English Dub Review: Alice & Zoroku “I’m Home”

Sometimes, the fabric of reality just needs a stern talking-to.

Spoilers Below

It’s been ten days in the real world since Sana abducted Hatori into Wonderland. Ayumu’s life continues, but she’s depressed by the loss of her best friend. Then, she receives a message… an image of flowers sent from Hatori’s phone! She’s alive! But she isn’t picking up. Why is that? In Wonderland, Hatori and Sana get to the surface and decide they’re going to try and use a cell phone to call out. But Hatori’s phone is missing. Where could it… Silly rabbit! Phones are for kids! After a long time chasing the rabbit down, the pair manages to catch it and wrest the cell phone from its paws. Strangely, the only signal they can get is coming from the rabbit, and they have to hold it close to the phone to call out. They talk to Ayumu, and settle her nerves, but with the battery dying, they have precious little time to explain their situation.

First, they need a way out. Wonderland breaches into the real world in specific points, and one of those rabbit holes was where Ayumu was when Sana kidnapped her… wow, Sana’s done a lot of kidnapping in this show. If Ayumu could go back to that spot, she could open a door and show everyone the way back. After a long while of searching the shopping district, she manages to find the spot, and by sheer force of will, makes it appear. Once she comes through it, she finds Sana and Hatori nearby. A tearful reunion gets even better as Zoroku and Sanae call out from a distance. Wonderland summons a fruit-roll-up bridge and some scooters to help them across to the little girls. As they do, though, the sky darkens with clouds. No, not clouds. Fractal visions of the real world! Wonderland’s growth has gone out of control, and the boundaries between it and the real world have grown thin. Zoroku, in true Zoroku fashion, yells at Wonderland itself, demanding that it behave. Suddenly, the growth stops. The rabbit summons a giant button, which repairs the damaged dimensional veil with some fireworks. It also releases Ichijo, who crashes in a crater of her own making. Everyone returns home. Even Hatori, who is touched that her parents, completely independent of her control, run to her and hold her. They aren’t disappointed in her. They love her. Just as Zoroku loves Sana. And it is that love that helped her grow into a strong woman, the same one we saw in Sana’s mind all those trials and tribulations ago.

I am a bit conflicted about this episode from a writing perspective. On one hand, I feel that it is a bit unresolved. Yes, the crisis has been averted, everyone is home safe, and Hatori sees that she’s still worth having around. However, the neat wrap-up left us without anything really toothsome and emotional as a payoff. It was more of a whimsical ending, which is at odds with the dark, depressing feel of the past few episodes. There isn’t anything here to resolve this shadow, just a gloss of childish wonder. On the other hand, that is what this show is all about. It isn’t about resolutions. It’s about the process of becoming. None of the characters and stories feel like they resolve because, even as she’s an adult, Sana is still growing as a person. Real people don’t resolve. They morph and change and reveal new facets. The ending portrays this well, with a bit of melancholic introspection from adult Sana. I feel that our final shot (the one just after what you see above) of her in a valley with flowers is supposed to be the same place where he buried Sanae’s parents, and Sana is burying him there as well. This entire anime was her remembering everything he did for her, and the glorious memories of the old man’s love.

As a final send-off, this episode didn’t do anything special in its art or animation. It is more of the same as we’ve seen throughout the series. But, since that level of quality is still pretty good, it gets no complaints from me. I couldn’t find any real errors in the animation, though I think there were some irregularities in Zoroku’s face late in the episode. Not massive or disruptive, so I’ll let them slide. The voice acting was fine. I really don’t have anything to say one way or the other here, either. I guess that furthered my feelings that this episode didn’t really resolve the show. The technical aspects were just business as usual. Nothing to wow you as it left. It just… ended. Because of this feeling, I give this goodbye seven giant buttons of dimensional stabilization out of ten. It isn’t a bad episode, it just wasn’t what I was hoping for.