Allison & Lillia – 06

「フィオナの谷」 (Fiona no Tani)
“Fiona’s Valley”

After breaking out of the underground basement they were locked in, Allison and Wil make their way to a small shed. There, Benedict happens to come along and meet up with them, but with villagers on their trail, the three decide to make a break for it. Back in the village, they overhear one of the villagers telling Fiona to stay at home and shoot any suspicious looking people. Recognizing Fiona’s voice, Benedict makes their presence known and Fiona takes them back to her house.

At her house, Fiona tells Benedict that she’ll hand them over to the villagers unless he takes her to the Ikstova capital, Kunst. Unable to decline, Benedict asks Fiona what her reasons for going are first, and is actually relieved she doesn’t know who he is. Upon hearing that he’s the hero who discovered the mural that ended the war, Fiona reveals that she’s Francesca, the princess of the Ikstova royal family—the sole survivor of that suspicious fire ten years ago. Fiona wants to go to Kunst where Owen Nicht will be giving a speech, and announce to the country that she, the princess of Ikstova, is still alive. Benedict agrees to help, but they need to take refuge for the night because of the snowfall.

While making the beds, Fiona notices the rifle that Benedict brought and shows him a handgun her late grandfather left behind. She asks him to teach her how to use it, but he refuses saying it’s not something a princess should do and entrusts it to Wil instead, telling him to use it to protect Allison if he absolutely has to. As for Fiona, Benedict tells her that he’ll beat guys up in her place, because she shouldn’t deal with things such as killing. After a short commotion about who will sleep on the couch, Allison quickly remedies the situation and they all go to sleep. In the middle of the night, Fiona asks Benedict if people saw him differently after he discovered the mural and became a hero, to which he replies that things changed unimaginably. He tells her that even his friends became distant, but he’s happy that he still has “those two” who never change. He then encourages Fiona to do what she wants to, because afterwards, she might be put into a similar situation and just be grateful she still has “those three”.

The next morning, the four of them decide to leave the village by concealing themselves with a white bed sheet while trotting through the snow. (Benedict’s bright idea…) When they reach a checkpoint, they decide to pretend that Fiona captured Benedict and use that opportunity to break through; however, their plans don’t go quite as expected as the villager is able to sound the alarm. A large number of villagers surround them shortly afterwards and just as Benedict is about to give in, Fiona stands in the way, saying they have to shoot her first if they want to shoot Benedict and the others.

Shocked, the villagers ask Fiona what she intends to do, so she explains her reasons for going to Kunst. The village chief agrees to let Fiona go since she’s already 20 years old and can make her own decisions, but tells her that if things don’t go well, to come back because this will always be her valley and her village. Moved to tears, Fiona agrees to do just that. The village chief also recognizes Benedict and asks him to protect her as the hero he is, to which he says that protecting people is their duty as soldiers. With that, he swears he’ll protect Fiona and the four of them set off towards Ikstova’s capital.

 

Next Episode:
「託された者たち」 (Takusareta Monotachi)
“Entrusted People”

Well, I don’t know why I didn’t put two and two together after hearing the villagers talk about consulting with Fiona before deciding what to do with the outsiders last episode. After the big discussion about the Ikstova royal family and all, I guess it should have occurred to me that Fiona is a princess. With that said, I’m still not quite sure what role Owen Nicht plays though. I get the feeling he’s some political figurehead that schemed the fire that killed the royal family ten years ago, which would explain why Fiona was in such pain after seeing his picture.

As for the village, it didn’t turn out to be as twisted as I thought it would be, which was both a relief and a slight disappointment. The latter being because I expected some gunfire at least, since even the old ladies were carrying rifles. Also, I couldn’t help but think of how bad of a place they chose to lock Allison and Wil in. I mean, it was an underground storage room full of lots of things they could’ve used to escape and it had a windowed opening.

Other than that, another notable thing this episode was the handgun Benedict passed on to Wil. Given Benedict’s little speech about using it only when he absolutely has to (and to protect Allison nonetheless), I would say that it’s pretty safe to assume that this is foreshadowing for something later on. While Allison’s been dragging Wil along the entire time thus far, I still have this gut feeling that Wil will do something big to save Allison. Naturally, this would only make her fall in love more with him, but hey, they make a cute couple don’t they?

I thought I’d also point out that a lot of the scenic shots in this episode looked really, really nice. While Allison & Lillia’s animation remains simple in style (which isn’t a bad thing), I was actually a bit surprised at how impressive looking the backdrops were. In particular, the ones that were animated with snowfall. What’s probably more important though is that the scenary blended in well with the characters, so it’s not like they just spent more time on the backgrounds alone.

The preview shows the four them taking to the air again, so we may be in store for some more dogfights. Other than that, it looks like Benedict and Fiona are getting closer to one another, which only foreshadows what will probably happen between those two. (Benedict is like Fiona’s knight in shining armor after all.) We should also see the introduction of Owen Nicht, which should give us a better impression of how evil he is (or isn’t). And last but not least, it looks like Fiona will barge in during Owen’s speech to make her big announcement to the country.

 

Cast:
– Allison (アリソン) / Mizuki Nana (水樹 奈々)
– Wil (ヴィル) / Kumai Motoko (くまい まとこ)
– 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)
– Old woman (老婆) / Shouji Miyoko (莊司 美代子)
– Ema (エマ) / Satou Ai (さとう あい)
– Jan (ジャン) / Konno Jun (金野 潤)
– Village chief (村長) / Inada Tetsu (稲田 徹)
– Villager (村人) / Shinomiya Gou (四宮 豪)
– Villager (村人) / Nishina Youhei (仁科 洋平)
– Villager (村人) / Azuma Masataka (我妻 正崇)
– Villager (村人) / Nakanishi Naoya (中西 尚也)