HighWire: [First Impression] Aria the Scarlet Ammo/sola

I'm in one of those moods again. What do I mean? Currently, no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to get excited very much over anime, even the things currently airing this season(yes, that includes One Punch Man, sorry). My Currently Watching list grows by the day with anime that either are only half-way completed or basically dropped after only 1 episode. But even if I am a little jaded when it comes to anime watching, I did want to get a little something out for you to read.
So here are two anime I've started in this slump of mine, and here are my impressions whether they may be able to break me out of it. Apologies if I sound a little pessimistic in this First Impression post, I guess I'm just in one of those moods. Right. Let me just give myself a little mental slap in the face. Time to get on paper(or keybaord) my initial thoughts on two anime: Aria the Scarlet Ammo and sola.
Hell people of "The Wired", my name is Quan, I hope you're having a lovely day, and welcome to a new First Impression. Now then, let's get started.

Aria: Main heroine of Aria The Scarlet Ammo, and is it just me, or does everything about
her design scream "tsundere"?

Let's start with Aria. Kinji is just a average student who wants to live a perfectly normal life at his highschool that specializes in training mercenaries(ignore that contradiction and just go with it), but his plan goes completely wrong when his bike is rigged with a bomb and an Uzi attached to a moped chases him through his normal school commute. Luckily a fiery transfer student(surprise, surprise) named Aria comes to his rescue. This sets off a series of events that activates Kinji's bizarre "sickness". I want you to imagine me saying this next sentence in the most dry and sarcastic tone you can imagine, just so you know that none of this is made up however much I'd like it to be. See, when Kinji is "turned on by the female form", it inexplicably changes his entire personality into a sauve ace-killer, for some reason. Aria, who I guess is impressed by the skill Kinji showed when he turned into this universe's equivalent of Magic Kaito, becomes determined to make Kinji her *cough* slave, for reasons yet unexplained, and refuses to leave Kinji's apartment until he complies with her outlandish requests. And if that didn't sound bothersome enough for Kinji, Aria is not exactly the easiest person to get along with. She's a pig-tailed tsundere with a flat-chest complex, is bossy and selfish beyond belief, and to make matters worse, misunderstandings of her living at Kinji's apartment are abound since Kinji has another girl(who for some reason likes him even though all things considered he's sort of a jerk to her), coming to his house to wake him up for school and bring him lunches she made herself, perpetually blushing as she longs to be his wife- ...*sigh*.
Can you hear the weariness in my voice? I mean, I don't think I approached Aria with unreasonable expectations, I wasn't expecting anything particular good, but for Haruhi's sake, is there anything here worth something? I purposely approach anime I expect to mediocre just in case I find a diamond in the rough, but lately anything I seem to approach turns to utter garbage, sounding just as bland, boring and cliche as the description promises, and honestly, two episodes into Aria, I really don't know if I can watch another one right now. Absolute Duo delivered spectacularly on the dullness it promised in its description, Sky Wizards Academy used it cliche premise to dive into levels of crap even I didn't expect by the end, and Lance N' Masques this season looks, despite promising that there was actually something interesting underneath the familiar surface, like it could easily be a contender for worst anime of the year. Is it naive of me to expect that some of these anime good rise above what it says on the cover? No, of course, not, because there are some true hidden gems out there. But right now, I don't think I have the fortitude to wade through the pools of crap to find them, And right now, Aria doesn't look like it will be any different than the other disappointments I listed above. Who knows, maybe it will get better as it goes on. But then again, that's what I said the last 4 times as well.

The mysterious girl.

I partly started watching sola because I felt bad for studio Nomad. It was bad enough that almost nobody knows they exist, but also the things they have animated I have absolutely no particular inkling to see. How many people really care about things like Rozen Maidan or Kämpfer? sola, on the other hands, looked at least a little promising: a supernatural romance thingy that looked to be in vein of other solid romance anime, a la things like One Week Friends or to a looser extent Kyoukai no Kanata. After viewing the first episode, I found those expectations to be relatively correct, as though I was correct when guessing the genre and overall tone of the show, it handled all of that much better than I really expected. That's right, it's time to change gears into something more positive, thank Haruhi.
Our protagonist Yorito Morimiya is a highschool student whose passion is taking pictures of the sky. In fact, taking pictures of the sky anytime or anywhere is what takes up most of his time when he isn't visiting his sister Aono in the hospital or hanging out with his friend Mana. However, one day as Yorito prepares to take a picture of the rising sun overlooking the bay, he happens to run into a mysterious girl attempting to get a can of tomato juice from a vending machine that stole her money. Yorito assists the strangely enigmatic girl, but before he has a chance to ask her what her name is or why she is trying to get tomato juice from a vending machine at 4 in the morning, she disappears without a trace. This sets in motion of a series of events that will eventually tie to all the important people in Yorito's life, that will bring about the realization that it is the world down below and not the sky above, that is much bigger and stranger than he could have possibly imagined.
I honestly don't have a lot to say about sola besides from I liked it. The slow pacing allowed a smooth introduction to the world and characters, but it also managed to weave in the supernatural elements and other threads to hint at the story's possible path. Simply put, the anime hasn't done anything wrong in its first episode. The characters were likable(especially the tomato girl), the story seems interesting enough, and the writing and atmosphere drips of something reminiscent of Kanon '06, which needless to say, if sola can even come close to grasping some of that show's greatness, I would be more than delighted. Oh dear, I'm getting my hopes up again, aren't I? I never learn, I guess. sola could easily wander into developmental limbo from here. It could completely fail on the inevitable romance. It could do a million things wrong in the coming episodes. But then again, maybe things will be different.... yeah, I'm a total sucker aren't I? Goodbye for now guys.

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