Mahou Shoujo-tai Arusu

This is truly an anime for children and young teens and, perhaps, a little more so for girls. Like every good children's artwork, it also holds appeal for a much larger (and older) audience. Unlike others series aimed at the same public, there is nothing done here to satisfy male-chauvinist fantasies and that is a very welcome change. Everything in this anime breathes honesty. The only flaws are, perhaps, a little over-ambitiousness and, sometimes, a slight lack of clarity. Alll this being said, "Young Witch Squad Alice" remains, in my opinion, an absolute must-see anime and I shall try, in this review, to explainwhy I came to this conclusion. Story: 9/10 The story has a plot somewhat inspired by Lewis Carrol's book (hence the name of the main character, no doubt) but does not have the same dream-like absurdity or disjointedness. Like Carrol's Alice, our young heroine falls down to a another (dream) world in which everything is very symbolical. In it, magic and the people who wield it are means of expressing very diverse messages all connected to the hopes and doubts of the young Alice. There are many themes treated including identity, individual freedom, love, ambition, knowledge, etc... Each of these themes is addressed with care and all characters and places introduced serve a clear purpose to that effect. One scene is a perfect example of the whole atmosphere of the show. A little after Alice's arrival, she is brought before the Grand Mistress of the witches along with the two witches who had her in their custody and then let her out of her cage ( namely Sheila and Eve), resulting in the escape of a great number of fairies. The two young girls are punished for the escape of the fairies and a "curse of eternal youth" is cast upon them until they retrieve the lost creatures! There are so many adults who fear old age and decrepitude that they forget that children want to grow up and that staying a child forever is a nightmare to them. The show reminds us how unhealthy it is to want to remain a child but does so in a very creative way, without being insulting. The story spans over a wide array of themes but also places and times and though it encompasses a whole imaginary world it remains very personal. Indeedl, everything rotates around Alice, her absent father, her gloomy view of the real world and the ways she seeks to deal with her doubts and fears. Despite its great ambition, the show often has a very light and enjoyable tone. Even during the more dramatic episodes, there is measure, and though there might be darkness there is no glorification of despair. Some of the finer messages put forth might prove harder to read for a young audience (for instance the "mirror" half brother) but will certainly please an older one. Characters: 9/10 Like the story, all the characters in this anime are very symbolical and none of them are truly good or truly evil. There are very few characters one cannot sympathize with, to a certain extent, and the design behind each of these was well researched and executed. The main character is an energetic and fun loving girl with a lot of maturity but also a great sense of justice which results in slightly rowdy or rebellious behaviour. She is also very creative and her imagination is a tool she uses to deal with the harsh aspects of her life. Sheila and Eve are the other two members of the squad. Sheila is at first a very law abiding student, eager to earn respect and frowning upon deviation from set courses, even if they seem unfair. Her character evolves for the better as the show progresses and does so in a rather realistic way. Eve is generous and loving but also somewhat weak-willed and cowardly and those traits will factor greatly in the evolution of her character. It sometimes seems as if these two characters reflect two aspects of Alice's personality. The remaining cast could be talked about in detail but I will leave you the pleasure of discovering them! Art: 8/10 Very original to say the least, the art might seem a little odd at first but, in my opinion, fits the world of Alice perfectly. Many of the charaters, creatures, places and vehicles are a pleasure to the eye. The originality of the design is yet another indication of the great effort spent in making this show. The animaton and art seemed very good to me though perhaps not to the point of inspiring awe. Sound: 9/10 A very strong point here. The score (and even the ending song) fit the world of Alice perfectly. The music is not incredibly original butI have rarely ever heard anything so well adapted to a show. Enjoyment: 8/10 I greatly enjoyed this show and would recommend it to just about anyone. Overall: 8/10 Remember that a score of 8/10 means very good. I could probably have given it 9/10 if I just followed my feelings. I truly hope this anime will gain a larger audience in the future so that the anime industry will be inspired to create more such shows.

