Well, this is my first shoujo manga for me. And I absolutely love it. As I first read it, it's totally cute, the plot is simple and sweet. But then, it's getting quite complicated. It's much darker than the beginning of the manga, and I kinda get tired of it. Anyway, I still look forward to the ending, although it doesn't give me much excitement as when I began this manga.
The art is nice, keeps improving, but then the art seems to make the characters look mature afterward. Sometimes, looking at them I wonder "Are they really 10 years old?"
I give it a 8, it's still a good manga to me, maybe because it's my first shoujo manga. ^.^

... Last updated on August 9th, 2012, 3:35am

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!

... Last updated on July 18th, 2012, 12:05am

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!

i pretty much agree with princessvera on her review of the manga except for the fact that its like "harry potter". just bcuase a plot is becoming increasingly darker and complex doesnt mean it bears any similarity to harry potter

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.

... Last updated on July 5th, 2012, 1:57am

Although this series has turned into a much darker and much more complex story as of late, I have to disagree with everyone to say that its extraordinary. Of course it starts out almost like a children's story but children grow up. And what makes this story so remarkable is that the characters have to go through and experience the horrors and corruption of the adult world even at such a young age.

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.

I feel really bad because now days i can't say GA is my favourite manga. The arc where they

I'm really enjoying reading this series. I'm up to volume sixteen. But I just read somewhere that it's not being translated to English anymore, past volume sixteen. Tragic! How will I find out what happens next?
My favourite character is Natsume. And I think it's one of my favourite manga series ever, if only I could keep reading!
Oh and the art! It's beautiful. The characters are distinct easy to tell apart at a glance, something that perhaps strangely uncommon.

... Last updated on April 26th, 2013, 3:25pm