Summary:

As he pulls off the pictures of the blue sky from his ceiling, Yorito remembers how he had told Matsuri about wanting to turn everything back with his sister. On that night, he had arrived home after seeing Matsuri and admitted to Aono that he had found about everything she was hiding from him. However, he also explained that he wished for her to become happy and suggested that they leave this town so they can start over from scratch. Mayuko meanwhile is also planning on leaving town with Takeshi because she feels that she might stop Matsuri if she stayed. When Matsuri tells Mayuko that Yorito returned to everyday life, Mayuko comments on how he’s made a painful choice. At school, Mana remembers how determined Yorito had previously been to confront his sister, and she now finds him on the rooftop taking pictures of the sky again. Yorito explains that today is special because the air is clear, meaning that the sky is bluer than normal. After Mana thanks him for making Koyori happy by returning home to Aono, she starts to say something else, however he cuts her off by saying that he doesn’t want her to ask him about anything. Mana tries to make the case that she’s quite flexible to new things, but Yorito still refuses to tell her anything and claims that he’s okay. Hearing this, Mana at first says that she won’t worry anymore, though it becomes clear how she really feels when she tells him to think more about the feelings of other people.

Back at home, Aono is paid a visit by Koyori and tells Koyori to not come anymore because they’re leaving this town. Koyori wants to know where she’s moving to, and Aono only says that it’ll be far away where their past and memories can’t reach them. It depresses Koyori to hear this, but on her way back home, she passes by a bookstore and gets an idea. She returns later that afternoon to beg Aono to teach her how to make more origami, just for today. Her older sister meanwhile is out with her friends and Sae, though she pays no attention to them and instead stares out the restaurant window. The girls notice that Mana has been acting strange today and start to tease her about it, so she tries to shut them up by telling them not to talk about Yorito. Oddly enough, they don’t seem to know who Yorito is, and Mana interprets this as more teasing, so she leaves angrily. When her friend Touko finds her again later, Mana apologizes and asks what Touko thinks of Yorito. However, Touko truly doesn’t know who Yorito is. Mana attempts to show Touko the picture of him from the hospital, but to her shock, both Yorito and Aono are gone from the image. This combined with how Yorito had called today special and said that she’d understand by evening gets Mana worried enough to rush back to school.

To Mana’s relief, she finds Yorito still on the rooftop taking pictures. As the two admire the evening sky together, Yorito comments on how they can’t see the same sky twice – even if it looks the same, it’s a completely different one. After Mana then tries to confirm that Yorito is who he claims to be, she holds out her hand and asks him to grab it. She wants to be able to feel it to reassure herself that he’s really here and not a ghost. When he asks her what’s wrong, Mana tells him about how her friends had all forgotten about him and tries to get him to tell her that this isn’t possible. She is met with only silence from Yorito. Despite this, Mana holds onto all her memories of her daily life with him and repeatedly refuses to forget them. Yorito then lets go of her hand and disappears at the same time that Mana closes her eyes. Back at the Morimiya home, Aono had been watching Koyori make origami and had apologized and thanked the younger girl. Koyori really didn’t want to part with Aono since they’re friends and ended up crying into Aono’s arms, but she is now fast asleep. As she stares into the night sky, Matsuri explains that illusions are dreamlike – although they certainly existed there, if you wake up from the dream, they will disappear from your memory before long. When Mana opens her eyes again, she finds herself crying uncontrollably and doesn’t know why.

On this same night, Mayuko and Takeshi leave, entrusting his sword with Matsuri. Before going, Mayuko comments on how Matsuri looks hesitant when she speaks Yorito’s name and feels that Matsuri at the very least shouldn’t regret this. As she walks away, Mayuko thinks that she might still be happy since she’s not alone and then gets Takeshi to extend his hand so that she can hold onto it as she walks with him. Once those two are gone, Matsuri turns around and faces Yorito. Aono is meanwhile at home alone packing up all the different dolls that Yorito got her when she hears a noise from the front door. She goes to investigate thinking that Yorito is back, but Matsuri suddenly appears – with sword in hand – in the hallway behind her.

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I really found this to be quite a sad episode and felt that the rooftop scene with Mana was quite powerful (Honda Youko does a very good job), especially when tied together with Matsuri’s explanation of illusions being dreamlike. Mana adamantly refused to forget, yet in the end, all that she was left with were her tears to signify what she’s lost. She never did find out the truth about him, though it might not have hurt to tell her if her memory was going to be completely wiped anyway. I guess that by doing this and thereby cutting ties with her, Yorito is prepared to disappear forever. Of course, with him being made out of paper and all, I just can’t see Yorito surviving the end of the series unless he somehow gets his body back. More likely, he and Aono and probably Matsuri will all die or disappear in some way. Next week though, we have the next round of Matsuri facing against Aono to look forward to, except this time Matsuri has come prepared with Takeshi’s sword.

