Alice the 101st Volume 2 by Chigusa Kawai – Manga Review

Sep 15, 2010
Angela Eastman

Alice the 101st Manga by Chigusa Kawai - Image © Digital Manga Publishing

Alice continues to struggle with playing the violin at the school. Minor characters become more fleshed out, and more interesting.

Alice is still fumbling through lessons in the second volume of Chigusa Kawai's manga, Alice the 101st, available from Digital Manga Publishing September 22, 2010. He can memorize any melody he hears, but teachers and peers find something lacking when he plays the song back on his violin. There's a concert just days away, but the only person Alice can find to help him is Max, his would-be rival. Alice needs to figure out what's wrong when he plays his violin, and discover his own meanings to the songs that he would play.

A review of Alice the 101st volume 1 is also available.

Alice the 101st Volume 2 by Chigusa Kawai from Digital Manga Publishing

Continuing from where volume 1 left off, Alice is running away after tripping over Max and discovering that his would-be rival is an overly nice airhead. Alice is furious - why isn't his rival a more hateable person? It's a hilarious way for Kawai to poke fun at genre conventions, while still creating a character that isn't a parody or a stereotype.

And in general, Max is a great character. Though kind and unassuming, the "space case" genius manages to agitate everyone without realizing it. He works as a catalyst for Alice, forcing him to see the flaw in his strategy of memorizing songs by ear - he will just be "playing it," never actually making the song his own. There's no character growth for Max because he's already achieved near perfection in his violin playing, but he's a mirror against which people like Alice and Richard see all of their flaws reflected.

Chigusa Kawai's Subtle Characterization in Her Manga, Alice the 101st

Richard's situation becomes more sympathetic in this volume. His brother Bernard almost unconsciously places pressure on him to be the best, but Richard is still taken aback by Vick's words to him in the previous volume. Kawai subtly relays his frustration in the way Richard takes out his frustration on poor Theo, and the way he sadly states that Maximilien has it easy.

Kawai continues to play out that subtlety with Victor. It was his idea that Alice be Max's rival, but when he seems surprised and almost hurt that Alice has been practicing with Max we begin to realize there might be a bigger story here.

Alice continues to be delightful as he perpetually rises and falls in everyone's eyes - he memorizes a teacher's song, but still can't read the music for "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". Even in his moment of triumph Alice manages to screw up - but so what? The fact that he has so much talent and yet still has such a hard time is what makes the violinist such a joy to read about, and if he were to totally succeed that would take out all the fun.

Alice the 101st Volume 2 from Digital Manga Publishing

Character designs continue to be fun and expressive, and the light, sparkling screen tones help convey the beauty of songs we can't hear. Characters are becoming more detailed and interesting, even the ones that seemed too flat in the previous volume of the manga. Some of the musical terms are lost on me, but that doesn't prevent Alice the 101st from being a great coming-of-age tale, and I'm excited to see how Alice stumbles along in the next volume.

Alice the 101st volume 2 gets 4/5.