I Reads You Review: HAPPY CAFÉ, VOL. 1

Creators: Kou Matsuzuki with Lianne Sentar (English adaptation) and Lori Riser (translation)
Publishing Information: TOKYOPOP, B&W, paperback, 192 pages, $10.99 (US), $13.99 CAN
Ordering Numbers: ISBN: 978-1-4278-1730-3 (ISBN-13)

Happy Café stars 16-year-old Uru Takamura, a clumsy girl who chose to live on her own because she thought that she was in the way of her mother and 29-year-old stepfather. Not only is she clumsy, she’s also prone to misunderstanding.

In Happy Café, Vol. 1, Uru talks her way into a job as a waitress at Café Bonheur, located in Happiness Town. Her colleagues are Ichiro Nishikawa, an unsociable waiter who needs a snack shoved into his mouth every time he falls asleep, and Shino, the equally unsociable manager. Between dishing out sweets to customers and annoying each other, they just may find happiness and maybe… love.

With the pretty art one would expect of a shojo manga (comics for teen girls), Happy Café is a standard workplace romantic comedy. It even has a hook similar to the popular and acclaimed shojo manga, Love*Com, a relationship between a tall person and a short person. What makes this work? I have a hard time putting my finger on why I like this. Happy Café comes across as one of those “sparkling romances,” and maybe that is why it is a pleasant read. It is a familiar story that entertains, and like its title suggests, Happy Café is a place readers can go to feel happy.

B+

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I Reads You Review: ALICE IN THE COUNTRY OF HEARTS, VOL. 1

Creators: Soumei Hoshino (art) and Quinrose (story) with Lianne Sentar (English adaptation) and Beni Axia Conrad (translation)
Publishing Information: TOKYOPOP, B&W, paperback, 190 pages, $10.99 (US), $13.99 CAN
Ordering Numbers: ISBN: 978-1-4278-1769-3 (ISBN-13)

I’m assuming that you, dear reader, are aware that the new Disney film, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (starring Johnny Depp), is not another film adaptation of the original Lewis Carroll story. The people involved are calling it a sequel, although it looks like a sequel of a re-imagined Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The manga, Alice in the Country of Hearts, from writer Quinrose and artist, Soumei Hoshino, is also a sequel of sorts slash reimagination. Once again a girl named Alice goes down the rabbit hole, but that’s not quite the way it goes in Alice in the Country of Hearts, Vol. 1. Alice Liddell finds herself abducted by Peter Rabbit, a man with rabbit ears, who takes her down a giant, dark hole in her family’s backyard. Their destination is Wonderland.

This Wonderland is a place where a mafia boss (Bloody Dupre and his “Hatters”) feuds with the head of an amusement park (a man named Mary Gowland or Merry-Go-Round). The Queen of Hearts is named “Vivaldi” and speaks of herself in the first person plural. The master of the Clock Tower, Julius Monrey, may be involved in a bloody business involving corpses. Everyone loves Alice, but they also carry guns, which scares her. Alice wants to go home, but can she when so many people have plans for her, even diabolical plans?

While it is both imaginative and an imaginative take on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice in the Country of Hearts is a bit too quirky, believe it or not. The oddness is not in the concept, but rather in the storytelling. The pacing and characterization are awkward, which is a shame because this has potential. This is less a story than it is some weirdness acting like a narrative. This manga does have a nice edge to it, like a razor blade with a dark candy shell. Problems aside, readers looking for a manga take on Alice in Wonderland should try Alice in the Country of Hearts.


Buy Alice in the Country of Hearts Volume 1