Alice in the Country of Clover: Cheshire Cat Waltz Volume 1 by QuinRose and Mamenosuke Fujimaru
I’m always a little hesitant to review manga from genres I don’t generally enjoy. After all, if I was reading a western and my reaction was “I don’t like books with horses and cowboys!” that’s not very helpful to potential readers. Part of the reason why I liked Alice in the Country of Hearts so much was that it seemed to transcend the whole manga adaptation of a dating game genre a little bit, just because it was occasionally surreal and weird. Alice in the Country of Hearts certainly succeeded in at least being a manga with an interesting atmosphere, even if the plot wasn’t the strongest point of the manga. I think that hard core fans of the first series will certainly enjoy Cheshire Cat Waltz, but I didn’t like it very much just because it exhibited a certain lack of subtly and less intriguing storyline.
One of the interesting things about Alice in the Country of Hearts was the worldbuilding as Alice discovers the strange new world (populated by handsome men) that she’s been transported to. Alice in the Country of Clover starts midway in a different reality where Alice’s home base was the amusement park instead of the clock tower. The world suddenly gets transported from Hearts to the Country of Clover, and Alice has to adjust to a new reality while fighting her attraction to Boris, the Cheshire Cat. Starting midstream can be both good and bad. Readers already familiar with the setting of this magna aren’t bogged down by exposition. On the other hand, any references to the pasts of the characters feels a bit unearned, because the reader hasn’t seen the history that’s being referred to. Alice keeps mentioning how much she misses her old life at the amusement park after she’s whisked away to the Country of Clover, but since her time at the amusement park was never fully portrayed, her dilema doesn’t have much emotional depth.
Fujimaru ably executes all the varied character designs established in the earlier series, but I tend to prefer the delicate illustrations that were a bit more sparse on screen tone in Hearts. There isn’t really anything to complain about with Clover’s art, but it just seems less visually distinct than the look that Soumei Hoshino established in Hearts. Clover’s art was more typical and the actions of the characters were also much less subtle. Blood skulks around trying out bad innuendo on Alice in all of his dialogue, and Alice gets randomly groped on a number of occasions. This stands in contract to the surreal violence and suggestions of psychological trauma that were hinted at in the earlier series. So overall, my reaction to Alice in the Country of Clover was that it was too much like a dating sim manga for me to really enjoy, and I’m going to have to assume that Alice in the Country of Hearts was the notable exception in this series in terms of being more rewarding to read. That being said, I’m probably not completely done with this franchise – I would certainly pick up another volume if Hoshino is on art duties again, and I’d also be curious to read a manga in the series that features Ace, the directionally impaired and homicidal Knight.
Well the Clover manga is character-centric, so any actual plot from the games will suffer in them. I wouldn’t give up on it yet though. Seven Seas is going to start releasing Alice in the Country of Joker, and it will be much more like the Heart manga in terms of having a real plot. You get to find out more about Elliot’s imprisonment and Ace’s duties(still much to be revealed here). Peter’s role as a guide for Alice is also much more prevalent than it was in the Heart manga. The story focuses more on Alice dealing with the guilt of choosing to leave her sister behind in a dark, twisted, psychological, mysterious, Wonderland themed way. And all the characters are pretty much trying to help her stay away from Joker, who is deeply connected to the main plot(you may remember him from the side-story in the Hearts manga). It may be a little awkward to read since Alice lives in the Castle of Hearts in this series. And I’m uncertain, but it looks like Blood may be the love interest in this one, though I personally find him more likeable this time. The artist for this is also Fujimaru though, and all her artwork is drawn to look sensual regardless of the scene. She isn’t one of my favorite artists for this reason. Artwork aside, the plot seems like it’s headed in a good direction. It would probably still be helpful to read some of the character-centric Clover manga just to have a better idea of what is going on, since the Joker manga is set right after Alice’s time in the country of Clover.
Anyway, I just wanted to recommend the Joker manga to you because I believe it carries the elements you enjoyed from the Heart manga. And besides the elements I’ve mentioned, there is quite a bit more going on in the plot, and the series is ongoing, so there are still things I haven’t seen yet.
Here’s the link to Seven Seas’ ‘Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus and Liar’s Game’ if you’re curious – http://www.gomanga.com/manga/alicejoker.php
They have a little summary up for it.
Sounds good – it sounds like the storyline in Joker is something I’d be more interested in, so I’ll plan on checking out the first volume at least.