English Dub Review: Alice & Zoroku “Something Not Human”

When aren’t you a “you”, who are you, really?

Spoilers Below

Sana’s been kidnapped, and while Ryu reassures her new family, he sends his partner Ichijo after the kidnappers. This prompts a question from Zoroku: Why do these people want Sana so badly? Ryu explains the concept of a Dream of Alice. He comes from an organization that wants to see if humans and Dreams of Alice can coexist, while the facility is researching them for the purposes of energy and weapons development. Meanwhile, Minnie C taunts Sana with the knowledge that the little girl isn’t even human. Prior to being found by the facility, she was just a psychic entity in a cocoon. Being around people, she began to form her ego and personality from that. Done with shattering the girl’s reality, Minnie C injects her with a tranquilizer. This brings the little girl into an interesting mind space. A space with an oddly familiar blonde-haired, red-eyed woman arranging flowers. After a brief conversation, she gives Sana a piece of advice. There are people that care about you. Call out to them.

Zoroku finds Sana’s mirror gate above his head like he’s a Sim. Poof, he’s now in the car with Sana and Minnie C, and he has some words for the marine. His willpower is strong enough to overwhelm her card arms, but not her gun. She shoots Sana in the leg, and puts the gun to his head. Unable to stand all of this, Sana surrenders herself to the thought that she isn’t human. Her powers increase nearly tenfold, unwriting her current body and Minnie C’s cards. She reappears as she did in the beginning, completely uninjured and in a medical gown. She apologizes to Zoroku for causing him all this trouble, but he reassures her. Even if she isn’t human, she has a good heart. She’s a good person. After his rousing speech, the cargo container bursts open, and bindings snap over Minnie C. Ichijo stands atop the car, infinite blade works all about her. She’s taking Sana and Zoroku home.

Yeah, sure, this episode has a whole bunch of talking. But OOOOOH what talking! This episode is all about the ego, the sense of self and what makes you who you are. There are a few things confirmed in this episode. One, Dreams of Alice in their true form are beings entirely of mind. They form their body from energy and use it as an avatar to consume more energy to allow them to do more. As entities of mind, this gives them access to the minds of others. Two, Sana isn’t just able to warp space, but time. She was able to meet her future self. And call her future self-flat-chested. Well, that’s something she’s gonna regret later. On an unrelated note, Ichijo kicks serious butt, and I’m looking forward to seeing her in a real fight at some point.

Animation? Well, the animation wasn’t all that much to speak of, since this was mostly a talking episode. On the plus side, the art was nice. There were quite a few ethereal scenes, and shots of Sana’s suffering really made you feel for her. Ichijo’s dramatic entrance is loaded with detailed renderings of weapons, all stuck in the warped metal around her and reflecting the sunset. Truly beautiful and terrifying. Miss Sarah Wiedenheft, you acted your guts out as Sana this episode, and I tip my hat to you. Except I don’t wear hats. It’s the thought that counts. This wasn’t a perfect episode, to be sure. As an expository drama episode, it wasn’t rife with high-quality animation and could have had a bit more going on. That’s the only thing that keeps this from being a perfect ten. It’ll have to settle for nine of Ichijo’s Hammerspace Swords out of ten!