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Description
From Tokyopop: Young Mikan runs away to Tokyo to follow 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. If Mikan wants to stay by Hotaru's side, she has to both pass the strange "entrance exam" and face the even greater challenge of befriending her very odd new classmates. 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!
Type
Manga
Related Series
N/A
Associated Names
学园爱丽丝 学園アリス 愛麗絲學院 爱丽丝学园 爱丽丝学院 วัยซนคนมีพลังจิต 퍼니퍼니 학원 앨리스 Alice Academy Học Viện Alice L'Académie Alice (French) Perguruan Alice Skolen Alice
I am a 17 old girl and I am now a big fan of this amazing manga. I always said that this manga isn't my type since the main female is a grade school but it was a really shock when I read the manga it turned from a childish manga to a manga for all ages the story start to get more serious that you start to forget that they are only in grade school SO YOU MUST READ IT BEFORE JUDGING ON IT cuz I am sure it is worth your time
I totally love this series. There are 121 chapters out so far, so you'll be busy enough waiting for the next one. 122 comes out on Nov. 5! DD It's not one of those manga series that you get hooked on and then no more chapters come out. It's really cute.
The main characters are 10/11 yrs old, but that's a good thing because not only do you get an outsider's look, it's also completely unbiased because the characters are so innocent. It's also great fun to watch the slow progression of romance. ^~^ (It's hilarious to see Luka/Ruka--his name gets a bit sketchy *sweat drop*-- and Natsume try to be romantic towards Mikan, because she's really dense.)
Besides that, though most of the main characters are 10 or 11, you also see main character in middle school and high school. It might bother some ppl that they're so young, but the characters all have really mature sides to them, so their age doesn't take away from the story at all (their age never bothered me). Besides, if they were teenagers I feel like it would be just another shoujo manga. It would be way to dramatic if they were. But they're not, so it's a nice fit.
There's a good aspect of humor, from Natsume's slightly perverted additude towards Mikan to Hotaru's inventions. Also, the facial expressions are hilarious! :3 (Especially Mikan's!)
Mikan's additude towards life and her friends is basically "never give up, because the sun is shining behind those clouds"... she is really loyal and sweet. (Though she can be a real RAWR kind of person if you provoke her. That's basically Natsume and anyone who thinks their better just because of their Alice. XD Or anyone who tries to hurt her friends.) Everyone in Mikan's homeroom class is really well bonded. Very sweet, though there is a bit of a dark side to the manga.
Great manga, I totally recommend it! (The anime veers off a bit but not really badly. If you want the anime, watch the subbed version. I don't like the voices in the dubbed, and it's nothing different besides the fact that it's in English.)
This series brings to mind Harry Potter in both its development and in its set-up, albeit a cutesy Harry Potter with different characters and villians... its own appeals. On the level of plot and setting, it’s deceptively simple and un-complex: you have a bunch of kids in a magic school with a variety of intrigues, from romantic drama to nasty classmates to silly goofs and dangerous adventures. The world is fairly self-contained—you get glimpses and hints of what’s on the outside, and it’s not like they’ve forgotten the world exists—but it takes place mostly inside the school. This is where the resemblance to Harry Potter ends.
As for the characterization and development, you have young characters to start, and they’re clearly very immature in many ways. They’re all variations of stereotypes: the kind, ditzy, naïve girl, the cold genius, the tsundere male lead, the kind-hearted male lead, the irritating “love rival”, and so on. So it’s not their base personalities, but when they break out of these types or when they show how valuable those personality traits of theirs are that you feel touched by them; they all have strong personalities and unique gifts which they must use to struggle and survive in an increasingly dark adult world.
As the series goes on, the story becomes more complex and the tone becomes darker. You begin to get more flashbacks, exposition, and deep, deep drama. (Again, very Harry Potter-like). If you’re someone who read this series within a short time-span or if you’ve reread it, then you probably realized that the darkness was lurking there to begin with: Hotaru’s parents are coerced into sending her to school, Natsume is punished with physical abuse and physical constraints, Narumi’s cheeriness hides a lot of darkness, and so on.
The pace picks up (rather awkwardly) as the manga moves closer to the hundreds (in chapters). It appears to be the final / culminating arc, but this arc has been going on for at least 1/3 of the series now; the mangaka set it up so that things are not going to be easily resolved by beating one bad guy. Most recently she has thrown in a disorienting rapid-fire set of heavy punches plot-wise (non-spoiler tip-off to current readers: the things happening around the time Reo returning), with everyone doing big important things, and to the reader it’s just that feeling—you wish it would end already because you’re shocked and disoriented all the time, but you really can’t even begin to see how it’s going to end and know it’s going to take a while.
My two biggest problems are the current state of the never-ending rapid-fire plot (although all the events and flashbacks are useful, they are nonetheless disorienting) and the pervertedness of some of the stuff. Seriously, I don't think it should be normal for ten-year-olds to grope others, steal panties, and whatnot. But this is a Japanese series, so it'd probably be even odder for NONE of the sort to be there... unfortunately.
A warning to readers of scanlations: a few of the chapters are low-quality translations, and the scanlators have switched around over the years, so you may find variation in terminology (I used to have a lot of trouble keeping the Japanese names of the classes apart) and occasional confusing moments. I never had a problem following the plot and figuring things out from context, though, so I don’t mind this so much.
if you like your shoujo with a side of 'really fricken good plot' then gakuen alice is your game. i was pretty skeptical when i started, i thought it'd be typical cheesy magical girl stuff. i thought manga about 10 year old kids would have absolutely no appeal but after you get past the explanations and character introductions and relationship outlines, its actually a really deep story.
there are several arcs, but they all related to one another and basically flow really well. the characters definitely grow and have a lot of substance to them, a lot more than shoujos usually do. its like the plot grows with them, and they go from naive school days to some really heavy stuff, while still a good read with equal parts of plot and romance. you're not stuck flicking through chapters begging them to kiss because not only do they kiss several times but the plot really keeps your mind off of those things. warning though; when i say stuff gets heavy, i mean it gets heavy. one of the arcs was a serious tearjerker for me, and then i just found myself tearing up every few chapters after that.
probably one of my favorite aspects of this manga was the characters. it doesnt just focus on natsume and mikan, it focuses on their friendships with everyone. hotaru and mikans friendship and ruka and natsumes too are super sweet and satisfying. i've never seen a shoujo author pay so much attention to the 'friend' characters. there are a lot of characters too, which was a little bit confusing at first because as with most manga, they start to look the same after a while...but the author takes really good care to develop each one and give them a background that is relevant to the plot.
one thing i didnt really like was the throwing around of alices (their powers). after a certain point i just wasnt sure who could do what and sometimes it felt like a character would pull out a new alice from his/her butt to save the day.
other than that though, i really recommend giving this one a go. it's got good characters good plot and good romance.
I watched the anime before reading the manga. I thought the anime was good at first but when i started reading manga, i was like, OMG the manga is SO much better than the anime. Compared to the manga the anime is like really weird. So pls read the manga! At the first the story was easy to understand and it was really cute! But now the plot is weird and the things that the characters say is kind of confusing. I don't know what is happening anymore. I think i got kinda lost starting from Chpt. 150. Also i think Mikan talks like an adult. I mean she's only 12. But overall i think it's a great manga. Absolutely amazing! The characters are also really cute! I hope the ending is good!
I just finished reading Volumes 1 to 10 recently and I gotta say - It's good. Not too deep with romance and stuff but it's okay since they're only kids. I read a lot of Shoujo so if I say it's good, I do really mean it because I give high manga expectations. The plot is filled with adventure, action and fun. It's very interesting and keeps you reading. The characters are all so great, yet some are just wackos. This story also steps into the dark area sometimes but not too much which is okay. RECOMMENDED! GO READ IT IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!
At first, I don't have the intention of picking this up.... and for some reason, lately I'm having the mood of reading this =.= and yes... I read it...
This manga is certainly great. If you haven't picked this up, then go read it right now! The storyline is indeed addictive and it 'hooks' you into the story. This story really stirs something in me when I'm reading through those text. Of course, not forgetting the comedy part, this manga INDEED made me laugh! Not in the sense of just "haha. that's funny. *continue reading*" but it's something like "HAHAHHA OMG, THAT'S HILARIOUS!!!*reads the same part again*"
Mikan and Hotaru are best friends in elementry school, but when Hotaru transfers to Alice Gakuen she doesn't even bother to write. After receiving only one post card in a whole semester, Mikan runs away to find Hotaru and ends up transferring to Alice Gakuen herself. Once there she is forced time and again to prove her worth to her classmates and teachers while trying to understand exactly what it means to have an Alice and survive in the harsh school. The teachers boarder on abusive and are untrustworthy. Foreign governments are supposedly after the students because of their abilities, and to top it off, Mikan herself is especially disliked because of a previous school incident. Add to the mix her twisted and slightly perverted arch nemisis/love interest Natsume and her upbeat thoughtless personality and it is a blast watching her navigate the obsticals of her life at Gakuen Alice. There is lots of humor, but there are some seriously dark parts of this manga which are quite shocking.
It was great at first, but some of the later parts of the story really just dragged. The action scenes around chapter 120-135 in particular were really bad. Now we're into what is apparently the final arc, so I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing it wrap up nicely.
Alice Gakuen's art is alright, but it's also nothing really amazing. I have some difficulty telling the minor characters apart, and lots of scenes are really confusing to read, where you have no idea who's saying what or what the flow of the text is.
That said, it's pretty cute sometimes. It does also tend toward the randomly illogical, like being bare-shouldered on a snowy winter night and not feeling cold, but the characters are sweet and the concept is entertaining.
For the first few 50++ chapters, I wasn't really interested, then I tried continue-ing to read then I cried intensely. Seriously, this is manga made me cried/teared alot alot of times. It's as though as, it really touches your heart, all the pain and the happiness, you could feel it. Although the translating team abit ..... But still its a must read!
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DD It's not one of those manga series that you get hooked on and then no more chapters come out. It's really cute. 
