Japanophile Isle

Today I’m flying off to Scotland to slave away at my summer job. I will be back late August.  JP will take over Code Geass blogging, as for the rest: Kanokon is done, with Allison and Lilia I think I will do one big update posts for all the episodes I didn’t post. For Kara no Kyoukai and Moonlight Mile I will do proper posts (ie..one post per episode/part) when I’m back.

Till I’m back: happy anime watching.

The final arc of Allison begins.

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The second arc reaches it’s end. while the whole series reaches it’s all time low!

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Hey, Wil, what do you think those two are talking about?

Wil: “From the looks of things… they’re up to no good”

Looking so innocent here

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In last episode our heroes were drugged and captured. Allison doesn’t waste much time and after a while she and Will escape.

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This episode marks a beginning of a new arc. Some time has passed since the war officially ended. The winter break is here and Wil is going on a trip (financed by Allison). Of course Allison isn’t that selfless and soon after Wil arrives he’s abducted by people who turn out to be Allison’s friends. The scene with them dragging him away while calmly stating “We aren’t anyone suspicious” was priceless
Allison has been doing good, boosting her military pension with a little caviar smuggling. Hey, a girl has to make a living, especially when she needs to pay for her lover’s needs ;-D

During the whole episode Allison has been trying to ask Wil to go live with her. Those scenes are hilarious as well as sweet and I’ve realized how much I missed them (they were non-existent in the last two episodes).

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We’ve waited long time for it, but it’s finally here: a DOGFIGHT! And it lasted a half of the episode! That was probably the best 10 minutes of Allison and Lillia yet. In previous episodes only the short flight scenes looked really good animation-wise and it holds true in episode 4. The dogfight looks really nice and detailed, it was worth the wait, even though it was Ker who took all the spotlight (Allison still owned him with paint bullets though )

Surprisingly they’ve finished the “find the treasure” arc in second half of this episode.
That was quick, I thought it would take them all the remaining episodes of the Allison part of this show. But it was a pleasant surprise.

Turns out the treasure didn’t have any supernatural/sf origins, my suspicions were wrong here (I guess Last Exile has twisted me this way ). What it was however was a surprise. It was simply an ancient (from the time before humans invented the writing) wall painting that proved that both countries came from the same one civilization, thus taking away the whole reason behind the long war. I liked how they’ve handled that, obviously this wouldn’t be enough to stop hate during the war, but after 30 years of truce? People just needed an excuse to officially end the war and this gave them exactly that.

The old man really was bad ass though, he murdered his whole squad just to save this painting (way to go grandpa).

What annoyed me though was Wil’s pacifism, especially since it kind of came out of nowhere, previous episodes didn’t suggest that.
Not only he screamed like a little girl when he thought Allison would shot down Kar, but also after owning the bad guys with a gun he got so scared he dropped it… so lame…

You won’t earn the cool points in front of a girl like that pal!

I never liked characters like that in anime, fortunately next time he will do better.

This episode ended the first arc of the series, it’s probably how the first volume of the original novel series finished. Overall it was easily the best episode of Allison and Lilia yet and hopefully they will at least keep this level up for the remaining episodes. So far the series has left me severely disappointed (I was expecting a mix of Baccano and Kino no Tabi), but at least episodes like this keep it entertaining enough for me to keep watching.

rating: 8.0/10

This week the action speeds up and it finally starts to resemble an adventure show.

Allison and Wil easily bluff their way into the base (great performance Allison!) Meanwhile a pilot who flirted with Allison during rescue mission is also at the same base.

Heh, so Allison didn’t made him up just to make Wil jealous ^_^
He doesn’t get a lot of development, but from the little they’ve shown us he’s pretty interesting and has potential to turn into typically pulpish dashing kind of hero (let’s hope so at least).
He doesn’t get lot of exposure, because this episode belongs the old man.

He turns out to be a bad ass and after our young duet gives him a little help in escaping it is actually the old guy that carries on the whole action, until the very end when he sacrifices himself to let them escape. I liked how it was handled and it gives Allison and Wil much stronger reason to find the treasure.
And speaking of the treasure…

There was a short flashback from the time the old man was near it. It’s a very nice and mysterious scene with great use of music that strongly suggests a more supernatural origin of the treasure ( I even got the impression that it might be sapient), it sure as hell made be curious.
Unfortunately the animation still sucks badly, especially since an episode like this could have used some fluidity in action scenes.
Despite that though I really enjoyed this episode, much more than previous one, it doesn’t seem like the visuals will improve in the future, but so far the characters and plot managed to hold my interest enough for me to anticipate every new episode.

rating: 7.9

Impressions: Aside from a short (but sweet) action sequence at the beginning this is a rather slow episode that focuses on exposition. This series is based on novels and it’s pretty classical novel’s storytelling: after first thrill spend some time with characters to make reader care about them enough to be drawn in later on.
This works well in novels, but it’s not fully suited for anime series because with novel we can just read through it and get to the juicy parts, while here we have to wait a whole week for the next chapter.
Still, while not perfect this episode was still enjoyable. The story of old woman was pretty depressing and her reasons for staying alone near the border reminded me of Kino no Tabi. The best part of the episode though was tons of exposure to Wil and Allison’s relationship. We’ve learned how they’ve met.



