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Title (English) Strange Dawn

Title (Japanese) Strange dawn

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Fantasy Novel

Notes Creators: Junichi Sato and Hal Filmmakers

Classification -

Synopsis Two teenaged girls have been brought, unbeknownst to themselves, by magic to a land of small, warring people ( sort of like Ewoks without facial hair ). Not a lot happens in the first episode, except that we get to meet a few of the little folk and the two girls do decide to "defend" themselves and the villagers, in a burst of thoughtless valor.

Review "Strange Dawn" is rather different, being a juvenile adventure story, but there are also "kawaii" creatures here, this time openly sentient. The story so far looks and feels like a cross between "Magic Knights Rayearth", "El Hazard", "Nausicaa" and "Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku". Two teenaged girls have been brought, unbeknownst to themselves, by magic to a land of small, warring people ( sort of like Ewoks without facial hair ). Not a lot happens in the first episode, except that we get to meet a few of the little folk and the two girls do decide to "defend" themselves and the villagers, in a burst of thoughtless valor.
There is lots of nice CG in "Strange Dawn" and the overall look of the animation is near-movie quality. The real challenge now will be for the creators of the show to avoid all the old cliches rampant in this sort of plot. "Strange Dawn" is an original animation done for Wowow, a Japanese pay satellite channel. (Dave Baranyi)
Yes, Strange Dawn is quite ambitious. I think this will be a candidate for a real juvenile classic fantasy story, like Ima Soko did. WOWOW seems to promote to young adult audience, say junior high.. (CALCI )
You know, sometimes there's a show that seems like it should have everything going for it, but somehow it just doesn't come together. "Strange Dawn" is a show like that. I just finished watching episodes 6&7 and if I hadn't looked at the official "Strange Dawn" web site, http://www.strangedawn.com/ , I wouldn't have believed that it was so few - it feels as if I've been slugging my way through these episodes forever.
"Strange Dawn" started out with a lot of hype from the Wowow Japanese satellite pay channel. The advertisements were full of flashy graphics, lots of action and a strange world. But this story of two high school girls who are transported magically to a primitive world just doesn't seem to be going anywhere beyond a stereotypical and rather static, "chase, capture, escape" plot line.
I'm avoiding using "SD" as a typing short cut for "Strange Dawn", because of the long tradition of using "SD" to mean "super deformed". But in a way it is rather appropriate, because the little, semi-primitive people in the strange world of "Strange Dawn" are exactly like SD characters in other shows. In fact, the static animation and interchangeable character designs for the "chibi" folk are in jarring contrast to the details of the backgrounds and the two high school girls, Eri and Yuko.
But you know, you would never learn that their names are Eri and Yuko from the show - they aren't really friends, just classmates and call each other by their family names in a rather formal manner. There is an attempt to add some "reality" to this show through the two girls - Eri has real difficulty with the fact that there aren't any toilets around and Yuko won't eat the food from the Chibi folk so she is hungry all the time. The girls also only have two sets of clothing - their school uniforms and some sweats, so they spend a fair amount of time washing their clothes in nearby streams. But even this "cinema verite" approach gets boring after a while.
But all-in-all, the main problem with the series is that nothing happens. The girls don't want to be in that world, they don't have any magic "powers" that the "chibi" folk were hoping for, and the petty political squabbles between the various "chibi" tribes aren't in the least bit interesting. The girls get pushed into doing things that they don't want to do, instead of literally kicking some "chibi butt" and getting their own way. And the magical "mysteries" in the show aren't really adding any mystery either.
You know, I should have been "warned" when I first saw the opening for the show on the Wowow web site because the opening looks a lot like the opening for the second "El Hazard" TV series, "The Alternate World". And to a good extent, "Strange Yawn" is going the same pointless direction as "EHTAW". Oh well, at least I'm not paying Japanese video prices to watch this series.
(Dave Baranyi)
I saw the 2nd episode last night. It has more and more appearant that Sato Jun'ichi wish to present 'a die-hard' jevinnile SF fantasy. Quite straightforward, with less humor. It was just a pulp Sci-fi fiction in 30s or 40s in the US. Girls transwarped to the different time-space, and became Giant Godess. It was a simple plot, but the conflicts of the girls and dwarf villagers were quite realistc and well written. Two Giants (they call), weak minded village master, a young leader with a shadow in mind, ambitious no2 of the village guard, cute village girls, innocent village people, and the enemy... These factors immediately reminded me about the Toei's classic 'Horusu no Daibouken' in the 60s. This is really good. Keep following. (CALCI )

Credits See www.strangedawn.com (Jap)

Episodes 13

Release Jap:DVD, US:DVD

TV Showing See the whole series for free? This series may be syndicated to regional cable, satellite or terrestial TV stations. For Europe click here.

Date 2000 July 11 - 2000 September 26

Production Pioneer

Broadcaster WOWOW

Animation

References & Help Look up the latest data on this title at:
Richard Llewellyn's Animated Divots, or
Anime News Network (see Encyclopedia section) ,
or in "The Anime Encyclopedia" (Clements & McCarthy, Stone Bridge Press, 2001).
Help & further information.

