(L) Gakuen Alice

[Aquillion]

Originally Posted by Trax

Spoiler:

That's what I was thinking actually. Just by herself it won't do her much good, she can't defend herself physically (as demonstrated in the 2nd episode). It's still somewhat of a defensive 'power' though, I wonder if it will be interesting enough. If there are different factions within the school having some kind of power struggle, she would become a hot commodity though.

Oh and I didn't really think about it before, but nullification would indeed be better than simple immunity which was the original impression of Mikan's alice.

Spoiler:

Also, we don't know exactly how it works at the moment. Maybe with practice, it could nullify the powers of others for an extended period of time, or even snuff them out permanently. That would be an extremely powerful ability--by threatening other students and only allowing them to use their powers as you see fit, it would effectively give you control over everyone else's Alice, everywhere. If one country or organization could get ahold of someone with that Alice, they'd effectively have a monopoly on all the other ones, too. And remember how important they've said these abilities were to the country's development? This is a take-over-the-world class ability, here; all the great scientists, thinkers, and achievers would have to work for you or you'd just shut their abilities down.

Although, it would still be of limited applicablity against powers like Hotaru's, since even if you could turn off her scientific genius somehow she'd still have all the robots and machines that she'd built already.

[Leo_Otaku]

Originally Posted by Azulet

ah ep3 is a really good episode! I definitely liked this ep the best so far. A lot things happened and it'll only get better!

Spoiler:

When Tobita said some people at the school were still learning about their Alice, I thought maybe Mikan falls into that category. She doesn't yet know or understand how to properly use or control her Alice, that's why we don't see it. I think Natsumi's fan club is hilarious. Those girls were so mean! I cheered out loud when Mikan told off the fanclub girls. Go Mikan! I'm also starting to like Tobita a lot even though he's kind of your typical good boy who follows rules. The way Hotaru acts toward Mikan kind of fits her scientific and very precise way of life. I'm glad she was able to acknowledge Mikan's courage to seek out the Alice Academy.

as for the links that someone had asked for, I have the following:
official site
fanart
more fanart
there seems to be a lot of NatsumiXMikan pairings, but the art is great.
google english results
for most of the Japanese sites you find on google, hit translate page to browse through sections.
If anyone has any screenshots of the show, please share!

Thanks for the page ^-^ I really think that Natsume and Mikan would be cute together ^-^

[Malek]

My hypothesis is that she has to be physically close to the user to nullify the power. That is why it nullified the fire guys power and the teacher's power but not the the one who lifter her in the air.

[Aquillion]

Originally Posted by Malek

Spoiler:

My hypothesis is that she has to be physically close to the user to nullify the power. That is why it nullified the fire guys power and the teacher's power but not the the one who lifter her in the air.

Spoiler:

Or maybe it only actives automatically when her life (or something as important to her as her life) is at stake, but could be used deliberately with training.

[Access]

Is it just me or do a lot of the people in the show suffer from mental disorders? After watching ep. 1 I thought her friend was getting taken away and sent to a 'special' school for autistic kids or just 'special' kids with 'special' needs (ie. mental retardation, personality disorder, schizophrenia, etc.) So far I can think of one person at the school that is normal... the 'nice' guy who befriends her, that's it. Even the main character is out there.

[chucky]

Yeah... i saw mikan wearing a Joy Division T-shirt and sing
"love will tear us apart" with hotaru

"Oh love... love will tear us apart again... lala love, love will tear us apart, again."

[Keitaro]

Originally Posted by Access

So far I can think of one person at the school that is normal... the 'nice' guy who befriends her, that's it. Even the main character is out there.

Eh. What nice guy? The only guys who is friendly to her is the teachers and the linchou but the linchou is a girl.

[Korb]

Originally Posted by Keitaro

Eh. What nice guy? The only guys who is friendly to her is the teachers and the linchou but the linchou is a girl.

Then why is she wearing a boy's uniform? I admit the voice makes you think it's a girl, but he's got a boy's uniform. A cross-dressing alice perhaps? :P

[Budweineken]

humm yeah i always thought he was a boy... unless manga readers can prove me otherwise, i will still call him a boy

[Rotweiler]

Originally Posted by Keitaro

Eh. What nice guy? The only guys who is friendly to her is the teachers and the linchou but the linchou is a girl.

Iinchou is a boy. His name is Tobita Yuu. Yes, he got female VA but in anime that means jack since many female VA often voices scaredy boys and Iincho is one of those boys in this case.

