Based on the flashback, [details=spoiler] it appears Reo may have been telling the truth except for the very end, you notice he adjusts his earring again and his voice changes a bit when he tells Ruka that Natsume’s life is in danger and that his Alice is one that shortens his lifespan. Plus the other guy is seen eavesdropping on most of the conversation.[/details]
[quote=LadyOfWicca]
spoiler
I would also love to know who Mikan’s father is, but I know it is very unlikely we’ll be told in these episodes.
Au contraire, LadyOf Wicca,
spoiler
I think it’s been in front of our noses all this time. Let me be so bold as to propose that Mr. Narumi is Mikan’s father! He has been so caring and protective of her that I believe that can be the only explanation. And remember, he was a student at the same time as the mystery woman!
That is an interesting theory Newshawk.
Of course you may Newhawk!
[details=spoiler]Narumi would be the most likely out of the current characters. He might possibly be her father, but I got the feeling that Narumi was protective of Mikan more because of the friendship he had with her mother - not because of a personal connection. I never got more than a friendship feeling from any of the flashbacks, but we shall see (hopefully) if you are right!
I thought the time traveling teacher may also be another possible candidate. There was that one episode where he time traveled and saw Mikan’s mother carrying her as a baby. There seemed to be some feeling there on his part, but it could also have been only friendship.
Another interesting puzzle![/details]
So far I am very happy with this anime. I love all of the different characters, the struggle between the characters, and the mysterious girl they keep talking about. I watch on demand, so of course it is a new episode every thursday. Every week I can’t wait for the new episodes to show up! I love Hotaru Imai. Very funny, mean, yet caring!
Ep. 25
spoiler
We have confirmation that the mystery women is Mikan’s mother. I did not like Permy at first thinking she was just a spoiled brat. When she used her Alice to distract the panther to save that little kid it proved she was a good person. Also Natsume showed up in the nick on time to snap Ruka back to his senses. It looks like to get all the answers to my questions I will have to read the manga. They have way to many loose threads to resolve in the next episode.
Episode 25 -
[details=spoiler]Narumi is thinking of quitting. He thought he could make a difference, but he feels he hasn’t. Miss Yamada asks about Mikan, calling her the daughter of his friend. He says that he thought Mikan might be the key to changing the academy and is about to say something else, when Fukutan runs in to tell them that the circus animals have escaped and are on a rampage. I was hoping to hear a little more about Mikan.
Reo has used Ruka’s Alice to enrage the animals, hoping to destroy the academy. Mikan’s class is still outside with Hotaru’s brother. The young lion and an older one come to Ruka and he starts to walk away with them. One of the kids says that he isn’t himself and another says that his eyes are full of rage. They ask where he’s going and he says he’s going to find Natsume. Ruka jumps on the back of the lion and rides off.
The animals are terrorizing some younger children and Sumire saves a little boy from a panther. Narumi and the two other teachers have brought a bus to get the kids away. Miss Yamada calls Narumi over to look in her crystal ball and he sees Reo talking to the clown. Subaru saves Hotaru and Mikan from the animals and I liked the way in which she saved her brother and Sumire with one of her inventions. Everyone gets the little kids into the bus and Narumi tells his students that Reo has brainwashed Ruka.
Jinno meets Ruka and the lions in one of the hallways and Ruka asks him if he knows where Natsume is. Jinno doesn’t know, so Ruka asks for Persona, then changes him mind and asks for the Principals instead. Jinno tells him not to come any closer. Reo is seen taking of in an air balloon and Ruka has “called” the rest of the animals to come to him. He tells Jinno to stop sending Natsume out on missions, or else, but Jinno says that Natsume’s Alice is contributing to society and Ruka calls him a liar and says they’re all in it together.
By now the rest of the kids have arrived with Narumi and Miss Yamada. Ruka calls himself a coward for watching Natsume suffer and not doing anything to help him. Mikan tells him not to hurt anyone and Narumi tries to tell him that Reo brainwashed him, but Ruka won’t believe him because he says that he knows that Narumi is just a spy for the school and only pretends to care - Reo’s influence again. Suddenly crows burst through the window and Reo comes through with the lion tamer and the clown (without his make-up). He tells Shidou to put up a barrier and then tells Ruka to attack. Narumi tells Reo to stop and gets punched in the stomach by Shidou. Reo tells them to watch as he “talks” to Ruka and then tells Ruka that he had turned away from Natsume’s suffering and now he can prove his friendship. Reo tells Ruka to “do it” and Mikan tells him to stop. She says that she loves the school and doesn’t agree with everything either, but it’s a place where Alices can smile together.
