the whole plotline is quite interesting for me
the concept of having a king being worshiped by the class and even drive the students crazy and have people murdered is awesome XD
Yet there are SOO MANY plot twists that makes my mind tired -.-
All the betrayal and hatred just makes the story less nice but addictive

overall, it was worth reading XD
the mystery and emotional aspects were interesting

... Last updated on May 18th, 2013, 8:23pm

ok was good at first i was expecting enough of romance which was hardly in this manga only crazy and low life people only thinking of them self and blamed others when something went wrong about how they were used not even thinking about what they did.


i was hoping to see them paired up at the end oh will this was many way not the romance kind of manga to being with

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this series. Honestly, I went in with the feeling that I would just get some typical twin sister love story (because that's what I needed) but then I found out it's a very long, drawn out plot about psychotic people.

Also, the faces actually scared the crap out of me.

Obviously this is not an in-depth analysis, but I found it impossible to really sympathize for any of the characters after the things that happened. It left a very sour taste in my mouth. And yet, I would suggest that if you can stomach all this, to read it. It really was interesting, but it just wasn't what I wanted to read.

Moral of the story: don't place your unrealistic expectations on something or someone you don't know! You'll just disappoint yourself. However, Arisa, for what it was, surprised me and I did enjoy reading it. I had to marathon it because of all the cliffhangers :/

Also, I'm stupid because I didn't read the tags, but I try not to because it spoils the story :S

At first I thought pretty highly of this manga. I loved that the characters were so twisted and unpredictable. But then it reached this point where it seems as if the mangaka is trying to make it unpredictable, constantly inserting twists into one chapter until if becomes predictable. Slightly disappointed.
For example:

Seriously.

I don't think I've ever read such a frustratingly convoluted pass-the-Idiot-Ball-around manga in my life. As another reviewer pointed out, the world is apparently run by high school students. Yes, it's an adult-free dystopia in the world of Arisa! There are no teachers, the police are useless, confidentiality means nothing, and it seems like everyone's hopped up on some hip new designer drug half the time the way they get on. All the adults in this manga suck, and so it's up to a couple of delinquent kids to set everything straight so that they can stop the string of disappearances, accidents, and even murders that are all connected to their school and that have been mysteriously overlooked by anyone of consequence. Yeah, it's that kind of manga.

Still, it kept me reading the whole way through. I'm not sure I can exactly explain how, but I can certainly point to a few factors that helped. The art is clean and sparkly, reminiscent of Arina Tanemura's trademark style that I've always been a sucker for. Unlike Tanemura's works, however, Andou's manga is much darker in tone and content in spite of the fluffy, eye-candy artwork. Yeah, you read that right. This manga is downright dark, especially for a shoujo title (and especially especially for something out of Nakayoshi). In fact, the aspect of the story that really did keep me hooked was the building mystery. Sure, there were way too many "Kings" to really be plausible, but the escalation of 2-B's crimes and the urgency of Tsubasa and Manabe to find the culprit really added that dark layer of suspense and intrigue that this kind of story needs. Speaking of Tsubasa and Manabe, I found them both to be particularly gripping characters, even though the latter seemed to drop off the radar for a good portion of the final volumes. One of my pet peeves in any work of fiction is when a character is introduced as tough but is shown to be exactly the opposite. Tsubasa really does earn the right to be called tough throughout the manga. She is both incredibly feminine (her looks, her aspirations, her emotions) and yet at the same time, she takes a very active role within the story and doesn't play second in command to the male lead (thank God). Overall, I found her to be a well-rounded character who never got overtly distracted by romance (as shoujo heroines tend to do) or gradually reduced to cheerleader. She starts as the protagonist and ends as the protagonist. Though she has her fair share of Idiot Ball moments, she takes it up no more often than any of the rest of the cast. And, hey, I liked her so much that I was even hoping for a little extra romance between Tsubasa and Manabe. You know, because they actually had some chemistry and weren't mooning over their love lives the entire time (or any of the time, really). But at least they didn't become a romantic plot tumor. As for the titular Arisa, I'm more divided. I feel like if I wanted to go back and trace her motivation throughout the series, it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense in regards to where she ends up. Oh well.

So anyway, don't take this one too seriously because if you do, you'll find yourself smashing your head repeatedly against the keyboard by the multitude of inane and unrealistic developments the story takes. But if you're bored one day or are just looking for a good, darker shoujo mystery that's not as tight as it could be, I recommend you give this one a shot. While it's certainly not the best manga out there, it's far from the worst.

I'll give it a 7 out of 10. It entertained me, and I definitely feel like I got something good out of reading it.

... Last updated on February 21st, 2013, 11:20pm

Drama. SO MUCH DRAMA. There's always a tragic backstory. Or hidden agenda. And super secret secrets. I felt like I was watching Korean drama, but even those (usually) aren't this ridiculous. There is no sense to the plot.

The world is basically run by several sociopathic high schoolers. Not just run-of-the-mill sociopaths, but the ones you'd see on the evening news because they murdered their entire family or emptied rounds at a mall, and shake your head at while wondering what the world was coming to. All the adults are ignorant, selfish, or just outright absent. Seriously, this is a world were you could hack and assault and murder and break into homes as much as you please, and the only person who might even try to stand in your way is an idealistic and peppy teenage girl. I don't even think the author understands the meaning or gravity of death (or the teenage psyche, for that matter).

The only sane people in this manga are Tsubasa's deliquent friends. She should have just stuck with them; her life wouldn't be so angsty and IN DANGER all the time.



... Last updated on February 11th, 2013, 11:16pm

As many reviewers mentioned, this manga, despite having a pretty shoujo cover, is in no way a cutesy shoujo type manga. Now, I know a lot of people appreciate these type of unique shoujo mangas without a cliche plot (I do too), but this manga is definitely not something to be taken lightly of. As you can see, psychological is one of the genres for the series, and this is definitely 100% true. This series started out with lots of potential with the mystery aspect fairly well sorted out, however as the plot progresses, it becomes darker and darker and each character becomes more and more insane. I don't know about other people, but I definitely don't think being able to casually harm others (no matter what reasons) is normal at all. To me, this was a very good read at first but then turned extremely unrealistic and insane later, but I'm not going to give the series a bad rating because I believe this manga will be appealing to some readers and I don't want my personal preference to affect others. All in all, read if you are into dark, psychological stuff, but if you are just reading for the mystery, I suggest you skip out on this one.

...is going on. That is what you'll be saying as you read along. It's that crazy. Nothing makes any sense because everything is thrown out of proportions. How can you transfer to your sister's school and take her place when I'm pretty sure the school knows she is in a coma AND what about your school? It's not like anyone else is going to take your place right? AND. WHERE. ARE. THE. ADULTS. IN. THIS. It's like the world is run by kids and you can get away with causing random fires and attempting murder. I'm very sure that's possible. This whole series is completely made up of bullsnot and nonsense. I mean really, shoujo is unrealistic to varying degrees but this one? This gives shoujo a new category. Eww. Just...no. No thank you for this overly dramatic, angsty, unbelievable, piece of nonsense. Arisa earns my cringe of disgust.

Not that I'm saying manga has to be realistic, but the plot seems to be trying to set itself up as a realistic story except that it fails miserably. It's melodramatic and each chapter just keeps trying to shock the reader. I think that's the main problem. It's not as concerned with telling a coherent, logical story as it is with trying to come up with shocking twists. The biggest issue with that is that the story comes off fake and sounds as if it were written by a pre-teen.

There are no considerations for consequences and the students behave like a cult. There's little to no adult presence in the story, even though they appear now and then on the page. Characters also contradict themselves. It's just kind of a poorly executed story. I wouldn't recommend getting too invested in this series, but check it out if you have time for a little bewilderment.

This manga is insane. Basically, almost everyone in the story is craving for love and attention to the extent that they would kill anyone just to obtain their goal.

My thoughts: Just because you're abused or unloved or whatever, doesn't give you the rights to kill/torture others. A total different mindset from Naruto. Pessimistic.

But if you enjoy crazy killing scenes, I guess this is for you.