学園アリス manga review
Gakuen Alice Manga Volume 13

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SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

With Mikan healed, Natsume and Luca have a chat and vow to protect her.  Meanwhile, Mikan is being very clingy to Hotaru after learning what Hotaru did for her.

School-wise, Mikan finds what she believes is an Alice stone, though no one is really quite sure what it is.  The teachers begin instructing Mikan and the others on making their own Alice stones though Natsume is excluded since he already knows how.  Mikan hears of the legend of marriage proposals with Alice stones and remembers promising to exchange one with Luca, leading her to be embarrassed.

After she makes a tiny stone, Mikan is encouraged to think of someone who’d need it most.  The class is shuffled and Mikan thinks of Natsume, eventually ending up with him.  She gives him her tiny Alice Stone of Nullification.  When Mikan wakes up the following day, she finds a present from someone of a large, red Alice stone and while she thinks it might be from Natsume, she decides he wouldn’t do such a thing.

Valentine’s Day arrives which is a scary time for the males at Gakuen Alice as the girls often make powerful chocolates to either get a guy to like them or to have some revenge.  Mikan makes “Happiness Chocolate” and may well be the only girl without some sinister ulterior motive.  Because of this, Mikan has difficulty giving her chocolate to anyone and runs into Luca, who’s on the run, having already suffered the effects of some chocolate by growing rabbit ears.  They hide and have a brief chat and Luca accepts Mikan’s chocolate.  He has to run when Curly and the other are closing in and Mikan finds that being with Luca set her heart racing.  Mikan has little luck giving away chocolate but does give some to Narumi-sensei, when she notices that under his gloved hand, something is wrong and she’s seen that skin condition before.

With graduation coming up, Mikan wants to perform at the elementary graduation ceremony.  Though the class is willing to come together to play, only three are any good and soon Mikan and the others are tossed aside.  Despite the setback, when Curly and the other two players have difficulty during the performance, Mikan and the others come in for the save.

Finally, the previously unmentioned Hoshio-kun has lost his Alice ability and thus is no longer eligible to attend Gakuen Alice.  As such, a party is to be held and Mikan gets to know this boy who used to have a weather Alice.

Thoughts/Review:

Being somewhat pressed for time, I cut the summaries of the final two stories down to the above last two paragraphs, but I believe that those stories took about half the manga.

Anyway, with as dark as the manga had gotten recently, it is good that this volume is fairly lighthearted.  We get a bit of Mikan-Hotaru hijinks and other comedy stuff such as the Valentine’s Day event.  Usually, manga stories have guys desperate to get chocolates from girls so it was rather fun seeing guys terrified of getting chocolates and the girls going so far as to force guys to eat them.  That part is rather a stretch, exemplified when Natsume catches a chocolate aimed at Tsubasa only to have one go into his gaping mouth.  *_*  Even though the results were funny, the setup is still very weak.

Speaking of Natsume, the love triangle goes on with him, Luca, and Mikan.  I liked how Luca and Natsume are determined to protect Mikan.  There’s no doubt in my mind that the red Alice stone Mikan received came from Natsume.  As to Luca, his moment with Mikan during the Valentine’s Day story was sweet if short.  ^_^

The story of the class coming together to perform music at the graduation didn’t do anything for me beyond amusement.  I did like the final story with Hoshio-kun because it allowed Higuchi-sensei to explore what happens when someone loses their Alice and have to leave this ultra-protected world.

Although this was a mostly lighthearted volume, Higuchi-sensei did drop a small plot element, that in the form of Narumi-sensei’s damaged hand.  Since Mikan purged herself of Persona’s Alice power, might Mikan have the cure for Narumi-sensei as well?

TokyoPop is pushing these volumes out fast lately.  I think I may already be behind on getting the next volume.  ^_^;  I look forward to seeing what happens there.