Alice in the Country of Hearts, Vol. 2

ハートの国のアリス ～Wonderful Wonder World～ [Heart no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Wonder World~] #2

by Soumei Hoshino, QuinRose, Beni Axia Conrad (Translator)

The hilarious —and dangerous— tale of Alice's adventures in the wonderful wonderland continues!

As Alice grows accustomed to life in Wonderland, she begins to understand the inner workings of this mysterious world. Everyone desires to get close to her, and Alice's life lights up with little moments of happiness. But she soon discovers the truth behind all the bliss... and wasted lives. And how will Alice react when the greatest secret is revealed by Julius, the one and only clock repairer?!

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Romance, Comics, Young Adult, Shojo

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 10, 2009

About the author

ほしの総明

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

This continues to not make a ton of sense but be fun. I like how it is nonsensical in a way that is reminiscent of, but not precisely the same as, the original Alice in Wonderland. Whereas the first Alice behaved rather like someone in an immersive dream, this Alice is a fairly down-to-earth young woman, quick to urge moderation and be the voice of reason.



Also, a major revelation in this issue cast a new light on why the characters are so casual about homicide.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awww! This series is one of the cutest mangas I've read. Things get so violent that you don't even notice how randomly psychotic it is because of its cuteness. The artwork is just gorgeous and I'm still loving the style the style and clothes of all the characters. It's all so cute that I don't even mind that every guy in Wonderland is throwing themselves at Alice. The boy-obsessed girl in me is glad that the majority of the characters are guys. Aside from one or two, they are all gorgeous! Peter is starting to grate on me, but I still like reading about him. He is so super dramatic and constantly declaring his love for Alice in strange ways. Maybe it's just me, but whenever I look at Peter now, I feel vaguely like I'm looking at a manga Harry Potter, which is distracting a bit. I like Blood (haha that sounded weird...I kinda wish he had a different name), but I'm curious to see where his character is heading. He's more aloof and cold than he was in the previous volume.

My all-time favorite boy though is now Elliot. Omigod!! He is just down right ADORABLE!! I have no shame in saying a cartoon guy is hot because Elliot is mega attractive. His bunny ears are just so damn cute! He's hilarious as well. I liked when he got into a fight with everyone at the tea party. He kept trying to convince everyone that he isn't a rabbit, even though he has rabbit ears and is obsessed with carrot-flavored dishes. So funny!

I like that more of a plot is starting to evolve. It was interesting to learn about Julius and his role in the clock tower. The clocks freaked me out a bit, but it was nice for things to start making sense.

[Rach · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will admit it, I remain intrigued by this crazy manga. I don't always understand the characters but I can't stop reading! :) There is still a lot we don't know about Alice, but there are a few things we can glean from her actions in this volume. She cares about people and doesn't want anyone to get hurt (especially killed), even if they aren't her friends or "important". The fact that she can tell the difference between the "faceless" servants is very telling. Also, she wants to help others as best she can, and doesn't want to be a burden to anyone. I'm enjoying watching how her relationships develop with these other characters.

As for the other characters, I think my favorite in this volume was Elliot. His interactions with Alice, like when he was explaining he's not a rabbit because he only likes things MADE out of carrots, not raw carrots, or when Alice couldn't help but pull his ears and snuggle with them, making him just adorable. An adorable mafia killer, but still, adorable. His duel with Peter makes me laugh, too. He truly seems to like Alice.

A close second for favorite character is Ace; I appreciate his candor with Alice about how things work in Wonderland, from the afterimages to the clock hearts. I think deep down he does like Alice, but considering his willingness to use her as a human shield, she's obviously still expendable to him at this point. I want to know more about him and his role in collecting the clocks, even those that don't want to be collected and reborn.

As for Peter, though he is still quite creepy with his Alice obsession, it's really interesting to see from the reactions of others how out of character his obsession and love for her really is. The fact that everyone has always viewed him as a stone-faced, stoic guy, yet he is smiley and floaty around Alice is intriguing.

Boris' conversation with Alice near the end of the volume was really interesting, too. I'm sure a lot of the people in Wonderland feel the same way as Boris, that their lives don't matter because they can be replaced so easily, and I think Alice is going to have a big impact on changing this opinion for everyone, not just Boris.

