Manga Review: Alice 19th

This is a story of good vs. evil, of sibling rivalry and sibling love. The central character is Alice, who has a crush on a boy named Kyou and is too timid to tell him. Her older and prettier sister, Mayura also has a crush on this boy and doesn't know how Alice feels. Mayura professes her love to Kyou, and Alice, being a good sister, stands aside.

However, Alice holds the hurt within herself until one day it comes out in an unguarded moment. Then all of it comes to the surface. Mayura is smarter than she is, and prettier and more popular, and now she is the girlfriend of the guy that Alice wanted, so Alice says, "I wish you would disappear!" and Mayura does disappear. Alice has discovered, in the worst way, that there is power in the words we use and that she is a Lotis Master; one who can use words as weapons.

There are twenty-four Lotis (good) words and symbols, and twenty-four Mara (evil) words and symbols. Between the two powers there has been an age-long struggle and it is about to come to a head in the events surrounding these two sisters.

Alice is guided by Nyozeka, a rabbit-girl, who knows about the Lotis and Mara, but cannot use them herself. She is also aided by Kyou, who also turns out to be a Lotis Master, and Furei, a Lotis Master from another country. Furei teaches Alice and Kyou how to enter the inner hearts of people and see what troubles them, for each of us has some darkness that we hide within.

As this group explores the hearts of the people they know and try to set things right in each heart they learn more about this epic battle and they eventually find Mayura and bring her home. But Mayura has been overcome by the darkness and has become a Master of Mara. She sets herself at odds with her sister and becomes the means by which a great evil begins to take control of the world, feeding on the darkness within the hearts of all mankind.

It's a good story. It's well-planned and the artwork is slightly above average. My only problem with it really is in the translations. I'm used to having to allow for the odd syntax that comes from literal translations, word for word, in a manga title, and some other forms of literature as well. In this though, there are times when there seems to be a gap between what is going on in the artwork and what the characters are saying. All I can think is that maybe there are some things that are common in the Japanese culture and that they're taken for granted and not expressed in the dialog.

I have only one language, American English, and no real understanding of Japanese culture, so some things need to be plainly on display for me to see them. There were many times that I found myself lost, wondering what had just happened or what had I missed. Sometimes I could back up a page or two and figure it out, but there were other times that I just had to go on with the story and not concern myself with whatever it was that had thrown me off track.

Still, I can recommend this title to anyone who likes manga. Oh, by the way, the title comes from the 19^th character of Lotis: courage. In the beginning, Alice is sorely lacking in courage and it is the first Lotis word of power that she masters.