Are You Alice?

The story is all over the place and only comes together at the last two volumes or so. That doesn’t mean it’s badly written, it’s just that i personally like a plot that follows a straight line, i do not mind some flashbacks from time to time, i wouldn’t even mind the story jumping around between the past and the present if it wasn’t so much to the point that made following the story so annoying. But i feel it was done as if to hide the plot holes because whenever things got interesting the story would just jump into the past or try toretell something that we already knew and later when it picked up where it left some things were left unexplained and i think THAT is poor writing. Imagine one moment it feels like everything is falling into place and the story is finally moving forward and you go to the next chapter just to find it’s back 30 chapters to tell something you don’t care about anymore. That is no fun and it diminishes the enjoyment for me. I also noticed that some dialogues were repeated a lot throughout the series with the only difference being one or two new sentences or scenes every time. What a waste. Also yeah, Lots and LOTS of dialogue, i think it would be much better if this was a light novel instead. I felt like the author desperately tried to lengthen the story but it just made it unbearably slow and dull. Which resulted in many unnecessary chapters that really add nothing. Author herself admits volume 7 is a side story so not reading it doesn’t change anything. It could have been a 5 volume manga and it would be better than 12 where the story gets dragged for so long. You might think that those “extra” chapters might be important and can add depth to the characters but not when i don’t like of the characters!. That’s right, i only liked the Mad Hatter (only until midway) but i couldn’t stand the rest. Couldn’t sympathize with them. Their reasoning and motives aren’t well explained and they lack development. Except for the cat, though he’s just a cat so it doesn’t count. It should have been called Alice in the madhouse because they’re all crazy and it shows. Bottom line is; i read this for the sake of finishing it because I’ve put it on hold for 4 years, otherwise i would have dropped it after the sixth volume when the story got stuck. Also maybe I’m being biased because i never liked the story of Alice in Wonderland in the first place since i was little so there’s that. The art for one thing, is not bad but i do not feel anything about it. Truthfully, the first time i saw this i thought it was a BL or something but it wasn’t. What a disappointment. Another thing I’d like to say is that i think manga is better when drawn by the same person who comes up with the story. This was originally a CD drama so i do not know what that is about but i always prefer the original source material rather than adaptions or remakes. The only reason i was able to finish this was because i started to read it in a funny voice out loud so yeah, hearing my own voice was more amusing to me than the actual story. Although i said all that i will give this work a 6/10 because i feel it’s slightly better than some other manga adaptations, and i think some effort was put into it. And it’s my own fault for being so stubborn and wanting to read something i didn’t like from the beginning. It’s just that it wasn’t my cup of tea. Albeit i would love to have some tea with Lewis Carroll.