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Episode 6

Dang if all of the episodes are now leaving me with some element of confused of what is going on. I am going to be very curious for a "this week in anime", because I think that it has moved quickly up that as being a massive surprise. It was kind of glossed over as mostly kind of bizarre by including an OVA that was like an anime played by odd theatre rules, and maybe half baked as just another idol show. It has morphed into something so weird that I think it will require an analytical lens to things that might have just been brushed aside earlier.

I had the idea near the beginning of the episode that perhaps there was going to be a twist that Seria was actually Alice all along, she pretended to be her sister and was still doing so. By the end that seems to although not true in name, but true in spirit. Seria kept her own name, but has been adopting the personality of her sister. As the actually well liked twin that everyone liked, she pretended to be Alice after she misbehaved so that Seria could take the punishment and Alice could get the present that she wanted, their parents apparently being the worst in how they treated the two of them. Which following this awakening reveals that Seria had been trying to hide memories that she thinks she is responsible for Alice's death that she might have had in her place.

I don't know quite what to take this maybe good character movement of Seria coming to terms with who she is and the praises of Airi, because I am still not sure if there is some aspects that this show says that people can take bad lessons to things. This current arc happened after Seria seemed to take some poor ideas in running to Doll "Alice" as a crutch. But Seria did to some extent face the android, ask for the truth and see the illusion that had been made of her supposed sister.

And then this gets into the android Doll/Alice. The episode started off showing what appeared to be the broken pieces of an android, which to me at least gave me the idea the audience was meant to take this as a flashback to maybe how the theatre owner got a hold of the android he might not have a full grasp of. And yet, the end of the episode had what seemed to be the android in piece thrown on the ground from the upper floor much like that scene, so it was not a flashback but a forward. This also seemed to point that we have been seeing a false image of what she looks like, actually having a much more inhuman appearance. The episode also confirmed that Doll has indeed been doing something to the audience, perhaps to a brainwashing extent, the glimpse we got perhaps replaying memories of sadness. The key placed by the owner was that he is acknowledging that he was afraid of this and she is a bit out of control. Not to mention that Doll was using her manipulation and showing increasing signs of anger.

Also curious in this is the troupe director, Kaworu, who is mostly used in comedy as a running joke about how if the theatre fails she will have to become a sex worker to pay for things. But I would almost say there was some element of a façade taken away when she starts drinking, which really could be nothing as a maybe she deserves a drink, with her thinking that everything is going to be okay. But it almost feels like a subtle just a step more, that she was drowning sorrows rather than just a drink. And most importantly she is the one who is meeting the android we assume is the real form of doll before we see it presumably thrown out the window, she recognised something. I am not sure I understand what happened, in regards I am not sure I can trust what the reality is.

I would not be surprised that going forward there is somehow a twist like the Doll just replaced the director, however that works. And maybe their entire reality is somehow being influenced by the same technology that the plays work. I can only theory craft these sorts of crazy half baked ideas, because it always feels like this show is keeping some of its cards hidden. Also, are we going to get girlfriends or not?

DuskyPredator wrote:

Episode 6

Dang if all of the episodes are now leaving me with some element of confused of what is going on.

Pretty much sums up my reaction exactly! Although I would say I'm being confused/surprised in a good way in terms of being really curious about what is actually going on versus being annoyed. Again, I'm still not convinced that the show's writers are achieving this on purpose as opposed to putting things into play that they don't quite have a grip on. In any case, so far it's working for me.

I assumed that was the doll we saw fall past the window at the end but for a horrible second I thought it might be Kaworu! I've become quite fond of her character. I chuckle every time something goes south for Alice In and that one cast member brings up her having to finally sell her body. I guess her having a damaged leg also gives her a bit of vulnerability for me.

Episode 7

A time skip of a few months, for fixing their hologram tech, Airi to heal, and Alice/Doll to be fixed, although said android is in hands of the guy running the big plays. Kaworu only said that she could not be fixed, which seemingly made Seria a little down, but not so much that she seems to have the unhealthy elements from before, Seria apparently is doing a lot better. We also got another new name for Doll/Alice with Miki, a girl that was seemingly interacting with the play guy after the disaster happened.