“From now on, you’re my minion” I loled… hard ^_^
It’s also shown pretty clear just how strong their bond is. Wil puts himself in harm’s way to save Allison, which is preety typical for anime characters, but Allison goes completely nuts after that, she draws the gun and wants to shoot the damn animal who dared to hurt her Will and then she carries him on her back looking for help. I really liked those scenes.


Simply adorable Wil and Allison interactions were all that this episode was about and fortunately those characters have enough strength in them to make this episode enjoyable despite lack of any real action besides few first minutes.

Unfortunately the animation is just plain bad. It’s hard to believe this is Madhouse’s work. If they had to do it low budget they should have opted for Kino no Tabi-like visuals, where simplistic, but highly stylized art style helped to hide the lack og details and smooth animation.
I’m still hoping they’re saving up the budget for later episodes, Oh, well…at least Allison looks decently, better than other characters at least (I guess Madhouse knows well who is the most important and beloved character in this show)
Music though remains top notch.

Overall a decent episode with some good character pieces, I expected a bit more from it, but it looks like next week the action starts for good.

rating: 7.5/10

Based on novels by Keiichi Sigsawa ( writer of one of my all time favorites: Kino no Tabi) and animated by Madhouse, from previews this was the show that made me hyped up the most this spring. So how did first episode fare when clashed with my expectations?

Opening


Opening song is a surprisingly peaceful and quiet one. I liked it and it complimented the animation of a plane flying slowly through various landscapes very well. Altough it is a kind od song that is usually reserved for endings.

Ending


This song is completely forgettable. There’s nothing special or interesting about it, the same with ending animation.

Short summary: The episode begins with introductions. We are explained the basics of the fictional world (which resemble early 20th century technology-wise), that’s essentialy one big continent with two opossing countries separatated by huge mountain pass and river. Then we meet the heroes of this story: Wil (an intelligent young student) and his friend Allison (a girl working as a pilot for army). When returning from a date(from Allison’s perspective)/friendly meeting (according to Wil ^_^) they encounter an old man, whos’ famous for being a huge liar. They drive him home and to thank them he tells them a real story: about a treasure so precious and important that it can end the war once and for all. Unfortunatelly the old man is abducted before he can finish his tale. Allison and Wil decide to help him. They start by stealing a plane and the episode ends with them beggining their chase in the sky

Impressions: The first episode is merely an introduction to the story, but it fared well. The characters have lots of charm to them, Allison has won me over very quickly. She’s energetic and sympathetic without falling into tsunadere cliche. Wil’s personality is a nice contrast to her, plus he’s smart and apparently good with weapons, so it looks like the show won’t fall into the typical “brave girl accompanied by useless guy” nonsense. They compliment each other nicely, which is nice good considering they’re obviously will end up as a couple.
The setting is interesting from the bits and pieces we’ve seen and the early 20th century feel is perfect for adventure series.

The action speeds up in second half of the episode. I’ve read somewhere that the original novels are known for making one bullet as exciting and dangerous as whole big action scenes in other stories. And it shows in the first episode. When chasing the car with abducted old man the villain shoots at our heroes. Instead ofignoring it, like in every other action show, here Wil reacts like he should in real-life: he jumps off the bike with Allison just to make sure the bullet won’t hit them.
The war story the old man tells makes me think the story will have pretty dark elements later on.

The visuals are pretty impressive. The characters are a bit on a simplistic side, but their old school design helps to hide it (similar thing happened in Kino no Tabi anime) and the backgrounds are simply beautiful. It’s also obvious Madhouse has spent a lot of money and effort on flying sequences: they look excellent with great plane models and sense of flight.

While the OP and ED songs aren’t impressive, the rest of the music definitely is. As the episode went the music was getting better and better. It really helps the action a lot and so far it’s the best one from spring shows I’ve seen.

Overall a very promising start for this show, it at least matched my expectations and I’m looking for second episode more than for other spring animes.

rating: 8.6/10

“Wil no Tabi?” ^_^












Viewers, welcome to the adventure !


That’s how stealing should always look like! ^_^