By Tachibana Higuchi. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Tokyopop.
When we last left our heroes, Natsume had been lured into a trap, and it was up to Mikan and the others to rescue him. They go off to do this, being occasioanlly stopped by mid-level mooks. Unfortunately, these scenes are probably the most boring of the volume, as the entire cast stand around for about 60 pages and argue about why they shouldn’t be standing around. I swear, Mikan’s real Alice ability is dithering.
There is one very amusing bit during all this, and as you’d expect, it involves Hotaru. Hotaru, who is wearing a creepy egg helmet, is battling Mook #1, who has wind powers and a particularly arrogant demeanor. He’s jonesing to finish them off quickly, so he can get back to beating on Natsume, who he (like the rest of the school) despises. Then he breaks Hotaru’s helmet, and finds out that she’s a girl. Bing! True love alert! Of course, Hotaru wants nothing to do with him, but hey, it breaks up the monotony.
Luckily, Luca decides it’s time to tell the story of his and Natsume’s past, which is a good thing, as it’s easily the better part of the book. Luca has the typical rich-kid caged-bird childhood that you’d expect, but I was surprised to see how… well, how normal Natsume was. Yes, he’s still dour and grumpy, but in a far less “I hate life” way than he is in the current series. And then we see the reason why, which is the bond he shares with his sister Aoi. “Sister?” we say to ourselves. “Oh no…”
Yes, she’s instantly likeable, she’s cute, she’s happy-go-lucky… she’s doomed, isn’t she? (She’s also a lot like Mikan, something I’m sure that Tachibana is intending.) Sure enough, thanks to a trap planted by Persona (who has by now firmly established himself as the villain of this series, although I’m sure he’ll get a touching flashback later on as well. That’s the way these sorts of series roll. But for now, what a bastard.), Aoi and Natsume end up in a big amount of trouble… trouble that can only be solved by a) Natsume lying to protect his sister, and b) Natsume entering the Academy.
It’s telling that the preview for Volume 12 shows Mikan screaming “What’s wrong with this stupid school?”, as she is meant to be the reader identification character, and most readers are likely asking themselves that as well. Despite the presence of occasional ‘good’ teachers like Narumi (and how good he really is is debatable), it’s become clear that the Academy is more of a cross between a prison and a zoo, and that the ritualized abuse going on inside is definitely encouraged.
Still, this is what Tachibana does. Now that I’m reading Portrait of M&N; as well as Gakuen Alice, it’s becoming clearer… Tachibana likes to write hideously traumatic school situations, and then make comedic shoujo romance out of them. Obviously, Gakuen Alice is a big step up from the fluffier M&N;, but still. One can argue that I’ve been complaining about the bullying more than I should, but it is essentially the plot. Mikan and company have to find out what made the school this way. Hopefully we’ll see more of this in Volume 12.