There are some elements I am not sure what the meanings are, like a lot of focus on Akira, a member of the the theatre who dresses a little androgynously, and a found member with bespectacled Manami. We got a shot of I think Akira really hung up on someone, the subtitles said "he", which had Akira asking what he had that she did not.

Seria and Airi also seemingly have a more healthy relationship now, not romantic or anything yet, but Seria asked to stay over her place the night. Seemingly just to become familiar for acting, which plays with Airi's poor gay heart, and then Airi's maybe ex, Izumi, shows up, maybe sad for how she left things. The preview promise something a little nice. I am not sure if Seria has totally forgotten that Airi kissed her, or doesn't understand what sort of feelings Airi might have.

Episode 8

Oh yes, Gekidol does not disappoint. The sort of extra weird bit about this episode is that it feels like there is a bunch of contradictory information, especially in places I might have mapped out.

Perhaps by fitting chance I caught the name of the song in the OP, specifically that it had the word "Chrono" in it, which made me think perhaps some element of time was involved in the theme of this show that was not obvious. And with the weird start of what looked like Kaworu with some sort of sci-fi technology, it looked like maybe the answers behind the big questions of the series had an actual reasons. Kaworu might be some kind of time traveller, it is she who brought the SMT technology, and perhaps other advanced technology like the doll.

But that time travel or alternate timelines feels like it gets a bit confusing, because Kaworu might actually be Miki, the little girl that the director guy, called Takezaki or something. Now, the implication I thought was happening was that the Takezaki and Miki stuff happened after the disaster event that destroyed a lot of the city, but events of this episode point a little towards Kaworu as an adult showing up somewhere between those times, and the beginning of the episode pointing that it might have been after seeing the disaster. So following trying to put these pieces together; Takezaki met Miki during the aftermath, something happened to her, then she comes back from the future to around that time. Unless the parts with Miki might not even have neceserilly happened during the disaster aftermath, after all Takezaki seems a bit obsessed with pacifying people, as if he has something against human conflict.

Putting the act of trying to understand those things apart, Kaworu indeed seems aware of the nature of the disaster area, that some sort of sci-fi technology is at the centre, and she apparently can wear a crystal like thing that can allow her to walk normally. It still seems a bit obscure how connected she is to the disaster, if they were trying to stop it or maybe even the cause of it, perhaps to prevent something. Kaworu against some idea of abusing technology to I think control or manipulate people, she does not like how Takezaki has used technology I think to maybe replace the use of actors or something, rather than just let them shine.

There are other small parts too, like I want to mention Akira again. I said that Akira dresses kind of gender non-conforming, and at least the subtitles went out of the way to have Kaworu call Akira handsome. Perhaps I am looking way too hard at things, or inserting some sort of meaning, but these past two episodes had me wonder if Akira was meant to be trans masculine or something. I wouldn't say that they are always in a masculine presentation, and maybe just a trope as a bishounen, but there has almost been too much focus on Akira as... something. Like also their relationship with Aimi, which could be a bit of just standard yuri bait, but considering what this show has already done in how sometimes forward Airi is.

And talking Airi, she kissed Seria again, this time just on the cheek, and kind of felt like a mix of trying to show her ex that she is over her, but also the fact it calmed Airi down. They need to actually address that soon. And considering the preview for the next episode, it looked like school mate with a crush, Makoto, might try and be more forward with her feelings. Will Seira actually have to confront the fact that two girls are crushing on her, and maybe have to choose one, and turn down either or both?

How will this show pull all of these dangling threads together, and do so in a satisfying way? Because at this point I am kind of afraid that it might not be able to.

DuskyPredator wrote:

Episode 8

How will this show pull all of these dangling threads together, and do so in a satisfying way? Because at this point I am kind of afraid that it might not be able to.

That really is the $64-million question, isn't it? Like you, I'm a little dubious, but let's keep an open mind! The fact that there was no reference to Kaworu having to sell her body as the result of a financial set back gave me a sad. Sad

By the way, DP, although I didn't pick up on it myself, I think you're right about Miki/Kaworu. If you are, I'm going to award you 100 Blood- Impressed points!

