アリソン(Allison) is a Light Novel about two teenagers in a world with two continents split right down the middle that are eternally at war until the end of the first light novel.

My biggest gripe with Allison is that it comes off as quite naïve, going all-in on the Japanese Kumbaya cliché. This is fine…at first…at the end of the first volume…but gets more grating with each installment.
The reason this isn’t that big of a problem is that the series is only 4 volumes total, so it just barely overstays its welcome.

Besides that though? Yeah, it’s alright. I think the worldbuilding actually kinda works if we take the intended theme (which is Japanese Kumbaya-related) into account…as it kinda makes sense. The issue is that past the first volume, there are serious issues with the worldbuilding keeping everything in order…because, while it makes sense in that initial volume’s premise…it doesn’t make sense longer-term.
My personal approach would have been to treat the first volume as a one-off/pilot/preview like you sometimes see with manga. Then I would have taken the time to work on the worldbuilding a bit more…and then I would have continued.
But that’s why I said it just barely overstays its welcome.

I realized only now that I kinda failed to elaborate on what the problem with the worldbuilding is…so uh…I’ll elaborate with more details in the future, but the gist of it is that the world of Allison features one pangaea-style continent which is split exactly in half. After millenia passed, the people of the two continents mutually discovered each-other and then, seemingly, realized that it makes more sense to hate the guy across the street than the next-door neighbor.
Each continent united into mega-alliances (the West into an autocratic Empire, the East into a democratic Federation) which then occasionally went to war with each-other: the aim being to exterminate the other side. Both continents frequently bicker about everything…including which continent humanity originated from.
The first volume ends with Allison and her boyfriend whose name I suddenly forgot discovering an ancient cave painting that evilmen aim to destroy. This cave painting depicts the sacred symbols of each continent side-by-side showing that, in the past, both peoples were united as one. This then leads to both side realizing that fighting each-other is pointless and dumb and they should stop – which they do.
There are a lot of issues with that, but I’m gonna leave it there for now.

I would write something here, but I either stopped reading during the first volume or after finishing the first volume. I wasn’t really as into it as I was into Allison. Again, the worldbuilding cannot possibly maintain a story past the first volume of Allison.

The Japanese Kumbaya thing is also still going so yaaaaay.

There is an anime which adapts both Allison and Lillia into a single series…which is an interesting choice. I’ve had it in my backlog for a while and I’ve been intending to watch it for a while…initially I avoided it because I wanted to finish reading Lillia & Treize first…but that ain’t happening for a while, so it might be the only way I experience Lillia‘s story.

I decided to watch the first episode today (2025-08-28) and my first impressions (not having finished the episode) are…lukewarm.

I’m not impressed with the voice actor for Wil and I think the tone of the series is completely off from what I would have expected it to be. So far, it’s a lot more chill than the story came off in the light novel – despite it being very faithful to the source material.
What I’m interested in is what’ll happen when the more action/tense stuff comes up. Though who knows if I’ll get that far.

Having just finished it…yeah, there was a tense moment (or at least an attempt at one), alongside a chase scene. But this is a chill series first and action/adventure series second. This is actually not great believe it or not, since the storylines are more action-heavy than slice-of-life.
I’m not sure exactly what compelled them to do this. Maybe this has to do with Kino no Tabi? Because the author of that also wrote this…and the anime for Kino pre-dates Allison & Lillia. If they asked him for his input – well, bad idea in the first place – and he said it should be like this…that could also explain it?

I’m going to stick with the series, though I’m not particularly impressed.

The thing is, despite what I said above: I actually think there’s a lot of neat stuff in the series, just that it’s held back quite severely by its own worldbuilding and the plots it went for.
Everything revolves around the Japanese Kumbaya theme, which gets tiring fast (hence why I didn’t like Lillia & Treize that much).

But, hear me out: Allison.

I find Allison to be an interesting character on her own. I’ll note that I’m singling her out because the series is named after her but this generally applies to many of the other characters too (though not Wil who is kinda boring).
I’ll also note, explicitly, that this is my opinion. Allison is a good character, but I personally find her interesting.

Anyway…I think that Allison (the character) would benefit from existing in other stories. Either as a main character or a character alongside someone else (Wil if we’re desperate). There is plenty about her that is pretty cool: she’s a pilot in the military; she’s an orphan; she’s a genki girl who is hot; she tends to be pretty reckless and doesn’t consider consequences.
That may not sound like much, but keep in mind that the first volume starts with her just deciding on-the-fly to chase after some kidnappers in a plane she ‘borrowed’, which leads her to end up trespassing in the territory of the country they’re technically at war with. How the situation doesn’t end up worse is incredible.
There’s plenty of story that can be gotten out of her is my point.

• Allison – Baka-Tsuki
• Lillia & Treize – Baka-Tsuki
• Both of the above lead you to fan translations of Allison and Lillia. It’s where I found the novels and read them.
• I’ll add additional links (like anidb/anilist and official websites) later.