Like a lot of book lovers and manga fans, I pick up books randomly. You know how it is, right? I’m at garage or library sale and somehow a huge pile ends up coming home with me. I always buy them with the full intention of reading them eventually. But, I’m finally cleaning up the room where I store all my manga and I’ve pulled everything has languished on the shelves unread. My plan is to finally go through them all. If I like them, I’ll keep them. If not, they’ll get rehomed somewhere.
Since I’m reading through them, anyway. I thought I might as well review them as I go. For these reviews, in addition to “would I recommend it?” I will let you know if this volume is a keeper, or if I plan to rehome it.
The first on the top of the pile is this strange little gem, Alice the 19th.
SPOILERS
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According to Baka-Updates this series is complete in 7 volumes. The link to Alice the 19th above the cut will take you to a site that has scanlated all of them. A better reviewer would have read them all before writing this, but I can tell you right now that Alice the 19th is not a keeper for me.
In an unprecedented turn of events, I was actually enjoying the story of Alice the 19th UNTIL we get to the fantasy elements. Yeah, you heard me right. I was into the shoujo romance and got turned off by the supernatural stuff. It’s fully possible that we have, in fact, slipped into an alternate universe, but let me try to explain.
So, the romance.
Our heroine, Alice Seno, is the forgotten younger sister of Mayura. Mayura is everything Alice is not: athletic, popular, and conventionally attractive. Their parents fully favor Mayura. For example, Alice has been asking for a pet forever, but Mayura is mildly allergic so the answer is ‘no.’ But this generally seems to be true of all of Alice’s interactions, even the boy that Alice has a secret crush on Mayura has gotten to first.
But one day, while walking to school, Alice sees a bunny in the middle of traffic. She can’t help but try to rescue it, but she, herself, is in need of saving. Who should come to her aid but the hot boy himself, Kyo. Kyo actually seems to notice Alice. He cares about what she thinks. But, he’s a year older in school and in the same archery club as Mayura, so it’s naturally that the two of them end up spending so much time together.
Alice really wants to confess to Kyo.
But, instead, she ends up helping Kyo decide to date Mayura.
The thing is Alice clearly has a chance. When the bunny that Alice rescued escapes again, Kyo spends all night searching for the bunny on her behalf. Of course, it turns out that the rabbit is a version of The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland and has all sorts of magical powers, including the ability to transform into a cute girl form.
The bunny comes with magic powers including something called the Word of the Lotis or something like that, which is triggered by moments of bravery. But, there’s a catch. You can be brave good (shouting out ‘I love you’) or brave bad (shouting out ‘I hate you’) and the Word of Lotis is triggered in either case.
Alice is such a derp that she keeps never mustering the right kind of courage. In fact, at a moment when it should be a perfect time to confess, she ends up talking Kyo into dating her sister instead!
I was actually really enjoying the manga at this point.
Especially as the whole situation kept getting worse and worse. Kyo and Mayura start dating and Mayura “helpfully” sets Alice up with some loser named Tatsuya who clearly just wants to get handsy. Kyo and Alice are clearly very miserable without each other, and Kyo spends a lot of his time with Mayura complaining about it all.
But then, when everything comes to a head, Alice finally uses her superpower to DISAPPEAR her sister and things just get weirder and weirder and weirder.
And… I kind of lost interest. I mean, the high school seems to get time stopped and maybe wrapped in Taoist warding, I’m not sure, and some kind of strange otherworldly magician shows up maybe to steal the older sister, until Kyo uses his archery and possibly his own Power of Lotis to stop it and return the high school to normal.
I feel really weird saying this, but I would’ve liked this better if they’d just stuck to the high school dating drama.
But mileage may vary. If your engines are revving at the idea of the fantastical elements, the full series is available in the link above. Have at it. I will say that this series is also old enough (having been published in 2001) that I find the art in a wispy style that, personally, I’m not terribly fond of. I do think that Kyo is drawn rather cutely and the kawaii is strong on the bunny girl. But, I’m going to give this one up to a better home.
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