Introduction – Down the Rabbit-Hole

Hello everyone, welcome to another blog post on my website, where I discuss games, anime, and manga consistently without any delays or breaks in between posts. A few weekends ago, I went to one of those barcades with a friend. The bar was holding an Alice in Wonderland-themed rave, which instantly caught my interest. So, I left my house on a Sunday night and drove for about 50 minutes to the bar to enjoy this sick rave. …Because I live in the suburbs in Florida, so any event is a 50+ minute drive from my home. Unfortunately, the rave itself was rather mild, and ○○ from a handful of people in costumes, it was essentially just paying a 15-dollar entrance fee for a regular bar visit.

That said, that leads into a topic I’ve wanted to talk about for a while, Alice in Wonderland. Specifically, I wanted to discuss the impact of Alice in Wonderland on Japan, its deep-rootedness in many anime/manga genres, and the numerous references that can still be found to this day. This is a topic I’ve drafted many times before, but never really completed, because I felt there wouldn’t be too much interest in it. Not to mention that it’s also a topic that’s been covered quite a lot before on a few other sites and research papers, and I felt that I’d just end up regurgitating the same information into your eyeholes. But thinking about it again, I feel there are still a few unique points I can contribute to and divulge into, and well…most of my posts are on topics with very niche appeal anyway. So bear with me, as we jump into this rabbit hole and discuss all this and more!

Chapter 1: The Pool of Translations

I’m not going to insult your intelligence by explaining what Alice in Wonderland is. I assume if you’re reading this, you’re already familiar with the story of Alice in Wonderland, either through the original 1865 novels or the 1951 Disney film. Instead, let’s talk about how Alice found her way in Japan. Lewis Carroll’s series of books was a cultural phenomenon worldwide, receiving translations into various languages and cultures. At this point in time, the story has been translated into about 175 different languages. But, by far, there are way more Japanese interpretations compared to any other language.

Japan absolutely loves these books, and if you’re someone who’s decently versed in Japanese media, you more than likely have noticed many references to these books in various anime or video games… Well, specifically the first two books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There; the other books are relatively lesser known outside of diehard aficionados. 

Alice first made her place in Japan in 1899. This was a part of a three-decade-long push to modernize Japan by importing foreign media on a massive scale. This came in the form of literature, films, artwork, and so on. With the import of so much Western media, a lot of Western ideals and norms came as well. A lot of traditional Japanese concepts like childhood, literature, and womanhood were challenged, and it was a turbulent time. The turn to the 1900s was a pivotal point in Japanese society, as many people felt their social structures, foods, medicine, language, and literature were changing rapidly. 

With that in mind, the first book to be brought to Japan was the second book, Through the Looking Glass, which was translated into Japanese by editor and literary critic Tenkei Hasegawa and published through the children’s magazine Shōnen Sekai. Don’t ask me why he started with the second book; I don’t know why, and no one else seems to know why either.

Like with much media that originates from Japan and is translated into English, when the original book was adapted for the Japanese market, many localization and adaptation changes were made. While Alice was indeed initially brought over to introduce Japanese people to Western cultures, they did localize things selectively and hand-picked which concepts they wanted to introduce to their readers.

Additionally, a lot of the history, Victorian cultural references, puns, and Carrollian wordplay made translating these works really hard, especially before the days of the internet, when our cultures were a lot less intertwined. And this is compounded by the fact that the target audience of these books was children who would have little access to outside cultures already. In fact, in the Meiji era, books aimed at kids were somewhat of a new thing in Japan, and Alice was seen as one of the pioneers of this. The first Japanese magazine that was aimed at children was released only the year prior in 1888, which was called Shōnen’en (Youth Garden), which focused a lot more on education. 

That said, some of the changes include replacing handshakes with bowing heads, the story was renamed from Looking Glass to Mirror World (鏡世界, lit. Kagami Sekai), Alice was renamed to Mii-chan, and a lot of the chess theming was changed to Go. This became an issue considering Go doesn’t have a queen piece, so Hasegawa instead replaced events in the latter chapters with events inspired by Japanese folktales. 