I see what they were trying to do; that's why it pains me even more to give it such a bad grade. The Good things: Concept: The concept was great: a human girl who wants to be a witch falls into the witch realm, and finds it different then what she was dreaming of. In theory a great start, yeah? I'll tell you where it went wrong at "the bad things". The art, holy-moly the art was fantastic. It was refreshing, almost realistic, but not off-putting. It seemed to have come directly from a colorful web-comic like W.I.T.C.H. (but with even better art). There are so manywonderful designs for objects solely used by witches (the dog-chest, the dragon-house etc.). The only thing that was off-putting were the facial-expressions sometimes. They picked the weirdest times to show off their skills in the "dramatically-disturbed look" department. (you know the one, big eyes, forehead-zoom in that looks really creepy). Voice acting: The voices showed off the character's personalities well (tbh, I wouldn't be able to pull of Arusu's up-beat character for so long even If I had the training). The only voice-actor that left me wondering was the one of Lennon (Renon), whose gender was supposed to be ambiguous, but the voice left little to the imagination. The mediocre things: Characters: Don't get me wrong I like them, archetype and all, but their personalities were either too consistent or all over the place. A change of one's mind could take up a few minutes before they'd be back to their old personality again. Their motivations are also vague. (Does Arusu want to go back to the human realm, or does she want to stay? Who knows, not her). Sound: I didn't hear anything special in it. The Opening was just a less than epic instrumental and the ending, though soothing enough to make you fall asleep, didn't really stick with me. The rest of the OST didn't stand out to me and was sometimes a little creepy- though that did fit the situation sometimes. The bad things: The plot: With the plot I mean the following: Structure, pacing, possible potholes and other plot bunnies that never came to fruition. Man oh man, from the beginning I could tell the pacing was off, and it irked me bad. The beginning wasn't a beginning but a flash-forward, just like many of the scenes to follow were either badly timed flash-forwards or flashbacks. Take this and put it into a structure that already had no clue where it was going, and you have a mess. The storyline started off simple enough; one objective, and a punishment if it wasn't done. But the objective was not only undoable, but also unfair and mathematically (or evolutionary, depending on how you look at the fairy crisis), nonsense. [You want to tell Me, there's only one fairy of every species in that entire world? Makes no sense at all.] There were many things that, in the end, didn't get resolved (or I had to guess at, like the timeline of the Witch realm and the human realm: a complete mess). Facts were almost always presented late, or kept as guesswork. Some questions I have that contains spoilers- read at own risk: [Why is there such animosity between witches and warlocks? When was the human realm and witch realm divided, and how? How did daddy dearest have two children in different timelines (which doesn't add up), How did a child survive alone in that dimensional sea? ] /End of spoilers. Conclusion: It's such a shame it turned out this way. If the story-boarders had just paid a little more attention to the structure and maybe a little less time on quests that didn't make it through anyway, I might've actually given this a way higher grade. If you just like to watch something when you're bored, this show is not a bad way to kill time, but don't expect too much, or you might get dizzy.

