MISC MANGA, *Alice The 19th

From Yu Watase, the creator of the definitive bishounen fantasy anime/manga Fushigi Yuugi, as well as the popular Ceres, comes this manga inspired by the old Lewis Caroll story.

Set in modern day Tokyo, Alice Seno is a young teenager who has trouble speaking her mind. Her older sister Mayura goes to the same school as her, and she has a major crush on a boy in her archery club, Kyo. But so does Alice. One day, Alice notices a strange rabbit lying in the middle of the road. She runs out to save it from getting run over, and she in turn is saved by none other than Kyo. The rabbit is earing a strange collar with a red jewel on it, and it runs off leaving the jewel with Alice. The rabbit then finds Alice later on and reveals itself to be a small bunny girl named Nyozeka, although they call her Bunny in the American version. She goes on to tell Alice that she is someone gifted with the ability to use Lotus Words which are like encantations that when said will actually bend reality for the speaker, something like granting wishes. It might seem like a good thing to have this power, but Alice is very shy and has problems standing up for herself. This costs her when she accidently wishes for her sister to dissappear, and she does! She doen't vanish into nothing, but more becomes blocked from Alice's life. Later on, Alice inadvertantly uses her new power to look into the mind of a boy she jilted which causes the whole school to become a living nightmare.

This is kind of a new turn for Watase's work which were usually a little more original. Where as this is bending to the "magical girl" brand of manga like Cardcaptor Sakura, it does contain some elements which make it more dramatic. Alice is pretty decent shoujo title, as if the cute bunny girl wasn't a big enough pull for it.