Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken

After transferring to Ishinomori Middle School, Tetsuko "Alice" Arisugawa overhears her classmates discussing a strange rumor. The previous occupant of her seat, a nondescript "Judas," is missing and presumed murdered—poisoned by one of his four wives. Amidst dealing with her mother's undesired meddling in her affairs and warding off her classmates' bullying, the troubled Alice starts to investigate the mystery surrounding Judas' disappearance.

The trail of clues leads her to the house of her next-door neighbor, the quirky and reclusive Hana Arai. After an awkward introduction, Hana agrees to help Alice and formulates a plan that may lead them to the answers they seek. The two girls embark on a journey to uncover what happened to Judas, and perhaps a friendship may start to blossom between the two along the way.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Arisugawa, Tetsuko Main

Aoi, Yuu Japanese

Arai, Hana Main

Suzuki, Anne Japanese

Mutsu, Mutsumi Supporting

Suzuki, Ranran Japanese

Tomonaga Supporting

Kaku, Tomohiro Japanese

Arai, Tomomi Supporting

Kimura, Midoriko Japanese

Arisugawa, Kayo Supporting

Aida, Shoko Japanese

Kuroyanagi, Kenji Supporting

Hiraizumi, Sei Japanese

Ogino, Satomi Supporting

Kuroki, Haru Japanese

Tsutsumi, Yuki Supporting

Kimura, Tae Japanese

Yuda, Koutarou Supporting

Katsuji, Ryou Japanese

Ishii, Tomohiko Producer, Planning

Iwasa, Naoki Producer

Iwai, Shunji Director, Script, Theme Song Lyrics, Planning, Music, Original Creator, Editing

Shiina, Kotone Theme Song Performance

Reviews

Mar 31, 2025

cairn_verde

Recommended

I think many people aren't familiar with or respect rotoscoping as much as it should be. This was a hilarious ride from beginning to end, full of real-world whimsy, & a bittersweet look at youth. The soundtrack was on point, the story beats never overstayed their welcome. Each character (minor included) all *feel* like they have complete lives going on. Alice's mother & father, the poor man mistaken for Yuda's father, each classmate, the ramen shop patrons, the bicycle chasers.

So many hilarious moments going from "What is happening, are they serious?" to just being glimpse of real life tedium & joy.

I haven't seen the live ... action film, but I had no idea what to expect from this, & it's been one of the most relaxing, pretty, & hilarious things I've seen in a long time. I feel a lot less jaded after it.

Open your mind to the animation, imagine the real locations these were filmed with the real actors & camera crew there. Watch Aku No Hana, Scanner Darkly, Waltz with Bashir, Waking Life.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 14, 2016

Flawfinder

Mixed Feelings

The animated prequel to the 2004 Japanese film, Hana and Alice, never got much buzz around the anime community to the point that I'm surprised it ever got subbed at all. And even then, the subs flew past my attention given how it came out around the ending weeks of the last summer season and I spent nearly four months ignorant of its existence. I checked my MAL friends' stats and neither of them have seen it either (well one guy did, but you don't know him). Since I enjoy dabbling in the obscure from time to time, especially given this film's pedigree, I figured ... I'd give this thing some attention, so Noragami Aragoto can wait another week to get reviewed.

So The Case of Hana & Alice reunites the director and the two actresses who play our leads, now diving into the rotoscoped animation field in order to tell the story of how our title characters first met each other and grew into bitchy high school students that nearly split apart over a guy thanks to, well, a guy funnily enough. Investment in the first film isn't necessary, as I barely remember anything about it apart from the fact that Alice likes to do ballet and I could still easily follow what was going on. Now I haven't seen much of Shunji Iwai's stuff, but if his Hana & Alice films are anything to go by, he loves to focus on everyday life quite a bit. Whilst that's not always a bad thing, the good everyday life stories use the mundane setting as a template for all sorts of complex issues whilst the bad ones wallow in nostalgia like a crappy fanmade sequel. What side does The Case of Hana & Alice lay on? Well let's look at the plot, shall we?

The film starts with Alice moving into a new neighborhood thanks to her mother's divorce and having to adjust to a few things that are standard for transferring schools such as getting a new uniform and having to deal with the City Council for a student ID. Although that stuff is only mentioned briefly, as the real conflict comes from how Alice's class treats her like an outsider thanks to sitting at a desk that belonged to a former student who was said to have died in her very chair, as well as having four wives to boot. Sick of having to deal with everyone's bullshit, Alice confronts her assaulters and discovers that they were just cashing in on a rumor in order to act like big men around the new kids because teens are stupid like that. During her interrogation, Alice realizes that the guy who died lived in her current house before she moved in and in an attempt to dispel the "ghost" rumors, asks next-door neighbor and local shut-in Hana to help her find out if the guy is still alive. Although reluctant to help, Hana eventually concedes and the two go on a modern-day Whisper of the Heart-esque adventure across the city in order to discover the truth whilst forming the friendship that would make up the basis for their first movie along the way.

