~Konnichiwa
Today on this wonderful Friday afternoon, I will be reviewing Alice in the Country of Hearts,
also known as Heart no Kumi no
Alice written by QuinRose and
art by Hoshino Soumei. The manga is based on a girly, but surprisingly bloody
otome game, which alludes to Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
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| Hearts: Ace; Alice; Peter; Viva |
Alice Liddell is a young maiden who is overshadowed by her older
sister’s grace and beauty, her ex-boyfriend even dumped her because he fell in
love with her. Despite this, she loves her sister very much. After her mother
died, her father buried himself in work and her younger sister called her a
monster for not crying at the funeral, but her older sister always loved and
cared for her. Because of this, she is Alice’s
most precious person. Then one day, while she’s trying to take a nice nap in
her garden, she’s kidnapped unwillingly by a mysterious man with white hair,
red eyes, and white rabbit ears and is taken to Wonderland. Once they arrive,
he forces her to drink a medicine. He introduces himself as Peter White and Castle of
explains that whoever drinks this medicine, must participate in the game,
therefore she can’t leave. After he leaves, she meets Julius, a clock repairer,
who tells her the one and only way she might be able to return to her world; he
gives her the empty vile the medicine had been in and tells her she needs to
interact and spend time with the strange people in Wonderland, this will slowly
refill the vile. Once it’s full, she needs to drinks it and should be able to
return to her world. Thus Alice begins exploring this Wonderland and
soon learns that the world is split into various countries and she is currently
in the Country of Hearts. The country is divided into three main territories:
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| The Castles of Hearts: Ruled by the Queen of Hearts Vivaldi with
the assistance of Prime Minister Peter White
and Knight of Hearts Ace. |
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Amusement Park: Boris; Alice; Julius; Gowland
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Then there is the Hatter Mansion, headquarters of Wonderland’s
mafia dubbed “The Hatters”. The leader is Blood Dupre. There also lives his
second-in-command Eliot March and the gatekeepers Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Lastly there is the Amusement Park, run by Duke Mary Gowland with
the help from the energetic Cheshire Cat, also known as Boris.
All three territories are at war with each other, the only neutral
area being the Clock Tower Plaza where Julius lives. Every character in
these 3 regions have a role in the game. Everyone else in Wonderland is faceless,
background characters in this game. If one of the role players die, Wonderland
takes one of these faceless characters to replace them, so that the game can
continue.
Overall I really enjoyed watching Alice interact with all these different
characters and learning more and more about how Wonderland and this game works.
The art is also quite nice, a lot of inking was done for thick black lines and
details. I suppose its rather unique since its based off the art done for a
otome game.
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Hatter Mansion: Elliot; Alice; Blood; Dee and Dum
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The characters are all interesting, Alice being very outspoken and sometimes
rather cynical, and her interactions with the citizens of and her adventures in
the Country of Hearts are really entertaining, especially seeing how Alice, as an outsider, affects them.
There’s just one thing that bothers me: how Alice’s
treats Peter. I understand that Peter made a horrible first impression on her,
being the one that kidnapped her, but 2 other characters attempted to kill her
and she forgave them! Peter is madly in love with Alice and brought her to Wonderland so that
she could be happy; he didn’t care about her returning his feelings, he just
wanted to protect Alice’s
happiness. But he can’t help but feel hurt as he watches Alice get along with
everyone else, expect him. It makes me so sad, he loves her so much and would
do anything for her, but Alice doesn’t seem to understand how serious
he is. I suppose you’re wondering how Peter even fell in love with Alice,
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being from separate worlds. Well it’s implied that he’s somehow
connected to Alice’s older sister
and he once tells her that if she tried really hard, she’d remember him and how
important he was to her. She almost remembers him, but the task cause her a
great deal of pain so Peter tells her to stop, that it’s okay if she doesn’t
remember. My guess is that after her mother’s death, Alice spent her days with her sister and
Peter and they were both precious to her. But that’s just my guess, and I
really don’t have a lot of evidence to back it up either. Well besides poor
Peter, the manga is a great read and I recommend it. There’s also a movie out,
which I’m hoping to watch and review soon. Bye-Bye
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~Nadeshiko-chan
