Back to emmy621's Profile emmy621's Profile

Disclaimer: This is more of a sum of my thoughts on certain areas of this anime. There were a few things in this show that frustrated me so much that I just had to write it down. I will not be going over areas like art or sound (both mediocre) but more the premise and the characters. Also, this is not going to be a professional 'review' so do not take it too seriously!

I want to start off by saying I overall enjoyed this anime because it is just a simple anime that people of all ages can enjoy. I would have given it ... a 7 but the ending was very disappointing so here's the 6 it earned from me.

However...

I MUST discuss why it made me so angry to write a review for it.

Gakuen Alice takes place at Alice Academy which can only be described as Hell. The abuse these children go through is not fun to watch nor is funny to watch the main character have literally no money and be treated like a slave simply because of her Alice or what powers are called in this universe. Essentially, at this school, depending on how well the student can control their Alice or the students' intelligence determines their star rank; the higher amount of stars (3) gives them MANY privileges. One of the main characters Hotaru (who I hate with a passion) has three stars and receives more money, better food, and nicer housing accommodations. Whereas students with 1 or no stars can barely make a living. This can be seen with the main character of the show Mikan (who I love with a passion) when she is treated like a slave and the human embodiment of a garbage can, forced to do everyone's' chores.

Now I know that it is just a show and it should not be judged too harshly but I just find it bad taste when these children are treated unfairly at a school!

Moreso, the children at this school which can range from 5 years old to about 16 years old were never allowed to have communication with their family and friends in the outside world making these children trapped with abusive teachers. The trauma some of these children must have gone through is heartbreaking to think of. In one of the episodes, a nonimportant character who I would say is about 6-years-old, can be seen only being able to fall asleep if she watches a video of her mother singing to her because of how much she missed her. That moment hit me really hard and is kind of one of the reasons why I am writing my frustrated feelings out.

I guess while I am at it, I will discuss my dislike for a majority of the characters. Almost all of them suck and are unlikable. Some exceptions include Mikan, Natsume, Ruka, Tsubasa, and their teacher Narumi who thank god was not abusive. Everyone else is either unlikable or bland. One character named Persona was such an interesting person, but they never utilized his character properly. When I was looking through reviews deciding whether or not I was going to write this, many people said that Hotaru was their favorite character. I can understand the appeal but the mystery person with a chip on their shoulder was already perfected with Natsume, who by far was the best character, so Hotaru being stubborn to Mikan's love just never felt right to me.

On the flip side, I think the Alice powers and the conditions or shapes are really cool ideas that I felt like the story used well. Some examples of these shapes include every time the person uses it, it minimizes their life span or the Alice disappears when the student becomes an adult. I wish these interesting ideas outshined the bad, but for me, they do not.

Would I recommend this anime? Sure. Just do not take as seriously as I did and you will be fine. Most of my anger has to do with the first 5 episodes, so if you make it past that point, you are golden!
That was about all I wanted to say so if you read this far - thanks!
Emmy621

Okay so this is my first review so please bare with me!!
So..... here we go!
okay, I literally watched this not even more than an hour ago and I loved it so much that I wanted to write my first review on it. Now I have been hearing fantastic things about this animated movie for quite awhile and when I finally started really getting into anime, I was really interested in watching it. At the beginning of summer, I knew I was not going to be doing a lot of stuff like traveling or doing much with my time so I finally got back to this ... website to see what it was really about; so I have been on here for the past month finding new stuff to watch. I finally found this movie, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and I was so happy; I finally sat down and watched it today and loved every bit of it.

Story: The plot of the movie was very different then what I was expecting; I was expecting more of a Ghibli film like Spirited Away but even if this movie was not a Ghibli film - I was not disappointed at all. They paced the story perfectly with every emotion tugging at your heart strings and making you want to leapt through time like the main character did.Now I am not really a summary kind of person so just read the description.

Characters: every character has an unique thing about them just like they would if they were real people which makes this particularly movie different. The main character is the lovely unlucky Makoto who is the perfect lead for this film; she is quirky, funny and stubborn and I love the way she takes the situation and turns its around to reach her benefits. Chiaki the badass best friend with a secret and personally he is my favorite character because he so out there and makes the movie even more worthwhile. The last main character is Kousuke the kind best friend that is always there for Makato; I love his support and reaction to every situation that he is put in and it reminds me of the reactions my best friend would give me. All the other characters throughout the movie tie the film together and are great support characters that show the true feelings of the main characters.

Animation: The animation is so clean and simple which is perfect for the kinda of film it is; the director, I think he did not mean to make this movie huge and grand. My opinion is he meant for it to be simple but still blow people's mind away and he really did succeed with that. The colors are bright and beautiful like the bright blue sky that gives more of an effect of her jumping higher and bolder; all in all the colors are nice but really stand out with the animation that goes with it.

I did really enjoy this movie very much and will be watching it very soon all over again. I would blah blah blah on about how fantastic this movie is but the best advice I can give you is to watch it yourself. Trust me it is worth every second of your time and it might lead you crying in the end.
Thank you so much if you liked my lame review I will make better ones in the future so thanks guys!!!! -Emmy621