The Case of Hana & Alice is best summed up as a movie version of those light-hearted slice of life stories that anime fans who wallow in nostalgia tend to bust a nut over, except rotoscoped. But the movie is no Aku no Hana in terms of tone, because whilst it portrays the struggles of a teenage girl more realistically than most slice-of-life stories, said portrayal is hampered by a lack of forward momentum along with the fact that it's very safe execution-wise. Alice and Hana don't even meet, let alone go on that "whimsical" adventure I referenced in my summary, until the halfway point, so you have to put up with Alice going through every day struggles for no other reason than she's a Japanese girl trying to fit in and do ballet as a motivation for wanting to watch her. Some of the scenes in the first half are cute, such as Alice punching a bully when he threw a chicken bone at her and him crying like a baby whilst doing so, but they don't add up to anything resembling an actual story with actually engaging drama, especially considering Alice is too capable a character to let teasing get her down forever.

Things get more interesting when Hana shows up because of her shut-in nature, along with the reveal of the reason for why she's a shut-in in the first place and how it ties in with everything that transpired previously, but it never results in anything as grand as Whisper of the Heart's ultimate message regarding the right way to follow your dreams. In fact, the only time the film truly stands out is when it uses its rotoscoped nature for some dynamic movement like when Alice runs up some stairs or when she and Hana dance in the moonlight (you'll understand once you see it). Ultimately, this movie just wants to be a light-hearted origin story for its main duo, keeping things accessible to a general audience whilst not really giving them any more substance than the Peanuts movie. If you're into that sort of thing, I'd recommend The Case of Hana & Alice for one watch because as I've said before, whilst the film is ultimately good-natured and never really delves into the hilarious ribbing you'd see in a Western sitcom, its non-saccharine approach to what teenage girls go through along with the number of moderately funny jokes did a fair enough job in terms of entertaining me at points, so you should enjoy the movie more than I did.

All in all, not a bad attempt in terms of a live-action director switching to animation for the first time. It's just a shame that unless his other movies are wildly different from the Hana & Alice stuff, he hasn't picked up much storytelling ambition in the decade between films. But then again, we can't all be Martin Scorsese now can we?

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 14, 2024

7_3

Not Recommended

Hello to you poor people who came here expecting rotoscoping as good as that of Aku no Hana's, because I'm about to crush your expectations and shove them right down your raw throats where they'll never surface again, because I want to save you. I NEED to save you, from ever experiencing this terrible tragedy that killed possibly hundreds of thousands of eyes, that flat-out snatched them eyes away, crushed them, put them in a motherfucking blender, turned that blender on, poured the results into a mug, microwaved that mug for 3 minutes, and finally threw the mug out from the top of a 13-story ... apartment building, with the sound it makes upon impact with the ground being...nothing, because no cry from such ill-fated beings is ever heard in this deathly cesspool. That's what your eyes will feel ever glancing one frame at this Chinese famine-scale catastrophe known as Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken.

I am so incredibly sorry that anyone who worked on this had to work on this. I'm beyond in tears; my tears are fucking defying gravity and flowing upwards, so that maybe they'll one day reach Heaven where all the poor eyes that had ever been subjected to this anime lie. I don't even know how the hell I'm tearing up since I don't have any goddamn eyes anymore, but I guess even my hollow eye sockets know the pain and suffering me and my unfortunate eyeballs went through. That's the sort of illogical happenings this misadventure brings with it. The horrifying 3D character animation that was rotoscoped over—those poor, poor characters, having their bodies move this awkward way and that awkward way in stiff movements while in excruciating pain. Or the way they abruptly freeze, as if some unknown entity were controlling their every move, like chessmen moving in fixed positions around a chessboard. Their petrified expressions are concealed behind a disgusting, fear-instilling artstyle disguised as simple, unadorned drawings. Or the eye-burningly underexposed lighting that attempts to hide the horrors this psyop conspiracy theorist-material contains, and that also temporarily blinded one of my cats because she was looking at a reflection of the screen on a window.

The ears are also not safe from such brutal bludgeoning, because my dear gosh, I have never heard such innocuous yet subliminally terrorizing sounds in the history of my 15 years of being alive. Do you plan to get a 6CH or 5.1 surround audio release of this anime? Because FUCK YOU! That shit doesn't matter, since it fails to muffle out the moans of the wretched souls of the seiyuu that voiced for those miserable characters. Moans so desperate and hurt, it pierces through the minds of anyone should they choose to listen. I pray the seiyuu are in good health today, nine years later.

But the story? Oh, it was just really, unbelievably mind-numbingly boring, I guess. But no one fucking cares about the story, because let's face it: half of you came here because you heard this used rotoscoping.

...Okay, fine. Some girl transfers to a new school and then some weirdo bullies make up this shit about some Judas ghost thing so then the girl and her friend try to find this guy named Yuda...? I don't know—again, I told you, it was MIND-NUMBINGLY boring.

So yeah, now you've been firmly warned to never, ever subject yourself to this life-threateningly-dangerous movie, unless you have a reason for wanting to go blind. Maybe you saw something else you want to unsee so badly you literally want to lose your eyes? I don't know, but PLEASE, stay away from this hellhole. Forever. Lock whatever device you've accessed this anime's MAL entry on away in a safe, throw that safe into the ocean, buy a new device, use that instead, and never, EVER go on this part of MAL again. Trust me, you won't regret it.

I typed this all blind, btw. I hope iiddin;t misplell anythijng,

Thank you for reading my review.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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	anime movie recommendations that has similar tone to this one? Kayzzle - Jul 12, 2021	5 replies	by tanjiromybaby »» Dec 7, 2024 1:28 AM
	Poll: Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Sep 13, 2015	59 replies	by tanjiromybaby »» Dec 7, 2024 1:21 AM
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