Summary:

It has been a week since Matsuri disappeared, and Yorito finds himself starting at the sunrise one morning at the drink machine where they first met. He had written a note to his sister telling her that he’d be back soon, but since he’s not back yet, she calls him a liar as she sits alone at the breakfast table. Yorito decides to go look again at the church with Mana, when they don’t find her there, Mana suggests that Matsuri is not in this town anymore. Even when he’s at school, Yorito can only think of their last moments together. He wanders around the town thinking about her and goes back to the park with the drink machine, but he finds that the machine is gone now. Meanwhile, Koyori brings some groceries home that Aono wanted for Yorito. Koyori feels that it would be great if Matsuri returned soon and explains that she thinks Matsuri will come back because Matsuri likes it here. She had said before that the reason was because there is sky here, and Koyori thinks that it referred to all the sky photographs that Yorito has around. This causes Aono to remember how Yorito had told her long ago in the past that he wanted to show Matsuri the sky.

When Yorito returns home, he finds Koyori and Aono rearranging the living room, having already taken down all of his sky photographs. Aono reveals that she put them away, but she only gives him a vague answer when he asks why. This causes Yorito to raise his voice at her because those were his precious photos, and he demands to know where they are. Aono doesn’t answer him, so Yorito turns to head out of the room, but Koyori stops him. She tries to explain that Aono wanted to rearrange the room for Yorito’s sake, but Yorito proceeds to voice his frustrations angrily. Although he leaves Koyori in tears, he finds himself questioning what he’s doing. To his surprise, Aono tracks him down in the park, gives him back one of his sky photos, and apologizes for what she did. Yorito then invites her out for a walk and talks about Matsuri leaving and him not being able to see her again. He takes Aono to the church, but he finds the roof gone and the entire place in shambles.

One rainy day a month after Matsuri disappeared, Aono has plans to go out with Yorito. She spends a lot of time deciding what to wear and how to arrange her hair before finally setting out and waiting for Yorito at his school’s gate. Mana remarks that it’s regrettable that today has such bad weather, but Aono thinks that it’s good. The first place the two go is the doll store that Yorito bought all his dolls, and Aono jokingly chooses the sleeping store owner. Afterwards, Aono says that she wants to look into the distance, so the two of them take a lift up the nearby mountain. Aono finds the view beautiful because she can see the world’s colors, from the green grass to the blue roofs to the red ship. These are things she can’t see at night. Just as Yorito is having problems remembering the last time Aono came out like this, a strong wind blows her umbrella away and Yorito is reminded of Matsuri’s umbrella. With nothing to cover her, Aono steps into the rain, but this further reminds Yorito of Matsuri, who had done the same thing.

The two then head back down and Yorito notices how wet Aono is, so he suggests that they go home. When Aono insists that Yorito promised that they would go to the restaurant where Mana is working, Yorito agrees to go, but he first heads to the convenience store to buy her a towel. It is here that someone drops a can that rolls to Yorito’s feet. Recognizing that it’s a can of tomato shiruko, Yorito looks up to find Matsuri standing at the freezer case. She immediately runs out, and when Yorito attempts to chase after her, Aono stops him because she doesn’t want him to go. Yorito, however, apologizes, lets go of Aono’s hand, and runs off. He manages to catch up with Matsuri , but she starts using her abilities to jump across rooftops out of his reach. He quickly loses sight of her, but then notices some birds suddenly clearing out of an area nearby, so he goes to investigate. Aono meanwhile stumbles home alone in the rain and questions why this is happening. When she had talked with Matsuri at the streetcar depot previously, Matsuri had promised her that she would not appear again in front of them.

In a run-down building, Matsuri places a blanket on Mayuko – who is no longer with Takeshi – when Yorito comes in. She tells him not to approach her and begs him to go home, but Yorito refuses. He still hasn’t fulfilled his promise of showing her the sky and suggests that she come home together with him. Matsuri is happy to hear this, but she can’t do that because he is… Before she can finish her sentence, Yorito hugs her and once again tells her to come home. It is at this very moment that Aono’s eyes have turned lifeless, and she utters Yorito’s name as lighting lights up the sky. With this same storm raging outside, Matsuri realizes that she’s been stabbed in the gut with a glass shard by Yorito. He now has the same lifeless look in his eyes as Aono does.

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To call this unexpected would be a bit of an understatement for me. Never mind that I hadn’t expected to see Mayuko with Matsuri, but I didn’t think Yorito would stab Matsuri either. Of course, that very well could be Aono, consciously or unconsciously, using her powers to control him and making him do that since they did have the same SEED-mode look on their eyes at the same time. There may also be the possibility that Yorito is something much more than the human we’ve seen him to be. Matsuri never got to finish saying the reason that she can’t go home with him, but it had something to do with who he was. The mystery deepens with the fact that Yorito doesn’t seem to remember much before Aono was hospitalized, which might suggest that she used her powers originally to save him or something. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something bigger at play here, something that has to do with their past and Takeshi. Regardless of what it is, sola has been quite an impressive series so far, and I hope that this can continue through the end (maybe into the DVD-exclusive episodes also). It seems far too early for Matsuri to die, so I’m curious to see how she is able to recover and how Yorito reacts if or when he finds out what he did.

