Alice in Kyoto Forest, Volume 1

by Mai Mochizuki, Haruki Niwa

Overview

Orphaned at a young age, Alice has lived with her aunt for most of her childhood. But her uncle is abusive and resentful, and at fifteen years old, Alice decides to return home to Kyoto and train as a maiko, eventually hoping to become a geisha.

But when she arrives back to the city where she was born, she finds that Kyoto has changed quite a bit in the eight years since she left it. Almost as if it's a completely different world...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781427871350
Publisher:	TOKYOPOP
Publication date:	12/22/2021
Series:	Alice in Kyoto Forest , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	194
Sales rank:	830,929
File size:	88 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	10 - 16 Years

About the Author

Mai Mochizuki was born and raised in Hokkaido and now lives in Kyoto, and originally wrote Alice in Kyouraku Forest as a series of novels. She's written numerous other titles, including 4th Kyoto Book Award winner Kyoto Teramachi Sanjou no Holmes which was turned into a manga and anime series.

Haruki Niwa is a prolific fantasy and manga artist in Japan who brought Alice in Kyouraku Forest's manga adaptation to life.

Editorial Reviews

09/02/2022

Gr 5–8—Fifteen-year-old Alice Shirakawa's only refuge from her harsh family situation is her beloved books. Unwanted, she decides to leave. When she enters Kyoto Forest, an "other" world, she learns that being true to herself is intrinsic to both her health and her mental well-being. Even with a childhood romantic interest in the picture, Alice prioritizes her self-improvement, making her a good model. Young readers will be swayed by her kind acts and by the cute visual style. Like Wonderland, Kyoto Forest is a place of discovery with its own rules. But between the characters who act as supportive guides and the realistic Kyoto architecture, it is far from whimsical. While this two-volume manga references and has thematic similarities to Lewis Carroll's work and other traditional stories, it walks its own path, using the bricks to bolster its touching message. Even though everything develops at a reliable pace, a few more chapters would have suited the adaptation's leisurely tone better and given breathing room for the unexpected drama near the end. VERDICT This manga blends Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Japanese culture within a sweet coming-of-age story; fitting for both fans and those new to the genre.—Rachel Forbes

School Library Journal