Gakuen Alice ep.7

December 13, 2004 | 13 Comments

Ugh, I think I got a flu. So please excuse me if some of the things that I say don't make sense here. I just feel like going to rest soon. Anyway, this is another fun episode which is a welcome change after last week's mediocre one. The focus here is on a Dodgeball competition between Mikan's team and Natsume's team. I personally never play the game so I have little knowledge about the game apart from the part where you basically win by getting people out of your opposing team. This can be done by hitting them with the ball or catching the ball which is thrown by an opponent before the ball hits the ground. I'm not sure about the number of people allowed per team. I think Mikan's team has at least 8 people. Seems to be an unusual number for a ball game.

The episode begins with Mikan successfully taking the hard to nail rubbish bin without too much trouble. Unknown to her, this action has been observed with interest by Natsume. Later on in class, Mikan invites her classmates to come to an afternoon lunch break with Tsubasa. Mikan seems to be happy to have a kind and cool sempai like Tsubasa but Hotaru quickly tells her that he may not want a kouhai like Mikan. Nasty. Oh well, what are friends for? Anyway, Mikan also decides to invite Ruka as well but the guy declines because he doesn't want to piss Natsume off. Speaking of the brat, upon finding out that the next lesson will be taught by Narumi sensei, Natsume and his crew decide to skip the class. Mikan feels annoyed by Natsume's action and therefore decides to spill her problem to Tsubasa that afternoon when she and her friends have tea with the sempai.

Before Tsubasa can give some advice, however, Mikan is surprised when she finds out that the 'waiter' that's been serving her tea and biscuit is none other than Mr.Bear. Mikan and her friends are immediately petrified but Tsubasa tells her not to be afraid because the bear belongs to his friend so he should be okay. Well yeah, as long as Tsubasa is around because the minute he's gone to help Misaki carrying some items, Mr.Bear proceeds to pummell Mikan. Anyway, after the lunch break, Tsubasa tells Mikan that like Natsume's cat mask, he also has something that controls his behaviour in school and points to the little star mark near his left eye. He tells her that the mark is a penal regulations mark or to put it simply, a 'light curse'. It's one of the many ways that the school manages troublesome students. Apparently the mark can induce some pain if the student misbehave. So in a way, Tsubasa understands Natsume a bit.

Never the less, Tsubasa tells Mikan that if she's annoyed with Natsume's action, then she should use her brain to find a way to get over it. But in the end, Mikan ends up challenging Natsume and his gang to a Dodgeball fight. The guys agree on the condition that if Mikan loses, she will do whatever they say. In return, Mikan tells them that if they lose, they won't skip class anymore. Natsume agrees on the condition that they use an Alice Dodgeball. So Iincho tells Mikan that she better be careful because the ball basically can be used to channel a person's alice so they need some people with good Alice on their team. Thankfully, the two nice girls in the class, Nonoko and Anna, decide to be on her team and so does Iincho. Hotaru, however, needs a little bit of persuasion in the form of money and lots of it. They then try to persuade Ruka to join the team but Ruka refuses at first. That is, until Hotaru blackmails him with pictures of him frolicking with Giant Piyo.

In the end, Mikan's team consists of herself, Hotaru, Ruka, Iincho, Nonoko, Anna, plus Giant Piyo and Mr.Bear. The game then begins and all kinds of wacky Alices end up being used in the game. Soon enough, the only people left in the 2 teams are Ruka and Mikan vs Natsume and one of his lackeys. Mikan thanks Ruka for being concerned about her and in doing so wins the boy over. When the lackey tries to hit her with a ball, Ruka takes the hit instead. In the end, it's Mikan vs Natsume. So Natsume begins to throw the ball but strangely, it's Alice-less. Sumire is upset because she thinks Mikan has nullified Natsume's Alice. Mikan then manages to catch the ball but unfortunately loses the grip and drops it. So she lost the game. Never the less, she thanks Natsume for not using his Alice in that last ball. Natsume seems to be quite taken with her too so he tells his underlings to forget about the bet. The episode ends with Natsume being watched over by Persona, the strange guy with the mask from last week's episode.

Impression:

A nice and exciting episode even if it slightly differs from the manga. If I have to criticise the episode, it's mostly because the game uses Alice in this version. I admit that it's more exciting to see the game with the students' Alices in use. But the good thing about the original story is that it suggests that the other students are quite useless when they don't use their Alice. And I kind of miss the joke where Mikan's head is dislocated from her body after being hit by the ball. I guess it's too gruesome for anime viewer consumption even if it's just a cartoonish joke. It's also kind of weird to see Natsume mellowing so quickly here. He has no reason to go easy on her so I don't understand why he doesn't use his Alice on her in that last ball. But I guess they established his interest in her with that first scene in this episode. BTW, does anyone remember the name of the boy who can read people's thought? He seems to be named 'Kokoroyomi-kun' but I don't think that's his real name.

© memento 2003