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Now in Japan
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Written by maehara
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Wednesday, 22 February 2006 00:00 |
 Hmm. First there was Gakuen Alice's "Alice" power, then Rozen Maiden's "Alice Game", and now Kagihime Monogatari's "Alice Users". Anyone else spotting a trend? Kagihime at least has a bit of an excuse, and there are references to Alice in Wonderland littered all around the series. Mahou Shoujo fans will want to take a look at this one, which is better than the idea may at first appear...
1 - A Rabbit Hole
Aruto Kirihara has been writing a story - Alice's Story, based on Alice in Wonderland - but the fantasy world he's been putting onto paper seems to be gaining a life of its own. As he's about to go to bed one evening, Alice herself comes flying past his bedroom window. Unable to believe what he's seeing, Aruto heads off in pursuit. When he finally catches up with her in his school's library, he finds her engaged in battle, but before he gets the change to question her about what's going on, she disappears. Not that he gets much time to wonder about where she's gone to, as next day in school there's a new transfer student - guess who...
2 - Tears
Somehow Kisa's obsession with Kiraha seems to be reaching worrying levels. Making cookies with all of Kiraha's expressions just isn't natural, but if it's in the name of weasling an indirect kiss out of her, it's all good. Her plans are foiled, though, when Kiraha and Aruto are called out by Arisu to help in another Alice duel. By the time they arrive at the school library the battle has already started - Kiraha joins the battle and quickly gains the upper hand, but Aruto's not happy at the way the winner "steals" the loser's story and comes up with an alternative. Meanwhile, Kisa-chan's noticed that Kiraha hasn't quite been her usual happy self since Aruto and Arisu started spending so much time together, and takes steps to deal with the problem - Arisu...
There's a reason behind the fighting - the Alice Users must fight each other, with the loser of each battle losing a page of their "story". As Arisu puts it, "open her heart lock and take a look at her story" - sounds like an invasion of privacy if ever there was one, and it doesn't look like a pleasant experience for the loser, but it's all with the aim of completing the third book in the Alice in Wonderland story and freeing the Alice Users from having to fight. Joe Public's not meant to be able to see the battles, but Aruto's obsession with all things Alice is letting him see things he shouldn't. He soon decides that "stealing" pages from other peoples' lives isn't a good thing & looks for other ways to finish the Alice story.
The problem with finding another way is that is means Aruto is always pushing for the girls to back off the fighting - which to be honest, the sometimes the aspect of magical girl shows that I enjoy the most. There are several cases here where battles get started and get interesting, but are brought to a shuddering halt by Aruto's heartfelt intervention. I almost wish they'd just get on with doing things the cruel and heartless way, as it may have made for a more visually exciting series, but it seems that's not going to be the case.
In amongst the magical girl stuff, there's some extremely funny & very one-sided shoujo-ai
action between Kisa & Kiraha which almost makes Kagihime worth watching on its own - episode two in particular is full of Kisa's antics, and I really couldn't get enough of them. Watch for the scene of her sneaking into Kiraha's panty drawer while she's out of the house, for a start. Those unrequited feelings lead Kisa to get involved in the Alice game herself.
Outside the battles so far are Takion-sama and Riddell, who seem to have a role to play in events but are keeping out of the way for now. I'm definitely curious to see where they fit into events.
Visually, this is one good-looking show - the character designs are definitely aimed at the male audience, with a reasonable amount of fanservice dotted around (nothing too ecchi, though). I swear the girls' uniforms have been copied from Ohtori Academy (Utena), but that's no bad thing.
Overall, then, a good start. Having read up on the series before I watched these episodes, I was fairly convinced that I wasn't going to like it, but I've been pleasantly surprised. Kagihime is worth checking out if you like your magical girl shows.
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