Gakuen Alice

i pretty much agree with princessvera on her review of the manga except for the fact that its like "harry potter". just bcuase a plot is becoming increasingly darker and complex doesnt mean it bears any similarity to harry potter

This series brings to mind Harry Potter in both its development and in its set-up, albeit a cutesy Harry Potter with different characters and villians... its own appeals. On the level of plot and setting, it’s deceptively simple and un-complex: you have a bunch of kids in a magic school with a variety of intrigues, from romantic drama to nasty classmates to silly goofs and dangerous adventures. The world is fairly self-contained—you get glimpses and hints of what’s on the outside, and it’s not like they’ve forgotten the world exists—but it takes place mostly inside the school. This is where the resemblance to Harry Potter ends.

As for the characterization and development, you have young characters to start, and they’re clearly very immature in many ways. They’re all variations of stereotypes: the kind, ditzy, naïve girl, the cold genius, the tsundere male lead, the kind-hearted male lead, the irritating “love rival”, and so on. So it’s not their base personalities, but when they break out of these types or when they show how valuable those personality traits of theirs are that you feel touched by them; they all have strong personalities and unique gifts which they must use to struggle and survive in an increasingly dark adult world.

As the series goes on, the story becomes more complex and the tone becomes darker. You begin to get more flashbacks, exposition, and deep, deep drama. (Again, very Harry Potter-like). If you’re someone who read this series within a short time-span or if you’ve reread it, then you probably realized that the darkness was lurking there to begin with: Hotaru’s parents are coerced into sending her to school, Natsume is punished with physical abuse and physical constraints, Narumi’s cheeriness hides a lot of darkness, and so on.

The pace picks up (rather awkwardly) as the manga moves closer to the hundreds (in chapters). It appears to be the final / culminating arc, but this arc has been going on for at least 1/3 of the series now; the mangaka set it up so that things are not going to be easily resolved by beating one bad guy. Most recently she has thrown in a disorienting rapid-fire set of heavy punches plot-wise (non-spoiler tip-off to current readers: the things happening around the time Reo returning), with everyone doing big important things, and to the reader it’s just that feeling—you wish it would end already because you’re shocked and disoriented all the time, but you really can’t even begin to see how it’s going to end and know it’s going to take a while.

My two biggest problems are the current state of the never-ending rapid-fire plot (although all the events and flashbacks are useful, they are nonetheless disorienting) and the pervertedness of some of the stuff. Seriously, I don't think it should be normal for ten-year-olds to grope others, steal panties, and whatnot. But this is a Japanese series, so it'd probably be even odder for NONE of the sort to be there... unfortunately.

A warning to readers of scanlations: a few of the chapters are low-quality translations, and the scanlators have switched around over the years, so you may find variation in terminology (I used to have a lot of trouble keeping the Japanese names of the classes apart) and occasional confusing moments. I never had a problem following the plot and figuring things out from context, though, so I don’t mind this so much.

Although this series has turned into a much darker and much more complex story as of late, I have to disagree with everyone to say that its extraordinary. Of course it starts out almost like a children's story but children grow up. And what makes this story so remarkable is that the characters have to go through and experience the horrors and corruption of the adult world even at such a young age.

It was great at first, but some of the later parts of the story really just dragged. The action scenes around chapter 120-135 in particular were really bad. Now we're into what is apparently the final arc, so I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing it wrap up nicely.

Alice Gakuen's art is alright, but it's also nothing really amazing. I have some difficulty telling the minor characters apart, and lots of scenes are really confusing to read, where you have no idea who's saying what or what the flow of the text is.

That said, it's pretty cute sometimes. It does also tend toward the randomly illogical, like being bare-shouldered on a snowy winter night and not feeling cold, but the characters are sweet and the concept is entertaining.

I feel really bad because now days i can't say GA is my favourite manga. The arc where they

looked into the past was great, amazing; if a bit cliched here and there. But then after that it went downhill. The story is so complex i can't keep up with it or that may be the translating...i don't know :) GA is an amazing manga i just hope that the mangaka finds her feet because she's really extending it too long. I can no longer say this is my fav manga as i said above but don't let that stop you from reading this amazingly, cute, gutsy manga.
I'll keep reading but for now its an 8 from me

I'm really enjoying reading this series. I'm up to volume sixteen. But I just read somewhere that it's not being translated to English anymore, past volume sixteen. Tragic! How will I find out what happens next?
My favourite character is Natsume. And I think it's one of my favourite manga series ever, if only I could keep reading!
Oh and the art! It's beautiful. The characters are distinct easy to tell apart at a glance, something that perhaps strangely uncommon.

It was so much better when the plot was much simpler. I really liked reading Gakuen Alice then! But now it's so dark. I thought this was a manga made for kids... but now it's just so dark with so many plot twists that I can't keep up with any more. I just keep reading out of habit now.

I started reading this then I was so attached to it I stayed up till morning just reading it.
You have to read this, it's got everything a shoujo manga needs. The characters are different yet cute and the plot is interesting.

It is beautifully drawn with a great plot. I like how the main leads are children not teenagers because this story with teens would just mean a trainwreck. The plot is so interesting and it had me on the edge of my seat. It was so interesting and unique. Beautifully drawn the art to me was unique in it's own way.

The only thing I didn't like was how in the first few volumes it took so long to get to the good parts. Reading those parts were nice but it took just way to long!

Beautiful art, funny, sad, cute -the story has all necessities. For those who like to just quick-flip and just get to the fun parts (like me) it isn't the best choice for you. This story is positively slooow, smartly made, and sometimes can have lots of words. But for those who like to savor every page and think it through after, I guarentee an amazing experience...
As the story progresses, its no longer the calm, friendly life shoujo at alice academy, this manga proves to have some action and mystery and other mish mash, which I guess, could be a good thing.

For the first few 50++ chapters, I wasn't really interested, then I tried continue-ing to read then I cried intensely. Seriously, this is manga made me cried/teared alot alot of times. It's as though as, it really touches your heart, all the pain and the happiness, you could feel it. Although the translating team abit ..... But still its a must read!

I absolutely love the originality of this manga and have found it very entertaining. Even though the characters are just young kids, the story still appealed to me, it isn't really childish at all.
The art is great, the characterisation is great and the plot is great.
My only problem with this story is that now it's begun to get more dark and serious it has become less enjoyable (which is wierd because we all like a bit of drama).
But, the longer it takes to come to a conclusion the more tedious it becomes. I've already started to skip chapters and already I've lost my grasp on where the story is going.
Obviously the mangaka had to move onto the more serious aspects of the plot and to somehow introduce us to the past stories and how it all links in but somewhere along the way I think it became boring.
Mikan is now alienated from all her friends and it's all un-jolly and feels like it won't conclude any time soon and I'm not sure I can last.
That being said, if the mangaka manages to round it up sometime soon I think the story's awesomeness may be saved.