How many of you dreamed about receiving the letter from Hogwarts? I didn’t! I dreamt about having an Alice so that I could go to the Alice Academy.
Name: Gakuen Alice | Alice Academy
Author: Tachibana Higuchi
Year: 2002 - 2013
Status: Complete
Volumes: 31 Volumes (180 Chapters)
Genre: Shoujo, Romance, Slice of Life, Comedy, School, Superpowers
Synopses
Mikan and Hotaru are best friends and live in a small village in the countryside of Japan. One day Hotaru is transferred to a school in Tokyo, attended only by genius and is run by the Government. After months of waiting for her friend to visit her, Mikan decides to run away from home and go meet her. Upon arriving at Alice Academy, she meets with a teacher that surprises her by telling that she can also enroll in that school. Mikan is no genius, how can she go to that school too? After all, what is the mysterious Alice Academy?
Review
Before I dive into the story, I must confess how special this manga is to me. When I read it for the first time, 6 years ago, it coincided and followed an important turning point in my life that made me who I am today.
The story takes place in Alice Academy , whose students are supposedly geniuses, but in reality it’s a boarding school created by the Government in order to protect children who possess an Alice, or in other terms, a super power.
Up until this point, the reader thinks it’s another simple shoujo that has a grafile (and useless) protagonist that will try to win over the school’s popular boy. But as the story unfolds, we get to realise it’s much more than that, for there are many mysteries and dark secrets that surprise us as we move on from chapter to chapter. Without a doubt, it’s a loving story that leaves us with our hearts on our throats and tears in our eyes.
One of the best aspects in this story is the characters. Usually, when we follow a story with a lot of figures, we always end up connecting with the protagonists, or with another secondary character, but that is not the case of Gakuen Alice. All of them are protagonists or important characters to the plot, and as they are integrated into the story the reader falls in love with all of them
For that to happen, without a doubt, the key factor belongs to the author’s ability to create people and not mere characters, figures with a background story that influences their actions in the present, personalities with specific qualities, flaws, fears and worries, just like we have in our life. And, most importantly, we manage to reach the end and tell that they all evolved and grew as human beings.
Another key factor that makes us immediately bond with the students is the fact that, deep down, they are all children, in majority kids between 10 and 18 years old, dealing with unimaginable situations, as if they were adults. It truly hurts to see their suffering throughout the plot.
As the reader moves forward, they get so connected with the story that it’s almost as if they were a student in Alice Academy, suffering, laughing, crying and getting angry, just like the characters.
On a technical aspect, I must highlight that there is a clear evolution in the graphics as the chapters come and that is due to the advancing technologies making it possible to create a book and drawings with more quality. We mustn’t forget that this manga was published between 2002 and 2013.
Trying not to reveal a lot about the story, it’s hard to talk about the finale without mentioning characters or certain events. There were readers who considered the author lazy that felt that she could have developed it a bit more as with the development of certain students. In my opinion, you only need to read between the lines of what she wants to give us, because it is actually quite clear.
For this reason, I think the ending was almost perfect and that we couldn't have asked for better. I say “almost” because the connection that the reader has with the narrative is so strong that we don’t want it to simply end, or we want there to be more adventures so that we can see those characters continue to evolve and grow. Just like that we reach the end - satisfied - but with mixed feelings because we will have to say goodbye.
A couple of years after the end of Gakuen Alice they released a spin-off called “Kageki no Kuni no Alice” that, even though it doesn’t follow the protagonists of Gakuen Alice, it has some appearances from characters in the story that allow us to see them again.
Whisper of the Heart
Gakuen Alice is without a doubt a work that I advise everyone to read, due to the gigantic amount of messages and values transmitted throughout the chapters.
During the story there are multiple themes addressed, such as bullying, greed, family bonds, friendship and love, hatred, tolerance and forgiveness, among others. However, what marked me the most was that it taught us that we need to love ourselves first so that we can love another.
All of the questions approached left me to reflect on several aspects of my life. Is family just people with whom I share a blood bond or is there more to it? How far did I accept myself as I was, with qualities and flaws, if I loved myself… if I was enjoying life to the fullest and creating good memories to remember later in life? Who I was and what type of person did I want to be?
Obviously, there were moments when I got frustrated with the misfortunes happening to the characters and I cried a lot with the beautiful story about love and friendship that Tachibana Higuchi gives us. It is a magnificent story about effort and overcoming.
Throughout the chapters I found the answers to my questions. Family is much more than shared blood, it can be the people that you choose to be a part of your life, or when you find that place where you feel like you belong. I learned that if I don’t love myself the way I am and accept my flaws, I would never be truly happy. Just like everyone else around me, who possibly share the same fear. Lastly, I discovered that the secret to being happy wasn’t achieving my “goals”, it was and is enjoying the ride until there. All details matter.
Reading this manga was an experience filled with emotion and, like I said in the beginning, was present during a turning point in my life. Besides that, it helped me choose the right path for my future: to be able to create stories that may touch people’s hearts and change their perception of life.
I chose this manga for the Ecletic Heart 30 Post Challenge under the topic “Manga with the best love scene”. As I said, their protagonists are children between the ages of 10 and 18 year-old and for that reason, their feelings are pure and innocent, it’s really beautiful to watch.
Rating - 🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉 (10)