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「偶然の旅行者たち」 (Guuzen no Ryokousha-tachi)
“Unexpected Travelers”
Episode at a Glance:
Practicing for the dance party with her friend Meg, Lillia figures she could’ve made Treize go as her partner if he were a student at her school. At home, Treize is on the phone talking to Allison about spring break plans, when Merielle comes along asking if he’s really marrying Matilde when he turns twenty. Treize explains how that’s only the case if he can’t find his own fiance by then, but Merielle wants him to marry Matilde right now, thinking that he can’t possibly meet someone else that suits his stature. However, Treize thinks that’s not definite yet, making Merielle suspect he likes “that Lillia Schultz girl”, so she hopes things won’t go well between the two of them. She does ask Treize if he really likes Lillia though, but he’s unable to answer her.
At the Special Intelligence Bureau, Travas informs his team that they’re to escort princess Matilda to Ikstova, so he provides everyone with codenames for the mission. Elsewhere in a dark mansion, a mysterious man gives a prisoner the option between killing someone for him or dying here, so he accepts the obvious choice. At home in Ikstova, Benedict talks to Fiona about Matilda’s arrival and how meeting with Treize and returning home with him in a few days time is a secret. Afterward, Benedict teases Fiona a bit about buying yet another camera, making him wonder how many she has now. In Roxche, Lillia receives a phone call from Allison, who informs her about plans for an observation trip over the spring break and how they can save on travel expenses by taking a fighter plane part of the way.
After Maltida arrives in Ikstova, Merielle is overjoyed to see her again, even though she spent a fair bit of time with her not too long ago. She then meets Treize for the very first time, and together with everyone else, they spend the next few days sightseeing in Ikstova, even stopping by the royal treasure valley. On Matilda’s trip back home, Treize accompanies her as planned and Merielle stops by to see them both off, telling Treize to get the marriage settled before the last stop. Merielle also asks Travas (who she refers to as “Mr. True Hero”) to take care of Matilda and give Treize a good beating on her behalf if he misbehaves.
During this time, Allison and Lillia transfer to a train from their fighter plane ride, where Allison reminisces about her time with Wil in the very same station. Unbeknownst to them, Matilda’s train makes a momentary stop there afterwards, where Treize wants to take a picture but recalls that he can’t due to Travas’ job. This reminds Treize of how Lillia’s grandfather entered the Secret Intelligence much the same way that Travas did, so he wonders if he should also put the well-being of the world above his own happiness. Surprised to hear this, Travas says it’s really up to each person, but mentions that Treize still has some time before he has to decide.
When their train departs, Axe stops by Matilda’s room and informs her that her bed and change of clothes are ready. Using this opportunity, Axe also mentions how it’s an honor to serve Matilda, much like her Graz ancestors always have. When this mission is over, Axe says she plans to take some time off and return home to her country, where she was hoping to report her service of the royal family to her late father, who rests at a “cemetery of heroes”. Reminded of how her father was loyal and devoted to his mission until the very end, Axe explains that she inherited that sentiment, making Matilda think that Travas has some wonderful subordinates.
Meanwhile, Allison and Lillia’s train breaks down, making the passengers want to board the next train. However, the train conductor explains that the next train is full and can’t even accomodate the twenty or so passengers they have here. Before long, Matilda’s train arrives and everyone notices that it’s completely empty. Confused, the train conductor asks about it and finds out that Travas and his group have booked every single ticket. After being informed that there are no suspicious people in the group though, Travas decides to let the other passengers on, but stipulates that they can’t go beyond the dining car. Axe informs Matilda of this, who decides to leave things up to Travas’ judgment.
Lillia on the other hand is wondering why Travas is here, which Allison casts off as him going on a trip after finishing up his work. Upon boarding the train though, the two of them run into Travas and Axe, who are surprised to see them here. Lillia somehow convinces herself that Allison planned this “coincidence” from the very beginning in order to go on a date with Travas, so Allison decides to go with this false assumption. Allison does point out how the train conductor didn’t call Travas by his real name, so she convinces Lillia to avoid doing so as well by saying that Travas is probably in the middle of a job right now. Allison then decides to stop by the dining car for some tea, where she runs into Treize doing the same. Allison however notices that Lillia is taking a while and starts to wonder if she ran into Treize. Shocked to see one another, Lillia interrogates Treize as to why he’s here.
