She has been found.
A woman catches up to her, riding on a giant hand coming from the sky. The little girl falls over. She is approached by the woman.
Sudden slice from the right. A new user has appeared. Fight occurs. The little girl escapes into an unknown world, or at least unknown to her.
Enter Zouroku: an old, experiences yet grumpy owner of a flower shop. As he walks into a shop, like every other day, and there he notices a child grabbing food that she didn't pay for. He lectures her, after which she offers him a free wish if he helps her.... Bam! She's gone, nowhere to be seen. Filled with disbelief, he continues with his normal life. As he enters his car, he spots the same girl asking him for the same thing again. And then a giant wrecking ball appears.
Zouroku tries to escape but he can't. The child lifts up the car and they begin to drive away. Two other little girls start going after them. A chase commences. A bunch of insane, incomprehensible stuff happens and when all calms down, this one, grumpy old man grabs those magical children and tells them to stop causing havoc. They disperse, except for the girl who was with him before.
Upon hearing her out Zouroku decides to let her live with him, taken by pity and pure compassion for a broken, hurt child, he takes her in, despite seeing what she brings. And so begins a tale of magic, both figuratively and literally.
*Slight spoilers included*
1. The magic of youth and the youth of magic
The premise of Alice to Zouroku is something that should work perfectly in concept. Think about this for a second: What is magic to you? If I'd ask this of you, I would most likely get those two responses the most:
a) A fictional, fantastical power that allows the user to do tricks beyond human comprehension, often performed by street artists through the usage of trickery and illusions
b) A feeling of wonder and amazement, something you'd never believe unless you've seen it with your own eyes, for example, "this wedding is magical"
Let's delve a bit deeper into the second one, shall we?
Now, I don't know about you, but I always considered my childhood to be the most magical part of my life. During my younger years all I wanted to do is explore, learn and see new things, every time I saw something amazing I could feel that exact feeling of magic. My first day at school? Magical. First time I saw anime? Absolutely magical. First time I played video games on my own computer? Filled with the essence of what the "magical" feeling is. I could go on and on, name my firsts and whatnot. The point is: Childhood is magical. And so is this show.
Sana, the little girl with magic abilities and the main heroine, encapsulates both the magic that you can only see in fiction and the feeling of magic every human has felt before. She's not actually human though, she's just a being in a form of a child, however she acts as human, thinks as human, learns as human and feels as a human would. Every time she sees something or learns a new word she asks about it, she's always curious, energetic, ready for new things. Raised in a cut-off, dark place where she had no access to the outside world, each discovery shapes her way of seeing reality. First thing she gets to experience is the cold, hard rain when she attempts to escape. She asks "is this how the outside is like?". Her first impressions are clearly negative, but she gets to discover normal human things with Zouroku and his granddaughter, ranging from love, to a hot bath, to the meaning of the word "mom". Seeing her learn those things, act like a child really reminds me of that little scrub that I was. It's magical. Combine that with the ability she possesses though, and you got an explosive combination.
Sana can do anything. Unlike other people with a similar ability, she has no constraints on her ability other than her vital energy which depletes whenever she uses it. She can summon things into the place she's in or teleport at will, so pretty much whatever she can wants to becomes reality. The things is, she doesn't know what exactly she wants most of the time. Her knowledge on human world is limited. For example, when she teleports, she rarely specifies the exact place, it's more like "take me away from here" or "take me as far away as possible", which results in her landing in places like the South Pole and being surrounded by penguins. Sometimes it leads to her riding a rocket. Sometimes it ends with her summoning a bunch of pigs. The list goes on.
As such, this show tackles the idea of giving immense, nearly limitless power to a being with the mentality of a child. Even the adults with that power have something of a child in them, one of them created her power by watching a TV show and the other is overly selfish and ambitious. This topic sounds pretty interesting, doesn't it? Well, it is presented in a pretty peculiar way though.
2. Gray area, or the lack of thereof
Alice to Zouroku presents two different sides in the initial conflict. One of them are the people over at the institute that initially kept Sana and other children trapped in order to use her as an endless energy source. They are ruthless, don't consider Sana to be a human and will proceed to injure and abuse her, all just so they can keep her in the lab. The other side is a secret agency who tries to find the institute and rescue the children inside. They believe that even if Sana isn't human, she can still in a normal society, just like all the other users of "Alice's Dream" no matter what ability they possess.
Obviously, if there's a way to include those people into society, they should have the right to do so. That's out of question, and the show clearly agrees with this by portraying the latter side as "the good guys", and the first as "the bad guys".
Wait.
Yes, what I'm saying is that despite such a big potential for a multidimensional conflict with numerous layers and possibilities for convincing the viewer towards both sides, this show doesn't try to do any of that. There's only black and white, no gray, and it directly tells you which is which. There's pretty much no justification for what the "evil people" are doing, they're just greedy and want to create an infinite free energy source, and while this could be framed as something of an ideal, like it's an attempt at helping entire humanity survive or something similar, it's just that simple. Every person from that institute is evil, they have evil, selfish intentions that could be fixed by "the good guys" if they gave them a chance. There's no room for any thought, even if you can understand that some have their reasons, they're still wrong. It's a huge waste of potential for sure, there's no doubting that, but...
