Allison and Lillia
Aug. 14th, 2011 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foxinthestarsI said I was close, and I finished it! The anime has gotten a commercial release, so no fansubs, and sadly I can't find any translations of the original novels by Keiichi Sigsawa of Kino no Tabi fame; all I can give you is a manga adaptation at MangaReader, which I have not read. I really enjoyed this series and do recommend it, so keep that in mind as you read on with my usual "yes it's good BUT."
The story is set in a 1920's-1930's type world, on a continent where two nations have been at war for centuries, and follows model student Wil and his impetuous ace pilot friend Allison. They have various adventures, usually involving planes, starting with a treasure hunt to end the war followed by a fateful run-in with royalty. These events and the friends (and enemies) they make along the way shape their further adventures and their lives, and in the middle of the series there's a 15-year time skip and the story then follows Lillia and Treize, the respective children of the two main couples from the first half. The parents are never really sidelined, and it's interesting to see how they've grown and changed and how their actions in the past have effects all these years later; this also allows moments of genuinely touching nostalgia, and the balance of "power" (competence and plot-driving agency) between the generations feels just right. In some ways Lillia and Treize are not as striking as characters, but they are quite likable, and the support structure in place for their story is probably the show's strongest point, so I did enjoy the second half more. Overall, the show has a quality of wonderment and innocent charm that it never loses, even when the old Sigsawa moral ambiguity comes up (mostly embodied in a couple of characters, who aren't exactly held to account but it's not really glossed over either); mostly good clean adventure-fun, but not too fluffy.
The BUT in this case is asymmetrical bookends of disbelief-suspension fail (which, according to TV Tropes, results mainly from compressing and bowdlerizing the novels, making me very curious about them as though I needed to be tempted by yet more expensively-imported books I can barely read). It's very noticeable at the beginning; the first couple of stories have a nigh-unbelievable wind at the protagonists' back, and any serious threats seem to take care of themselves rather too tidily. Once the first set of lead characters are in place (you'll know who they are, that's what ending themes are for), this improves a lot, but it's never good to have to tell people to stay with something for ten episodes while they work the kinks out. Things are more robust after that; it stays fairly loose but in a way I could easily accept as the feel of the thing, the hastily built structure is fleshed out much more nicely, and indeed some of the eyebrow-raising bits from the start are explained or "paid for" later on in says that redeem them to varying degrees. I think one reason I enjoyed the second half (the Lillia arc) more was this more grounded quality, which lasts all the way up to the very end---but then in like the last ten minutes of the series, as if for old time's sake, it goes out in one last paroxysm of wall-banging WTF. ...Of a type that made me look up the relevant MST3K quote: "Upon further review, the refs find that (Commando) Cody is dead. The play stands. Cody is dead." That seriously, seriously needed some kind of cursory hand-wave. As it is, the mood-whiplash would have been hard to swallow, but part of me wishes they'd pulled the trigger instead of that---on my favorite character, so it pains me to say it, but maybe better dead than cheapened. My fanfic-writing brain is trying to helpfully fill in the gap and is coming up with nothing (although it doesn't help that my fanfic-writing brain has a grievous-injury fetish and thus feels cheated on that front also). So yeah, I just spoiled that that character doesn't really die and isn't even grievously injured, but you would probably know that while you were watching it anyway; you can see it coming about a mile away and it still makes no goddamn sense. ::huff:: The rest of the series is well worth it, though, in my opinion.
Starting something else, I went way back and am trying again with the Kara no Kyoukai movies, and my opinion of them as shallow flash and shock value hasn't changed, but they are fun to watch on that level.
The story is set in a 1920's-1930's type world, on a continent where two nations have been at war for centuries, and follows model student Wil and his impetuous ace pilot friend Allison. They have various adventures, usually involving planes, starting with a treasure hunt to end the war followed by a fateful run-in with royalty. These events and the friends (and enemies) they make along the way shape their further adventures and their lives, and in the middle of the series there's a 15-year time skip and the story then follows Lillia and Treize, the respective children of the two main couples from the first half. The parents are never really sidelined, and it's interesting to see how they've grown and changed and how their actions in the past have effects all these years later; this also allows moments of genuinely touching nostalgia, and the balance of "power" (competence and plot-driving agency) between the generations feels just right. In some ways Lillia and Treize are not as striking as characters, but they are quite likable, and the support structure in place for their story is probably the show's strongest point, so I did enjoy the second half more. Overall, the show has a quality of wonderment and innocent charm that it never loses, even when the old Sigsawa moral ambiguity comes up (mostly embodied in a couple of characters, who aren't exactly held to account but it's not really glossed over either); mostly good clean adventure-fun, but not too fluffy.
The BUT in this case is asymmetrical bookends of disbelief-suspension fail (which, according to TV Tropes, results mainly from compressing and bowdlerizing the novels, making me very curious about them as though I needed to be tempted by yet more expensively-imported books I can barely read). It's very noticeable at the beginning; the first couple of stories have a nigh-unbelievable wind at the protagonists' back, and any serious threats seem to take care of themselves rather too tidily. Once the first set of lead characters are in place (you'll know who they are, that's what ending themes are for), this improves a lot, but it's never good to have to tell people to stay with something for ten episodes while they work the kinks out. Things are more robust after that; it stays fairly loose but in a way I could easily accept as the feel of the thing, the hastily built structure is fleshed out much more nicely, and indeed some of the eyebrow-raising bits from the start are explained or "paid for" later on in says that redeem them to varying degrees. I think one reason I enjoyed the second half (the Lillia arc) more was this more grounded quality, which lasts all the way up to the very end---but then in like the last ten minutes of the series, as if for old time's sake, it goes out in one last paroxysm of wall-banging WTF. ...Of a type that made me look up the relevant MST3K quote: "Upon further review, the refs find that (Commando) Cody is dead. The play stands. Cody is dead." That seriously, seriously needed some kind of cursory hand-wave. As it is, the mood-whiplash would have been hard to swallow, but part of me wishes they'd pulled the trigger instead of that---on my favorite character, so it pains me to say it, but maybe better dead than cheapened. My fanfic-writing brain is trying to helpfully fill in the gap and is coming up with nothing (although it doesn't help that my fanfic-writing brain has a grievous-injury fetish and thus feels cheated on that front also). So yeah, I just spoiled that that character doesn't really die and isn't even grievously injured, but you would probably know that while you were watching it anyway; you can see it coming about a mile away and it still makes no goddamn sense. ::huff:: The rest of the series is well worth it, though, in my opinion.
Starting something else, I went way back and am trying again with the Kara no Kyoukai movies, and my opinion of them as shallow flash and shock value hasn't changed, but they are fun to watch on that level.
