English Dub Series Review: Alice & Zoroku

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Spoilers Below

Sana is not human. She is what is known as a Dream of Alice, one of many people who have supernatural powers. She has escaped from the government facility that studied her kind and is on the run. She meets up with an old florist named Zoroku, who takes her in. But the facility isn’t done with her and sends a group of other Dreams of Alice to bring her in. Each has a different power. The strongest of them (Minnie C) can summon arms. Normal arms, giant arms, all very strong and disembodied. They manage to abduct Sana, putting her health and sanity at risk. Minnie C even shoots her, forcing her to question the nature of her own existence. Stuff gets pretty weird at this point, so you’ll have to see it on your own to understand it. Fortunately, another government organization is on Sana’s side and sends their resident magical girl/agent. Ichijo’s power of Hammerspace is off the hook, and she slaps down Minnie C with a professional aplomb. This allows them to shut down the facility.

That is just the first half of the season. Wow. After all of that, Zoroku adopts Sana, officially making her a part of his household alongside his granddaughter Sanae. Not long after however, another Dream of Alice appears. Hatori has the power of mind control. While she wants to use it properly, like a good witch, the ethical ramifications of her powers begin to weigh on her. She runs away, alongside her friend Ayumu. She overextends her powers, freezing Zoroku and his assistants, and frightening Sana. Sana and Hatori face off, but their powers seem to cancel each other out. Sana plots revenge, abducting Hatori into a mystical realm called Wonderland. Unfortunately, their powers fritz out again, and Wonderland responds violently. It begins expanding its dimensional borders into the real world, causing more people to transform into Dreams of Alice. Fortunately, the two mend their differences and work together to find a way out. Zoroku gives Wonderland a good tongue-lashing, and it starts behaving again. With Sana, Hatori, and Ayumu as friends, they all grow up into strong women, sharing their story with their children.

Okay. Okay. I know. That summary sounds a bit boring at times, BUT you should give this anime a chance. This series is deep, philosophical, and emotional from beginning to end. And not in the sappy, ham-fisted way that some anime do things. You are following the life path of a girl who is figuring out what it means to be human, figuring out what it means to be her. This makes the tone of the show alter wildly from episode to episode. It can be sweet and funny, then depressing and tense. The writing is natural and feels like Sana is a real child, as opposed to some anime, that show children being an annoying, cutesy adult in how they are written. The show is based entirely around her thought processes, even when they aren’t heard.

Visually, this show is built in traditional animation, using CG sparingly. Typically in the form of cars, chains, or other things that are a pain to animate properly. You can see quite plainly when these animations happen, as they don’t quite look like the rest of the animation around it. This is kind of jarring early on, but they get better as things go further. The voice acting is great, with Sarah Wiedenheft (Sana) and John Swazey (Zoroku) getting really deep in their characters’ mindsets. There is plenty of instances where those thoughts are present, but not voice, which shows real skill in voice actors.

I fell in love with this show early on. It held a ton of mystery and subtle, but potent questions of identity and perspective. This is the kind of writing I did. This is why I felt a bit conflicted by the ending, which felt anticlimactic and didn’t truly resolve the pent-up emotional energies. It leaves some of the feelings just sitting there as if another season was coming, but the ending sequence cuts off that possibility. If you are up for a psychological, philosophical show with a sweet, peppy feel, you definitely need to watch this. It is a great show to binge, especially if you’re feeling kinda down and want to demolish a carton of ice cream.