One of the more notable changes was regarding a poem about a carpenter and a walrus. In the original, the carpenter and the walrus lure a group of oysters off of an oyster bed against the elder oyster’s advice, only to eat them. In Mirror World, this was changed to a Buddhist-inspired song honoring the sun and the moon. 

Following Mirror World, Looking-Glass did not receive another translation until 1920, though, by then, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland had been adapted 13 times. The first translation that came out for the first book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, is believed to be Alice’s Story (アリス物語, lit. Arisu Monogatari) by Shizuo Nagayo (Under the pen name Sumako Matsui 須磨子). It was serialized in a magazine called Shōjo no Tomo from 1908 to 1909, and ran for twelve installments, with the first three being rough translations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, while the rest were Nagayo’s own original stories.

Thereafter, a ton of translations came out for both of Alice’s stories. A lot of these early translations focused less on preserving the nuances and wordplay of the original text and more on presenting the story in an entertaining way that was suited for Japanese children. As a result, like Mirror World, many of these translations were heavily localized and changed. The protagonist’s name was often replaced with a Japanese-style name, like Ai-chan (Maruyama Hakuyo’s Ai-chan’s Dream Story (愛ちゃんの夢物語, lit. Ai-chan no Yume Monogatari)), Ayako-san (Niwa Gorō’s Children’s Dream (子供の夢, lit. Kodomo no Yume)), Aya-chan (Saijō Yaso’s Mirror Country Tour (鏡國めぐり, lit. Kagami Kuni Meguri)), and Suzuko-chan (Suzuki Miekichi’s Underground World (地中の世界, lit. Chichū no Sekai)).

The first true translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Looking-Glass is cited to be done by Kusuyama Masao in 1920, entitled Wonderland – Part 1: Alice’s Dream  (不思議の國 第一部アリスの夢, lit. Fushigi no Kuni – Dai Ichi bu: Arisu no Yume) and Wonderland – Part 2: Behind the Mirror (不思議の國 第一部アリスの夢, lit. Fushigi no Kuni – Dai Ni bu: Kyō no Ura). Masao was quite a bit more faithful with the translations, as at the time, Japanese folk were a bit more familiar with Western terms. While older translations changed items like ham sandwiches to more familiar Japanese foods, Masao retained this by spelling the term out in katakana (i.e., ハムサンドイッチ, lit. Hamusandoitchi). 

Likewise, he also inserted words that Carroll had created, like “unbirthday,” “frabjous,” and “vorpal,” and wrote them in Roman letters with hiragana translation notes to preserve the rhyming, and Alice even got to keep her name (spelled as Arisu ofc). That said, some things were still changed. For example, in the later chapters, the Queen’s tarts were changed to a dish that a Japanese reader would identify with more, manjū.  

Another translation came in November 1927 by Kan Kikuchi and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, also called Alice’s Story (アリス物語, lit. Arisu Monogatari). Ryūnosuke Akutagawa was somewhat of a legend when it came to Japanese literature. Going by the pen name Chōkōdō Shujin, he was regarded as the father of Japanese short stories, and the Japanese premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is evidently named after him. His resume of works includes Kappa, The Three Treasures, and Rashomon and Other Stories, to name a few. Kan Kikuchi, also known as Hiroshi Kikuchi, on the other hand, was a Japanese author and publisher. He established the publishing company Bungeishunjū, a monthly magazine, and the Japan Writers’ Association. His resume includes Okujō no Kyōjin, Shinju Fujin, and Onshū no Kanata ni. 

While it was one of the lesser-known Alice translations, both of these writers had very unique writing styles, which set this translation apart. Akutagawa believed that the practice of literature should be universal and could bring together Western and Eastern cultures. This was seen in the way Akutagawa used existing works from a variety of different cultures and periods, and either rewrote them with, at the time, modern Japanese sensibilities, or created new stories using ideas from various cultures. The idea of culture and the formation of a cultural identity were major themes in several of his works. Kikuchi had many of the same ideals, taking influences from classic works from the West with specific preferences towards Irish literature. He was also outspoken about his opinion that Japanese literature is not as popular due to the inaccuracies of translations. 

