Customer Reviews

Alice in the Country of Hearts, Vol. 1

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Alice Liddell (the fictional one) is a more popular character in Japan than in the United States. Sure, everyone knows Alice in Wonderland in both countries but some how the frilly dress and blonde hair seems to appeal to the Japanese sensibilities a bit more. Japan has produced many of their own adaptations of the famous character, including a 1983-84 anime TV series and numerous manga interpretations like "Alice 19th," "Key Princess Story: Eternal Alice Rondo" and the adult-orientated Miyuki-Chan in Wonderland.

This adaptation, "Alice in the Country of Hearts" (a direct translation of the Japanese title "Hato no kuni no Alisu") began life as an otome "dating sim" game which is a gender-reversal of the popular harem-manga featuring one female protagonist with a host of male suitors. As you can guess, Alice is the girl-in-question here and all of the characters of Wonderland have been transformed into beautiful men to fawn over her.

The story begins in the typical way, with Alice Liddell meeting a white rabbit on the banks of a river. There the similarities end, however, as the white rabbit transforms into the man Peter White, who throws Alice over his shoulder and jumps down the rabbit hole, then forces a magic potion into her mouth in the form of a stolen kiss. Peter lets Alice know that the game has thus begun, a game with certain rules that she must follow if she ever wants to get home again. She takes the empty vial that contained the potion, and is told that it will slowly fill up again as she meets people in Wonderland, and when the bottle has been refilled she can go home. From there, her adventures truly begin.

Wonderland, in this case, is split into three kingdoms all of which are at war with each other. Blood Dupre (the Mad Hatter) is a dashing leader of the Mafia who controls one third of Wonderland. Vivaldi, The Queen of Hearts, controls another third, and the final third is an amusement park ruled by a man named Mary Gowland. In the middle of the three territories is a neutral zone in the form of a watchtower guarded by the clockmaker Julius Monrey, and another random player enters Alice's dreams at night and calls himself Nightmare. Each of the familiar Wonderland characters fall into one of these camps, such as Boris (The Cheshire Cat), Elliot March (the March Hare) and the Gatekeepers for the Hatter (Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum). Most of these characters have been recast as handsome young men who vie for Alice's affection.

In true Wonderland fashion, many elements of the story do not make much sense, although I suspect that future volumes will make them clear. The characters seem to be excessively violent, and they themselves do not feel that life has much value. All the characters are split into either "those with duties" who have names and faces, and the remainder of the cast who lack those attributes and fade into clocks after they have been killed. There are definitely darker elements here at play that are only hinted at.

One of the elements I really liked about "Alice in the Country of Hearts" was the suggestion that Alice is creating the fantasy world from her subconscious, and that the rules set are her own. She is forced to confront the idea that secretly she WANTS to wear frilly, girly clothes and to be admired by a horde of beautiful men, even if that goes against her conscious thoughts. Not too much is revealed in this first volume, but enough of the idea is presented to bring interest to the characters.

Hoshino Soumei has done a good job adapting QuinRose's original dating sim story, and the art looks lovely as well. I am usually not too much of a fan of the "bishonen" beautiful boy character, but Hoshino has given all of her guys an element of danger. They fall in love with Alice because they are compelled to do so by the rules of the game, but some resent the attraction they feel to her.

There have been some complaints about the translation for "Alice in the Country of Hearts," and they are valid. Peter White was given an odd rhyming scheme for some of this dialog that doesn't exist in the original, perhaps to give the character a more "Wonderland feel." Tweedle Dee and Teedle Dum refer to Alice as "lady" in an attempt to get across the general feel of the Japanese word "onee san" but it comes across as awkward. Probably the biggest problem is the character Mary Gowland, who in Japanese has a name that is a pun for Merry-go-Round. I would have made the pun more obvious, calling him "Mary Goround" or something like that, but "Gowland" just doesn't cut it.

All in all "Alice in the Country of Hearts" was not amazing, but an enjoyable interpretation fo Alice and the Wonderland world, and I am looking forward to volume two.

Imagine Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland"... except that Wonderland is a big game, it's filled with beautiful young men, and Alice is quite a bit smarter. "Alice in the Country of Hearts Volume 1" has some amusing twists on the usual "Alice" story, but it's also rather sparse on characterization and the plot is totally jumbled. It has promise, but the first volume is underwhelming.

