Title

Alice, the Railroad Tracks, and the Sauce Senbei

Aired

1999.09.01

• Summary version 1.0 by Kevin Lew, 2003.07.15

The day of the Cultural Festival was busy for everyone.

Nanaka was announcing the events in the morning. She said that the theme for this year's festival was "courage, friendship, and good times". (The Japanese words for these terms all start with the same sound, so it makes a fancy alliteration).

Ayanojou was at the tennis club, and all the girls were staring at him.

There was an announcement for the costume contest in the gym. All kinds of people went to the gym, including a white rabbit wearing a pocket watch, several playing cards with hearts on them, and a large smiling cat. One of them grabbed Akane, who was wearing a sexy sorceress's outfit. They asked if she was going to the contest, but Akane said that she was actually dressed for her club. But she went to the contest anyway.

Sae struggled to get to the magic user's club room, carrying all of the fortune telling materials. The sign of the door said, "Fortune telling and a sauce senbei, 100 yen".

However, a huge cardboard standup of Mizuha was placed directly in front of their door. It said, "Come this way!" and pointed toward the manga club. Sae thought that Takeo would be waiting. But nobody was inside except for a note that said, "I'll be back shortly" by Takeo.

Sae was talking to herself, and said that she couldn't mess up or this would disgrace the club. She tried to use magic on the cards, but she lost her concentration when she realized that Takeo wasn't there.

Takeo was complaining to Mizuha, saying that she was supposed to move the sign. Mizuha said that she did move it one centimeter. Takeo was going to yell at her, but then he looked at her breasts. Then he couldn't make any coherent sentences and left in shame.

When he left, the crowd of costume players passed by him. Akane was being carried around by several of the boys. Takeo didn't notice that one of the costume players was the mysterious female. She was dressed in a blue dress with a white apron, and she was carrying a stuffed animal rabbit. Instead of going to the gym, she walked in a different direction.

Takeo was trying to think of a way to get an advertisement. Takeo saw a puppet show where some magical girls were defeating some monster. Takeo screamed, "THAT'S IT!!", scaring many little children in the audience.

Sae noticed that nobody was coming in the room.

Then "Alice" entered. Sae thought that she recognized the face.

Sae said, "You're..."

"A customer," Alice interrupted. "Would you like more customers?"

Alice threw a 100 yen coin on the table. It spun and danced on the table.

Sae said, "You would like a fortune, right? Do you want to know about love, or--"

"Heads or tails?" Alice asked. The coin continued to spin on the table.

Sae decided to predict it, and concentrated with her magic wand. For some reason, the magic cards on the table flew up and began spinning and rotating in a pretty pattern. Sae was confused, but saw that the coin had landed on tails. She was going to give Alice a rice cracker, but she had vanished. The club room door was still closed.

Then a girl opened the door and asked if this was the manga club. She saw the spinning cards and got very excited, saying that it was so cool. They all went into the room and stared at the spinning cards. Sae was very embarrassed saying that she wasn't really ready yet, but they didn't listen.

Somebody had moved the cardboard standup of Mizuha to the right, so it was accidentally pointing into the magic club instead. Several guys went into the room thinking that it was the manga club.

Nanaka finished her duties with announcing and left for the club. But she saw Takeo sewing dolls in an empty classroom. Takeo told her that he was going to be busy so he asked Nanaka to take his duties.

While Nanaka was trying to get to the club room, she got kidnapped by the Film Club who wanted her for the debut. She told Akane to go do the club room instead. But some guys hitting on Akane pulled her into their club showing.

Meanwhile, Takeo was putting the finishing touches on the dolls. They looked just like the Magic User's Club, but very cute. They had match sticks for legs and arms. Takeo used magic on them so they would walk around waving a banner. Many girls thought that it was very cute, and the modeling club was jealous.

Ayanojou was being dragged by the drama club to their show. The tennis club wanted him to stay longer. He saw Takeo, and asked how their room was doing. Takeo said that he didn't go yet since Nanaka had switched with him.

