Title: Alice in the Country of Hearts Author: QuinRose, Hoshino Soumei
Series: Alice in the Country of Hearts #1
Published: 1st March 2010
Length: 184 pages
Warnings: suggestive situations, a little gore, a little violence, kissing, half the characters trying to chat up Alice.
Other info: Started off as a computer game. There are five volumes currently published. An anime film has been announced to be produced at some time.
Summary from external site: The girly but bloody otome game re-imagining of Lewis Carroll's classic fantasy novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with bishounen characters and added romance.
In this story, Alice is not all what she seems. She is practical, strong, yet a cynical person. Instead of the tradition story, Alice is kidnapped unwillingly by a mysterious (yet somewhat bishie-looking) man with bunny ears into a place call Heartland. Stuck in Heartland due to a trick by the mysterious bunny eared man, she meets the residents of this world. Along the way, Alice meets Blood, handsome mafia leader; Ace, the psycho yet charming knight and more…What should Alice do in such a world!?
Review: Alice has stumbled into Wonderland and has been forced to play the 'game' by the White Rabbit. She must fill up a small container by getting everyone to love her if she ever wants to escape. But this is no simple matter as the Blood (the head of the mafia), the owner of the theme park and the Queen of Hearts are all at war with each other and many of the inhabitants of Wonderland have very sadistic natures -the chances of Alice succeeding are very slim.
Katy's thoughts: I love the updated versions of each character and the introduction of a new one: Julius the watchmaker as god. Alice is just as naive as the original and twice as funny too. It is violent and many of the characters are highly bloodthirsty and have on respect for life. It is interesting to see Alice attempt to change their attitudes while trying not to get killed by them.
Nina's thoughts: I love the updated characters too, they are extremely funny and they make you rethink the way you saw Alice. My favourite has to be Boris, a punk version of the Cheshire Cat. I also like the new version of the duchess, Mary go land whose violin becomes a gun, and the Mad Hatter, mafia boss Blood. And Julius, who I say is not supposed to be God(I don't remember God being in the original story), but Old Father Time(who defiantly was) Anyway, no matter who he's supposed to be, I like Julius. The plot is simply Alice being carried down the rabbit hole and being forced to make everyone in wonderland love her, meaning she has to meet them all. She meets them all in comedic and awkward circumstances, them gets into a lot more comedic and awkward circumstances. And the art is pretty, detailed, clean and the style works well with the story. I recommend this to anyone wanting a quick light read with lots of laughs, and fans of Alice in Wonderland.
Rating: 5 hilarious, interesting plot and a brilliant parody of Alice in Wonderland. P.S. If you know of any more Alice in Wonderland parodies, whether they be of a light comedic or twisted macabre nature, please share. I love reading them, and I think Katy does too.
Hey, this sounds very good!
ReplyDeleteI like Alice - and this sort of reminds me a little of the TV movie of it, with the updated, slightly darker themes -and this sounds like a great version of it!
I hadn't heard of this series but I'm going to try to get my paws on it!