I wanted to start my reviews on my anime list with an anime that is not popular and not very well known. After seeing “Tai Asuru” or “Tweeny Witches”, I was kind of surprise of the quality of this show when the only thing that makes me curious to see it was the picture. The synopsis was normal, nothing promising. I mean, it seems like a synopsis of “Alice in Wonderland”, so nothing original at all. Also, the average note of the anime isn’t high. At least, the people that have taking the time to review it have an average between 8 and 9, so,I was not totally thinking that it will be bad. The picture represents very well what kind of anime this show is. Yes, it will be a big roller coaster ride, a pretty chaotic one. Story: 9 It’s an anime that is very fast paced. In fact, the only other thing that was that fast that I have seen was maybe a movie from Takashi Miike named Family that I have seen in the last weeks. The story will shake the boundaries of your imagination many times in the course of the show. But what makes this story so good is maybe how the two cultures are described for the two people out there. (The witches and the other that I will not name) I can easily make a comparison with real culture in our real world. One is very close to the way of thinking of the Asian people (Traditions and honour over anything else), the other represent the Occidental way of thinking. (People that live their normal innocent life without knowing exactly what their chiefs are doing, Comparison with the Bush era and all the bad thing he has done while the people were living happily and also other country where it surely happen) A fiction is always better when you can see some kind of comparison or maybe social critic in it. Another thing that I want to point out is the fact that this show is way more an adventure fantasy than anything else. Even one of the recent named Madoka Magika is more a magical girl than this one. The different actions seem predictable, but you will still be surprise. I won’t say that it’s unpredictable, but at the same time, it won’t be easy to know what will happen, I was thinking on how this series will be finished, I was sure about something, and in the end, it was totally something else. That fast paced story always makes me interest about it, I have stopped two times while watching it, but it’s not because I don’t wanted to finish it in one day. Art: 8/10 It’s not that good; in fact, it’s a pretty detached kind of art. It was fitting the anime very well on the other hand by helping the chaotic aspect of the anime of being smoother. With an art as good like Death Note, it will be too dark and with an art like Angel Beast, it will have seems a bit too cut up. If you like perfection in imperfection, you will probably like it. (Sometimes, imperfection help something for giving a atmosphere. I talked about a floating atmosphere here.) Sound: 9/10 The op is a highlight. It has a Bohemian vibe to it. A bit of epic, not much, that is totally balanced with the show. I have also to point out the drum that make a little atmosphere of a tribal world that also emphases on the fact that the anime is not in the real world. The music in the anime is well fitting with the pace of the show. The ep is only a pass song, but it’s for closure, so ok. The voice acting is perfect, actually, I found myself listening to this anime on high volume, while normally, I’m not that proud of the voice acting that I lower the volume. Character: 9/10 I’m pretty surprise of the deepness of the character. Nothing seems forced, and the evolution of them is normal. Nothing extravagant. What I mean is the fact that each character has his own way of thinking, and they don’t accept things that are not similar to their habitude easily. Sheila is maybe the best example for this, because it takes long before she start to accept the fact that she’s maybe is wrong about the tradition that her people is thinking was normal. It’s the same case for all the other character, only one is more open minded and it’s Eva. Eva is open minded because she a bit depressed. She sees in Alice someone that could help her and maybe this is exactly why she accept Alice toughs more easily. Alice is certain that magic is something that make people happy. Been in this world where traddition, authority and natural selection is apply to the feeble frustrate her. She will then want to prove that the witches are wrong. She's not that happy or not feeble at all, in fact, there will be times where she won't know what to do next. Ateria is a character that will grow larger by the end of the show, you only have one clue about it in the first episode, it appear at the moment...(I'm not gonna tell you, see for yourself) Enjoyment: 9/10 There’s a bit of humour, but the main reason you will like this anime is the fast paced story that will always make you want to know the rest. The fact that the episode are of less than 9 minutes is maybe the reason why it’s so easy to be drive in. A 20 minutes show doesn’t do the same effect. (By having episode of less than 10 minutes, they have to make a reversal in every episode for giving to the audience something to grip on. If you want something big to happen in all 10 minutes, then, your story is sure to be pretty fast paced and never let down the course of action.) Overall: 9/10 I have put out one point from 10 because of the ep song that is not really good, the fact that the anime is a bit difficult to follow in terms of speed. Finally, it’s not totally innovative enough to be considered a masterpiece. In the end, it’s more a 9 than a 8, but I understand why this show isn’t that well receive.

Story: 8 Mahou Shoujo Tai Arusu is one of those animes where the storyline can, for the most part keep you intriged and wanting the next episode, as each small episode ends in a cliff hanger for the most part. The story overall in itself is genius, and except for a few things is very likable. So, what isn't likable about the storyline? The thing about Mahou Shoujo Tai Arusu is that it likes to slam the reader over the head with 'ideas'. For example, there are messages that become apparent in some of the episodes. One is that we depend to much on technollogy. The otheris that evoulution is true, which might upset people who either refuse to believe it, or hate it when it isn't treated like a theory. And the overall theme is peace instead of violence. The problem with this message, is human nature itself has always had to have a balance of these two. Of course, this is a story where there needs to be a happy ending, so this in a way works. Art: 7 The art in here is experimental in the style. There is a lot of detail in their, but in the same time, not a lot. For example, there is detail put into the intricate designs of the costumes and clothing, but the hair and other things lack texture, and it isn't blocked in, not to mention that shadow for visual depth is lacking, giving the anime a kind of haunted look. And some of the techniques don't quite fit. For example, when the characters cry, their tears become really sparkly and look more three dimentional shadow wise then anything else. Other times, one is given a wierd effect as they distort things visualy. Also, flash back are flash backs, flashing in and out for a few seconds. While this fits with the mood and theme of the anime, it should be warned here... if you run the chance of having siezures, you may not want to watch this anime, even if you might find it delightful. Sound: 10 The sound was haunting, action packed, and fit the moods as they came and went. The score was beutiful and is one of the highlights of this anime. Character: 10 Part of the enjoyment of the characters is that, if it isn't am unnamed character, they are given lots of attention to detail on the designs of the characters. The second part of the enjoyment is the depth behind hte characters. Each has a very distinct personality, which actually helps the storyline along, and to go into depth about the characters would spoil the actual story. Enjoyment: 8 While I rather enjoyied this, there was a point where I had to put down the anime. The main reason is, I got annoyied at the time with Alice's overly positive attitude at that time. However, I met characters that I really liked later on, others that I knew I was meant to hate. Overall: 7 This isn't going to be for everyone. Some will take one look at the art style and choke. Others will get fed up with Alice's attitude of positiveness, while others will not like things bashed over their head. But it is at least worth watching for a bit to from ones own opinion...

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