That said, these two authors were essentially a dream team and brought their unique perspectives and interpretations into how they translated Alice in Wonderland. As a book based on Western culture, you can imagine that for a Japanese reader, the story could be greatly enhanced when it’s adapted by people who are intimately familiar with the culture being represented. Think of it like the dub of Panty and Stocking, which was heavily inspired by American cartoons—when localized by Americans, the dub had the potential to feel even more authentic, playful, and culturally resonant than the original script. While not exactly the same scenario, with Alice, the blend of literary sensibilities from both Kikuchi and Akutagawa allowed the translation to resonate more deeply in Japan. So it’s a bit sad that there’s less coverage on this version. Though for a more depressing reason, it’s significant as it was also one of Akutagawa’s final works, as it was released in the year of his suicide, leaving Kikuchi to complete and publish the translation after his passing.

The title “Fushigi no Kuni no Arisu” (不思議の国のアリス) was likely first used in 1929 in an academic piece with annotations by Nagasawa Saisuke, published as part of the Shoto Eibun Sekai Meicho Zenshū (World Masterpieces in Basic English) series. As a standalone book, the first usage of the title is likely Kiichirō Ōdo’s translation published by Kin no Hoshi-sha in 1934. For a while, both “Fushigi no Kuni” (不思議の国)  and “Fushigi no Kuni no Alice” (不思議の国のアリス) were used interchangeably as titles for the book, but eventually, Fushigi no Kuni no Alice became the industry standard.

After World War II, a whole surge of Alice translations came out for both stories, and as of 1998, there were 150 different versions of both Alice stories, including adaptations and abridged versions. Even to this day, you can find many different editions of Alice with different combinations of translators and illustrators.  

Chapter 2: Alice’s Evidence

Okay, so now that you know how this cursed blonde lil bean made it to Japan, let’s discuss why people resonated with her. There are a couple of different reasons for this, but the most obvious one is accessibility. Not only was it something enjoyable for young kids, but it also appealed to many adults. Not to mention, with the various adaptations and translations, there was always something for anyone of any reading level. While the translations and localizations may not have been the most faithful or true to the original, they did a good job at appealing to their target audiences. Not to mention the interests it sparked in British-style tea parties and themes of surrealism.     

The books were really accessible, but they particularly appealed to women and girls. As I mentioned before, Alice’s Story was published in a girl’s magazine called  Shōjo no Tomo (Girl’s Friend), and even the translator’s pseudonym, Sumako (須磨子), was a woman’s name. In 1918, the first female translator, Kako Yuko, ended up producing her own translation of Alice in Wonderland, which was published in a magazine aimed towards adult women. And through the years, women translators became more and more prominent in the space.

Beyond just the translation itself, though, Alice also brought over to Japan a different perspective on a woman’s role in society. For example, Alice’s more assertive behavior, like arguing with royalty, ran counter to the Japanese norms for women and children at the time. Japan’s exposure to Western perspectives through stories like Alice in Wonderland brought the idea that women can be prominent in society as well, similar to Queen Victoria. The overarching push was for women to assert themselves in society more publicly, and men played an active role in opening more opportunities for them, in particular, access to education. 

All of this isn’t solely attributed to Alice in Wonderland, but those Western perspectives combined with the overall Japanese cultural shift led to a change in the conception of womanhood, and led to changes in how women were portrayed within books. At this point, the idea of a woman’s role culminated in three ideologies: the New Woman (shinfujin), the Good Wife/Wise Mother (ryōsai kenbo), and the Modern Girl (modan gāru).

The popularity of Alice in Wonderland also coincided with the creation of a media image of idealized girlhood, shōjo (少女), in the late 19th and 20th centuries. In earlier times, women were children, then became brides. But now society recognized the intermediate stage when girls from the middle and upper classes were students. And to appeal to this new readerbase, several magazines in this new shōjo genre were created, such as Shōjo-kai (少女界, lit. Girl-World) in 1903, and Shōjo Sekai (少女世界, lit. Girls’ World) in 1906. This ultimately became foundational to the kawaii aesthetic, which grew and expanded to various trends such as moé. 