If you were to look back at the previous segment of this review, you might be reminded that this show is, in fact, all about a child. And how do children see things? They see them as good or bad. That's it. They don't delve deeper into what goes into decision making and instead they simply choose based on what they think is right. If you think about it, it makes sense as to why it's presented this way, but that doesn't change the fact that there was some things that could be explored more, like other characters' point of view on things. I'm not talking about reasons behind their actions, those are touched upon here and there, but what I want is for this show to present some other opinions on the subject. It would be fine if this show was called "Sana" or "Alice", but it's called "Alice and Zouroku", and that old man should have more than enough to say about morality and such. Speaking of...
3. Crooked stuff and why we hate it
Zouroku has a very interesting take on reality, on the outside, a very simple one, but definitely fitting for the show and how it's presented. His motto is "I hate crooked stuff". It matches his job ethics, as a florist he has to keep everything nice and organized, symmetrical and beautiful, but he applies this to his private life as well. The first time he got a chance to properly talk to Sana, and was offered a free wish, he refused, because he wanted to be on the same page as her rather than having some sort of an advantage above a child. He's a simple man, he has lived his life for far too long to put up with all this in all honesty. He only wishes for everything to have flow that he can follow. That doesn't mean he doesn't have a heart, as he takes Sana in, but it's because he genuinely wants to help this lost girl who lived a horrible life before meeting him.
By saying all of this in episode one, this show introduces an idea into out head: Leave Sana alone, she has suffered enough, let her have a life, it's time for all of her mental pain to be repaid. Zouroku is supposed to be us, or at least tell us how to think. It's him that introduced this simple mindset. You're supposed to understand why something is crooked, but hate it because it's still crooked, perhaps want to fix it on your own. It's pretty simple, but at the same time rather subtle, I didn't even realize that this is why I missed how simple this show is for the longest of time.
4. Fuzzy is a good feeling
Thanks to Zouroku with his strict attitude and Sanae and her genuine love towards her, Sana slowly begins to properly grow as a person. Somewhere towards the middle of the show she is finally able to create a mindset. You might think it's a bit too fast, but she is not really human and her learning abilities prove that she learns much faster than anyone else, but fails to understand words because, well, she's bad at understanding things. She invented a phrase for the feeling when she can't quite understand or comprehend a situation, it's called "feeling fuzzy" and she uses it constantly after the first major arc, she's unsure about a lot of things after all. Sana is unable to make decisions for herself, she needs others to do that for her. She wants to do things, but doesn't know how to go about doing them, that's why she's the happiest around Zouroku who thanks to his experience and the ability to spout harsh reality to everyone, helped her numerous times when she was in dire need and when she just craved for some small favors. Not only that, but she's still learning about the world, finding out about new words, understanding the basic principles of a daily life, finding out how to make friends and what other people mean to her, and most importantly, she finally starts to think about something in colors that aren't just black and white.
Her first encounter with something bad after she properly settled down in Zouroku's house is another ability, another "Alice's Dream" that seems to have hurt her guardians Zouroku and Sanae. After living such a comfy lifestyle, she shows her weak side and fails to get a full grasp of what's going on. When she finds the person who's responsible for this, she immediately assumes she's a bad person, as she would normally. However, upon learning her story and her reasons for using that power, she starts to understand, which isn't something common for her. It pretty much completes her character as of now, at the point where the show ends, if it will ever continue it would require showcasing more moral problems or add something to her. As we stand now, the plot is technically incomplete, but the show itself pretty much is.
5. Alice in Wonderland
If you've ever indulged yourself in any form of art, then there's a really high chance that you have heard of a little book called "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", or as we know it, simply "Alice in Wonderland". It's a pretty old novel that got adapted into many different mediums, there was an animated Disney movie, there were live action movies, there were many other works inspired by it. It undoubtedly had a huge influence on art, with such an inspiring and expressive world that the Wonderland was, with such amazing, memorable characters like The Mad Hatter and such an intriguing atmosphere it was doomed to become a classic sooner or later. Alice to Zouroku obviously takes away from that, but I think this is where it falls a bit short.
First off, the name of the power itself is "Alice's Dream", second, the bad people call Sana by the name "Red Queen" and third, the place where she was born was named "Wonderland". As such, if you know the books, you can quickly get a grasp on what does it mean in one way or another. Sana is the ruler of Wonderland, she was a part of it long before she existed as a being called "Sana". Nickname "Red Queen", who ruled of Wonderland in the novel, seems fitting, but my problem with all of this is that it's so poorly explored that it hurts.