Ruka has his hands over his ears in obvious distress – not sure if Mikan is using her Alice, but Reo asks what he’s waiting for and that hesitation won’t save Natsume. Reo influences him and again tells him to “do it”. Ruka screams out “attack” and a lion jumps at Jinno, but he uses electricity to subdue it. A bear goes to attack the kids and Hotaru uses her “idiot” guns to dissuade it. A panther jumps towards Hotaru, but Narumi gets in front of her and takes the brunt of the attack, giving Hotaru a chance to shoot it. Reo and his guys go back out the window and into the balloon. Mikan yells for Ruka to stop and the young lion heads towards her.
Suddenly a line of fire appears between the group and the animals. It’s Natsume! He leaps over the back of the lion and slaps Ruka’s face, snapping him out of Reo’s brainwashing. Breathing heavily, Natsume says – “they’re our friends”. I’m so happy that he finally admitted this! Ruka says that he only wanted to save him and Natsume said that he never wanted to be saved like this. Ruka tells him that Reo told him the whole story about the academy and Natsume’s missions. Natsume says that while it’s true he doesn’t like what he does, he never goes against his own principles or hurts the innocent.
Ruka protests that he still has to spend life using his Alice and Natsume says that it’s his Alice; he never wanted it, but he has to live with it. As Ruka starts to apologize, Natsume stops him, saying that he gets “itchy” when people get sentimental on him and that they should go after Reo. As he says this, Reo’s voice comes over the speakers and they realize he’s in the broadcast room. Reo’s voice reaches everywhere as he incites the students to riot and free themselves by destroying the academy. Natsume says – “this is bad” and starts to run off, but Narumi stops him, saying it is too dangerous. Natsume says that he will just put the rioters to sleep and I am wondering how he is supposed to do this, since his Alice is fire. He tells Narumi not to let Reo escape and Ruka begins to follow Natsume, but Hotaru stops them both with another of her inventions. She gives them earplugs and they run off with the animals following.
Narumi is worried about the younger students and they all head in that direction, but Reo starts to sing over the speakers. Narumi tells Miss Yamada to go ahead and take care of the elementary class and sends Mikan back to her own class. She wants to go with him and use her Alice on Reo, but Narumi tells her that she must use it to protect her classmates. He says that he must take care of Reo himself because it’s his fault that Reo is the way he is. He says they were like brothers and Reo volunteered to go on the missions so he could be close to Narumi, but when the anti-Alice campaign started, they were drawn to its message. After a time, Narumi started to question the movement, but could not get Reo to understand. When he became a teacher, Reo took it as betrayal. Narumi breaks into the broadcast room.
Mikan goes back to her class and everyone is fighting with each other. She uses her Alice to stop them and they all sit quietly holding hands. Tsubasa and Misaki come in with Kokoroyomi. In saving him from the animals, they missed Reo’s broadcast. Mikan is worried about Narumi and Tsubasa asks her when does she ever think before she acts? Mikan and most of her classmates run with Tsubasa and Misaki to save Narumi and notice that the broadcast has stopped. They rush into the room to find a defeated Narumi. Reo tries to influence Tsubasa, but Mikan won’t let him, so he pulls out a gun. Kokoroyomi begins to read him mind and repeats everything that Reo is thinking. Reo doesn’t like hearing it and points the gun at the child, but Narumi manages to slap it out of his hand while Tsubasa uses his Alice to hold back Reo’s men. Narumi is able to knock Reo to the floor and holds him by the throat, telling him to calm down and listen. Narumi says that “she” taught them that everyone has a place in the world and having an Alice is part of who they are. While it’s true the academy has many sides, it is a necessary place for Alices. If the academy can be changed by the students like the ones in the room, they should help each other and cherish friends. Reo says that it’s nothing but idealism, that students like Natsume are sacrificed and Natsume tells him that he never blamed anyone for his actions, because doing that would mean running away from your own decisions.
