Gakuen Alice ep.9

January 8, 2005 | 12 Comments

Well, here's the first original episode created specifically for the anime. In my opinion, this is not bad effort but at the same time, it's not impressive either. The focus here is mostly on Amanatsu, a Mikan-lookalike robot that has been created by Hotaru. The episode has some funny moments in it but overall, if this is a taste of future fillers, I think I'd prefer it if they stick with the original storyline. The problem with this particular episode is that it doesn't advance the story whatsoever. Admittedly, this is supposed to be a filler episode so advancing the storyline may not be at the writers' top priority list. But considering the fact that there are enough material from the manga to go around for 26 episodes, I don't understand why they need a filler episode.

The episode begins with Mikan visiting Hotaru's room to check if Hotaru wants to go out for a break from her study. When she got there, however, Mikan realises that there's something different about the Mikan-lookalike robot that is owned by Hotaru. Eventually, Mikan takes the robot to B class where the robot introduces itself as Amanatsu. Everyone is surprised at how similar Amanatsu is to Mikan. Mikan, however, is confused when Amanatsu tells her that this is the first time she sees Mikan because they've met each other not too long ago. Hotaru, however, informs Mikan that the unit she saw back then was actually just a prototype. Anyway, everyone then wonders about Amanatsu's ability so Hotaru then demonstrate that the robot's ability is to imitate's Mikan's action/behaviour. This seems to be a very useless ability since Mikan: sucks at Math, sucks at sport, and a weeper to boot.

Not long after this, Hotaru is summoned to the teacher's room to meet a client who's happy with her invention: a pig's nose/ear that allows human beings to have the same sense of smell as animal. The invention impresses the client so much to the point that Hotaru is going to receive an honor student prize for this invention. However, her sempai, Tashiro, is jealous because his invention is pushed aside for Hotaru's. He demands a second chance and the client decides that if both students can create a robot which can win in a battle, that person will be the one who receives the honor student prize. Upon hearing this, Amanatsu wants to help Hotaru but Hotaru coldly tells the robot to not interfere. Amanatsu is sad about this so Mikan tries to cheer the robot up by telling it that they can help Hotaru by doing other things. Other things such as making a stamina drink which ends up causing mess in Hotaru's room and pissing her off even more.

Since that works so well, Mikan and Amanatsu decides to turn off Hotaru's alarm so she doesn't have to go to class and has more time to sleep/create her project. Mikan then dresses Amanatsu up like Hotaru so that people don't know about Hotaru's absence from the class. The problem is, just like Mikan, Amanatsu is really bad at Math. So when Jin-Jin asks Hotaru to solve a math calculation, Mikan has to take over the task so no one will know that 'Hotaru' sucks at Math. Of course Mikan fails miserably. Later on during PE class, Amanatsu ends up using too much of her power to the point that her limbs (and later on, her head) end up flying together with the baseball that she throws at Kokoroyomi-kun. To make things worse, Hotaru eventually finds out about this and tells the two of them to stay out of her way. Later on, however, the two find out that Tashiro has sabotage Hotaru's lab to minimise her chance at creating the robot.

Because of this the two decide to come to the competition in case Hotaru can't make it in time with her new creation. So Amanatsu ends up being the robot that face off with Tashiro's humongous giant robo. In the middle of the battle, however, Mikan suspects that Tashiro is cheating. True enough, it looks like the giant robo is actually four robots that started out as one. Amanatsu, however, manages to win the fight by releasing her overabundance tears, short-circuiting the giant robots. Misaki-sensei is not impressed with Tashiro's cheating ways but when he tells the loser to give it up, Tashiro presses a button on his remote control to make his robot launches a huge canon ball into Mikan. For the first time ever, Amanatsu makes an initiative move and throws herself away to the ball to protect Mikan. Amanatsu's arm is broken but thankfully Hotaru later on arrives to fix it and to let the Mikan twins know that their effort is appreciated.

Impression:

Once again Hotaru is portrayed as a rather cold and unsympathetic character. I find the scene where she hits Amanatsu's head with a baseball bat to be rather cruel. I know Amanatsu is a robot but that doesn't make the scene any better. I also don't like her snotty attitude towards Tashiro. He's a jerk to begin with but I wonder if he wouldn't go as far as sabotaging her lab if she had been nicer when she talked to him in the teacher's room. Having said that, there are some good comedy in this episode. I like the robot vs robot fight as well as the baseball scene. Plus, the math test that was given to Mikan and Amanatsu at the start of the episode reminds me of my primary school years. By the way, I'm a genius! I can solve them all! :P Anyway, next week should be really fun since the kids get to visit the central town. I like the fact that there are different stories set in different parts of the school.

© memento 2003