[Keitaro]

Originally Posted by Rotweiler

Iinchou is a boy. His name is Tobita Yuu. Yes, he got female VA but in anime that means jack since many female VA often voices scaredy boys and Iincho is one of those boys in this case.

I am well aware that they somtimes use female Voice actors for male characters in anime.

Sadly my observation and memory skills aren't up to par. I thought the Iinchou was wearing a girls uniform, the boys and girls uniform look almost identical from the top.

[hatori]

Originally Posted by robin

So what exactly is the theme of this show. So far all I see is a bunch of asshole kids who think they are something special just because they have "powers" and pick on some clueless girl whose "girlfriend" is such a blank slate, I wonder why anyone would be attracted to her.

Right now it seem all very cliche - hate all the brats by making them into hellions, then they either get their asses kicked in the end or end up turning sides and becoming her "friend".

I've read up to volume 5 of the manga and although I haven't really grasped the theme of this series, not all the kids are assholes. Some of them don't want to be there in the first place so they rebel by causing trouble eg. Natsume. It might seem cliched and similar to Kodocha but it's only at the beginning.

Originally Posted by Aquillion

Spoiler:

Or maybe it only actives automatically when her life (or something as important to her as her life) is at stake, but could be used deliberately with training.

Spoiler:

Yeah, I think her Alice becomes active like that. At first, when Mikan found out what her Alice was, she agonized over the fact that her power can seemingly only be used to protect herself and not others. Narumi-sensei tells her that her Alice may be important to someone one day. Other senseis also treat her Alice as a very big deal among themselves so it's probably something powerful ultimately. Anyway, in vol. 4, she starts training with Noda-sensei to learn how to use her Alice at will, although there is limited success so far. Natsume even lets her practise on him ^_^

About Natume & Mikan...

Spoiler:

I think there's a high possibility of them getting together as the manga has hints of it, although it might not happen for a very long time until many issues regarding both their backgrounds are resolved. There's a cute example is in vol.5 during the Cultural Festival play 'Snow White of the Sleeping Forest'. Plus, Natsume does do perverted things to Mikan like lifting up her skirt to see her underwear (vol.4, also part of the Cultural Festival arc. This arc should be quite interesting to see in the anime) ^_^ Yes, very reminiscent of Hayama & Sana from Kodocha but that's about it!

[Srin Tuar]

Originally Posted by Rotweiler

Iinchou is a boy. His name is Tobita Yuu. Yes, he got female VA but in anime that means jack since many female VA often voices scaredy boys and Iincho is one of those boys in this case.

Hrm, I kept thinking it was a girl too somehow.
Mostly they only show the upper half of the seifuku, and that part looks the same.

[s'my]

Cross-dressing alice : probably not quite the talent the Japanese government's looking for But I do agree that the school uniforms are rather gender confusing, and I find myself looking for the part in the bottom half more often than I would like!

Spoiler for speculation on Mikan and Natsume:

It seems a fairly common situation in anime to have the boy who picks on the girl end up with her. No complaints from me, I'm rooting for Natsume x Mikan as it does remind me a little of the relationship between Sana and Hayama, which I really loved.

[Azulet]

So I was bored and decided to make a wallpaper/calendar. Yea I know it's already halfway through Dec but I'm probably going to use a different person for January. Maybe Mikan. I got the picture source from a fanart site. http://mimikaki.moo.jp/mimikaki/top.html

I uploaded two versions, one gif, one jpeg. it's not really a spoiler, I just use the tags to save space. Enjoy!

Spoiler:

[Srin Tuar]

I'm pretty addicted to this show, Ive got to get more episodes somehow.
They are already up to episode 7

None of the usual suspects have the raws...

[^danshi^]

Hongfire has.

[wao]

It seems dragonvoice and shoujomagic have scanlated volume 1 of Gakuen Alice and you can get it on #shoujomagic at irc.irctoo.net . It's not licensed sothis isn't against the rules, right...

I'm enjoying the anime so far because even if it seems kiddy and whatnot, it's been ages since I"ve read/watched a story like this so I'm happily enjoying it... I am really a sucker for "school for people with special powers" stories

[kobun]

Weirdest scene i have ever seen..
from ep8

Spoiler:

[Dragosmore]

Don't judge from just a screenshot seen elsewhere. Episode 8, which followed the manga to a decent degree is one of the more sad/dark episodes in the series