Alice 19th

By Kaede, 26th Aug 04

A manga by the great (or at least she is in my opinion) Yuu Watase, author of Fushigi Yuugi (Mysterious Play) and Ayashi no ceres (Ceres celestial legend).The story is a bit like Cardcaptors, but of course, with a big twist on it. Alice is a shy young girl. Her older sister is one of those perfect outgoing, good student girls, so Alice always seems to be in her shadow.
Young Alice has a crush on a boy named Kyo, a boy who, in the beginning, becomes Mayura's (Alice's perfect sister's) boyfriend. Alice, too shy to speak up for herself, of course, doesn't tell her sister or Kyo her feelings on the matter.
This would be soon to change. It starts when Alice jumps into the road in front of a car to save a rabbit. Kyo saves her. Suddenly, the rabbit takes off, leaving behind a charm bracelet with a red jewel on it. Later, in a tense moment, Alice is about to tell Kyo of her love for him, but she can't. Mayura shows up and tells him that she (Mayura) loves him instead. Berating herself, she wishes to have the courage to tell him.
A voice tells her that she already does. A strange small girl with bunny ears appears. It is the same rabbit that Alice saved, her name is Nyozeka.
So begins Alice's life as a lotus master. She is one who can use words as power. The lotus words, to be exact. Whenever she learns a new one, a charm is added to her bracelet. The first one she learns, courage. Using what she thinks is courage, she goes to see Kyo and tell him how she feels and just ends up convincing him to go out with her sister!
As the story unfolds, Alice, in anger, tells her sister that she hates her and wishes that Mayura would just disappear. Alice's power with words, makes just this happen.
Mayura disappears, later to reappear taken over by Mara, the master of the Maram words, the antithesis of the good lotus words. Now Alice, as a lotus master, must learn all the lotus words in order to defeat Mara. However, she is not alone. She is joined by another person, the second lotus master. Together they are to learn the words and find the lost words as well. This other master is none other than Kyo.
Joined by other lotus masters, including Frey and Chris, they must learn the words and defeat Mara to reclaim Mayura and the city from the darkness.
This is an excellent manga series, I have only reached vol 5 but it already appears to be winding down. So it isn't very long, but excellent none the less. The most tense moment comes when a spell is put on Kyo so that if Alice tries to tell Kyo that she loves him, his heart will explode and he'll die.
I'd give this a 9 out of 10. It has everything, as usual for Watase, romance, angst, horror, humor, and of course, the fantastical. The cast of characters is great, including the lotus master from the United States, a big black man wearing a leather jacket who immediately flips one of the bad guys off.
It is a great read, a must-have for any romance/fantasy fan or any fan of Watase. Buy it, read it, love it.