[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Allison to Lillia and the Fiona arc: where I do literary criticism and make fun of plot holes
I’m so strongly in two minds about Allison & Lillia: on one hand it’s old-school style feelgood entertainment that had me glued to the screen from start to finish; on the other hand the direction and screenplay writing are so amateurish that it was enough to make me cringe in embarrassment and sketch out how even I could do the job better. Be warned that this post is looooong and involves a foray into the theory and structure of narratives to make my point…sorry if it’s tl;dr because I know the likes of IKnight and Sat-kun are much better educated in that literary criticism stuff than I am. I just have to rant about how bad writing is spoiling a great series.
Should have seen it coming?
I actually started to make a short list of plot holes and inconsistencies on my mini-blog, the full version of which I’ll set out after the ‘read moar’ tag. The thing is, although this show sucks noodles on some levels it’s frustratingly good on others. I’m not on about merely the artwork or music - neither can be faulted - because the conceptually this is a really extraordinary show. It’s just that I can’t believe the original novel’s author, Keiichi Sigsawa, would make such glaring mistakes in an otherwise great story.
I know it’s not often I swear on this blog (mainly because I don’t know how many of you read these posts with an at-work net connection) but I have to ask “What the bloody hell were they thinking?” when they were planning this series. I swear the storyboards were hurriedly sketched out on the back of a cigarette packet during the director’s lunch break or something.
I know the ‘saving a beautiful princess’ thing is cool but aren’t you, y’know, supposed to be rescuing your friends and stuff right about now?
If this story was sloppily written at its source - namely Sigsawa’s novels - it would likely suck across the board: poor characters, unbelievable situations, the works. Would the creator of Kino be so careless? I hardly think so. The fact is, Fiona’s story is, in a derivative but enjoyable fairytale kind of way, brilliant and utterly absorbing: the name of her country and its aesthetic for instance all remind me of the former USSR in the first half of the Twentieth Century. For whatever reason I have something of a fascination with the tragedy of the last of Russia’s tsars and the mythology that surrounded the fate of his youngest daughter Anastasia, who allegedly may have survived the assassination of the entire family; basically, a tale of a long-exiled princess returning to her homeland to tell the people the truth of the evil bastard who was responsible, with the help of our heroes, isn’t just a convincing story: it *could* be historically feasible so is fine for a work of fiction (as for the Romanovs, Anasatasia included, it’s now generally accepted that sadly none of them survived).
I have to say I thought Fiona’s tale was great. So too was the irony that, after saving her life and fulfilling his promise, Benedict was more than a celebrity who felt like a phony hero: he’d finally done something he himself considered heroic. Anyway, on with my plot hole list.
- Benedict is looking for two missing friends but is sidetracked by a Sad Girl in the Snow. I’m not denying she’s cute and all, but seriously…you’re chatting up some random girl while YOUR FRIENDS COULD BE IN MORTAL DANGER? Get your priorities straight and think USING YOUR HEAD, not your pants.
- A basement that is so easy to escape from that your average James Bond villain would be ashamed; there’s a reason why Austin Powers parodied that.
- How can men on foot keep up with a plane on its take-off run, even for a few yards? The same goes for a jeep.
- For that matter, what town has streets wide enough to let a plane through? At least Porco Rosso made use of a river.
- The collective opinion of a crowd who are standing below and away from the action is easily swung by one or two voices and a flimsy piece of evidence that again they probably cannot see clearly. The crowds in Monty Python’s Life of Brian showed more imagination than this. The people of Fiona’s village did remind me of the village in Hot Fuzz though so a bonus point for lulz there.
- A bad guy is able to get away too easily. Those soliders are armed with rifles and bayonets and ought to be trained to at the very least prevent an armed man kidnapping an unarmed twenty year old woman. Fail.
- So much for “I couldn’t protect you last time…I won’t make the same mistake again.” Gets knifed in the leg and fails again. Better luck next time, eh? I’m sorry to say you fail at failing.
- In the same scene: Isn’t Nihito ruthless enough to aim somewhere more fatal? How does he expect to succeed in politics with that sort of attitude? He missed the guy’s body altogether!
