Alisa of the Silver Hair

Have you ever thought to yourself, "Man, I love The Count of Monte Cristo, but I wish it were like 100 pages long and all the characters were high school girls"? If so, Alisa of the Silver Hair is the manga for you! It's an over-the-top revenge drama that cribs more than a few of its plot beats from that novel: the main character is betrayed by those she thought she could trust and spends years imprisoned, with an elderly mentor who teaches her the skills she will eventually use to take her revenge. Her mentor's death leads to an opportunity for her to escape,which she does. Returning to her old stomping grounds under a (paper-thin, in this case) assumed identity, she methodically destroys the lives of each person who wronged her in turn, taking some time out to reward the person who was good to her. This being accomplished, she sails off for parts unknown. So the story is not terribly original, and the characters aren't terribly well developed either--although it is a one-shot, and you can at least say they're all distinctive in both personality and visual design. It's the mangaka's first manga, and the art is about as rough as you would expect. Despite all this, though, it honestly is a lot of fun, at least if you like your shoujo melodramatic and bloody and/or enjoy seeing a lot of terrible people get their comeuppance. One aspect of CoMC--and of revenge narratives in general--that Alisa of the Silver Hair is conspicuously missing is any concern for whether her quest for revenge has robbed her of her humanity or turned her into a monster or something. That is, it clearly kinda has, but Alisa doesn't care one bit and the narrative never gives the impression that she should, which in a way is refreshing. It makes for a good pulpy read if you're in a vindictive mood. And you just don't get that many revenge dramas with female protagonists, and especially not many where the thing they're getting revenge for isn't some kind of sexual assault, so that's fun too. So, 7 out of 10--it's trash, but in a fun way, at least if it's your kind of thing.