Episode 10

It's Like poetry, it rhymes. At least that is what I am thinking in regards to how this second half is relating in regards to the first half, in regards to identities. The first half of the show had Seria and Alice, and the second half has Kaworu and Miki. And while I was wrong in the first half Seria literally being Alice, she did adopt some of her personality though. Trying to piece some of the pieces of the second part makes me think some sort of opposite.

Kaworu and and Miki are two different people, we can get that from the flashback of this episode, of the two time travellers being undercover in 2012 to find the time criminal. But my suspicions are that there is a lie to them, and Seria actually figured it out; Kaworu and Miki are flipped roles. The person we know as Kaworu is the real Miki, and she felt so guilty over the fact that she defended Azusa from being a the time criminal, which got the real Kaworu killed, that she has been lying to herself that she is actually Kaworu, the one who was suspicious. It is a more pleasant story that the one who was optimistic would end up as the victim of the person she defended, rather than the one who was rightfully suspicious. Miki sees herself as having killed Kaworu, and it is eating her up, just like with Seria.

Hiro also fits in somewhere, that maybe Kaworu was also killed because trying to save him. It still feels confusing, like trying to figure out who is really Ansem.

Apropos of nothing in particular, I just realized that Seria is just Alice backwards (in Japanese).

I may regret writing this since there are still two more eppies to go, but I actually have a higher confidence that this is all going to come together well instead of being a sloppy, yet still somewhat compelling, mess. We'll see!

Episode 11

Okay, so apparently the invention of time travel did a number on the existence of time itself, and apparently there can only be one main time stream, with branches eventually disappearing. People in a timeline that was coming to an end tried to save themselves by I think having them be part of computers that are attached to hologram technology, and having it be in 2012. Kaworu and Miki as part of the time police (Gazers) were there to stop the time crimes, with Miki's trust in the suspect getting Kaworu killed, Miki started lying to herself that she was Kaworu, to lessen the guilt. But they did manage to stop the criminals, although they seemed to have ended up in a split timeline, which will eventually end itself. Miki at some point in time met Hiro when she was younger, I would say she was already a Gazer, and saved him from an event that would kill him, so Miki is also not innocent of doing wrong by time either.

I think the Doll was something like an assistant to the Gazers, and was perhaps programmed with a bit of Kaworu, since she says both that she and Kaworu killed Azusa. Perhaps real Miki did it to some extent out of the guilt, I don't really know. The Doll has maybe been having some sort of glitches in her programming, both helping people and some level of self awareness as she question what and who she is. She had saddled herself with Hiro after she was abandoned by Miki, and Hiro is trying to use the hologram technology to bring peace to the world, probably by controlling them. But some of the remnants of the time criminals were in the computer and have warned Doll that this path will just hasten in the end of this timeline. What exactly Doll is trying to do by showing the true nature of Hiro and Miki's separation, where Miki got hurt saving him, before she was taken away by the gazer as rogue, is unclear in how she then knocked out Miki and is still having Hiro complete his plan.

Also, I was surprised that it seems that Seira is just in middle school, since Makoto mentions getting into a good high school. Makoto also continues to thirst for Seira hard, like buying a ticked for her every performance of the same play, girl really should just confess to Seira already rather than afraid to make a move. Will this show actually have any payout with both Makoto and Airi so over Seira?

Also also, Miki has a teleporter built into her leg, the whole leg probably being artificial, maybe hard to look after with current technology, which is why she walks with a limp.

Episode 12 (finale)

Okay, that was a confusing last episode, and I think also vague, but also probably difficult to understand that I admit that I could have missed things.

My understanding that the time criminal was indeed trying to re-enact the plan that failed 5 years earlier, of bringing back her people from a dying timeline. Even some hope spots like Doll thinking that she would save the world was to have Miki as she put it press the button on what was needed, activating the time travel device. The final piece was the play part of this show actually meaning something, which was to mirror what happened 5 years ago to synchronise the timelines. But it did not work when the synchronisation of Seira, Airi and Izumi went off script, I think because they might have been better developed or something, such that Seira was unwilling to stand by like Miki did and they talked through their feelings more open that what originally happened. I think the implication was that Miki created a place of Alice In that was more positive, so her positivity paid off in the end or something.

