Sound of the Sky – Ep. 13 (Special)

Note: This review was written for #Anitwitwatches, a weekly community event primarily held on Twitter and led by Jon Spencer at Jon Spencer Reviews, in which participants watch and discuss the featured anime. Per the event’s schedule, Episodes 12 & 13 (though Episode 13 was optional) were watched together.

Like with Episode 7.5, this episode of Sound of the Sky is a special that was released after the show aired in Winter 2010. In fact, it’s the very last episode of the show to be released, serving as an epilogue to the main cour. Since it is a special, this episode was optional for #Anitwitwatches. As you can see, I chose to watch and cover it.

Set during Kanata’s one year anniversary as a member of the 1121st platoon, this episode has Kanata figuring out what her dream is after Mishio asks if she has one. We later find out that Mishio asked this because the townsfolk are writing their wishes on ema for the festival. In particular, Seiya wrote on his plaque that he’d like to marry Kanata (this kid is so down bad) so Mishio is now a bit jealous towards Kanata. Despite the childish reason, Kanata can’t help but ponder over her dream. She’s apparently made more progress with her trumpet playing though that feels more of a short term goal for her and beyond that, she’s not sure what she wants to do.

In contrast to Kanata, we see Rio has some new ambitions. Through her visits to Rome, Rio has gained a stronger understanding over the state of the world. While Helvetia and Rome are now allies, other nations are still fighting and the resources in general are scarce. Rio realizes now that as a princess, she could do more and she has already made a few steps towards achieving her dream. She plans on revitalizing air travel (I’m only now realizing we’ve never seen a plane in this show) and her fiancé has sent her a map to help her chart a journey around the world. I wonder if this development was added in to elaborate on Rio’s situation after Episode 12. As satisfying as it was to see her return to Seize, it was a little confusing as there was no way her work was done. At the very least, she’s got a wedding to plan. It’s nice to see some confirmation that she’s still working as a princess.

Ultimately, Kanata decides that her dream is to follow Rio on hers. Considering how similar and how close the two are to each other, Kanata coming to this conclusion makes sense. Really, what’s interesting is Rio’s reaction to Kanata’s decision. She’s happy that Kanata wants to her Number Two but she clearly has some reservations. After all, she spent part of her life wanting to follow her sister and Iliya’s passing caused her to feel lost. She can’t help but be worried for Kanata. Conversely, rejecting Kanata’s request most likely wouldn’t do much good either so I think Rio made the right call in letting the younger girl follow her for now.

In line with the show’s chronology, the town of Seize is about to hold the Flame Maidens festival once again. This time around, Kanata is selected to play the role of a Flame Maiden which is cute. Once again, Kanata takes after Rio. An interesting development regarding the festival is the conversation over which version of the legend the town should celebrate. According to Naomi, the version provided by Aisha is more accurate. Should Seize use that version instead or stick with the one they’ve been familiar with for eons? Based on the dialogue, it sounds the 1121st are okay with the latter. Kanata articulates that at the end of the day, the festival is still celebrated out of gratitude for the maidens and remorse for how things turned out. It’s a fair point but I lean more towards the former. If these people are going to celebrate their history, it’s best to remember it correctly. It’d be cool if Kanata uses her Flame Maiden act to show her townsfolk Aisha’s version of the legend.

With that, I’ve reached the end of Sound of the Sky and seeing as how there hasn’t been a new episode in 12 years, I think I can safely assume that is very much is the end. I had some issues with the final stretch and I can see the slow pacing and slice of life affectations being an acquired taste for some. Overall though, I really enjoyed my time with the show, particularly for its tone and characters. It was really nice to watch this for #Anitwitwatches and to finally finish this show and cross it off my backlog (now if I can just do the same for some other anime).

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