Shot down in enemy territory, plus… sharing a bed! Read on for high adventure!

Recap

Allison and Wil’s glorious flying dream is cut short by fear and uncertainty when Wil realizes that they’ve just flown over the river into Sou Beil, the enemy country. Allison, well aware of what she was doing, was prepared though. When a fighter plane starts shooting, a little fancy low flying and a release of smoke trick the fighter pilot into thinking he’s shot them down. Unfortunately, it works a little too well, and the plane crashes and burns after snagging on some power lines.

Stranded in Sou Beil, Allison and Wil reminisce on their childhoods at house of future, an orphanage run by an old Sou Beil woman called Grandma Moot. Seems their current situation isn’t exactly a new occurance: Allison gets a scheme, Allison drags Wil into it, Wil goes along to try to stop her, but ends up an accomplice. That’s the pattern.

Things get worse when they spook a mother deer, and Wil nobly puts his noggin between its hoof and Allison. The deer hurts him worse than the plane crash. Allison winds up carrying him to the first place they find, the small home of a lady living on her own in the forest. The lady, Travas Rabias, promises to turn them in come morning, but takes care of Wil’s wounds. When she demands honesty from Allison, she can only shake her head about the treasure hunt, one of countless that she’s heard of.

After commercial break, Allison apologizes to Wil as he rests, but he won’t have any of it. You granted my dream of actually seeing Sou Beil, he says, and refuses her act of contrition — sleeping outside — in favor of giving up half his bed. It’s my bed tonight, and I can do what I want with it, he insists. Allison’s warnings that she has bad sleeping habits prove true, and eventually Wil’s left with zero blankets and about a quarter of a bed. Travas covers him up though, and she’s caught off guard hearing both kids talk in their sleep about Grandma Moot.

In the morning, she asks Wil if they were in fact raised by old lady Moot, and he tells the story: He was left at Moot’s door by his parents at age three, and Allison was brought there at eight when her father died in the war. Instead of crying when she arrived, Allison pointed at Wil and declared that he would be her henchman, like a blonde (and likable) version of Haruhi.

Allison finally wakes from her deep slumber, which has spilled onto the floor, and suddenly things start to come together. Her jacket’s ripped, and her insignia falls out. She explains that no one really knows what the insignias mean except for the special forces, but Wil’s wheels are turning — the old man did know what the insignia (a cuckoo) meant. Adding up his kidnapping with the likelihood that he was in the special forces, it’s not too much of a stretch to think that maybe his war-ending treasure might be real.

Travas is charmed by the kids, and as a grieving mother of two dead soldiers, she’s given hope at the prospect of the war ending. So instead of turning them in, she donates her sons’ elite unit uniforms and a pistol. Allison and Wil now can not only move about the country freely, they can get into military locations that even other soldiers can’t. And with that, they’re off in a delivery truck to find the old man.

Thoughts

First off, howdy! This is otou-san, your guide to, um, exciting adventure with Allison & Lillia for hopefully the rest of the season. You can normally find me writing about robots at Shameful Otaku Secret! but I can’t say no to cookies.

Allison & Lillia really caught me from moment one — the first episode establishes a nostalgic and almost wholesome vibe before launching straight into a real caper. Fantastic. The only potential problem I can see with that is that the writers left themselves with a couple possible ways to handle the exposition: gradually draw it out, or get it out of the way as soon after the hook as you can. They went with option B, and after the initial excitement of the plane crash we got an episode largely full of back story. Judging from the preview, though, next episode will hop right into action mode with the kids’ rescue attempt.

Either way, it retained the charm of the first episode, especially in the scene with Allison by Wil’s bedside, up to the point where she climbs in. Tell me that wasn’t really sweet, even with characters we’ve only just met. Travas’s acceptance of the kids was a bit of a plot contrivance I think, but I’m ok with it — I’d rather have the plot get steered a little at the beginning than suffer from some divine intervention at the end.

I’m really starting to enjoy the characters as well. They could easily be stereotypes, with their typical character attributes, but they feel pretty well thought-out, and like the show itself, they’re charming. Next episode should really throw us into the thick of things, so I’m pretty excited.