- The bad guy makes his escape by running UP THE HIGHEST TOWER IN TOWN. Even if you’ve never seen a bad movie in your life, you wouldn’t use this as an escape route unless you had a parachute or waiting helicopter.
- The good guy deflects a knife blade with a watch. A watch. Why not a bible/cigarette case/medallion tucked into a pocket, like everyone else? Much more dramatic and meaningful.
- The bad guy doesn’t leap to his death or get thrown off. He just…falls off. WHUT?
- The two other good guys don’t follow the other good guy. Instead they retreat to their stolen plane and circle the said crap escape route uselessly, making no difference at all.
After all this, maybe it’s not surprising I didn’t have a problem with the fact that the normally ‘good as gold but thick as mud’ Wil shows an out-of-character level of deductive logic in regards to Fiona’s true identity. The clues really were there, and it all fell in to place in a satisfying way after I’d rewatched while getting the screencaps. The series also however did something unforgivable: deliberately withholding a critical bit of information, which I thought was cheating on the writer’s part…which even to my untrained mind is bad writing.
Here is my solution, that of a mere viewer who hasn’t taken English classes in almost exactly a decade:
The country’s rule that only one child can be born into the royal family (the very rule that ensured Fiona’s exile) was pivotal: it could however have alerted viewers and made them second guess the “There were twins!” plot twist, so it was deliberately left out until Wil explained it at the end. My own approach to this would be to introduce it earlier but after Fiona had started her “I’m Francesca!” charade, leading the viewer to the conclusion that Fiona was an only child and was therefore Francesca after all - you’d end up with a story in which the critical clue is still there for the viewer to pick up (you’d have to deduce that while a second sister was forbidden by law, the possibility that she could exist was still viable), without being hidden in a deus ex machina ending that makes you feel cheated.
I was actually quite annoyed that this detail was held back unecessarily, purely to stop viewers figuring it out; lit students can feel free to correct me on calling it a foreshadowing that was delierately omitted. According to Wikipedia:
Anagnorisis, or discovery, is the protagonist’s sudden recognition of their own or another character’s true identity or nature. Through this technique, previously unforeseen character information is revealed.
Shame it was done badly. Even if this dirty narrative trick were employed in the original novel, it would be no trouble to correct it in the adaptation so basically there’s no excuse - have these people never worked on an animated TV show before? This is why I maintain that the story in the novels is not necessarily as bad as the anime suggests. Sadly the execution has employed so many amateurish and plain lazy plot devices that I’m inclined to drop it…the catch is, the characters are too engaging to let it go.
I might actually continue watching this, just to see if at any point Wil actually notices what’s right beside in front of him
Alternatively, you could set up a donation fund for me to return to uni as a creative writing student during which I can come up with better screenplays than the one that’s currently crucifying this series. Oh yeah, another glaringly obvious moment (following the one above) that went over Wil’s head. His loss I suppose, the fool.
Quoted for truth: the phrase “No shit, Sherlock.” springs to mind
Posted on June 2nd, 2008 @ 10:29 pm
Yes, aspects of this series are dreadful.
I’ve been wondering about the novels, myself. The thing is that Kino consists of a series of short-stories (fables, really), not novels. So I suppose the answer to the question: “Would the author of the Kino stories make these mistakes?” is, “Maybe”.
Still, I’ve seen blog comments on the series that complained that the richness of the first novel was completely lost in the first story-arc, so maybe the novels really are much better.
Posted on June 2nd, 2008 @ 10:34 pm
Your plot-hole observations were a hoot, but I’m pretty sure Nihito fell from the wind gusts caused by Allison’s plane. I don’t know if that’s plausible, since Fi and Benny didn’t seem all that bothered by it. Still, it sure as hell makes more sense than him getting a random case of vertigo or his cerebellum suddenly exploding completely.
Posted on June 2nd, 2008 @ 11:12 pm
One more plot hole that I’ve seen pointed out quite a bit in episode 8 is, “Where is Nihito getting all these knives from?” He stabs one in failguard’s leg, leaves it, then has another one for Benedict’s watch. Was he /planning/ on having to stab a bunch of people in non-lethal ways?
Although I certainly feel your pain on this series and have toyed with the idea of dropping it myself. ‘Tis a shame since I like the characters of Allison and Wil so much, but outside of the people doing the music and art no one seems to have the slightest clue what they’re doing.
