Most newer anime fans probably don’t realize the deep ancestral ties between shoujo and isekai. Hell, I wasn’t fully aware of the extent of it myself until the past few years. But production committees are doing their best to rectify that, by reviving seemingly every ancient shoujo isekai (or shoujo generally) they can find. It’s an odd trend to be frank. In an era where newer shoujo struggle to get anime adaptations, why is there such demand for long-completed ones, no matter how well-reviewed? They almost always seem to get minimal budgets and as a rule, fans of the manga are usually disappointed. Who’s the target audience here?

Kanata Kara bears more than a passing resemblance to Red River (Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori) which was recently adapted with a resounding thud. It should be noted that this series predated that one by four years. As well, the serious shoujo fans in my acquaintance universally prefer this one by a lot. I watched a few eps of Red River and was singularly unimpressed, not only with the threadbare production but the writing. The budget here is similarly spartan if we’re honest (Deen typically lives in that neighborhood) but I did find the premiere more engaging. And more crisply directed, not surprisingly with Abe Noriyuki at the controls here.

This time the heroine is Tachiki Noriko, whose pops is a science-fiction novelist and whose Oni-chan likes to mess up her hair. When she shares the dreams she has of a strange primeval world, they idly muse on multiple dimensions but don’t really take her seriously. Things have been updated a bit – Noriko has a smartphone until she drops it in a river (not a red one) but still feel very old-fashioned. That includes Noriko slipping pretty comfortably into screaming damsel-in-distress mode when she darts in front of a car and is transported to her dream world for real, there to be assaulted by giant bugs and targeted as “The Awakening” by soldiers from every kingdom.

I’m told she gets better, so I won’t stress too much over that – she already starts to tone it down by the end of the episode (and it’s kind of understandable). Fortunately for Noriko a chap named Izark Kia Tarj is in the vicinity when she wakes up in a primordial jungle. He saves her from the bugs and seems intent on keeping her hidden from the soldiers on flying dinosaurs searching for her (they know she’s down there but can’t find a parking space big enough for their rides). Noriko and Izark can’t understand each other – this is communicated quite elegantly by Abe’s direction. But she’s not in a position to be choosy about her protectors, and he projects a reassuring air. They do at least manage to exchange names.

It would be foolhardy to conclude too much about a 14-volume manga after one episode. From Far Away is low budget and yes, it does feel a bit dated. But the pedigree is very well-respected, and on balance the premiere worked reasonably well as a stage-setter. There are other concerns – like episode count, given that it is fourteen volumes – but for now it’s a matter of seeing whether the show clears the “interesting” threshold. With a good director behind it I’d like to think the adaptation can deliver at least a taste of whatever it is that makes the manga so well-regarded among shoujo fans.