Current social issues make potent motives for our fairy tale cast.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kaori Yuki
Translation/Adaptation: William Flanagan
What They Say
Red Riding Hood, stained crimson with blood…
To its heir, the illustrious Kuonji estate promises eternal life. The price the heir must pay for this sublime honor, however, is a pound of flesh–that of his or her brothers and sisters and extracted by his or her own hands……The prospect of having to fight her beloved elder sister “Red Riding Hood” Claire to the death sends Stella into a dizzying spiral of despair. And then, out comes her other self, “Bloody Alice,” whispering in her ear–
“This is our fate!”
As the White Rabbit and Zeno, her first love, watch over the battle-worn Stella, what is it that creeps ever nearer to her and her destiny–?
…is never going home to Grandmother’s house.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
When we first met Stella, she and her siblings had been called together and were told they would battle to the death for control of the Kuonji family. We learned the family is a group of children who have been adopted. They now carry a supernatural element in their blood that allows them to consume the souls of others, and the head of the family has the power over life and death. When placed in mortal danger Stella takes on her murderous identity, Alice in Wonderland, with guns her weapon of choice. She makes the first kill amongst the siblings. The oldest male, her friend from before adoption and her partner in the game, is also killed and resurrected at her request but she must be the last standing or her parents will kill him again.
The central focus of this volume is Alice’s next opponent. Sometimes a manga may seem to be a retelling of an actual crime story, and in this one, we see the early development of a female serial killer, Claire, as she faces an abusive mother, school bullying, and sexual abuse. Her costume, Red Riding Hood, denotes that she sees herself as having been eaten by the wolf, her abusive mother, and now she sets out to kill all wolves she encounters. She responds with violence and deadly, ritual revenge. We learn that she killed her brother’s girlfriend and cut the fetus from her after she overheard the girl say the fetus would be better off dying than being born into the Kuonji family.
As fits the general template of episodic novels, we enter the action in volume two with Alice engaged in conflict with Claire who seems to have kidnapped Melm, the youngest child in the family, and threatens to let him fall in a pit filled with needles and blades unless Alice disarms herself. The fight between Alice and Claire comprises most of the action in the first half of the volume.
The second storyline covers the second oldest daughter Misernee, who has a messy appearance and a room full of reptile cages. Her boyfriend wants them to escape and prevent the murder game from continuing. Getting caught trying to escape would mean certain death. Some of the siblings offer to help Misernee escape, but one of the siblings has a personal reason to want to win the game. We begin to learn that many of the participants in the game have motives from their pasts.
Kaori Yuki strikes a nice balance between creating an atmosphere of tension and moving the reader through scenes of action. Her scenes and characters have grotesque qualities that give the surreal setting a true sense of foreboding. Within this volume, we have a harvested fetus, the beheading of a best friend, hypodermic syringes used as weapons, and a transgender tease who leads a would-be hero to his death. Every breath of this story offers blood and decay.
Yen offers hardbound books that, for me, raise the collectible desire. This one has plum purple boards with hot pink endpapers. Gold gilt lettering of the title, volume number, author, and Yen Press logo contrasts against the plum spine. The dust jacket is glossy with a picture of Alice on a pink background pointing pistols with her body in mid-twist, hair and dress swirled outward. The spine of the dust jacket is multicolored with the same information as on the books with the repeated image of Alice’s face from the front. The interior artwork is printed to the edge of the pages, and the print offers a crisp image and screen tones. None of the images or words require breaking the spine to see or read.
In Summary
Characters appear in dramatic scenes where absurd references to past literature have been remade in an ultraviolent concept. I could imagine Quentin Tarantino adapting this story as a film since the female antihero slips into fetishized clothes to mete out justice in such an over-the-top and cool performance. Everything in Alice in Murderland is surreal and stylized for effect, but for the intended reader, the humor, the tension, and the absurd violence all work together to create a carnival ride where moments of horror and gore can be viewed from the safety of the rider’s cart. In other words, this series offers great fun for anyone who wants to experience a little madness in a fairy tale where oddly dark characters fight for their right to exist and redraw their world in their fairy tale image.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Older Teen
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: October 27th, 2015
MSRP: $17.00
