魔法少女隊アルス the Adventure 02
Magic Girl Squad Arusu: The Adventure 02
Tweeny Witches the Adventure 02

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Alice greets the morning, calling her mother’s name and wondering how her mother (Yoko-san) is doing. She thinks back to how her mother doesn’t wake up to an alarm clock, leaving Alice to wake her up. A strong wind comes up and blows Alice off the rock outcropping she’d been on. She’s about to fall into the ravine below when she’s caught by a witch she’s never met before. The witch pulls her back up to safety but disappears before Alice can get her name, only leaving a bracelet behind.

At class, Sheila goes off on her young students, threatening to send them to the human world because they aren’t studying. The young witches flee in terror at this, leaving Sheila flabbergasted. Alice takes off to go find them and discovers five of them heading for the Palatium, where they’ve been told a mirror exists that will show them the human world. They want to see it for themselves to know if it is as bad as Sheila claims. Alice thinks of her mother and so goes along with the group to the Palatium.

Inside the Palatium, the young witches and Alice find an energy-filled giant panel but can’t see the human world. The witch who saved Alice earlier arrives and says her name is Toma, so Alice addresses her as “Toma-chan.” Alice hangs back from the “mirror,” so Toma shoves all five young witches into it. They are trapped and somehow, Toma knows Alice is from the human world. She plans to use the hostages as leverage but takes an attack from outside the room. This allows the young witches to escape.

Toma attacks the group, but Alice erects a barrier that completely repels the attack. Toma is stunned by this and more so by Alice’s breaking the seal on the door that had them trapped. Realizing that Alice is far more powerful, Toma traps the fleeing young witches and Alice by raising a drawbridge in the underground cavern. She then takes Alice’s powers, causing herself and the young witches to fall into the darkness below. Meanwhile, Sheila is out looking for the remaining students.

In their cage, Alice is about to show the young witches her breakout spell but she then discovers that she cannot perform magic. To their surprise, Toma shows up to free them. Toma promises to get Alice’s magic back and tells them to flee but before they can do so, Toma is attacked. The attacker is also Toma. “Bad-Toma” then binds Alice and because she has Alice’s power, she’s more powerful than “Good-Toma.” However, Good-Toma still manages to free Alice and the young witches, placing them in a giant bag that acts as a rail car, as it travels down some rail tracks (like mining tracks).

Bad-Toma recaptures Alice and has knocked out Good-Alice. Bad-Toma reveals that they are both Toma and that their real body has been sealed. Bad-Toma tells Alice that she will return her stolen powers if Alice unseals them, allowing the two Toma’s to return to their body. Meanwhile, the young witches are still in the bag-car and use their powers to get to safety outside of the mountain. They are found by Sheila and Eva, where they tell Sheila that Alice has been captured. Sheila and Eva race to where Alice is and stop her from unsealing Toma’s body.

Sheila explains that Toma is extraordinarily powerful, so much so that she has caused calamities and has been the cause of a war. After some evil witches placed evil in Toma’s heart, Toma requested she be sealed to prevent herself from doing evil but two personalities were born. After Alice hears the story, she now understands Toma and realizes that Bad-Toma was the one who saved her from the cliff. With Good-Toma now conscious, Alice talks with the two halves of Toma, telling them she believes in them that they won’t go out of control. As such, she unseals Toma’s body and the two “hearts” re-enter it.

Toma is now alive and whole when the Grand Master’s image appears. Toma acknowledges the Grand Master silently and the Grand Master returns the gesture. As such, Toma is allowed to live and will now serve Ateria. Back in the city, she thanks Alice for what Alice did for her.

Thoughts/Review:

As I watch the intro to this episode (which is a simple musical interlude), I immediately just get caught up in the haunting beauty of that song and indeed all of the music in Mahou Shoujo Tai Alice. It happens every time I watch an episode, mind you and frankly proves that music can go a long way in setting a proper mood. Granted, this kind of music won’t be to everyone’s like (what is though?), but for me, I get caught up in its beauty, followed by the beautiful art in the series.

But I digress…

I rather like these one-shot side adventures of Alice, Sheila, and Eva. Had these been aired within the series, they would have been branded as filler and set aside. As OVA episodes done after the TV series completed, they are simply a delight to watch, returning to this magical world to see those other things that happened which had nothing to do with the TV series plot.

For this specific episode, I liked how we got to see a bit more of Alice’s mother, Yoko-san. One thing that’s never been clear to me is why she addresses her mother by her given name, even if she does add the “san” honorific to it. Her father is “Papa” so why her mother isn’t more respectfully addressed is a mystery. Still, the brief flashback to Alice on Earth sleeping with her mother and then waking her mother up is a nice touch.

Since it has been a while since I last saw an episode in this franchise, I’d forgotten how powerful Alice can be. I guess there’s something to be said for that kind of surprise.

The mild weakness of the episode was the explanation of Toma. After Alice unseals her, one would think that the Grand Master showing up might have a thing to say to Alice, even though all’s well that ends well. It was never stated, but maybe the Grand Master knew Toma back before her sealing.

Still, I can say I completely enjoyed this episode and hope to get to see the rest of the OVA series in the near future.