Twelve Moments in Anime 2007 - #6: sola 12

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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