a good thing is, y'know, bad.

The presentation and pace of the two anime is a bit different, to me at least. While both are pretty slow through the first episodes and only kick in about halfway, sola feels a lot faster and feels a lot more breakneck with the plot twists. To use a bad analogy, AIR is like a luxury car while sola is like a sports car. Both can go fast but one's designed to keep you on the edge of your seat and give your whiplash. And that one's sola. sola hates you. It wants to shock you, end on cliffhangers and stuff, while AIR seems a bit nicer in that regard. To be honest, AIR did have that one moment where it kicked you back 1000 years at the end of the episode into the Summer arc, but other than that the major developments I believe were usually in the middle of the episode.

But to be honest, the one comparison that's really striking more than anything else is that of the theme of the story. Of course the idea is very much the same, what with 'sola' meaning 'sky' (among other things), but I think the underlying meaning is quite similar as well. Both main characters have a fascination with the sky, mainly because it represents something beautiful and appealing, yet something so untouchable. Misuzu isn't about to grow wings and fly high in the sky like she wants, and Matsuri isn't about to suddenly grow tolerance for sunlight. So both of their dreams to be either flying in or standing under a blue sky aren't about to happen. Both of the stories deal with hardships like this, the inevitability of things. One day Misuzu's going to die. One day Aono and Yorito are going to have to face the truth.

In both series, people become aware that time moves in one direction, forward, and they have to deal with getting over the past, and moving on to the future, becoming their own person through that discovery. It's not like other series, where everything magically works out. There are miracles, but they don't come cheap.

This sort of thing is what really draws me to compare the two series together, that makes certain events in sola give off a taste of AIR. And the two, despite their differences, really are quite similar, undoubtedly. But neither is directly a copy of the other in the sense that a casual viewer can look at the show and say, "This is just like X." It's more subtle, deep similarities in addition to the obvious ones. I think the way these two are related are in more of a "If you like X, then you'll like Y a lot as well" manner.

Which isn't all too bad in itself.

-CCY

Decompression: sola

As of about fifteen minutes ago sola has been completed, and it really was a ride.

sola is an interesting series. When I first watched it I found it was best described as 'Kanon Lite', which is close to the mark but not quite. It is very similar to another Key work, AIR, in both story and thematic elements, but there are many things that make it stand apart - in both good and bad ways.

sola starts off quite strong - for one, it was a series whose first episode I enjoyed (as opposed to say, Haruhi, Azumanga Daioh, Lucky Star, Shuffle!, and so forth) - but it is true that it does stumble a lot in the middle, but in the end the conclusion was fulfilling and it really could have been done a lot worse in the end.

There are flaws for sure in sola if you look closely - some of the characters are paper thin, there are continuity errors on occasion and more than a few uses of epic hax. sola definitely feels more of a work of fiction as such than a real, believable environment, but it still has merit as such.

In the end it's not so much a Kanon Lite as one would believe, and sola does do a decent job of standing on it's own. I give sola a recommendation to anyone who still does like the genre of mysterious, visual novel type things, with a request to not be too picky.

Preliminary other final thoughts and stuff after the jump.


I say the genre of visual novel type things because sola really feels like it sort of does evade classification at times. sola does have romance aspects in it, as Matsuri, Aono, and Mana all seem to like Yorito in some regard, but the whole confession thing is never really dealt with in depth, nor any other typical love aspects. And although Yorito technically has 3 girls pining after him - and the fact that there's NO OTHER GUY HIS AGE in the story at all - it's not really a harem type either. Indeed, most of the problems within the show deal with conflicts between the girls over their own issues (not directly Yorito) or Yorito's discovery of his true self.

I suppose I should label this type of stuff the 'heavy harem' genre, as most visual-novel-ish material of this type tend to have very serious stories with plenty of twists and tearjerking moments despite the fine array of cute girls.

What stands sola apart from a lot of other shows in this genre, as such, for one, is its amount of contempt for the viewer. While plot twists certainly are common, in a sense, to this genre, sola seem to do them with a malicious grin on its face. For example, shows like Kanon tend to draw out their plot twists, hint at them, and then, when they finally hit, resolve them in a quick manner (think Sayuri in episode 14). sola likes to throw plot twists at you and then cut to black.