Just then, Mizuha's cronies quickly confiscated the dolls saying that it was illegal advertisement (i.e., not approved by Mizuha). Takeo started complaining, and they decided to take him in for questioning.

Akane was performing karaoke when she ran into Ayanojou. Then Akane remembered that she had to go to the club. She said that she had to take Nanaka's place. But Ayanojou said that Takeo just told him that he switched with Nanaka.

Akane said, "Oh, then I don't have to do anything!" Then Ayanojou got dragged away before he could say anything else.

Meanwhile, the club room was packed with people. People were just staring at the spinning cards, wondering how it worked and how cool it was. Sae kept asking if people wanted to read fortunes, but they kept asking for rice crackers instead.

The line was getting huge because everybody wanted to see the cards. One guy in line was yelling, "Hey hurry up!" Then the other guy in front said, "Shut up! I'm still checking it out!"

A girl approached and asked what was inside that made such a long line. The girl at the end of the line said, "It's some kind of rice cracker performance thing."

They were debuting the new Film Club's movie.
(NOTE: This is exactly just like a real art film).

It showed Nanaka wearing a white dress. She was saying that she felt like she was at the end of the road. She was standing in the middle of a railroad crossing.

Then she was holding out a tomato. The railroad crossing signal was flashing. She said that a train was approaching, and a red light flashes. The light was like a squashed tomato, and the screen flashed a squashed tomato instead of the light.

The train passed by. Then Nanaka said that sometimes she just wanted to... Then as she crossed the track, somebody drew wings on her back (post-production animation). They spliced the film so that she looked like she was flying away.

The lights came on and the room was empty except for the club members themselves, and several people wearing all black clothes. They applauded quietly. Nanaka and the director were standing in front of the audience to discuss the symbolism of the film. By the way, the voice of the director is done by Junichi Satou, the real-life anime director of Mahou Tsukai Tai!.

Nanaka was humiliated to be part of such a stupid film. When she went outside, Ayanojou was being chased by both the tennis and drama club people. Ayanojou said that he had to go to another club room, but they weren't listening. He saw Nanaka, and he grabbed her hand (which made Nanaka very shocked and excited) and they both ran to hide in an empty room. Ayanojou and Nanaka laughed, but she started crying because she uncovered some feelings for him. Ayanojou apologized, as he realized that Nanaka still liked him. But Nanaka trying to cover up that she was crying.

Takeo had finally got out of the office with a million forms to fill out to get his dolls "legalized". They continued to walk around in front of Takeo.

Then Takeo ran into everybody else. They all quickly realized that Sae was in the room by herself all this time and they ran.

Sae was overjoyed to see Takeo and started running toward him. Takeo opened his arms to receive her, but Sae screamed, "Please cover for me!" and ran straight into the bathroom.

When Sae came out, she saw the little dolls still walking around outside. She got happy. Alice was watching too. She tossed another coin and began walking away. She quickly faded into nothingness. The coin read "heads" this time.

With all the club members there, things were a lot easier. Akane drew many boys to the room, and Ayanojou drew many girls. Takeo wore a swami hat, and was forced to be the person to put sauce on the rice crackers.

Nanaka (who wore a Chinese dress) and Sae yelled at people outside to come inside and see. On Nanaka's shoulder was the doll of Ayanojou, and Sae had the Takeo on hers. The other three were dancing around on the floor.

In the end, it was a great success. Takeo thanked Sae for all her help, but Sae said that everybody took part in it. Nanaka and Ayanojou had trouble looking at each other. That evening, as they left, Sae noticed that Nanaka was acting strange, but she said that it was nothing.

The two girls saw the archway that Sae helped paint being torn down. The next morning, Sae looked sadly at the wrecked arch that was sitting in the dumpster. Sae said in her letter, "And so ended the Magic Club's day for the Cultural Festival."

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