Ahhh, we go back to a time, a simpler time, back in 2012 a time when gakuen alice was still frantically being translated by online forums. A time when my baby face at thirteen years old found the manga and fell in love.
Gakuen Alice give every younger female group the shoujo genre is based around what they want, a female protagonist round their age range. It also gives the adult audience a sweet nostalgia trip into childhood, minus all the chaos and MY THAT ONE KISS SCENE THAT WAS TOO MUCH FOR KIDS, You fellow readers know the one I am talking about, not gonna give spoilers here.
But the story starts off charming and sweet, our main female protagonist Mikan wants to be with her friend who had mysteriously been kidnapped by the government and taken to a strange school. Our stubborn and headstrong female Sana (Looking at you kodocha, which by the way, I recommend if you like this manga) decides to follow her rather "cold hearted" friend to the school of wonders, unknowingly walking into a bear trap. She finds herself in a school that defies imagination, kids having powers beyond comprehension and being filled with items that you could only dream of. And she too has a power of her own, letting her too be a part of this special school. Sounds fun and like quite the great adventure right?
WRONG!
The happy go lucky vibe that starts gakuen Alice is one you quickly come to realise is a mask to the various underlying dark tones to it, which become more prominent and serious as the story goes on, to the point, by the end when your heart and mind have been through a bunch of emotional turmoil , the happy days that once started this manga seem like a mere dream. Now I like my bouts of fantasy and fun happy stories, but you mix that dark mystery and undertone then your siree have my heart.
The fact is despite the start being so fun, there is always that underlying darkness in it from the very start, which has you unknowingly questioning many things through the manga. such as, why is the government going out their way to kidnap kids, why is it that certain kids arer punished and restricted in some quite harsh ways, why is it that this school has a ranking system that kind bullies the children into a hierarchy. Many questions but to answer those I would need alot of time and for baka updates to give me their blessing to create the largest review and theory post they had ever recieved. So for now let us stick to the rest of the review.
The characters are fun and diverse. Mikan is a spirited character that stands out from the rest of the shoujo adult crowd... Not so much from the shoujo child crowd, Cough, sana from kodocha and Amane from Nekota cough But still makes her character type diverse enough to be liked. The characters surrounding her are equally as interesting. Natsume starts off as your everyday anime edgelord, but in reality he is really just an adult in a child's body, and youngster who has been forced to mentally age beyond the rest of his peers, which to be fair is a trait that can be given to most his other peers too, however it is alot more prominent in him. This fact makes alot of the reasoning behind his actions make alot of sense, I have to commend the mangaka for her characterisation continuity. Hotaru comes off as a cold and rather heartless character, but reading on would show you she probably has the most heart out of most of the characters, however her nature is a result of a past similar to Natsume's, in the fact that she has had to mature alot quicker than the others. Other characters such as Luca, permy as I like to call her and Yu all also have their own interesting character traits, which make it so when you are reading you never think "Oh great we are only reading about this character now" which is quite a cool feat in the mangaka's hands, since it's not often I stumble across a manga where I think "Urgh, I don't want to know about this one character move on with the story". Admittedly, that did happen upon my first read of gakuen alice with Mikan's mother's backstory, but upon re-reads and me not wanting to blast through to see how my ships would go on, Mikan's mother is one of the most interesting characters in the story.
So I have spoken about the tones and characters, what else? Art? I love the art of gakuen alice. Some may argue, but to me, alot of it is done wonderfully. There were very few mistakes to find, and for a shoujo style of it's era, it was great. You have to remember that though gakuen alice only really became published online and in small countries like mine (The uk is not gracious in it's manga trades) in the later 2000's, it's manga was actually started in the early 2000's, the anime which gave a lot to behold being released in 2004. Though anime and manga is heading in a slightly more realistic direction, in the early 2000' up until 2012 really, larger eyes and the traditional anime look was still all the rage. So as somebody who came from before the 2012 era, I do have a soft spot for the style, despite it not being everyone's cup of tea (Looking at you new age fans)
The last thing we need to talk about it Grabs spectacles and looks at list lets se... Oh the ending...
Wait...
You want me to actually talk about that? You sure...? ... really....?
... fine...
Despite me re-reading gakuen alice so many times that I can recite the dialogue of the most significant chapters from the top of my head, the ending... It leaves alot to be desired... As in, you will be biting on your pillow in frustration at your many unanswered questions sort of desired. It's one of the manga's when the story is so good but then the mangaka must either feel like that it needs a sequel or are too afraid to end it in case they might offend the one fan or two so they leave it kind of unfinished. E.g, an open ending. Open endings are great, but only if you have the necessary requirements to pull one off. a big requirement in this is having enough answers towards the end to be able to dictate your own ending when that one last question is flung your way... Gakuen Alice is one of the many manga's that failed to fill this requirement. You are left with many questions left unanswered and the undying hope of a sequel to the series. Maybe that is the mangaka's plan however so far, nothing has been officially announced, in fact, the magaka herself has slightly gone under the radar, I haven't seen any new updates from her recently. She did question going back to M to N no shonzou, but that is another story.
In any case, do I reccomend Gakuen Alice, despite it's confusing ending? Yes, yes and YES! It is a must read for new comer shoujo fans and older shoujo fans alike, simply because it is one of the very few shoujo's to break the mould in it's story telling. It's interesting and has many twists, with likeable characters and engaging main plot and sub plot lines. It is an example of shoujo done right (apart from the ending) From when I was younger to an older reader who has quite a hand in the shoujo genre by this point, it is a manga that doesn't get old. And a good manga, is a timeless one. So if you find yourself looking for an interesting new manga to read, to do with kids with strange magical powers, twisted government plots and a rather sweet romance, then this is for you.
Thank you for reading the wall of text for my personal opinion, and happy reading!!
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