First Impressions / sola

Summary:

A long time ago, Yorito had arrived at a cave after struggled to climb a hill in direct sunlight while wearing a hood. Aono had been concerned for Yorito’s health, but he was personally more concerned about if Matsuri could be taken out under the sky. Waking up from this dream, Matsuri finds herself in Yorito’s room, with him sleeping at her bedside. When she reaches out to touch his head, she notices how it warm it is. The next morning, Mana expresses her concerned about Takeshi attacking them again, but Matsuri thinks that they’ll be okay because Takeshi won’t be moving his arm for a while. Mana now knows all about how Matsuri isn’t a human but rather a Yaka (aka. Woe of the Night), and the two girls get along well. When they realize how late it is, Matsuri is the one who rushes upstairs to wake Yorito for school. Meanwhile, at the hospital, Takeshi gets his arm examined by the doctor, but he still refuses to tell Mayuko what happened. Mayuko accidentally bumps into Koyori, and she tells Koyori to be more careful before running off after Takeshi. Koyori was on her way to visit Aono, who is currently folding an origami frog, and she reports that Yorito will be coming tomorrow to tell Aono something. Aono realizes that something is up when Koyori specifically mentions that it’ll be raining tomorrow.

At school, Yorito is on the rooftop taking pictures of the sun for Matsuri when Mana finds him there. The previous night, Matsuri had made a promise to Yorito that she wouldn’t leave until he showed her the sky. Mana is worried about what Yorito’s going to say to his sister since he wants to tell her about Matsuri. Yorito intends to say that Matsuri is just a friend, but Mana feels that Aono wouldn’t accept such an explanation for why Matsuri is living with Yorito now. Mana thinks that Yorito should instead tell Aono that he and Matsuri are lovers, and when Yorito passes on the idea to Matsuri, she agrees to it. Matsuri even suggests that they practice being lovers. Yorito gets embarrassed from this and goes to bring in the futons that he had aired out. When he returns with the futons, he explains to Matsuri that they smell of the sun, and she finds them still warm. To Yorito’s surprise, Matsuri immediately seems to fall asleep, so he pats her head as he thinks about them being lovers. Once he realizes that Matsuri wasn’t actually asleep, he gets embarrassed and withdraws his hand, but she takes it and places it back on her head. She then asks him if he has someone that he likes, and since he says that he doesn’t, she proposes that they kiss. Matsuri laughs at him when he takes it seriously, but her demeanor changes when she realizes that Yorito’s sister’s name is Aono.

The next day, Matsuri goes with Yorito, Mana, and Koyori to the hospital, but they find Aono sleeping. It’s only after they leave her room that Aono opens her eyes. On the way home, Matsuri notices someone who looks like Aono walking across the street, so she lets the others get on the streetcar and claims that she’ll walk instead. Aono is gone by the time Matsuri crosses the street, but in her place is a moving origami frog that leads her to the streetcar depot where Aono is waiting. Inside one of the cars, Aono tells Matsuri that her power has finally returned recently – the power that she had used too much. That’s the reason she collapsed and had to be hospitalized. Aono thinks that it’s fine that Matsuri is here since she had felt that it eventually had to become like this. After Matsuri remembers how Aono had cut her own throat in the past, she asks Aono about Yorito, and Aono insists that he’s her only little brother despite Matsuri’s objections. Back at home, Mana and Yorito are arguing about putting Chinese cabbage in the sukiyaki when Matsuri returns. Matsuri thinks that they shouldn’t put it in, but to everyone’s surprise, Aono enters into the dining room after her and overrides Matsuri by joining her brother in wanting to put the Chinese cabbage in.

