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「空の音・夢ノ彼方」 (Sora no Oto – Yume no Kanata)
“Sound of the Sky – Beyond the Dream”
What better way to mark the end of the third Anime no Chikara series than with the second bonus episode of their first one. Unlike episode 7.5, this latest one takes place at the end of the series, after the ceasefire was called between Helvetia and the Roman Empire. As seen in the final episode of the series run way back in March, Rio is back at the base with the rest of the girls as per her special request to the Roman Emperor she’s engaged to, and it’s like nothing has changed at all with the girls “playing” war again. In Kanata’s case, she’s now the designated trumpet girl every morning, which is nothing compared to the way she calmed an entire battlefield with Amazing Grace, but still not good enough to get Mishio off her back about not having any sort of a dream in life. Subsequently, most of the episode revolved around Kanata’s search for one, which was cute in that slice of life kind of way, but not nearly as enjoyable as the girls playing war and Noel whipping out her Gatling gun-equipped push cart. Oh how I loved that push cart and the melodramatic deaths. In comparison, one of funnier moment came from Kanata’s horrible driving and inability to keep her eyes on the road that Yumina almost feel victim to in the passenger’s seat.
Clearly, the lighthearted side wasn’t what they were going for this time around. What was surprising though is how the legend of the fire maidens was brought up again, in addition to Rio’s belief that the world seems to be slowly dying and that humans can’t afford to be fighting among themselves. The latter made it feel like this episode was setting the stage for a continuation where bigger problems need to be addressed, and the map she received from the emperor charting their best understanding of the world seemed to support that idea. Rather than simply leaving us with that depressing feeling with no plans on depicting a resolution, I was happy to see them turn it around as an encouraging outlook on the future when Rio told Kanata of her dream to fly through the skies in an airplane like the ancients did so that she can seek out new thriving lands. In turn, Kanata decided on a dream — to follow Rio in her pursuit of hers — which her senior decided to let her do in hopes that she’ll truly have a dream of her own one day. The sound of that gave off a somewhat strange yet uplifting feel that I wasn’t expecting in this bonus episode. As such, it truly came off as the epilogue it was likely intended to be, particularly with Rio’s monologue at the very end about seizing the future before them. Things came full circle as well, with a whole year passing since Kanata’s arrival, who now has the unfortunate honor of taking on the fire maiden role at the water festival.
Overall, this was a nice, proper conclusion to the series that made up for the somewhat abrupt ending in episode twelve. As for some tidbits, I found it interesting how Japanese is seen as a lost language to them, yet the use of Shinto ema managed to survive as part of some old religion. There was also Seiya’s ema wishing to marry Kanata one day, which was kind of cute because she didn’t really know how to react to it in front of Yumina aside from saying she’s honored. Other than that, I don’t recall ever hearing that Carl from the glass factory had a fling with Naomi from the glassware shop at some point and gave birth to Maria as a result, but it was pretty funny to see the latter take pride in being a love child. Lastly, the absolute funniest moment came from none other than Noel herself, when she started tearing up up on the spot because Kanata and Kureha weren’t receptive to her ema wishing to be a cute wife. Are they crazy!? Noel’s adorable! Those animals.
1st! I totally agree Noel would be an amazing wife she doesn’t nag =D
Silence being the most attractive trait in a woman? 🙂
Someone like her she doesn’t need to talk to get her feelings out X)
Watching this episode reminded me how much I enjoyed the show when it was airing. There is so much potential with the world they created for this that it would be such a waste to not make more use of it.
indeed. if they only made the world concept flesh the story, this series could have been more epic.
Anime no Chikara has managed to gain my respect within the span of just 3 series… They excel at telling original stories and having you entertained by alternate realities. Was SNWT world the same world destroyed in the alien invasion of 1999 in the Occult Academy?
That would be so cool if it was! A second season of So-ra-no-wa-to could reference what happened in the past (Ocult Academy storyline).
Anime no Chikara FTW!
Anime no Chikara = the new Bee Train?
awww..i love this series..X3 and yes, this one gave me the feeling that a season is coming sometime in the future..7.5 was one HILARIOUS bonus though XDDD
Of course Noel would be a wonderful wife. I’m sure she and Aisha will be very happy together.
LOL. i meant, 2nd season…XDD i hope aisha returns as well, if ever..
Want a 2nd season for Sora no Woto, I think Noel could build a airplane in the 2nd season 🙂
I see you used a screenshot of the ending with them all running across the bridge and I’d have to say the block facial expressions are scary 🙁
A black lingerie wearing waifu? a.k.a Noel YES!!!! It was nice seeing them again Bring on a second season. There are a few things open in the world of Sora no Wotto that we need to find out. It sure was a nice watch.
This show was epic. Out of the 3 anime no chikara, this on was by far the best. This show needs a second season.
K-ON is finished (?) but we can wait Sora-ON! (?)
There is a lot of stuff within this series that I wish they would go ahead and touch upon. One of them being the “ghost” Kanata and company saw during one of the earlier episodes, then dropped out of nowhere. If Anime no Chikara were to do a second season to follow the construction of said airplane, I’m sure they could touch on this again.
Noel tearing up FTW. I can’t believe Kureha and Kanata would just stay quiet like that. Also, Rome is somewhere in China now? No wonder the old Japanese customs are still in place even though the language itself is dead. The map of Eurasia being No Man’s Land makes one wonder how strong a war it had to be.
Anyway, I do hope Anime no Chikara will continue to amaze me with their great shows and original stories. If this show got a continuation, I’d definitely watch it.
The ghost story was addressed by one of the drama CDs that came out – you can find a transcription on the SnW wikia page
Yay!!! I loved this series, can’t wait to watch this!!
Noel…so…cuteeee! Your wish will come true for sure.
I completely forgot just how beautiful the scenery is…Everything looks gorgeous. o.o
…Wow, I didn’t know they had a hot air balloon complete with their owl logo just lying around. <_< Nice.
Wow…I didn’t think I would miss this series that much but I was really hyped when the OP started. I definitely would love to see another go at Sora no Woto.
Heh… Bet Seiya is regretting all he said about Kanata especially the unsexy one.
(lol) Looks like I’m gonna enjoy this. This is the last bonus episode? They can just keep them coming because they are very entertaining. :] I enjoyed the first with the war so much. I laughed so hard at the great acting on their parts. xD I should take note for college classes~ ^^d
This episode was fantastic! It was really great with the dream finding thing and the music when Kanata ask if she can follow the Rio was just perfect at that point. Of course, Noel was awesome too! Oh yeah, Yumina and her “dance” was funny too!
Everyone has to check out this blog. It was a link from fansub group pwq’s site. It’s a guy who did a trip to the town in Spain, where the setting for this series was based on.
Really cool stuff.
http://reliqueabandonee.blogspot.com/
=)