From Far Away ‒ Episodes 1-3
It's hard to look at From Far Away in a vacuum. It's one of three shoujo series based on 90s shoujo manga that came out in 2026, and its closest cousin, Red River, was, if I may overstate the matter, an abomination. (Magic Knight Rayearth is really in its own category, since this is its third run at an anime, fourth if you count the weird porn version I mistakenly stumbled upon when I was in high school.) But From Far Away has something going for it that the other two don't, or at least, not quite in the same way: it's a good story regardless of its original medium. It would have been a good novel or comic from any nationality. Its characters are well-written and its story and world building clearly and cleanly thought out. That's not to say that Rayearth and Red River aren't good stories, because they are – it's more that From Far Away is a good fantasy full stop, while the other two feel harder to separate from manga and anime in terms of tropes and story construction.
One of the most striking elements of these first three episodes is the language barrier. Very few isekai tales take any time to explain why the transported character(s) can suddenly communicate with everyone – usually the most we get is mention of something halfway between a translation app and Douglas Adams' bable fish. But Noriko can't speak or understand the language of her new world at all – and that's a reciprocal issues. Izark also can't find a single word of Japanese that makes sense to him, and even homophones don't help; in episode two, Noriko hears “koko” and thinks of its Japanese meaning “here,” but it turns out to be the local word for “water” instead. She has to learn from scratch, carefully piecing things together – and that's more than anyone does for her; there's no mention of Izark learning her language.
That's not, to be clear, because he's a jerk. Izark came to the forest to find and kill Noriko, not rescue her and take her with him. He's still not entirely sure why he keeps saving her; in episode three, he explicitly asks himself why he “has to” save her, which indicates that he feels like he's not really in charge of his own actions. By this point we can make some good guesses about why he wanted her dead – she is the mysterious being known as The Awakening who will have an impact on the Sky Demon – but that he's drawn to her instead is not only annoying him, it indicates that maybe the lore is all wrong. After all, Noriko isn't a particularly powerful person – she's a high school girl (who likely looks younger to people in her new world) who doesn't even speak the language. If not for Izark, she wouldn't be a problem for others.
Or at least, that's the assumption. And yes, there are some very powerful political figures who seem to have taken an interest in her. But Noriko's strength isn't to be underestimated. She does have her moments of crying or breaking down, which are perfectly logical. The poor girl has been yanked out of her world and dumped in another one; of course she's going to be scared and upset. But she doesn't let that get her down or stop her from doing what she knows is right. This week is a great example of it: not only does she take it upon herself to go fetch the doctor when Izark is ill despite the problem of not being able to communicate with him, she puts herself in between Izark and the bandits who want to kill him. She does it because Izark has put himself in danger to save her, because she believes that he can't protect himself in the moment, and because it is the right thing to do. Noriko couldn't live with herself if she didn't at least try.
From the first episode, Noriko has shown herself to be someone with a stout heart. She's not weeping and wailing about her situation; she's working to cope with what life has thrown at her. She's learning the language, trying to understand even when things are different from what she's used to, and just generally working hard. I think that's much more admirable than Modern Isekai Protagonist #753 using goddess-granted gifts to get by. There are no shortcuts for Noriko.
On the visual front, this does, at least, look better than Red River. There's a terrible looking slide down a cliff in episode two and some very ugly running in episode three and some weirdness in Izark's flashback, but for the most part its competent, or at least competent enough. The teleportation rodent is creepy looking, and its eating animation is nightmare fuel, but at this point, I'm willing to brush that aside as being on purpose, because we're supposed to be weirded out by them. The story itself is more than worth putting up with the animation, and hopefully will continue to remain so.
Please, From Far Away, don't let me down.
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From Far Away is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
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