Kagihime Monogatari Eikyuu Alice Rinbukyoku – 01 - Random Curiosity (2024)

OP Sequence

OP: 「Little Primrose」 by kukui

Summary:
Kirihara Aruto, a student/writer whose favorite story is Alice, sees a costumed girl jumping across rooftops. Identifying her as Alice, he chases after, all the way to the school library where he finds her battling another girl. The apparent victor, Alice sticks her blade – a key – into the other girl’s chest. Alice explains that she’s opening the girl’s heart so that she can read the girl’s story. Indeed, pages appear and form a book in Alice’s hand. After Alice tears a few pages out, which in turn tears the other girl’s clothes, the book and the girl both disappear. Aruto starts to question Alice, but a bell’s ringing signals that it’s time for her to make her escape. Confused, Aruto goes back home and finds his sister Kiraha, who waited outside for him to come back.
Attending school the next day, Aruto notices that the library shows no signs of the previous struggle. But just as he’s thinking about Alice, she appears beside him, wearing the school’s uniform. She’s curious about why he was able to enter the Melway Space (which freezes everything around during a battle except for people with Alice-abilities). Of course, Aruto has no idea what she’s talking about, and the two go outside after making too much noise in the library. They two share an embarrassing moment where they find that they’ve been holding hands, and then Alice explains she’s fighting and gathering for the Endless Alice, a story which resides in the minds of various Alice-abilitied girls. Because of Aruto’s apparent powers, Alice asks for his help. Before he can answer, she starts to run off, but tells him that her name is Arisu, not Alice.
Aruto invited Arisu to his home, much to the chagrin of his sister Kiraha, with whom he had forgotten a promise to go shopping. Kiraha’s attitude causes a bad mood over tea and cake, so Arisu takes her leave. However, when she reaches the town square, everything freezes. Aruto, who chased after her, sees her transform and face off against Kiraha, who apparently has the same powers. The two start to fight, and Arisu manages to stab Kiraha in the chest with her key. But Kiraha’s pleas to her brother cause him to pull the key out. After hearing Kiraha tell her brother that she was doing it all so that he could read the story, Arisu decides that the three of them should work together to collect the pieces. Much to the surprise of Aruto, Kiraha accepts the offer.

ED Sequence

ED: 「記憶薔薇園」 (Kioku Bara En) by 清水愛 (Shimizu Ai)
Simply put, I don’t particularly like either OP or ED. The OP sequence shows the characters and the ED sequence shows a bunch of images of various girls in various getups (perhaps future characters?).

We have here a main character Aruto, who loves the story of Alice (and when they say Alice, I assume they mean Lewis Carroll’s two Alice stories). Both Arisu and Kiraha like him, both have Alice powers, and both are on a quest to find all the pieces of the Endless Alice story. After the first episode, the three are working together. Throw in an evil looking guy named Alternate L. Takion (how’s that for a name) and we have a plot, right? Uh huh…
I’m not sure if I’m supposed to take this series seriously or not. Certain parts feel way over the top, mainly the fanservicey moaning and the breast-enlarging transformation sequence. Plus, elements of this show really don’t feel that original: Keyblades and people’s hearts? See Kingdom Hearts. Melway Space stuff? Try Shakugan no Shana’s Fuuzetsu. The only thing remotely interesting is the Endless Alice story they’re searching for, something I doubt they’re going to reveal early on. As for the animation, it isn’t really good or bad – it’s palatable. But there’s a reason this show is filed under Miscellaneous, and that’s because it just isn’t good enough overall to keep blogging (Tuesdays are quite busy as is). Having said that, I’m considering watching this show just for kicks, cause I did laugh quite a bit at all of the aforementioned parts. And the preview has Kiraha’s friend pining for her. Just what this show needs, some shoujo-ai…