Strange Dawn (ストレンジドーン) is a 13-episode anime TV series created by Junichi Sato and Hal Film Maker for Pioneer LDC in 2000.
Two teenage girls, the aloof Yuko Miyabe and softy Eri Natsuno, are transported to a magical planet which is dominated by small semi-humans. To the girls surprise, they are treated as Gods by the little creatures. They learn that Princess Alia used her magic-powers to transport them to their world, because they believe Yuko and Eri are the 'protectors' and will end the horrible war that has been going on for years on their planet. They befriend Shall who comes to the decision to protect Yuko and Eri he tells them that Princess Alia was captured right after she summoned them.
Strange Dawn provides examples of the following tropes:
- Annoying Arrows: In the first episode. And Yuko just yanks one right out of her body with no serious medical consequences whatsoever.
- Berserker Tears: After everything she's been through, always trying to be empathetic and reasonable and getting very little support, Eri realizes that despite her valuable status as a protector, she has no power whatsoever. The few companions she's made in this world are to be executed on flimsy charges of espionage and the general ordering this has the nerve to shout at her when she pleads for their lives. It is at this point that Eri snaps and tearfully unleashes her anger over everything.
- Chastity Dagger: When the armies arrive, Mani gives her friend Reca, a beauty with many suitors, a hairpin to defend herself with if ever such would be necessary. Reca hesitantly accepts and ends up using it against a creepy general who sets his sights on her.
- Covers Always Lie: One of the DVD covers shows Eri, Yuko, Reka, Mani, Shall and Beret swimming underwater. And of course, this never happens at all in the series.
- Deconstruction: Of the Trapped in Another World genre.
- Deus ex Machina: In the final episode's ending.
- Hypocrite: In episode 8, Yuko accuses Reka of being selfish and only thinking about herself, even though this is ironically what Yuko does pretty much throughout the entire series, something that Reka even lampshades.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The story does try to paint Yuko as this, by showing her saving one of the characters and giving another character a sticker as a way of kindness.
- No Periods, Period: While stuck in the other world, Eri worries that she won't have anything when her period comes. She shares this concern with Yuko who answers she can help her out once. When Yuko later goes off on her own to find a way home, she makes good on her promise and gives Eri her one emergency menstrual pad.
- Pinball Protagonist: Eri and Yuko don't really do much throughout the story, except for just communicating with the other characters.
- Potty Dance: Eri does a Seiza Squirm version of this at the start of Episode 2.
- Potty Emergency: Eri has one at the start of Episode 2.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Yuko and Eri respectively.
- Smug Snake: Dall thinks of himself as a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but in actuality, he's just an arrogant sociopath who will do anything to satisfy his own ego, even if it means sacrificing others.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Yuko is the tomboy to Eri's girly girl.
- Tomboyish Voice: Yuko possesses this.
- Trapped in Another World: The series' premise.
