Gakuen Alice ep.13

February 5, 2005 | 23 Comments

I've been waiting for this action-filled arc for a while and this one certainly didn't disappoint me. The ending turned out to be quite tense and exciting as well. As expected though, it made me wish that next week will come faster. For those of you who are into seiyuu, this one marks the appearance of Suzumura Kenichi, who's probably best known for his role as Kamui in X TV series. This casting seems to be intentional since Suzumura is also a singer and his role as Reo requires someone who can at least belt out a tune. Unfortunately, the song included in this episode seems to be the usual rock and roll variety which is not particularly special in any kind of way.

The episode itself begins by showing Natsume's nightmare. Inside the dream, various people mention their fear of Natsume's Alice ability. Natsume then finds himself being chased around by a huge shadow of Persona who keeps telling him that 'this is' his duty. All of a sudden, however, Natsume hears Mikan's voice and a bright light shines in the darkness. What happens next is that I become unconscious thanks to the unbelievably heavy anvil of Natsume/Mikan pairing that the anime drops on top of my head. I actually like the pairing but I hope the anime doesn't try to force the idea on me again next time. Anyway, when he wakes up, Natsume becomes embarassed of his dream. So to compensate for this, he splashes some water on Mikan, making her angry. Mikan, however, seems to be relieved to see Natsume goes back to his old ways.

Anyway, Natsume tries to get rid of Mikan (and his embarassing fantasy) by telling her to go back to her group and help them out with the RPG thing. However, just as Mikan about to help out Tsubasa, she sees Hotaru and other students running like stampede. They tell her that they're on their way to see Reo (or Leo if you prefer). Mikan is clueless about this guy so Tsubasa informs her that Reo is Alice Gakuen's school graduate who now has become a famous star/singer. He was apparently a top student with Voice pheromone Alice. Upon hearing the word 'famous', Mikan wants to see him as well so Tsubasa has no choice but to let Mikan go so she can see the singer. Unfortunately, there are already many students crowding the car that carries Reo. So Mikan decides to sneak through the crowd and ends up bumping into Reo himself.

Obviously other students are not happy about this especially when Reo asks Mikan to guide him into the school. Hotaru, who's looking from afar is also not happy with Mikan's presence. She wanted to take Reo-only pictures/videos (so she can sell it) but Mikan was in her way. To compensate for this, Hotaru created a set of spying gadgetry that can be used to penetrate Reo's concert. In order to do this, however, she needs accomplices so she drags Mikan, Kokoroyomi-kun, and another student to help her. Meanwhile, Reo arrives at his accomodation and ends up meeting his sempai, Narumi. The two then change pleasantries before Narumi reveals his intention of placing a bracelet that prevent Reo's pheromone ability from affecting the students. Surprisingly enough, Reo doesn't seem to have any objection to this treatment.

Anyway, Hotaru and her accomplices are then seen starting their infiltration operation. However, Reo's concert is highly guarded by various guards and electronic devices. One of them (a student whose name I can't remember) get caught right away when he steps into the room and set off the laser-sensor trap. Upon finding out about this, Hotaru and the others used the flying socks that she invented in order to get around this problem. However, Hotaru, Mikan, and Kokoroyomi-kun then encounter two security guards. But because Kokoroyomi-kun can read the guard's mind, they manage to escape. Unfortunately, they are not that lucky because the next guard they meet is a robot and Kokoroyomi can't read its mind. So Mikan and Hotaru decides to let him get caught so they can see Reo themselves. That is evil beyond belief.

The two eventually find themselves on a platform right on top of Reo's concert. Their presence, however, is detected by Reo who cunningly uses this opportunity for his plan. He pulls out a knife and then throws that knife into Mikan so that she'll fall off the ledge. Reo then catches Mikan before she plummets into the ground, making him look like a hero. However, later on he pretends that his knee is injured due to this incident and therefore has to be hospitalised. Mikan feels guilty about this so Tsubasa once again has no choice but to let her go so she can check out on Reo's condition. Meanwhile Narumi-sensei is seen sitting next to Reo's hospital bed remembering their past together. Apparently when they were young, Reo wasn't happy when he found out that Narumi wanted to become a teacher. He doesn't understand why Narumi made this decision.

Fast forward to the present, Narumi who feels guilty about that past ends up releasing Reo from the bracelet. Once he left, however, Reo reveals that he's been faking his injury and proceeds to get out of his room. Meanwhile, Mikan, Hotaru, and Sumire (who pretends that she's there to see Natsume) manage to infiltrate the hospital by dressing up as adult nurses. This is just so wrong that you have to see it yourself to believe it. It's definitely one of those ROTFL moments. Unfortunately, they got busted by a doctor thanks to Mikan's carelessness. While trying to get away from the doctor, Mikan and Sumire are seperated from Hotaru and ends up hiding inside Natsume's room. They, however, are surprised when the see Reo coming into the room as well but Sumire tells Mikan to be quiet just to be on the safe side.

True enough, they quickly find out that Reo is in the room to kidnap Natsume. He uses his voice pheromone to put Natsume in deep sleep then calls one of his MIB henchman to teleport Natsume into his car. Anyway, once this is happened, Reo left the room, leaving both Mikan and Sumire in shock. They, never the less, agree that they have to stop Reo from taking Natsume away from the school. So the two then attempt to stop Reo's car from getting out of the school's gate. Unfortunately, Reo's car is surrounded by a bunch of fans who want to see their idol's face so Mikan can't get close to the car. Thankfully for Mikan, Hotaru happens to be there as well. She quickly throws a smoke bomb into the crowd, allowing Mikan and Sumire to chase after the car and pass the school gate without much difficulty. The episode then end with the two girls chasing after the car while Natsume is seen captured inside the trunk.

Impression:

I really this one. It's different but everything makes a lot of sense. Well, to a certain extent. I don't know what kind of doctor they have in the school but in reality, I doubt anyone can pretend to have a knee injury and not being proved otherwise by a doctor. But apparently Reo manages to achieve this feat somehow. Despite that, this is one hell of a funny episode. Let's see, where should I start? May as well with the nurse outfit. That has to be one of the most juvenile but ridiculously funny scenes in anime. Those girls look like they just had silicone implants gone wrong. And then there's the infiltration scene and the way the students have to get around the various obstacles. It's amazing how Mikan didn't suffer at least a neck injury from that fall. It's also interesting how the anime decide to make a connection between Reo and Narumi. The focus, however, seems to be the choice that Narumi made in the past instead of the actual relationship between the two.

© memento 2003