2 screenshot limit

Gakuen Alice belongs to that special subset of shoujo manga where everything looks cute and pleasant, until you realize that all that sweetness is a LIE.

Quick rundown: Mikan Sakura finds out her best friend, Hotaru, is leaving their small town to attend to this exclusive school in Tokyo.  Heartbroken, the impulsive Mikan follows her friend to the school, which is apparently the breeding ground for elite geniuses with powers known as “Alice.” Through various situations, Mikan later finds herself accepted into the school itself as a student.  She’s now back together with Hotaru, but she now has to deal with being an “Alice” herself, in addition to getting along with all the other kids in the school, including the mysterious & dangerous Natsume.

Many anime seasons ago, when I actually watched anime on a regular basis, I remember really enjoying this series. Mikan’s kinda dumb and loud, playing the boke to Hotaru’s tsukkomi. I didn’t get the sense that there was something darker in the series, since the anime really tried to play everything light and cheery.

In the manga though, whoa. I know that it’s only a story, but the things that Mikan had to go through recall Cinderella more than Alice.  Everyone in the manga seems so much meaner to her — even Hotaru, who’s supposed to be closest to her more than anybody. Hotaru even expects her (Mikan) to continue smiling dumbly since that’s what she does best.

!?!

Those are really the days when I throw up my hands when it comes to certain Japanese values and behavior.

Anyway, between this and Vampire Knight (which I’m also reading currently), it’s fun to get a re-education in the workings of the Japanese school system.  The Gakuen Alice universe, as it goes, is reminiscent of the setting in the Harry Potter books.  The students are prohibited from contact with the outside world, so their school campus is this massive area complete with a town, a forest, and other facilities to keep them happy without having to leave the protective area of school.  Maybe it’s the fantasy geek in me speaking, but I really like it when authors show us other fun parts of their world and what makes it truly special.

I’m kind of surprised that this series is still running in Japan. I had thought that it had wrapped up around when the anime finished. This series isn’t in my “buy this first” tier, but it would be sad if this manga lost its voice because of Tokyopop’s current woes. It’s a good manga, with an interesting world setup and amusing characters. I hope it sticks around for a bit.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 4:42 pm and is filed under manga & manhwa, tokyopop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.