Strange Dawn uses a not-uncommon anime trope: schoolkids who are transported to another world, which they find they are destined to save. The primary differences compared to the others in the genre (say, Escaflowne for example) are two-fold:

1. Most obviously, the inhabitants of the world are about a foot and a half tall and look rather like cute stuffed toys (exacerbated by the cuddly white-and-pink outfit of Schall, the main character from that world). They look ridiculous. The thing is, they do not act ridiculously. They do not KNOW they are tiny and cute. They call themselves people, and act like people, who are currently involved in a complex political situation that's on the verge of war. They aren't adorable little fairies or mischevious cat-girls or unworldly angels, and they regard their giant "saviours" with, depending on the individual, anything from religious awe (and concurrent desire to be saved from all their problems, and rage when this does not happen) to calculated notions of political leverage, to hatred for their disturbing the status quo, to frank doubt that the "saviours" are actually saviours at all. In other words, they look about as serious as Smurfs but are in a completely serious situation, the idea being that you have to look past their appearences to understand them as people (just as the two human characters must). This is unfortunately also why Urban Vision rather foolishly marketed it as a kid's show, despite the fact that in the first volume alone there are bloody conflicts, death, sexual assault, et cetera.

2. Unlike many other anime with the "schoolkids-in-another-world" gimmick, the Strange Dawn world is well-thought-out. The inhabitants have their own culture and mores, they eat different sorts of food, they have burial rituals, their own customs, et cetera. Even the way they fight is modified from how humans fight to account for the sort of things a tiny creature could do. Questions like "does a day take 24 hours here?" are actually raised by the characters. Even their sexual mores are touched on and shown to be different than humans; the natives of the world consider feet to be an erogenous zone that must be covered, the same way we do breasts. I think that's wonderful. Also, the simplistic "war is bad, why can't we just get along?" attitude one of the characters takes is constantly challenged by the realities of a complex political situation where wanting to get along isn't that simple - something I wish more anime did.

Now, here comes the truly unfortunate part. I can't say Strange Dawn is the best anime I've ever seen. Why not? Because, in part due to bad marketing (and admittedly, because the show is not for everyone), only half of it ever got released in North America, and despite the fact it aired on television in both the UK and Australia, several years of searching for copies of the second half of the English version have turned up nothing. Without having seen it all, I can't render a full judgement on it. But the seven episodes I've seen are more clever and well-thought-out, with more complex characters and situations, than virtually anything else I've seen. It's brilliant, in a word, and if the second half lived up to the first I'd call it one of the finest shows I've ever watched, anime or otherwise. As I noted, it's not for everyone; it's slow-paced and character-centric, though notably less so than, say, Haibane Renmei, and some people seemingly just can't get past the character designs of the world's natives. I do consider it more worth watching half-done than most things are completely-done, and it's not like it's expensive (picking up both volumes on Ebay is routinely $5 each or even less). It's also far more easily available in French or Italian, should you speak either of those languages.

For those curious, then, or those of us lucky enough to know and like this show already, here's all the pictures I've found from the series, liberally supplemented by my own screencaptures of the first two volumes. Enjoy!

Strange Dawn

Yuko	Emi	Yuko & Emi	Schall & Alila	Reca & Mani
Levian & Deum	Darl & the Tinglans	Shura	Olto	Beret & Jorg
Miscellaneous	Group