While napping in the garden, Alice Liddell is kidnapped by a white-haired man with bunny ears, who then leaps down a giant gaping hole with her.

When she wakes up, she's in a bizarre land filled with behatted Mafia dons, bloodthirsty twins and a power struggle between the Mafia, the Queen of Hearts, and a guy called Gowland. And even worse, because of the bunny-eared Peter White, she is now enmeshed in an game -- and unless she plays through it, she can't possibly go home.

As she tries to find a way to handle her predicament, Alice stumbles across an entire troop of bishies -- unpredictable rabbit-eared men, eye-patched incubi, cat-eared punks, suave Mafia dons, and a cute knight with no sense of direction. Her only chance of getting back is to encounter as many people as possible.... but Wonderland has its own dangers along the way, such as strange shadows and secrets.

I love twisted retellings of classic stories, and frankly "Alice in Wonderland" with blood and bishies sounds like a pretty cool idea. The artwork is absolutely lovely (particularly the haunting, hallucinatory first glimpses of Wonderland and it has plenty of humorous pokes at the naivete of the original Alice (such as "Country of Heart's" Alice questioning why she should drink a weird potion given to her by a strange man).

Unfortunately, it's also completely fragmented -- we have long periods of infodumping about Wonderland, sprinkled with out-of-the-blue character introductions and the occasional shooting. It's all rather confusing and difficult to follow at times -- and frankly the whole idea of everyone falling in love with Alice just because she's from another world is pretty contrived.

Fortunately, Alice is also a fairly likable little heroine -- she's fairly sensible and pleasant, and you can see why she'd be worried about whether this entire world reflects her. However, almost everyone else isn't too fleshed out -- the amoral and mysterious Peter White and the oblique Julius are interesting, but most of the other bishies are kind of interchangeable. And the Queen of Hearts... well, she could be replaced by a tape recorder.

It's a fascinating concept with some lovely art, but "Alice in the Country of Hearts" feels like a puzzle that hasn't been solved yet -- you're just left staring at a tangled, incomprehensible story.

It doesn't say anywhere on the book but apparently this manga is based off of a game. News to me. Not being familiar with the game I can't comment on that. I am, however a big fan of Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass which is why I picked this up in the first place. And being a big fan, anything Alice related gets at least 2 stars on principle alone.

Volume 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts starts very much like any other Alice story. She's in the garden with her elder sister, falls asleep, and spots a white rabbit. This is where it veers off from tradition. She doesn't follow the rabbit so he loses his patience, picks her up, and jumps down the rabbit hole with her. When they land, the White Rabbit tells Alice he loves her and forces her to drink a special "medicine." He then walks out leaving her on her own. From there Alice wanders out into Wonderland. Along the way she meets the rest of the cast of characters and is introduced to the war going on in Wonderland. There are plenty of strange goings on, not the least of which is the fact that everyone in Wonderland is (or will be) in love with Alice apparently.

The book quickly turns into a game of "guess the original character." Peter White (the White Rabbit) is obvious as is the Queen of Hearts, who also goes by the name Vivaldi. Alice also meets Blood Dupre (the Mad Hatter), the gatekeepers of the Hatter estate (Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum), Elliot March (the March Hare), Ace (a card from Heart Castle), and Boris (the Cheshire Cat unless I'm very much mistaken). New characters are Julius Monrey, the owner of the clock tower; Nightmare, a dream demon; and Mary Gowland, who has issues with his name because it sounds like Merry-Go-Round. Unfortunately the joke works better in Japanese than English. Oh well. For the record, he's the manager of the amusement park which is at war with the Hatters.

By the end of volume 1, I can't say if I was pleased or not. I'm fine with changing up the Alice story but so far there just aren't enough pieces in the plot to really grab me. It's a reverse harem scenario which is fun. The almost completely male cast is certainly nice to look at and the art overall is wonderful. Plot-wise though the story just doesn't make much sense yet. Everything is too disconnected. That was fine for the original Alice (since that was largely the point) but this manga is obviously aiming for something else entirely. I couldn't help wondering why everyone seemed so friendly if they were supposedly at war. Sure they're all supposed to be insane but, honestly, they didn't seem like it. They were quite logical otherwise. Peter White (Rabbit) also had the annoying tendency to speak in rhyme for a few lines and then stop. The rhyming would have been alright if it had just been consistent. I also noticed a few bits of dialogue that were either poorly written or poorly translated. They suddenly started talking in the most awkward way.

