Allison & Lillia 01 - First Impressions

I was quite surprised that there were a lot of interesting titles in Spring 2008 that I did not include in my LIST OF DOOM. It must be because I thought that for this year I want animes that don't demand much from me, animes that are light or just out to give viewers a good laugh, or with lots of pretty characters and zero plot. But, after braving through the first few episodes of Vampire Knight and Special A, I decided that I can't watch titles like that simply because I chose to be lazy this season.

So I will admit right now that I do not like vampire themes, and school settings are about as interesting for me as watching a cow chew grass for forty-five minutes. Yeah, it's silly to judge a series based solely on the first two episodes, and I know that I could be entirely wrong. But let's not talk about that.Allison & Lillia Episode 1: Allison and Will
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Allison & Lillia is based on two light novel series, Allison and Lillia and Treize, by Keichi Sigsawa. After Spice and Wolf, I don't exactly harbor a high opinion of light novel-turned-anime series, but I just remembered that Maria-sama Ga Miteru was originally a light novel series also and that one was not so bad (of course, it had the distinction of being the first unabashedly shojou-ai series that I actually watched, so that's that). Also, after some research (i.e. I checked Wikipedia), I found that my favorite animation studio, Madhouse is responsible for this show.So what is Allison & Lillia about? The title will tell you immediately that it is a contraction of the two light novel series' titles, so that must mean that the series takes both timelines into account. Wikipedia agrees with me with the added info that the first half of the series will focus on the plot found in Allison while the second half will deal with Lillia and Treize.The animation looks crisp with characters that utilize clean, Ghibli-esque lines. I like that the animation artists used a wide range of pallet for the show. It's only appropriate once you take the series' setting into account. The style actually reminded me of another great series, Kino no Tabi, and the story of Allison & Lillia even has echoes of the Kino series. I don't know about you but I find the idea of a fantasy anime that does not have any magical creatures in it intriguing. If Spice and Wolf was a fantasy without sword, Allison & Lillia looks to me like an anime that offers no magic or swords, just honest-to-goodness adventure in a fantastic setting.

Here's to hoping it's worth the ride.

MORE INFO:

OFFICIAL (Japanese)
Anime News Network
Wikipedia