Alice 19th

Alice 19th is a manga series about a young woman named Alice who has a small run in with a white rabbit.  Thus the story begins and where the similarities between Carroll's work and Watase's work end.  Alice saves a little rabbit from the road one day on her way to school, only this is no ordinary rabbit.  The rabbit transforms into her "true form" and reveals to Alice that she is to become a Lotis Master.  These Masters use the power of words and communication to enter the inner hearts of others. Alice must learn to use these words in the proper manner.

During a dispute over a mutual love interest, Alice makes her sister disappear.  Now she must use her Lotis words to bring her sister back from the darkness.  She joins with Kyo (her love interest who also has the Lotis powers) and Frey (another Lotis Master).  The group soon discover that Alice's sister has been overtaken by Maram words, which is the dark equivalent of Lotis words.  Alice and Kyo now have the task of becoming Neo-Masters and discover the lost Lotis word that will bind Lotis and Maram words.  Only this will save her sister.

As with any story that reflects on Alice in Wonderland, I gobbled this manga up.  Yu happens to be one of my favorite manga writers.  She also wrote Fushigi Yuugi which happens to be my favorite anime.  She does a remarkable job developing her story.  She weaves various elements from the traditional story into her own and makes it new.  While the series has 7 volumes, I wanted more.  I wanted to see this as an anime and taken farther.  Yu has a great talent for creating her own world that is different from others created by other manga writers as well as herself.  I enjoyed the idea of words and communication having power over other people for either good or bad.  It is something we all intrinsically know, but to use it the basis of a story is a wonderful idea.  I mean during an argument Alice says something regretful and causes her sister to disappear into another realm of darkness.  How often has our words caused someone pain and sent them into their own world of darkness?

The artwork is also beautiful and well done.  The artist captures the emotions and feelings of the characters in a way that makes the reader feel they are a part of the story with the characters.  The minor love story between Alice and Kyo does not take away from the main plot, in fact it adds a different aspect to the main plot.  The idea that uttering words of love to one another could be deadly was another interesting aspect.  It shows that even the good words uttered in sincerity could have negative backlash.  The manga is written in the traditional style of right to left, so if you are unfamiliar with the style, it might be difficult to get the hang of which order to read the panels.  All together I finished this series in about 6-7 hours or so depending on how engrossed in the volume I had gotten. 

I would recommend this manga to females who love reading magical girl series, and even males if they enjoy that genre.  I would recommend this to anyone who is just starting to read manga, it is a great series to begin with.  I give this series as a whole a 4 out of 5.  I wanted/expected more from the series, but it still a fantastic read.