Wednesday 21 May 2008

Allison to Lillia - Episode 7

We're now over half a dozen episodes in to Allison to Lillia, but to be quite honest I find it near-impossible to be objective about the series now, such is the way that it has wormed its way into my subconscious as a figure of fun. It's an odd thing sometimes how a completely average series can often turn out to be more offensive from its mediocrity than something truly dire, and such is the issue here.

I wasn't expecting any great changes from episode seven, and in that respect I wasn't at all disappointed, with a showing that gave us some heftily moronic plot points to consider, most notably - Why have Allison and Wil got to steal a plane when Ker Benedict could easily have used his position to persuade them to be allowed to use it? Yes, I know, it isn't like Allison is a fully trained and qualified air force pilot who they'd actually trust with an aircraft or anything. Oh, wait a second... She is. What makes this part of the story worse is the fact that all three of them seem to have a blatant disregard for the safety of everyone else at the expense of their relatively tame mission, with Allison quite happily 'driving' a plane through a town and smashing up a bunch of cars with little regard for its dangers. Far be it from me to become a fully paid-up member of the Anime Health and Safety Inspectorate, but I thought the good guys were usually supposed to care about other people?

If the first half of the episode was a bit stupid, the second part was merely disappointing, with the predictable Benedict-Fiona love story emerging ("I know I've only just met you, but I like the way you cover up your chest all the time"), and Fiona making a hugely shocking statement which wasn't ("You're not a real princess? I didn't realise you were lying even though the head of the village we escape from blatantly said exactly that last episode"). In all fairness, we don't yet know why Fiona is lying about this, so hopefully there will be a good story behind it, but then again this is Allison to Lillia so I won't be holding my breath. Oddly, even Allison and Wil seem apathetic to the possibility that she's lying ("Yes, she probably is lying, but still... This is a jolly good adventure!").

Once again, I have to confess that my commentary here is far more damning than it probably should be, as this episode is another example of mediocrity of the most average degree - If I weren't poking fun at it mercilessly I'd literally be left with nothing much to say, such is the blandness of the series. Still, it's cheaper than a sleeping pill I suppose - Must... make it... to... the Lillia... arc....

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