Another thing about Alice that appealed to Japanese readers was that it allowed people to explore a world that was an escape from their rigid social structure. The story followed a young Victorian girl who was expected to be the model good girl, ready to grow up and be a good wife and mother, and not be concerned with fantasy or adventure. She was not supposed to be able to seek out adventure or escapism, so when Alice manages to escape into Wonderland, a land full of adventure that functioned completely counter to Victorian beliefs, where she’s not expected to fill a specific role, many Japanese people latched on to this, especially the youth. 

Earlier, I mentioned how Alice’s assertive behavior, like arguing with royalty, ran counter to Japanese norms of women and children. To delve deeper into that, you had the Queen of Hearts, who was aggressive and domineering, and expected Alice to follow her lead simply because she was in a higher position of power. In the Victorian era, the idea of a child not listening to authority would have gotten beaten, which is embellished in Alice in Wonderland by the Queen threatening to take Alice’s head. But Alice standing for herself was seen as liberating and empowering. It let Japanese youth feel that they could be heard in an adult society and felt like they had a voice. It displayed a child’s view of adult hypocrisy and self-importance, and let the youth know it was okay to be a child. 

This desire to escape the rigid constraints of society is also what inspired the isekai genre. Technically, the genre existed long before in the form of folktales and ancient literature, but Alice in Wonderland, along with other Western works like The Chronicles of Narnia, Peter Pan, and The Wizard of Oz, helped lay the blueprints and served as precursors for modern isekai such as Inuyasha, Spirited Away, and Magic Knight Rayearth, to name a few. 

Given how popular—and some might even say oversaturated—the isekai genre is today, the desire to break free from society’s shackles and escape into another world remains an evergreen and enduring theme. It’s a message that still resonates—not just in Japan or Victorian Britain, or even solely with children. On a personal level, with the current state of the U.S., the societal climate, expectations, and an ongoing sense of not quite belonging in the world around me, the overarching themes of the Alice books hit especially close to home. It gives people the sense of feeling like they don’t have anything holding them back from the life they want to live, and gives them a chance to start over with their current knowledge and build a better life. 

Lastly, I would be remiss to not mention another big factor in the popularity of the books. Alice’s sense of fashion, or more specifically, the Victorian era dresses and fashion sense, also known as “lolita fashion.” This type of fashion is characterized by calf-length dresses and pinafores, adorned with accessories such as Victorian frills, gloves, and parasols, and focuses heavily on cuteness and modesty. The character Alice was seen as the spitting image of eternal innocence and beauty in Japan, and so it resonated with women in Japan, growing its subculture. 

Lolita emerged as a subculture in the Harajuku district of Tokyo as a way for younger people to rebel against Japan’s idea of gender roles and the expectations of each respective role, almost kinda like the gyaru subculture. The outfits themselves could be seen as a way to escape adulthood, by dressing up in an outfit worn by a character meant to represent the beauty of youth. They could also be seen as a way to escape into a fantasy world, or… a “wonderland.” An ideal world can be created in which one could express oneself freely without the burdens of society.   

The Lolita fashion trend can also be seen in fashion brands such as Emily Temple Cute, who even had a collection in 2009-2010 simply called Wonderland. As well as SO-EN (装苑), one of the oldest fashion magazines in Japan. It ran a 22-page Alice-themed fashion spread in 2007. You can also see various characters in anime and games repping this style, most prominently being Celestia Ludenberg from Danganronpa, who sports a gothic lolita dressing scheme, and is even sometimes referred to as a “loli” in the Japanese games. 

