Alice in the Country of Hearts: The Clockmaker's Story

The Clockmaker's Story is one of several adaptations of Julius' romantic arc. Julius' job of repairing the clocks that double as citizen's hearts is considered vile for.... reasons? I never really understood that the first time they used that fact as a plot twist, either. Whatever. For some reason Julius is a loner everyone is afraid of and Alice warms up to him, this time with some cute art and pretty standard shoujo tropes. This one-volume story is sweet, if a little cliche, but one thing that kept me from enjoying it more was how the creepy behavior of some of the men in Alice's worldwas glorified. Often, Alice stories like to parody the common aspect of shoujo manga where the guy's possessive behavior is treated as endearing by having Alice not putting up with any of it. While Alice still doesn't put up with Peter's creepery in this volume, the tone of the story seems to imply that we're supposed to feel sorry for him as a romantic rival. Call me crazy, but when a guy kidnaps and sexually harasses a girl, it's hard to pity them for not getting said girl. This is one example of times this story walks that uncomfortable line of trying to tell girls that we should find unwanted advances cute, and it keeps me from enjoying the story more than the modest 6/10 I'm giving it.