Post by Darthtabby on Sept 19, 2013 21:23:27 GMT -7
This is a series that aired back in '08 that I've been rewatching recently. It's based on two light novel series, Allison and its sequel series Lillia and Treize.
The series is set in a world with one huge continent that is divided in two by mountains and a river. To the East is the Roxche Confederation, to the West the United Kingdom of Bezel Iltoa or "Sou-Beil." The peoples of the East and the peoples of the West have a long history of hostility and conflict, with the last major battle fought a mere ten years before the beginning of the series.
The initial protagonist is Wilhelm Schultz, a bookish seventeen year old boy with a photographic memory and a talent for sport shooting. He intends to spend a peaceful summer in the vicinity of the school where he resides, but his plans are interrupted by the arrival of his brash and tomboy-ish childhood friend Allison Whittington, a newly minted Roxche Air Force pilot who decides to make a stopover at Wil's school while delivering a new training biplane. She and Wil encounter an elderly local man who claims to know the location of a treasure that can end the war between Roxche and Sous-beil. The old man has a reputation for telling tall tales, but when he is whisked away in a suspicious manner Allison decides to pursue the kidnappers across the border into Sous-beil -and Wil gets dragged along for the ride.
Allison to Lillia is a series I kind of like and one that I wanted to be great. Unfortunately from what I've gathered the anime does not entirely do the source novels justice. For one thing it glosses over the fact that Roxche and Sou-Beil speak separate languages. In the books Wil and Allison were bilingual but not all the characters they met were -the ability of particular character to understand or not understand a language was sometimes important. The anime's attempts to tone down the source material's violence also result in a number of ridiculous scenes.
In spite of this I still rather like the earlier parts of the series. From what I can remember, it was largely the later parts of the series (which I haven't finished watching this time around) that brought the show down. It might not be entirely the source material's fault as it may be a matter of adaptation, but the second arc seemed to get pretty ridiculous at times. The fact that the "new generation" of characters didn't seem to match up to the old ones didn't help either. Lillia in particular seemed like a weak replacement for Allison as the series' female lead.
This is an Japanese language trailer for the series that features a mix of clips from the first story arc and first OP sequence.
The series is set in a world with one huge continent that is divided in two by mountains and a river. To the East is the Roxche Confederation, to the West the United Kingdom of Bezel Iltoa or "Sou-Beil." The peoples of the East and the peoples of the West have a long history of hostility and conflict, with the last major battle fought a mere ten years before the beginning of the series.
The initial protagonist is Wilhelm Schultz, a bookish seventeen year old boy with a photographic memory and a talent for sport shooting. He intends to spend a peaceful summer in the vicinity of the school where he resides, but his plans are interrupted by the arrival of his brash and tomboy-ish childhood friend Allison Whittington, a newly minted Roxche Air Force pilot who decides to make a stopover at Wil's school while delivering a new training biplane. She and Wil encounter an elderly local man who claims to know the location of a treasure that can end the war between Roxche and Sous-beil. The old man has a reputation for telling tall tales, but when he is whisked away in a suspicious manner Allison decides to pursue the kidnappers across the border into Sous-beil -and Wil gets dragged along for the ride.
Allison to Lillia is a series I kind of like and one that I wanted to be great. Unfortunately from what I've gathered the anime does not entirely do the source novels justice. For one thing it glosses over the fact that Roxche and Sou-Beil speak separate languages. In the books Wil and Allison were bilingual but not all the characters they met were -the ability of particular character to understand or not understand a language was sometimes important. The anime's attempts to tone down the source material's violence also result in a number of ridiculous scenes.
In spite of this I still rather like the earlier parts of the series. From what I can remember, it was largely the later parts of the series (which I haven't finished watching this time around) that brought the show down. It might not be entirely the source material's fault as it may be a matter of adaptation, but the second arc seemed to get pretty ridiculous at times. The fact that the "new generation" of characters didn't seem to match up to the old ones didn't help either. Lillia in particular seemed like a weak replacement for Allison as the series' female lead.
This is an Japanese language trailer for the series that features a mix of clips from the first story arc and first OP sequence.