Oh, and as a side note, this hair changing scene really reminded me a ton of a very similar scene from the second episode of Suzumiya Haruhi.

40 Comments

  1. Hehe, so I was right, Yorito is more to Aono than just a brother.
    Unfortunately this episode leaves me with just more questions than the last. Why unfortunately? Cause I have to WAIT ANOTHER WEEK >.

  2. seriously after watching, it was more a WTF than a good surprise especially the Aono part when she started from some Rei characters to some Nemu(DaCapo)/Kaede(Shuffle!) -.- I liked Aono in the beginning as she was the mysterious silent character but I didn’t expected such a change in…2 episodes? I’m disapointed here 🙁
    There is indeed more questions that need to be responded than answers, I will see next episode how it will be explained but I don’t expect much

    nigredo
  3. She can sure change her hair style quite quickly – lol, it turns from being curly to back to straight again – i wish i could do that with my hair.

    Delirious Dragonfly
  4. this is only a speculation but…

    yurito probably died sometime in the past but aono revived him using her powers, just like how she made that paper frog move. this would explain why she ended up in the hospital after using too much of her powers and why yurito’s eyes turned blank at the same time aono’s did, when he stabbed matsuri.

    also, i think aono might have died also and was revived by matsuri and turned into a yaka. thats how she got her powers and it would explain her comment about the good weather. and also, notice throughout the current timeline of the anime, aono has never exposed herself to sunlight, except in that one scene in this episode, which means she probably wasnt a yaka back then.

    lulu
  5. This is gonna be really bad if Aono turns into Kaede on us. At the same time, I’m not sure I can fault her for being lonely. Her brother always seems to treat her as a bother. He never really liked hanging out at the hospital when he was visiting. I’m gonna probably hold off on watching this one for a few weeks so I can do a marathon of sorts.

    Yuri Rocks
  6. lulu: We found out that Aono got turned into a Yaka in last week’s episode when Aono cut her own throat and Matsuri revived her.

    Yuri Rocks: Yorito’s been following his heart and treating Aono like a sister, so I don’t know if I can blame him too much, especially if he doesn’t have any memories of what she’s done for him (assuming that she did bring him back to life).

  7. i have a different theory… maybe aono has the power to control other’s mind? she exhausted her power when she was trying to brainwash everyone that she was Yorito’s sister
    if aono save yorito’s life then yorito should turn into a yaka as well.

    pico
  8. Yes aono died and turned into a yaka after revied but yorito died (assuming) and now is still not a yaka. I am suprised that yorito has not found out that aono is a yaka yet.

    shh227
  9. I give up. If you people can’t understand what’s going on between Matsuri, Yorito, & Aono after the last couple of episodes then you won’t understand even if someone outlines the whole relationship chart out for you.

    Zzz...
  10. Wow… some of you guys really don’t an idea what happened over the last two eppisode.
    It’s pretty much a given that Aono and Yorito aren’t brothers and sisters since the last episode.

    Luminisk
  11. This episode was kinda shocking…

    Firstly, Matsuri suddenly just left.
    Secondly, Aono is reeeally jealous of Yorito going after Matsuri instead.
    I think Aono should tell her feelings to Yorito, even if he turns out to be her real brother. Or else she’d might go nuts..
    And why the hell is that little girl( never seem to remember her name:P) with Matsuri at the end?

    pico, shouldn’t Yorito already have turned into a Yaka if he got revived by Aono?

    Yakamaru
  12. We all know that Aono’s power is the ability to bring life to inanimate objects (the paper frog) and that she was hospitalised because she strained her powers to its limit. So the question to ask is can her powers work on other inanimate objects such as the dead? From the flashbacks we’ve seen we know or get the impresion that Yorito died and Aono is probably way more then a sister to him. If Aono is willing to kill herself over the loss of Yorito does it not make sense that she would try to bring him back to life if she could? This theory would explain why Yorito has limited memories and also why Aono could control him. The only flaw I can think of is if this is the case why doesn’t Matsuri recognise him when they 1st meet at the vending machine since he should look the same as he did when they had met in the past.

    Neco
  13. All three girls are Yakas: Matsuru, Aono and Mayuko.

    That much is blatantly obvious by now.

    That would explain why Matsuru was with Mayuko at the end. Honestly I’m surprised some of you haven’t already got that already. It’s pretty much been heavily implied throughout the entire show.

    Luke
  14. Okay, while it’s pretty much established that Yorito’s not normal, I think that, like the paper frog, he’s not fully alive at all, and possibly under Aono’s control, even if she rarely exert it. I also agree with the love triangle thing, and I believe that Matsuri knew Aono would be jealous, which is why she wanted him to go away. I think Matsuri’s half-finished comment on who he was either relatedto his not being human or his relationship with Aono.
    At any rate, I think Aono might become a serious antagonist.

    Sean

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