The world must know the TRUTH!

Recap

This episode begins with that vintage fighter plane dogfight we’ve all been waiting for. Allison’s a crack pilot and she manages to evade Lt. Kerr. But when she shoots at him, Wil’s horrified to discover their plane is loaded with paint rounds, and Love Letter has real bullets.

Not to worry! He’s not aiming to kill them at all — turns out he wants to help them get the treasure, since old man Wally managed to get a deathbed promise out of him.

Wait! Worry, after all! Kerr’s superiors, who didn’t trust him to begin with, show up to try and shoot both of them down. Unfortunately for them, he’s one of the best pilots in Sou Beil, and he and Allison take them down. As they let out a collective sigh of relief, twin mountains loom on the horizon — their first marker. But they’re not out of the woods yet! More Sou Beil military are after them; this time it’s not to shoot them down, but to follow them to the treasure.

The trio treks through caves until they find Walter’s marker, and there it is, ahead of them: cave paintings? Yep. Cave paintings, depicting the dawn of civilization. And what do you know, Roxche and Sou Beil started their lives not as rival countries, but cooperative buddies. Kerr presumes that Walter was indeed Lt. Col. MacMillan, who headed up the poison gas operation back during the war. And the reason he was so hip to join his fallen comrades was because he himself had killed them, all in the name of preserving this “treasure.”

Back during the war, and in the gloomy aftermath of it, the illustration would have been meaningless. But now, with much of the memories of blood fading from people’s minds, the time is right. But as they prepare to tell the world, the two pursuers appear. The grumpy treasure-hunters don’t believe the story, and make a move to gun down the trio. Not so fast! Pacifist Wil whips out the pistol given to him in episode 2 and uses his shooting prowess to hit the machine gunner in the shoulder. All should be well, he’s disarmed but not dead — except he tries to shoot anyway, causing a collapse of rock on top of their heads when he’s unable to handle the recoil. Poor Wil, he caused two deaths despite his efforts. But the good news… peace is here! Wait. Already?

Thoughts

Let me pick this quick bone with Allison To Lillia before I go on the you-damn-kids rant that’s been brewing in my typing fingers. Dear A&L: What are you planning? I was promised an adventuresome and epic treasure hunt, but you’ve resolved that rather quickly. Now it looks like this show is going to be more about a series of shorter adventures. Bizarre, and a little unsatisfying, but still potentially fun. Now, presumably Wil has to go back to school, and Allison back to her post, but judging from the preview it looks like they find a way to get back together and cause more shenanigans. Here’s to shenanigans.

Question for you, dear readers

Last episode’s post garnered me a single solitary comment, which was Shin (who does some enjoyable write-ups of the series himself) saying that he could count the number of people watching this on two hands. And he’s right. Maybe even one hand. I’ll admit, this episode was a little confusingly truncated, but not disappointing.

Bear with me: Anime is a medium, yes, but it’s also a sort of “meta-genre,” and whether it’s mecha, harem, or hentai, there are certain conventions and commonalities. I think we all are aware of that. But A&L doesn’t cater to these: it only uses anime as a medium to tell a story that’s not explicitly anime-like. No robots, no lolis, no unrequited love (thus far), no school skirts, no green hair, no festival scene with a main character in a yukata, running with tears in her eyes — in fact, no Japan at all. Personally, that’s what I find refreshing, but I guess I can see why some people might find it off-putting, like they’re watching some other form of cartoon that happens to use the same medium as their beloved shows. Is this why people aren’t watching? Not anime enough?

So tell, me, people: What keeps you off this show? Any plans to watch it after the season’s up if reviews are favorable?