English Dub Review: Alice & Zoroku “The Evil Witch”

You are not defined by what you intend, but by what you do.

Spoilers Below

Hatori is just going into middle school. Unfortunately for her, she can’t get into any of the good ones due to her test scores. Her parents are stressed out, fighting amongst each other. It’s so bad, that it looks as if they might split up. Desperately, she prays to any god that would hear her make her parents get along again. The next morning, she asks her parents if they would go with her to cheer on her friend Ayumu at the game. Suddenly, they not only agree but start to get along! The next day, she begins to discover why: She now has the power to force her will on anyone. Once the effect wears off, they forget she ever told them to do that, and continue to their day. At first, she decides she’s only going to use it to make people get along. However, absolute power corrupts absolutely. After using her powers many times, and for several selfish reasons, she begins to see the negative side of her power. Her parents are now soulless husks. She has ordered them around so many times, they no longer have a will of their own. She and Ayumu run away, hoping that if they do so, Hatori’s parents will return to normal, and be safe.

On the other side of town, Sana is helping in Zoroku’s shop, and chomping at the bit. Asahi and Yonoga are coming over for a playdate, and it’s tough to wait until they arrive. As the twins try to track her down with the (very rudimentary and probably inaccurate map) that Sana sent them, they find themselves frozen in their tracks. Hatori has arrived and has used her power to stop everyone in the area while she walks through with her friend. This includes Zoroku, and everyone in his shop. It does not, however, include Sana. She wanders out into the street, scared and confused, and runs into Hatori and Ayumu. After learning that Hatori is behind the zombification of everyone in the area, Sana goes berserk. Her powers undo the effects of Hatori’s, and she unleashes a giant, angry Santa balloon on her. It shatters in a shower of pink. The two continuously pull out their Mirror Gates to use their powers, but those gates shatter each time. Finally, Sana resorts to pummeling Hatori with her fists until the two middle schoolers leave. Sufficiently chastised, however, Hatori begins to wonder if her actions have finally taken her down the path to evil.

This episode begins to show us the life of a Dream of Alice, and their experience of discovering their powers. It also touches on the ethics of mind control. At first, she wanted to use her powers to help people get along and stay safe. Later, she began to use her powers to play pranks and skip to the front of lines. She reasoned that it didn’t hurt anybody because nobody remembered the commands after she left the area. What makes her believe she is an “evil witch” is the effect that her powers had on Sana. Finally, someone saw what she was doing. This brings up a great question: is there a morally good reason to use mind control, or is it inherently evil? If your use of the powers don’t hurt anyone, and no one remembers, is its use benign? Please, go ahead and tell me what you think in the comments!

Seeing the Dreams of Alice duke it out was interesting. The two of them seemed to cancel out each other’s powers. Sana’s Reality Warp card could have been getting hacked by Hatori’s Mind Control card, or vice versa. It’s difficult to tell, as both seemed to be using their powers mostly on reflex. However, it does seem that Sana’s Mirror Gate Errors are directly related to her feeling frazzled. The errors seem to happen when those feelings grow strongest. Whether the error causes the frazzle, or the frazzle causes the error is something that we’ll have to wait for another episode or two to find out, I think.

The animation was loaded with dynamic shots and powerful angles. It was well directed and brought out the internal drama of the girls involved. Seeing Hatori and Ayumu react to Sana’s Mirror Gate Error was great. It was the first time they had seen another Dream of Alice use their powers, and it was terrifying because it was the worst error she’d had yet. When they expected to be the ones in control, it was suddenly the opposite, and they had every reason to be afraid. It showed in their faces, and in how the scene was shot. Parallax is your friend in animation. You can slide thing around at different rates in the camera to make it appear as if the camera is moving instead. They used this technique a good amount in this episode, and it works well.

Sarah Weidenheft did a great job with Sana during the Error. I believed the fear and anger in the little girl’s voice. Although I can’t find the voice actresses that plays as Hatori and Ayumu, they also played off each other well, and felt like long-time friends. That being said, I see we only have four episodes left in the season. I hope that this story arc will be able to wrap up the plot well. Introducing a new character so late in the game might make this arc feel more or less like a filler arc, and I’d hate for that to happen. I really enjoy this series. In the meantime, I give this episode eight mind-controlled zombies out of ten.