Of course, there are more mysteries to be solved. What is the relationship between Blood and the Queen? Does Blood feel anything for Alice, or is he as ambivalent as it appears? And where does Gowland fit into all of this? How about the clockmaker - is he some sort of God in this world? All will be revealed in time. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next volume.

[Katter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume was a really nice addition to the the story! Alice is still stuck in the Country of Hearts, and is still learning about her new eccentric neighbors. All of them are seemingly nuts and don't have a care in the world when it comes to personal safety.

In this manga we get to learn exactly why everyone seems to be a few marbles too short. We also get to see why everyone seems to have no respect for life. It's a little dark and gloomy but I thought it was fascinating all the same. I wouldn't say that this comic blew me away or anything, it was just very enjoyable.

Plus I am just a sucker for anything Alice in Wonderland-esque. Though I don't trust the Hatter.... I think Elliot and Julius are my new favorite characters! QuinRose made such a great cast for her books. It's awesome! I'll be sure to delve into the next Country of Hearts real soon!

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Have absolutely no idea why am reading this series... aside from killing time going thru a friend's manga shelf

The reimagining of Wonderland with its horde of hot guys is cute~looking and all, but really not that good. Everyone's idea of "love" apparently involves forcing Alice to do things she does not wish to, everyone's idea of acceptable violence is off the charts (why can everyone turn random objects into guns!?! Seriously! Not even well drawn ones) and the overall plot.. sorry, there was an overall plot? Volume 1 mentioned something about "filling the bottle to leave" but we haven't heard of that much anymore

[Michelle Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25*

Guys run around picking fights about who loves Alice more while not actually making any romantic gestures towards Alice herself. This is kinda going downhill; I'm putting this series on hold for now.

As of writing this review, I haven't figured out whether or not I'm going to abandon this series, but it's certainly going to be a while before I pick up another volume if I do continue. It's sad, because I usually love retellings :-(

[Lete · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it!

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ace to crusher

[Bibliothecat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review for complete series

I think there are a couple of important things to keep in mind before reading this manga that I think a lot of reviewers here are unaware of. First and foremost would be the fact that this is an adaptation of an otome game [in short, a game where the player unlocks romantic storylines with the various characters available]. As such, it's almost inevitable that this has some harem-like traits and given that it's an adaptation and not the source material, some story threads are lost in translation and likely don't deliver as well as the original does. Nevertheless, as someone who doesn't like harem stories, I've loved the Alice in the Country of [...] manga series and think that they have done a pretty good job adapting it without making it too heavy on the harem side and adding a nice little twist on the various love interest options.

Needless to say, this whole setup is based on Alice in Wonderland. In this adaptation, an older Alice is brought to wonderland where all the characters she encounters are human representations of the various characters and creatures from the original novel. This wonderland is set up as a kind of game where the different territories fight each other, including to the death. Death seems to hold a different concept in this world and characters seem to take it for granted. Alice on the other hand is appalled by how carelessly others get into fights and hurt each other. Alice is treated differently though - she's a stranger to this world and it makes her different and the rules of the game apply differently to her.

As a work around for how the game version offers all the characters as potential love interests, I quite like how the manga version handles it. It puts reason in place why characters are drawn to Alice and like her. I especially appreciate how like doesn't mean in a romantic way - she forms friendships and gets along with most of the characters and only few of them are presented in a way that could be romantic. There is also a reason why characters are drawn to Alice which the plot vaguely explains [more on that later].

For the sake of letting this six-volume series stand on its own, the plot does pick one character as the central love interest who Alice more or less ends up with (I shan't spoil who it is!). Homever, similarly to how the game works, there are dozens of spin-off manga series that uses different characters as a love interest. These other works start with the assumption that you already know the beginning of this story. The way it works, you could read about the first two volumes of this main series and then jump to whichever series follows a character you would like Alice to end up with. I thought that's a pretty neat way to give similar options to what the game offers and it gives you many variants of how things could play out, especially considering that this series has many likeable characters.

