Allison & Lilia (TV, 2008)

Written by JC DuBois | 21 February 2009

Overview

Every once in awhile, I find myself looking for something a bit lighter in nature than my usual tastes when it comes to anime.  Now, considering that I've found my tastes running from being oddly entertained by Jane & the Dragon all the way to Zenescape's Grimm Fairy Tales and Return to Wonderland series – which is a long way of saying really fucked up shit – that might not be saying very much.  Anybody that can swing from the insulin attack inducing brain-numbing mindless teach the kiddies morals that is Jane & the Dragon to "let's take McFarlane's Alice and make it look like a positive place to put those kiddies" Return to Wonderland is already bucking for a section 8.  That aside, when I caught the first episode of Allison & Lillia and saw a fairly harmless series foundation, I figured it'd do for a light hearted series to watch in a season with Macross Frontier and Golgo 13.

Review

Allison & Lillia is a story of two nations separated by a great river.  They've been at almost constant war for as long as anyone can remember.  Wil is a student at a private academy, your quintessential bookworm.  Quiet, studious, painfully intelligent, that sort of thing.  One day while he's studying, a plane flies over head – just barely, and then lands in a field not far away from where he's reading.  We meet Allison, childhood friend, and fellow former resident of the orphanage that Wil grew up in.  She's joined the military, is training to be a pilot, and has a big test coming up soon.  Everybody understand the simplicity of this storyline yet?  Good.

The series is built around a pretty simple premise.  Wil and Allison, and later Lillia and Treize, run around getting themselves into trouble, meeting new friends, solving mysteries with international implications, and just in general winding up in really, REALLY hard to believe situations.  That's... all.  I wish that I could say there was more, but that's literally it.  Each arc takes a very predictable course.  The main characters meet up.  Set out on a journey.  Wind up involved in some plot.  Allison intimidates the fuck out of somebody, usually Wil.  Wil puts everything together for the big reveal.  The day is saved.  Everybody goes home happy.  Rinse.  Repeat.

As lame as it sounds, it's actually not boring.  Not really.  See, the strength of the series isn't it's action – of which there is some, but you quickly come to realize that it's of the G.I. Joe 'the pilot always ejects' variety – but in its writing.  The plots being hatched and executed are actually surprisingly intricate, and even though most of them will leave a bad taste of friendship conquers all in your mouth, the buildup and execution is very well done.  The characters flesh out nicely throughout the course of the storyline, and while the mechanism of serendipitous chance that keeps involving them in the events is hard to swallow after the first couple arcs, they do take to them surprisingly well.

The animation is decidedly average.  It really is.  The character designs lean a bit more toward the 'real' side than most anime, while at the same time also being a bit more simplistic than average.  That said, it's also smooth, so while it's not going to win any awards for artistic style, it's quite watchable.  More time was spent on the surrounding world and scenery, with nicely vivid color that really brings the story itself to life.  Kudos to the artists on that.

Sound wise I really wasn't impressed.  The voice actors did a decent job.  But that's it.  It's a decent job.  Watchable.  But nothing special.  Background music was passable.  The opening theme was good, but that's really about it.  Wish I could say more, but frankly there was just far better competition out there this season.  Sorry guys.

Overall

I'm really not sure how to classify Allison & Lillia, honestly.  I mean, I'm really not.  It's 26 episodes long, and those episodes are split between Allison and Wil's journey, and then Lillia and Treize's, though to be fair Allison and Wil come along for the ride on those.  You'll understand if you watch.  The first half of the series is distinctly better.  Really, they could have ended it on the last episode of Allison and Wil's storyline and not suffered any loss.  Lillia and Treize's arcs are unfortunately repetitive, in a series that had a bad habit of retreading covered ground.  On the other hand, the story really is surprisingly good – and the mysteries experienced are quite solid.

The series is painfully tame, given the situations that the characters get into.  It's not completely death free, but it's pretty damn close, and even the violence is... subdued.  It's as close to family friendly as I'd call any anime.  The characters are well fleshed out, and you'll even find yourself hating a couple of them – and hating yourself for doing it, because you know they're right at some level.  There's a big focus on the cycle of revenge to be found, too... I just dunno, folks.  Watch at your own discretion, I can't recommend or warn.