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Information
Title (English)	Strange Dawn
Title (Japanese)	Strange dawn
Advertising Fantasy Novel
Notes	Creators: Junichi Sato and Hal Filmmakers
Classification	-
Synopsis	Two teenaged girls have been brought, unbeknownst to themselves, by magic to a land of small, warring people ( sort of like Ewoks without facial hair ). Not a lot happens in the first episode, except that we get to meet a few of the little folk and the two girls do decide to "defend" themselves and the villagers, in a burst of thoughtless valor.
Review	"Strange Dawn" is rather different, being a juvenile adventure story, but there are also "kawaii" creatures here, this time openly sentient. The story so far looks and feels like a cross between "Magic Knights Rayearth", "El Hazard", "Nausicaa" and "Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku". Two teenaged girls have been brought, unbeknownst to themselves, by magic to a land of small, warring people ( sort of like Ewoks without facial hair ). Not a lot happens in the first episode, except that we get to meet a few of the little folk and the two girls do decide to "defend" themselves and the villagers, in a burst of thoughtless valor. There is lots of nice CG in "Strange Dawn" and the overall look of the animation is near-movie quality. The real challenge now will be for the creators of the show to avoid all the old cliches rampant in this sort of plot. "Strange Dawn" is an original animation done for Wowow, a Japanese pay satellite channel. (Dave Baranyi) Yes, Strange Dawn is quite ambitious. I think this will be a candidate for a real juvenile classic fantasy story, like Ima Soko did. WOWOW seems to promote to young adult audience, say junior high.. (CALCI ) You know, sometimes there's a show that seems like it should have everything going for it, but somehow it just doesn't come together. "Strange Dawn" is a show like that. I just finished watching episodes 6&7 and if I hadn't looked at the official "Strange Dawn" web site, http://www.strangedawn.com/ , I wouldn't have believed that it was so few - it feels as if I've been slugging my way through these episodes forever. "Strange Dawn" started out with a lot of hype from the Wowow Japanese satellite pay channel. The advertisements were full of flashy graphics, lots of action and a strange world. But this story of two high school girls who are transported magically to a primitive world just doesn't seem to be going anywhere beyond a stereotypical and rather static, "chase, capture, escape" plot line. I'm avoiding using "SD" as a typing short cut for "Strange Dawn", because of the long tradition of using "SD" to mean "super deformed". But in a way it is rather appropriate, because the little, semi-primitive people in the strange world of "Strange Dawn" are exactly like SD characters in other shows. In fact, the static animation and interchangeable character designs for the "chibi" folk are in jarring contrast to the details of the backgrounds and the two high school girls, Eri and Yuko. But you know, you would never learn that their names are Eri and Yuko from the show - they aren't really friends, just classmates and call each other by their family names in a rather formal manner. There is an attempt to add some "reality" to this show through the two girls - Eri has real difficulty with the fact that there aren't any toilets around and Yuko won't eat the food from the Chibi folk so she is hungry all the time. The girls also only have two sets of clothing - their school uniforms and some sweats, so they spend a fair amount of time washing their clothes in nearby streams. But even this "cinema verite" approach gets boring after a while. But all-in-all, the main problem with the series is that nothing happens. The girls don't want to be in that world, they don't have any magic "powers" that the "chibi" folk were hoping for, and the petty political squabbles between the various "chibi" tribes aren't in the least bit interesting. The girls get pushed into doing things that they don't want to do, instead of literally kicking some "chibi butt" and getting their own way. And the magical "mysteries" in the show aren't really adding any mystery either. You know, I should have been "warned" when I first saw the opening for the show on the Wowow web site because the opening looks a lot like the opening for the second "El Hazard" TV series, "The Alternate World". And to a good extent, "Strange Yawn" is going the same pointless direction as "EHTAW". Oh well, at least I'm not paying Japanese video prices to watch this series. (Dave Baranyi) I saw the 2nd episode last night. It has more and more appearant that Sato Jun'ichi wish to present 'a die-hard' jevinnile SF fantasy. Quite straightforward, with less humor. It was just a pulp Sci-fi fiction in 30s or 40s in the US. Girls transwarped to the different time-space, and became Giant Godess. It was a simple plot, but the conflicts of the girls and dwarf villagers were quite realistc and well written. Two Giants (they call), weak minded village master, a young leader with a shadow in mind, ambitious no2 of the village guard, cute village girls, innocent village people, and the enemy... These factors immediately reminded me about the Toei's classic 'Horusu no Daibouken' in the 60s. This is really good. Keep following. (CALCI )
Credits	See www.strangedawn.com (Jap)
Episodes	13
Release	Jap:DVD, US:DVD
TV Showing	See the whole series for free? This series may be syndicated to regional cable, satellite or terrestial TV stations. For Europe click here.
Date	2000 July 11 - 2000 September 26
Production	Pioneer
Broadcaster	WOWOW
Animation
References & Help	Look up the latest data on this title at: Richard Llewellyn's Animated Divots, or Anime News Network (see Encyclopedia section) , or in "The Anime Encyclopedia" (Clements & McCarthy, Stone Bridge Press, 2001). Help & further information.