For better or for worse, all the different instalments are done by different artists. I absolutely adore the art used in this main series though. The others are a mixed bag, some are nicer, some ore not quite so nice. But besides the beautiful art and the somewhat unusual but interesting set up of having different volumes following different plots, I appreciate the depth of this plot which might at first glance go unnoticed. Alice adores her older sister but there are clear signs of her also having inferiority complexes toward her. The story alludes to things having happened in the real world that have led Alice to come to Wonderland instead. I also appreciate how self reflecting Alice is, for examples she questions how shallow she must have been to wish herself into a world where everyone likes her. There are also some lovely friendships such as with the Queen of Hearts.

On the downside, I thought this main series' love interest wasn't handled overly well as it was quite rushed. But the worst thing is that a few essential tidbits from the game didn't make it into this adaptation, it leaves the reader with several questions and most importantly doesn't conclude some of the deeper underlying themes. When I first read this series years ago, I had to do some online research to actually understand the ending. Once you have that missing information it makes a whole lot more sense. It doesn't take away from my enjoyment of this franchise but I do think it would have been much better had this information been included to the books. In this manga adaptation, it's hinted that something is wrong with Alice's older sister and that it's part of the reason she is hiding away in Wonderland. Alice's memories are blocked and she is unaware of any of it. Toward the end of the book, we see a picture of her sister in a coffin but it is never explained. After some digging, it seems that as per the game, Alice and her sister had an argument about Alice's future - her sister died not long after and Alice blames herself thinking the argument added to her sister's bad health. She hides away in wonderland in which most of the main characters represent certain times of the day. For example, Peter White, who for no reason explained in the manga, is very much in love with Alice and is said to be her natural favourite - he represents the afternoons spent with Alice's sister. Because that time is precious to Alice, it makes Peter White an important character to her [although he has a pretty bad start with her]. All of this is just very, very vaguely alluded to and I think the little the book provides on this leaves more questions than it gives answers.

I don't think this series is for everyone but I personally really enjoy it and think it's from a technical perspective really well done with how it branches out in different storylines. If you are thinking of trying this series, you'll definitely want to read this original storyline first and then continue with the series of your favourite characters. Also a fair warning that this main series has a bonus chapter (I believe in volume 4) which at first seems a continuation of the plot but is actually just a bonus story that alludes to the Joker spin off. It starts and ends a bit out of the blue and I think the chapter cover isn't obvious enough that it isn't part of the main plot. I recall during my first read of this series I was very confused why the ending of volume four didn't match the beginning of volume 5.

[Athena Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must admit that I like the idea of clocks being turned into different beings once they are repaired. Also, Alice’s potential suitors do make me laugh. I wonder if she’d end up with any of them at the end of the story, ha ha! All in all, volume 2 was a fun volume to read. :)

[Eduardo Antonio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revelador, muito bom ^_^

[Viviana]

The lack of boundaries, ugh

[Mizu · Rating 4 out of 5]

🌸SYNOPSIS
Alice is now getting use to the weird world of Wonderland.
She is also now beginning to figure out the inner workings of this mysterious world. Everyone desires to get closer to her and through that, Alice’s life starts to fill up with little moments of happiness but then again, the bliss is short-lived when she realises how many lives was being wasted in the background. How will she react to it? Will she be able to deal with all of it?
Not only that, a great reveal happens and it’s thanks to Julius, what does he know? What does it reveal? Will it change everything that Alice knows? Find out in volume 2

🌸OPINION
It took me a little while to get into this volume and it’s not really something I could easily explain, it’s most likely because I have read it before, but I do admit to enjoying the story, watching the relationships progress and develop between Alice and the citizens of Wonderland.
The art is still appealing and nicely detailed that helps me keep reading the story. I also enjoy seeing other characters starting to change and relate to one another. The bonds between these characters are now becoming the major theme of the story.

🌸PRO
Character progress and development
Story progress is good

🌸CON
On the same note, story progress has slowed a bit but helped develop other relations which is important for the story

🌸FINAL SAY
“What an unusual relationship”
This manga seems to be filled with unusual relationships. Like the one between Elliot and Blood Dupre or even Vivaldi and Blood Dupre. This is a world of Wonderland where a lot of things are peculiar but that’s what makes this manga entertaining to me and kind of wish people would read it more. One day I hope to get the rest of the series and see how the whole tales of Alice ends.

