Alice the Wild: Special Double Review

As I write this review, this is the question on my mind: Which version is truer to Monkey Punch's original story? I have never read the manga, so I don't know the true answer. Part of me wants to say the Mankatsu version, because the whole show's shtick is to adapt stories that haven't been done before, so why adapt something that's been done correctly?
But I'm not 100% sure about that answer. When this comparison and review comes to an end, you can make up your own mind.

Episode 4

Episode 4 includes shady doctors, shady scientists, and shady cops. To shed some light on all three, please continue reading.

Episode 3

Okay, episode 3! We've got Mini Stages ending, Grand Stages starring afro'd Lupins, and more monkeys you can shake a stick at. Let's go!

Episode 2

It's Mankatsu episode 2!

Am I going to continue this post like it hasn't been five years since the last one?

Does the sun rise in the east?!

Without further ado, let's get this ball rolling!

Episode 1

We start out with very jazzy and mellow opening sung in English by someone who is Japanese.  The accent isn’t bad, but it’s not native, either.  Odd word choices also confirm that whoever wrote the lyrics is also Japanese. “If you won’t resist/I just might steal a kiss” doesn’t seem something like a native would say, and it is a very polite lyric considering we’re about to watch a show done by Monkey Punch.

Introduction

I’m going to be reviewing an anime called Mankatsu.  It actually has a longer name, but no one cares about that name and just calls it Mankatsu.  It’s made up of stories other than Lupin that Monkey Punch has done.  I’ll explain how all the episodes are divided up and then we’ll get into episode one.

The hour-long episodes always start out with part one of a gag starring Lupin and Co.  These are never voiced and are generally about the gang running from Zenigata and how they get away in one fashion or another.  At the very end of the episode, they appear again.  They bookend the show.

There are also very short cartoons interspersed throughout the show, some of them starring monkeys who do odd things and interact with the Lupin gang (in ways that have nothing to do with the gag from the beginning) and the monkeys can only say the word “Mankatsu”.  It’s weird.

There are also shorts about a travelling samurai; a man traveling/living in a hot air balloon; people who die stupidly; a cartoon about double entendres, and one about misunderstanding words so they end up being dirty.

The longer sections of the show are divided into the “Mini Stage” and the “Grand Stage”.  The Mini Stage features a story about 15 minutes long and usually tell a complete story over a three episodes, or at least they use the same characters.  The Grand Stage stories are 30 minutes and are stand-alone.

So, to sum it all up:

Opening theme song>>Lupin and Co. gag>>stuff about monkeys and other shorts>>Mini Stage>>more shorts>>Grand Stage>>Lupin and Co. Gag>>ending theme.

Also, some of the descriptions will be vague since the only subs available are French ones and I understand even less French than I do Japanese.

Let’s do this.