"Alice Schach and the Magic Orchestra" is a musical group in Japan, consisting of two members, Nene Akagawa and Yuni Minami. Their songs feature characters such as "Alice Schach" and they express various stories using their own language called "Alician". One of the main features of the group is that it is self-produced, with the members themselves taking charge of a wide range of aspects such as songwriting, arrangement, performance, video, and design, while inviting illustrators and animators for each song.
History[]
Group History[]
Before Alice Schach and the Magic Orchestra was made, Minami and Akagawa were in a group called "Lost in the Fog" in 2012.[1] Then, Minami and Akagawa made "Tokyo Babel" in 2013.[2]
A post written by Yuni Minami was written to address the design change from "Alice Schach and the Reminiscent Bibliotheca" to "SCHACH". He explained the reason for the change and her past.[3]
After the disturbance in the group, Akagawa and Minami starts to invite collaborators to make illustrations, animations or sound mastering for the songs. This includes:
- BURUKANIRO HAKASE (Teardrop del Rey, Wanderers)
- senobentoya (Kill My Fortune)
- LESLIE (Hyptonized)
- koneko mari (Children in the Ashes)
- GIVE ME! tomotaka (NEW GAME, Fushigi-Chan, KILLED BY ANGEL, character designs for SCHACH)
- tomoboP (Sound Mastering for NEW GAME)
- minmin (Endorphin)
- Zemyata (QUEEN FLY)[4]
- atlas (Life in a Plastic Bag)
- TNUP (Doppelgängers)[5]
- Eefoj (O, EAT YOU UP)
- YonedaRR (i am always wrong)
- DIVEL QREE (NO PARENTS)
Albums[]
Alice Schach and the Magic Orchestra (2014)[]
Alice Schach and the Magic Orchestra[6] was the first album made by Nene Akagawa, Yuni Minami, ARiKEM, and Chikuwamiel. The album consists of a total of three songs.
In this album, they introduced the protagonist: Alice Schach. Her design was complex: blonde hair with a long navy dress. Red shoes and accents on the rim of her dress. She also has blue leg warmers and a light blue long, flowy bow on her dress. She wears a navy bomber hat on her head with floral designs.[7]
This album can no longer be found as it has been archived due to misuse by external groups. This means there are no public sources available for these songs.
Alice Schach and the Frozen World Tree (2017-2018)[]
Alice Schach's design in "Alice Schach and the Frozen World Tree".
The album, Alice Schach and the Frozen World Tree, was released by the group of four on September 6, 2017. That same year, the official YouTube channel was created. The album consists of a total of twelve songs:
- Alice Music
- Brisk! -interlude-
- wonder world sketch
- ALQ
- A Witch of Ice Cage
- Friend
- Lost My Savepoint
- a Solitude Wanderer -interlude-
- the white land
- Acquazzone
- Frozen Tree
- Sno (_ _) oze & Sn (o_o) ze
Alice Schach's design was changed consecutively to this album being released.[7] A character in the album is introduced, Witch of Ice Cage.[8] The tracklist of Alice Schach and the Frozen World Tree is describes the story of Alice Schach warping into fantasy with her magic, finding the Witch of Ice Cage, and restoring the Frozen World Tree.[9] She is described as being a time traveler, being able to use her magic to warp though time and fantasy.
They produced CDs for this album and advertised it on shopping services.[10]
Alice Schach and the Reminiscent Bibliotheca (2019-2021)[]
Alice Schach's design from "Alice Schach and the Reminiscent Bibliotheca".
The group of four released their second album, Alice Schach and the Reminiscent Bibliotheca, on December 30, 2018. It has a total of thirteen songs:
- Maharajah
- Maze No.9
- Thirty Million Persona
- Apocalypse
- under wonder nights
- A Little Servant
- HOLIC
- Elysion's Old Mans
- Chocolate Missile
- Zukan
- Flyburg and Endroll
- End of Mythology
- Toys
The most popular song on YouTube of the album is Chocolate Missile, with around 730K views in 2024. Alice was given a brief description about herself along with her cat. She is able to play the piano and is described as being a wizard.[11] Her cat never leaves her side.[12]
There has been a few releases of official art regarding Alice Schach and the Reminiscent Bibliotheca. Many show her doing daily activities, her interests[13], and the detail that her cat is present everywhere she goes.[14] These artworks allow us to better understand her as a character.
