Allison to Lillia – 02

Okay, this is going to be the first series that I’ll be blogging for the current spring-season. At first sight, this series looks rather underwhelming when compared to the rest of this season, but as I watched this episode, I suddenly realized that I’ve actually got lots of reasons to blog about this series.

First of all: the people who worked on it. The director of Mokke, adapting a story from the writer of Kino no Tabi. Of course it’d be interesting to check out to see such a combination. Add to that the art director of Hi no Tori and Madhouse who’ll be doing the animation. It’s pretty clear by now that the animation isn’t detailed at all, but I don’t care, as long as the series looks good. And that’s definitely the case for this series.

Then there are the themes, which lay an interesting parallel to the other series that appeared this season. During the Spring Season of 2007, a lot of series featured a veteran, travelling and taking care or protecting a relatively weak partner. In Seirei no Moribito, Balsa took care of Chaggumu, Wellber no Monogatari featured Tina that took care of Rita, in El Cazador Nadie watched over Ellis and in Claymore Claire had Raki around her, just to name some examples. The current season features a lot of spunky females that have to deal with a guy that’s on a level above them: Itazura na Kiss, S.A, Crystal Blaze, Toshokan Sensou (of which I’ll post my first impressions once Kaiba and Junjo Romantica air) and Vampire Knight.

In all of these series, the male character acts as a sort-of brake. These females do pretty stupid things at times, mostly due to their inexperience, but so far they’ve always been protected by their male companion, to hold them down so that they don’t lose complete control. Allison to Lillia, however, is different. Will is basically a wuss, and instead Lillia is the stronger one, even though she does make naive decisions, just like the other female leads of the series I just mentioned. Where does she end up with this? Well, crashed out of her plane and with Will unconscious for a part of the episode. In Allison to Lillia, there isn’t just one character that’s just “better”. Allison and Will both have their own strong points and their weak points, and so far they’ve complemented each other pretty well.

Then there are the influences by the writer of Kino no Tabi. This series is both subtle, and it makes you think. In this episode, Allison and Will stay the night at the house of a woman who lost both her sons in the war. At the time, Will was unconscious, so she just had to offer them a place to rest, even though she immediately recognized that they were involved in the war. Against two youngsters like that, she of course can’t do anything to stop them, so instead she just lets the two stay the night, while clearly voicing her own opinion about the war. As the episode progresses, her relationship with Allison and Will subtly changes.

Then there are the side-characters. I love it when a series puts time into even the insignificant ones, to make them more than just cardboard figures. I don’t think that this series has featured any character that at least didn’t have some kind of personality or story. So yes, I’ll be blogging this. It’s quite quiet at times, but I like series that are quiet, yet deal with serious topics as war and similar things. With 26 episodes, there’s plenty of potential for this series to work with. There were a few details that were wrong with these episodes (one of the woman’s son’s uniforms seemed to fit Allison a little too well), but this is just nitpicking.