Japan sure does love Alice in Wonderland retellings, don’t they? In the manga section at my local bookstore, I can’t turn around without seeing at least one title that is Alice-inspired or at least draws from the story. Shoujo manga in particular loves Alice in Wonderland imagery, and if there isn’t an Alice-themed chapter in a series, there will probably be at least one chapter or cover image that’s inspired by it.
With the amount of retellings out there, it was only a matter of time before a reverse-harem Alice in Wonderland came into existence, reimagining characters such as the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and others as attractive bishounen who fall in love with Alice. At first glance, this is exactly what Alice in the Country of Hearts looks like — but there’s more to this version of Wonderland than meets the eye.
Alice in the Country of Hearts is different from the other titles that have been highlighted so far in Shoujo You Should Know due to the fact that it’s not an original story; it’s an adaptation of an otome game by the same name created by Japanese developer Quin Rose. I have not played the game itself so I cannot comment on how accurate an adaptation it is — the official English translation is notorious for being unreadable (starting with the fact that the title somehow transformed into Alice in the Heart) — but the fact that it is based off of an otome game should not stop anyone interested in reading it.
The story starts out familiar enough, but with a few changes — the White Rabbit (also known as Peter White) takes Alice to Wonderland and then forces her to drink some strange medicine. This somehow marks her as a participant of the “game,” but before the rules are explained to her the White Rabbit disappears, and Alice is left to figure out what is going on, why she’s been brought to this strange world, and if Wonderland is even real in the first place.
It’s here where the story begins to break away from its roots to become something in its own right. The Wonderland of Alice in the Country of Hearts is strangely violent, with different factions struggling for control. Aside from the Queen, there is also a mafia group and even a man who runs a theme park. There are other, odder places as well, including a mysterious clock tower, and at one point Alice even finds herself in a space between dreams and reality. Throughout all of this, however, is the sense that something is very wrong with Wonderland, and that Alice’s presence as an “outsider” may have something to do with it.
Alice herself is also a departure from the usual trope. While we never get a specific age for her, she is not a confused and imaginative young girl (which is common in these retellings), nor is she prone to acts of unspeakable violence (also common for some reason). Instead, she comes across as a young adult who is at least towards the end of her teenage years. She reactions to situations realistically and deals with events in a straight-forward manner, frequently calling out the other inhabits of Wonderland on their strange actions. As the story goes on, it’s also revealed that she has some deep-rooted fears of rejection and low self-esteem that have to do with a past relationship, which gives the story a different set of circumstances to deal with than other shoujo romances.
While Alice in the Country of Hearts does not break away to the point where it can only be considered on its own merits outside of its inspirational source material — like Pandora Hearts for instance — there is enough new and at times completely original material that it becomes easy to discard assumptions and just enjoy the mysteries of the story. For instance, the story uses the weirdness of Wonderland to its advantage when establishing how some of the characters don’t think much about acts of violence and even killing other people in a way that is different from other Alice retellings I’ve seen that just drop in violence and call it a day. Instead, there’s a sense of something being a little off — like culture shock, only with other people’s lives in the balance.
I enjoy the personality of Yen Press’ translation; every character has a distinct voice, and the transitions in tone between humor and absurdity to the darker and the supernatural are handled very well. Oftentimes while reading manga, I’ll think to myself “I wish I could read Japanese better so that I could understand the context here,” but that never happened to me with this translation. The sense that some of the characters were not being honest all the time carried over as well, which is hard to pull off even when writing in someone’s native language, so I have a lot of respect for this translation from a writing standpoint.
My only complaint about this manga is that it doesn’t have an ending. It just…stops. There is no clear resolution to any of the points brought up during the main storyline. This may be due to the fact that it is an adaptation; deciding to adapt one character’s “route” for storytelling reasons may have riled up fans of other characters. But that’s just my own speculation.
However, the good news is that there are a lot of spinoffs that follow specific characters and areas of Wonderland in greater detail, so Alice in the Country of Hearts does not end here. To use visual novel terms, Alice in the Country of Hearts is like the “general route” while the specific character spinoffs follow each character’s story in greater detail. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure otome game in manga form! If you’re looking for something a little different in your Alice-themed media or just enjoy a different take on reverse-harem setups, Alice in the Country of Hearts is a great place to start!
Missed it? Alice in the Country of Hearts is available from Yen Press.