Gakuen Alice ep.18

March 12, 2005 | 23 Comments

Gah. I really like this show but the animation and the pacing in this episode are really horrid. It feels as if the animators were running out of budget and therefore couldn't be bothered to draw the characters' face correctly. The character design in this episode is ghastly. It's not even supposed to be super-deformed. On top of this, the writers clearly try to stretch what should have been a half episode material into a full episode story. Because of this, expect some unnecessary paddings and flashbacks. Manga readers will also notice that several scenes which are considered as either 'too naughty' or 'controversial' have been changed in the anime.

Anyway, the episode begins with Mikan, Natsume, and Ruka sitting in an outdoor cafe. Mikan wishes that the festival can go on forever but her enthusiasm disappears when she realises that she's hungry. Thankfully for her, Anna-chan then appears, bringing with her a Wine Banana Miracle Pie. Mikan thinks that the pie looks delicious but Natsume and Ruka know better and I have to agree with them. That cake looks disgusting even without the germs dancing around in it. Oh right, the germs. Well, Natsume notices that there is this little creature dancing around in his pie and realises that the pie is not good to eat. When he realises this, he decides to splash his tea into Mikan's face to prevent her from eating the cake.

Mikan becomes angry and demands an apology. She claims that Anna-chan has worked very hard to make a pie for them. Anna's supervisor, however, tells the kids that the pie looks like it should have expired one hundred years ago, alerting them to the existence of the disgusting little creatures. After Mikan and Ruka left the cafe, Ruka tells Mikan that Natsume's action was just his way of warning them not to eat the pie. Mikan retorts that if that was the case then there are better ways of conveying the information. Ruka, however, believes that Natsume did it because he doesn't want to embarass Anna in front of the customers with his complaint.

Ruka also tells Mikan that the truth is, Natsume is really kind. Even though he is misunderstood by many, Natsume is actually the sort of person who always think of others and do not abandon them till the end. In fact, for the sake of his friend, he always keep it to himself even when he is hurt. Upon hearing this, Mikan comments that Ruka must really like Natsume. And in a way, she can understand this because she also feels the same about Hotaru. Although Hotaru does not get along well with other people, she's basically a kind person who's willing to throw everything out to help others. This is why Mikan likes Hotaru a lot and she believes Ruka feels the same way about Natsume.

Not long after this, Mikan, Natsume, and Ruka are seen heading towards Senzai-kei group's attractions by using a flying broomstick controlled by one of Sumire's friends. The three then arrive at Iinchou's haunted house attraction which seems to be rather scary by the kids' standards. Meanwhile, inside the control room, Iinchou is seen using his power to create a monster out of nothing to scare the visitors of the haunted house. Iinchou seems to be proud of his ability and gladly ushers in his friends into the darkened hall of his haunted hall. At the same time, Sumire is not happy that Natsume has gone inside the haunted house without her. She decides to follow him while taking Jinno-sensei with her.

Meanwhile, inside the haunted house, Mikan doesn't even bother to hide the fact that the experience scares her terribly. When a body-less arm suddenly reaches out and grabs her leg, she can't help screaming around without even realising that the arm is just a device controlled by another kid inside the haunted house. She then latches herself onto Ruka's arm and in the process makes Natsume to be a bit jealous. Sumire, on the other hand, is braver. Instead of screaming around when the hand grabs her leg, she ends up kicking the hand away. The only thing she's afraid of seems to be Jinno-sensei's wrath. For now, however, she doesn't have to worry about this because Jinno-sensei is too traumatised by the haunted house.

Mikan, Ruka, and Natsume then encounter a creepy old lady. The old lady wonders if they can carry/take her to the position across where she currently stands. However, Natsume decide to ignore the old lady despite the repeated requests. To be fair, the distance if not that far but at the same time, the old lady seems kind of blind. Mikan tries to protest Natsume's ignorance but she and Ruka end up following him as well. Unhappy with the kids' ignorance, the old lady suddenly opens her eyes, revealing scary red eyes. She then begins to crawl with her hands and legs and try to catch the kids. Yikes! The moral of the story is: if you see an old lady try to cross the street, help her or else, she will have a grudge on you.

