Allison & Lillia



A 26-episode, 2008 anime adapted from two related Light Novel series by the same author-illustrator team behind Kino's Journey. The series is set on an alternate world of roughly 1930s-era technology, with one big continent split down the middle by a huge river. As a result, two distinct cultures developed in the East and West, neither of which can seem to get along with the other: there have been countless wars in the past, and the west's Allied Kingdoms of Bezel-Iltoa and the east's Roxcheanuk Confederation are technically only in the middle of an armistice, albeit the longest one to date. (It's not as grim as it sounds.) The origination of the war is that both sides believe their ancestors to be the true ancestors to humanity; apparently, neither one has heard of river valley civilizations. By the "World Calendar" shared by both sides, they are in their 3287th year of recorded history.

The story revolves around Teen Genius / Ordinary High School Student Wilhelm "Wil" Schultz and Genki Girl / Ace Pilot Allison Whittington, two orphaned childhood friends who unwittingly stumble onto a tale of a treasure that could end the war. Complicating matters throughout are Allison's growing feelings for Wil, which, despite his perfect memory and keen observation skills, he completely fails to notice. (It doesn't help that she just can't seem to confess due to the plot continually interrupting her.) Over the course of their travels, they first encounter Carr Benedict, an overly-amorous officer of the Sou Beil Air Force, and Fiona, a young woman in a mountain village who harbors a great secret. After three major adventures spanning a single year, the story flashes forward to introduce Lillia,, and her own adventures with her friend Treize,. The adventures the pair stumble into revolve around the consequences of decisions made at the end of the war fifteen years earlier, as well as Treize's inner struggle.

A straight-up Adventure with Action and Mystery elements, it avoids (for the most part) the frequent Mind Screwery of the aforementioned Kino's Journey. It is also features continuing plots, rather than the standalone, episodic nature of Kino. This is a blessing and a curse, with the upshot that the producers of the anime were faced with the unenviable task of cramming 10 books into a single 26-episode series. As a result, the anime dispenses with Sigsawa's flowery descriptions of the landscapes and obsessive technical profiling of every new bit of technology that crops up, while toning down the violence, leaving out important bits of plot and characterization, and pushing Suspension of Disbelief to the breaking point. Nevertheless, the series retains a certain charm that makes it hard to resist, with an opening theme that sets the tone perfectly. (See here.)

Oh -- did I mention there were planes?

