Sola (manga)

Sola's story revolves around Yorito Morimiya, the main protagonist, who is a young boy attending high school. He loves taking pictures of the sky at any time of day and any time of the year. One day, Yorito decides to take a picture of the sunrise overlooking the bay, but is deterred when he meets a strange girl trying to force a vending machine that stole her money to give her what she tried to buy—a can of tomato juice. Yorito helps her with forcing the machine while attempting to strike up conversation with her, despite it being four in the morning. Yorito tells her why he is here, but by the time he has forced the can out of the machine, the girl has mysteriously vanished.

The next day, Yorito goes to visit his older sister Aono in the hospital with his friend Mana Ishizuki and Mana's little sister Koyori Ishizuki. Despite it being Aono's birthday, Yorito leaves soon after to take a photograph of the setting sun near an old church on the roof of the hospital. That night, Yorito leaves to buy groceries when it begins to rain and stops on the way home to wait for the rain to stop; while waiting, he runs into the strange girl he met from yesterday again. They talk longer this time and Yorito finally learns her name—Matsuri Shihou. A few days later, Yorito goes looking for the girl in the old church and finds a man wielding a sword before Matsuri.

After a display of Matsuri's astounding powers, Yorito discovers that she is in fact a creature known as a "Calamity of the Night" (夜の禍, Yoru no Wazawai), who has lived for centuries. She is being chased by Takeshi Tsujidou who intends to kill her, but Yorito tries to protect her by bringing her back to his home which is when Yorito asks her to stay with him for the time being.

A "Calamity of the Night", otherwise known as a Yaka (夜禍), is a supernatural being in the Sola universe. Yaka have many supernatural powers, such as: strong physical ability, fast regeneration, and never aging body, among other powers. A Yaka is hurt by direct exposure to sunlight, but the wound can be healed in time if the exposure is not excessive; a Yaka is immortal unless exposed to too much sunlight or has received fatal wounds. Matsuri explains that a Yaka is the embodiment of human agony and pain and that such creatures are meant to always be alone. Despite this, the two fall in love. As their relationship deepens, Matsuri reveals her long tragic past and her knowledge of Yorito's past.

The main characters of Sola (from left to right): Koyori, Mana, Yorito, Matsuri, Aono, Mayuko, and Takeshi.

Yorito Morimiya (森宮依人, Morimiya Yorito)

Voiced by: Nobuhiko Okamoto

Yorito is the main protagonist of Sola. He enjoys taking photographs of the sky and will go out of his way to do so. He meets Matsuri Shihou early on in the story and finds out she is not human and is being chased by a man—Takeshi Tsujidou—who intends to kill her. Yorito tries to protect her by asking her to stay at his house. Over the course of the story, he and Matsuri fall in love. Yorito has an older sister named Aono who at the beginning of the story is in the hospital. Yorito visits her with Mana everyday and he brings her a new doll from a strange store that sells oddly designed dolls. Yorito is in fact a paper construct made by Aono, implanted with the memories of and designed after the image of the original Yorito, who died in the past. Yorito is impaled on a sword wielded by Aono as she tries to stab Matsuri, and "dies"; disappearing in a pile of paper.

Matsuri Shihou (四方茉莉, Shihō Matsuri)

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto

Matsuri is a strange girl Yorito meets early on in the story. She is a "Calamity of the Night" (夜の禍, Yoru no Wazawai), otherwise known as a Yaka, and has lived for hundreds of years. She cannot come in contact with direct sunlight as it harms her. Matsuri is fascinated by Yorito's photographs. Over the course of the story, she falls in love with Yorito. She has never seen a blue sky, only a deeply cloudy daytime sky or the nighttime sky. She has a particular fixed memory of seeing a moonlit sky from some sort of well or hole in the ground. Matsuri does not have much common sense and will often break machines in Yorito's house after kicking them too hard; she believes that any device can be fixed by kicking it. She has extreme fondness for tomato juice. Her ability is the power to make an object rapidly decay and transform those who have died into Yaka. Matsuri dies after stabbing herself with her sword, happy to finally see the beautiful azure sky she had always wanted to.

Aono Morimiya (森宮蒼乃, Morimiya Aono)

Voiced by: Mai Nakahara

Aono is Yorito's older sister who has been sickly ever since she was born and is hospitalized at the beginning of the story. She has a cold personality, showing very little emotion but still is visibly annoyed at Yorito for how much he seems to ignore her to do other things. Every time Yorito brings her a new doll, she takes one look at it and throws it in a nearby basket filled with other dolls. However, she does not hate them and even has one which is her favorite — the first one Yorito brought her. She enjoys making origami and is friends with Koyori. Aono is a Yaka—she was transformed into one by Matsuri when she tried to commit suicide after the Yorito from her time died in the avalanche that destroyed their house. Towards the end Matsuri kills herself so that Aono can become human again, freeing her from a world of darkness.

Mana Ishizuki (石月真名, Ishizuki Mana)

Voiced by: Yōko Honda

Mana is Yorito's friend from school; she often gets annoyed at Yorito for how he spends so much time taking photographs of the sky instead of spending more time with his sister. It is implied that Mana is in love with Yorito which is also picked up by her friends but she denies this. Mana works as a waitress at the Azur Restaurant and often comes over to Yorito's house to cook for him. She looks after her younger sister Koyori. She also knows about Matsuri's secret, and is heart-broken when Yorito would not tell her what he really was when he found out. She eventually takes up Yorito's hobby of taking pictures of clouds in the early morning, although she has no more memories of him after his death.

Koyori Ishizuki (石月こより, Ishizuki Koyori)

Voiced by: Ai Shimizu

Koyori is Mana's little sister who, at the beginning of the story, is staying in the same hospital as Aono, but is soon discharged. Whenever she calls Mana by her given name instead of referring to her as her big sister, Mana strikes her head. Koyori tries to keep Aono company whenever she can and they become good friends over the time Koyori spends in the hospital. Aono also teaches her how to make origami. Koyori is very polite to others even when not required to do so.

Takeshi Tsujidou (辻堂剛史, Tsujidō Takeshi)

Voiced by: Keiji Fujiwara

Takeshi is an older man who is trying to track down Matsuri. When fighting her, he wields a large sword unaffected by Yaka powers with the intention of killing Matsuri and uses ultraviolet rocket-flares to try to immobilize her. His intention to kill her is due to a promise to turn Mayuko back into a human. He was devoted to her when they were the same age: him as a young boy, and she was still alive. He promised to stay by her side until he can bring her back to normal.

Mayuko Kamikawa (神河繭子, Kamikawa Mayuko)

Voiced by: Tomoko Kaneda

Mayuko is a young girl with distinctive attire who follows Takeshi; she is also a Yaka. Whenever Takeshi finds her, it is at night when she is sleeping in a cardboard box which changes location around the city. Mayuko has a pompous personality and will not hesitate to talk bad of Takeshi around others, but she worries about Takeshi a lot. She became a Yaka many years before the story began when she was killed during a house robbery. Takeshi has been her support and companion since her death.

Sae Sakura (佐倉紗絵, Sakura Sae)

Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu

Sae is the most prominent of Mana's three friends and classmates. She works in the same restaurant as Mana and instantly was attracted to Takeshi when he first started coming to their restaurant due to his goatee. She also works at a convenience store. Sae loves to gossip and often talks to the point where she is ignored by her friends. She has wavy shoulder length hair and wears glasses. (The other two friends are Chisato, who has light brown hair and a fondness for Koyori, and Touko, who has long black hair.)

• Anime official website (in Japanese)
• Sola (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia