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Reviewed by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane Young Mikan runs away to Tokyo following her best friend, Hotaru, who has been enrolled in an exclusive, secretive private school for geniuses. But it turns out that Alice Academy is a lot more than meets the eye. Whether it’s Hotaru’s gift for inventing gadgets, the cranky Natsume’s fire-casting ability, or Professor Narumi’s control of human pheromones, everyone at the school has some sort of special talent. But what ability, if any, does Mikan possess? Mikan is going to have to rely on her courage and spunk if she’s going to stay in school, or even stay alive! One of the things I tend to assume is that I--and this is entirely a personal thing--will probably not get attached to a series with elementary-age protagonists. It’s one the reasons I’ve never sat down seriously with Cardcaptor Sakura despite enjoying several CLAMP titles (including Tsubasa), although I know it means I’m missing an important part of their body of work. Yet I often enjoy these series when I do finally check them out, which is why I haven’t missed out on Kodocha, and why I decided to take a look at Gakuen Alice after hearing the theory that TOKYOPOP is hoping it’ll be their Next Big Thing (after Fruits Basket wraps up its English run). And two volumes in, I’m finding that it’s quite a bit of fun. The initial character dynamics aren’t groundbreaking: Mikan, the main character, is spunky and overflowing with determination, but isn’t so much with the advance planning; her best friend, Hotaru, is detached and a little disconcerting; and Mikan’s main adversary at Alice Academy, Natsume, is a royal pain but has angst simmering away under the surface. But it’s something of a shoujo tradition to start off with characters who seem to fit tidily into conventional molds so they can later break out of them, so I’m making no assumptions about how things will go as the series progresses. Alice Academy itself is suspicious from the beginning, with its students cut off from their families and taken under government protection, so there’s no question of whether or not there’s something shady going on. (Having the government turn out to be benevolent and entirely concerned for the welfare of the unusually-powerful kids in its care isn’t impossible, of course, but I’ll stay skeptical on that front for now.) Meanwhile the spread of abilities among the students is wide enough to provide a lot of interesting potential, although it does make me wonder if there’s an explanation that can cover them all. At this point, Gakuen Alice is an enjoyable enough read to keep me around, and I’m interested in seeing what direction it takes from here. (And yes, someday I will read Cardcaptor Sakura.) Comment on this review of Gakuen Alice v1-2 on the Manga Life Forums. |
14 May 2008
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