Reo starts talking to himself, telling himself to remember what “he” did to him and to remember all the pain “he” caused. Mikan doesn’t understand until Narumi tells her that Reo is using his own Alice on himself – which is forbidden. Narumi tells them that Reo doesn’t want to admit it was all a mistake while Reo keeps repeating “destroy” over and over. Mikan steps forward to help him, but Narumi stops her, saying that not even her nullification Alice will help him. Narumi hugs Reo, telling him that everything is all right. He says that his Alice is a brilliant gift and not to be so hard on himself.
All this time the sun has been moving across the room and Reo’s men manage to get away from Tsubasa’s shadow manipulation Alice. They grab Reo and Shidou puts up a barrier, allowing them all to escape in the air balloon. Mikan runs over to Narumi and he thanks her for coming to his rescue. He says that they may have to face difficult times and they may make mistakes, but if they believe in themselves and keep smiling, they’ll be all right.
With only one more episode to go, I’m not sure how this will end and I doubt things will be resolved fully, but it’s been very enjoyable.[/details]
I do think Mikan deserves her second star after what she did in ep. 25.
Ep. 26 - series final
[details=spoiler]Poor Mikan finds out the she failed the final exam. Though looking at some of the stuff they showed for their school work they seem to be already at High School level. Even worse news for Mikan she hears that Hotaru is going overseas. At first she wants to follow Hotaru but thinks should she follow her all her life. The scenes of Mikan stalking her to old age were funny. Was nice of Natsume to listen to her problems.
She decides to write Hotaru a letter but finds her room empty. A slow turtle does deliver a letter to her with info about her remake test. Several class mates offer to look for Hotaru but Mikan says its OK. It shows how much they like her that they search anyway. The big surprise her is Jino. When Sumire tells Mikan they found Hotaru he gives Mikan a hour bathroom break. Jino tells a surprised Narumi that he will give his idea a try.
Of course Hotaru is beating the rest of the class with no problem. It was nice even Natsume showed up to stall her. Mikan gets there is time and gives a nice speach about no longer following her and working to be her own person. Of course we find out she was never leaving anyway. Poor Mikan went through all that stress for nothing.
The big questions are never answers. What happened to her mother. Who is her father. What is going to happen with the anti-academy group. To get the full story guess we will have to read the manga. I really enjoyed this series and wished they had made more.[/details]
I was happy with the way this worked out, sort of like how it began, it seems like Hotaru is leaving, but turns out to be just a misunderstanding by Mikan, and apparently everyone else too. I agree, I could go another 13 or 26 episodes on this one if they wanted to run it, just to wrap up some of the unanswered questions and maybe see more character development from everyone.
One thing not addressed in the anime but I think is in the Manga is that Mikan has another Alice. It shows up later, but I think she develops the stealing Alice, which allows her to temporarily ‘steal’ the Alice of another person. Guess who she started working with upon that discovery… Anime version is much happier I think.
[quote=ShawnMerrow]
I do think Mikan deserves her second star after what she did in ep. 25.[/quote]
I agree, but I don’t think she got it. I think I saw that she was still wearing only one.
Episode 26 -
[details=spoiler]Mikan has failed her final and has to take a makeup exam, but her friends promise to help her. However, she’s worried about failing again and getting left back. Otonashi offers to foretell her test results and they did that funny dance again. Afterwards, Otonashi says that she sees both good and bad results and ends up telling her that it all comes down to hard work. She also mentions that Hotaru is leaving the academy, since she “saw” her working with a foreigner. One of the other kids says he heard that one of the students will be studying abroad.
Mikan runs to find Hotaru, but Hotaru is too busy to see her. Later that evening, Mikan can’t concentrate on studying and hears a knock on the door. It is Hotaru and she’s come to speak with Mikan. Mikan thinks that Hotaru will tell her that she is leaving, but Hotaru is only there to ask for the money that Mikan owes her and she’d like it by graduation. Mikan is upset that Hotaru won’t tell her that she’s leaving.
At the graduation ceremony, Narumi talks about Alices and promises to work with all of them to find out what an Alice is. He tells them they should go slowly and not rush into deciding what an Alice is and that there will always be friends to help them. I think the academy is finally starting to change from the inside as Narumi hoped it would. Maybe this is also because of Mikan. After he talks, Natsume notices that Mikan looks depressed.