Aono has decided to stay home now and cites it as a condition for Matsuri living there. Matsuri uses this opportunity to tease Yorito about doing perverted things to her, which gets Koyori and Mana mad at him, but Aono doesn’t seem to care at all. After the sisters leave, Matsuri tells Aono that she has a request. That night, Matsuri makes Yorito take her to school, and the two sit together in his classroom. Yorito complains about school, but Matsuri thinks that not being alone should make him happy. He then takes her to the rooftop where he took those earlier pictures of the sky. When Matsuri comments on how he’s here when she’s sleeping, in the world that she doesn’t know, Yorito says that she’ll know soon. This causes Matsuri to almost start to cry, and as she enjoys the peaceful view, she asks if Yorito knows why people sleep. She explains that when people sleep, they cast away their pain, uncertainty, and hatred. Pain disappears in the dark, and the clear sky and new time welcomes the people. The Yaka are made of the pain and uncertainty thrown away during the night. As she says all this, Matsuri recalls how, back then in the cave, the sun had shined into the spot where Aono had killed herself. Matsuri had pulled Aono out of the sunlight and had embraced her in the dark, putting her mouth up to Aono’s neck wound. Aono soon awoke again and pushed herself away from Matsuri, only to find that she burns in the sunlight. She had ended up crying to Matsuri because she didn’t want to keep living in a world without Yorito.

Matsuri finishes her explanation by saying that the Yaka have to live alone. She then turns around and kisses Yorito, but afterwards passes by him. By the time Yorito turns around, Matsuri is nowhere to be seen.

.
.
.
Wow, I’m impressed – very impressed. Not only did they end the episode in a way that just makes you want to see more, the episode also dives right into Matsuri and Aono’s bloody past, and there were plenty of surprises. The opening scene initially made me think that Yorito was a yakabito just like Matsuri, but his hand didn’t appear to be burning in direct sunlight, and I suspect his fatigue was just from having climbed up the hill or something. Then there’s the other flashback scene where Aono kills herself because Yorito is presumably dead. This has to connect somehow with why Yorito has no memories of any of this, like maybe he got reincarnated or maybe he wasn’t really dead and someone wiped his memories.
And as many of us had expected, Aono is indeed a yakabito thanks to Matsuri. I found it interesting that it took a drop of Aono’s blood to animate the origami frog, and I’d like to see more of Aono’s powers (especially if they are different from Matsuri’s). It was also interesting that they imply Yorito is something much more than just a younger brother to her, even though she insists on calling him a younger brother when she and Matsuri first meet again.
Now that Aono’s out of the hospital, she can finally play that bigger role that I’ve been waiting for her to take on. Hopefully though, Matsuri’s disappearance won’t last very long because I still think her presence is very important for these episodes to be good (since episode four didn’t turn out that great).

33 Comments

  19. “Matsuri’s such a tease! I like…. XD But Aono is love too. Being alive for hundreds of years unexpectedly does wonders for fashion sense”

    That’s just SO true.. 😉
    I wonder if Aono will have a crush on her “brother”(as Omni said that’s not totaly clear).
    I’m playing Tsukihime atm, seems I’m on the vampire trip right now.

    Mutio
    Reply

  21. Don’t you get the feeling if Yorito really had died that it was Aono after being turned undead that resurrected him? Think about what her power apparently is and what she said about using too much of it. Hehe.

    Zzz...
    Reply

  23. ZOMFG FUCKkissu !!!!(thinking about the future of a relationship)!! T_T
    Hey Square-enix party is rocking baby!!!Sony is scoring like a crazy with square!

    ” MASA SAN!!??……..ATASHI NO FIRT KISSU NA HITO!! “( sugoiyo masaru san no kao ) 😀

    tensai_otaku
    Reply

  26. epic episode in its awesomeness, total turning point of the series. I also hope Aono’s powers are different from Matsuri’s. Could be a total love triangle^^or is that a square if Mana is involved…?

    Pucci
    Reply

  29. Whoa… IF something happened to Yorito in the past and he died,now I am beginning to wonder if Aono really revived him… But then again Matsuri went so far as to react by saying, “that’s impossible” when Aono said that Yorito was her kid brother… Gotta finish this series.

    Yuri Rocks
    Reply

  31. Show Spoiler ▼

    Very very great episode!
    i hope they’ll develop the rest of the series like this!

    Casi _IT
    Reply

  33. Ok my question is when did this event between Aono and Matsuri happen?
    I think Yorito was dead and Aono tried to to kill her self but Matsuri revived her by turning her into a yaka. And I am guessing they used that blood thing to revive yorito.
    And another thing where did Matsuri go at the end? Is she leaving?
    Hopefully the next following episodes will explain everything to us.

    shh227
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *