Allison & Lillia (Preview)
New show promises adventure, may have candy in van
This season’s getting crowded. After last season’s initial reactions, which ranged from ho-hum to enraged to “hey I know what would shake up a boring season, let’s enter the already-crowded anime blog space partway through,” my brain shakes and twitches like a junkie’s at the though of Macross and Geass fixes. I doubt I will watch everything I started with (I see no intrinsic value in Special A aside from the fact that Jun Fukuyama is in another freaking show), and I probably shouldn’t be blogging everything I watch. Oddly, Geass may fall into that list, much as I enjoy watching it, unless I can make a really fun game out of screencapping Pizza Hut logos and goth poses. And then along comes Allison & Lillia.
Story and Characters
Allison & Lillia was initially a bit confusing to me until I found out that the series is divided in half: Lillia is Allison’s daughter and doesn’t appear until the second half of the series.
In an alternate reality defined by an early-20th-century European look and a country at constant war with its neighbor, Wilhelm is a model student, so much so that he’s often asked to teach younger kids in the name of obvious plot exposition (still beats Special A, seriously). But one day in the middle of school his childhood friend Allison shows up in her biplane. Apparently she opted for the air force instead of high school.
When they encounter an old man with a bunch of made-up stories, their summer starts to get odd. One of his stories about his days in the army — which he claims to have not made up — turns Allison and Wil’s notions of world history upside down.
But before they can find out more, a man in a black car who claims to be the tax assessor takes oji-san away. Sensing something suspicious, impulsive and athletic Allison drags the reserved and bookish Wil along in a chase that starts by motorcycle but ends the episode in a plane, and very obviously begins a huge old-school adventure.
Psych Evaluation
Are you interested in seeing a cartoon where a pair of kids go off on a grand adventure in what (at first glance) appears to be a family-friendly, but grand and epic way? Would you like to see such a show capably animated in a vaguely vintage-feeling style? Then you, my friend, are sane! I know I want to see it, and I am almost definitely not that crazy.
This show had near-instant appeal for me. In spite of what my sidebar tells you, I’m still in the midst of establishing what to blog, but this has a better chance than most of making it on the list.
Will it hold up? Madhouse’s animation varies between shows but they are solid technicians, usually consistent from beginning to end. In this case it’s not bad, not great, but certainly watchable. Computers are used minimally to improve the smoothness of the airplanes in flight, and it works very well. The music enhances that old-school adventure feel, and seems very cinematic if this episode is any indication.
It was really refreshing, much as I like robots and Jun Fukuyama (and as much as you like fox-girl-panties, come on…), to see something like this. I’m really interested in seeing where it goes.
- otou-san out!