Having one of the most legendary and probably one of the best settings as the inspiration of a show led to some amazing results before. Here, Wonderland is just a simple, green land with some simple images that Sana created. You can't even imagine my excitement when I heard that this world is not only going to be based on THE Wonderland, but it will also resemble the mind of an energetic child... but alas it was rather poor in content and mostly just full of randomness. Once again, this technically works, the world is incredibly random after all, but as a visual medium I would expect more, but all of this could probably be explained pretty easily.
6. Technical stuff
This show looks pretty awful. It has its charm and it keeps close to the original art style, but in motion it all looks clunky and very underwhelming. The character designs work well on their own, but when they move they look very stiff, even in the action scenes. Combine that with the heavy usage of CGI in certain parts, most noticeably in the first episode, where there was an entire chase sequence made entirely using computer effects, alongside such errors as a background moving while the car the characters were in was, in fact, not. Simply put, it is ugly, unpolished and poor. The directing is basically on par, but it isn't exactly bad. There were a lot of solid shots, but there were quite a few places that weren't properly established, even Kashimura's house where most of the show takes place lacks in that department. With that being said, it's not that surprising that the Wonderland looks like it looks, the people who were responsible for the visuals seemed as if they lacked passion in the first place....
The sound on the other hand is sincerely very good. You can hear the inspiration from it momentarily, each track has seems to have its own reference to "Alice in Wonderland". There are sparkly noises and upbeat, almost fantasy-like tunes being snuck into even the more modern sounding ones that were created for the fights or the scenes in the city. It tells a narrative on its own while keeping in touch with what's going on on the screen, which almost makes up for the low quality visuals. Almost.
7. Personal ramblings AKA Serious Spoiler Section
I'm pretty sure that the thing I like the most about this show is how it treats the idea of adoption and a single parent family. Technically, the lab that Sana was in was almost like an adoption house without the adoption part or the love part. People in there kept her alive, but they didn't care. Once she escapes, she is taken in by a caring father figure who is able to both keep her alive and safe and genuinely care for her. This became especially strong once Zouroku actually adopted Sana, the entire episode was focused on their everyday lives, with Sana blending into society despite her powers and the institute believing that she couldn't, almost like people not believing a child could get adopted, and with her finding things who she never even knew she needed to properly exist, just like a child that's up for adoption since birth. I might be reaching here, but the show does tackle the topic and does so quite nicely.
Another thing that I found to be interesting and charming is Sana's voice actress, who despite being a somewhat of a fresh name on the market, truly nails the sense of wonder and curiosity. She can even get a bit annoying at times, like a child would, but not to the point where it seriously influences the show's quality.
Now that we're done with the positives, I think the main problem I have here is that the show overall feels uninspired. I touched on this a bit when I mentioned the visuals, but it's not only that. The writing is solid and the themes are presented nicely, but there's a severe lack of direction with where it wants to go in terms of plot. It sort of misses itself in the middle, despite having some important moments. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of an after story instead of prolonging one arc, but by doing so they had to add some parts of the characters we haven't seen before, creating confusion. Using timeskips usually ends up like this, because you can't tell if they developed it on their own or whether you missed something. There is a pretty clear reason for each storyline, but gluing them together seems to be the problem that really kept it from going anywhere other than just good. But I think being just good is fine, as long as people can build up on it. I surely got something out of this, I got to see more of some themes and developed a better understanding of them. Not only that but it was a good show on its own, so those things make it worth a watch, maybe not memorable initially but if I were ever to see a child character or another theme about what makes a human, this show would certainly come to mind.
Also, some of you may be on the offense with me defending the show because "it's about children so it makes sense that it's simple" (I could even do that for the art style with how it looks like a child drew it) to which I say that you might as well be right, but I think if it can even work, then this show would be the one to make it work. Unfortunately it didn't quite hit the homerun, but it feels as if it paved a way for some other project for the same director or writer in the future. Simplicity should be used more, you would be surprised how well it works with most shows. Just don't mistake simplicity with mindlessness.
8. Overall
Alice & Zouroku is not really a peculiar show, nor is it the most intriguing or special one that I've watched. Hell, even some of the more generic shows that aired the same season felt much cleaner than this did, but that shouldn't undervalue that things that it achieved. Creating a good main character who is also a child certainly wasn't the easiest task, making a plot that diversifies into territories outside of its own setting is commendable and its attempts at tackling its themes worked better than I imagined. The problem is, it feels as if this was always doomed to be some sort of a side project to J.C.Staff, from the animation that shows how tight they were on the schedule, to the rather poor creative vision with its setting designs, it all almost falls apart whenever it build on something. The fact remains though, this show constantly builds on something and just like Sana, it adapts as well as it can, at least I feel like it does with the way it was handled.
So with that I'd like to recommend it to everybody, maybe it'll miss your mark fairly soon, but I think it has a solid chance to grow if more people pick it up. Don't leave that cute, blonde girl hanging all alone on the cold, dimly lit street and pick it up to see what's this Werty guy is rambling about, and perhaps call him out for giving you false hope later. Who knows?
As always, this is purely my opinion. I recommend you to develop you own.
