Today’s review of Gakuen Alice, Volume 2, is entirely due to the kindness of Grace E! Thanks Grace, for entering the ranks of sponsors here at Okazu!

In Volume 1 of Gakuen Alice, we met irrepressibly positive and energetic Mikan, and followed her as she moved heaven and earth to be reunited with her BFF, Hotaru.

In Volume 2, Mikan is now officially a member of the Alice School but, because because all energetic and cheerful protagonists need to overcome horrible and unnecessarily cruel obstacles, she is forced into the bottom of the entire class by being given no stars, i.e., no privileges. And to continue the abuse, the students have decided to scapegoat her, (which is hideous and annoying, but pretty sensible on their part because of the overwhelming fatalist beliefs at the core of most societies.) They can be abusive because she has no power – and having no power is proof that she deserves to be abused.

To add to this cheerful scenario, Mikan learns that her letters to her Grandfather are not only not being sent, they are being destroyed.

To balance out these whopping helpings of misery and despair, Mikan is introduced to the “Special Alice” class of freaks who, like all good freaks, embrace their freakiness with joie de vivre not seen in other classes. They welcome her with open arms and she *finally* gains some allies in this horror-house of a school. Her new sempai even offers a piece of sage advice, which she put into play right away. In order to turn the energy of her bored classmates away from bullying her, she challenges them to a game of dodgeball. It keeps them busy, wears them out and in the end, a few more of the kids in the class accept her as maybe being not so bad.

Of course, this won’t end the bullying – it will increase in desperation for a little while, as the remaining antagonists escalate the issue – but for Volume 2, its 2 steps back and 2 steps forward for Mikan.

At the same time, we’re treated to strong evidence that Natsume is violent, antisocial and cruel because he’s beaten, tortured and treated like an animal. It’s a valid excuse, but it always sticks in my craw, just like the neglect and abuse that set up Harry Potter, James and the Giant Peach and every other kid’s book that uses that sort of plot driver. I’m always blown away by the idea of writing a story for little kids in which the plot is driven by cruelty against the protagonist…. What kind of crazy is that? (Yes, I know that most kids feel that way at some point or another, but there’s running away because your parents spanked you and then there’s chronic emotional torture. It’s not just a matter of degree.)

The trick of course, is that getting through the bad stuff means that you appreciate the crumbs of good that much more. If Mikan was instantly the happiest, best and most popular girl at school we’d all find her boring – and I know I probably wouldn’t trust her. lol This way we KNOW she’s worked for every little teeny ounce of respect and privilege she gains. Still…

As we all expected, Yuri in this volume is pared away to almost nothing. Hotaru presents her usual cold front, but when the chips are down, she warms up enough to help Mikan. Best Friend Forever, definitely. On the love side of things, I think Ruka-pyon has got an obvious crush, I mean – he dresses up as Mikan so she can escape. Duh. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 1
Service – 3

Overall – 7

As with Tetragrammaton Labyrinth, I’ll probably keep reading Gakuen Alice, but I’ll take it off the Yuri Wishlist, since it’s pretty much no longer a Yuri series. If anything happens in later volumes of note, I’ll be sure to mention it!

I feel as if I’ve been flattened by a truck, so I’m going with a “brain need not apply” type manga today, courtesy of Dan P. Battle Club, by Shiozaki Yuji, has all the service of Shiozaki’s other, more well-known series Ikkitousen, without any of the complicating factors, like a plot, character development or sanity.

In Volume 1, we met the cast of characters whose crotches we would be looking at. Welcome to Volume 2, in which several of the untranslated things in the story suddenly and quite unneccesarily, become translated. Why do I say it was unneccesary? Because NOTHING is going to make this story better – not translation, not touch up, nothing. It’s Grade Q crap and I dare you to tell me that you’re reading it for the plot. I know I’m not. I’m reading it for the absurdity, and the occasional flash of Yuri.

Let me just get this out of the way. Dear moron who wrote the front page copy; Lesbian is not the same as bi-curious, and Higuchi is not a lipstick lesbian, no matter how much you think your clever copy is alliteratively alluring.

I’m done. Thank you for your patience.

For the rest of the story, we’re basically watching Tamako get molested as she trains and Mokichi being a loser. With service. In fact there’s so much service here, I’m surprised the book doesn’t get a 4-star AAA rating. (Probably that joke just fell really flat for most of you, but I don’t care. It wasn’t for you.)

Tamako gets her ass kicked by a rival school’s Mukouda, and by Taki in a panda suit and then there’s some service as the women (and Taki) take a bath, then some bits about Mokcihi, but no one cares. Whole hunks of the book are related while coach takes a piss, sometimes accompanied by Mokichi or Taki, because apparently that’s funny.

Yuri is…well, not much. Higuchi remains gay in theory, but we’re not seeing much practice. When she gets defeated by Mukouda, her lesbian cool points take a hit, too and the guys begin to harrass her – because lesbians are only cool when they are invincible. Thank heavens *I’m* still invincible! Shiba shows up primarily to be turned on by Taki and Tamako wrestling naked in the onsen. Well, duh.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 1
Characters – 3
Yuri – 2
Service – Infinity

Overall – 5

How low can you make your expectations go? If you approach Battle Club with expectations like “the word balloons will have words” and “I will see ass shots” you ought to be okay.

After wallowing in the tragedies of Confidential Confessions I felt the need to read COMEDY! Unfortunately, all I had was Pretty Face, Volume 1. ^_^;

No, it really is a comedy and if I had any humor in me at all, I would surely be doubled up in laughter at the endlessly amusing plight of a bad-ass punk guy who was severely injured in an accident and awakes to find that a helpful plastic surgeon reconstructed his face and upper body to resemble that of the girl whose picture he carried in his pocket. (The wife says, “Because I always carry a picture of myself, just like Paris Hilton.”)

I will give props to the author because at this point, he comes up with one of the most utterly absurd plot devices *ever* to get the punk dude to be able to go back to school – the girl he likes had a twin sister who disappeared some time ago, and now everyone thinks *he* is the sister, returned at long last. Shades of The Return of Martin Guerre…not.

So in Pretty Face, Volume 1, everyone thinks Rando is really Yuna, including and especially Yuna’s sister Rina, who is so excited to have her sister back she wants to sleep with her and bathe with her and rub her naked body all over her, and other sisterly things. Yuri in this volume is by implication and incest-flavored, like Rando imagining himself with Yuna’s face and Rina kissing.

It’s been a long time since I read this series in Japanese, but I vaguely remember that another female character falls for “Yuna” in later volumes, and there’s more fake Yuri there.

Technically, this may be the best reproduction I’ve ever seen out of Viz. (Does that make you think, “Oh, what a shame”?” It does me, lol) The tones are clean, the art is clear and it’s very easy to follow the crazy action scenes.

Pretty Face is not intellectual comedy. It’s physical gags and face faults and the thrill of watching a cute girl kicking ass mightily, with a frisson of Yuri-ish sort of romance. And lots of penis jokes.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 5 They are pretty much one-trick ponies in this volume
Yuri – 3
Service – 7

Overall – 7

My deepest thanks to Ziggr for sponsoring today’s review~!