(13 episodes)
What’s it about ?
The old “teenagers transported to a parallel world” classic.
Characters
Our two protagonists, Yuko and Eri, are ordinary highschoolers who have no clue how or why they’re now suddenly in these semi-desertic lands. Eri is the quiet one, and a bit of a wet blanket ; Yuko is the archetypal “bad girl”, superficial and rude. I get the impression they weren’t particularly close before this.
The world is inhabited by a number of “little people”, divided into clans waging guerilla warfare against each other. One clan we see is outright aggressive, while the other welcomes Yuko & Eri as the Big Saviours that will surely help tip the war into their favour.
At least, that’s what Shall, their MVP, strongly believes ; a good chunk of the tribe are more skeptical, especially as the girls are bemused and not very cooperative.
And let’s be honest : aside from being several sizes taller than the locals, it’s not like our girls hold any particular advantage, do they ? Sure, they can frighten an unaware enemy commando team by just screaming and waving their arms around, but I doubt those smoke and mirrors going to be effective for long. What is it the little people see in the Big Saviours, really ? Where do their legends even come from, anyway ?
Production Values
Lovely. There’s some quite good animation for the action sequences, and I like the rather distinctive designs for the little people, with proportions quite unlike real human beings.
Overall Impression
This was quite a lot more enjoyable than I expected it to be. A lot of it owes to Yuko & Eri feeling so real ; they’re not even particularly likeable (Yuko is a brat and Eri would apologize to her own shadow for bumping into it), but they behave like actual teenagers and have some good chemistry together. I’m also intrigued by the choice to start off with them already there, with no flashback yet as to how they got transported or what their life was like before. (And their personalities are strong enough for some guesses to be made by the audience.)
The little society is also interesting to watch, and I’m always up for fantasy politics. So I’m definitely coming back to this show later on. It’s a nice surprise.