The Lolita fashion trend trickled into both real-world fashion trends and anime character designs. In fact, in the realm of anime, the short-hand term “loli” gained a lot of popularity amongst otaku via series such as Creamy Mami and Minky Momo. Furthermore, it is stated that the first ever use of the term “Lolita Complex,” or the shortened form “lolicon,” originated from a June 1974 issue of Bessatsu Margaret, in a work called Stumbling Upon a Cabbage Patch, which is based on Alice in Wonderland, a character describes Lewis Carroll as a man with a “Lolita complex.” 

The term later on became a self-describing term used to describe dudes who were fans of shoujo anime. Not unlike how people use the term “brony” to refer to dudes who are fans of My Little Pony. Interestingly, mangaka Hideo Azuma also coined other similar terms such as Heicon (Heidi Complex) and Aricon (Alice Complex), but over time, they all kinda just became enveloped under the one umbrella. 

Though, since I’m bringing it up, I need to mention that my intent is not to endorse or glorify such content, but to explain and discuss its origins and relevance within the context of Alice in Wonderland’s influence on Japanese popular culture; this is presented purely for educational and historical purposes.

Chapter 3: The Mock Otaku’s Story

Anyways, let’s talk more about specific Alice in Wonderland references and adaptations in Japanese popular culture. For one, the name Alice (Arisu) became widely used in Japan from the 1920s onward, thanks to the popularity of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Over time, people have documented about 135 different ways to write “Arisu” in kanji—even though not all of those forms necessarily originated at the same historical moment. Some include 彩里寿, 亜利珠, and 安理洲.

Also, in Japan, they have many Alice-themed locations, such as the Alice Hotel & Healing Spa, which is decorated with checkerboard patterns, teardrops, and flower patterns. There also exist several restaurants themed after Alice in Wonderland. Like Alice in Magical Land in Shinjuku, Alice in a Labyrinth in Ginza, Alice in a Picture Book in Shinjuku, Alice in an Ancient Castle in Ikebukuro, Alice in a Fantasy Land in Osaka, and Alice in the Silver Screen in Nagoya.

Next, there’s the 52-episode 1983 anime series called Alice in Wonderland made by Nippon Animation, best known for their 1999 adaptation of Hunter × Hunter. This one is based on the original books rather than the Disney adaptation, you can tell because she wears a red dress instead of a blue one! In this series, Alice is guided by a bunny named Benny Bunny into Wonderland, and unlike the books, where it is one continuous adventure, it’s an episodic series where Alice returns to her world at the end of each episode. 

Then there was a short 1988 anime called Alice in Wonderland made by Walker’s Company, which is more or less a picture book. This was more or less a direct adaptation of the books, and only really features one singular voice actress doing all the voices and narration.

After that, there was a 10-minute-long anime from 2000 called Alice in Wonderland, wow, who would have guessed. This one was created by a studio called Keep and features a pretty cute chibi art style and storybook-like narrations. This one is very clearly aimed at very young children. 

Then there’s the 1996 anime series called Alice in Cyberland, which is an adaptation of a PSX game of the same name. The story follows a redheaded girl named Alice, along with her comrades Miss Catnick, Leina, and Julie are pulled into this world called Cyberland by a goddess named Lucia and told to defeat the evil Cybernackists from deleting everybody’s memories. Sadly, it was canned after only two episodes.

After that, there’s Miyuki-Chan in Wonderland, a manga series written by the manga group CLAMP in 1993, which was responsible for other popular series like Magic Knight Rayearth and Cardcaptor Sakura. The story follows Miyuki on her way to school, but as she’s running, a bunny girl skateboards by and enters a portal. Miyuki ends up falling in and wakes up in Wonderland. The main difference between this and Alice in Wonderland is the fact that all of the side characters are scantily clad women representing these characters, and all the characters want Miyuki for themselves. The show is very sexual. 

Then there was Manga Fairy Tales of the World, a 127-episode-long anime anthology series produced by World Television, TBS Britannica, and Dax International based on fairy tales, legends, literary classics, and famous characters’ biographies. Episode 67 of this series is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, and a fun fact, the OST for this series was composed by Koichi Sugiyama, the late composer for the Dragon Quest series. The scriptwriter of the show was also Takeshi Shudo, the headwriter of Minky Momo, but is probably best known for his work on the Pokémon anime as well as Martian Successor Nadesico. 

