This week’s episode is a bit of a lame duck so just some quick thoughts after the jump. A story about Minli and her ramen shop could have been interesting. After all, her tiny business serves as the hangout for the NEETs. As a result, Minli should be a significant character. The key word here is ‘should.’ Really, this episode’s problem wasn’t the idea. Instead, the biggest problem was the fact that the creators didn’t even bother to take Minli as a character seriously. ‘Cause if they did, do you really think we’d be watching a “mystery” about an underwear designer stealing her sarashi? Oh, let’s not forget the preposterous reveal at the end about her father.
We didn’t even get a B-plot this week, much less an A-plot. We got a flimsy vehicle to show off Minli’s giant rack. That and to crack a few jokes about Alice’s flat chest. I can just imagine the people behind the anime salivating at the thought of this episode: “Finally! We can show off some T&A!” Either that or they think it’s time to throw the viewers a bone or two before they got too bored by the lack of fanservice.
And a bone(r) or two we got: Minli clad in nothing but a short towel, Minli in the shower, and the mental idea that some pervert might be sniffing Minli’s sarashi. There’s no doubt that someone’s going to tell me that this episode was fun! Yeah, yeah, apparently free pornography doesn’t exist — I really need to depend on mainstream anime to get my jollies off.
Finally, why does anime always have to be an apologist for the absentee father? A man can apparently abandon his daughter to some dinky ramen shop, but it’s all good — he shows up every once in a while to leave Minli a box of broth ingredients so that totally means he loves her. Nevermind the fact that he can’t connect to her on any personal 1-on-1 level except through ramen. As long as he makes some comment about how she can make him ice cream next time, it’s sweet and touching. We should all be so lucky to have such great men in our lives.
Stray Observations
• How much do you think Alice’s electric bill is?
Hell, who do you think is paying for it? What must it sound like in there with all the ambient machine noise? Or the temperature, even? Does she really sit on her ass all day? That could be dangerous, y’know — you could get embolism that way.
• More importantly, what does Alice do all day? Does she chat with people online? Does she get lonely? Where are her parents or the rest of her family? Does she have any long term goals or is she content to sit in this room for the rest of her life? These are the kinda things I want to know about — not about some weirdo underwear designer. After four episode, I just think it’d be nice to know a little more about our heroine.
• I wonder if this anime is forever content to exist in its own fantasy world where a brat pack can play vigilantism in a world of dangerous adults. I suppose that this anime isn’t a thriller, but then what is it? What am I suppose to feel when I watch this series? At the moment, all I really have a mild curiosity.
Moe Sucks 
Even with Lain we got an idea that she lived in a real world, with a schedule, a history, dependencies – I’m starting to lose patience with this show. On the other hand, Hanasaku no Iroha managed to drag its sorry ass back on track after a bad early fumble, so maybe tthis will too –
Yeah, I’m beginning to suspect Alice is just a cheap concept to draw in people’s attention, but no real legitimacy behind her character to keep me emotionally invested.
Alice is just there to… hell, I don’t even know. I really don’t get the point of this show. I mean not everything needs some grand arc, but there has to be some sort of character development to keep interest, which is an idea apparently foreign to this show. Bah, whatever, I’m just glad that I decided not to blog it.
This show’s problem is the complete lack of characters anyone can relate with. Narumi is your typical featureless hero, so it can’t be him. Usually, anime surrounds the boring shounen with colorful characters to compensate, but Alice feels more like a side character than a feature heroine.
He’s the featureless hero that wishes he had all the features of other series’ featureless protagonists. There isn’t a single character who really stands out. Alice would if she were given more focus.