Posted on June 2nd, 2008 @ 11:17 pm
I’ve been destroying this series piece by piece for weeks on my ‘Blog so I won’t regurgitate any of my bile towards it here (especially seeing as you’ve picked up on all the massive plot holes anyway), although I have to admit I’ve been enjoying some of its unintentional hilarity.
Unfortunately I haven’t been too excited by the plots seen thus far, and I loathe the music to boot (it really isn’t my scene) so I’ve come away with an impression that doesn’t fall all that far short of WORST. ANIME. EVAR.
Sagacious is right though I think, Nihito gets blown off the roof by the wind from Allison’s plane. Which, to be honest, is pretty hilarious in itself.
Posted on June 2nd, 2008 @ 11:53 pm
This is a shame, because by the sound of your previous posts on the series it had (and still has?) some serious potential (and anime doesn’t have enough biplane action).
A real pedant might complain about anagnorisis, but to be honest I don’t have a problem with your use of it here, especially since Allison to Lillia is (presumably) not a Greek tragedy. And that list of grievances was pretty amusing - though I think running men might have been able to keep up with really early aircraft take-offs, but I’m guessing the biplanes in this show are a bit more developed than that.
Also this post provoked some lengthier thoughts which I felt would be out of place if I just dumped them in these comments, so they went in the MAL blog.
Posted on June 3rd, 2008 @ 2:42 am
[One more plot hole that I’ve seen pointed out quite a bit in episode 8 is, “Where is Nihito getting all these knives from?” He stabs one in failguard’s leg, leaves it, then has another one for Benedict’s watch. Was he /planning/ on having to stab a bunch of people in non-lethal ways?]\
Exactly my thought. The guy was carrying two huge knives at his own conference. I don’t know about you but that seems pretty irrelevant seeing that for safety he might as well have brought guns or something else.
On the off side, I got this funny moment where I thought he was Rambo or something. xD
Posted on June 3rd, 2008 @ 2:45 am
Actually, I think Nihito was pushed off the top of the building by Francesca’s ghost.
Allison is like the anti-Kino. Kino was a quiet observer, when she chose to act, she did so cooly and effectively. Allison, in contrast, is quick to act and heedless. But I keep watching the series for her and clueless Wil.
Whoever made the OP also knows what they’re doing — the OP alone has better direction than much of the series.
Posted on June 3rd, 2008 @ 2:44 pm
Wait, what? I’m sorry, but my literary criticism powers, whatever they are, go no further than the A-Levels. Honestly, at this point what we need is the source material to refer to, since there’s a chance that the director could be doing the old paint-by-numbers routine, only instead of making it as imaginative and interesting as the text, he’s playing it safe. Jen, you game for this?
Which brings to mind that episode of ZSZS where you had Itoshiki and his students taking the mickey out of directors who did unimaginative works and then said in their defence that they were “just following the original!”.
(I’d say “Art imitating art”, but I’m more concerned about whether or not I used that bit of Brit slang properly more than anything)
Posted on June 3rd, 2008 @ 6:22 pm
@dm: I do wonder whether Sigsawa is one of those writers who is more comfortable with short stories than longer novels. Conceptually Kino was solid but Nakamura’s direction really brought it to life. Interesting point on Allison’s character though - maybe writers give themselves a break by writing about polar opposite characters to keep the creativity flowing?
@Sagacious1: I like that theory. It implies that Ben and Fi were sheltered by the open door or something, but it sure makes more sense than the guy just falling.
@Hanners: the BGM and end theme are a but meh but the op is superb. For reference, this is the worst anime I’ve seen…surely you don’t think this is worse than Golgo 13?! 0_o
@IKnight: it does indeed have a lot of potential. As for the planes, they’re 1930s era, so a wee bit slower than, say, WWII era models. I’ll give your mini-blog post a read and a comment in a bit.
@Ez: I did start to wonder where the knives were coming from. In that sort of politics, aren’t they used for stabbing rivals in the back?
