Characters correctly scaled. Yes, the high school girls are giants in this world.
Strange Dawn is a 13 episode TV series from 2000, of which only 7 episodes appear to have been translated. Naturally, the borrowed DVDs cut out just as the story is getting interesting.
The trope of the high school student(s) summoned to another world to be saviours is a well trodden path [1] that Strange Dawn takes to some new, and often disturbing, places.
For a start the girls Yuko and Emi do not embrace the world they find themselves in, or become instant friends. They are more of an odd couple: staying together out of necessity rather than choice.
Yuko is brash, Emi is shy, and both are struggling to deal with the world, each other, and their apparent status as “Great Protectors” in the middle of a war.
The summoning of the “Great Protectors” was justified by a nasty civil war that was either in progress or looming at the time. This means that there are a host of factions trying to manipulate or use the more than slightly confused Emi and the aggressively disinterested Yuko.
This aspect was more than a little off putting in truth: very few of the little people [2] are all that nice. Some are downright evil. In episode 7 being openly told that they would be deceived until it became true [3] was possibly the closest to honesty that Emi and Yuko had seen for a while.
Strange Dawn also addresses other aspects of the Trapped in Another World trope that are usually overlooked such as being unsure of the food, lack of toilets, and not having spare clothes. Doing the laundry was a significant part of one episode.
Another unusual aspect is that as of episode 7 the plot coupon needed to return home appears to have been shredded.
Strange Dawn has the potential to be a strong series, depending on how it ended. It had some novel elements and was moving in an interesting direction.
However I was watching it not knowing that it was a 13 episode series and so the sudden stop is incredibly frustrating and I won’t be in a hurry to ever watch this again.
[1] Off the top of my head: Fushigi Yugi, Magic Knight Rayearth, Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko, The Vision of Escaflowne, and Twelve Kingdoms. And those are just the ones that I own.
[3] The Big Lie in other words.
Related articles
- Strange Dawn (detetiv.wordpress.com)
Pirates of the Burley Griffin 
That series’s ending was weird, you have to agree. The anime was kind of out there.
The ending of the commercially released DVDs isn’t actually an ending: there are six more episodes that haven’t been translated.
I can’t comment on the actual ending as I haven’t seen it, and what I’ve seen isn’t compelling enough to make me go looking for a fan sub.
I tried watchin it fan subbed. All I can remember that the ending consisted of the girls being pissed off & running around like maniacs pushing the stone pillars down [where they split up for a time]
FWIW, I have the complete series, commercially translater.
Into French.
Blink.
Blink.
Into French you say.
Is that a sub, a dub, does it help, and would seeing the ending be likely to change my review substantially?
I have not watched it yet … but dubbed and subbed, with subs in French and Dutch.
Dare I ask how, and why, you acquired this novelty item? 🙂
I found it through a French anime site, and why? Well, I want to see the end of the series. I just need to brush up on my French (or borrow the brain of a former co-worker) first.
Fair enough. Let me know if seeing it would be likely to change my review (which I freely admit may be somewhat overcritical).