In their attempt to escape from the scary obaa-san, Mikan and Natsume are seperated from Ruka. To make matters worse, Mikan passes out when she encounters a scary-looking statue and inadvertently causes the statue to fall on her. Natsume has no other choice but to protect Mikan's unconscious body with his own body, injuring his leg in the process. In addition to this, a wall suddenly appears and blocks their way out. So now both Mikan and Natsume are trapped inside the haunted house. Meanwhile, inside the control room, Iinchou focuses his attention on creating scary monsters for his visitors. He successfully conjures one up for Jinno-sensei. The problem is, Jinno-sensei is freaked out about this.

Jin-jin's fear causes his thunder Alice to go out of whack and begins to electrocute everything in its path including Sumire. His power eventually destroys the electric power source, rendering the haunted house into a pitch-black environment. Because of this, the operators has no choice but to temporarily suspend the haunted house from its operation. Meanwhile, Mikan tries to bang on one of the walls to notify others of hers and Natsume's presence behind the wall. Natsume, however, thinks that the effort is futile so he asks Mikan to stop it. Mikan then tells Natsume that maybe he should use his fire power to indicate their location. Natsume, who's annoyed with Mikan's suggestion, ends up scaring her instead.

Mikan is annoyed about this and asks Natsume if he wants to get out or not. Natsume tells her that the only way for them to get out of here is to break down the wall. Mikan, however, disagrees with this method since Senzai-kei group has worked hard to create the place. So she doesn't want him to destroy the place as if it's nothing. Heh, there's nothing pleasing her. Natsume then calmly tells her that if that's the case then maybe they should wait for the rescue. But that doesn't seem to make Mikan happy either especially after some rocks begin to fall from the ceilings. Meanwhile Ruka finally manages to get himself out of the haunted house. He, however, quickly realises that Natsume and Mikan are still inside.

Back to Mikan and Natsume, Mikan tries her best to be brave but can't stop herself from freaking out when she hears the sound of a rattling chains. The two then turn silent towards each other and Mikan realises that she finds it hard to know what's inside his mind. Unlike other children, it's hard to engage Natsume in a conversation. She also realises that she never saw Natsume laugh before. Because of this, Mikan tries several different ways to make Natsume laugh. However, just when she almost succeed in doing so, she notices the that Natsume's leg was injured. She realises that Natsume protected her when she was unconscious. Mikan becomes appreciative of Natsume's effort and starts to become mushy.

Natsume, however, tells Mikan that he knows what a strawberry panties user like her tries to say, causing the girl to realise that Natsume managed to take a look at her panties. Mikan is pissed off about this and ends up wrestling Natsume. Unfortunately, Ruka and Hotaru then arrive and see Mikan sitting on top of Natsume's body. Mikan tries to explain that this is not what it looks like but Natsume intends to make her look bad by saying that she tries to molest him while no one sees them. Later on, Mikan tells Ruka that despite everything, it's been an enjoyable day with Natsume. Ruka then tells her about his and Natsume's future dream of living peacefully in a place where there are a lot of animals. Mikan then assures him that one day his wish will surely become a reality.

Impression:

What? No skirt-lifting scene? Why not? And I can't believe that the animators chose not to animate the scene where Mikan hugs Natsume due to her fear while Natsume looks like he's enjoying every minute of it. And what's wrong with Iinchou falling unconscious because he overuses his power? Why do they change that story in this version? Surely by now most people now that in this school children work as hard as adults. Plus, the scene confirms that overuse of Alice can be dangerous to one's health. Oh well, at least the episode did a decent job at showing Natsume's multi-faceted personalities. I personally am interested to see how he'll deal with the possibility that his best friend is also interested in Mikan.

© memento 2003