39 Comments

  1. @Delirious Dragonfly
    He just took down the pictures(?) that made up his ceiling. Part of disappearing I guess.

    Sola sure has redeemed itself form the boring fail of the first few episodes.

    Anon
  2. What I want to learn about is their abilities. They all seem to have something different. Although, Mayuko hasn’t shown anything. Matsuri’s defense thing against Aono’s paper was neat, but somewhat came out of nowhere.

    lol Although there is no information on the Yaka given, it’s obvious that Matsuri is one of the main causes. I get some Elfen Lied vibe. Except the Yaka are dead and not the next evolution. And they don’t go on a killing spree.

    Asrialys
  3. Hahah, stupid Mana, No happy ending for j00! I never liked her anyways, meddling in other peoples business. And what’s Matsuri trying to pull now, fighting with Aono again, what, she wants to kill her? Or maybe the sword can steal/seal Aonos power, though that’ll just get rid of Yorito in the end. Whatever though, I’m a Aono fan to tell the truth. Matsuri just manages to screw shit up everywhere she goes. If anything, she should turn that sword on herself and get it over with. Their lives where just fine until she showed up to make it crap.

    GP
  4. I’m an Aono fan and I feel this bodes very badly for her. I came up with this theory. Keep in mind I haven’t watched this one or the last few, just checking off sites.

    Somehow Matsuri is the cause of all this, like Asrialys said, “I get some Elfen Lied vibe.” I think Matsuri made Aono into a Yaka. I also think that Matsuri and Yorito talked and resolved to end this, which means Yorito is willing to dissappear forever but in order to truly do that they have to kill Aono. Otherwise she may just end up remaking him. Matsuri and Yorito probably think this will also set her free somehow from her grief of losing the original and creating a fake.

    All I can think is Matsuri – you bitch! Mainly because she’s trying to kill Aono and keeps getting in her way, although Aono’s not blameless – like I said I’m an Aono fan.

    White Star
  5. Forecast for episode 12: Big fight, Matsuri vs Aono
    Forecast for episode 13: Sad ending (I don’t think all will die though since there’ll be episode 14 and 15, besides they make it something like the Air Summer Special, means they tell the story of the past)

    Well, I’m more on Aonos site to be honest. I can’t blame her for creating Yorito and moreover she wanted to die, but was brought back to life against her will.
    I think Matsuri is a little selfish here. However I think that she’s also right in the point that it can’t continue they way it is. Yorito is dead, on the one hand.
    On the other hand Aono just wants to be happy..

  6. I honestly don’t think Matsuri intend to do anything bad to Aono. Maybe she is planning to sacrifice herself so that Aono can lead a normal life. Remember that Takeshi wanted to use the sword on Matsuri to turn Mayuko normal? I guess that’s the only reason why Matsuri needed to use that sword. Otherwise Matsuri wouldn’t ask Takeshi to teach her and Mayuko wouldn’t say that she will stop Matsuri if she stayed around. Or she could just use any katana to fight with Aono.

    I really don’t think Matsuri is selfish because she was even willing to die earlier if it makes Aono happy. Aono instead is the one that is selfish. Matsuri helped her when the real Yorito died. Plus, she didn’t know that the Yorito she met was actually Aono’s creation until later. And why must Matsuri move away just because Aono say so. Why not Aono move away instead of asking Matsuri to disappear. Maybe Matsuri really like the place. She did after all try her best to hide from everyone. Can’t blame her that they were fated to meet at the convenient store. What more try to kill her! Aono is really selfish. Besides herself, I don’t see her helping anyone or being nice to anyone. In her view everyone must please her; yorito, koyori, mana and matsuri.

    For that I really don’t like Aono all the way. Selfish to the core. Serve her right that both the real and phantom Yorito choose Matsuri!

    cheeks
  7. Ah, I think Mana loves Yorito, there some hints for that in past episodes.
    @cheeks: Sure Aono is a bit selfish (who isn’t?lol) but I absoluetely disagree that everyone has to please her. Moreover Matsuri making Aono happy? She should’ve leave her dead to begin with. All were more or less happy until Matsuri showed up. Fact.

  8. i think mana has love feelings for yorito, but it’s more like a family type of love. i believe that she wants yorito to have a talk with matsuri and sort things out.. and i totally agree that aono is selfish, i don’t like her personality at all. to me, it looks as if no one can love yorito but her.

    mango
  9. I don’t know. I’d have to side with Aono on this one. She devotes her entire existence to ressurecting Yorito and only wants to live a quiet life with him, but Matsuri just waltzes into town and steals him a second time.

    Being second place to someone for a few hundred years SUCKS.

    On the topic of who should have moved away, I think the easiest way to judge would have been “who was there first?” So what if Matsuri likes the place? I would think Aono does too, to some extent.