Next Episode:
「列車大作戦」 (Ressha Daisakusen)
“The Great Train Operation”
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Impressions:
So as expected, this appears to be the beginning of the last mini arc to the series, and nostalgically, it takes place on the same train that concluded Allison and Wil’s arc. Talk about reliving your parents’ memories, or more correctly, their mishaps. There were quite a few scenes to remind of of the Allison and Wil’s experiences too, which included Allison’s flashback and Travas talking to Treize about Lillia’s grandfather serving in the Special Intelligence Bureau before. On the plus side, at least Allison and Travas are on the train as well, so things shouldn’t be so bad even though Travas inadvertently let the hitman onboard their train. While watching this episode, I was waiting for the moment Lillia would bump into Treize, wondering what their reaction would be like. Luckily for me, it didn’t disappoint one bit with all the pointing and screaming, followed by Lillia trying to get answers out of Treize.
Other than that, I mentioned back in episode eighteen that Axe shares the same surname as Captain Graz (right in pic), who passed away when the mural was discovered, and was wondering if there was any relationship between the two. Well interestingly enough, they revealed that she’s actually his daughter and that Captain Graz served the Vezero royal family (i.e. Matilda’s) in the past. While not earthshattering by any means, I still find it nice how everything in this series seems to tie together at some point. It looks like the action should pick up next time and I really like the teaser preview shot of Treize’s two destined women.
On a blogging note, I realize that this series isn’t nearly as popular as many of the others on the site, so I’m starting to contemplate whether or not it’s worthwhile to summarize in as much detail as I do. Seeing as the subs have fallen fairly far behind, I figured it would be helpful for those who want to keep up with the series by watching raws as well. However, as you can imagine, it takes a fair amount of time to write up a summary such as this, so if there isn’t much of a demand for details, I’m planning to be much briefer in my next few posts. Given how I have four shows to cover on Thursdays, it would also give me a lot more time to get to the other shows sooner (and not lose any sleep over it). Anyway, if this concerns you, please let me know what you think.
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)
– Besser (ベッサー) / Fukumatsu Shinya (ふくまつ 進紗)
– Merielle (メリエル) / Saitou Chiwa (斎藤 千和)
– Meg (メグ) / Takagaki Ayahi (高垣 彩陽)
– Betner train conductor (べトナー車掌) / Ogata Mitsuru (小形 満)
– Coen train conductor (コーエン車掌) / Miura Hirokazu (三浦 博和)
– Waiter (ウェイター) / Asou Tomohisa (麻 生智久)
Finally getting to the end of the series (one of my favorite this season). I wouldnt mind shorter reviews as long as the basic plot is still covered.
Ogre:
Technically, the only “review” part is the impressions section under the preview screenshots. The summary above is completely neutral and doesn’t have any of my own thoughts and/or opinions in it.
The subs are pretty behind, and when I don’t have enough time to sit down and watch the episodes, I usually read your excellent summaries instead to find out what happens each episode. But if they’re too much of a hassle for you, I’m completely fine with less-detailed recaps. Thank you for your hard work!
God, the subs are so behind now, this is sad. Very very sad!
I hope Lillia will find out her dads right there next to her all this time! It should be a very touching scene I bet.
Personally, the main reason I am still interested in this series is because you, Divine, continue to provide an excellent synopsis of these episodes. While I would personally want you to continue to do so, I understand that the popularity of this episode might not be enough to convince you to sticking to it. Having said that, thanks for all the work up to this point.
yeah, the subs are really behind, and the subbers at their page say that hey don’t know if they’ll continue it 🙁
I find it pretty sad that the subs are so far behind – although the anime is getting such bad reviews, I actually still like it quite a lot. I think it’s great that you are covering such an unpopular show, Divine, for those who are still interested in it (like me) 🙂 I don’t have time to watch raws, but I still read your synopsises because I want to know how the story evolves. So, if it isn’t too much of a bother for you, please blog this series to the end like you did until now!
I’m loving the summaries, personally. This is one show that requires a bit more explanation in the storyline because, as you noted, there’s a lot of links between episodes. Many thanks for all the detail!
We know you’re really doing a lot already, so asking you to make huge summaries would be quite selfish and forceful of us -______-
I really like this series even though, like you said, it’s unfortunately not as popular as others titles (and the subs are so far behind…).
I still hope you could write up the main lines of the few couple of episodes left, to be able to understand what is happening more or less, at least ^^
Ya if its too much time u can go Briefer which is still good… subs will catch up mid way next season its all good…
wah. 3 more to go before the end. omg allison looks like my favorite character from kaleido star and i love it!