In 1999, there was Alice SOS, a Japanese anime television series animated by J.C.Staff. It follows a guy named Takashi who loves reading books, especially Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. He buys some used books, and he finds a book called The God of Math, M-1. Takashi is told that Alice has been kidnapped, and he is asked to rescue Alice by M-1. So, uh, he goes and rescues her.

After that, there’s Key Princess Story: Eternal Alice Rondo, a magical girl series made by the manga group Kaishaku. It follows an elite group of girls called Alices who fight in a Wonderland in order to steal each other’s “hidden stories.” When all of the stories are gathered, they will form the legendary third volume, “Eternal Alice,” and the possessor will be granted one wish. So, it’s basically like Dragon Ball.

In 2012, there was a manga series called Alice & Zoroku, where an orphan named Sana Kashimura has a magic power called Dreams of Alice, where she can turn things from her imagination into reality. She belongs to a research facility and is used as an experimental test subject, and is nicknamed “Red Queen” due to her immense power. After escaping, she meets a grumpy old fart named Zoroku, who eventually adopts her as his granddaughter as they grow close during their time together.

Then there was a 1 episode OVA called Alice in Deadly School featuring a group of young girls who are planning their escape from a school that is overrun by zombies. It’s not really an Alice adaptation outside of the name alone.

Lastly, there’s Pandora Hearts, the most popular Alice in Wonderland adaptation. It tells the story of fifteen-year-old Oz Vessalius, who is unjustly banished to the Abyss, a terrifying alternate dimension filled with monstrous beings called Chains. In the Abyss, he joins forces with a mysterious Chain named Alice, whose nickname is “Bloodstained Black Rabbit,” and members of a clandestine organization known as “Pandora,” to investigate the truth behind his banishments and explore the Abyss.

There was a 2015 movie called Alice in Dreamland, an indie short film by Mari Shimizu, one of the most popular doll artists, and Kentaro Hachisuka, the director of the popular film “Santa Claus Has Arrived.” The movie was created by photographing ball-jointed dolls and using a combination of flash and cut-out techniques on a computer. It has a really unique style compared to all of the other anime in this section, and worth checking out for that alone. Otherwise, it’s a direct retelling of the novel.

There was an Alice in Wonderland Picture Book manga by Sakura Kinoshita in 2006. It features a really cute art style, and is made even cuter by the fact that Alice features a different design in each chapter of the manga. 

There was also an official Disney-made Alice in Wonderland manga created by Jun Abe, which adapts the 2010 Tim Burton film. There’s also Alice in Wonderland Anthology, which features short stories by several different manga artists, such as Marumikan, Yoshino Satsuki, Kuwahara Souta, Komeyama Shiwo, Akai Higasa, Suzuki Jirou, and Nohara Yuta.

Then there’s Alice ∞ Wonderland by Takako Tanaka. This manga follows Aya Saitou, who is in a town with a lot of strange disappearances. One day, she disappears as well when she falls down a toilet and ends up in Wonderland. Here, Aya becomes Alice and fights crime and saves the land. This is a lot darker in tone compared to many of the other adaptations mentioned here. 

There’s Are you Alice? by Ikumi Katagiri and Ai Ninomiya. A dude gets sucked into Wonderland and goes by the name Alice. In this manga, the Queen of Hearts forces Alice to play a game where he must kill the White Rabbit.

Then there’s I am Alice, a manga by Ayumi Kanou, where a dude named Makoto ends up in Wonderland and swaps bodies with Alice. The story mostly follows their journey in guiding Makoto back to his world and into his own body.

There’s Boy Alice in Wonderland by Tamayo Kobayashi, a genderswapped Boys’ Love version of Alice in Wonderland featuring a boy named Arisu who is sent to Wonderland and is mistaken for the real Alice and sent to be married to the Prince of Hearts. He eventually meets the real Alice, and from there, hijinks ensue. If you’re a big fan of crossdressing, this manga is a big recommendation. 

