• Title: Allison to Lillia
• Studio: Madhouse
• Genre: Adventure

Ratings (out of 5):

• Story: ♥♥♥

• Animation: ♥♥
• Characters: ♥♥♥
• OP/ED Themes: ♥♥½
• Overall: ♥♥♥ (Interesting story, fun characters, but one thing bugs me…)

Thoughts:
Right, so, worldsetting: a vaguely 30s/40s-ish world where the main continent is split into two countries who have been at war for over 130 years. Wil is an orphan and the top tier student at the village high school; Allison is his childhood friend who ran off and joined the army. Now a pilot, she returns to visit Wil and the two get thrown into an adventure to save the village’s local crazy old dude, who told a story about a legendary treasure that would put an end to the two countries’ war.

The plot is interesting (it’s been a while since we had a good epic adventure story whose goal wasn’t primarily the defeat of some baddie, I think), and the characters are fun. Allison is a slightly pushy go-getter, but she doesn’t cross the line into being a bitch and she’s not tsundere. Wil is…well, okay, he’s kind of a wishy-washy goodie-two-shoes, but at least he’s good with a gun, or so we hear tell.

My only issue comes with the animation. The art style is very old-school, even Ghibli-esque, which is fine, even enjoyable given the old-timey setting. But I found that while the animation in backgrounds and of objects (especially planes and bikes) was pretty good, the animation of the characters was kind of “QUALITY,” mouth movements in particular. Now, this is Madhouse; they have a budget and they have serious skills…so I can only assume it was an intentional choice. But there’s a difference between homage to nostalgia and just looking old, and occasionally it felt more like the latter than the former, to the point where it was a little distracting.

I also found Wil’s voice– performed by Motoko Kumai, also known for Chobits’s Sumomo and Cardcaptor’s Shaoran Li –to be a little off. He’s supposed to be 17, so sayeth the official website, but he sounds much younger. Now, women can play teenage boys perfectly well (case in point: Romi Paku as Fullmetal Alchemist’s Ed, at various ages), but Kumai’s performance feels more like a younger boy, maybe 13-14, than a 17-year-old, at least to me. (On the other hand, Allison sounds perfect– Nana Mizuki for the win!)

The background music is fantastic; I actually liked it better than the OP or ED, which were both perfectly nice (the OP in particular is pretty). It’s worth noting that the second generation– Allison and Wil’s daughter Lillia and her boyfriend Traize –doesn’t appear in the OP. The show is supposed to be 26 episodes long, so I’m guessing the first 13 episodes will follow Allison and Will and the second 13 will feature Lillia and Traize, presumably with new OP and ED, we’ll see.

So, yeah. Once I get over my little issue with the visuals I think this could become one of my favorites this season. It’s just a fun, classic adventure– no shtick, no over-the-top cliches, no irony or parody, just…fun. Well, I hope.

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