学園アリス manga review
Gakuen Alice Manga Volume 12 

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SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

After the story of Natsume and Luca reaches its conclusion, the group splits up to find Natsume with Mikan heading off alone and down another flight of stairs.  She encounters a cell and Aoi, who is still blind.  The two immediately form a bond but Aoi has no memories of her brother Natsumi and she considers Persona not to be an enemy but someone she feels sorry for.  She also doesn’t consider herself a prisoner.

As Hii-sama continues to monitor the events going on in the lower levels, Mikan returns to Hotaru after getting the message that they’ve found Natsume.  The trio encounter a controlled Nobara-chan, who uses her powerful ice ability to stop Natsume.  However, her attack is stopped and she comes to herself when she becomes aware of Mikan and is ashamed that Mikan saw her this way.  Nobara flees and is found by some of Mikan’s other special abilities classmates while Persona makes an appearance to stop the trio.

Persona’s advantage is thwarted when Aoi shows up.  Her encounter with Natsumi begins to restore her memories and Mikan sacrifices herself to keep Persona from taking Aoi again.  Despite becoming corrupted with Persona’s Alice, Mikan again stops him from advancing and takes more damage.  Persona again warns Mikan but when it appears that Aoi is going to betray him, Mikan again sacrifices herself, taking major damage to save Aoi.  Persona is going to kill Mikan with his Alice but Mikan, aided a bit from afar by Hii-sama, surprises Persona by breaking his sealing Alice stone, designed to protect him from the negative affects of his Alice.

Hii-sama enjoys what is transpiring as Persona takes major damage from his own Alice.  Mikan is unconsious and being consumed with the corruption from Persona, causing the group to take her and flee.  Since Hotaru’s older brother is the only other person who’s survived an attack from persona, they take Mikan there.  They are forced to tell him and some of the older students what happened, which means that Mikan and company will be in terrible trouble.  However, hearing the rescued Aoi no longer has an Alice, the older students come up with a plan to shield Mikan and company from getting punished by having it revealed that a non-Alice student is attending the school.  Hii-sama refuses to cooperate with the Elementary Headmaster’s investigation and thus the case has to be dropped.

Meanwhile, Mikan appears to be beyond saving when an Alice stone begins appearing in the unconscious girl’s hand.  As it grows, Mikan begins to get better and thus reveals that in addition to having an Alice of Nullification, Mikan has an Alice Stealing Alice as well.  Thus the stone she is creating is from Persona’s Alice and Mikan appears to have inherited her mother’s Stealing Alice, making Mikan even more powerful.

After Mikan is released a week later, she returns to her excited classmates and learns that the three-year old Yo-chan now has a second Alice to allow him to appear as the same age as Mikan whenever he wants.  Mikan and Aoi are united with Aoi having her sight fully restored as well as her memories.  Mikan and others see Aoi off as she returns to her family.  Mikan reveals that she doesn’t know how she got well.  Natsume tells Aoi he won’t be leaving the school but he doesn’t state his reasons, which are his friends such as Luca and Mikan.  Aoi entrusts Natsume to Mikan and before she leaves, Natsume and Luca both get a brief reunion with their parents.

Thoughts/Review:

While there apparently will be a dearth in titles that used to be published by Del Rey; while there will apparently be delays in some titles by Viz; and while there will apparently always be delay after delay from Dark Horse, TokyoPop is pushing out volumes of Gakuen Alice at a fast rate.  Yay for that even if I’m a bit behind (volume 13 is being read by me as I write).

Anyway, I’m glad this story arc has concluded.  I’m not a fan of the cross-thinking/cross-speaking style of storytelling that often plagued this story arc.

Strategically, the only reason the school kept Aoi imprisoned was to help control Natsume.  So it almost seems surprising that they still let her go and return to her family.  I know that the rumors of her being a non-Alice on campus helped in that release and I guess those in charge decided that rather than risk a riot, they’d just let Aoi go.  Now that I think of it, they could still use her against Natsume by simply threatening her life and the life of his and Aoi’s parents.  From that perspective, the school did what it had to do and they can still control Natsume to a degree.

As Hotaru pointed out, though they skipped being punished, the school will be closely watching them now.  Question is, why wasn’t the school more aware of them from their earlier adventures, especially Mikan?  I believe previous volumes had Natsume giving Mikan warnings but the school didn’t appear to be doing anything to keep her in check.  One would think that they know Mikan’s mother (and father) and thus would do more.  Of course, “Hii-sama” did create unforeseen issues for the other school leaders.

Speaking of Hii-sama, what is her game?  Clearly, she doesn’t like Persona but has been forced to allow him to do whatever.  She appears to have at least some allegiance to the school but at the same time is not averse to giving a helping hand such as when she reduced the Alice-dampening barrier around Mikan to allow Mikan to defeat Persona.  Hii-sama is a strange one though and within that strangeness may lie all the explanation of her motivations.  ^_^;

The big reveal of this volume is that Mikan has two Alice’s.  Thus, Higuchi-sensei continues Mikan’s development as the manga’s main hero.  After all, you can’t have a hero character without power to support her.  Being cheerful and having a Nullification Alice weren’t enough apparently, though I had envisioned Mikan eventually becoming powerful enough to potentially nullify all Alices.  So giving her a Stealing Alice surprised me until I thought about it for a time and then it made sense.  Plus, if Mikan could heal herself by turning Persona’s Alice within her body into an Alice stone, I’m guessing she could do the same for Narumi-sensei.  Well, that assumes someone lets her know she has this power because apparently, she’s clueless though many others do know.

So, an interesting volume that finally concludes the “Hana-hime Arc” (or so I’m told this is what fans call it).  I’m looking forward to seeing where things go from here.