Then there’s Alice in Murderland by Kaori Yuki, which is one of the adaptations I hear people talk about the most. This series focuses on Stella Kuonji, one of nine adopted siblings in the affluent Kuonji family. One day, their parents announce that the children must now fight to the death within the next year, with the sole survivor will then be chosen as the family’s heir. 

Then there’s Wonderland by Yūgo Ishikawa, a very popular manga series and one of the few to receive an official English translation. This is a horror manga that involves everyone in the world being shrunken down and follows a girl and her dog, Poco, as they navigate their new world and eventually meet a swordfighter named Alice.

Then there’s the Alice in the Country of Hearts series, a visual novel/manga reverse harem series. There isn’t too much to say about this one; it’s a retelling of the books, but it has much more focus on romance and darker themes.

And there’s also Alice in Borderland, a manga by Haro Aso first released in 2010. This series was popular enough to receive an anime adaptation and a Netflix Live-action adaptation. It features a guy named Arisu Ryōhei and his group of friends running away from the cops in Tokyo until they enter a bathroom, and when the coast is clear, they leave it to see that all life is completely gone and realize they’re in a land called Borderland. They meet Saori Shibuki, another stranded player who explains the brutal rules of this new world, and the rules in question turn out to be a death game. It’s like Squid Game before Squid Game was a thing. 

Lastly, we have the best adaptation, Alice in Sexland! An H-manga by Juubaori Mashumaro. It features a girl named Alice who is being chased by bad men until she falls down a hole. When she reaches the bottom of this hole, she meets a cute bunny girl and learns she’s fallen into Sexland. This is basically another straight adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, but with a lot more BDSM, sex, and other explicit material, and also features pretty nice art…or so I’ve heard… 

Outside of straight adaptations, many anime series include references and nods. Examples include the Ciel in Wonderland episode of Black Butler, the Code Geass OVA where the characters act out the novel, and the ending of episode 287 of Bleach, which features Rukia dressed as Alice.

Other Alices appear across various series. Examples include Alice McCoy from Digimon, Alice Carroll from ARIA, and Arisu Sakaguchi from Please Save My Earth. In Project ARMS, all of the ARMS are named after characters from Alice in Wonderland. Additional examples include Alice Mizuki from Serial Experiments Lain and Morino Korisu from Gushing Over Magical Girls, who goes by the alias Nero Alice.

In games, the most popular one is the character, Alice Margatroid, from the Touhou Project series. Her first name is quite literally just “Alice.” Her last name, Margatroid, is derived from Murgatroyd, which comes from Miss Murgatroyd from Agatha Christie’s book A Murder is Announced. The last part about her surname isn’t really relevant, but I just thought it was neat. 

Touhou’s Alice is a youkai magician who controls dolls and lives within the Forest of Magic. Furthermore, the majority of the enemies fought in TH5’s extra stage, where Alice first appears in are card soldiers, similar to the ones that appear in the Disney movie, and the music that plays during this extra stage is literally “Fushigi no Kuni no Arisu.”

Additionally, the location that the Touhou series takes place in, Gensokyo, directly translates to “Fantasy Land,” which can be interpreted as “Wonderland.”

When designing Alice, ZUN stated that he originally based her on Alice, a demon that appears in the Megami Tensei series. In that game, her signature move “Die For Me!” draws direct inspiration from the book, featuring spear-wielding card soldiers. Her Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE attack, “Mad Tea Party,” also takes inspiration from the book as it references the chapter where Alice meets the Mad Hatter and March Hare.

ZUN also based this character on the necromancer named Alice from Asura Blade: Sword of Dynasty.

Moving on, if you’re a fan of VNs or eroge, you have no doubt heard of the company called AliceSoft. The name kind of speaks for itself, and their mascot Alice-chan is directly based on Alice from the Alice in Wonderland book series. Alice-chan appears in the menu screens of most AliceSoft games and does a variety of things, such as welcoming the player, providing developer notes, or explaining menu options. She’s also frequently accompanied by a black crow named Yukichi.