@Owen: if you took English as far as A level you still have two years on me since my education was pure science post-16 (a decision I regret to this day). Agreed that I really need to read the original novels though - not only for curiosity’s sake but to get firm evidence as to whether it’s a sloppy adaptation of a good story or a faithful adaptation of a bad one. Even if it is the latter, what is stopping them deciding “I don’t like the way this bit reads. Let’s change it.”?
Posted on June 3rd, 2008 @ 6:35 pm
No, blow for blow I wouldn’t put this in the Golgo 13 movie category of awfulness, but it is the worst thing I’ve watched as far as plot holes go, which just makes it more conspicuous than most types of anime badness.
It’s the kind of thing that makes you wish for an anime equivalent of Mystery Science Theater 3000…
Posted on June 3rd, 2008 @ 11:58 pm
Well, the good news is that after the hilarious awfulness of this arc I’ve realised I would be derelict in my duty if I didn’t parody it…
Posted on June 4th, 2008 @ 12:14 am
@Hanners:
They’re called Epic Win iirc, but sadly they seem to have suffered a relapse of Hiatus Disease! The Golgo 13 movie does have the Huerrgh! factor going for it I guess, but this arc really did make me laugh for all the wrong reasons at points.
@Karura: Good to hear it! I look forward to the lulz that will ensure. *thumbs up*
Posted on June 6th, 2008 @ 1:27 am
I still love this series, but I was finding the plot holes rather glaring. (I’m currently classifying it as “now with fewer plot holes that Harry Potter!” but let’s not get distracted into HP criticism.) It is frustrating that a series which excels so much in other ways has such a glaring but fairly easy to fix flaw.
“normally ‘good as gold but thick as mud’ Wil”
Have you been watching the same Wil as I have? He is a nerd who also happens to be fit and good at target shooting. He’s alway been the brains of the outfit, while Allison does the enthusiasm and action.
Posted on June 6th, 2008 @ 2:35 am
wait what, did Owen just call for me? o.o
I can get the source novels for this, but I’d have to let someone else read it for me lolz. Unless I get really interested and I find myself sitting through it and actually reading it. Let me see what I can do.
Posted on June 7th, 2008 @ 4:27 am
There is some logic to Allison and Wil running to the airplane: they couldn’t do anything useful on the ground that the dozen or so security guards couldn’t do better, and the guards were much closer. What they could do, which nobody else could do, was get airborne. There was a slight but real chance this could be useful - e.g. to be able to follow an escaping ground vehicle.
In the event, they provided a kaze ex machina which blew the bad guy off the roof.
P.S. a couple more plot holes:
Why did Bad Guy burn kidnap the princess, burn the palace etc. in the first place? 10 years on, he is on track to political power, but there isn’t any indication of how or whether his crime facilitated this.
How did Princess Francesca come to be taken to Fiona’s village (unscarred, despite the fire) to die? Given that she was, why did the royalists not do the Fraancesca/Fiona exchange at this time?
Posted on June 7th, 2008 @ 5:57 pm
@usagijen: it’s times like this when I wish I was able to read the original text, because I doubt there will be an english language edition (even the release schedule of the Kino novels seems to have stalled).
@Michael: yep, the same Wil who seemed to be sleepwalking through the entire arc and deliver the answer towards the end in grand style. I did think he was intelligent in a bookish sense but as thick as two short planks otherwise; at this point I’m starting to see him differently.
Nice example of mixing loan words. I like it! ^_^
Posted on June 8th, 2008 @ 6:16 pm
[...] the few people who are watching Allison and Lillia, Martin has an extensive comment on how badly executed the story telling is. After reading this, I realized with what kind of eye [...]
Posted on June 10th, 2008 @ 2:07 pm
It’s times like episode 8 that I remember “lol kids show”, not that that means not criticizing it for their faults, but that the way they’re writing it fits that sort of audience. I’m sure if I was 7 or 8, I wouldn’t mind the plotholes and silly plans that I saw. That being said, it was hilarious how things were executed, and I’m still going to watch the show as I’ve done: for the characters. And the OP.
Posted on June 11th, 2008 @ 6:46 pm
@TheBigN: if I look at this series as one intended for a younger audience I suppose the plot holes aren’t as bad. Still, Miyazaki movies and stuff like Denno Coil still have watertight storylines and ideas, despite being geared for kids. Like you, the characters and gorgeous OP theme are what keep me watching.