Alice Schach and the Magic Orchestra: Piano Collection's cover art drawn by Hackto.
Consecutively, Alice Schach and the Magic Orchestra released Alice Schach and the Magic Orchestra: Piano Collection. It showcased piano covers of the group's past songs, yet only four were released, being Apocalypse (piano version), Chocolate Missile (piano version), ALQ (piano version), and Frozen Tree (piano version). These covers only exist unlisted on their Youtube account. The only way to access these covers is by going to the public playlist located on their account. These covers are made by Yuni Minami, playing at a slower, more soothing and soporific tempo and feel to the songs. Nene Akagawa sings a slower and more leisurely pace.
SCHACH (2021)[]
Official artwork drawn by GIVE ME! tomotaka showcasing all four of the main characters included in the 3rd album SCHACH.
Artwork made by GIVE ME! tomotaka for the new year of 2022. It illustrates common Japanese new year practices, such as Alice wearing a kimono, a traditional Japanese garment, and Heor holding an eggplant, which symbolizes good luck.
Unused cover art for the song "Popcorns Falling from Heaven" illustrated by GIVE ME! tomotaka. It shows Salatoga in his rabbit costume with the Alician word "Blawpelee" in the background, which means popcorn.
The SCHACH album was released on October 1, 2021. The protagonist was redesigned due to disturbances in the group.[3] The album has a total of eleven songs:
- NEW GAME
- Fushigi-Chan
- Kill my Fortune
- QUEEN FLY
- Endorphin
- Children in the Ashes
- Hypontized
- Dogma
- Psukhe
- Urxbxrxs
- Popcorns Falling from Heaven
They introduced new characters in this album such as Alishka[15], Heor[16] and Salatoga[17]. The most popular song on YouTube of the album is QUEEN FLY, with over 2.2M views in 2024, it is also the most viewed video on the channel overall.
Nene Akagawa and Yuni Minami wrote their process on making this album on their blog. Akagawa's blog post was where she walked about her process of making the lyrics and vocals.[18] On the other hand, Minami's blog post was where he talked about his process of making SCHACH with his roles as music production and lyrical assistance.[19]
Discography[]
- Alice Schach and the Magic Orchestra (2014)
- Alice Schach and the Frozen World Tree (2017)
- Alice Schach and the Reminiscent Bibliotheca (2018)
- SCHACH (2021)
Citation/References[]
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/@lostinthefogofficial/videos
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/@tokyobabel7283/videos
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://www.youtube.com/post/UgyI-oYAW7Of49I7MoZ4AaABCQ
- ↑
zemyata was the animator for QUEEN FLY. He created concept art and a storyboard on Youtube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RbGCpmfHBY)
- ↑
Concept art for Doppelgängers made by TNUP / STUDIO LICO.
- ↑
The album cover for Alice Schach and the Magic Orchestra, their first album.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1
Artwork illustrating the rework of Alice Schach's appearance. The left drawing shows the design of Alice in the 2014 album, "Alice Schach and the Magic Orchestra", and the right drawing shows the design of Alice in the 2017 album, "Alice Schach and the Frozen World Tree". The 2014 design is the first ever design for Alice.
- ↑
An important character that appears in "Alice Schach and the Frozen World Tree". Witch of Ice Cage.
- ↑
- ↑
A released image showcasing the Alice Schach and the Frozen World Tree CD and the disc.
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑
Alice Schach preforming puppetry with herself and her cat holding a scythe.
- ↑
Alice Schach most likely using her magic abilities to adorn her cat.
- ↑
Alishka introduced in Alice Schach and the Magic Orchestra's 2021 album, SCHACH. He appears in some songs such as QUEEN FLY and O.
- ↑
Heor introduced in Alice Schach and the Magic Orchestra's 2021 album, SCHACH. They appear in some songs such as Life in a Plastic Bag and KILLED BY ANGEL.
- ↑
Salatoga introduced in Alice Schach and the Magic Orchestra's 2021 album, SCHACH. He appears in some songs such as Fushigi-Chan.
- ↑ https://medium.com/@alice.and.orchestra/about-schach-9f54b36e7326
- ↑ https://medium.com/@alice.and.orchestra/about-schach-minami-cbbbcb982006
