Gakuen Alice is a school where kids with abilities (called Alices, for some reason) can go. Indeed, MUST go. Some of the kids can make incredible inventions. Others can fly, or read minds, or whatever else you can think of. Some of these skills are useful, some useless, and some very dangerous.
Now, add a student with an Alice that can neutralize all of these, and make her cute, hyperactive, manic-depressive, and basically a lot like Sana from Kodocha. Now make her absolutely hated from day 1, make her best friend cold and friendly at the same time, and give her the ability to charm people to her side.
Now imagine how interesting this series would be. And it is. The story is, for the most part, very positive. It's got episodes with lots of drama and action, and others with comedy and stupidity. Indeed, it's much like school life, where different things happen every day.
The plot is quite good. It follows a format similar to Cowboy Bebop, where there's one story that sort of pops up here and there, but is actually the real story, while there's another series of shorter stories going on in the foreground. The only thing I disliked was the last episode, which I felt was so... misleading. And really not what I thought the last episode should have been like. But up through 25, the plot is excellent.
The main characters were fairly well developed. A couple of the teachers were quite developed. I think Natsume's story could have done with more concrete information, and less generalities and angst. But even with him, we got a feel for what his personality really was, and that it wasn't what we thought at first glance. Indeed, all of the main characters had complex and dynamic personalities, something I've been looking for in an anime.
The plot tries to make itself seem a bit deeper and darker than it is, with hints about "that girl", and yet we never really find out who "that girl" is, exactly. We finally get a few hints, but much of it is from other people's stories, which contradict, so it's hard to know exactly what to believe. And that leads to my biggest complaint about the series. They keep hinting about some thing that happened in the academy's past, and yet we never do find out what it was, or what the outcome lead to. As I understand it, it was some sort of revolt, but I have no clue what happened to the students who took part in it.
The art is quite good. I like the style, and it makes everything seem sorta... fluffy, if that's the right term for it.
The music was also excellent. I said in my review of Kiddy Grade that I liked the music for it, but this series is far better musically. I don't think I've liked a soundtrack this much since Prince of Tennis.
So, overall, a very good series. It suffers from false-drama syndrome, and a little from inconsistant-powers syndrome (i.e. people seem to gain/lose powers, or they work at times they shouldn't or vice versa.) But I still think it's quite sweet.
Art: 8/10
Music: 9.5/10
Characters: 9.5/10 (very distinct. all had interesting personalities.)
Plot: 8.5/10 (melodrama, inconsistant-powers. Overall quite good.)
Overall: 9/10 (If you want something light-hearted, with darker overtones, some sweet scenes, and amusing characters, this is the series for you.)