Divine, I really appreciate all the hard work you’re doing and I’m happy that you’re still up to summarizing the rest of the episodes despite its “lesser” popularity to the public. (^.^)
U’re right, this series isn’t too popular. But I’m sure there’s many people that like to watch anime with good story line, rather than just fight and bleed anime with messed story. Honestly I found about Allison & Lillia arc from your summary and began to like it. Sadly the fansub(AniYoshi) probably would drop this series(they are already drop 4 series last month), so my last hope to follow this story is through your summary.
I appreciate your work (I like your fair judgement and critique in your summary) and verry thankfull, because your summary is also my reference to watch animes 😀 But don’t stress your self too much or your finger will wrinkle because of typing, LOL
Please continue with your efforts here, it’s the only thing that keeps me going. I love this show and it’s conspiracies!
This is the only show AniYoshi is going to try to continue, I think they had to reform though and lost alot of staff. Alot of the reason it’s not as popular is because the subs are so far behind and they stopped in a bad arc :p
My halfassed japanese and your summaries are what makes me able to see/understand the raws of this great show. I hope they continue to be detailed but if it’s to much of a burden then take it easy with the blogging. 🙂
If anything, cut the summary down but let the impression part as it is.
your summaries are really great! im really into Allison & Lilia, and although it’s not the most popular show…it’s really sweet and interesting! but like if you don’t have time to write such an in depth summary then it’s ok…but personally i really like the way you summarize your shows! ^_^
Thanks for all the feedback so far. When I’m writing my summaries (scene-by-scene when trying to capture details), I’m usually unaware of how long they actually are, so when I post them and see that they’re a HUGE wall of text, I often wonder if anybody even reads them.
As frequent readers are probably aware of by now, I try to take screenshots that capture the flow of the episode and link to them frequently in the actual summary and impressions. By doing so, I think I’m losing the essence of what a summary is at times though, and it ends up being more like “descriptive video for the visually & hearing impaired” (i.e. needlessly lengthy).
However, if that’s what people like to read, I’d like to try and accommodate that, so I’ll see what I can do for the last few episodes. With STRIKE WITCHES ending next week, that’ll be one less show on my plate on Thursdays. Common sense says that I could always postpone some shows until Friday, but I find that I unknowingly force myself to try and get everything out the day it airs. Call it being overly ambitious if you will. -__-;
Finally, if you have anything else to add (e.g. further comments), please don’t hesitate to do so.
even though this series isn’t very popular i still really enjoy your summaries and i really appreciate your time and effort used on them 🙂 i would very much like to have you keep the summary lengths as they are now but ultimately if you have a lack of time or you’re too stressed please don’t hesitate to stop or make them shorter, it’s really no big deal.
Hi! I also appreciate you summarizing the whole episode with details 🙂 I need my A&L fix since the subs are so slow!! Thanks!
Woohoo!!! Subs are finally back! Hope they catch up soon. I don’t read the summary much, since it takes the anticipation away when I start watching. I do like the impression part though.
Please keep summarizing this series! I think its a great series, and it means a lot to a lot of people who read your blog, as the subbers are very behind on this series. You’re a really good writer, and you summarize the best points of episodes really well. Thank you so much for all your hard work!! It’s really appreciated!!
I like this show a lot. It’s a nice alternative to some of the H-enhanced drivel that passes for a love comedy lately. And much as I like my mecha and pretty itano circuses, there’s gotta to be room for plain vanilla.
well i can watch the episode raws and i’m more interested in your impression anyways :]
as long as you keep blogging this I don’t mind
I’ve been a religious Random Curiosity reader for quite a while now. I check for updates every day. It’s with your summaries and recommendations on upcoming animes that makes me decide on what to watch. That’s how I caught on to Allison & Lillia and many other animes which I might have just given a miss because I’m not exposed to them.
It’s your “lengthy” summaries (which I really appreciate!) that keeps me sane till the subs come out. If, however, it were to be too much of a hassle to blog them as detailed as the way you do, I’m sure a shorter summary that essentially still captures the essence of the episode will still be as wonderful.
Thanks for your efforts in blogging all these animes, your blog is a godsent!
Sylvia:
Godsend might be stretching it a bit, but you’re welcome!
I plan continue on as I’ve done so far, but will try to skim over the parts I don’t think need too much explanation. It’s the dialogue heavy parts I tend to expand on, especially when I feel they’re talking about something noteworthy (in hopes it’ll help those who don’t understand much/any Japanese), so I’ll most likely continue to do that.
Thank you a lot for your topic about this post! I would purchase essays or buy essays with the help of the essay writers.