This week’s manga review is a slightly more fluffy shojo romantic drama-dy series.
General Information
Title: Alice in Country of Hearts – Volume 1
Story by QuinRose
Illustrated by Souhei Hoshino
Translated by Beni Axia Conrad and adapted by Lianne Sentar
Lettered by Star Print Brokers
Originally serialized by Mag Garden’s Monthly Comic Avarus
Available from Amazon.com and RightStuf.com
The Premise
Alice Liddel is a teenage girl in psudovictorian England who is kidnapped by a white rabbit and taken to Wonderland The Country of Hearts – a land of stunningly beautiful men who want Alice to fall in love with them. It’s a shame for her that most of them murderous psychopaths.
High Points
Alice is a very good audience perspective character. She is taken back by the violence inflicted by Wonderland’s inhabitants, and does not particularly fawn over the various beautiful men who want to fawn over her.
Also, most of the characters from Alice in Wonderland (with some exceptions) are visually recognizable.
Low Points
Most of the male characters are simply two psychotic to be likable. It doesn’t help that most of the characters are just simply more violent then the characters in the original work. Seriously, the Queen of Hearts is positively restrained compared to the other characters in the book.
Also, aside from attire, most of the male characters look like your standard bishounen. The only real differences are that this character is wearing a top hat, this one has white bunny ears, this one has brown ears, this one is a cat-boy and so on. It doesn’t help that the male characters personalities and behavior is generally similar as well, with a few exceptions (Mary Gowland/The Dutchess, Peter White/White Rabbit, Nightmare/The Caterpillar, and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, for instance)
Content Notes
No nudity in this volume, though there is some bloody violence.
Scores
Originality: This is an adaptation of a dating sim for girls that is in turn an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. 3 out of 6.
Artwork: The characters attire is, if they are more then a little generic in their facial appearance, though the landscapes for wonderland seem a little too theme-parky. 3 out of 6.
Characterization: Alice is well written, though the men of the series are only distinguishable by attire, not personality. 2 out of 6.
Story: The character introductions are handled okay, but the story does nothing to pull you in. 2 out of 6.
Emotional Response: Alice is in no physical danger (characters go out of their way to avoid harming her), and the male characters are unlikable. This book provoked no emotional reaction in me at all. 2 out of 6.
Flow: 6 out of 6.
Overall: This is a very underwhelming start to this series. There is nothing here that makes me want to read the next volume. It doesn’t offend me, but it doesn’t interest me either. 2 out of 6.
In Total: Alice in the Country of Hearts gets 20 out of 42.