Kagami no Kuni no Alice
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Contrary to the other reviews, and probably, other people's perception of this manga, I think it's great.

I admit that the first time I read this (a few years ago), I was horribly appalled by this manga that I rated it with a 3. But now that I've slightly matured, I read it again. This time, I gave it a 10.

Why?

Okay, let's start with its bad points.

1. No, they weren't in an elevator.
2. There's no dialogues.
... 3. It's just 14 pages.
4. It seemed pointless -as mentioned by another reviewer, it just showed Alice seeing the men ogling her mom, and all of a sudden, there's a woman doing something with herself.

Now, here, I'll turn those bad points upside down.

First and foremost, I don't care that the synopsis is wrong about the elevator. The point is: they're in a public place.

So, here's my own interpretation of the story: Alice notices that almost every men passing by are looking at her mom's breast, and then she imagines that maybe when she grows up, that will happen to her, too. ALICE IS NOT A STUPID KID. At that age, she knows what that ogling meant.

If you try to notice the details, you'll see that:
1) On her mom's necklace, near the boobs, olé is written -I think that represents how other people look at her mom, in a demeaning way "Wow (olé)! How sexy! Yum!"
2) The most important detail is that before the "nipple (mom's) scene" and before the "woman touching herself" scene, there is always the glasses reflecting them. And whose wearing those glasses? Not Alice, she has perfect eyesight (she can see what's happening around her). Not her mom, too. The people wearing the glasses are the men -okay, some of them, but it's really notable that the glasses shown are the glasses of the men shown before.

Now what do those details mean?
The manga shows how Alice felt -disgust. It showed what Alice thought that the men might be thinking -dirty thoughts: her mom's nipples (that aren't really seen, the time when the nipples showed was after the "glasses"), her as an adult touching herself and being erotic. But at the very end, she and her mom just continue walking through, "ignoring" everyone around them.

Think about it, Alice, a seemingly 10-year-old girl, already knows how lewd this world is. About how, when you're just walking WITH YOUR DAUGHTER, wearing what I believe isn't really obscene (on the 13th page, you'll see that it's a full length dress that only shows a bit of cleavage, she's even wearing boots/high socks), some men still lust for you. And how, no matter how young, the kids already feel that dirty look. That in the very end, women could only pass by, and ignore those looks, no matter how afraid/harassed they might feel.

You might say I'm reading into this manga a bit too much, but hey, that's reality. And I think that this manga is actually an act of protest against that kind of society.

Here's a breakdown of my rating:
Story - 10
Art - 10
The manga was able to convey those to me despite, or rather, taking full advantage of its shortness and lack of dialogues -it doesn't need to be long nor does it need to have a dialogue to convey its meaning.
And I really love how detailed it is and how those details actually reveal its meaning.
Character - 10
I love how realistically it conveyed the society (in a sense, the character -the men) and how Alice is just a kid yet she already knows so much.
Enjoyment - 10
Overall - 10

Well, contrary to my rating, my recommendation value for this one is rather with mixed feelings -seeing that many people, including me (before), have read this and missed its point (heck, its current average score is 4.84!). But please, if you ever want to read this, read it with an open-mind and read it with what I just written noted in your mind. :)

Ermmm so... after looking at this 'manga' (since there is like nothing to read e.g no words or speeches, like not even one word in it) my face was like...
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CvudXaiCeKk/T1aV7kJSB2I/AAAAAAAADQE/M24nMEczXBE/s1600/jackie-chan-wtf.png

Story:
A DREADFUL 2
Ermm even after reading the plot... it still didn't get to me. The plot puzzled me...
'Alice waits with her mom in an elevator' WHAT THEY WERE IN AN ELEVATOR... no fool it didn't seem like it since the drawing was in my opinion different, but i will go to that point in a moment.
It didn't stand out, it didn't make sense to sum it up, if i had a question to ... ask the mangka it would have been. "Were you high when you wrote this manga?"

Art:
DECENT 4
Well, let's just stay, the mangaka at least made an effort in the art. The art was very unique and different. The use of water colours was very nice but not what he drew. The pencil work on this was very definite the strokes are beautiful and i actually admire this guys work... BUT yes BUT
The colours were dull and sometimes, too much was going on and it didn't really tell me what was going on. I didn't feel like it attracted me... Nor did i get a comfortable environment when i read it.

Character:
A PATHETIC 1
Seriously... nothing about the characters. I mean all i saw was a "few"horny men looking at a woman's breast and then what looked like was the woman stripping and started to touch her... *cough cough* OK little girl 'Alice' seriously whats wrong with your mother? Of course it's wrong, are you not stupid enough to tell your mummy to stop what she's doing ¬_¬ hello! *sigh* the characters are messed up.

No personality reference and you couldn't even tell when Alice went into another world or if she's the woman at the end or is that her mother
IT'S MESSED UP =_=ll

Enjoyment:
A PATHETIC 1
i don't think i really enjoyed it to be honest i mean, when i read it i never looked at the synopsis and... i seriously had the WTH face. For the 14 pages i read i really did feel disturb... "what the hell did i just seriously read."

OVERALL: (Drum Roll...)