Hey look, Matsuri got stabbed! Find out next week.
Hey look, Matsuri wants to know how to stab people! Find out next week.
Hey look, Matsuri's about to stab Aono! Find out next week.
Hey look, Matsuri stabbed herself! Find out next week.
I mean, seriously.

sola isn't really a detail-orientated anime like Kanon is either. While Kanon drops little cameos, hints, and plot-related foreshadowing into its scenes to make things very fluid and continuous, sola contains quite a few errors and just plain stupid actions. For example, Yorito jumping off his bike and beginning to run in the rain to chase after Matsuri. Yorito jumping in the way of Matsuri's (and Takeshi's) sword.

Many actions in sola seem as such, to form a dramatic and stunning reaction, but not always a believable one. Aono and Matsuri's conflicts start tame, and quickly grow ridiculous. How did Aono create 2 paper dolls when creating just Yorito drained her? What's with all the paper hax that she uses? What's the point of the two killing each other when they can just regenerate?

And, of course, the legendary 5-second tower-jump of Takeshi in his Epic Battle.

It really does look cool and keep the audience on the edge of its seat, but it's rather silly.

But, sola is not Kanon. Dot. Period. It's silly for me to keep saying "Well, Kanon does this" and "AIR does that". sola is its own show, and its choices may be awkward, but it also may be a shot at something fresh in the genre. And in the big scheme of things what makes the ridiculousness in sola any less ridiculous than any other ridiculousness that shall remain unspoiled? Maybe a bit of explaining, that's all. And in a 13-episode series, I suppose some things have to be taken for granted.

Anyway, enough ranting on what sola is and isn't, and more of an in depth view of sola itself. What's impressive about sola is that it has a wide range of interesting characters. The side characters, especially, are far more awesome than side characters should be.

The Ishizuki sisters, Koyori and Mana, play a large role in trying to right and figure out the Morimiyas (Yorito and Aono), and somehow these two come off as the most deep and appealing characters. Perhaps it's the fault of her being a Nayuki type, but Mana really does reach out and touch some heartstrings. She is always locked out of the loop and yet she solders on with a smile. Even in a fourth wall sense, Mana gets shafted. After her meeting with Yorito at sunset in episode 11, I was sure that wasn't the end for Mana and Yorito. In the end she didn't really even get a true confession off or anything, but I thought we got an excellent alternate ending for Mana with her carrying on (without knowing) Yorito's passion of watching the sky.

This also ties in with one of the themes of the show of existence. Matsuri grapples with it a lot - she knows she can't be with people too long. Yorito's not a real person at all, and often wonders, in his emo fashion, is he really important to the world - he exists physically, but does he leave a mark? The last episode goes a long way to fulfilling this theme, to show that although Matsuri and Yorito have left this world (presumably), both of theme still live on, in a sense. Whether it be the tomato shiruko cans on the bench, Mana's newfound passion for the sky, or Aono's running kick into the soda machine, the two definitely affected somebody on that earth. And isn't that what matters?

Right - side characters. Koyori is your typical goddamn adorable loli type, and she does a very excellent job in being cute and getting headchopped (wai for...Mana?). Her ability to affect Aono, and yet her devout attachment to Aono (again, Episode 11) is very interesting, and Koyori is very much a believable personality.

The almost comic relationship between Takeshi and Mayuko is interesting as well. It was nice to see that there really was no Big Bad Guy in sola, that they all had a story behind them instead of a flat personality.

And as for Sae, yeah, she's awesome. Amusingly slow speech, dim-witted, prone to Kareha-style dreaminess, and oh yes, the megane. Some may think she's annoying but I think she adds a lot to the lighter sequences of sola.

The main trio in sola is a bit more hit-or-miss. All of them tend to act extremely irrationally - throwing themselves into swords, throwing swords into other people, and whatnot. I'll look over that if only because things aren't always meant to be, well, rational and sense-making. However, the one thing that really annoys me about the three is that they are very much quick to change personalities. It feels like most of them have just a switch they flick, to go to, as I've heard them called for example, Yuki-Aono to Kaede-Aono.

