Fushigi no Kuni no Shounen Alice

[MangaDex]

 

[teriguu]

This is EPIC! So funny. The person who made this is a genius. Also a very good example to point at when telling kids to not do dissociative drugs.

 

[Drakeven]

I recognised some plot points throughout my read but I found it pretty hard to follow. The ending doesn't give much closure and is pretty confusing. Some parts were understandable enough and I really enjoyed those parts, however, there were other parts that... Didn't track. The ending doesn't seem like an ending at all. It's definitely not 'School life'.

Spoiler

There were some classic genderchange tropes, like Alice hiding their change from a school buddy in one chapter, and her eventually being replaced by the end but... It almost felt like the chapters were out of order or something. You just get submerged in a new setting without any clue how you got there, characters disappear (Dimension Hopping Alice was GONE by the end??) and it's really difficult to follow. I guess that's a wonderland aesthetic? Who knows, it's just not very satisfying for me.

Edit: O lol obviously it doesn't seem like an end because it got Axed. Welp, that's a shame, they could've wrapped up some storylines.

 

[Hobnobs]

@Drakeven wasn't kidding, this is really disjointed (purposely so).

After chapter 2 the rest of it is delirium until chapter 9, at least they were funny chapters.

Spoiler

I believed these were supposed to be dreams or delusions of the Prince as a side-effect from leaving wonderland, that however is clearly wrong after reading past chapter 9. At chapter 12 it goes off on a tangent again but it's back on track in chapter 13. Nearing the end I thought that it's supposed to be paradoxical because it hints at Arisu feeling like he(she?) has known the prince for a very long time and that all these instances and history between them are simultaneously true. Then I read that "starting with the dollhouse" block of text on 15.1 from the author and I'm like yeah, this story is total bullshit. Now I appreciate that desert bus included that in there as it appears to be a quote from her (the mangaka) circa 2006 even though the original publication of this work was from 1993. I can't tell if the ending panels has to do with the axing of the manga and if the final panel is supposed to indicate that both characters are actually literally insane.

Was not expecting the mangaka to be female though. Looks like the mangaka might of had some personal issues or at least something else that must of happened that ended her short-lived career. Her artwork was perfectly fine.

 

[NeonWinter]

I came for gay shit, I left... confused.
And I'm the type of person who likes non-linear, disjointed storytelling. It really was just too much