[✮Octjillery✮ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second volume does a pretty good job of easing both Alice and the reader into the secrets of this version of Wonderland. We're still in the dark about a lot, but not in a way that's leaving you feeling frustrated or confused. We learn a bit more about several of the characters and their roles, and we also learn a little about the clocks and what they have to do with the lives of Wonderland's inhabitants.

I really like so many of the characters. I feel for Julius, being in such a controversial/hated role. Ace is probably the scariest in actuality because there's so much of his true personality hiding behind his goofy directionless persona. While all of the guys play some part in sharing bits and pieces of the world to Alice, Elliot kind of has that role of the DBZ/shounen character on the sidelines of a fight explaining what is happening in the fight to a character/the reader. It's not that obvious, but I essentially just mean that he's a the reliable character who happened to start off kind of threatening in the first volume. I like his rapport/friendship with Alice a lot.

[Tilápia frita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Legal a desculpa que deram pra ela ser amada por todos, foi inteligente eu gostei de verdade; ela tem um coração de verdade e eles tem relógios como coração, ai o som do coração dela atrai eles a ela. Agora, esse plot de todas as regiões estarem em guerra entre si e eles se matarem e depois renascerem, pq o coração deles é um relógio e pode ser consertado, é muito chato e mal pensado mds. Esse mundinho deles parece que é um cú de tão pequeno e tem esse vai e vem de tiro e dela fazendo visita todo dia... aaaaahh naaao, muito chato mds, tem um quase(?) assédio aqui e ali ne, uma delicia, nossa parece shounen antigo, o/a autor jurooou que todos iam amar essa bomba. A arte é bonita e algumas roupas eu gostei bastante até, alguns personagens são legais também, tipo seriam meus amigos se eu desse um pulo nessa farofa, mas vey não da não, muito hétero. Ela tem 10 opções de romance e todos são homens altos magros e brancos, pura farofa.

[caly · Rating 4 out of 5]

l’intrigue se met en place doucement, y’a pleins de choses que j’avais oublié oups.

Elliot est trop mims, et comme Alice j’aurai carrément tiré ses oreilles aussi 🤫
un peu du mal avec le chapelier fou, j’le sens pas mais j’sais plus pour quoi argh
le lapin envie de le tabasser, y’a pas à être toxique à ce point eurk

on sent qu’Alice commence à comprendre comment ce monde fonctionne mais elle reste quand même elle même et ça c’est cool ! puis elle est pas de ses héroïnes toute nunuche, elle arrive un peu à s’imposer, go girl

[Jaclyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice in the County of Hearts (heart no kuni no alice) is a shoujo Alice in Wonderland story. Simple and straight to the point. No real fluff. Basis of the plot: everyone is in love with Alice and she is convinced she's in a dream. I read the whole series in a day online so I'm unable to differentiate between each volume specifically.

[Robb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the whimsical and daydreamy type characters but they seem to be so maniacal. The rules of the real world do not apply. Boris the Cheshire cat is my favorite character. The country of Hearts is land filled with madness and danger. This is such an intriguing take on the traditional " Alice in Wonderland". It is very well written.

[Chulandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give this book 4 stars I think that this volume had some pretty good surprises in it that I never saw coming. I also can’t believe the ending I can’t wait to see what happens in the next volume between alice and everyone in wonderland.

[AJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️ i really like the concept but the characters suck, they’re weird, especially alice, and especially everyone who’s in love with her. there are only 2 characters who are women, that’s not enough!

[Em Mirra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pending.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 hearts

[Lily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dans la même lignée que le 1... avec un ajout de prétendants.

[Hollie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? I’m hooked 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Lives...... are important"

[Caleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely love the spin on the clock maker

[Maddy]

yasss homicidal yandere bunny!!

[Aria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cap 6-11
Apenas es que se está explicando poco a poco como es que funciona todo. Es decir lo "normal" para ellos no es nada normal.
Y... sus corazones son unos relojes que se pueden reparar...

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are definitely different.

[Abi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this series but I don't know which one has the ending in 🤣