Manga: Gakuen Alice

Gakuen Alice is a shoujo manga written and illustrated by Tachibana Higuchi, it has been adapted to 26-episodes anime series (and there is no season 2), the manga is still ongoing, chapter 111 is the latest chapter.

The story is about Mikan Sakura who decides to look for her bestfriend, Hotaru Imai. Hotaru is moving to a new school called Gakuen Alice (Alice Academy), a school for people with special powers called “Alice.” When Mikan finds Hotaru in Gakuen Alice, one of the teacher discovers her alice, later on Mikan is permitted to enter the school. This is the beginning of Mikan’s new life in Gakuen Alice.

Don’t be fooled by its childish appearance, the plot of this series is complex and the story gets heavier after a while. This manga exposes how greedy and corrupt adults can be, especially towards innocent children. Gradually, Mikan realizes the dark side of the academy beneath its grand and extravagant appearance. The academy hides lots of dark secrets and greedily uses the students’ abilities for their advantages. Her classmate, Natsume Hyuuga is one of the academy’s victim. Because of his extraordinary fire Alice, the school often sends him to a dangerous mission that can cost his life.

Mikan herself experienced unfair treatment because of her unique Alice, the nullification Alice which make her able to nullify the powers of other alices in close proximity to her. Mikan makes many friends in her school despite their initial hostile manner towards her, this is due to her easy-going and cheerful nature. She also impresses many people with her persistency, she is refusing to give up on anything, and she firmly decides to change the academy to a better place for her and her friends.

Since it’s a shoujo manga, there are several love stories between the characters. The main love story is between Natsume, Mikan, and Ruka (Natsume’s bestfriend). Natsume and Mikan obviously are destined for each other, after chapter 41 I’m pretty sure Ruka have no chance at all. Because in this chapter both Mikan and Natsume declares that they will protect each other, for me this is more like their indirect love confession to one another.

Natsume, Mikan, and Ruka

Another love story that caught my attention is Narumi-sensei relationship with Mikan’s mother. From the recent chapters I also keen to know more about the relationship between Mikan’s parents. Actually, there are many interesting relationship and characters within Gakuen Alice, and this is one of the main appeal of this amazing series.

Like most Gakuen Alice fans, I am a huge Mikan & Natsume shipper. In my opinion, Natsume needs Mikan more than anything else, because this bubbly girl cares about him and able to control his dangerous alice. In the other side, Mikan doesn’t really need him due to her easy going and cheerful nature. But somehow we know she empathized him and gradually feels attracted to him. The latest chapters show their strong feelings towards each other, so it’s official that they are in love with each other. I really cannot wait to see how the author concludes their relationship, hopefully a happy ending!

My favorite Mikan & Natsume Moments:

Chapter 41, they declares how they will protect each other, this is the affirmation of their feelings for each other. The sweetest scene ever!

Chapter 72, Mikan gives Natsume her alice stone, in the alice world the exchange of alice stones is like a proposal or engagement to one another.

Chapter 95, this is the ultimate chapter for M-N shipper, when Natsume comes to Mikan’s room to console her and Mikan said she is crying in his place, yaay finally! I believe this is their first mutual hug, I smiled very wide when I read this chapter, this chapter made my day!

My other favorite chapter:

Chapter 44, this is the chapter when we know a little bit about Narumi-sensei’s past with Mikan’s mother, Yuka Azumi who was also his senpai. He was madly in love with her but she rejected him. A bitter chapter but I really like it, somehow I can relate with the painful one-sided love. And no wonder Narumi cares alot about Mikan, I think she reminds him alot of Yuka.

Manga Scores: 5 out of 5

Anime Scores: 3.5 out of 5

Recommended: Very, if you are looking for light entertainment watch the anime. But if you want to read an excellent shoujo manga, read the manga through mangafox.com.