Perhaps it's the fault of the 13 episode series but it seems that the three of them, Yorito, Aono, and Matsuri just cope with things too quickly. Sister's a Yaka? No problem. Made out of paper? Sure, why not. Everyone you know and/or loved has died to turn you back into a human? A-OK!

Seriously, I'm not sure what they could have done to rectify this in the time they had - as removing some of the lighter scenes early on would really destroy a large part of sola (it can't be all action all the time) - but even a few short scenes could help.

Aono could have used some more development, as well. She spends so much time playing Quiet Girl in the early episodes that her Tragic villain role later on is...a bit forced. I got by it mainly because of my addiction to 1) Quiet Girls and 2) Kaede-types but I think the sort of pity appeal that Aono was supposed to get across didn't work that well. All we had on her to go by before she went all possessive was Origami With Koyori (coming to a TV near you?) and that one date scene with Yorito. She came off as more of a villain than Takeshi in the end of it all - and it shows by all the contempt she recieved from blogs and forums (again, base mark: Animesuki).

Yorito has often been criticized as a paper-thin character, which is deliciously ironic given his true nature. It's true that he's not going to stand up there with pretty much any decent lead male; he's not much of anything to be honest. Most of the stuff happens around him, and the decisions he makes (going with Matsuri's plan to stab Aono or whatever) are often shown off-camera, so you don't see a lot of Yorito. Yorito doesn't have a lot of redeeming characteristics than meets the eye, and his obsession with the sky...kind of comes off like that. But on the converse, he's not a horrible lead by any case (hello, Makoto of School Days). Overall, I guess he's kind of forgettable.

Matsuri...well, I'm not sure. I don't have any large complaints at the moment, and yet I'm not ready to gush approval as well. She has memorable moments, at least, unlike Yorito - the little things like the numerous Matsuri Versus Machine battles, or one of the twenty times she tries to run away from Yorito - but in the end, even she doesn't really have, well, conclusion. Aono has conclusion. Koyori has conclusion. Mana has 'conclusion'. Yorito dies. Matsuri stabs herself, stabs Aono, sees the sunset, and fades out into the eyecatch. I wouldn't mind the traditional Sparkly Dissapear even. Maybe they just want to keep some hope that Matsuri still lives, somewhere. Although that's silly.

That's all the thoughts I can dig up on sola for now, another post on sola will follow in the next week or so.

-CCY

Doublepost: Kanon Kazahana + sola 1

Luckily, before the downtime I was able to stock up a nice pile of anime to watch, a lot of them old and some of them new. Among the ancient we have Honey & Clover, Da Capo, To Heart 2, and ONE. Among the newer we've got Wangan Midnight and sola in the queue along with Lucky CHANNELUUUUUUUUUUUUU Star.

Although, I must say, with every series I'm getting more and more piled up in a jumble of names, hair colors, and relationships.

In this post I'll cover briefly in text form Kanon Kazahana, the special OVA-ish thing that came after the TV run of Kanon 2002, as well as the first episode of sola, a series from 2007. Whoa.

Technically, I should warn for Kanon spoilers, as Kazahana comes after the canon Kanon (OK, I just like to say that word) storyline, not to mention me discussing the ending of Kanon for no reason than other to scare off people. Hit the jump.


Kanon 2002 is a hit-or-miss anime, in that it really sort of depends on whether you've seen the remake, Kanon 2006 or not. Despite its flaws, 2002 was a decent series, but the biggest problem with it is that the 2006 version completely destroys it. 2006 is longer, and thus has more time for better pace and storytelling. The Makoto arc takes forever in both versions to me, but forever in 2002 is twice the forever of 2006, since there are only 12 compared to 24 episodes.

2002 is animated in a different fashion than 2006 as well, in that 2002 is what could be called quite 'ugly', due to it being outdated. 2002, also tends to have more of an 'anime' feel to it, with the characters going into SD mode and having extreme facial distortions more often, which will be a hit or miss.