There’s also Dark Alice, a dark doppelganger who first appeared in Alice in Kaeru nyo Land, and has appeared in AliceSoft’s Rance series from every game starting from Rance 5D. 

There’s also a separate character named ALICE (in all caps), who appears in AliceSoft’s Rance series, who serves as the goddess worshiped by the AL Church. 

In the Mario series, when eating mushrooms, Mario can grow and shrink in size; this is a direct reference to how Alice grows and shrinks in size from drinking potions. Also in the Mario series, specifically Mario 64 and Galaxy, Mario is often tasked with chasing down rabbits for stars or keys.

Furthermore, there are a lot of themes of inanimate objects that are alive and underground travel in the Mario series. Not to mention that Princess Peach’s ability to float in the air with her dress is based on Alice floating with her dress.

Additionally, in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the Adventure Dress is based on Alice’s dress. It’s a floofy blue dress with pinafores, featuring playing card suits as designs for the dress.

In Super Danganronpa 2, the stuffed rabbit, Usami, is a reference to the white rabbit that appears in the books. Additionally, Usami is responsible for transporting the students to the island that the game takes place on, which is later revealed to be called Jabberwock Island, a reference to Through the Looking-Glass, the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

In the Kingdom Hearts series, you can travel to various Disney locations, and the most relevant one here is Wonderland from Alice in Wonderland in the first game.

There’s also the game, Alice’s Paint Adventure, for the Super Famicom, based on the Disney movie. There is a story mode, a painting mode, and Midway-style games, and it also supports the Super Famicom Mouse. 

Last but not least, there’s the arcade isometric platformer called Märchen Maze developed by N.H. System and published by Namco in 1988. ○○ from arcades, it was ported to PC-Engine, Sharp X68000, Wii, PS4, and Switch. This game is notable for being the first ever video game adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.  

Conclusion: The Mega’s Croquet-Ground

I could go on forever, but you get the idea: the Japanese love Alice—and so should you! It was a huge cultural phenomenon when it first came out in Japan, and it’s still beloved to this day, influencing many aspects of Japanese culture that people might not even realize. Beyond direct adaptations and references, it served as a building block for many genres and aesthetics that have since been adopted around the world. While Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass aren’t books I’d call my absolute favorites of all time, I have a ton of respect for them and for Lewis Carroll in general. I hope I’ve been able to show you just how important these works are through this article. And if I haven’t, I only wish I had more time to share more examples.

That said, I want to apologize for the long gap between posts. As I mentioned on the old site, moving everything over is a job and a half. On top of that, I’ve been busy with other things—my health, side projects, work… yadda yadda yadda, nobody cares! In any case, I hope you enjoyed this little article and that you’ll stick around to see what I have in store next. Just know that posts will probably be less frequent, with longer breaks in between. Still, I’m dedicated to bringing out more content whenever I can. I’ve got plenty of ideas brewing in this afro’d head of mine—so stay tuned, and thanks for bearing with me.

References: Advice from a URL

• Wonderland Wiki. (2023, October 15). Wonderland Wiki. Fandom. Retrieved from https://wonderland.fandom.com/wiki/Wonderland_Wiki
• Another Internet Nerd – Alice in Wonderland in Japanese Media. (n.d.). YouTube. https://youtu.be/jOw2q1FC8H8?si=N3EC49bIgAvcQvK1
• Burgess, Z. (2015, May 19). Alice in Wonderland in Japan. Anime UK News. Retrieved from https://animeuknews.net/2015/05/alice-in-wonderland-in-japan/
• The Yomiuri Shimbun (2023, January 11). Cultural viewpoints. The Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved from https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/editorial/cultural-viewpoints/20230111-83097/
• Hedlund, S. (2022, March 28). How “Alice” Grew Big in Japan [Blog post]. Deru Kugi (Medium). Retrieved from https://medium.com/deru-kugi/the-cultural-importance-of-arisu-a41ce1d1961
• Kennell, A. (2023). Alice in Japanese Wonderlands: Translation, adaptation, mediation. University of Hawaii Press.