I'll stick around for Volume 2 but mostly for the art and the fact that it's Alice. So far there's not enough in the story to keep me hooked. I hope that the plot has more going for it than just a reverse harem because that gets old pretty fast. I also hope that the Dormouse and the Caterpillar will show. The Duchess would be excellent but I doubt she'll make it in, what with being a woman and all. The character list seems a little sparse without them all. So here's hoping that Alice in the Country of Hearts has a few tricks up its sleeve. It seems like it might and I really want to like this manga. I don't expect it to be as witty as the original Alice but I do expect it to be a little clever and entertaining. For now I'll give it 3.5 stars (rounded down) and cross my fingers.

Full disclosure - I'm not usually a fan of manga, nor do I like Alice in Wonderland, but Amazon recommended this, so I borrowed a copy from the library. I am glad that I did.

Alice is a normal girl who finds herself brought down a rabbit hole by a strange man with rabbit ears, who kisses her, getting her to drink a strange potion. The world she finds herself in is a strange one, in some ways similar but really much different than her own. For one, everyone loves her. Alice assumes she's dreaming, but is she? And what's up with the clocks?

A couple things I love about the manga is that it's cute without overdoing it, both in art style and story, Alice herself is a sweet but in no way a pushover, and the other characters like Alice in a way that is convincing; they all love her, but not in the same way.

Highly recommended. It's sweet, it's charming, and it's very much addictive. You won't regret it!

I must start by saying that I'm already a bit biased when it comes to this manga, as I am a fan of the game that it is based off of. The summary on the back of the book gives a different nuance than the actual story. It seems a bit misleading, and if I didn't already know what the story was about, I wouldn't be interested in buying the book based off the summary.
Translation wise, I think many unnecessary liberties were taken that make me feel like TokyoPop was trying to make the book resemble Lewis Carroll's works more than it does. The story can stand on it's own without adding things like Peter White(White Rabbit) speaking in rhyme randomly, Elliot March(March Hare) occasionally spouting British slang that seems unnatural for his character, and the Twins(Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum) calling Alice "lady", which takes away the cute effect they had by calling her onee-san(big sister/sister/elder sister, take your pick) originally. "Lady" also sounds strange to me when someone uses it to call Alice all the time. I don't have any qualms about the other characters, or if I do, they are minor and not worth getting into. However, I do not appreciate dialogue that was added in for no apparent reason. That was overkill. The art quality is also lower than I was expecting though that is not as big of a deal, and may have been unavoidable.

This book is still a good read, and I don't want to discourage people from buying it. I just want to show my opinion on the outcome of the English version of the manga. Most of the characters were well done and the story is basically accurate. If you never knew anything about the characters before hand you'll probably enjoy it without any problem.

After reading other reviews on the net, I'd also like to add that this IS a reverse harem manga and only loosely based on the original Alice in Wonderland. It is not meant to be close or to emulate the original work. It is a darker love story for girls that like those kind of fantasies. If that doesn't appeal to you, I suggest not reading it. Also, there is a plot going on here besides Alice's love life, which some people seem to think is pointless(the war in Wonderland). I can say for certain that as the volumes progress it will become a clearly relevant major plot that makes the story far deeper than most reverse harem stories(and I rarely ever call manga deep). The war is part of something much bigger and far more intriguing, but I do not want to give anything away. All I can say is that anyone who thinks this will be another cliche reverse harem is entirely off base. I find most Wonderland stories with war plots to be very unimaginative and boring, and I can't stand when the Red Queen is turned into the ultimate villain when everyone was crazy in their own way to begin with. If anyone is concerned, this story isn't like that. Actually, for people who want more than just romance and want a substantial plot, this may be a good story for you. Even if there was no love story, the ideas here would be interesting and worth reading.

I'd just be really glad if TokyoPop revised a few things in later books because I seriously want to take some white out and a pen to the first volume. If it weren't for marring the pages, I would have.

Alice is not the simple easy going girl we remember for the fairy tale. She is a smart, tempered teenager. Gone are the lovable furry rabbit and cat. The new ones are cute and nice on the eyes young men. The rest of the characters have all changed into new forms. I love the illustrations and the story. One of my favorite series.