What happened next is hard to understand, but I think the implication is that everyone in the timeline's mind went back to five years ago and merged with the main timeline. So everything that happened after the disaster that was never supposed to happen, turned into like a dream, as I would like to say who they were as growing in that time is in their subconscious or something. I really don't know what to say about that, as it kind of becomes everything was a dream, I don't know what it meant for people younger than 5, and only guess what impact would be lasting. Like the last bits of the episode imply being at the point in time just at the start of the series, or before Miki as Kaworu might have been involved. Seira is going to become actress like she saw in her dreams, but I otherwise don't know.

There is a lot I still don't fully understand what the relationship with Manami (Lovemin) and Akira is, with their problems only feel like they were lightly touched. Akira's deal seemed to to be love related, so I kind of thought there might have been something romantically related between the two of them. I swear there was a bit that Akira said "what does he have that I don't", which I thought was some sort of element that she was a lesbian, or perhaps her appearance was indicative of a transgender identity. But going by what I can understand with the subtitles, and there was a lot going on, was Akira implying that a boy turned her down for a cuter girl? It just feels so half done that I don't know what the point was. And this is not just me inserting queer readings into this show, it was actually surprisingly queer with our girl Seira pretty blatantly having two girls that were romantically interested in her, but it kind of went nowhere with this, which makes the whole thing surprising but confusing over a point.

How can you have lesbian kissing and such so early on, that it is like a slap in the face to queerbaiting, but almost forget that rather quickly, that it forgot a point. I would make a similar point again to how Airi's past as a junior model that somehow did something like nude modelling, and it did not come to a head. Overall this show had surprises, but it sometimes felt like two different shows wrestling for control, that I could imagine something like an Alice In series of the theatre troupe that would reveal the strange nature was related to Kaworu being a time traveler called Miki. The other being more of the interpersonal stuff of all the characters, which I think a good deal did not get the needed time, and the two could intercept at the end, because otherwise it just is a bit too bloated.

I have said from the beginning that this series is weird, and I keep to that point and say that I actually kind of appreciate it for that. I am sure that people discounted it as just being typical at the start, that it would just become a standard idol anime with just some odd elements like the theatre. But what it became was just so much more, even if I would say confusing and a bit bloated at parts, I almost expect an idea of watching people talk about just specific parts of the show and try to explore and explain them. Like the lore of a FromSoftware that requires reading the descriptions of all the items, and drawing together pieces of evidence, you even have vague ending that may or may not have created a loop.

Anyway, my rating will probably be Good (7/10), it is worth seeing in its own right, although if you are the kind to be interested in an anime that might be doing something different while seemingly appearing normal, it can be hard to look away from. For something that would be so easy for people to pass off as generic from early impressions, it certainly was not such.

Ha ha, DP, so far this season we are giving the exact same ratings to shows. You must be my anime brotha from another motha. This was an odd duck of a show, combining earnest drama about girls wanting to act with classic SF stuff like time travel. At the end of the day, I guess it kinda worked for me? Kinda? At the very least sticking around to the end didn't make me wish time travel was real so I could go back and blow this title off.

Y'all clearly liked this more than I did. I really liked the beginning, I was in for it. I liked the acting, the girls relationships and the theater mysteries. I was here for the beginning of the weirdness, the doll and was she/wasn't she pretending to be other people, was she actually intelligent or simply programed or influencing the people around her or what. When we started getting into the time travel stuff it was just too little explained for me, too much falling apart too fast and just not making as much sense.
It felt like it really lost it's sense of self and so did the girls. (Also, it may be awhile before I stop thinking about Otherside Picnic when saying "The Girls.")
I was left with questions I didn't care about the answers to anymore. The end was just a struggle for me. 5/10 just because I liked Seira.

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Forum - View topicGekidol (TV) + Alice in Deadly School (OAV).

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Gekidol (TV) + Alice in Deadly School (OAV).