Sola

[big bad birtha]

Well, two of our anime troopers have a topic recommending one of the 2007 anime that are being released (Claymore for Suigin. Gurren Lagann for Doppleganger). That said, my chosen recommendation will be Sola. I wanna give this a little space from my horribly long posts in my suggestion box that I am sure no-one really reads all the way anyway, because this is a great anime so far and I wanna share the joy.

That said, here's a basic outlook on what it is. Yorito, this guy who loves taking pictures of the sky, is out at like 4:00 in the morning taking pictures of the sky. This is when he meets this strange girl who is kicking the **** out of a drink machine that stole her money. When he finally gets the drink, she suddenly disappears.

After that, he also visits his sick sister who is staying in the hospital daily. Every time he visits her, he always gives her an ugly doll that he thinks is cute. She just throws each one aside in a pile of them that are beside her hospital bed. Her personality is almost identical to Mai, and she happens to share the same voice actor (I think.....)

There is also this other girl who follows Yorito to the hospital and home after school. As anyone with a brain can tell, she is the rival love interest against the girl he met.

That is episode one in a nutshell. I'm not going into any more detail because it would spoil the next three episodes. The story, is really good so far (the guy who did the story for this also did the story for Kanon). The visuals and the music are downright beautiful. Anyone looking for something to tie them up while waiting for Clannad should really enjoy this.

[Doppleganger]

Seems...generic. And predictable. I did a browse of Wikipedia and something horribly obvious stands out, even though what I've discovered hasn't been revealed in the anime/manga yet. Speculation, of couse.

The entry says the main dude likes taking pictures of the sky, and the main girl can't get in contact with direct sunlight. Seems pretty clear to me that she'll fall in love with him in part because he can offer her the beauty of day through a photo she normally wouldn't be able to access.

[big bad birtha]

Actually, all of that was revealed in episode two.... Anyway, there are more possibilities than what you stated, and the thing about his sick sister is something in itself.

Possible spoilers. Everything is from episode two. From the predictions to the slight revelations.

Just as you said, she can't see the sunlight, but there is one thing you are missing. There are these people hunting her. The people hunting her seem to be kind people, meaning that her existence might cause some harm. Maybe they are douchebags wanting to kill her because she's kinda like a vampire. Yorito could fall in love with her, but she might end up getting killed by the hunters. She could also stop the hunters and find some way around the condition of not being able to see the sunlight. Maybe she will stop the hunters but suddenly vanish, leaving Yorito free for the romantic rival.

There's also the deal with his sister. Honestly, she will probably go to a condition where she is nearly dead. Whether she will die or not is still beyond me. The girl could also have a power that could cure her, because the girl seems to have some special powers.

Also, it is not as generic as I made it sound. I just summarized up episode one, and I really don't have the power to make something sound interesting. I have already fallen in love with the main girl, and I am anxious the rest of this to come out.

[big bad birtha]

Ok, after three months of watching the newest episode every Sunday, Sola comes to a close. Watching this was a joyous experience, and I was definitely satisfied with this. I have two little fun facts about this. One is the name of this. Sola is actually a romanticized word for sora, which means sky. The second is that this has the same story writer as Kanon (Naoki Hisaya) and the same character designer of Da Capo (I don't know). Anyway, off with the review.

Visuals- This anime is beautiful. Everything from the sky, the characters, and the background are all done extremely well. Definitely something great to look at. Also, even though the same character designers for Da Capo did the character design for this, this is not extremely sugar coated and moe.

Story- This is quite a treat as well. The first few episodes are about a guy that likes taking pictures of the sky, whom takes in a yaka girl. Yakas are basically beings that can't come in direct contact with the sunlight. His sister is in the hospital for something that is not revealed at this point, so Yoirto, and this girl named Mana go to see her every day. This anime will take you through plot twist after plot twist, which might sound confusing, but this is easy to swallow.

Music- Umm...I didn't pay that much attention to the music ;_;. I was going to watch this again at some point anyway, so I'll listen to the music when I re-watch it.

Overall- This is a really good anime. Though it can be a little dull at times, this still satisfies. The non-serious parts are funny, and the serious parts will surprise you. The only real sad part doesn't really bring tears, but laughter because it shows how everything is alright, and it was pretty funny. There are two OVAs coming out later, but I'm not really sure when. I look forward to them though. Anyway, I give Sola an excellent.

[Talon87]

Clarification: I don't recommend Claymore. Rather, it was one of two Spring 2007 animes I thought held any promise at all. But I've only seen Episodes 1-3.

[McSweeney]

I've always refused to watch Claymore because it looks just like Berserk except "Duh hey girls can be hardcore too".

[Loki]

Claymore is much worse then Berserk. Berserk is amazing while Claymore is meh.

sola seems pretty popular on the web, but my connection recently has been to shitty to download anything. So it seems like I'll only be watching DVDs I own for a while ~_~;;