A total of 5 things make Gakuen Alice stand out above the rest
Handling A large cast of characters
Most super power school anime struggle with the characterization of many characters, there's two major reasons why; when the writers make template for these characters they get attached to their characters and when tasked with writing those characters into the story, they fail to convey the character's personality properly because they've already do it in their heads, the second thing is dividing attention between the large cast. depending on the type of story you want to tell how you divide the attention is important, In romance anime, the focus is split between 2 main characters and about 4 side characters, in shounens focus is given to so many characters, in One piece characters get developed then they leave the story so dealing with those characters is simple. In MHA for example, since most of the characters dwell in a school and can't leave, the writer has to constantly be thinking of new ways to make those characters fun, what failed My hero academia however, is the addition of other schools. How are you going to add new characters when you haven't finished developing the characters you had first.
Gakuen Alice was sort of in a hard place, the writer couldn't make the character leave the story after their arcs like in One piece so that was a problem, and just like in My hero academia the characters are in a school, how was Gakuen Alice going to deal with these problems?
- One of the ways it dealt with these problems was restricting access from the outside world entirely, creating a secret society, by doing this, the writer limits characters from entering the story focuses on developing those characters the story has.
-Students of different Divisions, Elementary, Middle school and High school wear different colours and uniforms that allow me to tell them apart, it's very important because Milan is going to spend about 6 years in the school and we sort of need to be able to tell divisions apart.
- Giving characters One dimensional personalities then slowly building on them as the story progressed was neat, this way the writer can flesh out as many characters she wants because they have some basic trait viewers or readers remember them by Many of the characters are introduced this way, they seem pretty basic but each time we meet them we learn something new about them, the characters became so complex without me even noticing. This kept the story fresh. Anime examples would be Hotaru, Permy, Natsume, Ruka, Narumi, since the anime wasn't adapted fully I didn't see all the characters get fleshed out. so I read the manga
-When New characters get added into the story they are anchored to pre-existing characters that were already in the story and If they aren't anchored, they come into the story with new information as well, so their introductions give me something new. Tsubasa is introduced in episode 6 and I found out new information about the 4 Alice types, In episode 7 Hijiri Yoichi is introduced into the story, anchored to Natsume, plus I found out about Central town, and dangerous Alice abilities. Hotaru's brother is introduced in episode 17 and gave me information about how some kids grow up with their parents and how cruel Alice academy could be. IT's a great way to always have characters involved in the story somehow.
Handling the school aspect really well
Gakuen Alice doesn't really try to be something it's not, it could've focused on the gritty Idea of children being trapped and manipulated by adults like in promised Neverland but it didn't. it goes for a more realistic approach, It's a story about a "child" trying to live life to the fullest in a school. but because the school is a secret society and it's governed by rules, that aspect sort of elevates the boring school setting and makes their slice of life episodic adventures more fun
The most important rules are
No.1: Students are allowed very little contact with the outside world once they are found out to be Alice users. this helps contain the secrecy.
No.2: Students are ranked using a star system that ranks them on their grades and behavior, because their alices are something they cannot control. There are 4 levels, students with a principal star are the best students and are also rare, then come the three star students, followed by two star students, one star students and lastly No star students. The star ranking system also determines how you are treated, how much allowance you get, how much work you have to do, the room you get and the food you eat. How hard you work correlates with the rewards you get, making Alice academy function like the real world but instead of dealing with the whole world, the writer gets to deal with only a small portion of it.
No.3: There are 4 Alice types, Latent type: Alices that are common and are easier to deal with, then we have Technical type Alices: Alices that reveal themselves through hard work, like paintings that come to life, or sewing a bear that comes to life. The somatic type use manipulation on living things, e.g, controlling animals, or people, manipulating your body to run faster, then the special class, a class of people who's abilities don't fit into the other categories and are considered weird. there is a secret category though, the dangerous Alice ability class, so far Yoichi who commands evil spirits, Natsume, a fire user and Persona, a man who kills what he touches have been shown. By categorizing students' powers there is some sort of order.
No.4: Elementary students and middle school students of the different types have joint classes once a week, this helps younger students learn from their seniors. Mikan is in the special class. So she joins the special class with special class Middle school students.
No.5: The person who scores the highest on their test is allowed to go home and visit their family, otherwise they are allowed to send letters to their families and get letters back.
No.6: Students are allowed to buy resources and get necessities at central town, with the money they get from their star allowance.
No:7: the festivals.
these rules give it an edge because we get so many fun interactions out of them, like Mikan struggling to enjoy life to the fullest being a No star, or her truing to earn money, the festivals they have most of the time, because they are a rich school.
Since it's mainly a slice of life story that focuses on their life at school, the students don't really have a goal, they do want to go back home but only one person can so they gave up trying, the rules allow them to aim for something, like getting a 3 star rank to get a better room or allowance.
Handling 5 genres at once
Gakuen Alice at most is a show about Mikan trying to make the best of her situation, mixed in with comedy, romance, Slice of life, school, and of course tragedy and all these genres are done realistically and not in an over the top way.
Comedy is very subjective and what makes me laugh might not make you laugh so I can't say much about that.
The romance aspect is very subtle especially in the beginning, it does become more as Mikan grows older. It doesn't overshadow everything else.
The slice of life aspect is very mellow and chill, just students enjoying life, having episodic misadventures that do affect the overall story and the characters, I'm always kept guessing, what will happen next?
The tragic aspect is children having to grow up without the love of parents. it's not really over dramatic except in Natsume's case but that's because he's a child who's forced to deal with the fact that his Alice killed a lot of people. Most of the children are home sick and before Mikan arrives they are in deep despair. Mikan herself does experience homesickness but she tries her hardest to become optimistic. Most of the children have been raised by the academy and have lost their sense of wonder, Mikan was raised as a normal child so it's only natural for her to be extremely optimistic. Together they all sort of help each other, Mikan learns not to be too trusting of others, whereas the other students adopt her optimism.
It's really sad that this show didn't get the greatest anime adaptation nor a complete one, don't get me wrong, I love the voice acting, I love the music, I think it fits well with the classical look the academy was going for and I can watch bad animation as long as it's in color and it's not Bad CGI, I just think when My hero academia and literally any romance anime get great adaptations, Gakuen Alice didn't get that, IT DESERVES A RE ADAPTATION WITH THE COMPLETE SOURCE MATERIAL.... but Eh.. the manga is great.
It's an 8.5 anime looking at it objectively but a 10/10 for my personal enjoyment
