Allison & Lillia – 25

「犯人は密かに笑う」 (Hannin wa Hisoka ni Warau)
“The Culprit Laughs Secretly”

Episode at a Glance:
With their train surrounded, Travas learns that the poorly dressed and armed men outside are after the gold they believe to be onboard, making him suspect that the real motive is elsewhere. On the other train, Treize passes on Allison’s request to summarize a thick history book she’s borrowed from Travas, after which the prince is led on about a potential marriage by Lillia, only to find out that she’s talking about Allison and Travas. Feeling that Travas sometimes has a sad look in his eyes, Lillia thinks that marrying Allison would make them both happy. Meanwhile, the long-haired man informs Weasel that Lillia doesn’t appear to be the girl they’re after, but suspects that she’ll likely be more frantically protected than Treize. Realizing that she’s the daughter of Allison, a soldier, Weasel decides to use Lillia instead.

Back on Travas’ end, him and his men are given five minutes to disarm themselves and come out, but he refuses and gets Izuma to start up the train again after they learn that the instrumentation hasn’t been damaged. During this time, Lillia discusses with Treize about the school dance that she has no partner for, and forces Treize to practice with her when her motivation to attend is renewed. Axe on the other hand reassures Matilda that Travas’ plans have never failed, but is shocked to learn that Lillia is her leader’s daughter. Being pursued by some of the men in cars, Travas worries about being rear-ended by the next train, but is surprised to learn that the junction behind them has already been switched. Deducing that all of this was a trap, Travas gets Ozette to shoot out the tire on their pursuers’ vehicle, forcing them to abandon it. With the car surprisingly staying on course with no driver, Travas jumps onboard to commandeer it as their new form of of transportation (after a tire change). Updating Matilda on the change of plans, Travas is surprised to see Axe diverting her eyes from him.

Outside, Axe questions Travas if he knew that she’s the daughter of Captain Graz, prompting him to reveal that he killed her father when the mural was discovered. Understanding that she has every reason to want to exact revenge on him, Travas felt that keeping her closest to him was for the best, making Axe wonder if it’s because he was hoping it would calm her desire for revenge. However, Travas surprises Axe by claiming that he doesn’t expect to do so, leaving her confused and on the verge of tears. Another one of the hijackers then suddenly shows up in a car, so Axe instinctively jumps in front of Travas and disarms the attacker, after which she explains that she’s simply following through with her father’s philosophy of upholding the mission until the very end. Travas then explains that the true target isn’t Matilda, who comes out of the train suspecting that it’s actually Treize they’re after. Having considered the possibility, Travas makes the difficult decision of continuing to escort Matilda and disregarding Treize, Lillia, and Allison, but the princess decides to head back to save the other passengers and has them accompany her.

Back on the other train, Lillia wishes that Treize was at her school so that she could go to the dance party even though he’s no good at dancing. Another female passenger then comes by asking Lillia to help her with a broken dress strap, but is led into another room where Weasel knocks her and the woman out. Thinking to himself, Weasel suspects that “they” will be coming this way soon. With the long-haired man distracting Treize, Allison and him notice that the train unexpectedly changes tracks and is forced to stop. While Allison originally suspects that they took a wrong turn on an unmarked military junction, her and Treize soon learn that the train has been separated and that the other half has taken off with Lillia.

Next Episode:
「私の王子様」 (Watashi no Ouji-sama)
“My Prince”

Impressions:
Well I was close in suspecting that the target is actually someone other than Matilda, but was a bit surprised that it doesn’t appear to be Treize either, even though Travas and his group suspect that it is. I’m somewhat thrown into the loop on who they actually plan to lure out with Lillia though, after Weasel figured that she’d be more useful than Treize. Given how things have unfolded, I want to say it’s Travas since having him around can’t be beneficial to certain people, but unless it’s some grand scheme to have him separated from everyone first, I can’t see what the purpose of this roundabout plan would be. (Keep in mind, Weasel was simply asked to do a hit.) With that said, I love how this is leading towards a dramatic conclusion to the series, but get the feeling that the revelation of Travas and Treize’s true identities to Lillia may end up a bit rushed. The last episode’s title, “My Prince”, evidently foreshadows a lot of how things will turn out, but I love how Lillia continues to lead Treize on in the preview narration.

Overall, the episode was fairly straight-forward, so if you’ve been following all the plot foundation that has been laid before hand (which I’ve tried to be detailed about in my summaries), it comes off as a natural unwinding of events. I would say that the biggest revelation this episode was confirmation that Captain Graz is Axe’s father (my apologies if I my over-analyzing spoiled this prematurely) and her learning that Travas inadvertently killed him when the mural was discovered. I sort of expected that Travas isn’t the type of person to keep Axe nearby in an attempt to tide over her desire for revenge, but was happy to see Axe loyally protect her commanding officer as his right-hand woman when the time came up. I’d imagine it’d be difficult serving and protecting the person who killed your father, regardless of it happening during a war that has since ended though, so that was a big plus on Axe’s character.

Last but not least, it’s sure been a while since we’ve seen Allison and Wil riding a two-seater plane together, so it’s quite nostalgic to see how they look now compared to before. All that’s left now is the finale that’s coming up next week and it looks like it’ll be a good one! I know I’m looking forward to it.

Note: The finale will be aired in the wake of the slew of new fall shows premiering next week, but I’ll do my best to ensure that it’s not overshadowed too much.

Cast:
– Lillia (リリア) / Mizuki Nana (水樹 奈々)
– Trieze (トレイズ) / Yoshino Hiroyuki (吉野 裕行)
– Allison (アリソン) / Kuwashima Houko (桑島 法子)
– Travas (トラヴァス) / Morikawa Toshiyuki (森川 智之)
– Benedict (ベネディクト) / Yamadera Kouichi (山寺 宏一)
– Fiona (フィオナ) / Noto Mamiko (能登 麻美子)
– Matilda (マティルダ) / Fujimura Chika (藤村 知可)
– Axe (アックス) / Toyoguchi Megumi (豊口 めぐみ)
– Ozette (オゼット) / Hoshino Mitsuaki (星野 充昭)
– Izuma (イズマ) / Nishi Rintarou (西凛 太郎)
– Uno (ウーノ) / Kobayashi Toshio (小林 俊夫)
– Ed (エド) / Konno Jun (金野 潤)
– Weasel (ウィーゼル) / Kawashima Tokuyoshi (川島 得愛)
– Man 1 (男1) / Egawa Hisao (江川 央生)
– Man 2 (男2) / Hirai Keiji (平井 啓二)
– Long-haired Man (長髪の男) / Kazama Yuuto (風間 勇刀)