REVIEW: Alice Love Fables: Toy Box (manga) story by QuinRose, art by Mamenosuke Fujimaru, translated by Angela Liu

Alice Love Fables: Toy Box is an anthology of very short stories linked to various QuinRose visual novel series. I bought my copy of this volume used.

Review:

I wish I'd paid a little more attention to the text on the cover before jumping into this, because I expected its stories to be focused solely on the various Alice in the Country of series, and instead there were stories set in a variety of QuinRose visual novel worlds, including one I had zero familiarity with.

Anyway, a quick list of the characters the stories center on:

- Arabians Lost: The Engagement On Desert: Roberto, Curtis, Stuart

- Alice in the Country of Hearts: Wonderful Wonder World: The Bloody Twins, Julius, Elliot

- Alice in the Country of Clover: Wonderful Wonder World: Gray, Peter, Blood

- Crimson Empire: Circumstances to Serve a Noble: Edvard, Justin, Michael

REVIEW: Alice in the Country of Hearts: Junk Box Stories (manga) story by QuinRose, art by Mamenosuke Fujimaru, translated by Angela Liu

Alice in the Country of Hearts: Junk Box Stories is a fantasy romance short story anthology. This particular volume is licensed by Seven Seas. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This is an anthology of short stories featuring characters from the Alice in the Country of Hearts otome game franchise. I just did a quick search, and it looks like one of the games used to be available for iOS and Android, but then the company that produced it, Quinrose, went bankrupt. That game is no longer available, and I'm guessing that means that all the other ones will never be available either. As an otome game fan, that makes me sad, but at the same time I've read so many of these manga spinoffs that I doubt I'm missing too much. 

Newbies to the franchise should absolutely not start with this volume. Although it does organize the stories by game (Alice in the Country of Hearts, Alice in the Country of Clover, and Alice in the Country of Joker) and briefly explains the overall premise of each one, it still assumes a lot of basic knowledge. It looks like all the manga may be out of print now, but if you can, I'd recommend checking out the original series, just called Alice in the Country of Hearts, from a library and starting there.

For those who are familiar with the franchise, this volume will work best for fans of Blood, Joker, the twins, Pierce, Boris, and Gray. There's also a very short Ace story in here, but it's pretty pointless (and kind of weird, a mixture of Ace in love with Alice but Alice also having a brief flash of being killed by him). Although the volume is organized by game, I'm opting to organize by character in my review.

REVIEW: Alice in the Country of Hearts: Love Labyrinth of Thorns (manga) story by QuinRose, art by Aoi Kurihara, translated by Angela Liu

Alice in the Country of Hearts: Love Labyrinth of Thorns is one of many manga volumes based on the Alice in the Country of Hearts otome visual novel. Although it's a one-shot, if you're new to the franchise, I recommend starting with Yen Press's Alice in the Country of Hearts omnibus volumes.

Review:

Upon ending up in Wonderland, Alice managed to convince Julius to allow her to stay with him at the Clock Tower. Julius gripes about Alice getting underfoot but doesn't put any effort into making her leave. Alice makes him coffee and gets irritated when he says he doesn't like it, but despite his complaints, he always drinks it, even if it's become stone cold. However, something suddenly changes between them. For some reason Julius begins avoiding Alice and acting cold and distant towards her. When she confronts him about it, he tells her to leave, so she does. Nightmare decides to step in and put both of their feelings to the test.

REVIEW: Alice in the Country of Hearts: The Mad Hatter's Late Night Tea Party (manga, vols. 1-2) story by QuinRose, art by Riko Sakura, translated by Angela Liu

I will finish all the manga in this franchise, someday. Maybe.

This two-volume series features what I consider to be one of the series' most interesting pairings. Even though I don't think Blood is a particularly good for Alice, this pairing tends to dig the deepest into her past, the memories she most wants to forget, and her private insecurities, since Blood looks so much like the tutor she fell in love with back in her own world, and who married her older sister instead.

Not that The Mad Hatter's Late Night Tea Party delves into any of that. For a series pairing up Alice and Blood, it was pretty mediocre and offered nothing new. I would also highly recommend that those new to Alice in the Country of Hearts (or any of the other countries) not start with this. It may be tempting to start with one of the shorter series, but it's a bad idea all around.

This is one of my post-vacation posts, so be aware that there are spoilers past this point.

REVIEW: Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit (manga, vols. 1-2) story by QuinRose, art by Delico Psyche, scenario by Shinotsuki, translated by Ajino Hirami

I have no idea how close I am to finally finishing all the manga in this franchise that's been translated into English. I feel like every time I check there's more.

At any rate, I think I've read all the enjoyable stuff, and now this is more about me being able to say "I'm done" than anything. The first volume of My Fanatic Rabbit was mediocre, but I've read worse. In general, I'm not a fan of the ones where Elliot is Alice's love interest because they're either too silly for my tastes and make Alice too focused on her love for Elliot's ears, or they focus too much on Elliot's violent side and make me worry about Alice. This one went in the latter direction, with a little of the former.

The second volume left me filled with rage, primarily because I've seen the kind of stuff that was pulled on Alice pulled with a family member. This wasn't even vaguely romantic, and it left me feeling terrible for Alice.

Alice in the Country of Hearts: The Clockmaker's Story (manga) story by Quin Rose, art by Mamenosuke Fujimaru, translated by Angela Liu

I've decided that I'm going to try to review all those Alice in the Country of manga volumes I read during my vacation as much in the order that they should be read as possible, rather than in the order I actually read them. That means I need to start with any Alice in the Country of Hearts volumes, and this was the only one out of the bunch. I should note that there is a multi-volume Alice in the Country of Hearts release that is probably the best place to start. Although I read most of it several years ago, I haven't reviewed it.

If you're not familiar with Alice in the Country of Hearts: it deals with a girl named Alice who ends up being transported to the Country of Hearts, which is filled with characters who are locked in violent territory disputes and who all almost immediately adore Alice. The various manga volumes are based on a visual novel of the same title, and it helps if you approach each manga subseries (?) as though it were a route in the game – nothing except the basics of the situation and world carries over from one subseries to the next.

The Clockmaker's Story is a one-shot in which Alice falls in love with Julius, the Country of Hearts' clockmaker. To get away from Peter and the violence at both the castle and the Hatter Family's mansion, Alice moves in with Julius. She worries that she might be getting in his way, and she knows he's keeping something from her. Still, he's kind, letting her use his bed because it's the only one in the tower. What Alice doesn't know is that there's a secret behind the clocks Julius is constantly fixing.