"Allison: "All planes are the same.""
 * Accidental Hero: Benedict agrees to take sole credit for the discovery of the "treasure" sought by Allison and Wil. He soon regrets this, however.
 * Ace Pilot: Allison
 * Anime Hair: Averted, with characters sporting realistic hair colors and styles. Black hair does tend to get a purplish cast in illustrations for the sake of contrast though, which can lead to confusion.
 * Arc Words: Mr. Terror, the steel magnate, is name-dropped in each of the first two Allison stories, but exactly who he is or what he has to do with these plots isn't discussed until the third arc, when he finally shows up in person.
 * Author Appeal: Keiichi Sigsawa appears obsessed with minutiae of all sorts of technology, judging by the overly-detailed descriptions of all weapons and vehicles that appear, plot-centric or not. Even his pen name is based on a gun brand.
 * Bifauxnen:
 * Bilingual Bonus: Disappointingly averted in the anime. While the alphabet used in this world can be deciphered, all it reveals is badly romanized Japanese and poorly translated English.
 * Book Ends: The second Allison novel is framed at the beginning and end by letters between Wil and Allison. Similarly, the third book begins and ends with a 15-year-old Lillia; what she reveals about her father in the prologue sets up one of the major dramatic themes for the book, while the epilogue shows what really happened to him. The anime uses these bits in episodes 13 and 14, while directly showing the audience what happened before it gets there.
 * Calling Your Attacks: "Lillia Kick!" Oddly, although she uses it in the same scene in both light novel and anime, the people she uses it against and to protect are swapped.
 * Cassandra Truth: At the end of the first book, Wil tells his friend what really happened when he and Allison went missing for several days. The friend doesn't believe it, thinking Wil is just trying to avoid sharing the scandalous details of their abscondment.
 * Charlie Brown From Outta Town:.
 * This probably also qualifies as a Paper-Thin Disguise, considering all he did was ...
 * Chekhov's Gun: A variety of things introduced earlier in each arc come together to play a part in the end of the story. The anime sometimes forgets to introduce them before they become necessary, however, which turns them into something of a different nature.
 * Chivalrous Pervert: Benedict, in his first appearance; he might even qualify as a Casanova, were he slightly more successful with the ladies.
 * At the time, he really skirts the line between being this and a Handsome Lech; by the adventure in Ikstova, however, he's matured into an Officer and a Gentleman (though less by choice and more due to the fact that all women now fawn over him).
 * Climbing Climax: The villain of episode 8 is made quite Genre Blind in order to accommodate the changes to the climax of the Ikstova arc. On the bright side, he gets to store knives in Hammerspace...
 * Cool Guns: The author's fascination with firearms on display in Kino's Journey is evident here as well. However, it takes a backseat to...
 * Cool Plane: Classic propeller-driven aircraft drawn from history.
 * Cool Train: Murder plot aside, who wouldn't want to ride cross-continent on the ultimate of luxury trains?
 * Cross-Dressing Voices: Motoko Kumai as Wil.
 * Cute Little Fangs: Treize's sister Merielle.
 * Dead Woman Writing: A short chapter in the Light Novels is a letter Allison wrote to Wil, shortly before the events of the first book, to be delivered if she were ever declared dead. It included an admission that already at that point, she was totally in love with him. She also expressed worry that if, before her death, she mustered the courage to confess and he didn't love her, the confession may have ruined their friendship. At the end of the chapter, it's shown that Lillia is reading this, because the Air Force mailed the letter to Allison, having decided it'd been in storage too long and was probably outdated.
 * Disappeared Dad: Allison and her father, as well as Lillia and her father,  who came back.
 * Disney Villain Death: in episode 8, rather unconvincingly changed from his Family Unfriendly suicide in the book.
 * Indeed, the anime episode had a Kaze ex Machina ending:
 * Fairy Tale: In the first book, Allison is surprised to find out from Wil that the Gainax Ending to the fable she learned from her father as a young child is actually a standard Happy Ending in the Roxche version. This becomes a plot point in the third book.
 * Family-Unfriendly Death: In the first and second books, respectively, and  commit suicide.  also shoots two people: three if you count  and fails to kill one only because he's not aiming to. In the third book,  kills a number of people, presumably while they are asleep. In all instances, these are toned down for the anime, though the last one also has the individual  instead. A translator for the novels makes a point of warning how gory the action can get.
 * Genki Girl: Allison, as well as  Lillia.
 * Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Allison has a habit of this, which emphasizes her forceful personality.
 * Happily Married: in the second half. Borders on Sickeningly Sweethearts for their daughter.
 * Hot Mom:
 * Hyper Awareness: Wil has this skill towards everything except Allison's feelings. It helps him sort out pretty much every unresolved plot strand in one fell swoop at the end of each arc.
 * The anime often forgets to give opportunities for the audience to catch these clues, however, making his deductions appear to come from thin air.
 * Improbable Age: When introduced, Wil and Allison are 17, Benedict is 24, and Fiona is 20. The anime never explicitly states this, however, and between the characters' appearances and certain creative casting decisions, one gets the impression that they're quite a bit younger.
 * Improbable Piloting Skills: Escape on a plane Allison's never flown before, all while displaying all kinds of aerial acrobatics? Sure, why not?