When the ceremony is over, no one can find Mikan, but Natsume does. He calls her “Polka-dots” and asks her what’s wrong, while pretending not to care. But you can see that he really does. I’m glad he finally admitted some feeling for her to himself and realizes that he doesn’t have to be alone. She has been a good influence on him. Mikan asks him what he would do if Ruka ever decided to leave and Natsume replies that he wouldn’t do anything “because it’s something he chose to do”. She tries to thank him for his advice, but he brushes her off calling her “Polka-dots” again. I thought it was really funny that she blushingly informed him that she wasn’t wearing polka-dots that day. She runs off while he looks after her fondly. Again, he has changed so much, no longer afraid to let his feelings show.
Mikan starts to write Hotaru a letter and then decides that she can’t be without her after all. She starts to pack, vowing to go with her, then asks herself the meaning of friendship. She finishes the letter, but when she goes to Hotaru’s room to deliver it, Hotaru and all her things are gone. Hotaru left her a letter, but it only tells Mikan what to study for the test. She starts to cry and says “Your love is too hard to understand!” Mikan’s classmates show up and say that they will help her look for Hotaru, but she says that it’s fine – Hotaru is already gone and she has to study what Hotaru left for her. She runs from the room crying and the rest of the kids decide to find Hotaru anyway, so she and Mikan can say goodbye properly. This is really nice of them – they really care about Mikan too.
As they search, Mikan takes the test with Jinno, but she daydreams about Hotaru liking her smile. She tries to smile, but ends up crying, her tears falling onto the test paper. Sumire barges into the room and says they found Hotaru and the other kids are stalling her until Mikan can get there. Mikan stands and Jinno stops her, saying that she should have gone to the bathroom before the exam and that he’ll give her an hour. She leaves, but Narumi caught him being nice and Jinno says he’s decided to try things Narumi’s way. Again, I think because of Mikan. I think she finally got to Jinno as well.
Mikan runs to see Hotaru, but the kids stalling her can’t hold her any longer. Hotaru leaves, but they try to slow her down. Finally Natsume and Ruka appear and Natsume says that he isn’t stopping her, but she should at least say goodbye. He detains her just long enough so that Mikan catches up to them. She is able to tell Hotaru that she is letting her go, but she’s sad and worried about what will happen after she’s gone. However, she will stand on her own two feet and they will always be best friends. Hotaru calls her a dummy and says that she isn’t going anywhere. Mikan finds out that it’s another student that is going abroad and that Hotaru is only giving a research presentation to a group of foreigners (which fulfills the prophecy). Hotaru asks Mikan for her money, but when she says she doesn’t have it, Hotaru says that she can work it off and makes her carry all the stuff. The whole class looks really happy that they are together.
I thought this was going to be a little kid’s show, but it was surprisingly deep at times. I found the ending to be satisfying, but I too wish that they had answered a few more of the questions. This was also a good story with good characters and a nice mix of humor. I would definitely recommend it to others. I also agree with everyone else in that there was enough here to make the series longer, but it was still a very good show as is.[/details]
spoiler
I just finished the last four episodes last night and have to say that I really enjoyed this show. I did feel that the end was a bit anti-climatic, however I liked that it came full circle. Mikan’s parentage really wasn’t a focus for me. Of course, having all the questions answered would be nice, but Mikan didn’t seem to care who her parents were, so why should I? I liked that Reo was stopped by Narumi showing him human affection instead of by an Alice. It drove home the point that Alices are also human. I would have liked a little more elaboration about Natsume and his work for the Academy. Did they cease to be so demanding? The final episode was cute and I loved that it was just about their class. Because of Mikan, the class had come together as friends. Perhaps, for the Academy, change is on the horizon. I look forward to watching this again.
Reminder: This show expires from the Online Player on Friday, April 22.
It’s FREE to watch, so if you haven’t seen it, now’s the time!
Gakuen Alice Episode 18 - Halloween Clip
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###Review: Gakuen Alice (Sub.DVD - Complete Collection) [Anime Elements]
Jun 4th 2016 / by Rebecca Silverman / ANN
###Crunchyroll Adds “Gakuen Alice” to Anime Catalog
February 21, 2017 5:05pm CST
Title available today at 4pm PST
Funimation Adds Gakuen Alice Anime to Catalog
posted on 2021-09-14 14:00 EDT by Alex Mateo
Anime begin streaming on September 21