DREADFUL 2

At least i didn't give it a 1...
The art is which i admire the most since i was surprised as this artist... IS FRENCH ( i was like WOW) I really admire him but this work is like what, weird, disturbing, random, confusing and what?
Never read anything like this. I wouldn't exactly recommend this to anyone in particular, not that i would ever to be honest...

It never hurts to read something different but for something that's only 14 pages and makes your head spin in circles just to figure out what actually happens *even though it tells you* i just would not read this ever again.

The reason why I decided to give this manga a try was because its rating on mangafox was appallingly low (like 2 stars) and I was thinking, wow if it's THAT bad I should have a look.

Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed it. The main reason (ok probably the ONLY reason) is because of the art. So I'll talk about that first.

ART -- 9/10

I thought it was beautiful. The style is definitely different, but it was refreshing and very very pretty. (this is just personal taste though) Some panels literally look like museum art pieces. I like how some panels were drenched in dark, grey tones ... and others had light, pastel colors; making the atmosphere seem dangerous and gloomy or dreamy, respectively.

STORY AND CHARACTER -- 3/10

Clumped these two factors together since they are similar. (plus, I can't elaborate much on either of them. There's practically zero development in both areas)

Well, being a oneshot spanning only 14 pages (or a bit less if you take out the cover page and description) who can expect a 'proper' story and relatable characters. The 'story' (the word 'concept' is probably more fitting in this case) is extremely.. Confusing. Don't try to read too much into it. There might be some sort of obscure, deeper meaning in this seemingly meaningless manga but honestly, I'd rather just enjoy the art and not think about what message it's conveying. (if there's even one)

ENJOYMENT AND OVERALL -- 7/10

Despite giving it such low scores in its story, I'll still give it a 7 in enjoyment and overall. Because the art is so fucking good. But if you don't like the art.. Well you'll just downright hate this manga.

It's not everyone's cup of tea. But if you decide to try reading it, just remember to have an open mind and don't anticipate a conventional form of story. I think the key to appreciating this manga is to not understand it, but to feel it. If that makes sense?

And I will end off here because this review is becoming WAY too long for a 14-page manga. Thanks for reading (if you still are hahah) and hope it was helpful ^^

This is one of the lowest-rated manga, and I am not entirely sure why.

Alright sure, it is a little obscure and unconventional, but the whole thing seemed pretty interesting to say the least. I'd like to believe there was some idea going on behind this whole thing. Maybe this is some social commentary on being a woman, which would for sure spark up some controversy, but it would also probably be looked at as an unfortunate event in an unfortunate circumstance. But there's also the name Alice and the whole exploration thing in the original "Alice in Wonderland". Maybe it goes on too just use ... Alice as a means to explore, well, the dark side. Again, what can I say? Maybe this is all abstract interpretation stuff. I wouldn't be surprised at that matter.

The art is what really sells the whole thing if I am honest, and with the lack of dialogue present in the entirety of this manga, I would say to take up the read to look at the art if nothing else. It reminds me a little of painting, but in some kind of artistic sketch; an artistically deformed human.

Nothing harmful here. I would imagine it is rated so low because of the lack of apparent meaning, but maybe you can look at that as a motivator to find something. You decide.

Okay I decided to have a One Shot readathon. At first I found it weird considering this is classified as a manga when it had no speech bubbles. But once I read it a second time I could find the beauty in it. Yes it's just art but the art has been the best I've seen in a long time, with saying this I gave the art 10. The actually story a 6. It was okay but the concept could have been better but nonetheless it was enjoyable.

Overall I gave it 6 because of the concept of the story and the character but that ... shouldn't mean don't read it because as I said I gave the art a 10 and if you like art you should look at this. Since I gave the art 10 my overall enjoyment (which is based on the art) is a 10.

OK I read this manga a couple of times, to understand if there was anything beyond this roughly drawn sketchy art. Turns out that Kagami no Kuni no Alice is exactly what is there, which is not necessarily a good thing.

The main character from our "story" is Alice (I'm gonna call her like this, since the closest we have to a 'name' is the one in the title). Alice is standing on a sidewalk (or elevator or whatever), along with her mother; when suddenly she notices an army of bystanders staring at her mom's breasts, as if they never saw cleavage (or women) in their ... lives before. Which, frankly, is as questionable as it gets. Men don't keep staring at women on the street that much, not with those eyes like alqaeda members staring to an airplane full of rabbi hostages going to attend the hannukah. "Alice" gets clearly upset, and in one of the next shots we see a bit of the "Mrs. Alice" nipples, for whatever reasons not even the mangaka knows.

Then we have a random scene, where Alice is lying on the floor with her skirt down, and kinda like masturbating (?) And then more people staring at Alice flipping her DJ disco, and right after it a couple of inane incomprehensible scenes in the station where it started; that's when our "story" ends.

If the goal was to say how society view women, and how kids can get shocked to this fact, I can vaguely understand mangaka's reasons. However, there is not enough drive to create anything remotely impactful. There are just some sequences that, above everything, made me chuckle; since they are so randomic and out of place that the entire concept seems pointless and vague. The idea/intention is interesting, but the motion is so poor that I cringed more than took it seriously. Overthinking this is completely unneeded.

Thank you for reading.