Fushigi no Kuni no Alice

Lore & Background

The series follows a young girl named Alice who follows a White Rabbit into a hole and finds herself in Wonderland, where she meets characters including the Cheshire Cat and the Queen of Hearts. The beginning of the series adheres more closely to the original novel, while later episodes adapt the sequel Through the Looking-Glass starting with episode 18. A notable departure from the books is that Alice returns to the real world at the end of each episode and goes back to Wonderland at the beginning of the next, with these transitions depicted as dream-like. The series also introduces original characters not found in Carroll's works, such as Benny Bunny.

Reader's Guide

Fushigi no Kuni no Alice is significant as a Japanese-German co-production that brought Lewis Carroll's works to anime audiences in the 1980s. The series introduced original characters such as Benny Bunny, Alice's rabbit companion who is the nephew of the White Rabbit and the only character not originating from Carroll's stories. The portrayal of the Queen of Hearts is notably more human than in many other adaptations, as she can be reasoned with and usually sends offenders to the dungeon rather than ordering beheadings. The series used two pieces of theme music for the original Japanese version, both sung by Tarako, who also voiced Alice. The series was later licensed by Studio 100 for an English release distributed by Dreamscape Media.

Did You Know?

• All 52 episodes were broadcast in Japan.
• Benny Bunny is one of several original characters created for the series that do not appear in Lewis Carroll's stories.
• The Queen of Hearts wears a pinkish-red gown with white trim and has a sloping, pointed nose, contrasting with her Disney counterpart's red and black gown.
• The Japanese opening and ending songs were both sung by Tarako, who also voiced Alice.

Production & Broadcast History

Produced as a Japanese-German co-production between Nippon Animation and Apollo Films, Fushigi no Kuni no Alice aired on TV Tokyo and other regional stations across Japan from October 10, 1983, through March 26, 1984. The series was designed as a full 52-episode run, yet only half of those episodes—26 in total—were actually broadcast in Japan and in the United States. This partial airing meant that viewers in both countries experienced only the first arc of the show's narrative, which closely tracked Lewis Carroll's original 1865 novel. The international co-production model gave the series a broader distribution footprint, with European dubs receiving their own musical identity. Despite the truncated broadcast, the show managed to establish a complete character ensemble and a recurring adventure format within those 26 episodes, giving audiences a self-contained experience of Alice's weekly forays into Wonderland before the story would have shifted toward the sequel material.

Narrative Structure & Source Material

The series employs a distinctive episode structure that sets it apart from most adaptations of Carroll's work. Each installment begins with Alice following the White Rabbit into a hole and finding herself in Wonderland, where she encounters a rotating cast of eccentric characters. At the close of every episode, Alice returns to the real world, and the transition back to Wonderland at the start of the next episode is rendered as a dream-like sequence, often requiring a moment for Alice to register that her surroundings have shifted. The first stretch of the show adheres faithfully to the 1865 novel, but beginning with episode 18 the narrative pivots to draw from Through the Looking-Glass, the sequel. This two-part source structure meant the 26 episodes that actually aired in Japan and the United States covered the complete first arc, while the remaining 26 episodes—produced but never broadcast in those markets—would have carried the Looking-Glass material. The format of weekly adventures, each resolving before Alice wakes, gave the series a comforting episodic rhythm.

Character Design & Departures from the Books

The show reimagines several of Carroll's characters in ways that diverge noticeably from both the books and other screen adaptations. Alice herself is drawn with red hair and a hat, wearing a red-and-white short-necked dress that echoes the silhouette of her Disney counterpart, though other characters describe her hair as blonde. The most significant addition is Benny Bunny, voiced by Masako Nozawa, a rabbit found inside a magic hat who turns out to be the White Rabbit's nephew. He is the sole character in the entire cast not originating from Lewis Carroll's stories. The Queen of Hearts, while retaining a Rubenesque build, wears a yellow dress and a sloping pointed nose rather than the flat face and red-black gown seen elsewhere; more importantly, she is portrayed as the most human version of the character, capable of being reasoned with and typically sentencing offenders to a few days in the dungeon rather than actual beheading. The Cheshire Cat, voiced by Issei Futamata, trades his usual sardonic wit for a bumbling, endearing personality, and the Jabberwocky is recast as a grumpy but fundamentally good-natured loner who occasionally helps Alice rather than threatening her.

Music & International Distribution

The series' musical identity shifted considerably depending on the audience. In Japan, both the opening theme, "Yumemiru Wonderland," and the closing song, "NAZO NAZO yume no kuni," were performed by Tarako, who also voiced Alice, creating a unified vocal presence across the show's audio identity. For European markets, the dubs received an entirely different score: a disco-style theme composed by Christian Bruhn, originally written with German lyrics under the title "Alice im Wunderland." This musical rebranding reflected the broader international distribution strategy of the Nippon Animation and Apollo Films partnership. The show also found a home in the Philippines, where a Tagalog dub was produced with Aya Beher voicing both Alice and her sister Celia. The fact that only 26 of the 52 produced episodes reached Japanese and American screens meant that international audiences experienced a condensed version of the series, one that covered the Alice in Wonderland arc in full but never reached the Looking-Glass material that had been scripted for the second half.

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