First, I'm a big Alice fan - the original Alice, that is. I've never found that addenda to Dodgson's original actually added anything.

Second, I'm not much of a manga fan. The look has fallen into a stylized convention as uniform as Egyptian pyramid carvings, only not as life-like. Then, there's this disconcerting tendency for characters' facial features to disappear and reappear. Sort of the opposite of the Cheshire Cat, whose features lingered on long after the face disappeared.

Over all, I found the whole somewhat less than the sum of the uninspring parts.

-- wiredweird

Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland has remained popular for more than 150 years. It's had movies, picture books, and even video games all based on it. So why not a manga version?

Alice in the Country of Hearts opens with a dream, of course. Alice has fallen asleep outside and dreams of a mysterious man who warns her about games. She wakes up when her sister calls her name and the two girls talk for a while. Alice's age isn't given, but she appears to be a teenager, not a very young girl. Her older sister is describing a book she has that sounds like Alice in Wonderland itself, and then Alice drifts back off to sleep.

This time she dreams about being visited by a garbed rabbit with a watch. The rabbit turns into a human--though he still has his rabbit ears--and spirits her off to Wonderland.

Alice in the Country of Hearts is not a direct retelling of the Wonderland story in manga form. It's inspired by Lewis Carroll's works. In other words, while having a standing point in the main story idea and characters, this manga has many creative differences. The plot line is also not exactly the same. In this version, the white rabbit forces Alice to drink an elixir that makes her part of the "game," which is surely the game first alluded to at the beginning. Until she finishes the game, she can't leave Wonderland. But what is this game and what are the rules? War is going on in Wonderland, with guns materializing out of thin air, and inhabitants being killed. This doesn't appear to be a safe place to live.

Characters like the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter are here, only to be spun as somewhat new creations by Soumei Hoshino and QuinRose. Characters keep falling in love with Alice, who herself has pined after a man she wants. Interestingly, one of the men in Wonderland looks suspiciously like him. Coincidence? Whatever it is, Alice wants out of this dream and back to her own reality.


So while this isn't exactly a Cliff's Notes version of Alice in Wonderland, it might get readers interested in the original if they haven't already read it. In some ways, this is a more mature Alice than the original, in the sense that is has gun violence and bawdy jokes. This series has already shown itself to be strong in sales, revealing a new chapter to Alice Liddell.
-- Danica Davidson

Follow Alice down the rabbit hole again in the exciting new adventure... manga style. Alice in the Country of Hearts (Vol. 1) is an enticing mixture of the traditional Alice in Wonderland with a new twist. The tale begins with Alice awaking from a dream concerning a mysterious game. Upon telling her sister of the game, she believes that Alice's subconscious is eager for some entertainment, and hurries off to find some cards. Much like the original tale, Alice spies a white rabbit in the distance with a large clock. However, instead of following the white rabbit, it comes to her and explains that she is not following him as she should. To Alice's surprise, the rabbit turns into a man with white rabbit ears. He quickly grabs her and thrusts her into a large hole that has mysteriously appeared. And off to Wonderland we go...

Once in Wonderland, Peter White (aka the white rabbit) explains to Alice that she must drink from a magic vial. Upon refusing, Peter forces Alice through a kiss. And thus the game begins... While not much is known about the game in the first volume, I have to say that I am intrigued. The main characters are still in here, but with a twist: The Mad Hatter is a Mafia Boss named Blood Dupre, Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum are the gatekeepers to Blood's home and territory, the Cheshire cat is Boris, a punk teenager with cat ears, and of course, Peter White, the man with rabbit ears who is madly in love with Alice. Actually, it seems that most of the male characters are in love with Alice. But to find out why.... you will have to read the manga.

For me, this volume was a lot of fun. The manga was full of interesting twists while staying pretty true to the original tale. Alice is a wonderful main character. But I have to say that Blood was my favorite. He reminded me a lot of Gambit from X-Men, without the powers. In addition to the great characters, the drawings in the novel are top notch. They are beautiful to look at, and immerse the reader in this new world that QuinRose and Hoshino Soumei have created. I loved every second of this novel and cannot wait to go down the rabbit hole to discover more. Highly recommend for manga and Alice in Wonderland lovers. This is one that should not be missed.

This manga is so original and so so good! I would recommend it to anyone! :]