A.LI.CE
Entry updated 15 September 2025. Tagged: Film.
Japanese animated film (2000). GAGA Communications Inc., Chūō Aitoz. Directed by Kenichi Maejima. Written by Masahiro Yoshimoto. Voice cast includes Ryō Horikawa, Mariko Kouda, Yūko Miyamura, Kaori Shimizu, Chihiro Suzuki and Fumihiko Tachiki. 85 minutes. Colour.
The film opens with teenager Alice Hayashi (Shimizu) and Maria (Kouda), a Robot waitress, pursued across the snows of Lapland by Cyborg soldiers on armoured motorized sleds.
Towards the end of the twentieth century, Alice's friend Yumi (Miyamura) had committed Suicide, despairing at the environmental destruction of the world; she talked of the "real sky", not the Pollution-afflicted one they see. Later, in 2000, Alice had won a flight to the Moon but the space shuttle (see Spaceships) crashed; the only survivor, she was rescued by the waitress on a motorized sled, to be pursued by the aforementioned soldiers. The two find a village, deserted save for a young man, Yuan (Suzuki), who tells Alice it is 2030 and the world is run by a Computer named Nero (see AI), whose troops removed the settlement's other inhabitants when he was a child, similar actions internationally having reduced the world's population to one billion. They find a news report from 2010 mentioning Alice: "history's youngest astronaut and the world's greatest Japanese teen idol", hospitalized following her husband's death in a War.
As Nero is based in Kingdom (formerly Japan) they travel there by trans-Siberian train, hoping to find answers, only to be captured en route by the Liberation Forces who oppose Nero. Alice is told she is "Nero's mother" and the group's leader, Nicolai (Tachiki), explains they had built a "time transportation" device to bring her here (see Time Travel) as she is needed to crash the SS10X, the computer built by Nero to control all the computers on Earth: Yuan asks why they do not use their Time Machine to kill Nero before he came to power, but is told that would only cause Time Paradoxes. The Alice who gave birth to Nero (Horikawa) fell into a coma, and he connected her to the SS10X. Thus anyone with the same brainwaves can hack it: Alice is coerced into doing so, and turns off the security at Nero's base, enabling Nicolai's forces to enter. However, Yuan and an upgraded Maria rescue her, which brings Nero's security back on line; the intruders are wiped out. Alice, Yuan and Maria escape on the space shuttle (in which the time machine is installed) and travel to Nero's headquarters, as Alice wants to know why her son-to-be wants to control the world. Alice meets him, sitting on a throne under SS10X – a huge Steampunk-style edifice which contains his mother. Nero says he only created it so he could talk with her, but its Prime Directive was "to restore the real sky to Earth", so it took over the world's computers and reduced Earth's population to one billion. Alice points out that SS10X is not following her wishes, but Yumi's; despite her friend's words making a big impression on her, she had never thought population control (see Overpopulation) was the answer.
Nicolai now appears, announcing his intention to use the time machine to make a better world – something to be achieved by imposing himself throughout history (concerns about time paradoxes seem to have been dropped). However, knowing Nero/SS10X would be capable of building their own time machine to frustrate him, he kidnapped the 2010 Alice so he could overthrow them. SS10X and Nicolai fight and destroy each other, with Nero also dying; Alice uses the space shuttle to return to 2000 and "give birth to Nero and help build a world Yuan and Maria can enjoy in peace". Maria and Yuan go to find Yuan's parents as Maria has discovered they were forcibly relocated, not killed (muddying the waters on how the population reduction was achieved).
A.LI.CE is historically noteworthy as the first completely CGI animated Anime and seems intended as a showcase for the format. This focus may be why the characterization is somewhat Clichéd – Yuan is angsty but good-hearted, Nicolai has an evil beard and chuckles evilly – whilst the continually shifting plot, though interesting, seems shaped by the need to link the set-pieces rather than being narratively driven. Unfortunately, A.LI.CE was a little clunky even for 2000 CGI, though perhaps reasonably impressive on release; owing to the speedy advance of the technology it quickly became dated, with visuals resembling a cheap computer game. Decades later, the gulf is such that the character modelling looks closer to puppetry than contemporary CGI, though sometimes a sense of how arresting the big scenes might originally have been can be felt. Nonetheless, just as 1920s animation can still be enjoyed, perhaps a similar shift in perspective can allow A.LI.CE to be appreciated. [SP]
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