Particularly interesting are the side-comments Tachibana Higuchi throws in about how the series came to be. However, she won't be able to stay unless she can prove that she has an actual "Alice" (the students' term for a special ability), and while I won't spoil it and tell you what it is, if you're thinking she doesn't have one then you must be pretty new to manga. Naturally, she rushes off to join her, and through a series of events the guys at MST3K call "Plot Convenience Theater" she too is admitted. Central to the action is Mikan, a young girl who becomes very distraught when her best friend Hotaru is admitted to Alice Academy. At its heart, this book may be nothing more than a simple story about a very special school. Now the jaded Asimov and Ellison reader in me is waiting for the eventual twist where it's revealed the government is using these children for less benevolent purposes, but I may be reading too much into it. The idea behind Alice Academy is that these super-powered individuals might be useful to society at large someday, thus their tuition is paid by the government, and students' families are also given a government stipend for their contribution. Now, before any of you start trying to get Professor X on the phone, understand that this is an elementary school…no shapely Jean Grey's here…although there are a few powered individuals who might give Cyclops a run for his money. The Alice Academy is designed for special students with special abilities. Not just any elementary school, mind you.
Gakuen Alice takes it a step further…or perhaps a step earlier…and puts all the action into an elementary school. Small wonder, as a lot of manga is targeted towards people either currently in school or recently graduated and not so far removed that they've forgotten what it feels like.
It's a gigantic part of many shojo tales – the high school girl who vies for the affection of her personal prince charming, for example – but also appears in everything from horror stories to shonen fighting manga.
Perhaps the most prevalent of these, however, is the school drama setting.
Written by: Tachibana Higuchi Art by: Tachibana Higuchi There are certain themes and settings that are mainstays for manga, from space epics with giant robots to fantasy tales with overly cute fairy-folk.
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