And in 2002, personally, Yuuichi comes across as much more of a jerk than a sarcastic guy who's really nice on the inside. I'm not sure if this is the casting or the Kyon voice (although, I saw Kanon before Haruhi), but in any case it's definitely a bit of a drag on 2002.

But, of course, 2002 has its high points as well, as has been discussed down on the Kanon board in GameFAQs (see, the boards are good for something!). The main merit for 2002 is for the Nayuki fanboys, who get as close to a NAYUKI ENDING DAMNIT as they're going to get (although, the Mai and Shiori fan in me wonders how the end would have gone if it was tilted that way). There are other minor pluspoints as well, like a bit of 'fanservice' (although there's not much either way, rare for an eroge adaptation), some characters being handled better, and so on.

Kanon Kazahana, however, is one of the greatest things 2002 has to offer. Kazahana is a 'after-the-end' special, which I don't believe was per se covered in the original version, so Toei's probably taking some liberal adaptations here. But it works, at least only because it's interesting to see where everyone ended up...whenever this is. Probably a year after episode 12 or 13 (considering, at least in 2006, a year was covered between the hospital incident and the hairband incident).

Mai and Sayuri have moved abroad to Generic Sunny Nation, and we get to see an adorable Mai in Not-School-Outfit and with her hair down, and an exposition of her...relationship...with Sayuri. (move along now...) She's still the same lovable character as always, with her quiet demeanor hiding a hidden level of kindness.

Mishio still spends forever on Monomi Hill. She seems to be talking to the air, but suddenly Makoto materializes out of nowhere, one of the bigger shocks of the episode. Perhaps Mishio and Makoto meet every day or every so often now at the hill. It's nice to see Makoto gone...and it's nice to see her not forgotten too. Hehehe.

Shiori and Boy Haircut Ayu spend some time together having drinks (unfortunately not of that kind) in the shopping district, in which Shiori is typically humble in complimenting Ayu on her haircut and saying how looks don't matter anyway. A bit of a slip, at any case, at her pleasure from having gained another position in the cute race. (all of a sudden with their talk about looks I'm tempted to ask how many of them are eligible for the Flat Chested Alliance...)

Nayuki, as always, is running, and she gets a large piece of exposition in this episode as she's running a strong second place to Ayu in the Yuuichi competition, having confessed her feelings and gotten in a kiss - very impressive in any case. One leftover piece is how Yuuichi is going to handle her, and perhaps vice versa, afterwards. Nayuki claims she is OK to Kaori (who, of all people, actually IS going out with Very Feminine Jun, at least for today!), but as usual I doubt that's true, as she still seems a bit down.

Nayuki and Yuuichi share a retake of the Nerine-on-the-swing-bench scene from...an entirely different anime in which they discuss things that may or may not make Nayuki feel all better. In the end they separate paths and walk from each other in a very symbolic manner, probably symbolizing them moving on. It's too bad there isn't another guy in the series to ship with, since Jun doesn't count at all.

And Akiko...cleans the house. No jamu today, even. Well, she's the hidden backbone of the anime anyway, at any rate.

With just that summary it's a bit hard to show why Kazahana's worth your time, but it has its interesting moments, its amusing moments, and its heartful moments, so give it a try if you've watched 2002 or even just 2006. It's a good episode, even if the art is a bit lacking.

...as for sola, hmm, that's going to be a trickier thing to explain as because it is a new anime it is mandated that I do not get it at all. That's usually the draw of a lot of these anime, of course, the promise of having things Make Sense. There's not a lot to say about the sola characters whose names I do not remember, but nearly all of them probably have quite the interesting story, whether it be Feminine Cameraman Protagonist guy, Tomato Soup girl In The Church, Quiet Hospitalized girl, Vaguely Tsundere Possibly Childhood Friend girl, Spoiled Loli-In-A-Box girl (in a maid outfit or something!?), and Probably Evil guy With Glasses. That's about all I've caught out of it, and all I remember without screenshots. I'll recap it perhaps later, and when I've seen more episodes as well.

-CCY