The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross, Vol. 1

by Arina Tanemura

Overview

Haine joins the student council at an elite academy to get to know the boy who rescued her long ago.

In return for a business loan of 50 million yen, the prestigious Kamiya family gave their daughter Haine away to the Otomiya family. Haine, now an Otomiya, is appointed to the student council of the exclusive Imperial Academy, a private school for the aristocracy. Even though Haine is of proper lineage to be on the council, she finds herself struggling to find her place among the many secrets of its elite members, especially those of the president who holds her heart—Shizumasa Togu, aka "the Emperor."

Haine has been in love with Shizumasa Togu since she read the fairy tale he wrote as a child. However, the Emperor is so well sequestered by the student council that she hasn't been able to speak to him in the three months she's been at the academy. And as rumor has it, he already has a lover...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421511832
Publisher:	VIZ Media LLC
Publication date:	03/06/2007
Series:	Gentlemen's Alliance Cross Series , #1
Edition description:	1ST
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	7.48(w) x 8.04(h) x 0.58(d)
Age Range:	16 - 18 Years

About the Author

Arina Tanemura began her manga career in 1996 when her short stories debuted in Ribon Original magazine. She gained fame with the 1997 publication of I.O.N., and ever since her debut Tanemura has been a major force in shojo manga with popular series Phantom Thief Jeanne, Time Stranger Kyoko, Full Moon, The Gentlemen’s Alliance † and Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura. Both Phantom Thief Jeanne and Full Moon have been adapted into animated TV series.

Editorial Reviews

As collateral for her family's business debt, Haine has been taken in by the Otomiyas and sent to a fancy rich kids' school where she's at the bottom of the ladder. Still, she's outrageously cheery and somewhat simpleminded. She's also in love with the new student council president and school leader, but their differences in status mean she has to work hard to reach his class (in more than one sense). It's an old-fashioned premise—child swaps as business deals—that might fit in better in an old superhero title than in a modern shojo title. Haine's crush mostly ignores her, but why shouldn't he? She doesn't have much to recommend her, just unthinking determination. Tanemura's busy pages leave little white space, and the characters, drawn in stereotypical cute style, can be difficult to tell apart. All this overheated broad comedy—at one point, student outcasts let loose snakes on the council members—would be more palatable if the story didn't pretend to be set in a realistic present. Fans of Tanemura's previous hits, Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne and Full Moon, will doubtless find more to enjoy in this energetic but broadly comic story. (Mar.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly