Strange Dawn (ストレンジドーン) is a 13-episode anime TV series created by Hal Film Maker for Pioneer LDC in 2000.
Two teenage girls (Yuko Miyabe and 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.
Tropes:
- All Take and No Give: Yuko makes the Chibis give her what she wants, including food, shelter, etc. Unfortunately, she repays them by constantly being rude and disrespectful, while rarely doing anything to help them in return.
- Annoying Arrows: In the first episode. And Yuko just yanks one right out of her body with no serious medical consequences whatsoever.
- Berserker Tears: Eri in Episode 13. Though it's hard to take seriously since it comes off as more of an immature temper tantrum in her case.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Eri.
- Classical Anti-Hero: Eri.
- 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.
- Jerkass: Yuko, full stop. She's rude, selfish, disrespectful, obnoxious, and even when the villagers are being killed, she doesn't express any empathy, and spends most of the story
whining about wanting to get back to her own world, and even when the other characters are trying to help her (finding her food, etc), she rarely does anything in return and is constantly nasty to them. The worst part? She's supposed to be one of the heroes. - 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: Averted; one of the girls worries about her period coming while in another world.
- Pinball Protagonist: Eri and Yuko don't really do much throughout the story, except for just communicating with the other characters. This is one of the main criticisms the anime received from reviewers.
- 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.
