I’m trying. I really do want to like this show. I know people who hold the manga in extremely high regard, and in principle I support the idea of revered old series (unadapted ones anyway) getting anime adaptations. In practice, though, it almost never seems to work. There’s never enough budget, and – especially with shoujo – the productions are almost always uninspired at best. It’s a cycle that keeps repeating itself, yet no one ever seems to take a lesson from it. I’ll ask again, though there seems to be no ready answer – who are these shows for?

It’s not and out-and-out atrocity like the Hoshi no Samidare adaptation. But then, most of them aren’t – they’re just kind of “there”. And that’s where this anime is. It has a good director in Abe Noriyuki but that doesn’t seem to be making much difference. It’s competently acted and not a collection of still frames but there’s just no spark, no personality. Noriko and Izark are likeable, and I like them. But only in a very detached way. Because I never really feel involved in the narrative.

We got a little backstory on Izark here at least. He has a power that manifested itself when he village was attacked when he was a child, and it got him branded as a monster. It also seems to plague him with occasional bouts of fatigue and general infirmity, as is happening now. Noriko (literally) drags the doctor to see him but Izark makes it clear that doctors have no cure for what ails him. The bandit leader from last time gets word from his spy at the inn that Izark is ill, and decided to move to eliminate him before he can make good on his pledge to do the same and collect the reward. But when pressed, even a half-strength Izark is still too much for Boss’ goons.

It’s also made clear that Izark intended to eliminate The Awakening – indeed, that as he sees it Noriko’s death would be good for him. But he’s too decent a person to follow through on that, especially since she’s just as much a victim as he was. You sense the foundation of a good character story there, but I just don’t have faith that From Far Away has what it takes to draw it out. Especially if it’s so rushed that it has to trim most of the character material (which is what usually happens when action manga are dramatically cut). It seems pretty unlikely that I’m going to continue here, but this season is so weak that I’ll give everything more rope than I normally would.