    Spectrum
  10. @mango
    Mana’s love for Yurito looks more like the romantic type than the family type for me. After all, this is a harem type of story where Mana fits the childhood neighbor type.

    Aono indeed has a selfish personality but towards the end she was getting better. She allowed her creation to have some freedom of himself. If she really were completely selfish, she would just have to kill this Yorito and create another one.

    And about the current Yorito, he has gotten from the good guy to the worst. Although, it is true that it is sad for him to be just a creation of Aono’s illusion; it doesn’t mean any good to convince Matsuri to use Aono’s life so that they can become normal humans. I mean, what is so bad about not being humans. They can live forever in the shadows and it is better than living for a period on both the light and darkness.

    banzemanga
  11. Ok! Retype! After reading all your posts i got a few things cleared.

    I think that this is a typical shounen anime where various girls fall for a guy. So we can assure that Mana, Matsuri and Aono love Yorito.

    About Aono being selfish is true. However, like it was mentioned before, she isn’t completely at fault. She committed suicide and it was Matsuri who brought her back to life. Also, she was getting a better person towards the end like i said. She didn’t kill Matsuri when she had the chance.

    About Matsuri, she was a good person who has turned somehow bad. It seemed that even though she liked the real Yorito of the past, she did not love him. She fell in love with Aono’s illusion. She was a good person since she did not want kill humans and she also wanted Aono to live. She turned somehow bad because she agreed with Yorito to kill Aono.

    Yorito, the illusion and replacement of the past. It is possible that he asked Matsuri to kill Aono because that is the only way for him to disappear for real. At the same time, he could get Matsuri become a normal human and finally complete the promise for her being able to see the sky. But still, that is not something you do to someone who gave you life. It is not like it is impossible for them to work out things the peaceful way.

    Possible endings include:
    -Matsuri killing Aono and become a human. (Scene looking at the sky)
    -Matsuri killing Anono and decide not to use Aono’s live to become a human. (Scene living in the darkness)
    -Mana and her younger sister stop the fight and somehow, happy ending. (Scene having diner together)

    But now that i think about it, why didn’t she revive the old Yorito?

    banzemanga
  12. I think Yorito plots with Matsuri to return Aono back to a normal person, and that is what the sword can do. In doing so Matsuri will sacrifice her life, and I bet the spirit of Yorito will be gone forever.
    That’s really the worst ending since all Aono wants is to be with Yorito and she will be left alone even returning as a human… btw, i am more a Aono fan

    pico
  13. Just to clarify something. Matsuri was the one that gave Aono power.
    Sequence of Events
    Matsuri —-> Aono —-> Yorito
    SO..By killing Aono there would be no justification in Matsuri getting her life back because she was already dead in the first place. By killing Aono, Yorito would possibly disappear and leave Matsuri by herself.
    Unless…..Matsuri turns the sword on herself and all three disappears LOL.

    Something is bothering me…When Matsuri first met Yorito at the vending machine…why didn’t she recognise him?…..

    Shadow
  14. >Something is bothering me…When Matsuri first met Yorito at the vending machine…why didn’t she recognise him?…..

    I’m under the impression that Matsuri has not met Yorito prior to the vending machine. Her contact was with Aono all along. I believe the misleading dream where Matsuri has of Yorito promising to show the sky is not a recollection of past events but the stuff dreams are made of – past experiences superimposed onto current concerns.

    Either that, Aono made a ‘grown-up’ version of Yorito so Matsuri couldn’t recognise him… Either way, we need a clearer re-telling of the past soon.

    Stripey
  15. I believe there’s a simpler answer to why Matsuri didn’t recognize him at first. It’s been… how many years? Over 100. You try remembering clearly someone you haven’t seen for more than ten years, especially when they show up after you know they’re dead. Matsuri looked surprised to hear Yorito’s name and all, but up until she heard about Aono she probably just assumed it was all coincidence.

    Wanderer
  16. @Stripey
    Matsuri’s philosophy has always been to forget memories so that she doesn’t get too attached and grow sad (like, say, regret over Yorito dying and having to ressurect Aono). Like Wanderer said, she probably just thought it was a strange coincidence until she heard Aono linked to him and immediately remembered/figured it out.

    Spectrum
  17. I’m kinda thinking the DVD exclusive episodes will tell Yorito’s, Aono’s, and Matsuri’s past and all that let up to their current lives and the lives of Takeshi and his journey and not a continuation of the series. I think next episode big fight, ep13 sad ending where someone, or everyone dies/dissapears.

    My guess is that for Yorito to dissapear Aono has to lose her powers, and if Yorito just killed himself, Aono would just revive him. Then I’m guessing Matsuri kills herself since she feels she’s leading an epty life. I think the sword can maybe take away powers without killing (maybe that’s why the little goth-loli has no powers?) so Aono just needs a good nonlethal slice and then Yorito can die and go with Matsuri. Just a guess though.

    Chris

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