 * Improbable Aiming Skills: What Allison is to planes, Wil is to firearms.
 * Info Dump: Justified through the conceit of students receiving supplementary instruction on history and geography in the first book / episode, and Wil getting his friend up to speed on Ikstova in Allison II. Lampshaded in episode 14 of the anime, when Lillia complains to Treize about his reading the Rachika tourist guidebook aloud.
 * Karma Houdini: Colonel Aikashia makes a living of "neutralizing" threats to peace, along with any bystanders that happen to get in the way. Yet, in spite of all the duplicity and the body count he incurs in his first appearance, all is forgiven once it's revealed that.
 * Kill Me Now or Forever Stay Your Hand: Major Travas has a subordinate whose father he killed when she was a child. Another member of his team tells her that the Major knows why she probably wants to murder him -- and has warned the rest of the group not to stop her if she decides to do so.
 * King Incognito: Subverted twice: is actually, while among the main cast, only Lillia is unaware that  is royalty.
 * Larynx Dissonance: Will sounds rather young for 17.
 * Locked Out of the Loop: Lillia is a shining, clueless example of this trope.
 * When she finds out, she says he'd better not claim he never intended to keep it from her. Oddly, it seems to mollify her when he replies that he'd hoped never to tell her. (This doesn't fit too well with his earlier statement that he'd tell her ....)
 * Rather amusing is "Hilda's" reaction when Lillia says she wishes . "Hilda" has figured out who he is, and is stunned to realize that Lillia doesn't know.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: For Allison:, and for :.
 * Meaningful Name: Lillia, Treize, and Major Travas. Justified, since the characters' parents (or even they themselves) chose these names for their significance.
 * Megane: Colonel Aikashia and Major Travas.
 * My Sibling Will Live Through Me: Fiona
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: You kind of wonder how no one realized that a guy named Terror might be a potential threat. Unless they felt sorry for him.
 * Noblewoman's Laugh: Lillia in episode 15, when asked about her piloting skills.
 * Officer and a Gentleman: Carr Benedict.
 * Old School Dogfighting: Though since this is 1930s-level technology, it actually makes sense.
 * Orphaned Etymology: The moon is much closer to the Earth and revolves around it in about 8 days. So, why are months still around 30 days long?
 * Orphan's Plot Trinket:  locket, which marks its bearer as a member of the Royal Family of Ikstova.
 * Parental Abandonment: Unlike Allison's case, it would appear that Wil's parents were run-of-the-mill Jerkasses.
 * Photographic Memory: Wil combines this with his Hyper Awareness to help him figure things out.
 * Plot Based Photograph Obfuscation: All photographs of Allison's father mysteriously disappeared after his death; this happens again after the Time Skip, where the only photo remaining of Lillia's father is the one where he moved, blurring his face.
 * Poirot Speak: Benedict, in the second novel. He has some trouble with verb tenses and subtle nuance in Roxchean, which he corrects... and then goes back to speaking Bezelese.
 * Since both languages are rendered as Japanese, however, there's no insertion of random words from his native tongue.
 * Fiona finds it quite funny when he uses "ouch" to express the verb "punch," as in "I will ouch him with my fist."
 * Precursors: The ancient humans who gave rise to both East and West, but were themselves.
 * Put on a Bus: Train, actually. It's also implied that he subsequently died offscreen.
 * Ring Ring CRUNCH: Allison is not a morning person.
 * One of the Light Novels opens with a loud crash followed by telling us that "That crash just now was the sound of Mom chucking the poor, hardworking alarm clock against the wall." She also comments that although this particular clock was made to be durable, it's impressive how long it's remained functional so far.
 * Runaway Train: Sort of: the train itself is never out of control, but for all the things that happen on it, it might as well be.
 * Scenery Porn: Perhaps slightly less obvious in the anime, but the author enjoys giving the plot interesting surroundings to happen in.
 * Selective Obliviousness: Wil never forgets and never misses a detail, no matter how small. Except, of course, when it comes to Allison.
 * Shoot the Dog: It seems intelligence agents have no qualms about offing innocents, as long as it prevents another global war.
 * Sickeningly Sweethearts: The daughter of  is not amused at her parents' tendency to make out in front of her.
 * Though she brings it on herself by being a Workaholic who wants to discuss her ambitious business plans over a family breakfast.
 * Spin-Off: Meg & Seron, featuring two of Lillia's classmates, which Genre Shifts the series into High School comedy territory. Currently ongoing, with 5 books to date.
 * Spin Offspring: Not so much a spin-off as a continuation, Lillia and Treize stars the children of the original's core quartet. The main cast of the Allison books are still there, too.
 * Story Arc: Two, divided into three sub-arcs each.
 * Strong Family Resemblance: Lillia looks, acts, and sounds the same as her mother, except for her hair and eyes. Said color she gets from her father.
 * That Man Is Dead:, and later,.
 * Although for having discarded his original identity, is remarkably involved with his past life.
 * That One Guy: Wil's friend Epstein, who shows up in all 3 books before the timeskip. In book 3, his family even gets in on the act, with his sister developing a massive crush on Wil.
 * Time Skip
 * Train Station Goodbye: A key part of the anime-only Tear Jerker episode.
 * Traintop Battle: Averted when the individual Allison tries to go after tricks her into ducking long enough to escape.
 * It's spelled out at some point in the books that in order to accommodate trains transporting heavy artillery, all tunnels on railways meant for military use are high enough that someone standing atop the train won't need to duck to pass through.
 * Translation Convention: Roxche and Sou Beil each speak a different language, both of which are rendered as Japanese for the readers' convenience.
 * The anime seems to discard this entirely, perhaps because this would be unnecessarily confusing (if more realistic). If nothing else, having to interpret every other line is tedious and eats up screen time.
 * Translator Microbes: Personified in Allison and Wil, who are fluent in both languages and serve as the justification for them being equally understandable to the audience.
 * The books also play with this trope a bit: in plot-relevant situations, the narrative sometimes gives critical information that only parties who speak the same language can understand. Wil frequently plays the role of interpreter, especially in the presence of Fiona (alone among the main cast in not understanding Bezelese.
 * In the first book, this is how the two of them without the guard being any the wiser. In the third book   reacts to statements before Wil has had a chance to translate them, hinting at his true nature.
 * Victorious Childhood Friend: Quickly subverted by putting Wil on a bus.
 * Weird Moon: The Moon is much closer to the Earth than in our world, orbiting every 8 days and causing spectacular solar eclipses with frightening regularity. Though for some reason, calendar months are still around 30 days long...
 * Weird Moon: The Moon is much closer to the Earth than in our world, orbiting every 8 days and causing spectacular solar eclipses with frightening regularity. Though for some reason, calendar months are still around 30 days long...